The Ephemera Collector

Starred review from March 1, 2025

DEBUT This distinctive futurist novel tells the story of Xandria Anastasia Brown, curator of African American Ephemera at the Huntington Museum in Pasadena, CA, in 2035. Readers meet her in a moment of crisis, in a confused state, suffering from memory lapses and ill health brought about by environment and heredity while battling to escape from a lockdown at the Huntington. As the victim of a life-extension experiment she didn't consent to, Xandria lives for many centuries. Jackson's novel is formatted as a collection of research, illustrating Xandria's history and context within a well-imagined future. The themes of resistance against racism and race-based climate and health inequality in California are well developed as backdrops for understanding Xandria's experiences. In the swath of the near future that Jackson presents, readers are shown the effects of a climate crisis as well as human ingenuity in learning to live under the sea as an alternative to space colonization. VERDICT The scope of Jackson's debut is breathtaking, from gripping suspense to serene contemplation to the scientific presentation of articles of history and imagination. Highly recommended for those who seek to understand the past and reimagine the future.--Henry Bankhead

Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2025
Jackson's debut is an intriguing sf tale with a lot of promise. In 2035, Xandria Brown is an archivist battling to complete her project even as brain fog caused by long COVID makes it difficult to collaborate, or even to grieve. When the Huntington Library goes into full lockdown, two AI assistants meant to support her end up battling over her instead, as one of them spots an abnormality in her files. Readers dive first into the past--into the history of Xandria's family and their tradition of collecting the ephemera and physical archive of Black history, as well as fighting for justice--and then into the future through the Afrofuturist world of Diwata, a separatist community forged after an asteroid scatters the southern U.S. The connections between the threads occasionally get lost in experimentation, leaving the reader adrift in a sea of fascinating ideas. Still, fans of sf and Afrofuturism will appreciate the risks taken and the exploration of modern themes such as disability, accommodation, and climate change.

COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2025
An archivist grapples with Covid-19-induced memory loss and meddling AI helper bots while preserving an account of humanity's radical survival. In 2035, Xandria Anastasia Brown is the curator of African American Ephemera at the Huntington Library in Los Angeles, crafting a mosaic of Black history through quotidian artifacts. When a protest against corporate influence on the library escalates into an institution-wide lockdown, Xandria is sequestered in her office; there, she must confront the ramifications of her persistent brain fog, monitored and prodded by a trio of artificial intelligences. Initially functioning as personal assistants and health bots, the AIs' competing attempts to preserve her quality of life have a direct impact on Xandria's passion project: collecting the ephemera of Diwata, an undersea nation inspired by Octavia E. Butler and the Black Panther Party, created in response to environmental trauma and in opposition to the colonies created to plunder Mars. Xandria's framework is broad; she includes seemingly inconsequential objects to give future scholars the full picture of Diwata. That modus operandi is reflected in Jackson's novel, which displays an astonishing breadth of imagination spanning centuries--there's everything from a far-future symposium attended by an immortal Xandria to an exploration of Diwata's origins and feuding factions--but it only dips into each setting. Jackson draws thought-provoking parallels between Xandria cataloguing artifacts and the bots in turn cataloguing her physical symptoms, emotional reactions, and other biomedical data. The novel posits a future in which AI can bridge the gap of humans' limitations, taking care of us when we can't take care of each other, yet acknowledges the violations of privacy and autonomy that will be required. Jackson makes audacious leaps forward in time and space, from a lifespan-enhancing genetic operation performed against Xandria's will to a sentient rover bursting out of the Pacific Ocean and not stopping until it reaches Mars. Readers may wish they could take deeper dives into each of these breathtaking vignettes. A daring Afrofuturist debut that just scratches the surface of its own astonishing futures.

COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from February 17, 2025
An ambitious homage to Octavia Butler, this stunning near-future mosaic novel from debut author Jackson melds prose, poetry, memos, advertisements, and dream journal doodles. Linking the disparate elements is the story of archivist Xandria Brown, curator of ephemera at the Huntington Library, whose work cataloging the Butler Archives is interrupted by a hostage situation that involves Huntington’s new CEO. Fighting physical and neurological decline due to long Covid, Xandria contends with her overly concerned healthbots and a coworker intent on implicating her in the CEO kidnapping, all while attempting to protect her life’s work, an impossible collection of ephemera from the undersea city of Diwata, which won’t be founded for over a century. Glimpses of this collection chart the future history of Diwata, a city in Monterey Bay established after an asteroid strike rendered much of the Southwest uninhabitable, chronicling the varied hopes of its governor, her daughter, and an ex–Space Force captain who repurposes machines designed for extraterrestrial exploration to aid the oceanic colony. As the propulsive story barrels forward, Jackson trusts readers to keep up with the myriad time skips and tonal shifts while also finding the time to dive deep into African American history and art. Jackson is an exciting new voice in Afrofuturism. Agent: Kima Jones, Triangle House Literary.