History of the Alternate Present

Tue 14 Feb 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Please send cakes, high-altitude balloons, plaudits and so on to Ayize Jama-Everett to celebrate the publication of his latest novel, the fourth and final LHeroes coveriminal novel, Heroes of an Unknown World.

We asked some writers for their thoughts on the book and they sum up the books better than I can:

“The Liminal Books deserve a place on the bookshelf alongside ambitious fantasy series like Marlon James’s Dark Star Trilogy and N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy. Big, ambitious, wildly inventive and full of heart. Heroes of an Unknown World displays the voice and verve that are staples of Ayize Jama-Everett’s work. Dive in, you will love what you discover.”
—Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling

“Ayize Jama-Everett is a towering talent and one of the best genre-writers working today. His final installment of his masterfully told Liminal Series; Heroes of an Unknown World is a taut, textured feast for the minds of any ravenous reader who’s looking for something fresh and exciting to experience.”
— John Jennings

“A rollicking, irreverent action sci-fi filled with anime-esque feats, a deep appreciation for culture, and sparkling humanity. Jama-Everett’s final book in the Liminal series is the kind of grandiose battle against despair I’ll gladly sign up for. Put on your favorite record, crack this one open, and tell the darkness: ‘Fuck off!’”
— Elwin Cotman

 


Heroes of an Unknown World

Tue 14 Feb 2023 - Filed under: Books| Posted by: Gavin

trade paper · 320 pages · $17 · 9781618731975 | ebook · 9781618731982 | Trailer

In the final Liminal novel, a found family of Black superheroes has one last chance to save the world.

The Liminal People · The Entropy of Bones · The Liminal War · Heroes of an Unknown World

New: Ayize interviewed on FanFiAddict.

Read: Locus interview · Watch: City Lights event

After traveling back in time to rescue his fostered daughter, Taggert has returned to the present and found himself in his favorite place: up against the wall. But the world they’ve returned to is not the one they left: everything is slightly grayer, the music is boring, joy is just out of reach. The liminals’ entropic enemies, the Alters, are trying to bring about the end of the world by sucking the life — literally — out of enough people to tip the balance their way.

Traveling from Jamaica to London to Indonesia to the heart of the whirlwind in the desert at the heart of all deserts, Taggert and his found family of liminals and supporters have to find a way to bring back the joy before they’re all ground down into the gray dust.

Reviews

“The decision is shocking, and it highlights one of the key themes of the book: we are all imperfect, broken, compromised. The salvation of the world has fallen to Taggert and his team, and they are choosing to answer the call—but neither they nor the reader should be under any illusion that this makes them good guys. They’re not good now, and maybe they never can be. It’s just that they’re all they’ve got. Taggert and Tamara and Prentis are powerful, sure, but the most important thing they are is passionate.”
— Jenny Hamilton, Strange Horizons

“A prescient examination of issues pressing hard upon our actual reality, Heroes of an Unknown World is a necessary addition to the genre and will be devoured and adored by the most hardcore of readers.”
— Sal A. Joyce, Booklist

“The Liminal Books deserve a place on the bookshelf alongside ambitious fantasy series like Marlon James’s Dark Star Trilogy and N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy. Big, ambitious, wildly inventive and full of heart. Heroes of an Unknown World displays the voice and verve that are staples of Ayize Jama-Everett’s work. Dive in, you will love what you discover.”
—Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling

“Ayize Jama-Everett is a towering talent and one of the best genre-writers working today. His final installment of his masterfully told Liminal Series; Heroes of an Unknown World is a taut, textured feast for the minds of any ravenous reader who’s looking for something fresh and exciting to experience.”
— John Jennings

“A rollicking, irreverent action sci-fi filled with anime-esque feats, a deep appreciation for culture, and sparkling humanity. Jama-Everett’s final book in the Liminal series is the kind of grandiose battle against despair I’ll gladly sign up for. Put on your favorite record, crack this one open, and tell the darkness: ‘Fuck off!’”
— Elwin Cotman

