Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders (Laksa Anthology Series: Speculative Fiction)

Recommended by Booklist Library Journal School Library Journal Locus and Foreword Reviews.Journey with twenty-one speculative fiction authors through the fractured borders of human migration to examine assumptions and catch a glimpse of the dreams struggles and triumphs of those who choose or are forced to leave home and familiar places. WHO ARE THE SHADES WITHIN US?An American father shields his son from Irish discrimination. A Chinese foreign student wrestles to safeguard her family at the expense of her soul. A college graduate is displaced by technology. A Nigerian high school student chooses between revenge and redemption. A bureaucrat parses the mystery of Taiwanese time travellers. A defeated alien struggles to assimilate into human culture. A Czechoslovakian actress confronts the German WWII invasion. A child crosses an invisible border wall. And many more.Stories that transcend borders generations and cultures. Each is a glimpse into our human need in face of change: to hold fast to home to tradition to family; and yet to reach out to strive for a better life.Featuring Original Stories by Vanessa Cardui Elsie Chapman Kate Heartfield S.L. Huang Tyler Keevil Matthew Kressel Rich Larson Tonya Liburd Karin Lowachee Seanan McGuire Brent Nichols Julie Nováková Heather Osborne Sarah Raughley Alex Shvartsman Amanda Sun Jeremy Szal Hayden Trenholm Liz Westbrook-Trenholm Christie Yant & Alvaro Zinos-AmaroWith An Introduction by Eric Choi & Gillian ClintonEdited by Susan Forest & Lucas K. LawThe anthologies in this series (Strangers Among Us The Sum of Us Where the Stars Rise Shades Within Us) have been recommended by Publishers Weekly Booklist (American Library Association) Kirkus Reviews Library Journal School Library Journal Locus Foreword Reviews and Quill & Quire.Praise for Shades Within UsAddresses issues surrounding migration and borders at a very poignant moment in history . . . despite being speculative many of these stories read like they were ripped from present-day headlines . . . this collection do a great job of asking readers not only to reflect on their own lives but also to consider the lives of others. --BooklistAn engaging collection of poignant travel through time and space. Highly recommended for its breadth of stories that look at having to leave home-or discover it. --Library JournalAn intriguing addition to short story collections. --School Library JournalWith each story the authors expand their settings and reality into a universe of broader potential to make sense of the tensions that plague the twenty-first century. Even as they represent foreign existences the problems remain the same--family love belonging identity survival . . . take a fresh approach to their subjects and conjure terrifying futures brought on by climate change greed and corruption of power. Political and daring this collection adds to the future imagined by Philip K. Dick George Orwell Margaret Atwood and Aldous Huxley. --Foreword Reviews Shades Within Us is a timely collection that invites us to ask whether we still do (or still should) live in a space of national borders and national definitions of identity. It invites us to use our speculative imagination to think through new ways of understanding selfhood in relation to the borders boxes and categories that are placed around us. --Speculating Canada (Derek Newman-Stille)