The Voices of Martyrs

From visionary Afrofuturist Maurice Broaddus comes the re-release of this seminal collection, with an all-new introduction and notes from the author. Fourteen stories meld history, folktales, horror, fantasy, and science fiction into electric moments scattered through ten centuries of Black experience. An outcast West African warrior takes on evil spirits, and the brutal priest who creates them. A freedwoman reveals what a spirit stone truly commemorates. A museum of grief houses a widower's memories—and a child's. Visiting his mother's Jamaican home, an American inherits a strange spirital inheritance. A 1970s quad skater flees time-traveling Afronauts convinced he can find the mothership groove. Steamfunk revolution foments in communities underneath robot-run Indianapolis. A lieutenant of the Evangelical States of America navigates first contact with an unexpected alien race. Through war and enlightenment, alongside vampires, obeah men, and common injustice, Broaddus's lyrical prose delivers epiphanies wrapped in page-turning excitement. Praise for The Voices of Marytrs: "The lush, descriptive prose tantalizes all the senses, drawing the reader into a rich world spanning both miles and centuries. Hints of magic in both the past and present, as well as the science fiction elements of the future stories, make this an exciting exploration of genre as well as culture." — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "Give thanks for these griot, hip-funk, afrofuturist stories of pure horror and complicated hope. Broaddus sounds a deep beat in this true myth of survival: what our heads forget, our bones remember." — Karen Lord, author of The Best of All Possible Worlds