November 2019

This month, we are diving into rising science fiction and fantasy star P. Djeli Clark's The Black God's Drums. P. (the P stands for Phenderson) Djeli Clark is the award winning and Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, and World Fantasy nominated author of the novellas The Black God’s Drums and The Haunting of Tram Car 015. His stories have appeared in online venues such as Tor.com, Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and in print anthologies including, Griots, Hidden Youth and Clockwork Cairo. He is a founding member of FIYAH Literary Magazine and an infrequent reviewer at Strange Horizons. When not writing speculative fiction, P. Djèlí Clark works as an academic historian whose research spans comparative slavery and emancipation in the Atlantic World. He melds this interest in history and the social world with speculative fiction.

The Black God's Drums reflects the marriage of these interests as it brings an alternate New Orleans of orisha, airships, and adventure to life. In Clark's New Orleans, caught in the tangle of the American Civil War, the wall-scaling girl named Creeper yearns to escape the streets for the air--in particular, by earning a spot on-board the airship Midnight Robber. Creeper plans to earn Captain Ann-Marie’s trust with information she discovers about a Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God’s Drums. But Creeper also has a secret herself: Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, speaks inside her head, and may have her own ulterior motivations.
Soon, Creeper, Oya, and the crew of the Midnight Robber are pulled into a perilous mission aimed to stop the Black God’s Drums from being unleashed and wiping out the entirety of New Orleans.

If this sounds like something you'd like to read, you can get your copy of the book from the store or online with a 15% discount through the end of November. Click here to order online and remember, you can have it shipped directly to you or to the store for easy pick-up! You can also get the audiobook from our partner, Libro.fm! Click here to get yours!

---

Reviews & Interviews

"Interview: P. Djeli Clark" -- Lightspeed
"Q&A With P. Djeli Clark" -- The Nerd Daily
"Interview with P. Djeli Clark" -- The Hub
"Review: The Black God's Drums" -- Locus Magazine
“'The Black God’s Drums' Is A High Stakes Novella That Will Take You to the Skies" -- Black Nerd Problems
"The Black God’s Drums: We Really Hope This Begins A Series" -- Fantasy Literature

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, this month we are meeting on November 21st at 7:30pm. There will be free wine and snacks for book club members to share.  Bring a friend and come discuss the book with us, even if you weren't able to completely finish it or if you didn't like it. You can see the Facebook event & RSVP here.