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Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s the most wonderful time of the scifi year–the gathering of the Hugo reading list. It’s Alex, with some news, and some squee to take you into the weekend.
This is literally the best thing I have seen all week. (Also, it’s begging to be an MG fantasy, right?)
News and Views
Essay of the week: In Defense of Needlework
A profile of Michael Moorcock, now at age 80
Paul Weimer’s epic thread of SFF author and book recommendations is still going. He’s hit 271.
I had no idea that among the pre-flight superstitions of cosmonauts, they always watch a movie called The White Sun of the Desert.
Black Girl Nerds interviewed Isis Asare, the owner and founder of the bookstore Sistah Scifi.
This year’s Philip K. Dick award ceremony will be livestreamed.
A lovely short read: Little Free Library by Naomi Kritzer
Still not tired of Patrick Stewart reading sonnets. Here’s Sonnet 18.
Oh wow. Syfy is going to marathon Battlestar Galactica and Xena: Warrior Princess this month.
I missed that April 7 was Leland Melvin Day (technically just in Lynchburg, Virginia, but I think it should be everywhere)
A visual comparison of the tallest mountains in the solar system.
On Book Riot
20 must-read fantasy and sci-fi short story collections
Quiz: Answer fairytale questions to find your next YA fantasy read
You can enter to win a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card
Free Assocation Friday: Hugo Nominees!
ConZealand announced this year’s Hugo Nominees, and the list is AMAZING. So now’s the time to get a jump on your Hugo reading, whether you just want some good books and or if you want to vote, too. Both attending and supporting members of ConZealand can vote in the Hugos; since ConZealand has announced it will be the world’s first all-virtual WorldCon due to the current pandemic, here’s hoping for a massively diverse set of con attendees (and therefore voting members) as well!
Best Novel
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders – January is a tidally-locked planet, one side forever in frozen night and the other in burning daylight. Two cities cling to life in the tiny livable zones of the planet–and Sophie, a failed revolutionary, is exiled (it sounds nicer than a death sentence) from one of them.
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir – Gideon is ready to be done with a life of servitude that’s bound to be followed by an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. Unfortunately, her escape is foiled by her childhood nemesis, a necromancer who needs Gideon’s sword–and everything that comes with it–if she wants to save her house and become immortal.
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley – In the war between Earth and Mars, soldiers get turned into light for fast transport. Some of them come back wrong. Some of them come back different. And some of them start remembering things that can’t possibly have happened in their propoganda-ruled world.
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine – Mahit is sent on what should be her dream assignment, to be ambassador to the Teixcalaanli Empire, whose culture she has always deeply loved. The problem is that her predecessor, whose memories she should have access to for help, is only an out-of-date copy, and the real man was murdered… and that’s only the start of the galaxy-shaking conspiracies.
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire – Roger and Dodger are twins, separated at birth for nefarious alchemical purposes. They’re not quite gods, but they might be something far more dangerous. The fate of the world rests on their shoulders–and their choices.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow – January feels like just another part of the collection, living in a mansion populated with artifacts by her eccentric guardian. Then she finds a book, and each page may be a portal to an different, impossible world…
Best Novella
Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom (from Exhalation by Ted Chiang – The Prism allows its users to glimpse alternate universes and talk to alternate versions of themselves, which calls into question morality and the reality of choice.
The Deep by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes – Yetu holds the memories of her people, the water-breathing descendents of enslaved African women who were thrown overboard during their cruel abduction. Overwhelmed, she flees from her people and her responsibilities… and tries to find a new way for them all to live.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark – A simple case of a haunted tram car is taken up by the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities in early 20th century Cairo. It leads two agents to ever more dangerous secrets that threaten their city.
In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire – A serious girl who would rather study than be a house wife finds a magical door into a realm of logic, riddles, and lies. Not wanting to be returned home, she cuts a bargain at the Goblin Market–and those never go well.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone – Two enemy agents in the midst of a war across time begin a correspondence that becomes deeper and more dangerous for them… and could change both past and future for their respective peoples.
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers – Exploration crews in the 22nd century travel outward knowing that everyone they leave behind will age while they remain in stasis. They remain in contact with Earth, watching the culture shift… until one day Earth stops talking.
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.