Author: Alex Acks

Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and today I want to talk to you about some awesome fiction from New Zealand, so I’ll keep this short. Stay safe and steady as she goes!

A silly thing to start your Friday: I made a Twitter quiz (the polls are no longer running but you can see the answers) called “Protoss or IKEA furniture?”

Looking for non-book things you can do to help? Lebanoncrisis.carrd.co

News and Views

C.L. Polk made a minigame to introduce you to the world of Midnight Bargain. Also, the covers of Kingston Cycle books say Bi Pride!

Mary Robinette Kowal has made transcripts of all the Hugo winner speeches.

Don’t threaten me with a good time, clipping.

New Connie Willis novella coming from Subterranean Press!

The man whose science fiction keeps turning into our shitty cyberpunk reality

The Huntington Library has created a $50,000 Octavia Butler Fellowship.

Wow, I hadn’t even had a chance to tell you about the whole Flashing Swords 6 thing.  WHEW. Well, it’s been resolved.

On Book Riot

5 YA fantasies with feisty princesses

8 of the best YA books set in post-apocalyptic cities

Free Association Friday: New Zealand Writers

I don’t want to take a deep dive into the WorldCon New Zealand post mortem; I shared plenty of links last newsletter about one of the big issues. But one big failure of WorldCon that deserves to be mentioned is that it was supposed to be the chance for New Zealand writers to meet a wider international audience. Note the supposed to be part. It was an utter failure at that, from the lack of New Zealand-centered (both Māori and Pākehā) programming, to the absolute shit show that was the Sir Julius Vogel Awards. If you’re wondering what the SJVs were and how that was a failure, Casey Lucas, one of the winners, explains.

The tl;dr is that these writers deserve so much better, and their books more than deserve to be seen. So let’s get to it, shall we?

The SJV winner for Best Novel is one of the books I mentioned last week, the ACAB and very queer The Dawnhounds by Sashca Stronach. It shared the nomination with:

The Blacksmith by Barbara Howe, a fantasy where the riddle ‘How is the king like a blacksmith?’ might be the salvation of a hunted man accused of murder.

Into the Ashes by Lee Murray – The Kāhui Tupua, the great mountain warriors of New Zealand’s central plateau awaken, causing earthquakes and eruptions; an NZDF sergeant and his squad are sent in to evacuate civilians, but they’re quickly cut off.

The Prince of Secrets by AJ Lancaster – Look, all you need is the tagline: “Well-bred women should not be seen kissing their butlers. Even when the butler in question is secretly a fae prince.”

Solar Federation by S.E. Mulholland – An engineer and a healer of the land each have their own idea on how to save the ailing planet, but they’re unaware of darker forces in the shadows that will happily kill them both to achieve their own destructive goals.

The winner of Best Youth Novel is The Clockill and the Thief, a swashbuckling tale of sky pirates and traitors. The main character, Sin, is desperately trying to defeat the Clockill before his poisoned blood kills him. It shared the nomination with:

Tyrelia by S.R. Manssen – Fourteen-year-old Freya must quest deep into the land of Tyrelia, in order to find the Ancient One and save her family, trapped in the Golden City by a merciless tyrant.

Ringlet and the Day the Oceans Stopped by Felicity Williams – When the tides suddenly stop, an eleven-year-old mergirl must save the oceans from this deadly stagnation—while a monster tries to stop her.

Dragon Rift: Riders of Fire by Eileen Mueller – Ezaara’s secret lover, the dragon master Roberto, is captured, and the ruling council refuses to rescue him. She must take matters into her own hands if she wants to save both Roberto and the Dragons’ Realm.

Light in My Blood by Jean Gilbert and William Dresden – Earth is separated by a wall from the realm of Nön, a place ruled by a dark creature that would love to capture any human it can, for in Nön humans have immense power. But humans might also be the key to this evil’s defeat…

Definitely also check out the winner for Best Collected Work, Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy (Volume I) edited by Marie Hodgkinson.

You can see the full award list here, including links to all the short stories, novelettes, and novellas.

You should also check out this excellent Twitter thread, or this likewise excellent Twitter thread, or this third-times-an-excellent Twitter thread for story, book, and author recommendations. Also do not forget Whiti Hereaka’s excellent thread of Māori writers (or her novel Legacy).

I also recommend checking out the offerings of Paper Road Press, which you can get outside of New Zealand in ebook and sometimes paperback. Start with The Stone Wētā by Octavia Cade if you want a climate thriller or No Man’s Land by A.J. Fitzwater if you want historical fantasy. (A.J. also gave us The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper, which is the adventures of a lesbian capybara who is also a pirate.)

---

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.