“Therapist and theologian Jama-Everett takes his group of Black superheroes from 1970s London to contemporary Morocco in the fascinating and action-packed final Liminal novel (after The Liminal War). Liminals possess supernatural powers, among them central figure Taggert’s ability to manipulate DNA to harm and heal; his adopted daughter Prentis’s empathy with animals; and wind spirit A.C.’s power over the elements. Taggert and his seven major allies must finally defeat the beautiful but monstrous Alters, who work to drive all of humanity to lemming-like suicide by creating a physically and spiritually depressed new world. In breathlessly paced adventures told from ever-shifting perspectives, Jama-Everett celebrates the power of family, community, and music to unite peoples and combat entropy, using dramatic flashbacks to illustrate the salvific power of self-sacrifice for a greater good. His fictionalization of the role psychedelics (here “manna,” the food of the gods) can play in mental health and clear conviction that writing can heal those whom mainstream culture has ignored add depth to the rip-roaring action. Series fans and new readers alike are sure to be drawn in.” — Publishers Weekly

Praise for Ayize Jama-Everett’s Liminal Novels

“In Ayize Jama-Everett’s The Liminal War, the family one chooses is just as important as the one a person is born into.” — Nancy Hightower, Washington Post

“A vitality to the voice and a weirdness that, while not always controlled or intentional, is highly appealing for just that reason.” — Charles Yu, New York Times Book Review

“Chabi breaks the mold for superheroes in more ways than one.” —Leilani Clark, KQED

“Rooted in Chabi’s voice, the story is spare, fierce, and rich, and readers will care just as much about the delicate, damaged relationship between Chabi and her mother as the threat of world destruction.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A fun and fast-paced thriller. Recommended for: Mutants, misfits, anyone who’s ever felt partway between one thing and another.” —The Ladies of Comicazi

“You’ll be sucked into a fast-paced story about superpowered people struggling for control of the underground cultures they inhabit…. The novel is a damn good read. It’s a smart actioner that will entertain you while also enticing you to think about matters beyond the physical realm.” —Annalee Newitz, io9

“A great piece of genre fiction. But picking which genre to place it in isn’t easy. The first in a planned series, it’s got the twists and taut pacing of a thriller, the world-warping expansiveness of a fantasy yarn, and even the love-as-redemption arc of a romance. Oh yeah, a lot of the characters in it have superhuman powers, too.”—The Rumpus

“The action sequences are smartly orchestrated, but it is Taggert’s quest to retrieve his own soul that gives The Liminal People its oomph. Jama-Everett has done a stellar job of creating a setup that promises even greater rewards in future volumes.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“The story’s setup . . .  takes next to no time to relate in Jama-Everett’s brisk prose. With flat-voiced, sharp-edged humor reminiscent of the razors his fellow thugs wear around their necks, Taggert claims to read bodies ‘the way pretentious East Coast Americans read The New Yorker … I’ve got skills,’ he adds. ‘What I don’t have is patience.’” —Nisi Shawl, The Seattle Times

“Every once in awhile, a first novel catches you by surprise. Sometimes it’s the style and sometimes it’s the pure originality or unique mixing of influences. In the case of Ayize Jama-Everett’s The Liminal People, the pleasure comes from all of the above.” —Jeff VanderMeer, Omnivoracious

“Razor. Plush. Fast.” — Tân, City Lights Books

“Ayize Jama-Everett has brewed a voodoo cauldron of Sci-Fi, Romance, Crime, and Superhero Comic, to provide us with a true gestalt of understanding, offering us both a new definition of “family” and a world view on the universality of human conduct. The Liminal People—as obviously intended—will draw different reactions from different readers. But none of them will stop reading until its cataclysmic ending.” —Andrew Vachss

“Ayize’s imagination will mess with yours, and the world won’t ever look quite the same again.” —Nalo Hopkinson

“The Liminal People has the pleasures of classic sf while being astonishingly contemporary and savvy.” —Maureen F. McHugh

Previously

2/15/23 Sistah Sci-Fi podcast
2/16/23, 6:30 p.m. City Lights, San Francisco, CA
2/17/23, 2:30 p.m. Online panel with 2022 NBA finalist Allison Adelle Hedge Coke (Look at This Blue) and Jan Beatty (American Bastard: A Memoir) UC Riverside Writers Week
4/24/23, 7 p.m. Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, CA  This is an IN-STORE EVENT with John Jennings that will also be broadcasted live through Crowdcast for those unable to attend in person. This event will consist of a 30 minute discussion with Ayize Jama-Everett, followed by an audience Q&A, and lastly the book signing.

