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Swords and Spaceships

Cthulu-esque, But In a Cute Way

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’ve got some new releases for you, and some extremely cool, fresh-off-the-press short story collections and anthologies to boot. November continues to fill our shelves and stuff even more books in our pockets if we run out of space. I won’t see you for the next few newsletters since I’m going to be out of the country on a family vacation, but I have no doubt there will be many more good books coming. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you again on the last Tuesday of the month!

Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process.

Bookish Goods

Upside-down octopus planter

Upside-Down Ocean Wave Octopus Planter by CindySearles

I never thought I’d have a reason to call something “delightfully chthonic” but here we are. I have no idea how this planter works, but it’s…just charming. Adorable. Cthulhu-esque, but in a cute way. $36

New Releases

Cover of Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

The Colorado mining town of Goetia booms with prospectors in 1883; wealth practically pours from the mines where a new element called Divinity has been found. It is the descendants of demons, called the Fallen, who helped find this new ore. And it is the Virtues, who won the ancient war, who rule. When card sharp Celeste’s sister is accused of murdering a Virtue, she must take on the role of advocatus diaboli to save her.

Cover of Beneath the Burning Wave by Jennifer Hayashi Danns

Beneath the Burning Wave by Jennifer Hayashi Danns

Kaori and Kair are twins, one born of fire and one born of water — and they are the first twins to survive into childhood on the island of Mu, a place where gender is fluid as water. But their survival is not greeted with celebration, because a prophecy hangs over them: they will lead to the destruction of the island, with volcano and tsunami.

For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.

Riot Recommendations

I’m mixing it up a little — today I’m recommending some recent anthologies/collections that are coming at us from small presses!

Cover of Breakable Things by Cassandra Khaw

Breakable Things by Cassandra Khaw

This is the first short story collection by Cassandra Khaw, and it thematically explores the way love and grief twine into human existence, sometimes relating cosmic horror and bodily trauma.

Cover of Opulent Syntax

Opulent Syntax: Irish Speculative Fiction edited by Don Duncan and Dave Ring

This anthology contains both short stories and poems of Irish authors, the pick of modern Irish speculative fiction. Stories range from a near future Dublin that is a dystopian capitalist hellscape to the old and witchy landscape of the Midlands.

Cover of Snaring New Suns

Snaring New Suns: Speculative Works from Hawai’i and Beyond edited by Tom Gammarino, Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada, D. Kealiʻi MacKenzie, and Lyz Soto

This collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories and poetry includes the work of 48 writers from around the world who have a connection to Hawai’i and the Pacific and explore these ties from the supernatural to climate-riven future.

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.