Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’ve got your new releases, half sequels and half not, for this first week of June. I hope everyone had a lovely and restful first weekend of Pride Month! I was…running a yard sale. But since I was there with friends, it was all very fun — except having to get up early, because yard sale people apparently don’t believe in sleeping in, even on a Saturday. Bah. I sold a bunch of books to people who were excited to find them, and that’s the best kind of reward. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Friday!
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
Wooden Robot Toy by MyGiftStudioUA
These little wooden robots are ridiculously cute, and they all have a fidget toy aspect to them, so I guess that makes them both adorable and functional. $46
New Releases
Daughter of the Merciful Deep by Leslye Penelope
When Jane Edwards was 11 years old, armed riders drove her and every other Black person from her hometown; she hasn’t spoken a word since. 12 years later, she lives in Awensa, an all-Black town of refuge…until the construction of a dam threatens to destroy her second home. Then a man comes to town, one who speaks of gods and ancestral magic, and she realizes that she’s seen him before — but last time, he was dead.
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
In the future, humanity relies on robots to do most of the work, and the robots may very well be outnumbering the humans. When a serving robot gets the urge to murder downloaded into its core, it kills its owner — and then discovers it can also run away. Out in the world, it finds an entire ecosystem of robots that needs to find a purpose beyond taking care of a vanishing humanity…
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Sequels tend to get lost by the wayside at times, so here’s two coming out this week that I want to shine the spotlight on.
Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
Serapio rules Tova…for now. If he can survive the plotting of the matrons and the distant clans. Now there is a new prophecy of the Coyote God being told, a new doom waiting for him if he does not fulfill it. And he faces all this alone, with Xiala taken by her own people…and Teek now taken with war.
Apostles of Mercy by Lindsay Ellis
The Superorganism will soon arrive to destroy humanity before it can develop into a threat, while the alien known as Ampersand has given up trying to stop it; humanity doesn’t seem to deserve saving. And it seems that Ampersand and his human interpreter Cora need to leave Earth soon, as it’s no longer possible to tell what is the bigger threat: the Superorganism or humanity as it becomes increasingly violent.
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.