Author: Alex Acks

Swords and Spaceships June 18

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date June 17, 2019

It’s Tuesday again, that most wonderful time of the week when we get a bolus of new books to add to our teetering TBR stacks. I’m your host, Alex, with some new books and a broadside of SFF-related news.

This newsletter is sponsored by Quillion, the gaming imprint of Lion Forge.

This collected edition of Rolled & Told contains all the adventures, mini-adventures, comics, and articles from issues zero to six along with extra content you couldn’t get in the single issues! It provides hours of pick-up-and-play modules designed both for players new to tabletop role playing and for those who have played for years. Every page is filled with beautiful illustrations, comics coinciding with adventures, and splash art from your favorite comic artists to inspire your players! You forge the adventure with Rolled & Told Vol. 1 in stores now from the Quillion imprint of Lion Forge!

New Releases

The Record Keeper by Agnes Gomillion – In a world brought to ruins by a third world war, law reigns, to be obeyed perfectly is the only guarantor of survival. Arika Cobane is about to take her place in enforcing those laws until she meets a new student who forces her to question her most deeply held beliefs: What does peace matter if innocent lives are lost to maintain it?

Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone – Vivian Lao is an inventor trying to stay ahead of her thieving rivals; she catapults herself accidentally into the far reaches of time and space, where the known universe is ruled by an all-powerful empress who can destroy planets with a single thought. Rebellion against the empress has been unthinkable… but Vivian is no stranger to radical thought or reckless action.

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh – The woods near Greenhollow are occupied by a Wild Man. Tobias is content enough to live quietly in his cottage at the edge of the woods with his cats–and dryads–until a new owner comes to Greenhollow Hall and disturbs things better left buried.

The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull – Aliens called the Ynaa came to the US Virgin Islands five years ago on an undisclosed research mission. This occupation has been mostly peaceful–unless they’re provoked–until a young boy dies at the hands of the aliens.

Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected by Nnedi Okorafor – Not fiction, but rather a memoir of sorts; Nnedi Okorafor explores her personal setbacks and challenges and addresses limitations as fuel for the creative fire.

News and Views

An unpublished manuscript by Anthony Burgess has been found, which is in part about his experience writing A Clockwork Orange and his reaction to the filming of it.

Stranger Things has its own Coke ad.

Yoshida Naoki (creative director of FFXIV) would like to collaborate with George R.R. Martin… but also wants him to finish the books.

Stephen King would like a more faithful adaptation of Under the Dome.

Pride month continues with news of a lesbian couple in My Little Pony!

Umbrella Academy season 2 has started filming.

A look at 6,000 years of fashion that Good Omens skips through.

Here’s a list of 7 mother figures from SFF to be disappointed with you. (Yep, I can definitely feel Nineteen Adze’s [from A Memory Called Empire] disapproval from here.)

Representation for women isn’t really getting any better in video games.

A Book Riot contributor sends out a heartfelt “Thank you, Dad,” for his love of sci-fi.

If you’re in the mood for zombies and some fourth-wall-breaking, deadpan humor, The Dead Don’t Die is out. (I saw it during the weekend and it was… very Jim Jarmusch with an utterly hilarious moment of peak Tilda Swinton.)

More news about the Stephen Universe movie, including Chance the Rapper.

A new sci-fi short film subverts the ‘missing girl’ trope.

On the use of current idioms in fantasy books.

Captain Georgiou? Michael? Is that you? There’s a Star Fleet emblem on Mars.

From the Departments of Hold Me I’m Scared and This Is Totally Novel Fuel, hackers that already went after some petroleum facilities are probing at power grids.

This is cool: Seals with sensors and ice holes in Antarctica.

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 on the (Hugo-nominated!!!) Skiffy and Fanty Podcast or over at my personal site.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships June 14

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date June 13, 2019

Happy Aggretsuko Friday, secretary birds and fennec foxes! May your day be filled with your favorite kind of metal and cute food. It’s Alex, with your dose of news and some free association to take you into the weekend.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tor Books.

Ivy Gamble was born without magic and never wanted it.

Ivy Gamble is perfectly happy with her life – or at least, she’s perfectly fine.

She doesn’t in any way wish she was like Tabitha, her estranged, gifted twin sister.

Ivy Gamble is a liar.

When a gruesome murder is discovered at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages, where her estranged twin sister teaches Theoretical Magic, reluctant detective Ivy Gamble is pulled into the world of untold power and dangerous secrets. She will have to find a murderer and reclaim her sister—without losing herself.

News and Views

The 2019 Ditmar Award Winners (for Australian SFF) have been announced.

