Death, Racism, Violence, War

Black, Queer

Okay, this one was a great one to start off with, especially with the plot twist toward the end. I had no idea that Amerie became an author, and honestly, I was wondering what happened to her because I hadn’t seen her come out with any music lately. It’s so amazing to see that not only is she an author and has edited an anthology, but she also established her own book club! I’ve been following it and I actually want to take a trip from the beginning and read all of her picks from when she first established it.

Anyway, back to the actual story. This one was a science fiction novel, and had a new take on orcs. When I hear about orcs, I think about The Lord of the Rings and fantasy type books. I never thought to turn the idea of orcs around and have them come from space as an alien species. That’s one of the favorite things I liked about this story. I also liked that even though Mitchell starts hating the orcs based on what happened to Earth, she learns compassion and finds that things are not as they seem. I love stories that do that, and even in a short story there’s believable character development. This is one of those short stories where I wish it was longer, but it still ended well.

“We don’t want to kill you all.”
“Just enough of us.”
“Just enough of you for peace.”
“Because murdering us will bring peace.”
“Does it not? From war comes peace. After peace comes war. And so on.”
“Maybe that’s how it works around here.” But when I actually think about the cycle of wars throughout humanity, the orc’s worldview – worldsview – isn’t so far off.

pg. 19

This was definitely a strong start to the anthology.