[On May 10, 2021 Strange Horizons officially expressed its political support for Palestinian solidarity. The views of Tangent Online reviewers are not necessarily those of Strange Horizons. Fiction critiqued at Tangent Online is, as much as is humanly possible, without prejudice and based solely on artistic merit.]
Strange Horizons, June 30, 2025
“The Black Refinery” by Nadia Amatullah King
“Till Earth and Heaven Ring” by K. S. Walter
“Let Sleeping Hyenas Lie” by Rutendo Chidzodzo
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
This special issue, assembled by guest editors Yvette Lisa Ndlovu and Shingai Njeri Kagunda, is dedicated to AfroSurrealism, a term created by D. Scot Miller in his article Afrosurreal Manifesto. To greatly oversimplify, this can be thought of as dealing with works combining fantastic elements with themes relating to Africa and members of the African diaspora. Interested readers can peruse Miller’s original article online.
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Afrosurreal_Manifesto
In “The Black Refinery” by Nadia Amatullah King, a man is killed in a mining accident but is brought back to life and given an artificial body. The same accident released destructive creatures known as sand trolls. The man is forced to work fighting these beings. An encounter with an old acquittance, now an academician, leads to the revelation of the hidden motives of both men.
The author combines themes from science fiction and fantasy effectively. Besides featuring African-American characters, the story emphasizes its connection to Black culture through the use of rhyming couplets, in the style of rap music.
The plot suggests an allegory, with the sand trolls explicitly compared to the homeless, but this is not always clear. The conclusion left me thinking that there was more to be told. References to the creatures from the film Gremlins create the wrong mood, in my opinion, but this is a minor quibble. As a first published work from a new author, the story provides evidence of originality and a creative imagination, which is likely to result in more fully developed fiction in the future.
“Till Earth and Heaven Ring” by K. S. Walker features a slave with a large hole in his body. He enlists the help of a man with a mysterious background. They take control of a ship and transport several slaves to freedom, but only after a supernatural encounter at sea.
The main part of the text alternates with quotes from documents and descriptions of artifacts and artworks. This technique, combined with a narrative style that suggests historical fiction, creates a sense of verisimilitude, despite the story’s bizarre fantasy content. The overall effect achieves the goal of surrealism, I believe, while also resulting in a compelling, suspenseful tale.
The main character in “Let Sleeping Hyenas Lie” by Rutendo Chidzodso is an executive of a company building luxury hotels in a large national park in Zimbabwe. The project requires moving a tribe from their ancestral land. A hostile meeting with the leader of the tribe results in a nightmarish transformation.
This is a horror story with the classic theme of supernatural revenge. It is very well written, with fully developed characters, but readers are likely to predict the conclusion, given certain clues early in the text.
Victoria Silverwolf has never been to Zimbabwe.