Sci-Fi, fantasy and horror have had a solid audience in the community of colour for generations but it is only in recent times that we are in a position to enjoy the work of writers of colour in the Sci-Fi genre, which was traditionally very white and very male. We are still a long way from any kind of parity but we are moving in the right direction. As a celebration of that, I have put together a list of 27 Authors of Colour I have had the pleasure of reading.

1. Octavia E Butler There is no denying Octavia E Butler is a prolific and profound talent in the writing field. A giant who, I feel, still does not get the props she really deserves.

If you have not read any of Butler’s prolific work before, I suggest you start with Kindred, an unexpected journey back in time to the slave-owning, antebellum, south.

It’s a page-turner that will stay with you long after you finish reading it. Octavia Butler’s science fiction echoes reality with the disturbing prescience of an oracle. I doubt you’ll be able to stop at one of her books.

2. Jelani Wilson

Wilson’s novella Ballad of The Bladesinger in his Space Wizards saga, was my introduction to someone I am expecting great things from. This story follows the failed attempt to topple a despotic regime driven by profit that leaves the conspirators, five mages, scattered across a cluster of star systems.

Despite their defeat, they find themselves once again drawn onto a collision course with the regime and an almost certain doom but one that might yet bring about liberation from despotic rule.

3. Haruki Murakami Haruki Murakami is considered a national treasure in his home country of Japan. His books often blend magical realism and the supernatural.

1Q84 is a great example of why he's an international best-selling author. In IQ84, we follow Aomame as she enters a parallel existence after following an enigmatic taxi driver’s suggestion.

4. Maria Lu Lu’s Legend introduces June, born into the elite military circle, who embarks on a journey for vengeance when her brother is murdered. However, June discovers that the suspected killer may not be what she thought.

Soon she is dragged into a dangerous cat and mouse game where the republic she is very much a part of may in fact be involved in her brother’s murder.

5. Alaya Johnson Johnson is described as more of a speculative fiction writer because she seemingly eschews ‘traditional’ elements of what sci-fi readers expect.

I guess that’s a reference to the lack of techno-gadgetry and Johnson’s brilliance at creating great stories, with engaging mystical characters, that span different eras.

Or perhaps it's a reference to her being too brilliant to be put in a box. This novel, Trouble The Saints, is the perfect starting place to see what I mean by that.

6. Kalynn Bayron Bayron has a knack for playing with traditional childhood stories, which tend to be saturated in western racial and patriarchal ideologies, and usurping their meaning.

This makes Cinderella Is Dead; a dystopian, queer, black feminist novel with a protagonist committed to living her life on her own terms, the perfect introduction to her work.

7. Derrick Bell In his short story, Space Traders, Bell examines how white Americans act out of self-interest only. At only 13 pages; you can find it in Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, an anthology edited by Sheree R. Thomas.

The anthology includes works by other great writers of the diaspora but the power of Bell’s story not only endures but still resonates twenty years later.

8. Ken Lui Ken Liu has written an impressive collection of short stories The Paper Menagerie, which clearly demonstrates his story writing skills.

His debut novel The Grace of Kings firmly establishes his sci-fi credentials. Lui creates an epic fantasy in which two seemingly incongruous characters unite to depose a despotic regime, only to disagree on what comes next. The first instalment of the Dandelion Dynasty series, The Grace of Kings is a great introduction to Lui’s writing.

9. Malka Older Malka Older’s trilogy of political thrillers, Infomocracy, Null States, and State Tectonics, all centre around an extremely powerful search engine that has reduced global politics into a series of micro-democracies.

The mystery of who is the power behind the system and who are the powers aiming to topple the system make for a fast-paced, thrilling and intelligent, series.

10. Milton Davis Recommending one book by Davis is a form of psychological masochism. He has written so many great stories.

However, as an example of how his stories incorporate Afrofuturism, speculative fiction and fantasy, Fallen is undeniably one of the best.

