Thyme Travellers: An Anthology of Palestinian Speculative Fiction - Edited by Sonia Sulaiman - ★★★.½

EDITOR: Sonia Sulaiman

GENRE: Speculative Anthology

PUBLICATION DATE: September 5, 2024

RATING: 3.5 stars

In a Nutshell: An anthology of Palestinian speculative fiction. Focusses on the Palestinian identity as well as the speculative content without losing track of either. The OwnVoices writing and the undertone of wistfulness adds to the impact. Much recommended to SFF lovers.

"All Palestinian fiction is speculative; we are always grappling with the past and living in expectation of the future..."

"The world as I know it will be a memory by the time you read these words."

This anthology of fourteen stories was conceptualized before the latest war began. So the above sentences in the editor’s note seem even more poignant. While we know war comes with uncertainty and mayhem, most of us haven’t experienced living under a daily threat of death and destruction. No wonder fantastical writing is the preferred mode of storytelling for Palestinian authors.

Though speculative, there's a strong flavour of Palestine, its people and its culture in these stories. The pulse of the story is not on the weird but on the real, with each tale focussing on the humans and their emotions, even though their world isn't the one we necessarily know.

As every contributing author is from Palestine, their writing depicts their innate awareness of the social structure and the political upheavals. Many of the tales contain an undertone of hiraeth, and of wishful thinking, seeking an end to the turmoil and wanting justice to come to Palestine.

The lengths of the stories differ, as do the ages of the central protagonists. Some of the stories are on the longer side, but they don’t feel dragged. However, a few of the stories were a bit too disjointed for my liking. They leaned far too much into the speculative side, which my pragmatic head struggles with. Those who are bigger fans of SFF might not face a similar issue. That said, every single one of the tales was imaginative and distinct, never creating a feeling of déjà vu.

I can’t help contrast this experience with another anthology I read in November last year. ‘Embroidered Worlds’ is also an OwnVoices speculative fiction collection, written by writers from yet another war-torn nation: Ukraine. However, most of the stories in the Ukrainian collection had no glimpse of Ukrainian culture or beliefs or the politics. Instead, the focus was solely on the speculative. On the contrary, this Palestinian collection makes sure that the stories don’t lose track of their cultural identity even while exploring the speculative. No points for guessing which approach I preferred.

There is a detailed glossary at the end of this book, and to my surprise, discussion questions as well. I have never seen this in any anthology I've read to date.

The bio of each contributing author is present at the end. I wish these details had been placed immediately after their respective stories; this makes it so much easier to know more about writers whose work clicked well for us.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Of the fourteen stories, seven stories reached or crossed the four-star mark. The rest were more varied in performance, getting anywhere between 2-3.5 stars. These were my top favourites.

🍉 Down Under - Jumaana Abdu: A strong speculative story that offers an ending but doesn't offer closure. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🍉 The Third Or Fourth Casualty - Ziyad Saadi: Wish the ending had worked better for me but this was still a powerful story. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🍉 The Generation Chip - Nadia Afifi: Such a beautiful story of a life not lived to the fullest! Excellent blend of fantasy and reality. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🍉 Soul Searching - Rana Othman: This took an expected pattern of storytelling and made it magically speculative. The child narrator’s perspective made it even better. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

🍉 Cyrano de AI - Karl El-Koura: An interesting look at a world where human interactions are entirely enhanced through AI add-ons. This might just be the future, and if it is, I don't think I'm looking forward to it. Loved the ending! - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

🍉 The Frontrunner - J.D. Harlock: Started off as a typical story about a psychic warning about potential catastrophe. Ended in a totally unexpected way. Enjoyed the turn-around. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🍉 The Centre of the Universe - Nadia Shammas: Probably one of the most bizarre stories I have read in my life! I just didn’t see where it was going. I wish there had been more detailing at the end. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

On the whole, I enjoyed my first flavour of Palestinian fiction and would love to read more from the region. Here’s wishing for a quick resolution to the conflict.

Definitely recommended to short fiction lovers looking for a dash of Palestinian flavour and a splash of speculative storytelling through OwnVoices perspectives.

3.5 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each tale, rounding up wherever applicable for the theme and the OwnVoices factor.

My thanks to Roseway Publishing for providing the DRC of “Thyme Travellers” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.