Happy Tuesday, space pirates! It’s Alex, and there are SO MANY books coming out today. I’ve also got news for you, a lot of it Hugo-centric. And… I’m tired. WorldCon was shockingly exhausting for something that I attended via my house, partly because it… had some problems (see the news section for more info). Going back to work feels like a great break from my vacation, at this point.

Stay safe, and I’ll see you on Friday!

Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? blacklivesmatter.card.co and The Okra Project.

New Releases

The First Sister by Linden Lewis – The women of the Sisterhood have no name and no voice; they are “comfort women” that travel the stars alongside the soldiers of Earth and Mars. When First Sister’s captain dies, leaving her with no allies, she is ordered to spy on the new captain, Saito Ren, who has deadly enemies of his own.

Court of Lions by Somaya Daud – Amani, the body double of Princess Maram, is held in isolation. The world outside is ready for revolution, and any wrong move could get Amani executed for treason. But Maram wants Amani to play her part one more time in court…

Harrow the Ninth by Tasyn Muir – Harrow has been drafted by the Emperor to fight an unwinnable war–and as if that’s not bad enough, she has to cooperate with her most detested rival while her own health is failing and her mind threatens to unravel.

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson – Welcome to the multiverse, travel at will—but with one important catch. You can’t go to any world where your counterpart is still alive. Cara is an outlier who has died in almost all possible universes, and that makes her the ideal agent–and she’s happy to just be plucked out of the wasteland. But when one of her few remaining multiverse dopplegangers mysteriously dies, she begins to realize her own place in a plot that endangers all of the worlds.

Lobizona by Romina Garber – Manuela is an undocumented immigrant in hiding in Miami. When her mother is arrested by ICE and her grandmother is attacked, Manuela follows the only clues she has of her dead father and his criminal past. Those clues lead her to folklore about brujas and lobizónes, and to the horrible conclusion that her real heritage may make her very life illegal…

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy – Franny is a wanderer and lover of the rapidly-disappearing wild. She begins a journey to Greenland to see the last flock of Arctic terns and witness their final migration. But Franny has a lot of secrets, and their unraveling might very well threaten the crew of the ship carrying her on this journey.

Poe Dameron: Free Fall by Alex Segura – After the death of his mother, teenaged Poe runs away from home to search for adventure.

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer – The story of Twilight, told now from Edward’s perspective.

News and Views

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Sir Julius Vogel Awards! (I already ordered a copy of The Dawnhounds because it sounds fun as heck.) We will be talking more about these awards and the awesome books involved on Friday, so stayed tuned.

Congratulations for the winners of this year’s Hugo and Not-a-Hugo Awards! A Memory Called Empire won Best Novel and This Is How You Lose the Time War won Best Novella.

The awards themselves were, frankly, A Mess. A really upsetting, embarrassing, terrible mess thanks to Toastmaster GRRM spending more time talking about, say, noted racist and fascist John W. Campbell, for whom an award is no longer named, than any of the nominees for this year’s Astounding Award. That said, I’d rather focus on the winners, most of whom gave excellent speeches in opposition to the remarks that made the ceremony last over three and a half hours. Speeches of note:

• Rebecca F. Kuang
• Jeannette Ng (who won Best Related Work for her speech calling Campbell out as a fascist last year)
• Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar
• Arkady Martine
• The Book Smugglers
• Navah Wolfe
• Bogi Takács

You can also watch an edit of the Hugo Awards that’s just the good bits, which is only an hour and 40 minutes long here.

Cora Buhlert’s thoughts on the ceremony. Also definitely worth reading are thoughts from Cheryl Morgan and Natalie Luhrs.

The CoNZealand Fringe is a bit of companion programming that got set up by fans so there’d be a few more panels with European-friendly times. You can watch the recorded panels here.

Kacen Callender on the humanization of authors

Twelfth Planet Press is running a Kickstarter for a new anthology, Rebuilding Tomorrow

Olivia Munn showing off her sword skills

On Book Riot

28 J.R.R. Tolkien quotes form his books, essays, and letters

I’ve missed a couple episodes of the SFF Yeah! Podcast, mea culpa. Let’s catch up:

• Humans versus the Supernatural
• Lucid dreaming and favorite series

---

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.

Happy Friday shipmates! It’s Alex, bringing you greetings from CoNZealand, this year’s WorldCon. No Hugo news for you quite yet (the awards ceremony will be happening probably a few hours after this hits your inbox), but there’s other fun stuff going on. This is my first virtual convention, and in some ways it’s kind of nice (cheap, can wear sweatpants whenever I want, I control the climate in all the “conference rooms”) and in others it’s sad, since I was really hoping to be in New Zealand right now. Like everyone else, I’m making the best of the situation—my housemate and I have planned a fancy New Zealand menu, and it’s NZ-approved!–and looking forward to attending a lot of SFF readings and panels. Stay safe out there, space pirates.

