The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir

by Gary Phillips (Editor)

Overview

Winner, 2018 Anthony Award for Best Anthology and Winner, Bronze Medal, 2017 Indie Book Awards for Anthologies, Foreword Reviews. Noir meets diverse voices and transforms the genre into an over-the-top, transcendental psychedelic thriller ride of pulpy goodness in THE OBAMA INHERITANCE, a collection of fifteen stories of conspiracy noir curated by editor and award-winning African-American crime novelist Gary Phillips.



In the tradition of satirical works of Swift and Twain, with nods to the likes of William Burroughs, Asimov and Philip K. Dick, these tales contain vigilante First Ladies, Supreme Court judges who can clone themselves, gear-popping robots of doom, and races of ancient lizard people revealing their true master plan … and these are just the tame ones mashed up in the blender of fake news bots, climate change is but a hoax by the Chinese and humans roamed with dinosaurs.

In an era where the outlandish and fantastic has permeated our media 24/7, where mind-bending conspiracy theories shape our views, THE OBAMA INHERITANCE writers riff on the numerous fictions spun about the 44th president of the U.S. Although Obama himself does not appear in most of these stories, contributors spin deliberately outlandish and fantastic twists on many of the dozens of screwball, bizarro conspiracy theories floated about the president during his years in office and turn them on their heads.

THE OBAMA INHERITANCE editor Gary Phillips is a critically acclaimed author of mystery and graphic novels (Peepland, Violent Spring, and Warlord of Willow Ridge). Raised in South Central Los Angeles, Phillips draws on his experiences from anti-police abuse community organizing and anti-apartheid activism. He was the chair of the Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color committee, and is president of the Private Eye Writers of America.

Contributors include famed crime-detective author and essayist Walter Mosley, professor and former Department of Justice attorney Christopher Chambers (Sympathy for the Devil), noir raconteur Andrew Nette, actor and novelist Danny Gardner (A Negro and an Ofay), former Maine assistant attorney general Kate Flora (Death in Paradise), award-winning playwright and novelist Désirée Zamorano, and the Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master Robert Silverberg.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781941110607
Publisher:	Three Rooms Press
Publication date:	10/10/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	810,201
File size:	882 KB

About the Author

Editor Gary Phillips is a critically acclaimed author of mystery and graphic novels (The Darker Mask, Bangers, Violent Spring). Raised in South Central Los Angeles, Phillips draws on his experiences from anti-police abuse community organizing and anti-apartheid activism in his work. He was the chair of the Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color committee, and was president of the Private Eye Writers of America.
Gary Phillips is a critically acclaimed author of mystery and graphic novels (The Darker Mask, Bangers, Violent Spring). Raised in South Central Los Angeles, Phillips draws on his experiences from anti-police abuse community organizing and anti-apartheid activism in his work. He was the chair of the Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color committee, and was president of the Private Eye Writers of America.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Foreword by Gary Phillips
Michelle in Hot Water by Kate Flora
. . . The Continuing Mission by Adam Lance Garcia
True Skin by Eric Beetner
Evens by Nisi Shawl
A Different Frame of Reference by Walter Mosley
Brother’s Keeper by Danny Gardner
Forked Tongue by Lise McClendon
Sunburnt Country by Andrew Nette
I Know They’re in There! by Travis Richardson
The Psalm of Bo by Christopher Chambers
At the Conglomeroid Cocktail Party by Robert Silverberg
Deep State by Désirée Zamorano
I Will Haunt You by Anthony Neil Smith
Give Me Your Free, Your Brave, Your Proud Masses Yearning to Conquer by L. Scott Jose
Thus Strikes the Black Pimpernel by Gary Phillips
About the Contributors

