10 Fun Books by Black Authors

It’s no secret that the world is a dumpster fire for this week. There’s so much happening it’s hard to keep track of, but the long and short of it is that this week I want to use my platform to try and promote some black authors.

To be clear before we go much further, there are a LOT of lists out there right now promoting black authors, and also excellent lists intended to help people educate themselves about the realities of racism. There’s also several lists recommending powerful books like The Hate U Give and Dear Martin.

But here’s the thing: those books are HEAVY, and they center on black trauma. It’s 2020 and we have murder hornets, a pandemic, protests, a massive recession, layoffs, and more. I don’t think we need more trauma right now. Education? Yes. Trauma. No.

And as a confession? For a long time I was only thinking about those “issue” books when I was thinking about works by black authors. Even from a publishing side (an industry overwhelmingly white, straight and able-bodied) genre-fic by black authors doesn’t get pushed nearly as hard as those issue books centered on black pain. As a consequence readers miss out on the fluffy, fun, powerful stories that contemporary black writers are telling.

Thus, today, I wanted to promote some genre books by black authors because those stories are just as important.

1. The Rage of Dragons – Evan Winter

   Set in a world with a war that’s been going on for generations; people who are fighting on it are sometimes born with powerful gifts. One is that one out of every two thousand women can call down dragons. One in every hundred men basically get to go super-sayan So, naturally, in this world we follow a protagonist who has none of those gifts who is dedicating to getting revenge on people who betrayed him. You can get it here. (Also, that cover is AMAZING).

2. Escaping Exodus – Nicky Drayden

  I’ve been a fanboy of Nicky Drayden after the electric Prey of Gods (there’s a nascent AI uprising and meandering gods getting involved in the life of two friends). When I heard about Escaping Exodus, it only further cemented the fanboy status. The novel is set in a giant space creature. Humanity has forgotten Earth, and is still a long ways away from any habitable planets. Thus, they live in these creatures who live in the vacuum, and make their living mining the resources to depletion. The main character, Seske, is trying to figure out why there are tremors disrupting their town. In doing so, they find that there is a cost to living in the void. You an get it here.

3. It’s Not All Downhill From Here – Terry McMillian

 Reading the previews of this book I wanted to read it as soon as the main character was mentioned. Loretha Curry is a 68 year young woman who runs a successful beauty supply empire, a lot of friends, and will still stalk around in 3 inch heels. She’s got a life full of friends, but also family who are convinced the best days are behind her. Especially when she suffers an unexpected loss. This is exactly the kind of happy goodness with fiery characters I’m into. You can get it here.

4. The City We Became – NK Jemisin

  NK Jemisin is one of the top voices in SFF; her Broken Earth trilogy won back-to-back-to-back Hugo Awards for a reason – intricate world-building, rich and complex characters, and absolutely stunning prose. Here she’s imagining New York as a living, breathing city, with a soul of its own. Well. Six. And now New York is increasingly facing a Cythulu-esque monster. You can get it here.

5. Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky – Kwame Mbalia

  TRISTAN STRONG PUNCHES A HOLE IN THE SKY. Aside from being literally one of the best book titles of all time – you have a character and a premise that is SUPER intriguing  – and let me assure you, this book delivers exactly what it says on the tin. I’ve heard it compared to American Gods, though it is MG. And full of West African Gods. I can’t wait for the sequel coming out in October. You can get the first book here.

6. A Song Below Water – Bethany C Morrow

This story has black mermaids! Fun fact, I didn’t realize literally every depiction I’d seen of mermaids has been white until I was reading about this story. Tavia and Effie are friends in Junior high. Except that they’re both sirens – one is dealing with literal demons, the other is trying to keep her siren powers under lock and key. A book about friendship – and I do love books where friendship is at the front and center. I’m really curious to read this one; you can order it here.

7. The Space Between Worlds – Micaiah Johnson

People can hop between worlds, but there’s a catch: you can’t travel to a world where an alternate you is alive. This is great for Cara – her other selves have died a lot, from a lot of reasons. But when another one of her alternate selves dies, she starts learning some big secrets both about herself and the world she lives in. This book doesn’t come out until August but this premise and this GORGEOUS cover have me hooked. Order it here.

8. The Boyfriend Project – Farrah Rochon

This is a cute looking romance which has my attention. Samiah Brooks is on a disastrous bad date and she live-tweets it. Come to find out, this boy was a triple-timing loser who had duped multiple women. The three women become friends and vow to spend time working on themselves; for Samiah that means knuckling down on the app she’s been meaning to build. And then she meets the handsome co-worker who might upset that. Order it here.

9. Take a Hint, Dani Brown – Talia Hibbert

Dani Brown has an unfortunate fall during a fire drill, and the result is a viral sensation where the burly security guard Zafir rescues her. The internet is suddenly all over this couple, and Zafir is asking her to play along. Like most stories of fake dating, it suddenly becomes all too real.

I’ll be honest, I’m a complete sucker for fake dating stories. I’ve absolutely pre-ordered this one and cannot wait for it to come out. You can order it here.

10. A Princess in Theory – Alyssa Cole

Naledi Smith keeps getting these e-mails from her “famous African Prince”, and all they need is to give her the social security number and other proof of identification. Who even falls for those scams anymore? She’s too busy with her PhD and side-jobs to deal with it.

Except. They’re real. Prince Thabiso is the sole heir to the throne, and he has in fact found his princess. And he is determined to meet her and woo her – without her knowing his full title.

This story is so much fun and the full series, the reluctant royals, is a treat all the way around. I’ve devoured all of them; you can get the first book in this series here.

Wrapping Up

The world is complicated and bad. There’s some BIG issues out there. I’m listening; I’m reflecting; I’m learning. I’ve thought I was pretty involved but the fact is I haven’t been. There’s also a dangerous allure of performative activism – tweeting a banner, posting a black square, sharing a hashtag. That’s not how change happens, that’s just how white folks feel better about themselves. I’m working hard to avoid that, but I’ll let my actions speak for themselves and frankly I’m not comfortable going on about what all I’m doing – seems too much like it’s being done for a pat on the head that way.

Anyway, you’ll see more lists like this coming forward, to shine lights on other books that we might miss.

One last disclaimer – there are LOTS of really really good websites who have been doing this work for a lot longer than I have, and they do it better. I’ll be working on amplifying their voices too going forward. For this week, this was something I could do to amplify other creatives.

Cheers all, and stay safe.

UPDATE: The original version of this post included a book, Zoo City, by Lauren Beukes. A commenter pointed out that this author is white. That’s entirely my fault – I double checked spellings, names, and was scouring a lot of different lists. This slipped through. It would be antiethical to the spirit of this post to keep that included. Thus, I have added a different book by a black author instead. Thank you for the correction, and apologies!