P. Djèlí Clark: The Black God's Drums (2018)
111 pages
English language
Published Sept. 11, 2018
"Creeper, a scrappy young teen, is done living on the streets of New Orleans. Her sights are set on securing passage aboard Captain Ann-Marie's smuggler airship Midnight Robber, earning the captain's trust using a secret about a kidnapped Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls the Black God's Drums. But Creeper keeps another secret close to her heart-- Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, who speaks inside her head and grants her divine powers. And Oya has her own priorities..." -- Page [4] of cover.
Clark has a knack for unconventional takes on the speculative genre, no doubt, and his writing is beyond reproach. This alternate New Orleans novella is smart and fun, but overall, it feels very conventionally steampunk-ish, a far cry from the whirlwind experience that is his Djinnpunk stuff .
