The Queen of Saturn and the Prince in Exile

by Errick Nunnally

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Pub Date 22 Apr 2025 | Archive Date 24 Feb 2025

CLASH Books

Literary Fiction | New Adult | Sci Fi & Fantasy

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Description

A Black nerd coming-of-age novel set in 1970s Boston about a boy who struggles to learn the truth behind his mother’s claims of otherworldly origins in the smoldering aftermath of the Civil Rights era and COINTELPRO's dying breaths.

Sean’s mother, Sojourner, consistently claims otherworldly origins—Saturn, specifically. A story he’s heard his entire life and never considered that it might be true until strange men intrude on his family’s lives. Complicating matters, his father, David, and his mother, were part of a Civil Rights era Black power group that captured the attention of the FBI.

A literal bombing put an exclamation point to the end of the organization. But as soon as Sean could read on his own, he immersed himself in science fiction, fantasy, and comic books, while largely ignoring the history of his people. That ignorance morphs into a disturbing proposition and learning the truth of his parents’ pasts could prove deadly.

Sean’s exploration introduces him to music, girls, delusions of privilege, and the thrills of revolution, all while becoming an adult. The Queen of Saturn and the Prince in Exile marries golden age sci-fi with the nostalgia of roller skates, funk, and first love.

Advance Praise

"Errick Nunnally is a voice and storyteller you do not want to sleep on. This heartfelt novella gives you a deep experience of the otherworldly and the reality of being a black youth and man in America. Every moment of this book touched me in different ways, but I loved it all the same." —V. Castro, author of The Haunting of Alejandra and Goddess of Filth

“It’s a 1970s coming-of-age story unlike anything I’ve read, focused on a 12-into-13 year old whose parents were involved in a group similar to the Black Panther party. The mother is an artist who indulges her son’s love of fantasy, SF, and comics and who maintains a fantastical story about being the dethroned queen of Saturn. She calls her son ‘my prince.’ It’s a beautiful, elegant fantasy in a life where growing up Black in Boston is sometimes frightening and even dangerous, especially with the enemies his parents made a decade before. But when his first sexual experiences are truly bizarre, and strange white men begin to spy on his family, the newly teenaged Sean is forced to wonder if there’s more truth to his mother’s fantasy than he could ever have imagined.” —Christopher Golden, author of Road of Bones

"Errick Nunnally is a voice and storyteller you do not want to sleep on. This heartfelt novella gives you a deep experience of the otherworldly and the reality of being a black youth and man in...