Sponsored by Red Skies Falling by Alex London, and Fierce Reads
In Red Skies Falling, Alex London’s thrilling sequel to Black Wings Beating, the epic fantasy Skybound Saga continues as twins Kylee and Brysen are separated by the expanse of Uztar, but are preparing for the same war—or so they think. “Readers clamoring for a YA Game of Thrones will easily fall prey to this trilogy and await the final installment. Arresting.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review “You’ll be caught up in the adventure from the first chapter.” —Kendare Blake, New York Times Bestselling author of Three Dark Crowns “Stunning and arresting; a must-read.” —Dhonielle Clayton, New York Times Bestselling author of The Belles
We did it, space pirates! Survived another week. Happy weekend if you’re a Monday through Friday kind of person, and wishes for strength if you’re rolling up your sleeves for work.
News and Views
BBC America announced the leads for its Discworld-inspired series The Watch and it’s pretty exciting. Just looking at the casting, you can already see where there’s going to be some variance from the books. Personally, I can’t wait to see where they go with it.
James D. Nicoll does an analysis of Hugo finalists by gender. Here’s a companion Twitter thread with a great alternate visualization to his powerful use of typography.
In this week’s SFF Yeah! there’s discussion of The Testaments and renaming awards.
Speaking of, the Tiptree Motherboard has reversed their earlier position after extensive community discussion and are looking in to renaming the award.
You can pre-order Aliette de Bodard’s first short story collection Of Wars, Memories, and Starlight now.
It’s going to be Alexander Skarsgård versus Whoopi Goldberg in the upcoming adaptation of The Stand.
An essay exploring the Chosen One trope.
Scientists have detected water vapor on a “super earth” exoplanet!
Moon’s Haunted
“Tell me,” he says, “have you ever heard of something called a moon?” — FromThe Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. Basically, that’s a line that made me crap my drawers when I read it, though I’m not going to expand on why because that would be a massive spoiler. (But my goodness, if you haven’t read this series yet, why not?)
But in honor of Friday the 13th–which is my favorite day, since I was born on a 13th day (not in September) and get to have the spookiest birthdays possible now and then–and the fact that it’s going to be a Friday the 13th with a full Moon, we’re going full “Moon’s haunted.” And I’m not just talking about the Guardians retruning to the Moon in Destiny.
I’ve got to start with 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad. NASA runs a contest to select three teenagers to go into space–and to the moon. But little do they know there is a long-forgotten, dark secret waiting there, ready to kill them. In a similar vein there’s oldie-but-goodie Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys, where an alien artefact waits on the dark side of the moon. The artefact is actually a maze filled with utter murder.
The moon is literally trying to kill us all at the start of Seveneves. Breaking up, bombarding the Earth with massive chunks of itself. What a jerk. And the Moon is similarly murderous in Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It series, where an asteroid knocks the moon closer to the Earth and basically starts a global geologic apocalypse.
On the “hell is people” front, I have for you Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald, in which the Moon is basically the most cynical version of the Wild West but with the chance of asphyxiating and five powerful families threaten everyone’s existence with their political games and power plays. Dove Arising by Karen Bao, where a teenager has to join the brutal Lunar militia after her mother is arrested.
And for a gentler sort of “haunting” rather than directly haunted, how about When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore? It’s difficult to describe, but there’s strange magic, and witches, and pictures of the moon. I also still have a lot of love in my heart for Inherit the Stars by James P. Hogan even if the depictions of women in it were inexcusably dated even when it was published in 1977. Astronauts find a skeleton on the moon, one wearing a strange spacesuit… and it’s 50,000 years old. The mystery only gets deeper and stranger from there.
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 over at my personal site.