Milton J. DavisRezensionen

I only got this to read Skin Magic by P. Djèlí Clark and this is a review of that story.

I was hoping for more of the similar and i wasn't disappointed.

Once again we're thrown right into North-African/Middle-Eastern folk lore kind of stuff with Djèlí's incredible writing that just keeps dragging you along without a pause.

Djèlí's writing is so refreshing, and i'm so looking forward to reading many more of his stories in the future.

This is an interesting change of pace. As my first introduction to the "Sword and Soul" genre, I found that the setting of Ki-Khanga blends African culture with fantasy (and occasionally steampunk) elements into a new and refreshing aesthetic. Indeed, the stories seemed to divulge a new and exotic tidbit like clockwork, as befits a setting for a roleplaying game.

The anthology is not without flaws, however. As is often the case with anthologies, the quality of writing ranges from pretty good to mediocre. In this Kindle edition, there were also numerous typos. On one occasion, a character's name kept switching back and forth from one thing to another, and it did so often enough that I couldn't be sure which was correct and which was a typo. Overall, they were a minor, but noticeable distraction. They had best find a good editor before they send this thing off to print.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this anthology, and I eagerly await the release of the roleplaying game later this fall.

Omari Ket, an Agency of One

Eda Blessed: A Ki Khanga Adventure is all about Omari Ket. The collection chronicles his rise from street-rat to god-marked mercenary (a Mikijen). “Agency” is a term for the capacity of a character to act independently, and Omari Ket is an Agency onto himself. He is as suave, cunning, and as lethal as James Bond, but Omari reports to no one, really; he is a survivor more than a spy, so he approximates a Han Solo rogue who is happy to join a large melee (for a price). And woman-in-power and upper-classes adore him! He’s the bad boy of action.

Why the call outs to Bond and Solo (and not Conan)? I wanted to emphasize that Omari Ket feels like a non-stereotypical Sword & Sorcery hero. In fact, his testosterone-rich aura is expected from a Secret Agent Man. Omari is not a spy, but he is a ladies’ man in a dog-eat-dog world. If you like a cut-throat, libertine, action-oriented protagonist then try this out. You’ll enjoy the action set in an alternative African continent called Ki Kanga.

Omari earns a role in the band of mystical Mikijen mercenaries granting him Ngisimaugi tattoos; these enable his boldness and ability for his body to rejuvenate. He confronts all sorts of conflicts, from tomb raiding, chaotic skirmishes, and battles with strange centaur-like creatures that are “amalgam of man and beast; their bodies that of the great grass antelopes, their torsos man-like, their heads crowned with horns.”

Omari appears to be an anagram for Imaro, the original Sword & Soul champion created by Charles Saunders (that alternative Africa was called Nyumbani). The author of Eda Blessed, Milton Davis, is a Black Speculative fiction writer and owner of MVmedia, LLC, a publishing company specializing in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Sword and Soul…including Saunder’s works. Milton writes other characters as well, in other universes, including the Changa's Safari series (Changa is an action hero of historic Africa), who has a polar opposite personality to Omari).

More Ki Khanga: Ki Khanga has its own anthology (Ki-Khanga: The Anthology) and RPG game world to immerse yourself in. Read the books, then play the world. There are other spinoffs too, including two with leading heroines Priestess of nKu and The Bene's Daughter: A Ki Khanga Novel. And Eda Blessed II (~10 more tales) is due out imminently (Spring 2021)

Contents (Eda Blessed I)
-Kept
-A Better Deal
-Second Chance
-The Skin Man (Originally published in Skelos II)
-The Ngola’s Promise
-Assassin’s Choice
-Old Habits (Originally published in Griots: Sisters of the Spear)
-Simple Math (Originally published in the Ki-Khanga: The Anthology)

This anthology was a song that kept on singing for me. It's a must read for any fan of fantasy and a vital introduction to sword and soul and afrofuturism genres. World's like Ki Khanga and Nyumbani, need to be part of our national imagination, and can serve as inspiration to us all.

Like Waylander...but Black and More Fun

Milton Davis is the David Gemmell of sword and soul and like all his work its definitely worth the read. Omari Ket is what you get when you mix Waylander the Slayer and Black Dynamite and its beyond dope.

Buy This Book! Sword and Soul At It's Finest!

When you are an Blerd you may love fantasy literature, but grow tired of not seeing yourself reflected. Meji I & II blew my mind, and left me enraptured. I was transported to a place that felt like home to my imagination and has ruined me forever as a reader.
Extremely well written, deep characterization and an enthralling plot will leave you feeling the same way I do. You have been warned.

I will always love Medieval Fantasy, but it now has to be balanced and broken up by sword and soul and I'm grateful Milton Davis is so prolific.

Really good. Really.