Non-SFF thing that made my day: Time lapse painting

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

The Guardian did a great profile of author Tade Thompson. I had no idea he’s a doctor!

Linguistic world building in N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy

The 2020 World Fantasy Award final ballot has been announced. Congratulations to all the finalists! It’s a great list.

Well, July 29 was the day GRRM said we could imprison him if he wasn’t done with the book… except as io9 points out, he’s scot free from that promise because none of us are actually going to New Zealand! George knew! He knew!

The Recognize Fascism SFF anthology Kickstarter has… started.

Jordan Peele and Issa Rae will adapt Leyna Krow’s short story Sinkhole.

Ars Technica did a roundup of trailers from Comic Con.

From the Department of Unsurprising, But Still YIKES: If you already had a feeling Marvel’s Netflix shows Daredevil and Iron Fist were real racist, turns out there’s a reason for that.

Star Trek: Discovery has an official season 3 start date: October 15!

Possible live volcanoes on Venus!

Scientists discover the source of Stonehenge’s largest stones

On Book Riot

13 fantastic Black fantasy authors

Enter before the end of the month and you could win The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, a year of free books, or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.

Free Association Friday: SFF and Te Ao Māori

A panel I was really excited to attend at CoNZealand was SFF and Te Ao Māori, in which four Māori writers of speculative fiction discussed being Māori writers, their influences, and what they’d like to see in the genre moving forward. (More stories in space! Erotica! Horror! Stories of people cooperating with their worlds rather than fighting them!) It was an intensely interesting conversation to listen in on, and here’s hoping it might end up being a public offering of CoNZealand, since it was recorded.

The four writers on the panel were:

Cassie Hart writes as J.C. Hart and Nova Blake. Check out her books: The Way the Sky Curves is paranormal romance about a woman with a deadly magical power and a man who can sense that power, who wants to protect her but has secrets of his own. Ebony Slumbers is urban fantasy about a woman with a murky past she doesn’t even understand herself, so protectively smothered by eight men who claim they stand between her and death that she can think of nothing but escape.

Steph Matuku writes YA and children’s fiction. Flight of the Fantail is about the teenaged survivors of a bus crash, stranded in the bush. Help is strangely slow to arrive, and some of the kids soon start acting strangely and having nosebleeds. Also, her children’s book Whetū Toa and the Magician looks super cute.

Whiti Hereaka writes plays and screenplays to go along with novels. Her novel Legacy is about a seventeen-year-old Māori boy who is hit by a bus and wakes up in Egypt in 1915, where he begins living through his great-great-grandfather’s time in the Māori contigent. And she also has this incredible Twitter thread where she’s been posting a book by a different Māori author every day.

Dan Rabarts writes fantasy and a bit of horror. A place to start on his books is Brothers of the Knife, in which poor Akmenos, who just wants his souffle to come out right, gets swept into a tangled web of politics and murder when an elvish prince ends up dead at his banquet.

A few more books they recommended along the way:

Ruahine: Mythic Women by Ngahuia Te Awekotuku – Retellings of Māori myths about women.

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach – On his Twitter, he describes it as cops being bastards. There are also conspiracies, a pandemic, and a warlock who used to be a cop trying to shut it all down. And it’s apparently queer as hell. I’m sold.

Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa by Tina Makareti – A short story collection in which the mythic is part of everyday life, and magic happens.

Bonus Fijian recommendation:

Black Ice Matter by Gina Cole – A short story collection that explores both ice and heat from a Fijian perspective.

---

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.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and it must be time for some new releases and a few bits of genre news. It’s almost time for WorldCon, which means I’ve been doing a lot of Zoom time in preparation. This’ll actually be my first virtual convention, so I’ll let you know how it goes! (And this also means the Hugos are coming, though they won’t be done in time for Friday news.) Stay safe out there, and I’ll catch you on Tuesday!

Thing I’m screaming about right now: HALO INFINITE

Non-SFF thing: Alyssa Cole’s Spring Fling 2020 Keynote is really worth reading.

Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? blacklivesmatter.card.co and The Okra Project.

New Releases

Note: There appear to be almost no authors of color on the new SFF release lists for this week that I have access to.

Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline – Joan’s husband Victor goes missing a few hours after they have their first truly serious argument as a couple. She searches for him in vain and has almost given up when she hears Victor’s voice coming from inside a revival tent. The man preaching there says his name is Reverend Wolff, but Joan sees her husband, somehow struck with amnesia, in him—and a darker power as well, something old and very dangerous. She turns to her Métis family and their traditions to uncover the truth.

I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories by Laura van den Berg – A collection of short stories about women on the emotional edge, fighting misogyny, America’s ridiculous economics, and violence. Ranging in tone from fairy tales to ghost stories, they are both haunting and unflinching.

