AntiColonial – Page 2 – Marked for Plot

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Sometimes, incredible books fall in your lap for no seeming reason (and by no seeming reason, I really mean Audible’s algorithim has learned that I like books about gay men). It’s certainly not my normal fare: I don’t read a ton of magical realism, and even less that pushes more on the literary end of things than the genre fiction side of that subgenre. Yet I’m so incredibly thankful I indulged the whim to dive into this book. It isn’t perfect, and likely won’t crack my favorite reads of the year, but it’s going to stick with me for a long time.

The Premise:
Maali is dead, stuck in a queue to find his way to the next life. He doesn’t know how he died, but he knows that he has unfinished business in the land of the living. He’s a war photographer in 1990 Sri Lanka, a gambler who loses more money than he makes, and a slut who has trouble remaining monogamous to the boyfriend he really does dearly love. He learns he has seven days before he is stuck forever in the in-between, and promptly sets off to try and get his partner and best friend to find his photographs, which have the power to topple a government.

Read if You Like: Magical Realism, ghosts, critiques of colonialism, dry humor

Avoid if You Dislike: tight plotting, morally upright characters, books lacking answers hard questions they bring attention to

The City that Would Eat the World

2025 has not been my best year of reading (yet). There’s been quite a few disappointments, a decent number of ‘good, but not great’ books, and one or two that will stay with me. I’m happy to say that I finally found something addictive in The City that Would Eat the World. It was a raucously fun adventure in an alien world that is both utterly unlike our own, while mirroring it deeply.

The Premise
The City of Wall is … a bunch of interconnected walls. A lot of them. They currently cover about a third of Ishevos, with the age-extending god Cambrias driving its relentless expansion. Thea is a mimic exterminator who hosts a flagstone-counting god inside her soul, and Aven is a traveling adventurer visiting Wall looking for the next great thrill. They end up meeting after a god-killing artifact falls into Thea’s lap, and drawing a lot of attention that Thea very much doesn’t want, and Aven very much does. The resulting events will take them across the vast city, bring them into contact with heroes and monsters, and challenge their beliefs about the goodness of Wall (for Thea) or whether toppling it is even possible (for Aven).

Read if Looking For: easy reading, weird megastructures, batshit crazy plans, anticapitalist themes

Avoid if Looking For: themes you have to dig for, gritty and dark books, romantic subplots

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon

Speaking generally, I think comparisons to other books does a disservice to individual books. In official publishing industry pitches, this is especially egregious, where every book is _____ meets _____. While Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon absolutely stands on its own merit, it shares a lot of DNA with American Gods, and, considering that many readers are no longer interested in giving Neil Gaiman their money anymore, Shigidi is a phenomenal take on gods and modernity.

The Premise:
Shigidi is a nightmare god. Well, a retired nightmare god who escaped the Spirit Corporation grind and now works freelance to try and gain the prayers and souls needed to sustain him. He and Nnemona, his succubus partner, are offered a final job to clear their debts away and open an opportunity for a life in their homeland. But it means breaking into the London Museum through their tight security. This book drifts between years, exploring the current and past dilemmas facing Shigidi and Nnemona, culminating with their final caper.

Read if Looking For: modern interpretations of myth, three dimensional characters, bisexuals everywhere

Avoid if Looking For: tightly focused ‘heist’ books, fast pacing

The Lies of the Ajungo

I stumbled on this book as I was hunting down novellas for a genre fiction unit I plan on teaching soon. Books that invoke older storytelling techniques and moods are a big draw to me, and The Lies of the Ajungo has the feel of lots of classic fables and myths in it’s style and presentation. While not technically a debut since Utomi released a novel a month earlier, this book shows a remarkable level of mastery over pacing and tone for someone so early in their publishing career. The sequel is on my shelf right now, calling my name to grab it soon.

The Premise:
Water is scarce in the City of Lie. To appease their overlords, citizens of the city cut out their tongues in exchange for access to water and food. Tutu isn’t yet old enough to lose his tongue when his mother grows ill. To save her life, he goes to the city’s rulers. In exchange for enough water to keep his mother alive, he will journey to try and bring back water for everyone in the city. He is not the first to take this quest, but none of the other children have ever returned.

Read If Looking For: novellas that don’t overextend themselves, fable-esque stories, sassy aunties

Avoid if Looking For: complex and layered worlds, flashy magic

The Weavers of Alamaxa

The Daughters of Izdihar was a phenomenal novel. I loved it for the nuanced female relationships, examination of privilege within activists movements, and nuanced thematic work that was willing to put aside traditional plots to build something fascinating. Unfortunately the sequel is none of these things, and was a disappointing second half to this duology.

The Premise:
This book picks up with Nehal and Giorgina separated, but with war in Alamaxa. The Zirani are seizing the city, with Giorgina drafted into in its defense in exchange for her freedom. Nehal has been kidnapped by the Zirani, and finds herself far from home.

