Oct 31

Oct 31 Alien Stories

Author: E.C. Osondu
Publisher: BOA Editionos
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

Celebrated Nigerian-born writer E.C. Osondu delivers a short-story collection of nimble dexterity and startling originality in his BOA Short Fiction Prize-winning Alien Stories.

These eighteen startling stories, each centered around an encounter with the unexpected, explore what it means to be an alien. With a nod to the dual meaning of alien as both foreigner and exterrestrial, Osondu turns familiar science-fiction tropes and immigration narratives on their heads, blending one with the other to call forth a whirlwind of otherness. With wry observations about society and human nature, in shifting landscapes from Africa to America to outer space and back again, Alien Stories breaks down the concept of foreignness to reveal what unites us all as 'aliens' within a complex and interconnected universe.

TL;DR Review

Alien Stories is a resonant, haunting little collection. Every story made an impression on me, and I was so impressed with Osondu’s imaginative, precise craft.

For you if: You like to read great short stories that play with metaphor in speculative elements.

Full Review

I recently discovered the fabulous indie publisher BOA Editions (which also happens to be headquartered in Rochester, NY, which isn’t too far from my hometown). I followed them on Instagram, and one of their posts about this short story collection caught my eye. Speculative, promising weirdness, and George Saunders blurbed it? Sign me up.

The folks at BOA were kind enough to send a copy my way, and friends, it didn’t disappoint. These stories are excellent. The feeling of finding a diamond in the rough reminded me of reading Imaginary Museums by Nicolette Polek, which was published by another fab indie, Soft Skull Press. (Indie presses are SO GREAT and doing important, amazing work, and you should follow and support them, please and thank you.)

Anyway, each of these stories uses the concept of aliens to make a larger statement about racism and xenophobia. There are baby aliens, and spaceships that get mysteriously left behind, and a focus group giving their thoughts and opinions on aliens, and a grandmother who tells stories about a red planet, and so much more. Osondu gives us so many metaphors and layers and smart, imaginative applications of speculative elements.

If you like to read great short stories that play with metaphor and craft and make you think about them long after you’ve finished reading, check this one out!