Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and today, I’m coming at you with a double dose of new releases. We had a snowy weekend again in Colorado, and I actually read quite a bit — I even finished up a book I put down back in July last year! That was pretty exciting, and I was glad I’d kept at it. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Friday!
2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!
This week I want to draw your attention to a couple of neat-o SFF Kickstarters. Khōréō year 4 is fundraising! It’s a quarterly magazine of short speculative fiction by immigrant and diaspora writers and artists. They have done such good work the last three years. I also stumbled across this super cool project: An Anthology of Gujarati Pulp Fiction. They’ll be translating a collection of Gujarati novellas and short stories into English, and some of them will be sci-fi, since that falls under the pulp umbrella.
Bookish Goods
Acrylic Book Vase by LaVieLenteStyle
This is just a neat idea: an acrylic vase that’s shaped like a book and has a title and such on it. I’m tempted to contact the seller to see if they could put a fantasy book title on it… $23
New Releases
The Book of Ile-Rien: The Element of Fire and The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
This book compiles and re-releases two of Martha Wells’s novels, now revised and updated by the author. It’s two sprawling stories set in the kingdom of Ile-Rien, one about the bastard sister of the current king showing up unexpectedly and throwing the court into disarray, the other about the greatest thief in all the kingdom who uses what he steals to fund a bloody vengeance long in coming.
Ours by Phillip B. Williams
Saint is a conjuror in the 1830s who sweeps across Arkansas, destroying plantations and rescuing enslaved people. She brings those newly freed to a town named Ours just north of St. Louis, which is magically concealed from the outside world. But as Saint ages, so do her powers — and the outside world begins to intrude on those no longer prepared to defy it.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
This week was one with a lot of extremely cool-looking new releases, so I’m double-dipping today.
Sun of Blood and Ruin by Mariely Lares
New Spain, the 1500s: witchcraft is punishable by death, mythical creatures are things barely whispered of, and the Indigenous temples have been destroyed by conquerers. The mysterious Pantera uses magic and sword skills alike to fight the Spanish tyrants by night — and by day, she hides behind the mild-mannered identity of Leonora de las Cases Tlazohtzin…who is promised to the heir to the throne.
Night for Day by Roselle Lim
Ward and Camille were never supposed to see each other again after breaking up to pursue their dreams on opposite sides of the country. Then, years later, they meet again in London, interviewing for the same job — and discover the spark is still there. They both get the job, scheduled for opposite shifts, and decide to give their relationship a try again. But the job isn’t what they expected: by day, Ward deals with immortals; at night, for Camille, it’s ghosts and spirits, and both are immediately trapped in the building and unable to escape. They can, however, see each other for a few minutes every dawn.
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.