Nisi Shawl

Starting an interstellar penal colony could be an extremely practical idea, right? It could even provide a sponsoring corporation a good Return on Investment—though of course their initial investment would be massive. Making Amends is a novel-in-stories that tells how a corporate government tries to put this idea into action. Beginning with the selection of the first mission’s “volunteer” crew and culminating with the idea’s lovely and unforeseen consequences, Making Amends immerses readers in strange new worlds, worlds precious to discover, tricky to explore, and beautiful to behold.

Advance Praise:

Making Amends is an unsettling, immersive, out-of-body exploration of the future of the prison industrial complex and artificial intelligence that transports readers through sub-light speeds to an unexplored planet. Watching the world of Nisi Shawl’s creation unfold through the voices of intriguing characters – both human and AI – I couldn’t help but think about how our country’s justice system could lead to the terrifyingly disproportionate retribution in these linked stories. By the end of the book, I was left understanding more about how power changes people, and how even in the bleakest of times, love, resistance, and community can blossom.
—LaToya Jordan, author of Shirley Jackson award winning
To the Woman in the Pink Hat

Making Amends

Sabrina D. 

This past is the root of my resistance to the question. And the unfurling bud at the tip of the tree of my resistance is my dawning realization that I and many others -maybe you yourself- could easily be classified as criminals. Indeed, many of us are classified that way already.  

In Making Amends I do my best to describe the steps and ingredients needed for us to break out of that oppressive categorization and into the deliciously wild unknown. 

Josie didn't believe in ghosts, conventional or otherwise. Out here, between the stars, it was hard to believe in anything but emptiness. Emptiness all around. Emptiness trying to kill her. Trying to empty her out, her and all the others... And it was not going to do that. It was not getting in. 

Doe said "Then what is it? We were going to be together, at least on the same world. All we went through and youre just throwing it away—" 

"Together to do what? To bear our enemies children, that's what, we nothing but a bunch of glorified mammies, girl, don't you get it? Remote-control units for their immortality investments, protection for their precious genetic material. Cheaper than your average Al, no benefits, no union, no personnel manager. Mammies.”

Making Amends quotes

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