Brown Girl in the Ring

This is a book that won a publisher contest for new science fiction writers. It is mostly about the use of magic in a city with troubles in the twenty-first century. On the one hand, practitioners of voodoo believe there is hope for its use to support the rebuilding of their city. On the other hand, practitioners who are using voodoo to control the drug trade are finding more success. Peter Jay Fernandez gives another strong performance as narrator. He keeps the story moving well. His characterization provides color and interest, particularly with the rich and melodic Caribbean cadences. The dialect is handled smoothly and without hesitation as are his transitions between dialect, narration, and the voices of other characters. J.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

June 29, 1998
The musical rhythms of Caribbean voices and the earthy spirit-magic of obeah knit together this unusual fantasy, the first winner of Warner Aspect's First Novel Contest. Toronto in the next century is a "doughnut hole city," its core collapsed into ruinous slums after much of the population left to escape rising urban crime and violence. Those who remain in the Burn are survivors like Ti-Jeanne and her grandmother Mami, who trade herbal cures and spells for necessities, or predators like drug-lord Rudy and the "posse" of men, including Ti-Jeanne's ex-lover Tony, who sell "buff" for him. Outside the Burn, Catherine Uttley, the premier of Ontario, needs a heart transplant and a boost in her approval ratings. To accomplish both, she announces support for a return to voluntary human organ donation, allegedly to prevent the spread of Virus Epsilon, sometimes found in the porcine organs grown for transplant. The heart she needs will have to come from someone in the Burn, and Rudy saddles Tony with the job of finding a donor. Tony has no stomach for the job, however, and goes to Ti-Jeanne and Mami for help, bringing the unpredictable and powerful spirits of Caribbean obeah into play. Though the story sometimes turns too easily on coincidence, Hopkinson's writing is smooth and assured, and her characters lively and believable. She has created a vivid world of urban decay and startling, dangerous magic, where the human heart is both a physical and metaphorical key.