(no subject)

[skygiants]

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 put P. Djéli Clark on my auto-buy list; his latest novella, Ring Shout, is a very different book in tone and feel but definitely has some of the same strengths.

Ring Shout is set in the 1920s, in an alternate universe in which the KKK has been infiltrated by squirmy cosmic horrors who feed off hate and bad vibes. The narrator and protagonist, Maryse, is part of the actively demon-slaying arm of a larger anti-cosmic-horror coalition -- Gullah-led and mostly Black and Native, with one or two Jewish communists mixed in -- that has just received bad news: the next public screening of Birth of a Nation is going to serve as a ritual to let a whole lot more horrors into the universe, and our heroes just do not have the numbers or the clout to fight that many literal monsters of white supremacy unless they go looking for some very weird allies.

This novella is very much a story about Chosen Ones and magic swords and facing one's inner demons as a rest stop on the way to killing some external demons, which is very fun and extremely cinematic but less personally compelling to me than the beleaguered bureaucrats in Tram Car 015. That said, Clark continues to be extremely good at both grounding a story in a very specific place and time, and showing all the complexities of that place and time with their contrasts and jagged edges. People who are broadly on the same side have an incredibly broad range of opinions about the things they're experiencing and what they mean for the future, and it makes his books feel incredibly real and vibrant. The apparently effortless way he populates the backgrounds of his worlds with vivid and complicated detail without detracting from the forward momentum of the story is especially impressive to me given that both Ring Shout and Tram Car are novellas -- I truly cannot wait to see what he'll do in the novel he has out later this year.

Comments

[sovay]

the next public screening of Birth of a Nation is going to serve as a ritual to let a whole lot more horrors into the universe

I respect that for being so barely a metaphor.

[starlady]

The fact that the screening is at Stone Mountain, which to this day puts on a light show that is the most open celebration of the Confederacy that I have ever seen, is one of the book's many perfect touches. I am also looking forward to the novel.

[mneme]

Oh, that sounds fun (and apparently we own it; no surprise given that drcpunk "made" me read Tram Car). Looking forward to it (and the novel)!

[bloodygranuaile]

I have had Tram Car 015 sitting on my shelf for a while; it sounds like I might have to move it up the To Read list a bit!

[dhampyresa]

Sounds really good! I have a hankering for cosmic/body horror lately, so how much of that is there in it?

[chestnut_pod]

Huh, this review makes the novella seem more lighthearted than I’d guessed at. Is it tonally similar to Team Car and Dead Djinn?

[merit]

I /love/ how Clark does alt-history with a fantasy twist. It seems to be the genre he keeps on returning to - making me a very happy repeat buyer! It will be really interesting what he'll do in a full novel after a few novellas under his belt - especially if he focuses more on characterisation which can sometimes be hard to fully explore in a novella length.

[chimney_swift]

I love Clark's Cairo! I'm so excited there's a full novel coming sometime. It hilariously took me a long time to connect him as the author of Ring Shout as well, but it seems like I really need to put it on my to-read list now.

[reconditarmonia]

I haven't read either of those yet (Nine Negro Teeth and Ring Shout are the only things of his I've read, though I've also picked up Black God's Drums) but it's not particularly lighthearted, I don't think. Like, Maryse is chosen to wield a magic sword, but it's a magic sword that is literally made of the history of slavery, more or less.

[skygiants]

The whole novella really is a -- joyous is not the right word, perhaps; maybe gleeful? -- exercise in literalized metaphors; the topics are heavy but Clark is clearly having a WONDERFUL time.

[skygiants]

He's got such a gift for the perfect evocative detail!

[skygiants]

Hope you enjoy it! :D

[skygiants]

I loved Tram Car 015 SO much. Unionize the mechanized trains!!!

[skygiants]

This book would definitely be a good thing to feed that hankering! Certainly a fair amount of cosmic/body horror, very much in conversation I think with other antiracist cosmic horror such as City We Became.

[skygiants]

It's definitely not as lighthearted as Tram Car and Dead Djinn, and, as reconditarmonia says, the themes are quite heavy, but it doesn't linger in melancholy or anything like that -- it's a dark book in many ways but it's also very high-energy, and Clark is so clearly having a fantastic time throwing in all his favorite tropes that it's dark but not depressing, if you know what I mean? Danse Macabre or Night on Bald Mountain, rather than The Dying Swan.

[skygiants]

Yeah, I love alt-history but I'm often disappointed with the execution of it, and I'm so glad Clark is doing such neat stuff in the space! Extremely excited to see where he goes from here.

[skygiants]

Clark's Cairo is just such a delightful place to spend time! Ring Shout has a very different vibe but is still very much worth a read, I think.

[chestnut_pod]

Thanks for the clarification! That helps a bunch.

[chestnut_pod]

Thanks for the clarification!

[reconditarmonia]

Oh, I like that clarification a lot.

[dhampyresa]

Did you read City We Became? What did you think? My only interaction with Jemisin's work so far is her shortform fanfic which i wasn't a fan of.