Can you believe that we’re already through the first four months of the Speculative Chic Book Club? One thing we’ve learned is that everyone gets their hands on books a little differently, and as a result, they may need a little more time to do so and finish reading. Between that and social distancing making library lending is a challenge, I wanted to give people a head start on the books we’ll be reading later this summer (after we finish May’s The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso and June’s Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber). Come gather around, and see what our hosts have selected for us in July, August, and September!
July
Lovecraft Country (2016)
Written by: Matt Ruff
Genre: Dark Fantasy/Horror
Host: Casey Price
Discussion Date: 7/31/2020
Why Casey Picked It: Over a year ago, during our Black History and Future Month Roundtable discussion, I was researching Jordan Peele. I had only recently watched Get Out and had already decided that he was going to be my pick for creators to watch. I was delighted to discover that his company, Monkeypaw Productions, was going to be adapting this novel. I first read the book a year prior to that (February 2018, mind you), and it’s been on my mind ever since. Why? It’s hard to say. Perhaps because I love seeing modern authors take the very people that racist (misogynistic, homophobic — this guy hated everyone who wasn’t a straight, white man) old H.P. Lovecraft despised and center them in tales that are straight out of the mythos (hello Ruthanna Emrys!). This book, which is more of a series of shorts that center around a Black family, explores both cosmic and social darkness, the latter being a darkness that still exists today. With COVID-19 grinding everything to a halt, who knows when we’ll actually see the television adaptation. I want it now. In the meantime, however, I’m going to re-read the book. I hope you’ll join me!
The Premise:
Soon to be a New HBO® Series from J.J. Abrams (Executive Producer of Westworld), Misha Green (Creator of Underground) and Jordan Peele (Director of Get Out)
The critically acclaimed cult novelist makes visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects in this brilliant and wondrous work of the imagination that melds historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian horror and fantasy.
Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, 22-year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George — publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide — and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite — heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus’s ancestors — they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours.
At the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal named the Order of the Ancient Dawn — led by Samuel Braithwhite and his son Caleb — which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his — and the whole Turner clan’s — destruction.
A chimerical blend of magic, power, hope, and freedom that stretches across time, touching diverse members of two black families, Lovecraft Country is a devastating kaleidoscopic portrait of racism — the terrifying specter that continues to haunt us today.
August
Weaveworld (2001)
Written by: Clive Barker
Genre: Dark Fantasy/Horror
Host: Michelle R. Lane
Discussion Date: 8/28/2020
Why Michelle Picked It: The first Clive Barker book I read was The Damnation Game. Up to that point I had read a lot of other horror novels, but nothing so uniquely dark and complex. His storytelling pulled me in and I enjoyed getting lost in the dark worlds he created. I loved reading all of Barker’s work, but Weaveworld spoke to me in a way that his other books didn’t. A hidden world of magical people who had to hide to keep themselves safe because of their differences spoke volumes to me as a teenager of mixed ethnicity growing up in rural Pennsylvania. It has been years since I read the novel, but now seems like a good time to revisit one of my favorite books of all time.
The Premise:
Here is storytelling on a grand scale — the stuff of which a classic is made. Weaveworld begins with a rug — a wondrous, magnificent rug — into which a world has been woven. It is the world of the Seerkind, a people more ancient than man, who possesses raptures — the power to make magic. In the last century they were hunted down by an unspeakable horror known as the Scourge, and, threatened with annihilation, they worked their strongest raptures to weave themselves and their culture into a rug for safekeeping. Since then, the rug has been guarded by human caretakers.
The last of the caretakers has just died.
Vying for possession of the rug is a spectrum of unforgettable characters: Suzanna, granddaughter of the last caretaker, who feels the pull of the Weaveworld long before she knows the extent of her own powers; Calhoun Mooney, a pigeon-raising clerk who finds the world he’s always dreamed of in a fleeting glimpse of the rug; Immacolata, an exiled Seerkind witch intent on destroying her race even if it means calling back the Scourge; and her sidekick, Shadwell, the Salesman, who will sell the Weaveworld to the highest bidder.
In the course of the novel the rug is unwoven, and we travel deep into the glorious raptures of the Weaveworld before we witness the final, cataclysmic struggle for its possession.
Barker takes us to places where we have seldom been in fiction — places terrifying and miraculous, humorous, and profound. With keen psychological insight and prodigious invention, his trademark graphic vision balanced by a spirit of transcendent promise, Barker explores the darkness and the light, the magical and the monstrous, and celebrates the triumph of the imagination.
September
A Pale Light in the Black (2020)
Written by: K.B. Wagers
Genre: Science Fiction
Host: Ronya F. McCool
Discussion Date: 9/25/2020
Why Ronya Picked It: I enjoy escaping into space opera, and I always make sure to tell my patrons about K.B. Wagers. Her intense, immensely enjoyable first trilogy (“The Indranan War,” starting with 2016’s Behind the Throne) starred a gun smuggler-turned-princess whose past served her well when it came to navigating alliances, avenging her family, and stopping wars. A Pale Light in the Black is a little different; the first in a planned “Neo-G” (Near-Orbital Earth Guard) duology, its story is centered around the underdog team trying to best rival military branches in a series of competitions. It’s billed as light sci-fi/space opera — and I think that’s something we could all use right now.
The Premise:
The Expanse meets the Battle Room in Ender’s Game as K.B. Wagers brings us the rollicking first entry in a unique science fiction series that introduces the Near-Earth Orbital Guard — NeoG — a military force patrolling and protecting space inspired by the real-life mission of the U.S. Coast Guard.
For the past year, their close loss in the annual Boarding Games has haunted Interceptor Team: Zuma’s Ghost. With this year’s competition looming, they’re looking forward to some payback — until an unexpected personnel change leaves them reeling. Their best swordsman has been transferred, and a new lieutenant has been assigned in his place.
Maxine Carmichael is trying to carve a place in the world on her own — away from the pressure and influence of her powerful family. The last thing she wants is to cause trouble at her command on Jupiter Station. With her new team in turmoil, Max must overcome her self-doubt and win their trust if she’s going to succeed. Failing is not an option — and would only prove her parents right.
But Max and the team must learn to work together quickly. A routine mission to retrieve a missing ship has suddenly turned dangerous, and now their lives are on the line. Someone is targeting members of Zuma’s Ghost, a mysterious opponent willing to kill to safeguard a secret that could shake society to its core . . . a secret that could lead to their deaths and kill thousands more unless Max and her new team stop them.
Rescue those in danger, find the bad guys, win the Games. It’s all in a day’s work at the NeoG.
In three months, we’ll announce the next set of book club picks. Like I said above, we do this so that you have maximum time to get your hands on the book in the format that’s available, or request it from your local library, whatever works for you. If there’s a particular book you’d like to see us choose for the book club, or if you want a particular reviewer, please comment and let us know, because we love your suggestions!
We hope you’ll join us each month, and please, tell your friends to join us as well. Our goal is to have thorough reviews that are full of spoilers, so that there’s plenty to sink your teeth into and talk about.
Questions? Suggestions? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to get your hands on May’s selection: The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso!
Lovecraft Country feels like one of those books that I’ve seen around and automatically thought, “Not my cup of tea.” Now that I actually read the premise, it sounds fantastic. I’m really looking forward to it.