Well, this book is nice. Entertaining. It helps to pass away time. A kind of fantasy story in a carribean setting.

Nalo Hopkins, Blackheart Man. Simon & Schuster, London 2024. ebook, 384 Seiten

There is a people who are making their living on the island of Chinchin where their ancestors had found refuge on their escape from slavery. They had fought off their former slave masters back then and created a society of equals (sort of) consisting of the different slave groups and the survivors of their slave masters' soldiers. Now, 200 years after this fight, the slavers try to get access to the island again. On Chinchin there now exists a scientific academy of high reputation, where knowledge is not only collected but also memorized so that it never can be destoyed again. The former slave masters are trying to get access to this academy and thereby try to conquer the island. But they are fought off. During this struggle an old threat is rising that has to be fought, too.

This novel has everything a modern fantasy novel needs to become successful, some magic, but also a lot of modern buzzwords are dealt with: gender fluidity, economy without money, anticapitalism, colonialism, general equality, gender equality, racist oppression, stratigraphed society, drug abuse, transsexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality and even heterosexuality. The novel talks about polyamorous relationships, polyandrous marriages, raising children, religious tolerance, fighting oppression and open prisons. Reading it I often felt like being in a lecture about the latest fads in modern societies' discussions on being modern.

The carribean setting is mainly constructed by carribean dialects of the protagonists. For me as a non native speaker this is sometimes very difficult to understand. I also wondered troughout my lecture how this book might be translated into german. Depicting black protaginists with pidgin language would be regarded as quite racist. But I will never know, since I won't read any translation of this book. It is nice and entertaining but reading it once is enough.

My recommendation is: borrow it and give it back after reading.