An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, who uses the pronoun “they,” takes us on an incredible journey into space, the future, and the past. In their debut novel, Solomon crafts a new kind of science-fiction that tackles themes of racism, slavery, and classism—and has already drawn comparisons with genre legend Octavia Butler. Ghosts centers on Aster, a withdrawn, obsessive, and misunderstood young woman who lives aboard the spaceship HSS Matilda, which is politically stratified much like the antebellum South. For generations, the Matilda has been transporting what remains of humankind to an unseen, perhaps even mythical, utopia. Meanwhile the powers that be have imposed strict moral laws and de-humanizing indignities onto “dark-skinned sharecroppers.”
Living in the lower-deck slums, Aster has become apathetic, used to being called names like “ogre”…