A discussion well worth reading about the frustrations of disabled fans with the Game of Thrones finale.

A cool interview with artist Justin Gerard, who’s done a lot of fantasy lit art.

If you haven’t gotten a copy of the New Suns anthology yet, perhaps this excellent review will convince you.

Russian Doll will be getting a second season.

A really cool piece on the origins of the Green Man.

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is going to be an animated film!

You can read an excerpt of Cixin Liu’s Supernova Era over at Tor.com.

Dune: The Sisterhood has been greenlit for yet another streaming service. It’s apparently going to be about the Dune universe viewed through the eyes of the Bene Gesserit, not to be confused with the book of the same title. (I love Dune, but I’m feeling pretty unsure-face about a series that’s all Bene Gesserit that doesn’t seem to involve any women in the upper creative roles?)

At E3, we got a reveal on a game that’s a collaboration between George R.R. Martin and Hidetaka Miyazaki (the creator of Dark Souls).

Ooh, we’re getting reviews of Men In Black: International.

US Weather forecasts got a much-needed software upgrade.

Sci-fi novel idea! There’s a conspicuously large spot of extra mass on the Moon. (It’s probably an old asteroid. But technically we don’t know…)

Free Association Friday

Okay, this is a super cool today in history! In 1822 on June 14, Charles Babbage announced his invention of the difference engine to the Royal Astronomical Society via a paper. This was Difference Engine 0, the first and smallest, which he wanted to use to automate the calculation of astronomical tables that were used by sailors. (Creating tables was tedious, time-consuming work, and errors in the calculations could very well kill people who relied on them.) Babbage’s paper got him funding to work on further difference engines; they weren’t simple calculators, but could be used to calculate polynomial equations. (If you want a more complex description of how they work, see here.) Ada Lovelace got involved in a more ambitious spin-off of the project, the Analytical Engine, and built the foundation for the discipline of scientific computing before her untimely death of cancer at the age of 37.

The impetus for Babbage to start work on the difference engine is attributed to him, frustrated at some terrible, error-ridden astronomical tables, exclaiming: “I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam!”

So you bet your analytical engines this is going to a steampunk place. Of course I have to start off mentioning its cyberpunky crossover in The Difference Engine by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson, in which the computer age arrives a century early and is powered by steam. Ada Lovelace also puts in an appearance as a pre-eminent and elderly scientist in Lev A.C. Rosen’s All Men of Genius.

Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina has an inventor heroine who is living a double life as an engineer on both sides of the law. We’ve got Haitian scientists and mysterious weapons in The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark. In Everfair by Nisi Shawl, Africans develop steam technology ahead of Europeans, and the world is set on a new and gorgeous course. The Sea Is Ours: Tales From Steampunk Southeast Asia edited by Jaymee Goh and Joyce Chng is exactly what it says on the tin and well worth reading. Maurice Broaddus’s Buffalo Soldier starts off in a steampunk Jamaica where a former spy has to go on the run with a mysterious boy. (Maurice also brought us Pimp My Airship.) Rings of Anubis by E. Catherine Tobler sets an archaeologist on a fantastical steampunk adventure through Egypt as she searches for the truth behind her mother’s disappearance. And an automaton that can do alchemy gets involved in a proletarian revolution in The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships June 11

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date June 10, 2019

Happy Tuesday, werewolves and swearwolves. It’s Alex, ready to howl out some new releases and book-world news for you! (And wow, what a week for new releases!) Around my town we’re solidly into farmers’ market season, and I hope you’ve got something just as nice to wander around in and find wonderful gems like a Turkish-Mexican fusion food truck with döner tacos.

This newsletter is sponsored by Libro.fm.

Get three audiobooks for the price of one, with code BR19!

New Releases

The Outside by Ada Hoffman: An autistic scientist whose experimental energy drive destroys the space station it was aboard is given a choice by the AI gods that rule the galaxy: be executed or help hunt down her long-vanished mentor.

Bunny by Mona Awad: Twee college rich girls who call each other “Bunny” have a ritualistic off-campus “workshop” where they magically summon monstrous things.

The Sol Majestic by Ferrett Steinmetz: A teen guru who wants to advise the galaxy’s one percenters wins a fabulous free dinner at the Sol Majestic… and learns it might financially ruin the restaurant in pursuit of his dream.

A History of Soul 2065 by Barbara Krasnoff: A mosaic novel about two young Jewish girls who magically meet on the eve of World War I, and how their promise to meet again echoes through their lives and those of their descendants.

