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The infamous eleventh-century warrior Hexen Sabbath is plucked from death and certain damnation by a being claiming to be an angel of the Lord, and finds himself dropped into contemporary Manhattan with no clothes, no weapons, no resources, and one mission—to track down and kill the living personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins before they bring about Armageddon. With time running out and his only ally a destitute art gallery owner, Sabbath must fight his way through New York’s elite and challenge the world’s most powerful man, or an eternity of suffering will be his, and our, only reward.
Happy Friday to my favorite space pirates! I hope you have some great weekend plans. (I’ve got a D&D game coming, so not even the final slog of NaNoWriMo can dampen my mood. And by the way, if you’re on that slog–drink some water, take a screen break, YOU GOT THIS.) Here’s Alex with some news for your Friday and some books about teams of badass women. And appropriately enough… y’all. This is definitely fantasy, because reality can’t be this perfect: Mel and Sue, former GBBO hosts, play professional assassins in a new movie called Hitmen.
News and Views
Michael Moorcock’s Elric books have been optioned for TV.
The Mary Sue interviews author Chuck Wendig about apples. Just apples.
New book coming from E. Lily Yu in Fall 2020!
Interview with N.K. Jemisin about Afrofuturism and her Green Lantern.
The Expanse is circling back to bookshelves via The Art and Making of The Expanse
The Dragon Awards have opened for 2020 nominations.
This year’s Goodreads choice awards are in their final round. You’ve got until December 2 to vote.
You can read an excerpt from Chana Porter’s new novel The Seep, coming to shelves in January 2020.
I try not to go too overboard with TV stuff but Y’ALL KEVIN CONROY PLAYING BATMAN IN LIVE ACTION.
An early draft of Kevin Shinik’s YA Star Wars novel, Force Collector, accidentally contained major spoilers for The Rise of Skywalker.
More casting announcements for BBC’s The Watch, including Anna Chancellor as Lord Vetinari. I am here for this.
Well, this is gross: Emilia Clarke says she’s been pressured to do nude scenes so she ‘won’t disappoint Game of Thrones fans.’
Modern fan cultures (like Trekkies) arguably have their roots in… Jane Austen fans?
Amazing pictures of starling murmurations.
Here’s two 400-year-old warships wrecked at the bottom of a channel in Sweden if you need any writing inspiration today.
On Book Riot
This week’s SFF Yeah! podcast is about SFF for gift-giving.
28 of the greatest Wheel of Time quotes
Rioters share surprising secrets: The Harry Potter Confessions
Free Association Friday
For my birthday last week, I saw Charlie’s Angels because it looked like fun. The trailers did not prepare me for just how girl-power-banana-pants-spy-fy-playfulness I was getting… plus Kristen Stewart’s character checking out at least two other women over the course of the movie. It makes me very sad that it’s not getting the love it deserves… just like Terminator: Dark Fate.
I want more badass ladies teaming up and doing action and spy things. I want all of them! And in honor of the two lady team-up movies, here’s six more with teams of badass ladies:
Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn gives us Evie and Aveda. Aveda’s a superheroine and Evie’s her assistant. And then one day, Evie has to impersonate Aveda for a night… and discovers she’s a superheroine too. There’s plenty of ladies teaming up and being amazing in the series.
Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger has Lee and Xiulan, a would-be detective and her criminal companion fighting to change the regime of the Shang Empire, and they kick a lot of ass in the process.
The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera has the ultimate lovers, O Shizuka and Barsalayaa Shefali, divine empress and her infamous warrior, who may well be goddesses in their own right. Together, they fight to push back the demons that threaten to overrun their lands.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss features a team-up of the women hidden in no-longer-under-copyright stories like The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde… which gives us Mary Jekyll, the main character of the first book. Friendship, mystery, mayhem, and the absolute delight of spotting familiar literary figures abounds.
A Study in Honor by Claire O’Dell gives us a Holmes and Watson who are queer black women in a near-future Washington, DC. As you might expect, they form an unbreakable personal bond and solve some mysteries.
Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger is about a finishing school where young ladies go to learn some darker skills as well… like espionage. Lady friendships! Spies! Manners! Four unexpected things that one can do with a fan!
See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. 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.