We did it, robots and dinosaurs! We made it to Friday! It’s me, your newsletter host Alex, and if you’re reading this, it means I didn’t gnaw off one of my own limbs during either of the debate nights, and I feel like that’s something we can all celebrate with some science fiction news and other silliness.
This newsletter is sponsored by Tor Books.
The Sol Majestic is a big-hearted, delightful intergalactic adventure for fans of Becky Chambers and The Good Place.
When Kenna, a destitute teen guru, wins a free dinner at The Sol Majestic, the galaxy’s most renowned restaurant, he thinks his luck has finally changed. His dream is jeopardized, however, when he learns his highly-publicized “free meal” risks putting the restaurant into financial ruin. Kenna and a gang of newfound friends—including a teleporting celebrity chef, a trust-fund adrenaline junkie, and a brilliant mistress of disguise—must concoct an extravagant scheme to save everything they cherish, and risk sacrificing their ideals in the process.
News and Views
Writers Madeline Miller, Max Gladstone, John Rogers, and Kevin Hearne have been matching donations to RAICES. If they’ve hit their match limits by the time you read this, there’s a good chance other awesome SFF writers will have stepped in, too.
Today, let us remember Prince’s Batdance video from 1989.
Daveed Diggs will be narrating River Solomon’s novella of The Deep.
LGBTQ+ cosplayers talk about the queer video game characters they identify with. So many gorgeous pictures!
For more beautiful pictures, here’s 26 of the most gorgeous fantasy book covers from 2019.
If you wondered where the new Harry Potter mobile game falls in the timeline of the Potterverse, here’s how you can figure it out.
There’s going to be even more new Endgame footage, this time for the home release. They’re streaming it from another dimension, I don’t even know. But the legos are pretty cool!
Here’s an interview with Kaytalin Platt, author of
The Living God.
There are now three officially licensed Marvel plays.
Taika Waititi is going to take a “crack” at an animated Flash Gordon movie.
There are going to be more Short Treks for Star Trek: Discovery!
If you want to go down a rabbit hole from which you will never emerge, there’s a website that lets you create fake hybrid pokémon.
I’m a huge Sailor Moon fan from way back, so I have to share this: Sailor Moon and the Queer Art of Questioning Gender and Sexuality.
Myers-Briggs personality types for Lord of the Rings characters.
The full Game of Thrones TV box set is going to be 33 FREAKING DISCS.
The Last of Its Kind – I wish this was fiction, but it’s a beautiful and heartbreaking piece on scientists taking care of endlings during the present sixth great extinction.
Here’s a cool picture of a volcano erupting, taken from the ISS.
One last bit of cool IRL-but-has-definitely-been-in-scifi-or-should news: Scientists are putting sensors on antarctic seals and that’s helping them track water temperatures.
Free Association Friday
Look, I’ll admit right now, I don’t have anything real off the wall for this day in history because between my brother’s wedding this weekend (YAY BRO BRO!) and the first Democratic presidential debates with a bajillion candidates, half of whom look indiscernible, my brain is just non-functional. So instead, I’m just going to list ten science fiction/fantasy books I wish I could make all of the candidates read. Climate change, capitalism, societal decline, unions, healthcare… and a couple more utopian visions to round things out. In no particular order:
Infomocracy by Malka Older
Iraq + 100 edited by Hassan Blasim
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
Docile by K.M. Szpara
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller
For the Win by Cory Doctorow
Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me on the (Hugo-nominated!!!) Skiffy and Fanty Podcast or over at my personal site.