Título: An Unkindness of Ghosts
Autor: Rivers Solomon
Sinopse: "Harrowing and beautiful, this is SF at its best: showing the possible future but warning of the danger of bringing old prejudices and cruelties to that new world. While a story about enslaved people in space could be a one-note polemic, the fully rounded characters bring nuance and genuine pathos to this amazing debut."
--Library Journal, Starred Review
"Solomon debuts with a raw distillation of slavery, feudalism, prison, and religion that kicks like rotgut moonshine...Stunning."
--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Infused with the spirit of Octavia Butler and loaded with meaning for the present day, An Unkindness of Ghosts will appeal to a wide variety of readers. Solomon's impassioned, speculative, literary book is sorely needed on library shelves."
--Booklist
"The HSS Matilda is a well-crafted world, and...the diversity of the people who inhabit it--their various sexual and gender identities, physical abilities, and psychological burdens--is refreshingly visible and vital even as they face brutal discrimination for their differences. An entertaining novel that does not neglect the vitality of its story while probing society’s assumptions."
--Kirkus Reviews
"In Rivers Solomon's highly imaginative sci-fi novel An Unkindness of Ghosts, eccentric Aster was born into slavery on--and is trying to escape from--a brutally segregated spaceship that for generations has been trying to escort the last humans from a dying planet to a Promised Land. When she discovers clues about the circumstances of her mother's death, she also comes closer to disturbing truths about the ship and its journey."
--Buzzfeed, Included in 28 Exciting New Books You Need to Read This Fall
"The HSS Matilda is a generation ship organized much like the antebellum South. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer and sowing the seeds of civil war, sharecropper Aster learns there may be a way off the ship if she's willing to fight for it."
--Publishers Weekly; included in Fall 2017 Adult Announcements, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
"With An Unkindness of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon inarguably shows themselves to be a literary child of genre leader Octavia E. Butler...Suffused with the past, the present, and the future of human experiences in its events, An Unkindness of Ghosts launches the career of a brilliantly gifted and important new writer in science fiction."
--Foreword Reviews, Starred Review
"Slavery, racial segregation, and resistance, all set in outer space."
--Nylon, Included in Fall Bookseller Recommendations
"Rivers Solomon pulls you through a difficult journey that is shockingly real, while being utterly engaging as science fiction...It's refreshing to read a new writer who can manipulate such well known motifs, while churning out a story that still instigates a contemporary discourse, one that dares to remind the reader that the past doesn't always stay buried."
--Geeks OUT
"An Unkindness of Ghosts absolutely blew me away...A must read on so many different levels and needs to be on your reading list."
--Utopia State of Mind (blog)
Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world.
Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot--if she's willing to sow the seeds of civil war.
Contexto da obra
Como livro em inglês, esta obra costuma ganhar também uma camada própria de interesse editorial e linguístico. “An Unkindness of Ghosts”, de Rivers Solomon, publicado pela editora Akashic Books, em 2017 e com 340 páginas, integra a categoria Livros em Inglês. Por isso, o interesse da obra tende a se ampliar quando o leitor considera também a relação com a língua em que ela circula.
Editora: Akashic Books
Páginas: 340
Ano: 2017-10-03
Edição: First Edition
Linguagem: en
ISBN: 1617755885
ISBN13: 9781617755880
Sobre a editora
Os livros da editora Akashic Books costumam explorar o lado sombrio e complexo das cidades, especialmente por meio do gênero noir, com narrativas que mergulham em bairros específicos e suas tensões sociais. O catálogo apresenta histórias que transitam entre o suspense urbano e a crítica social, muitas vezes com personagens que enfrentam dilemas morais em ambientes marcados pela desigualdade e pelo crime. Além disso, há obras que investigam sistemas judiciais falhos e questões raciais, com relatos densos e envolventes que combinam relatos de bastidores e análises profundas. A linguagem varia do tom tenso e atmosférico do noir até o relato direto e contundente de injustiças, oferecendo uma experiência de leitura que pode ser tanto literária quanto informativa. O material de apresentação indica também uma atenção a vozes diversas e a contextos culturais específicos, o que amplia o alcance temático da editora.