Stronger Than a Bronze Dragon by Mary Fan: Anlei is a warrior who protects her village from shadow spirits; it’s for that protection that she sacrifices her freedom and agrees to get married. The day before her wedding, she encounters a young thief and embarks on a journey to the Courts of Hell, searching for the source of the shadow spirits.

The Book of Disappearance: A Novel by Ibtisam Azem Timberlake, translated by Sinan Antoon: A novel that imagines life in Tel Aviv if all Palestinians suddenly disappeared one day.

The Last Supper Before Ragnarok by Cassandra Khaw: The fifth Rupert Wong novel, which asks an important and really worrying question: “Where did the father gods go?”

News and Views

Huge, if kind of inside baseball: Barnes and Noble has been acquired by the same hedge fund that owns Waterstones. My automatic reaction to the words “hedge fund” is to recoil, but with the Waterstones CEO being in charge, I’m cautiously optimistic?

Three super cute animated Star Wars shorts here.

A list of the ten most stylish hats from genre film. As a person with a deep love of hats, this is the kind of content I am here for.

The Good Place will end with its fourth season. While I’ll sure miss the show, I’m glad they’re doing their planned ending and finishing it how they wanted instead of trying to stretch it out endlessly.

Gwyneth Paltrow apparently forgot she was in Spider-man: Homecoming and her being reminded of it is actually really cute. Jon Favreau’s The Chef Show has also provided us with this adorable clip of Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr. eating oysters.

As someone who was in high school during the reinvention of emo in the mid-90s, I am highly entertained by this list of 8 books for those still emo in their hearts.

In a Vogue interview, Margot Robbie says Harley Quinn’s outfits in Birds of Prey are going to be less ‘male-gazey’ probably thanks to the female producer, writer, director, and costume designer.

The IAU is is running a campaign in which each participating country will get to name its own star and the exoplanets in that system. Over 100 countries have signed on.

These cannonballs might have been used by Vlad the Impaler.

NASA is opening the ISS to for-profit and marketing activities.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships June 7

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date June 7, 2019

Happy Friday to everyone but the jerkface editor of The Atlantic who thinks that only white dudes can write 10K-word cover stories and–sorry, rage-fainted for a second there. Have an equally not-genre-related antidote: a clip of Sutton Foster, Hilary Duff, and Miriam Shor singing a bit of 9 to 5! Anyway, it’s Alex, with some news and general silliness for you, my favorite space unicorns.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tor Books.

Firstname Lastname is a nobody with nowhere to go. Her name is the result of an unfortunate clerical error, and her destiny to be one of the only humans on an alien space station. That is until she sneaks aboard a ship and joins a band of repomen. Now she’s traveling the galaxy “recovering” ships. What could go wrong?

News and Views

Congratulations to the winners of the 31st Lambda Literary Awards! The winner for the SFF/horror category was The Breath of the Sun by Isaac R. Fellman (published under Rachel Fellman).

Winners for the 2019 Neukom Awards have also been announced!

io9 has a short story from this month’s Lightspeed for your perusal: Between the Dark and the Dark by Deji Bryce Olukotun

For Pride Month, I’d like to direct your attention to Bogi Takác’s regular QUILTBAG+ Speculative Classics column at Tor.com.

Also for Pride–the LGBT+ Fantasy Storybundle is live. (Full disclosure: There’s a book by me in this one.)

My favorite pride month Twitter joke so far.

A look at the 1972 film The Blood-Splattered Bride and basically you had me at “lesbian vampire.”

A look at a classic sci-fi novel: Frederik Pohl’s Gateway. This is one of the few classics I read as a kid that I still revisit; I feel like it really holds up.

If Ken Loach directed Star Wars.

Bill and Ted will be going on an excellent adventure with their daughters, Thea and Billie (respectively).

Wonder Woman 1984 has an AWESOME poster.

Writer dropped from a Doctor Who anthology because of his transphobic remarks.

The Halo series wants to have a similar scope and scale to Game of Thrones. I mean, if you’ve played Halo: Reach, they can plainly achieve the body count, too.

George R.R. Martin has joined Meow Wolf as its Chief World Builder.

Robert Downey Jr. continues to be Tony Stark, but this time IRL.

NASA’s deep space habitat prototype has completed ground testing.

Dinosaur bones! In Australia!! That were turned to opal!!! And are from a new species!!!!

