“But we must tell our stories, and not be ensnared by them.”
Speculative fiction books are stories that can blur between the fantasy, horror and science fiction genres. By warping features of our reality into a fictional world, authors can flex their creativity and take their plots into new, imaginative and occasionally outlandish places. Black speculative fiction is becoming an increasingly prominent subgenre in the literary world, with elements such as time travel, generational magic, alternative histories and dystopian futures all delivering absorbing reads with thought-provoking themes and commentaries of Black people overcoming hardships and challenges in worlds not too dissimilar to ours. Join us today at What We Reading as we delve into the world of Black speculative fiction with the best fantasy, horror and sci-fi books by Black authors!
Parable Of The Sower (Earthseed #1) – Octavia E. Butler
Kicking off our list of the best Black speculative fiction books is Octavia E. Butler’s timeless classic, Parable of the Sower. Set in 2024, Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the few remaining safe neighbourhoods in Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their barricaded enclave, her father and their neighbours cobble together what little remains of a culture that war, drugs, water shortages and disease have ravaged. While her father, a devout preacher, attempts to lead his community on a righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extremely sensitive to other people’s pain.
When a fire destroys their compound and takes the lives of her family, Lauren is forced out into a world fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, they are forced on a long journey north in search of safety. Along the way, Lauren begins to wrestle with a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.
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Binti (Binti #1) – Nnedi Okorafor
Nnedi Okorafor introduces readers to Binti in her Hugo and Nebula-award-winning Binti trilogy, a YA speculative sci-fi series. Binti is the first of the Himba people to be offered a place at Oomza University, the most prestigious educational institution in the galaxy. But, accepting her position will mean giving up her place in her family to travel the stars with people who do not share her ways or respect her customs.
For Binti, knowledge comes at a cost, which she is willing to pay. The world she is looking to become a part of has been at war with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares, and Oomza University soon places her within their deadly reach. To survive the legacy of a war she had no part in making, Binti will need to combine the wisdom inside the university and the gifts of her people. But first, she has to make it there, alive.
Conjure Women – Afia Atakora
One of the best Black speculative fiction stories that blends historical fiction with elements of magical realism, Conjure Women is a 2020 book by celebrated author Afia Atakora. Atakora did extensive research on this rich and imaginative tale that whisks readers to the world of the South before and after the American Civil War. Spanning eras and generations, it follows the lives of three women: Miss May Belle, her daughter Rue, and their master’s daughter, Varina.
The secrets and bonds among these women and their wider community come to the boil at the beginning of a war and the birth of an accursed child. A child who quickly sets the local townspeople alight with fear, spreading superstition that threatens to bring their newly won, tenuous freedom crashing down.
The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1) – N.K. Jemisin
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essen, a perfectly ordinary woman in a small town, comes home to find her husband has murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, the mighty Sanze Empire, whose world-spanning innovations have held civilisation together for a thousand years collapses as most of its citizens are killed by a madman’s vengeance. Worst of all, across the continent, known as the Stillness, a red rift has torn into the planet’s centre, spewing enough ash to darken the sky.
Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, decaying land. With no sunlight, water or workable land, nations jostle against one another not for power or territory, but just the basic resources needed to survive. N.K. Jeminsin’s bestselling The Fifth Season shows that Essun doesn’t care if the world around her falls apart. She’ll break it herself if it means saving her daughter.
Shadowshaper (Shadowshaper Cypher #1) – Daniel José Older
Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with friends and skating around Brooklyn. But then a creepy zombie crashes the first party of the season. Sierra’s beloved, near-comatose abuelo begins to say ‘Lo Siento’ over and over. And when the graffiti murals in Bed-Stuy begin to weep, it becomes clear that something stranger than the usual New York mayhem is breaking out.
Sierra soon uncovers a supernatural order called the Shadowshapers, who connect with spirits through paintings, music and stories. Her grandfather once shared the order’s secrets with Dr. Jonathan Wick, who turned the Caribbean magic to his own nefarious ends. To stop him, Sierra must dodge his supernatural creations, harness her own Shadowshaping abilities and save her family’s past, present and future legacy. Daniel José Older’s Shadowshaper Cypher series is a YA urban fantasy tale and one of the best pieces of Black speculative fiction from the past decade.
The Water Dancer – Ta-Nehisi Coates
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when he nearly drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This chance brush with death awakens something inside Hiram. Something that urges him to flee from the only home he has ever known.
In Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dance, readers follow Hiram as he embarks on an epic journey that takes him from the corrupt grandeur of Virigina’s plantations, guerilla cells in the wilderness, the coffin of the Deep South, to the underground war between slavers and the enslaved. Imaginative and heartfelt, it is undoubtedly one of the best speculative fantasy books by one of the most acclaimed Black authors.
The Gilded Ones (Deathless #1) – Namina Forna
Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in constant fear about a blood ceremony that will determine whether or not she will become a member of her village. Because of her unnatural intuition, she is already different from everyone else. Nevertheless, she prays for red blood. But, on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the colour of impurity. As a result, Deka knows that she will face a fate worse than death.
Then, a mysterious woman approaches her with a choice: accept her fate in her village, or leave and fight for the emperor alongside girls just like her. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat. As Deka leaves the only life she has ever known behind and prepares for the biggest battle she will ever see, she discovers that the walled capital city holds many secrets and surprises. No one, not even herself, is quite what they first seem.
The Good House – Tananarive Due
One of the best Black speculative fiction books for readers looking for more horror than sci-fi comes from Tananarive Due in The Good House. Angela hoped her grandmother’s famous ‘healing magic’ could save her magic while she and her family stayed in the old house in the summer of 2001. Instead, an unexpected tragedy tore them apart.
Two years on, and Angela is finally beginning to move on from the experience and ready to revisit the rural house she loved so much as a child. But, back in Sacajawea, she discovers that she isn’t the only one who has experienced heartbreaking loss. A series of senseless tragedies lead to her wondering whether they could all be related to an entity her grandmother battled back in 1929. With the help of Myles Fisher, her high school sweetheart, and clues left from beyond the grave, Angela is forced to square off against an adversary lurking in her grandmother’s house and in the dense Washington woods.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
