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Islamicates Volume I, edited by Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad
A collection of stories that was made available free online, this book is specifically focused on collecting works of sff inspired by Muslim cultures. My initial reaction to the book is that it badly desperately horribly needs a copyeditor (AUGH it was painful to read in places!!) and tbh could also have used a stronger hand in a more in-depth editing too, but if I set that aside, it was a pretty interesting read!
Not all of the stories worked for me, and even the best stories were only fairly good, but I really enjoyed reading a whole book of stories about Muslim characters, a demographic who don't tend to get a lot of focus in sff. My favourite stories in the collection were "Calligraphy," "Searching for Azrail," and "Congruence."
A Mosque Among the Stars, edited by Ahmed A. Khan and Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad
Like Islamicates, this book is a freely-available collection of Muslim-focused sff short stories. But it's an earlier effort and, imo, a weaker one. It's also badly in need of a strong copyedit and editor. But it has an even greater disparity between the stronger stories and the weaker ones, with the weak ones very weak, imo, and I was left with some complicated feelings even about some of the stories I enjoyed reading. I'd recommend reading Islamicates over this one.
A collection of stories that was made available free online, this book is specifically focused on collecting works of sff inspired by Muslim cultures. My initial reaction to the book is that it badly desperately horribly needs a copyeditor (AUGH it was painful to read in places!!) and tbh could also have used a stronger hand in a more in-depth editing too, but if I set that aside, it was a pretty interesting read!
Not all of the stories worked for me, and even the best stories were only fairly good, but I really enjoyed reading a whole book of stories about Muslim characters, a demographic who don't tend to get a lot of focus in sff. My favourite stories in the collection were "Calligraphy," "Searching for Azrail," and "Congruence."
A Mosque Among the Stars, edited by Ahmed A. Khan and Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad
Like Islamicates, this book is a freely-available collection of Muslim-focused sff short stories. But it's an earlier effort and, imo, a weaker one. It's also badly in need of a strong copyedit and editor. But it has an even greater disparity between the stronger stories and the weaker ones, with the weak ones very weak, imo, and I was left with some complicated feelings even about some of the stories I enjoyed reading. I'd recommend reading Islamicates over this one.
