Everfair, Nisi Shawl
Everfair, Nisi Shawl
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Everfair

Author: Nisi Shawl

Narrator: Allyson Johnson

Unabridged: 12 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/11/2016

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction


Synopsis

Everfair is a wonderful Neo-Victorian alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. Fabian Socialists from Great Britian join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.

Nisi Shawl's speculative masterpiece manages to turn one of the worst human rights disasters on record into a marvelous and exciting exploration of the possibilities inherent in a turn of history. Everfair is told from a multiplicity of voices: Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and African Americans in complex relationships with one another, in a compelling range of voices that have historically been silenced. Everfair is not only a beautiful book but an educational and inspiring one that will give the reader new insight into an often ignored period of history.

About Nisi Shawl

Nisi Shawl is a multiple-award-winning writer and editor. Their novel Everfair was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel, and their short story collection Filter House won the James Tiptree Jr. Award. In 1997, they cofounded the Carl Brandon Society to help give people of color greater visibility in the science fiction and fantasy worlds, and their Writing the Other workshops and accompanying book (cocreated with Cynthia Ward) have taught thousands of writers new ways of thinking about diversity and representation within fiction.

Nisi received the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2019. Speculation is their first novel for young readers. Born near Kalamazoo, Michigan, Nisi now lives near Seattle.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Philip on December 22, 2021

3.5ish stars. Ever read a book that you respect more than love? This is that. It's a sprawling, epic, majestic beast of a novel that spans 30 years. It takes place in a beautifully unique setting chronicling the formation and history of the fictional country Everfair. Although it’s shorter than 400 p......more

Goodreads review by Bradley on February 23, 2017

Unfortunately, this is a book full of flaws, but underlying all of those flaws is also a book I really, really want to appreciate. Why? Because it's a story of the Belgian Congo under an alternate history banner that strives and reaches for its independence despite atrocity and thanks to technology.......more

Goodreads review by Bookwraiths on October 13, 2016

Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths. Blending alternate history, steampunk, and fantasy elements as well as tackling difficult social issues (colonization, racism, religious tolerance, and gender intolerance), Everfair sets out to tell an epic story of the Congo from the era of Belgian control (circa......more

Goodreads review by Anthony on April 23, 2021

My experience of reading this ambitious, odd, intriguing novel was akin to spending time gazing at an ambitious, odd, intriguing painting in a museum. There was much to admire about Shawl’s technical skill in crafting sentences, and their ability to never let me get ahead of the story they were crea......more

Goodreads review by Althea on November 09, 2016

After reading a few short stories by Nisi Shawl, all of which I enjoyed very much, I was eager to read her debut novel. 'Everfair' is a steampunk-flavored alternate history. The 'what if' moment is: What if, during the horrific regime of Leopold II over the Belgian Congo, a group of free-thinkers/so......more