[2] The first book published in this Dark Matter anthology was produced at the turn of the new millennium, the award winning A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (2000).

The second book in the Dark Matter series was the equally lauded World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology winner, Reading the Bones (2004).

[2] Source:[3] The themes in the anthology are Afrofuturism, Africanfuturism, climate, gender, LGBT and religion.

[7][8] In the Publishers Weekly review, it was called "a magnificent and wide-ranging anthology..." noting that it is "a must-read for all genre fans.

"[9] Isiah Lavender III in a review for Locus praised the work for an outstanding collection.