In this collection of short stories, three-time Hugo winner Jemisin offers up 22 nuggets of speculative fiction that run the gamut from mythology (Death wandering around a post-human New York City) to interstellar (transcripts from humanity's first contact with a new race on another planet) to magical realism (defunct subway trains mysteriously appearing for a single rider) to allegory (a Ninth Ward man fighting against a literal giant beast of Hate during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina). All, however, include people of color as protagonists, something that has long been lacking in the genre; indeed, this missing element is the subject of Jemisin's ranting essay that gives the book its title. (The essay isn't included in the book, as it's not fiction, but can be found here, on Jemisin's blog. Also, make sure you watch the Janelle Monae music videos embedded in the essay; they're fantastic!)
For someone who writes in the introduction that she didn't think she could write short fiction, Jemisin knocks it out of the park with these stories. The worlds are all richly created and fully realized within the few short pages of the stories, and the characters are just as three-dimensional as anyone in her long-form work. What an excellent author, and what a great collection.
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