Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’ve got new releases for you to round out the week. I’ve also got a couple of short story collections that are rather on the horror side of SFF. I hope you all had a great week full of good books, and a lot of reading time waiting for you over the weekend! Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Tuesday!
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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
Flip a (Book) Coin by SchepperDesign
Considering what T. Kingfisher’s books have been doing to me this week, I desperately need one of these—it’s a coin to flip so fate can decide if you’re allowed just one more chapter, or if you really do have to go to bed this time, I mean it, really. $12.
New Releases
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
Maya Hoshimoto was a sort of Robin Hood of art for 10 years, returning stolen artifacts to the civilizations they were taken from. Then a job gone wrong forced her into hiding and she settled in to trying to live a quiet life. Now an old friend has come to her door with one last job she can’t refuse. At least not when the stakes are the extinction of an entire civilization…
Rogue Sequence by Zac Topping
Andre Rade gave himself over to Zyphos Industries years ago, volunteering for the Gene-Mod Program that promised to turn him into a super soldier. He’s been following orders since then…until he’s captured, imprisoned, and put in pit fights for almost a decade. In those 10 years, people like him have been made globally illegal—and agents from the World Unity Council have found him, not to imprison or execute him, but to get his help in capturing one of his former squad mates.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Here are two new short story collections that edge into the bizarre and horrifying—they make a nice set.
Mouth: Stories by Puloma Ghosh
This collection of short stories focuses on themes of grief, bodily autonomy, and sexuality, adroitly deploying gore and absurdity to explore truth disguised in fiction.
Stories I Told My Dead Lover by Jo Paquette
This collection is one of inner horror and secrets revealed, characters pushed to the brink until they will either break through the bonds that hold them in check or be destroyed in the process.
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.