The Worst of All Possible Worlds by Alex White – Drawn by rumors of humanity’s fabled birth place, the Origin, the crew of the Capricious go searching for the first colony ship—and a power that could rival a god’s. Too bad this crew seems to leave a trail of destruction in their wake and always sets a course for danger, whether they want it or not. With their enemies on their tail and their home planet in serious need of their help, they’d better hope they can pull this mission off.

Automatic Reload by Ferret Steinmetz – Mat and Silvia don’t have a normal meet-cute. Mat is a disabled verteran-turned-mercenary who has crafted his body into a perfect weapon by replacing all of his limbs with an interchangeable roster of cybernetic weapons. Silvia is a woman who had her debt called in by an untrustworthy corporation that decided the best way for her to repay was by genetically engineering her into a perfect killing machine. But even when they’re running from the aforementioned shady corporation, which is intent on killing them, they can’t escape their very real chemistry.

Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings – Bettina Scott is a woman deserted by her family in the burning heat of a small west Queensland town; her father has left and her brothers vanished. But then she receives a note from one of those supposedly-disappeared brothers, one that has her questioning the circumstances of departure of the men in her family, and she embarks on a search for the truth. The heat, dust, and sun of interior Queensland makes a bright backdrop for a decidedly gothic and dangerous journey.

Deal With the Devil by Kit Rocha – An information broker and her team of mercenary librarians cross paths with a squad of AWOL supersoldiers in a crumbling America. They can either fight each other, and destroy what’s left of their country in the process… or they can team up and just maybe save it all.

News and Views

Jeannette Ng on The Inescapable Whiteness of Avatar: The Legend of Korra, and its Uncomfortable Implications

Read an excerpt from Every Bone a Prayer.

Lovecraft Country sneak peek from Comic-Con!

His Dark Materials trailer

Comic-Con panel: What makes epic fantasy “epic”?

Dune publishing reveals from Comic-Con

Charlize Theron on her career thus far with highlights transcribed here. And here’s a clip about the training regime for The Old Guard

A Red Dwarf reunion movie???

On Book Riot

Authors don’t owe you books

8 new epic fantasy debuts for 2020

Enter before the end of the month and you could win The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, a year of free books, or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.

---

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.

Happy Friday, space pirates! We made it through another week that has both felt like a decade and disappeared in an instant, because time is a mortal construct that no longer has any meaning. It’s Alex, with a space-opera-heavy set of book recommendations this week, and an extra helping of news items (to make up for Tuesday’s lack) to take you into the weekend. Stay safe out there!

Thing that made me smile today: The best runway walk I’ve ever seen

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

First glance (and awesome cover reveal) at a North Africa-inspired fantasy debut, C.L. Clark’s The Unbroken

Lavie Tidhar and Silvia Moreno-Garcia on the best SFF of the year so far and the books they’re looking forward to

Through sci-fi and fantasy, Muslim women authors are building new worlds

Science fiction explores the interconnectedness revealed by the coronavirus pandemic

Forbidden desires and locked doors: the origins of “Rapunzel”

The future in Star Trek feels very far away

CW: Harassment Orbit statement on Sam Sykes

Apex Magazine will be returning via Kickstarter.

TOC has been released for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020.

Ann and Jeff Vandermeer preview The Big Book of Modern Fantasy

Every single one of N.K. Jemisin’s novels has had its TV/film rights bought.

CoNZealand will be offering Hugo Finalists passes and partial refunds after a group of Finalists sent in a letter of concern. The programme guide is now available, by the way.

Look, I’m a geologist, so of course I love rocks that look like food

A major challenge for future Mars explorers will be boredom

On Book Riot

10 Great 2020 Adult LGBTQ+ Fantasy Books

Which post-apocalyptic YA book should you read next?

Enter before the end of the month and you could win The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, a year of free books, or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.

Free Association Friday: Lady Pilots

123 years ago today, Amelia Earhart was born. I figure a suitable celebration is to call out some science fiction that has awesome female pilot characters in it. (I’ve certainly written a few in my own work. Why? Because they kick ass!)

Michael R. Underwood’s Annihilation Aria has a super awesome—and extremely grumpy—female pilot named Wheel. She ferries around her team in a rattletrap ship called The Kettle, which she fully inhabits via cybernetic implants. She’s got a colorful past that she can only hope to outfly so long.

Along a similar space opera vein, you have Min, the pilot of La Sirena Negra in Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes. Min pilots the ship by sort of mentally merging with it, which occasionally makes her confuse her meat body and her metal body when it comes to damage reports.

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal has Elma York, who was a service pilot during World War II. Then a meteorite hits the Earth and kicks off a slow-motion but certain climate disaster that means humanity needs to get to Mars, right now. Elma fights for the inclusion of women in the newly-minted space program—you can’t do a sustainable colony without women, after all—and the ranks of the Lady Astronauts are soon filled out by other badass female pilots.

