Clark, Phenderson Djèlí
Entry updated 1 April 2024. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of US author Dexter Gabriel (1971- ), who began publishing work of genre interest with "Shattering the Spear" in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly for 2011. His work is in general perhaps more usefully thought of as Fantastika rather than pure fantasy, as most of his tales press against and interrogate normal genre boundaries. The Ministry of Alchemy sequence, comprising A Dead Djinn in Cairo (19 May 2016 Tor.com; 2016 ebook), The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (2019) and A Master of Djinn (2021), focuses upon a by-now moderately traditional female detective pursuing cases in an Alternate-World Egypt, where Supernatural Creatures interact with potential Time Paradoxes; A Master of Djinn won a Nebula as best novel and a Locus Award as best first novel. The Steampunk Alternate History world of A Black God's Drums (2018), more ambitiously conceived, provides a challenging Jonbar Point: the late eighteenth-century slave revolution in Haiti has succeeded, and survives in part because the new Free Isles possess a secret Weather Control Weapon, the eponymous Black God's Drums. America remains locked in its suicidal Civil War; a great storm assaults New Orleans; some adventure routines somewhat deflect the tale from its interrogation of politics and race (see Politics; Race in SF), but as a whole A Black God's Drums is bracing. Ring Shout (2020) Equipoisally locates a hunt for Monsters in a 1922 America itself haunted by the continued influence of D W Griffith's film Birth of a Nation (1915) (see Thomas Dixon, Jr).
"The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" (February 2018 Fireside Magazine) won a Nebula and a Locus Award as best short story; Ring Shout (2020) won a Locus Award and a further Nebula as best novella. Clark was a co-founder of the magazine Fiyah (which see) in 2017. [JC]
see also: BSFA Award.
Dexter Gabriel
born New York: 11 June 1971
works
series
The Ministry of Alchemy
- A Dead Djinn in Cairo (New York: Tor.com, 2016) [novella: ebook: first appeared 19 May 2016 Tor.com: Ministry of Alchemy: na/]
- The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (New York: Tor.com, 2019) [Ministry of Alchemy: pb/Stephan Martinière]
- A Master of Djinn (New York: Tordotcom, 2021) [Ministry of Alchemy: hb/Stephan Martinière]
- A Master of Djinn (Burton, Michigan: Subterranean Press, 2022) [omni of the above three plus one story: Ministry of Alchemy: hb/Kevin Hong]
Abeni's Song
- Abeni's Song (New York: Tor Starscape, 2023) [Abeni's Song: hb/Michael Machira Mwangi]
individual titles
- A Black God's Drums (New York: Tor.com, 2018) [novella: pb/Chris McGrath]
- Ring Shout: Or, Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times (New York: Tordotcom, 2020) [hb/Henry Sene Yee]
links
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