‘Brown Girl in the Ring’ (1998) is the first novel written by Jamaican-Canadian writer Nalo Hopkinson. Although it has received critical acclaim in the English science-fiction scene, it remains quite obscure in Spain, even among feminist science-fiction lovers. This novel is so original that it has created its own genre: Caribbean magic realism. Some critics had defined it as “voodoopunk”, a neologism that suits very well the unexpected mixture of folk traditions and urban cyberpunk. ‘Brown Girl in the Ring’ is set in a dystopian, near-future Toronto. After the Riots, richs had fled downtown, which is ruled by the posse. Our heroine, a new mother and a seeress´s granddaughter, must face its leader and embrace her liaison with the spiritual world through obeah. With a shade of social criticism, the originality of the thriller-styled plot is not even close to the novelty of the treatment. Feminist and decolonialist worldview inspires complex black female characters, family relationships, and the meaning of cultural traditions. Nonetheless, it is —unmistakable— a debut novel. There are plenty of hasty, clumsy resolutions of climatic situations and redundant explanations. All in all, once you get used to the Caribbean English, ‘Brown Girl in the Ring’ is a fresh twist in the white male dominated dystopian tradition.