Noemi in Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray definitely qualifies. She’s a total badass fighter pilot serving on the planet Genesis, a colony that resource-starved Earth is starting a war with–and she’s also dealing with an AI that’s becoming self-aware.

Prudence Wu in Rebelwing by Andrea Tang flies the titular character, a sentient mecha shaped like a dragon. Because dragons are cool. And Rebelwing was supposed to bond with a guy, the political heir to power, but decided that Pru was much, much cooler.

Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone has Xiara, another cybernetically-bonds-with-the-ship space opera pilot. But it also has Zanj, who can fly a ship if she wants to, because she’s Zanj the pirate queen, and you do not tell that woman no if you want to live.

---

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.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’m going to keep this short because there are SO MANY BOOKS coming out today, I want to save all the words for them. Stay safe and keep reading!

Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? blacklivesmatter.card.co and The Okra Project.

New Releases

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson – Immanuelle’s existence is blasphemy in Bethel, where the Prophet reigns supreme. She is of mixed race, and the daughter of an outsider. But when she ventures into the forbidden woods that surround Bethel, the spirits of the four powerful witches murdered by the Prophet give her a gift: the journal of her long-dead mother. Soon, Immanuelle is struggling with the truth about the Church, about witches, and about herself.

Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters – Shady Grove has inherited a powerful gift from her deceased father; she can call ghosts from the grave by playing his fiddle. But she also knows this gift brings only trouble and wants to avoid it… until her brother is accused of murder, one for which only the dead can clear his name.

The Shadow of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee – Kiyoshi, now the Avatar but at high cost, journeys across the four nations in an attempt to keep peace. But a mysterious threat emerges from the Spirit World, and Kiyoshi must unite with reluctant allies if the nations and their people are to survive.

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson – As World War II is about to start burning across Europe, Phyllis works as an assassin in New York City, cutting through any target her underworld bosses pay enough to point her toward. But when she falls in love, she must face the ever-present ghosts of her past–and find if there is ever enough blood to wash clean the generations of injustice that loom over her and all she cares for.

Annihilation Aria by Michael R. Underwood – Once upon a time, a stranded but extremely cheerful xeno-archaeologist from Earth got lost in space and fell in love with Lahra, a warrior from an almost extinct race capable of massive destruction through the power of song. Now married, they hunt artifacts to keep themselves from falling too deeply into debt, and in hopes that it will show Max the way home. But when they unwittingly pick up an incredibly powerful artifact, they find themselves in the middle of a web of galactic intrigue that leaves them dodging space fascists and trying to kick off a rebellion.

Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis – In 2007, a leak reveals that the US government has secretly had first contact with aliens. Cora wouldn’t even care, but her estranged father is in the center of the cover-up… and the more she learns, the more she realizes how deep the lies go, to both her and the public. And the best way she can bring the truth to light is as a whistleblower—but as an intermediary with the aliens.

Savage Legion by Matt Wallace – The Savages are the Empire’s greatest weapon: the dregs of the cities, culled by the thousands and thrown against all enemies. There is no escape but death for the Savages; if they survive a battle, their reward is to be flung into another. Evie is a warrior who joins the Savage Legion as she searches for the man she once loved, who may also hold the key to ending this mass conscription or the poor and powerless once and for all. (Full disclosure: Matt and I have the same agent.)

The Rightful Queen by Isabelle Steiger – War has returned to Lantistyne at the hand of Imperator Elgar, though the rogues who were once forced into his service have scattered into hiding. As the situation on the continent worsens and kingdoms struggle to remain standing against the Imperator, Adora Avesti is revealed as the rightful queen of Issamira. But Adora has drawn the attention of beings older than the lands currently being watered with blood, and they offer magic and knowledge to those strong enough to take it.

On Book Riot

SFF Yeah! has Sharifah and Jenn’s Spring 2020 favs

20 Must-Read Books by Women and Non-binary Authors

10 Great 2020 Adult LGBTQ+ Science Fiction Books

Enter before the end of the month and you could win The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, a year of free books, or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.

---

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.

Happy Friday, shipmates! Hey, we made it through another week, and I’m proud of us all. Hopefully you’ll have a chance to do a little relaxing—and reading. It’s Alex, with some books by nonbinary writers for you, since it is still nonbinary week, and a few news items. Stay safe out there!

Thing that made me smile: This wholesome video on how to make chai is the start of an entire, wholesome thread.

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

Registration is now live for FIYAH’s online convention 

(CW: Sexual assault) Authors, Customers Demand Borderlands Books Owner Divest From Store

Octavia E. Butler and racialized labor

Congratulations to the winners of the 2019 Shirley Jackson Awards!

Online Hugos voting is available. The deadline is July 22.