Read If Looking For: avatar-esque magic in an Egyptian inspired setting, tidy endings

Avoid if Looking For: sequels that build on the strengths of it’s predecessor

Mistress of Lies

One of this year’s bingo squares is ‘Judge a Book by It’s Cover’ which challenges you to read a book without knowing anything other than what’s on the front cover. Mistress of Lies was my pick for my ‘published in 2024’ themed card. I thought the art was wonderfully evocative, and also visually distinct from a lot of cover art trends I’m seeing these days. Ella Garrett (designer) and Felix Abel Klaer (illustrator) did a phenomenal job.

The Premise:
In a country ruled by an upper class of blood mages and led by a deathless king, a young noblewoman kills her father. She wants to change society for the betterment of her brother, who is Bloodless, and relies on scheming and plots to do so. Meanwhile, a Bloodless commoner stumbles upon a murder victim that has been causing discontentment amongst the Bloodless people, fostered by whispers of rebellion. He finds himself dragged into noble society against his will. And lingering around it all is the Royal Bloodworker, forming a trilogy of attraction as the three struggle to find an equilibrium in the newly unsettled Blood Worker Society.

Read If Looking For: romantic tension, polyamorous storylines, moral ambiguity

Avoid if Looking For: political intrigue, books free of YA/New Adult vibes

Rakesfall

The Saint of Bright Doors (Chandrasekera’s first novel) has been raking up award nominations from pretty much every major award, whether it be popular vote, juried, or a combination. It’s also a book I enjoyed quite a bit. I initially hadn’t because weirdly enough psychadellic tracings of two lovers across timelines/memories/reincarnations/whatever is weirdly popular in 2024 releases (see Welcome to Forever, Emperor and the Endless Palace, and Principle of Moments), and I’d already read a few. However, when comparisons to one of my favorite novels of all time, The Spear Cuts Through Water, were made by some reviewers, I knew it was time to give this acid-trip of a book a try.

The Premise
The cover blurb from another author calls this a ‘fearless hallucinatory novel’ and I think that’s about as good of a description as I can give. It traces two souls reincarnating further and further into the future, with a tight focus on Sri Lanka. Each of the ten parts is written in a different mode, or style, such as people in a TV watching a TV show where they are a documentary watched by the characters, a play performed about things that happen in the future, and mad semi-poetic allegorical ramblings about the color red.

Read If Looking For: Experimental Literary Fiction, layered metaphors, books that benefit from easy access to encyclopedias and dictionaries

Avoid if Looking For: light or mildly difficult reads, anything remotely straightforward in plot or structure

Convergence Problems

I don’t read a ton of short fiction, but I’ve been trying to pick up more anthologies after loving Exhalation by Ted Chiang. Convergence Problems features the story A Dream of Electric Mothers, which is one that had been on my list to try out. What I found was a book of stories I burned through in a few afternoons.

The Premise:
As an anthology, there’s no single pitch I can make for this book. All I can say is that, in general, the stories tend to focus on the intersection between technology and belief, oftentimes centering Nigerian characters, cultural beliefs, and societal concerns. It also has more than a few stories examining consciousness and memory. There were also a good number of near-future stories that felt scarily plausible, and examined how the impact of our actions today will primarily affect those who were least responsible for creating them. There was also a moderate amount of queer representation, which was much appreciated (I’ve found it’s usually an all or nothing thing in short fiction anthologies).

Read If Looking For: anthologies, gorunded Sci Fi, parallel storytelling, the link between cultural beliefs and technology,

Avoid if Looking For: a novel,

The Navigating Fox

Foxes have been a thread through my reading for around a year now. Fox characters, humans named Fox, and shapeshifting foxes. All over the place. So, when I saw some intriguing reviews for The Navigating Fox, it felt like fate that I pick it up. What I found inside was an intriguing, but perhaps underdeveloped novella with a fresh feeling that I haven’t seen in fantasy before.

The Premise:
In a world where some animals have sapience through alchemical processes, Quintus is the only fox to have the privilege. He is a navigator, back from a particularly disastrous expedition and facing calls for consequences by the sister of one of his companions who died on that journey. Backed into a corner by these circumstances and a priest with information he desperately needs, he promises to lead another expedition to the gates of hell itself.

Read If Looking For: Arrogant priests, fable vibes, talking animals

Avoid if Looking For: stories that answer questions they pose, action

The Traitor Baru Cormorant

Sometimes a book comes along that utterly redefines how you view books, reading, or genres. The Traitor Baru Cormorant was like that for me, a book that shook me to my core, and forced me to realize just how powerful Queer Fantasy could be. It remains one of my all time favorites. It isn’t for everyone though, and has a pretty clear style that is different from how most fantasy nowadays is written.

The Premise:
Baru is a genius. A savant at math and numbers, she’s been trained since a young age by the Empire to be of use. She’s also grown up seeing her beloved island home colonized by the soldiers of the Empire: trade, coin, and plumbing. She also happens to be Lesbian, a crime that forces her to repress her desires and live a life of shame. And she wants to rip the Empire to pieces. But to do that, she must first gain power in the Empire. And so she accepts a job to run the Economy of one of the Empire’s many colonies – not her own of course – and suppress their own rebellion so she may grow her own.

Read If Looking For: a book that will rip your heart out, economist lead character, anti-colonial stories

Avoid if Looking For: queer characters living happy lives, quick and/or breezy reads, twists that are complete surprises