One thing about having a Kindle, it gets easy to load it up with a lot of eBooks. The Black God’s Drums by P. Djeli Clark has been on my Kindle app for awhile.  Also, I attempted to read it twice before I finally got down to finishing it.

A teenager girl named Creeper is tired of living on the streets of late 1800s New Orleans and wants a new direction in her life.  She overhears that a famed Haitian scientist will be kidnapped and brought on an airship named Midnight Robber. The scientist has a created a weapon called The Black God’s Drums that can change the course of history if secured by the proper hands.

Also, Creeper has a connection to the African god, Oya who speaks to her telepathically and grants her divine powers. Well, Oya has her own ideas for Creeper’s life and they come into conflict with the teenager’s desire to get aboard the airship.

Clark writes a fast-paced and colorful novella (it is 108 pages long) of New Orleans that was interesting to read. New Orleans is an excellent setting for a fantasy novel and I’m surprised that a lot more fantasy authors have not used the Crescent City as a setting for their novels.

The Black God’s Drums is worth reading, and it seems to be a beginning novella of a series. Clark brings a much-need diversity not only terms of ethnicity but of setting, culture, and religion. If you are looking for a quick summer read, then I would recommend this novella as you can read it in a few hours.  I’m looking forward to seeing what Clark writes next.