Sarah Gailey: Everything Is The Hunger Games Now

Library of Congress to honor Colson Whitehead

New short story from Seanan McGuire that is a side story to In an Absent Dream: Juice Like Wounds

Alex Brown’s list of must-read short SFF from June

Abigail Nussbaum on “The Political Hugo”

If you ever wondered how surgery in space would work…

On Book Riot

8 weird genre fiction books by diverse authors

The appeal of desert fantasy stories and Each of Us a Desert

Reading pathways: Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Enter before the end of the month and you could win The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, a year of free books, or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.

Free Association Friday: Nonbinary SFF Showcase!

July 14 is International Nonbinary People’s Day, if you didn’t realize. We’ve been officially celebrating for eight years—though trust me, we’ve been around waaaaaaaay longer than that. And it’s Nonbinary Week all this week, so what better time to talk about more fiction from nonbinary writers?

Neon Yang’s Tensorate novella series were actually the first books I ever read that had a nonbinary character who was also a love interest. I will always love them for that—plus it’s just a super fun fantasy world with dinosaurs! And magic! And anti-authoritarian rebels! Start with The Black Tides of Heaven. (Full disclosure: Neon and I have the same agent.)

Houses Under the Sea by Caitlín R. Kiernan – Caitlín has written a ton of short fiction, and this is just one of their collections–the Lovecraftian one.

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis – Five girls who were sold to a “welcome house” as children and branded with cursed marking embark on a difficult journey to freedom and justice when one of their number accidentally kills a man.

Behold the Deep Never Seen by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor – Merc writes a ton of really good short fiction, and this one’s a place to start. If you’re looking for more short bites, check out their website.

Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender – The only survivor of a family massacred by colonizers sees her opportunity for revenge when the childless king of the islands declares that he will seek an heir among the nobles.

When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey – Accidental murder by magic! High school friends trying to make things right and only making things worse! (Full disclosure: Sarah and I have the same agent.)

Empire of Light by Alex Harrow – A hired killer gets his butt kicked by his mark, and in exchange for his life, she demands that he help out the revolution he was supposed to stop.

Depart, Depart! by Sim Kern – A Jewish trans man takes shelter in a basketball arena after a hurricane devastates Houston. As conditions in the shelter detereorate, he begins to see the ghost of his grandfather, who fled Nazi Germany as a boy.

Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore – In 1518, a strange sickness made women dance in the streets of Strasbourg until they died from exertion. Five centuries later, a pair of red shoes visit the same curse on an unlucky girl. Her only hope is the descendent of the family who was blamed for the deaths in Strasbourg.

Ariah by B.R. Sanders – Ariah’s just getting a handle on his dangerous magic–and having a romance with his mentor’s brother–when his education is cut short by an empire expanding its borders.

Feeder by Patrick Weekes – A monster hunter who uses an interdimensional creature to drag aliens into another dimension finds her life even more complicated after she stumbles across a group of super-powered, mutant teenagers being held captive by her employers.

---

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.

Happy new book day, shipmates! Hopefully the hot summer breeze (or the cold winter wind, if you’re reading this in the southern hemisphere) is bringing you the scent of fresh pages and new adventure. It’s Alex, with some new books and a bit of bookish news (though I’ll warn you now, the first item is, I think important, but very difficult).

Non-SFF that made my day: I was just introduced to Indian Folk Metal (particularly the music of Bloodywood) so I MUST share. A couple songs to start: Machi Bhasad and Jee Veerey

Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? blacklivesmatter.card.co and The Okra Project.

New Releases

Note: There do not appear to be any authors of color on the new SFF release lists for this week that I have access to. Though I will note if you want something that’s filed as horror, definitely check out The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.

The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal – As the climate disaster set into motion by the meteor impact becomes more clear again, the IAC’s mission to get as many humans off the planet as possible is threatened by riots and sabotage. While Elma York is on her way to Mars to begin that step of the plan, her fellow Lady Astronaut Nicole Wargin is hard at work trying to establish humanity’s first and perhaps most important colony on the Moon. The last thing Nicole needs on top of that difficult task is her husband deciding to run for president.

Peace Talks by Jim Butcher – Harry Dresdent is called on to join the White Council’s security team as the supernatural nations across the world meet to negotiate the end of ongoing hostilities. As the meeting progresses, the politicking threatens not only peace of the supernatural world, but the very existence of Chicago.

Mayhem by Estelle Laure – Mayhem flees with her mother Roxy to California after Roxy’s husband (and Mayhem’s step father) pushes them too far. Mayhem has always known there’s something strange about her and her mother, but on the beaches of Santa Maria, she discovers it’s not just an inborn strangeness, but magic that runs through the female line of her family. Mayhem’s self-discovery is interrupted by the search for a man who has been kidnapping girls from the beach; that sends her into a tangled mess of revenge and vigilante justice.