This is a collection of fantasy stories from a continent like Africa, or from the African continent's deep past, and having women as their main characters. A new sub-genre for me, and for the most part I enjoyed it. New perspectives are always refreshing. Like most short story collections, some shine more than others. My favorite authors in this batch were; Sarah A. Macklin, Carole McDonnell, Ronald T. Jones, Linda Macauley, P. Djeli Clark and Charles R. Saunders, with an honorable mention to Milton J. Davis. My reasons for liking these author's stories above the others are convoluted ranging from the novel ideas to good writing craft.

The average of my ratings for each of the 16 stories in this collection was a bit more than 3 stars, but if you consider the fresh perspective and ideas presented, that bumped it up to 3 and a half. Pretty good score for a short story collection, at least from me.½

Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology is an aptly named milestone in speculative fiction. Named after African storytellers who relied on the oral tradition (griots), this anthology marks the initial growth of the sub-genre “Sword & Soul.” Charles R. Saunders is credited with starting the sub-genre with his Imaro tale (Imaro Series). Imaro broke the mold of adventure fantasy with Saunders being the primary champion. With Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology, Milton J. Davis leads a troop of authors to expand the front. Saunders contributes the introduction for this as well as the capping tale. An excerpt reveals the Saunders’s motivation and the original scope of Sword & Soul:

Robert E. Howard and his contemporaries were products of their time. Racism, in the form of white supremacy, was an integral part of the popular culture of the early decades of the twentieth century, and as such it pervaded pulp fiction. As a product of a later time during which the tenets of racism came under vigorous challenge, my enjoyment of fiction from past decades was often compromised by the racial attitudes I encountered in my reading. On some occasions, I simply let it slide. On others, I wrestled with resentment. Then I discovered a way to resolve my dilemma.

Interest in African history and culture surged during the 1960s, and at the same time I was reading sword-and-sorcery and fantasy fiction, I was also absorbing heretofore-unknown information about a continent that was not “dark” as its detractors made it out to be. I realized that this non-stereotypical Africa of history and legend was just as valid a setting for fantasy stories as was the ancient and medieval Europe that served as the common default setting for everything from Conan to Lord of the Rings. A character came into my head then: Imaro, a black man who could stand alongside mythical warrior-heroes like Beowulf and Hercules, as well as fictional creations such as Conan and Kull.

There are 14 varied contributions. A large portion deal with the coming-of-age of the protagonist. Some suffer from too-powerful heroes or overly ambitious scopes (i.e. a few did not feel stand alone, reading as non-identified excerpts or poorly contained plots). My favorites tales were:

Awakening by Valjeanne Jeffers: A coming-of-age tale about a feisty heroine; nice sword & sorcery.

Skin Magic by P. Djeli Clark: a dose of Lovecraftian horror and aesthetic magic make this desert journey very entertaining.

The Belly of The Crocodile by Minister Faust, a vulgar, first-person perspective of a fantastic tale.

The General’s Daughter by Anthony Nana Kawmu: a trip to the Underworld, a warrior goes to save a loved one from death.

The Queen, The Demon, and The Mercenary Ronald Jones’s battling, demonic armies = engrossing sorcery and battle.

The Three-Faced One: Charles R. Saunders’s Imaro tale demonstrates the best storytelling, from its tapping into African history/myth coupled with excellent pacing and gripping style.

More Sword & Soul: Milton J. Davis leads MVMedia which is churning out more Griots (i.e Griots: Sisters of the Spear) and a host of other Sword & Soul media, from Young Adult novels to Video Games! Check out their offerings at the (MVMedia Website and Facebook page for Sword & Soul.

Quibbles: I read the Kindle version which had two outages: (1) Scene breaks were not marked; hence, paragraphs from different scenes that should have had an additional return/space or a marker, instead ran together; this leads to repeated confusion in several stories; (2) There are credits for many artists, but there is no art in the Kindle or even alternate text.

Recommendation: New to Sword & Soul? I recommend reading either version of Charles R. Saunders's Imaro. Then it would be a coin toss continue with either (a) Imaro:2 (The Quest for Cush) or (b) branching out to find like-minded authors with very different styles with Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology.

I had the privilege of editing this epic adventure and found myself caught up in the story and forgetting to proof the copy! Milton Davis does a fantastic job of submerging the reader in a swashbuckling tale of 15th century Africa. You'll cheer and cringe for Changa as he travels to China and back on a quest that is full of sorcery, betrayal, and excitement.

Contributing authors include Carole McDonnell, Valjeanne Jeffers, Ronald T. Jones and Penelope Flynn.

A witch, more machine than human, judges the character of the wicked and hands out justice in a ravaged Chicago. John Henry wields his mighty hammers in a war against machines and the undead. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman rule a country of freed slaves that rivals – and often bests – England and France in power and technology. You will find all this – and much more – between the pages of Steamfunk, an anthology of incredible stories by some of today’s greatest authors of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Steamfunk – African and African American-inspired Steampunk.

Editors Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade have put together a masterful work guaranteed to transport you to new worlds. Worlds of adventure; of terror; of war and wonder; of iron and steam. Open these pages and traverse the lumineferous aether to the world of Steamfunk!