Book Review: The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark

• Title: The Black God’s Drums
• Author: P. Djèlí Clark
• Year: 2018

I’ve read and enjoyed several works by Clark in the past, largely but not exclusively in the Dead Djinn universe. This is the first of his I’ve read based in an alt-history America though. In it, he makes the “what if the Civil War never really ended” idea work really well.

Based in an independent and ostensibly neutral New Orleans, the story shares a lot of characteristics with the Djinn books. It incorporates elements of local and native religions and mythologies and it’s unapologetic about it’s non-Euro-centric perspective. These are some of the reasons I enjoy his work, but it helps a lot that he writes well and tends to focus his stories around women characters.

My primary complaint about this book is that I didn’t realise when I picked it up that it’s a novella. I really would have preferred a full-length novel with these characters in this plot line. Maybe, if we’re lucky, he’ll return to this universe in future works.