Archangels of Funk - by Andrea Hairston

Book Synopsis

Run from your past. Hide from your future. Protect your present.

The Water Wars have scrambled the world. Flood refugees are on the run. Disrupters and the nostalgia militia roam the roads wreaking havoc. Invisible Darknet Lords troll the internet, solidifying their power, while Cinnamon, her three Circus-Bots, and two dogs work with a community of farmers, Motor Fairies, and Wheel-Wizards to provide housing, health care and education for flood refugees.

As Cinnamon confronts threats from the Darknet Lords and the nostalgia militia, she must determine how best to honor her elders and her history while building a future for herself and her charges.

It's not going to be easy.

Praise for Archangels of Funk:

"Andrea Hairston creates original, layered, complex worlds that are a treat to explore, but what I love most is the people she creates for them. Archangels of Funk is brimming with characters who face adversity with love, hope, art, stories, history, and their bonds with each other. It's a celebration of radiant creativity as a bulwark against despair."

―Martha Wells, author of the Murderbot Diaries

Review Quotes

Praise for Archangels of Funk

"The old world has died and the new world has yet to be born; in that suspended space Hairston suggests that we make the new by performing it. The result is a novel about art and play as visionary act -- riotous, hilarious, joyous. We save ourselves, as our heroine says at the start; and she shows how that can happen." --Kim Stanley Robinson

"Archangels of Funk is a tour de force of Afrofunkilicious Black Girl Magic. Like all great speculative fiction, it's about our world as well as this lush imaginary one. Don't miss the majesty of Andrea Hairston in this new call for resistance." --Tananarive Due, author of The Reformatory

"Andrea Hairston creates original, layered, complex worlds that are a treat to explore, but what I love most is the people she creates for them. Archangels of Funk is brimming with characters who face adversity with love, hope, art, stories, history, and their bonds with each other. It's a celebration of radiant creativity as a bulwark against despair." --Martha Wells, author of the Murderbot Diaries

"Full of magical technology and theater kid drama, Archangels of Funk is an utter delight. Andrea Hairston welcomes us into a future of ambient queerness and eco-anarchy, where subversive heroes outsmart dystopia-chasing capitalists with their Funkadelic vibes. Reading this book gave me good dreams -- and in these dark times, that is no small feat." --Annalee Newitz, author of The Terraformers and Autonomous

"The music of Hairston's prose and her characters' approach to conflict set the novel apart...This cross between Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler and Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono deserves a place in every library." --Library Journal, starred review

"Andrea Hairston's Archangels of Funk forced me to rewire my brain chemistry. I've never read anything remotely like Archangels of Funk. It's an ambitious novel, and Hairston has the craft to make it work. Go in expecting a demanding experience, but your attention will be rewarded. I came out of the experience with a good taste in my mouth - one I've never felt before and hope to again." --Locus

"A post-apocalyptic groove of a novel that reads like magic and feels like a song. Hairston's prose pulls the reader in with pop-culture references and wild metaphors...Recommended for fans of Nalo Hopkinson and Nnedi Okorafor." --Booklist

"Magnificent...A multisensory plunge into a dystopian future of climate crisis." --Publishers Weekly

More Praise for Andrea Hairston

"[A] beautifully multifaceted story...with deep, layered, powerful characters. Highly recommended." --The New York Times on Will Do Magic for Small Change

"This is one of those books you start and realize you've been waiting to read for a long, long time without knowing. Will Do Magic for Small Change is a deep breath, a good friend, a heartbreaking, game-changing, life-affirming, truth-telling powerhouse. I love this book." --Daniel José Older

"Andrea Hairston's vision is breathtaking. She weaves sweeping historical narratives and mythology with the wisdom of the elders, and shines light on the pressing issues of the day. In her hands, language is a blessing, and the familiar and the fantastic become magic, one and the same." --Sheree Renée Thomas on Will Do Magic for Small Change

"The entire work is filled with magic, celebrating West Africans, Native Americans, art, and love that transcends simple binary genders. Hairston's novel is a completely original and stunning work." --Publishers Weekly on Will Do Magic for Small Change

"This book glitters with West African magic, unconventional love, and creatures you won't forget." --BuzzFeed

"This book's lyrical language and unsparing vision make it a mind-expanding must-read." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review on Master of Poisons

"This is an urgent, gorgeous work." --Publishers Weekly, starred review on Master of Poisons

Master of Poisons voted a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2020

About the Author

Andrea Hairston is a novelist, essayist, playwright, and the artistic director of Chrysalis Theatre. She is the author of Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the 2011 Otherwise Award and the Carl Brandon Kindred Award, and Mindscape, short-listed for the Philip K. Dick and Otherwise Awards and winner of the Carl Brandon Parallax Award. In her spare time, she is the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Afro-American Studies at Smith College. Hairston has received the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts Distinguished Scholarship Award for outstanding contributions to the criticism of the fantastic. She bikes at night year-round, meeting bears and the occasional shooting star.