galacticjourney

by Gideon Marcus

There's a change a comin'. I'm sure you've seen heralds of its passage. Last summer, hundreds of Whites and Blacks took to the buses and rode into the South, flauting the segregated busing laws. Leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are rallying their brethren to fight centuries of oppression. For the first time, the Democrats look to be out-Civil Rightsing the Republicans (who would have predicted that in 1948?) Yes, the country is heading toward a long overdue shift, a final resolution of the crisis born in the original Constitution and only half-fought in the bloodiest war of American history.

It's no surprise, then, that we're seeing this war play out in science fiction as well as reality. Speculative literature constitutes our thought experiments, letting us see worlds like ours, but with allegorical players or, perhaps, a great time shift. Some authors approach the topic tangentially, for instance depicting Blacks as fully integrated in a future setting. Others, approach the subject head-on.

SF author J.F. Bone is a bit of a cipher. I have little biographical information about him. I do know that he started writing a few years ago, and his works have a certain thoughtfulness that elevates it above the run of the mill. His recent Founding Father was a fascinating look into the mindset of a slavemaster, made particularly chilling by its light tone.

Bone's latest work is a novel called The Lani People. It is a more straightforward investigation of prejudice and discrimination, set 5000 years in the future.