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Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for May 7: SFF Moms

Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with some news, a few ebook deals, and a little list of SFF with badass moms that you might want to check out. It’s the first Friday of May, and it’s been shockingly rainy here, with lots of little hail showers. It’s also almost Mother’s Day (whence the theme) so happy holiday if you celebrate it! (And if it’s a day you have a fraught relationship with, I see you.) I’ve been looking forward to putting my plants outside since they’re always so much happier there…. but in Colorado, the common wisdom is that you can never count on a plant surviving out in the elements until after Mother’s Day. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and may your plants be thriving and green!

Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ and anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co


News and Views

Around the world with SF

A brief history of Russian science fiction

Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd are launching a podcast about The Lord of the Rings films

Interview with Sue Burke

Salon did a Q&A with Andy Weir

Those sure are some wigs that House of the Dragon‘s got going

Revisiting Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books as a mother

Thank you Star Wars for giving me Carrie Fisher

SFF eBook Deals

The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang for $1.99

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo for $2.99

Fortune’s Pawn by Rachel Bach for $2.99

On Book Riot

This week’s SFF Yeah! is about one-sitting reads.

Best fantasy book subscription boxes

Reading Pathways: Star Wars books

15 of the best funny fantasy books

Who’s there? 10 ghost stories to keep you up all night

You have until May 11 to enter to win a $100 ThriftBooks gift card and $100 for a non-profit of your choice. This month you can win an iPad mini, a one year subscription to Owlcrate, and a year of reading.

Free Association Friday

It’s Mothers Day (at least in the United States) in two days, so I wanted to put the focus on some books with badass moms in the forefront.

Cover of The Wolf of Oren-Yar by K.S. Villoso

The Wolf of Oren-Yaro by K.S. Villoso

Queen Talyien of Jin-Sayeng is also know as the She-Wolf—and less flattering, the Bitch-Queen—because she exiled her husband and murdered a man the day before her coronation. But she’s also a mother who loves the son she has with the now-exiled husband, and she’ll do anything to keep him safe.

Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

Technically Shards of Honor is the first Cordelia Vorkosigan book, but this is the one where she becomes a mom. Cordelia is basically the space opera GOAT, someone whose complete self confidence and emotional intelligence let her cut through masculinist BS like a laser cannon through butter. She is a delight in every book.

Sorrowland cover

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Vern is a young woman who must flee both her abusive husband and the cult he leads because she’s determined that both she and her babies should have a better life. To protect her family, she undergoes a terrifying, violent metamorphosis… and will have to face the violence in both her personal history and that of her homeland.

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

This entire series is set off by Essun discovering that her husband has killed their son and kidnapped their daughter, and that sets her off on a world-spanning and world-altering journey to save her surviving child–and maybe ultimately the world.

cover of Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

Ti-Jeanne is a new mother; her child, Baby, is so young that he doesn’t even have a proper name yet. Living in the walled-off center of an abandoned Toronto, she has to face down the crime lord who runs the place while learning to accept her relationship with the spirits from her grandmother, Gros-Jeanne.

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

Isabella Camhearst is a naturalist making ground-breaking discoveries and studying the dragons of the world, all while being a single mother. She even eventually brings her son along on one of her journeys of discovery.


See you, space pirates. 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.