Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’m coming at you with new releases and a couple of recommendations for Filipino SFF to check out. The weather here was gorgeous this weekend; I actually got to do some yard work, though I was regretfully listening to an ’80s station instead of an audiobook. Getting the light and fresh air was a delight, however, after a long winter. I hope you had a wonderful weekend too! Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Friday!
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Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here are two places to start: Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, which provides medical and humanitarian relief to children in the Middle East regardless of nationality, religion, or political affiliation; and Ernesto’s Sanctuary, a cat sanctuary and animal rescue in Syria that is near and dear to my heart.
Bookish Goods
Creatures of Philippine Mythology Sticker Sheets by JmePaintsShop
Since we got a bit of a Filipino theme going this week, I found these really neat sticker sheets (there’s a second sheet, not pictured) of really lovely drawings of mythological creatures. $10
New Releases
The Vanishing Station by Ana Ellickson
Ruby Santos is 18, Filipino American, and has had her dreams dashed and her life completely unmoored by the death of her mother. While she and her father struggle to pay off the medical debt, she discovers he’s been acting as a secret delivery person for a magical underworld—and he’s behind on his jobs thanks to depression and alcoholism. She takes up his work and discovers that portals to other worlds are far more dangerous than she could have imagined, especially when they’re being controlled by criminals.
Oracle by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
One winter morning, Luca and Emma find the wreck of an 18th-century sailing ship incongruously sitting in the middle of a flower field. Emma disappears into it, never to be seen again—and she is only the first of those the ship takes. When the government enlists Robert Grim, a retired occult specialist, to investigate, he finds this strange shipwreck may be the harbinger of the apocalypse.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
With Ana Ellickson’s book coming out, I wanted to recommend a couple more Filipino SFF novels.
Tablay by Katrina F. Olan
A century from now, Manila is a technological fortress, home to mecha pirates fighting to keep the Philippines free from hostile machine beings called aswang. It’s up to mech pilot Anya Valerio and her partner to stop the creation of a mega weapon that will end their nation’s fight for survival.
The Wolf of Oren-Yaro by K. S. Villoso
The night before she was crowned, Queen Talyien murdered a man and exiled her king. She tried to heal the fractures of her kingdom by marrying the son of a rival clan…but then he disappeared and left conditions even worse. Years later, he contacts her to ask for a meeting outside of her lands, saying he wishes to reconcile. But once she’s stranded in this strange place, an assassination attempt shows her how foolish that hope was. She’ll have to rely on herself to make it out alive.
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.