An SF tale of global warfare and the people who profit from it. Hairston's extraordinary debut novel, first published by a small press in 2006.

Nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award and short-listed for the Otherwise Award



The world has been divided by the Barrier. For 115 years this extraterrestrial, epidimensional entity has divided the earth into warring zones. Power-hungry politicians, gangsters, and spiritual fundamentalists are determined to thwart a potential treaty to end the internal wars.

When the treaty's architect is assassinated, her protegee, Elleni, a talented renegade and one of the few able to negotiate the Barrier, is forced to take up her mantle.

Now Elleni and a motley crew of allies risk their lives to make the treaty work.

Can they repair their fractured world before the Barrier devours them completely?

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Praise for this book

Praise for Mindscape

“[Mindscape] blends speculative science with socially aware fiction to create a panoramic story that is at once personally relevant and philosophically significant.” —Library Journal

“An intoxicating, almost hallucinogenic journey into a vision of Earth's future.” —The Women's Times

“An ensemble cast of sufficient originality and variety to please a whole range of SFados from hard sf to queer feminist postcolonial.” —New York Review of Science Fiction

Praise for Andrea Hairston

“The old world has died and the new world has yet to be born; in that suspended space Hairston suggests that we make the new by performing it. The result is a novel about art and play as visionary act — riotous, hilarious, joyous.” —Kim Stanley Robinson on Archangels of Funk

“Archangels of Funk is a tour de force of Afrofunkilicious Black Girl Magic.” —Tananarive Due, author of The Reformatory

“Andrea Hairston creates original, layered, complex worlds that are a treat to explore, but what I love most is the people she creates for them. Archangels of Funk is brimming with characters who face adversity with love, hope, art, stories, history, and their bonds with each other. It's a celebration of radiant creativity as a bulwark against despair.” —Martha Wells, author of the Murderbot Diaries

“Reading this book gave me good dreams — and in these dark times, that is no small feat.” —Annalee Newitz, author of The Terraformers and Autonomous

“Andrea Hairston's vision is breathtaking.” —Sheree Renée Thomas on Will Do Magic for Small Change

“The entire work is filled with magic, celebrating West Africans, Native Americans, art, and love that transcends simple binary genders. Hairston's novel is a completely original and stunning work.” —Publishers Weekly




About the AuthorAndrea Hairston is a novelist, essayist, playwright, and the artistic director of Chrysalis Theatre. She is the author of Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the 2011 Otherwise Award and the Carl Brandon Kindred Award, and Mindscape, short-listed for the Philip K. Dick and Otherwise Awards and winner of the Carl Brandon Parallax Award. In her spare time, she is the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Afro-American Studies at Smith College. Hairston has received the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts Distinguished Scholarship Award for outstanding contributions to the criticism of the fantastic. She bikes at night year-round, meeting bears and the occasional shooting star.
Title: Mindscape
Author(s): Andrea Hairston
ISBN: 9781250808783
Copyright 2025
Release Date: August 05, 2025
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Countries: United States, Canada | Learn more about available countries
Language: English
Format: None available | Learn More about our supported formats
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