Review_BLACK GOD'S DRUMS by P.Djeli Clark

The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: BLACK GOD'S DRUMS

I adore this novella! Author P. Djeli Clark brings us right inside the skin of her characters, stripping away the masks (in some cases literally) and plunging us into an incredibly defined Alternate History, one that awakens the ugly history of the 19th century, in the US and in Haiti, that we know as fact. Here is a culture set in New Orleans that resembles Dickens' Victorian London (but humming with a "Naw Orlins" flair), and a thirteen-year-old protagonist who is a carrier of an avatar of Yoruba goddess Oya. There are airships and steam engines, steampunk everywhere, and yes, there are fools willing to sell the most dangerous invention ever, for greed, and for warmongering (cause the South wants to Rise again, and not "someday.") Author Clark has a gift for Magical Realism that rivals Tim Powers', and that is high praise indeed.

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