Sponsored by Tor Books.
In To Hold Up the Sky, Cixin Liu (The Three-Body Problem) takes us across time and space, from a rural mountain community where elementary students must use physics to prevent an alien invasion; to coal mines in northern China where new technology will either save lives or unleash a fire that will burn for centuries; to 10,000 years in the future, when humanity is finally able to begin anew; to the very collapse of the universe itself. Experience the limitless and pure joy of Cixin Liu’s writing and imagination in this stunning collection.
Happy Halloween Eve, shipmates! It’s Alex, here to talk to you about space horror and a bit of news. But mostly, I’m here to enthuse about it being Halloween and a full Moon, and for 24 hours, let’s hold on to that and let nothing ruin it. I am making a pavlova to celebrate. The color of the fruit decorations will be thematically appropriate, at least, but it’s the fanciest dessert I know how to do. Have a wonderful weekend, stay safe, and I will see you on Tuesday!
Happy second anniversary to one of my favorite (and season appropriate) tweets.
Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? blacklivesmatter.card.co and The Okra Project.
News and Views
Zin E. Rocklyn’s debut novella has been announced: Flowers for the Sea
2 new novellas coming from Kate Elliott as well
And an anthology of Chinese SFF in translation is incoming
Nibedita Sen writes about the Art of Restraint
A panel of editors discuss how diversity is transforming science fiction
A Room of One’s Own bookstore is offering customized science fiction and fantasy subscription boxes in 6 months or 12 month options
Lindsay Ellis on how science fiction makes sense of the present
There’s a Kickstarter for Xenolanguage, a board game about first contact, and a lot of science fiction authors are involved. There’s an anthology that goes with it.
So Russian scientists have allegedly defrosted 40,000 year old parasitic worms and found a couple of them still alive and I’m sure nothing bad could come of it.
On Book Riot
A guide to conquering your demons with 5 mathematical sci-fi books
Edward Cullen is a comedian, and other thoughts on Midnight Sun
This week’s SFF Yeah! is having an existential crisis.
This month, you can enter to win a $250 Barnes & Noble gift card.
Free Association Friday: Space Horror
I’ve noticed that the Halloween-themed Free Association Fridays have all been rather weighted toward the fantasy side of things (aside: Sci fi authors, get it together. I want some ghosts in space! And space witches other than the ones I wrote!). So this time around, it’s all Sci-Fi, or at least Sci-Fantasy, for our slightly horror-tastic offerings.
Salvation Day by Kali Wallace
The House of Wisdom was a massive exploration ship; now it’s a ghost ship, abandoned for a decade due to an outbreak of a deadly virus on board, one that killed its entire crew—minus one—in a matter of hours. Any would-be shipbreak has a rich target, and all they need to do to get it is not care about the potential for the disease surviving… and kidnap the sole survivor of the disaster, whose gene code will allow entry to the ship. Zahra head a ship breaking crew brave (and stupid) enough to do just that… but none of them are prepared for what they find waiting on board.
Toxic by Lydia Kang
The bioship Cyclo is a home to many secrets—one of which is Hana, a child hidden by her mother in a secret room, until one day the entire crew simply disappears. But the Cyclo is destined to die as well, and a group of mercenaries have been sent to observe her death. One of the mercenaries befriends Hana, and the two of them must figure out how to survive the dying ship and all the secrets that the human government would like to die with her.
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
An expedition to map mineral deposits promises mundane dangers like gear malfunctions and cave collapses. The fat paycheck seems well worth the risk to Gyre… until she gets Em as her surface contact, Em who has no problem manipulating her with drugs, withholding information, and blackmail. And there’s more in the caves than just Gyre—there’s the Tunneler that calls them home, and the ghosts in her own head that grow ever louder.
Blindsight by Peter Watts
Two months ago, 65,000 alien objects coated the atmosphere of the Earth, screaming out that humans were being watched for a brief second before burning up in the atmosphere. After those days of tense silence, an almost-defunct probe catches an alien signal—but it’s not there to talk to us. Something is coming, and it doesn’t care about humanity. The only hope to attempt First Contact with a disinterested alien mind is to send a group of humans who seem alien to their own species, and hope they can handle what’s waiting for them out in the black.
Pitch Dark by Courtney Alameda
Human civilization is dying, and the key to its salvation might wait in the hold of the USS John Muir, a chunk of Earth taken from the planet long before straits became so dire. The crew of the John Muir have been in cryogenic sleep for centuries and have no idea what’s going on… but that’s no problem for ship raider Laura Cruz. But soon she and the no longer sleeping crew have a different, more immediate problem: alien monsters that can kill with a sound.
Ring by Koji Suzuki, translated by Glynne Walley
You may be familiar with the movies this book spawned—the evil video tape that kills, the mysterious monster named Sadako who crawls out of your TV. But the deadly threat that kills in seven days has a far different—and much more science fiction—origin in the book, and a much more tragic and horrifying history. I’ll also note this is one of the best translations from Japanese I’ve ever read that wasn’t a Murakami novel.
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.