Cover: art by David Brame.

About the Author

Ayize in a crownAyize Jama-Everett (ayizejamaeverett.com) was born in Harlem, New York. He has traveled extensively in Northern Africa, Northern California, and Oaxaca, Mexico. He holds three Master’s degrees (Divinity, Psychology, and Creative Writing), and has worked as a bookseller, professor, and therapist. He has a firm desire to create stories that people want to read. He believes the narratives of our times dictate future realities; he’s invested in working subversive notions like family of choice, striving when not chosen to survive, and irrational optimism into his creations. His four-book Liminal series has been published by Small Beer Press. His graphic novel, The Box of Bones, with noted artist John Jennings was published by Rosarium Publishing and his graphic novel with Tristan Roach, The Last Count of Monte Cristo, was published by Abrams Press. Shorter works can be found in The Believer, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Racebaitr.


Lost Places: May Pub Date, Second Star

Thu 2 Feb 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Lost Places coverWe have moved the publication date of Sarah Pinsker’s forthcoming collection, Lost Places, from March to May 2.

In better news, the book just received its second starred review, this from Booklist:

“Pinsker’s latest collection includes her Hugo Award–winning story ‘Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather,’ a folklore-esque mystery told through the annotations and comment chains of a song-lyrics website, and new story ‘Science Facts!’ in which a group of girls on an orienteering trip step into a forest that holds some eerie secrets. . . .  The stories are queer, hopeful, and eerie, celebrating the rebellious spirits of both immortal-feeling youth and resilient elder protagonists.”
—Leah von Essen

 


The Patreon I Didn’t

Wed 1 Feb 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Recently I’ve been finding that after sending some emails, instead of them being sent, they mysteriously end up back in Drafts. I’m using a gmail account (why did webhosts give up offering email?) and Apple’s Mail app on my 2020 Mac laptop if anyone has any clue. I am guessing the years and years of email have added up and the system is just slow so that when I hit send, it is not live-saved so goes to Drafts. Which sounds as if I know what I might be talking about. But I don’t.

Anyway, back in 2014 I was thinking about starting a Patreon — I liked the way Clarkesworld and some other people were using it and thought it could be a good additional support for the press, as well as being fun. I made a video (somewhere) and apparently wrote this up as an email. I’m always wondering whether we should do this or that thing, buy AOL, sell our New York skyscraper HQ, drive across the country hand-delivering our books, etc., etc. I do like the line below about every dollar being a 92 cents we don’t have to pay on rent. (There is a fabulous anonymous reader out there who sends us a month’s rent ever year: what an amazing surprise, what a gift that’s been!)

Turns out we published 5 originals, 2 Peter Dickinson reprints, a chapbook by Greer Gilmans, plus 2 ebooks of Howard Waldrop’s Old Earth Books collections that year (12 ebooks). We didn’t, suffice to say, ever launch a Patreon and now since I’m thinking about what else I can do to slow everything down here to my new slow levels, we won’t be any time soon. But this amused me, so maybe it will amuse here:

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We publish weird and awesome books. We’re the publisher of first resort for half a dozen or so of the best books every year and we’d like to send them—either in print or ebook form—to you!

Some of our books sell by the truckload, some don’t! But: they’re all hands down page turners each in their own unique way. Note: none of them is the most unique, because as you know uniqueness can’t be quantified.

Why Patreon? Well, we never did set up a subscription option for our books—the LCRW sub gets in the way—and we never managed a Kickstarter (there was that lunch I was going to do and then the crosscountry tour—but that’s a different post) but we do manage to put books out on a semi-consistent manor, so, hey, why not? Sign up, get books!
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​FAQ
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​Q. You sell books, right?
A. Yes! And this way you will get them slightly before anyone else!
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​Q. How often do you publish books?
A. For 2014 we are on track to publish 7 books, 1 chapbook, 2 issues of our zine, LCRW, and ebooks of each (10 ebooks).
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​Q. Is it worth backing this at the one dollar a month level?
​A. Yes! Support us at $1 a month and suddenly our office rent has just dropped by $0.92! (After Patreon’s cut) Less rent: more $$ and time for ads/publicity = more books sold = happy authors = universe collapses into itself at the sight of a happy author.
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