It really has taken me this long to get short stories so god bless my library because I never would have gotten here without it. I’d been anti-short story because I missed the novel-length follow through on plots or people or places, but I’m now pro-short story because I can pick up a book at any time, read a chapter, and then put it away for however long I want. Not that I’d want to do that with this book because Jemisin is like GRRM for me in that I would read her grocery list and marvel at the gift I’d been given.
This is a book I want to own in a hard copy and keep on my most accessible bookshelf at all times so I can read it whenever the mood strikes. I loved having this on kindle on my phone because I could get into it whenever I wanted but this is also one I want to prop open in my lap and lose myself in. Sorry, 150 words and I still haven’t addressed the book itself.
N.K. Jemisin is a master storyteller both in the way she puts words on a page and in the endless depths of creativity her brain has access to. How Long ‘Til Black Future Month gives us like a dozen short stories – some totally new, some the kernels from which her novels have sprung, all of them unique. I really really loved the one about semi-sentient cities and they battles they fight in their own creation. My only issue I guess with short stories is that I have a short memory and my brain can only hold onto so many plots at once (which is why I have a special place in my heart for any kind of “Previously On…”). So yet another reason to have this at my immediate disposal.
Read it.