Shawl brilliantly reimagines the historical setting by introducing supernatural and technological elements such as nuclear-powered airships, antibiotics, and spirit traveling, all of which give the Everfairians an advantage in resisting their colonial oppressors from the 1880s through World War I.
A sweeping cast of characters (an absolutely necessary guide is included) presents a cross-section of races, ethnicities, nations, and genders, who become allies, families, and adversaries in the struggle to forge a democratic nation out of a beautiful landscape beset by colonialism’s toxic legacy. In her epic alternate history, the Congo Free State becomes the site of a Utopian society, Everfair, established by African-American missionaries, refugees from Leopold II’s genocidal exploitation of the Congolese, and members of the real-life Fabian Society (progenitor of England’s Socialist movement and Labour Party). Nisi Shawl has created an exciting new perspective on the steampunk genre by choosing a less familiar corner of the Victorian British Empire as her setting.
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