Black and Brown Planets

Definitely an enjoyable read and, despite the slightly intimidating name, a fairly smooth read. I have to give props to the editor for the diversity in topics– it's not often that books on race in sci-fi consider more than Black and Latin@ US concerns (although some non-American continental writing would not have been out of place).

The essays were, almost across the board, insightful and fascinating. Specifically, Grace Dillon, M. Elizabeth Ginway and Matthew Goodwin's pieces explored topics that I haven't seen much of, and did it in an accessible way.

The only flaws in the book were Isiah Lavender's own essay– which neglected intersectional and historical concerns in favor of a straight-forward racial reading of “The Evening and the Morning and the Night” (I would have appreciated consideration of the treatment of disabled Black men and women, especially given that the story was written just after the height of the AIDs epidemic), and Robin Anne Reid's “The Wild Unicorn Herd Check-In”. Reid's piece was interesting, but suffered from being quantitative analysis taken from a large thesis, and so fell a little flat.

All in all, a satisfying collection.