In the Kingdom of All Tomorrows by Stephen R. Lawhead – Tara’s Hill has become a refuge for those driven from their homes by the violence of the Scálda barbarians. Conor mac Ardan, the new clan chief of the Darini, must join the other lords of Eirlandia as the black ships of the Scálda draw closer—and treachery threatens from within.

The Extraordinaries by T.J. Klune – Nick isn’t an Extraordinary himself, but he’s the most popular fanfiction writer in the whole fandom, so that counts for something. After encountering the Extraordinary who is his biggest crush, Nick becomes determined to join their ranks—and drags his best friend (who might be the actual love of his life), Seth, along.

Other People’s Pets by R.L. Maizes – An animal empath named La La Fine has been abandoned twice by her mother; she has only her father, a locksmith who is in reality a thief. Growing up, she used her skills to calm watchdogs while her father performed robberies. Now an adult in veterinary school, she is forced to drop out when her father is arrested and her tuition money needs to go to pay his legal fees. She takes up burglary again, though now she only robs houses where she senses the pets are in trouble, leaving behind aide for animals even as she takes valuables with her.

News and Views

TW for sexual assault, domestic violence: allegations of violent and predatory behavior have been made about the owner of Borderlands Books.

There’s now a Murderbot box set.

Sara Kuhn’s Heroine Complex series is coming to audiobook!

Nnedi Okorafor shared the new cover of the 10th anniversary edition of Who Fears Death and the new cover for The Book of Phoenix.

The New York Times Magazine has published the Decameron Project, which is 29 short stories about current times, from authors such as Margaret Atwood and Victor LaValle.

New book coming from S.B. Divya! You can already pre-order Machinehood.

The politics of peeing in space.

On Book Riot

8 elemental fantasies to read after your Avatar: The Last Airbender rewatch

Enter before the end of the month and you could win The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, a year of free books, or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.

---

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.

Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with something a little unusual this week. I’ve just got one book I want to shriek about, but you’ll understand why when you get there. Have a great weekend and stay safe, everyone!

I wish to share a TikTok that brought me joy this week.

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

Nisi Shawl would like to guide you on a tour through the history of Black science fiction.

In case you missed it: N.K. Jemisin and Kate Elliott in conversation.

P. Djèlí Clark and and Troy L. Wiggins talk about the building of FIYAH.

Octavia Butler’s motivational notes to herself

C.L. Polk and Alyssa Cole have a conversation about romance in science fiction and I LOVE IT. (And if you haven’t grabbed Alyssa’s book The AI Who Loved Me, check it out.)

Sci-fi shows ruined by terrible endings

ConZealand has unveiled a Colonised, Marginalised, and Historically Underrepresented People Inclusion Initiative. They’re also extending the Hugo voting deadline due to issues getting online voting up and running.

UFO sightings have gone way down in the last few years.

41 years ago today, Voyager 2 started going in for its Jupiter fly-by.

On Book Riot

12 must-read high fantasy novels coming out in the second half of 2020.

Enter before the end of the month and you could win The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, a year of free books, or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.

Free Association Friday: Stealing Thunder

I want to do something a little different this Friday, because You-Know-Who is having another Twitter tantrum and I just finished reading a book that’s sticking with me. I want to talk about Stealing Thunder by Alina Boyden.

In her intro to the book, Alina writes that it’s the first fantasy novel published by a major publisher (Ace) that’s written by a trans woman and has a trans woman protagonist. As far as I know, that’s true. It’s about Razia Khan, a hijra who lives in a fantasy Mughal Empire, dancing and also stealing for her supper. Razia was formerly the son of a powerful Sultan; she escaped him to live as her true self, and despite all she has lost—and then suffered as a hijra—she still considers it a good bargain. Then she meets Prince Arjun, the son of a Maharaja who is her father’s rival, and falls in love with him.

I don’t want get into spoilers, but I do want to tell you, it’s a ton of fun–though I’d add content warnings for discussion (but not depiction) of sexual assault and Razia getting dead named a lot. What I want to talk about is my own reaction to reading it and why I love it.

Stealing Thunder is about a trans woman who gives up everything—wealth, power, and her beloved zahhak (a dragon powerful princes fly around on) Sultana—in order to be her true self. And her true self necessitates a life of scrambling and suffering, clawing always to be above poverty, but is still better than being someone she isn’t. That part of the story isn’t so different from common trans narratives in fiction that cis people consume, though it’s very firmly on centered Razia’s experience of the reality of her gender. But the rest of the book is very much about Razia taking back everything she has lost and about her finding love and family that accept her for herself. It’s about Razia winning, and winning, and winning, and winning against a cis-centered society that would love nothing more than to see her lose.

