If inventive world-building and sci-fi short stories are your perfect ingredients for relaxation, read on.

In Valedictorian, a young woman is pressured to be an underachiever by her family. In the dystopian world she inhabits, any other choice could bring calamity. That’s just a teaser for this emotional collection. Readers will connect with the seemingly implausible but deeply relatable predicaments the protagonists face. Jemisin uses history and present-day reality as the whetstone on which she sharpens the knife she uses to slice through the issues facing Black people in America. A superb collection deserving of a double read.