Editorial Reviews

08/21/2017
The 15 entries in this intriguing theme anthology riff with mixed success on the weird, mostly racist conspiracy theories that followed Barack Obama through his White House years, including those of the phony birth certificate, death panels, and secret lizard people. The stories are adrift with white supremacists, secret locations, strange conflicts, and subtle aliens. Several of them are truly excellent, notably Travis Richardson’s “I Know They’re in There!,” in which death panel believers take hostages at a hospital, and Walter Mosley’s “A Different Frame of Reference,” in which the only dirt that detectives can dig up on Obama for a white men’s group is that he smokes. SF author Robert Silverberg’s “At the Conglomeroid Cocktail Party,” the one reprint, also ranks high, though its view of a future in which genetic engineering has run amok has little relation to Obama. Other contributors try hard, but the shallow insanity of the material can’t be taken seriously and defies parody. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Winner, 2018 Anthony Award for Best Anthology

Winner, Bronze Medal, 2017 Indie Book Awards for Anthologies, Foreword Reviews

"Resistance takes many forms, particularly in the current political climate. Few methods of protest are as cheerfully strange and purposefully bizarre as THE OBAMA INHERITANCE." —The Washington Post

“It's a commonplace these days to say that real life has become so unpredictable that it outstrips anything anyone could dream up in fiction. I think I'm guilty of having made that banal observation a few times. But that was before I read The Obama Inheritance, a collection of 15 stories so sly, fresh and Bizarro World witty, they reaffirm the resiliency of the artistic imagination.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR Fresh Air

"Truth may be stranger than fiction, but why should the conspiracists have all the fun of creating fake narratives? ... Yet, running beneath the book’s mockery of conspiracy fanatics, the unspoken question that I raised earlier persists: Why are there so many outlandish conspiracy theories about the Obamas? The answer, I believe, can best be detected as this book’s authors do, through the lens of identity — and I’m not talking only about race.” —Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune

“Top 15 Recommended Fall reads!! . . . Still relevant.” —Newsweek

“Stories that are often humorous, always entertaining, and mostly non-political, and that make use of the more absurd conspiracies surrounding Barack Obama and his presidency.” —Mystery Scene Magazine

"There will no doubt be an abundance of interpretive, critical, but dryly academic books examining Barack Obama’s two-terms as President. Phillips’s story anthology stands a testament to how these same years inspired the artistic imagination. Regardless of your political views, THE OBAMA INHERITANCE belongs on the shelf of every reader who enjoys imaginative stories of the contemporary world.” —Bookgasm

"Surreal, silly and sometimes shocking, the stories in “The Obama Inheritance” succeed in delivering a heady mix of thoughtful satire.” —The Press Herald

“Some short story collections are eclectic. Some are ambitious. Some are utterly mad. This one is all three.” —San Francisco Book Review

"Fast-paced, humorous, twisty piece of noir pulp." Cascadia Subduction Zone Literary Review

“High-octane creativity at work. . . . Some of these stories are laugh-out-loud funny, while others are immensely disturbing simply because you know that somewhere, someone actually believes this ridiculousness for real.” —Manhattan Book Review
"Pulp fiction for the post-Obama era . . . Readers who enjoy political satire in its many varied forms will certainly enjoy this collection." —ALA Booklist

"Fifteen authors known for genre writing, many of color, take right wing tales and transform them into their own righteous pulp. ... Who thought being militant could be this fun?” —The Hard Word

“A fun read.” —Washington Independent Review of Books

“Writers take on the racist backlash against President Barack Obama in genres as diverse as spy thriller, noir mysteries and science fiction. ... Still relevant.” —Newsweek

“Intriguing theme anthology . . . Truly excellent.” —Publishers Weekly

“A mashup of genre fiction . . . imagines the consequences of white supremacist politics on American society.” —Kirkus Reviews

"Wildly inventive, and smarter than the entire GOP combined, The Obama Inheritance is rich with tales to keep a reader up late into the night. Look at this Murderer's Row of talent! You can't go wrong. On top of that this book is a hell of a lot of fun." —Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling

From the Publisher