Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and today I have for you two new releases, and two books set in cool fantasy versions of Africa. I’ve had a great week filled with lots of good news and positive happenings, so I’ve just been thinking about how dang lucky I am sometimes. I hope some of that luck comes your way as well, and soon! Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Tuesday!
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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
Annotation Bookmarks by AetherealBooks
These are a very cool idea: bookmarks that come with colored tabs that you can use to mark your book (without damaging it) as you read. If you want to save quotes in paper books so you can find them again later, this is definitely better than my method of flipping randomly through pages before giving up in frustration. $10
New Releases
Island Witch by Amanda Jayatissa
In 19th century Sri Lanka, Amara is the daughter of her village’s Capuwa, the demon-priest. Her family was once respected, but with new religious practices being brought in by the British Colonizers, the rest of the village began to turn on them. But when some thing begins to viciously attack men in the jungle, rather than coming to Amara’s father for help, the villagers accuse him of committing the attacks. It is up to Amara to clear her father’s name, but it will take her to the depths of her memories of a time she can barely remember, when she was laid low by a mysterious illness…
Exit Black by Joe Pitkin
Imperium was once an orbiting laboratory; now, it’s being turned into a space hotel that will cater to the ridiculously wealthy. As Imperium preps for the first batch of rich tourists to arrive, the resident biophysicist, Dr. Chloe Bonilla, is really questioning whether the chance to continue her research is worth her having to play part-time tour guide and nanny for a group of dilettantes. But the tourists bring an unpleasant surprise with them — a terrorist who plans to see wealth redistributed globally by taking the one percenters hostage.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Here are a couple of novels set in fantasy versions of Africa that are both very good fun to read.
Imaro by Charles Saunders
This book was pitched to me as “What if Conan the Barbarian was African?” and that was all I needed. Imaro is an outcast warrior who wanders the fantasy-African land of Nyumbani, searching for a place that will be his home.
The Dreamblood Duology by N. K. Jemisin
This omnibus collects two books together, The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun. In a fantasy Egypt, the Gatherers, adherents to the dream-goddess, keep peace and harvest magic from those sleeping, using it to heal and help — and to execute the corrupt. But someone or something begins to murder dreamers, and Ehiru, Gujaareh’s most well-known Gatherer, must find the source of corruption and conspiracy — and question everything he once believed.
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.