Sponsored by Penguin Teen
Game of Thrones meets Shadow and Bone in the second book in this action-packed fantasy from Andrea Robertson, the internationally bestselling author of the Nightshade series.
Ara has taken up her mantle as the Loresmith–but her journey is far from over. After suffering betrayals and losses, Ara, Nimhea, Lahvja, and Teth must try to come together and find the Loreknights across the kingdom. The Loreknights are their only hope in overthrowing the evil Vokkans and putting Nimhea on the throne for good. Will they be able to survive long enough to help the rebellion?
Happy Friday, shipmates! Wow, how the heck is this the last Friday of July already? Where did the month go??? It’s Alex, and I’ve got some neat award nominees to share with you, and some fun links for your edification. And I don’t know about you, but I am going to see The Green Knight tonight and I could not be more excited. I’ll shriek at you about it on Tuesday if it was as good as I expect it to be. Have a great weekend, and stay safe out there, space pirates.
Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ and anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co
News and Views
Women, Worldbuilding, and Fantasy
Q&A with Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
Interview with Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A24 will adapt Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower into a movie
Now we know what the guts of Mars look like
Because I still don’t know WTF I watched, you should also see the trailer for Lamb
Star Wars: The High Republic: Out of the Shadows author Justina Ireland explains why the Jedi are a little sexier
Were we wrong all along? Interspecies relations in CJ Cherryh’s Foreigner series
SFF eBook Deals
I’m Waiting for You by Kim Bo-Young for $1.99
The Bone Maker by Sarah Beth Durst for $1.99
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett for $1.99
On Book Riot
Rebellions, rivals, and ruthless rulers: 9 fantasy books with epic political intrigue
This week’s SFF Yeah! podcast contains a summer reading list
Register to win copies of The Last She by H.J. Nelson and Crossbones by Kimberly Vale
This month you can enter to win a $250 Barnes & Noble gift card, a Kindle Paperwhite, and a Kindle Oasis.
Free Association Friday: British Fantasy Finalists
This week we got to see the short list for the 2021 British Fantasy Awards, and there were a lot of books on there that you might not be familiar with from the other award shortlists. These are just the finalists for the Robert Holdstock Award, which is for Best Fantasy Novel.
NOTE: The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin is also a finalist for this award, and deservedly so, but I’ve left it out of the big list below because I’ve already expounded upon it multiple times in other finalist lists.
Threading the Labyrinth by Tiffani Angus
Toni leaves behind her failing gallery in New Mexico to come to England and inherit a manor house from a mysterious relative she never knew she had. Surrounded by overgrown gardens and a crumbling house, she submerges herself in the history of the house, learning about all the people who tended the gardens over the centuries. Soon she can see the ghosts in the changing garden and begins to understand the past that echos into her modern life from deep in the past.
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
When the 19th is about to turn into the 20th century, there is no room for witches, and hasn’t been for quite some time. All the witches have been long since burned, and if a woman wants power now, she needs to fight for her suffrage. When the three Eastwood sisters join the suffrage movement in New Salem, they want not only this new power, but to reclaim what is old and forgotten. But their enemies aren’t just the misogynists that believe women have no place outside the home, but also those who will not suffer a witch to live… let alone vote.
Dark River by Rym Kechacha
A story of two mothers, 8000 years apart, struggling to save their children from the destructive future they see coming. In Doggerland, Shaye takes her family to a sacred oak grove to perform a ritual that she hopes will save them all–but what she discovers will cut her deeply. Shante flees a London threatened by climate change, trying to reach the north and the new opportunities is presents–but first she must survive a dangerous wilderness.
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart
The emperor’s mastery of bone shard magic has allowed him to rule for many decades, creating bone constructs to maintain his power. His daughter Lin vows to prove her worth when he refuses to recognize her as heir, and the path she sees to that is through mastering the bone shard magic of her father. When the revolution her father has been trying to suppress reaches the gates of the palace, it’s for Lin to decide what she will do to claim the throne–and save her people.
By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar
A new telling of the Arthurian legend, where nothing you know is true. Arthur is an egotistical gangster promoted above his ability. Merlin is an otherworldly parasite. Excalibur is not a sword, but a shady arms deal with an even shadier dealer. And Britain? A garbage heap that Rome got out of as soon as it could.
…all right, maybe that last one is true, from a certain point of view.
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.