11. Nova Sparks

When Sam and his daughter, Emma, are rescued moments before Earth’s destruction by seemingly benevolent aliens it seems they are the lucky few.

But when Sam starts to question how the aliens knew of his planet’s impending doom and why they would have the remains of humanity safely enclosed in a dome in outer space, something does not add up. In her trilogy The Dome, Sparks offers up some hard-core, apocalyptic sci-fi.

12. Andrea Hairston Hairston is a prolific talent with a bunch of writing credits to her name as a writer, an artist and theatrical director. There are many ways to tap into this multi-talented individual. My first excursion was with Mindscape. The premise, the earth divided by an extra-terrestrial barrier into warring factions, is a great idea.

At the centre of the narrative, a small group risk their lives to bring about peace between warring parties, despite attempts by religious fundamentalists and capitalist opportunists to derail a fragile peace treaty for their own selfish agendas. If you are a fan of The Expanse, you will enjoy Mindscape.

13. Maya Motayne Nocturna is Maya Motayne first book and it pretty much guaranteed I would be a fan.

The story centres on a face-changing thief, who along with a prince, unwittingly unleashes a powerful evil that threatens the world.

This epic debut fantasy trilogy is all set in a stunning Latinx-inspired world, delivered brilliantly by Matayne. If you haven’t read this yet then you’re in for a treat.

14. Silvia Moreno-Garcia Gods of Jade and Shadow is replete with Mexican folklore and a story that will strike a cautionary chord with everyone who reads it.

When dreamer Casiopea accidentally opens up a box that contains the Mayan god of death her life changes forever. He requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother.

If she agrees, her life will hang in the balance. Success will mean all of her dreams will come true but failure will mean the opposite.

15. Nalo Hopkinson Hopkinson combines familiar imagery and urban settings to explore the complexities of the human condition. Skin Folk is a collection of stories set in seemingly familiar surroundings.

Then throw in vampires, werewolves and other supernatural twisters for good measure. If you are not a Hopkinson fan yet, read Skin Folk and you may well find you soon will be.

16. Liu Cixin Often compared to Arthur C. Clarke, Liu Cixin is considered China's most popular science fiction writer. Unsurprising given he has won nine Galaxy Awards (China's most prestigious literary science fiction award).

In the United States, he won the 2015 Hugo award for his novel The Three-Body Problem, translated from its original language. Set in China the story unravels a mystery around the suicides of preeminent scientists that develops into a massive alien conspiracy. This is an engrossing tale, not least because it is exclusively set in China.

17. Yoon Ha Lee The Ninefox Gambit is a good start with Yoon Ha Lee. It tells the story of disgraced Kel Cheris and her fight to regain her standing. She is given a task that might just do that when she is asked to recapture a fortress overrun by heretics.

The problem is to succeed, she may need to place her fate in the hands of a brilliant tactician but treacherous general, whose madness led him to slaughter not only his enemies but his own troops. Mmm…tricky.

18. Nisi Shawl If I had to recommend one book from Shawl, it would be Everfair. Everfair poses the question; what if Africans in the Congo were free from the colonial powers that invaded their world and were again masters in their own land?

Like Octavia Butler, Shawl uses historical fiction to create an alternative history and a new way to look at the world.

19. Nnedi Okorafor Akata Witch was my first foray into Okorafor’s writing. This is a very enjoyable story about Sunny, born in New York and now residing in Nigeria.

Being an albino Sunny name’s is a little more than sardonic as she is unable to tolerate too much sun, which makes life in West Africa tricky. Add to that bullying at school and you have the classic loner story. But when Sunny makes friends with Orlu and Chichi, things start to look up, especially as this brings with it the discovery that she has mystical powers. Things are never quite the same for Sunny after that.

20. Elizabeth Acevedo The Poet X is the first of Acevedo’s work I have read and I found the story of Xiamora’s journey to find her voice engrossing and emotionally engaging.

