The Power of Music and Art
Review: Abeni’s Song by P. Djèli Clark
Not many authors can do adult and middle grade with the same deft touch. Clark is one of them. Abeni’s Song is a lovely little middle grade afrofantasy.
In many ways, it’s a standard coming of age adventure…a young girl forced to go on an Adventure to save all the things and people that matter to her. She’s accompanied by the spirit that protected her village, as well as a porcupine and a panther. It has all the elements…people who don’t get on until they do, ride or die friends who “hate” each other.
And monsters, so many monsters. This story can best be described as pretty. Dark, in places, but pretty. And as the title suggests, the strongest magic here is music.
It’s music and dance, Clark says, that make us who we are. Especially Abeni, who is the Chosen One, but not exactly in the traditional sense…it’s somebody else who is the leader and the chief.
She’s the hero, and she inspires…but she leads always from the front. I quite like her, although honestly, the panther is my favorite character.
Give this one to your 12 and 13 year olds…but maybe stop to read it first. Recommended to kids of all backgrounds…and to parents who want a reminder that monsters aren’t that easy to beat, family matters, friendship can look like many things, and music wins out.
This is the first of a promised trilogy.
Review: Promises Stronger Than Darkness by Charlie Jane Anders
This is the third of a trilogy. Please read them in order, and skip this review if you don’t want some spoilers.
Recap: In book one, Victories Greater Than Death, Tina is an alien being raised secretly on Earth. She’s the clone of a war hero being hidden here because they felt she would be safest on an uncontacted world. Disguised as human and given to raise to a desperate woman who’s fertility treatments failed, Tina knows who she is and can’t wait for them to come get here.
When they do, however, she finds that the war is not going well.
In book two…which is very middle-of-a-trilogy the war goes even worse and the space Nazis have taken over from the people who aren’t speciesist, honest, which should tell you everything about how speciesist they actually are.
Because yes, this series is about nice, white racists and even nice, queer racists. Anders pulls no punches on those who think that because they let the occasional Black person join their crew…although in this case, the victims of prejudice are non-humanoids and, to a lesser extent, “lesser” humanoids…by which they mean less technologically advanced species such as, you know, us.
Book three really digs deep into that in the guise of classic space opera. We have space princesses, we have ancient aliens with technology far beyond anyone’s (but which is more plausible than is normal). The princesses, too, are well explained. I’ve compared Anders’ City in the Middle of the Night to Vinge.
This work isn’t like Vinge…like Anders herself, it’s far more colorful. The world depicted is bright even when it’s at its darkest, it’s covered in murals and flowers. (And if you’ve met or even seen a picture of Charlie Jane Anders, you’ll see what I mean. The first image I saw of her, she was wearing a unicorn onesie live on the internet!)
But in many ways it can be cross compared to A Fire Upon The Deep, having many of the same elements…and humanoid supremacists,
Both books even have obscure non-humanoids that turn out to be the heir to something, but Anders’ version is so much brighter and more beautiful.
The aliens are, in the end, defeated by something very simple: Their kids show up and tell them how it is. Which as it’s YA, makes sense.
A lot of kids are telling parents how it is.
(By the way, my favorite character is Elza).