In that way, it’s a work of pure wish fulfillment. It’s a book that, honestly, I would have rolled my eyes at a bit if the heroine had been a cis woman, because at times it feels almost too easy. But the very fact of a trans woman enacting that wish fulfillment fantasy was, let me tell you, absolutely revolutionary for a trans person like me to read. It’s defiant. It’s beautiful.

There’s a lot of discussion about stories of queer suffering in general. How cis and straight people write us, or the narratives that we write for ourselves that have previously been deemed acceptable for consumption by intended cis audiences. There definitely needs to be space for us to process our traumas and explore darker themes, and do so when we are our own intended audience. But we so infrequently get a chance to explore our wishful fantasies and our joy, particularly not when major publishers are involved. That’s why Stealing Thunder was a shot of sunlight directly to my heart.

Here’s hoping that Stealing Thunder will open the door for more kinds of wish fulfillment stories and joy. It’s our turn, damnit.

Aside: If you want more Mughal-inspired fantasy that’s really good and has an A+ romance (this one written by a cis queer woman), I definitely recommend Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri, and its sequel Realm of Ash.

 

---

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.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’ll keep this brief so I can stuff even more new releases into this newsletter. July is off to a good start. Hope you stayed safe over the weekend–and that you’re hungry to read.

Thing I’m laughing about: I cannot believe this hilarious fake trailer was made 8 years ago and not this year.

Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? blacklivesmatter.card.co and The Okra Project.

New Releases

Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott – Princess Sun has come of age in a time when conniving ambassadors and scheming noble houses have set their sights on removing her as heir to the Chaonia republic, or better yet, just killing her outright. Sun isn’t going down without a fight; in her coming battle for survival, she will rely on her wits, her secret lover, her biggest rival, and a prisoner of war.

Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust – Soraya is a princess who poisons all who touch her. She’s been hidden away by her family, but when her brother gets married, she has the chance to step out of the shadows–if she chooses. Caught between a demon who promises her knowledge and a young man who sees through her coating of poison, she must figure out if she is a human or a demon herself.

Unravel the Dusk by Elizabeth Lim – Maia has succeeded in making beautiful dresses from the sun, moon, and stars, but she returns to a kingdom at the brink of war. The boy she loves is gone forever, and she has no choice but to take her place as the Emperor’s bride-to-be. The political machinations going on around her are nothing compared to the changes within, however. As the corrupting touch of the demon spreads through her, Maia has only a short time before she loses even herself.

Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders by Aliette de Bodard – When a dragon prince brings home is brooding husband home for Lunar New Year, they find not their weight in candied fruit, but a corpse laying outside their quarters. Neither are thrilled by being embroiled in either a murder investigation or the inevitable politics that follow. It will take all of their diplomacy–and skill with knives–to get through this mess.

Haunted Heroine by Sara Kuhn – Evie is a woman who has it all: she’s a badass superheroine, she’s got good relationships with her superhero partner, and a hot half-demon husband. Then she finds out she’s pregnant–and she’s not sure if she’s cut out for motherhood. When she gets called in to investigate a series of “hauntings” at the local women’s college, she finds herself reliving her grad school days–and wondering how things might have gone differently…

A Peculiar Peril by Jeff Vandermeer – Jonathan will inherit his grandfather’s house, which is more like a museum of curiosities, if he can just catalog its contents with the help of a few of his friends. But the house is linked to an alternate Earth called Aurora, and Jonathan has a destiny to fulfill in a secret society whose entire purpose is to keep Aurora from encroaching.

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron – 200 years after the death of Cinderella, teenaged girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball so men can select them as brides based on their finery–and those not chosen disappear. Sophia, not wanting this kind of marriage, runs away and meets Cinderella’s last known descendent. Together, they vow to take down the king who thinks this all is a great idea.

Or What You Will by Jo Walton – “He” is the spark of an idea in 73-year-old award-winning novelist Sylvia’s mind, and he has been many things throughout her books. But he is also very aware that Sylvia is getting old, and when she dies, so does he. But he has an idea how they could gain immortality, together, if she’ll just listen…

Every Sky a Grave by Jay Posey – Humanity decoded the Deep Language of the universe 8,000 years ago and has used that knowledge to spread to the limits of the galaxy. The First House is in charge of “correcting” humanity using language so strong that words can destroy worlds. A mendicant named Elyth is sent to a backwater world to stamp out a forbidden strain of Deep Language, but what she finds there challenges her understanding of everything.

News and Views

After a long hiatus, Fantasy Magazine will be relaunching in November!

Andy Serkis will be recording a new audio edition of The Hobbit.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia has some great news about her out-of-print books!

Godzilla officially says Happy Pride. My heart is so full of rainbows.

Awesome time lapse video of the Sun taken from observations of the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory.

On Book Riot

Pride is a rebellion, and rebellions are built on hope

5 science fiction books full of humor

Enter before the end of the month and you could win The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, a year of free books, or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.

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.