It seems like only yesterday I was talking about the difference between highlight and commissioned anthologies. In fact, it was a whole two days ago. This is a bit of a shame, because talking about those differences again is a) a waste of time since you can just look at my last post, and b) annoying because it means I have to talk about New Suns, and most of what I have to say about my latest anthology reading is not particularly positive.

New Suns is an anthology of commissioned stories, meaning they are all original to this collection. The overarching theme is spelled out on the front cover. These are stories written by people of colour. People of a background that has always been part of science fiction, but has historically been overlooked or underappreciated by the genre as a whole. Some of the names here are old veterans, others were up and comers at the time of writing. Shining a spotlight on underrepresented groups is a noble goal, and on that front the book succeeds in its aim.

Beyond the identity of the authors, there is no cohesive theme. Perhaps inevitably, themes of oppression, otherness, and the role of the outside do recur throughout the anthology. If not inevitable, this trend is certainly understandable. The stories themselves are as diverse as their writers There is some science fiction in here, but there’s a lot more fantasy, and I dare say most of the stories dip their toes into the murky waters of horror at least once. Stories about ghosts, ancestral spirits, and magical rites are all well and good, but as someone who approached this book as a science fiction reader, I did feel more than a little underwhelmed by how little science was in here. In one story, two salesmen pitch a smart house, which had my attention, only for the story to pivot into a tale of voodoo and magic.

There were only a few stories in here that I truly disliked. Such as one about losing weight and having to chase your own fat through the woods. I don’t know what was going on there. Most of the stories garnered little more reaction than ‘yeah, I guess’ or ‘that was fine.’ For me, the bigger problem was that none of the stories stood out. I don’t just read anthologies for the stories within their covers, I’m also reading them in the hopes of finding a new author I can read more from. there are no stories in New Suns strong enough for me to track down more books by the author.

This was the monthly pick for the Boundary’s Edge Book Club, and while we disagreed on individual stories, I feel like we were all fairly unanimous on being underwhelmed by the anthology as a whole. Books like New Suns are important for bringing attention to underappreciated voices in genre fiction, and I’m glad that these books exist. However noble a cause it may be, however, the book itself left me thoroughly unimpressed.

Book Stats

• Contains 17 Short Stories
• Published in 2019
• 308 Pages