Happy Tuesday, shipmates — and happy November! It’s Alex, and we’re starting out this month with some sequels that I’m super excited to have in my hot little hands because the first books were just so dang good. I hope everyone had a great Halloween; I got to have a neat holiday dinner with my best friend, for which my nibling made deviled eggs that had little spiders made of black olives on them. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Friday!
Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process.
Bookish Goods
The City We Became Bookmark by InLineWithAnnemieke
To celebrate the sequel to The City We Became coming out this week — and the original book as well — here’s this cool bookmark inspired directly by the story! $4
New Releases
The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin
The avatars of New York City may have temporarily defeated the Woman in White, but she has far more powers at her disposal — and now she’s angry. Her new attack takes the form of a candidate for mayor wielding racist, xenophobic, populist rhetoric who seems set on warping the very fabric of the city. If the avatars are to triumph over this enemy, they’ll need to join together with the other Great Cities to do it.
Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell
Tennal is a neuromodified “reader” who can quite literally read minds and navigate spaceships across interstellar distances, a rare asset, who has been conscripted into the military. There, he’s placed under the care of Surit, the son of a disgraced general and an “architect” who can impose his will on others — and in this case, he’s supposed to control Tennal by merging their minds together. But Surit is too honorable to follow his illegal orders, and so he and Tennal fake a sync bond so they can both plot their escape…until a war begins in their path.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Since both of the new releases in this newsletter are second books, let me recommend the first book to go with each of those!
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
Every Great City has a soul, and that soul manifests as an avatar. But New York City? Has six. And they’ve all awakened at once: ordinary people who have become so connected with their borough that they embody it. And what has awakened them awakens an enemy for them to face as well, a Woman in White looking to strangle the city in its cradle before it can be truly born…
Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
Kiem is a prince and the least favorite grandchild of the Emperor, but he’s been given a chance to make himself useful, finally — by marrying a representative of the empire’s newest and most obstreperous vassal planet. That the representative, Count Jainan, is a widower and quite possibly a murderer is of no concern to anyone but Kiem. Neither of these men wants to wed, but if they wish to survive the conspiracy they find entangling them, they’re going to have to work together.
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.