Everfair
Books | Fiction / Science Fiction / Steampunk
3.1
Nisi Shawl
From acclaimed short fiction writer Nisi Shawl comes a brilliant alternate history set in the Congo, where heroes strive for a Utopia and endeavor to live together despite their differences.Now with a foreward from award-winning author Cadwell Turnbull.In this re-imagining of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo, African American missionaries join forces with British socialists to purchase land from the Congo Free State's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, which they name Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven for native populations of the Congo as well as settlers from around the world, including dream-eyed Europeans attempting to create a better society, formerly enslaved people returning from America, and Chinese railroad builders escaping hard labor. Using the combined knowledge of four continents, Everfair becomes a land of spying cats and gulls, nuclear dirigibles buoyed by barkcloth balloons, and silent pistols that shoot poison knives.With this technology, Everfair will attempt to defeat the Belgian tyrant Leopold II. But even if they can defeat their great enemy, a looming world war and political infighting may threaten to destroy everything they have built.“A book with gorgeous sweep, spanning years and continents, loves and hates, histories and fantasies... Everfair is sometimes sad, often luminous, and always original. A wonderful achievement.” — Karen Joy FowlerAt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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More Details:
Author
Nisi Shawl
Pages
384
Publisher
Macmillan
Published Date
2016-09-06
ISBN
1466837845 9781466837843
Community ReviewsSee all
"I really wanted to like this book because the concept is so cool: a steampunk story where African characters drive King Leopold out of the Congo. Unfortunately, that's not really what this book was. There were so many characters but hardly any of them were African, and the disjointed way the story was told with so many POV characters in little vignettes over several decades (Leopold is gone around the 50% mark and the rest is kind of bland politicking around WWI) that it was hard to really care what happened to any individual character. The conflict about the characters who helped drive Leopold out living on illegally purchased land is interesting but barely addressed. There are so many huge age gap romances for no reason, which is a pain because there is way too much focus on the romances considering how little time each character has to make an impression."
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