Xiamora has to navigate the restrictions of her Dominican heritage, with its obligations and expectations of her and its reverence for male power. On top of this, she must negotiate an abusive relationship with her overzealously religious mother. All told in verse this story literally leaps off the page.

21. Karen Lord Karen Lord’s book The Best of All Possible Worlds reveals the story of the Sadiri, refugees from a destroyed planet, who travel across space in the hope of beginning families with Sadiri who emigrated generations before and ward off extinction.

But injustices still exist in the technologically and psychically advanced future, where telepathy is misused as a form of domestic abuse and control and echoes of American slave history still abound.

22. N K Jemisin One of my favourite Jemisin stories is a short story called The Effluent Engine in The Mammoth Book of Steampunk.

The story takes place in an imagined past, where Haiti has won its independence from France. But unlike the historical Haitian revolution, Haitians won their freedom with airships powered by the steam created from the sugarcane distilleries.

Now, two generations later, they need to enlist a prominent Creole engineer to help develop a new form of fuel in the battle to halt French attempts to re-enslave them.

If you haven’t read her work, Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is a great place to start but if you can find The Effluent Engine I highly recommend it.

23. Tananarive Due Tananarive Due wrote her first novel, The Between, in 1995. Since then, she's gone from strength to strength with a number of novels that span multiple genres including the African Immortals Series.

My Soul to Keep is a great sci-fi novel to get to know her work if you haven’t discovered her yet. Jessica discovers that her perfect husband, David, and his Ethiopian kinsmen are a member of a secret sect that traded their souls for immortality four centuries ago. Now David is being obliged to return to Ethiopia and abandon his family but he is determined to hold onto Jessica and their daughter…forever. Okay, I think nuff said…go get the book.

24. Marlon James Marlon James’ novels may not fit tidily into the confines of traditional sci-fi, but his 2019 novel Black Leopard, Red Wolf won the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction for a reason.

The genre-bending works exploring African mythology, religion, violence, and post-colonialist narratives give a visceral feel to the themes touched on in this story. But the underlying poeticism is what I found truly enchanting.

25. Tade Thompson Tade Thompson has demonstrated that he has range, from crime and mystery to alien invasions featuring characters from ghosts to superheroes. His novel Rosewater, in my opinion, continues to demonstrate what a talent he is.

Rosewater is a kind of shantytown around the outside of a mysterious alien biodome. Rosewater’s residents live in hope of miracle cures and a better life inside the dome but Kaaro, a government agent with a criminal past, knows better. He’s been inside the dome and he’s in no hurry to repeat the experience. But when something begins to kill off previous visitors like himself, Kaaro must defy his bosses to find answers.

26. Isabel Ibanez Woven in Moonlight takes inspiration from Bolivian politics and the history and culture of the region. Ximena is the decoy for the last remaining Illustrian royal.

Her people lost everything when the usurper, Atoc, used an ancient relic to summon ghosts and drive the Illustrians from their home. When Atoc demands the Condesa’s hand in marriage, it’s Ximena’s duty to go in her stead. Ximena’s motivated by her insatiable thirst for revenge, and her rare ability to spin thread from moonlight. If she can find the ancient relic, she might return the true aristócrata to the throne.

27. Rivers Solomon Making a deep impression with their debut novel “An Unkindness of Ghosts,” Rivers Solomon followed up with a Lambda Award-winning second novel, The Deep. Solomon’s stories explore the legacy of racism in America and the possible futures that could descend from collective trauma. It is not easy to categorise her latest work Sorrowland, but it is immensely harder to put it down once you start reading it.

Vern, a traumatised, 7-month pregnant, 15-year-old, albino flees a cult to hide in a nearby woods. But the cult is determined to recapture her. This is an unapologetic novel that covers a lot of ground from race, identity, sexuality, gender, misogyny, motherhood, religion, conspiracy and the list goes on. But it does it with an assured hand and unflinching scrutiny.