Free Association Friday

Today in history, the city of New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. 122 years later, in a completely unrelated event, the Great Natchez Tornado hit Natchez, Mississippi and killed 317 people. That makes it the second deadliest tornado in US History (the deadliest was the Tri-State Tornado that hit on March 18, 1925 and tore across Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana). Weather is scary (and cool, when it’s not coming after your city), which has me thinking about New Orleans again and the way it got hit so hard by Hurricane Katrina. Which takes me to climate change, and one of the predicted effects being more extreme weather.

When it comes to climate change fiction that looks at extreme weather, there’s plenty to choose from. Carrie Vaughn’s Bannerless imagines what society will be like after everything has been wrecked by super storms. Apparently there’s a dystopian twist coming later in the series, though I (weirdly?) didn’t find the first book blatantly dystopian; it’s more a nice sci-fi murder mystery. American War by Omar El Akkad is more post-apocalyptic, imagining an America flattened by extreme climate and plagues–and a second civil war. Rebecca Roanhorse’s Trail of Lightning is an urban fantasy take on that sort of after-apocalypse… with the twist being that it’s a new beginning for a people who already had their apocalypse well before the collapse of the US.

In my (admittedly limited because I am a human being who must sleep and hasn’t read everything) experience, science fiction tends to more focus on the aftermath of the extreme weather, the climate destruction. With fantasy, you get a little bit more of the discrete events themselves, storms as portents and inciting incidents. (Need we mention The Wizard of Oz?) The power of storms gets magically siphoned into orbs in Maria V. Snyder’s Storm Glass. In Ill Wind by Rachel Caine, weather mages keep unsuspecting non-magical people safe from devastating storms… with the help of captive djinn. There’s a plot-related extreme weather event in Charlie Jane Anders’s All the Birds in the Sky, which shall not be spoiled here. N.K. Jemisin has a great story about storms in How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? (Cloud Dragon Skies)–also a story I love about alternate history steampunk New Orleans that has nothing to do with inclement weather (The Effluent Engine).

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships June 4

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date June 3, 2019

It’s the most wonderful day of the weeeeeek: Tuesday! That’s right, it’s new book day! Can you smell the fresh paper on the wind? Hear the pages rustling as they wing their way toward us. Get out your nets, me hearties, and let’s see what we can catch. It’s Alex, with new book releases and nerdy news!

[Editor’s note: This newsletter contains a major spoiler for Game of Thrones, so if you haven’t watched it, skip today’s News & Views section!]

This newsletter is brought to you by Tor Books, proud publisher of An Illusion of Thieves by Cate Glass.

In Cantagna, being a sorcerer is a death sentence. When a plot to overthrow the Shadow Lord and incite civil war is uncovered, only Romy knows how to stop it. To do so, she’ll have to rely on newfound allies—a swordmaster, a silversmith, and her own thieving brother—to pull off an elaborate heist. And they’ll need the very thing that could condemn them all: magic.

New Releases

Unraveling by Karen Lord – A serial killer chasing a myth that might lead them to immortality haunts the City. A forensic therapist named Dr. Miranda Ecouvo is put on the track to find this killer by Chance and Trickster, brothers she meets during a near-death experience.

Wastelands: The New Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams – An anthology of variably created wastelands, with new stories by Seanan McGuire, Tananarive Due, Tobias S. Buckell, Veronica Roth, and others.

Five Midnights Ann Dávila Cardinal – This tagline is amazing: “Five friends cursed. Five deadly fates. Five nights of retribución.” A thriller based on the legend of el Cuco.

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey – Reluctant detective Ivy Gamble, who was born without magic and definitely doesn’t mind that fact, has to solve a murder at a school for mages and reclaim her gifted sister in the process. (Full disclosure: I have the same agent as Sarah Gailey.)

Fire Opal Mechanism by Fran Wilde – Sequel to the gorgeous and heart-breaking The Jewel and Her Lapidary.

The Soul of Power by Callie Bates – A girl who was never supposed to rule finds the crown upon her head and must navigate a political maze she should never have been dropped into.

News and Views

Tor.com has collected livetweets from two really cool panels at BookCon, in case we weren’t envious enough about not being there: Worldbuilding and Rebecca Roanhorse and N.K. Jemisin talk about writing themselves in speculative fiction.

Since Aladdin is upon us, here’s a list of 7 books about djinn! (And while it involves daiva rather than djinn, I’d add that Empire of Sand might hit an adjacent sweet spot.)

First trailer for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is out and it looks utterly gorgeous. Puppets and trauma for everyone!

Next time I’m in Tokyo, I have to go to this sci-fi themed bar.

Four “nonfiction” ebooks about the world of Harry Potter are coming.

Ikea recreated some famous living rooms with their own furniture, including the one from Stranger Things.

New Steven Universe storybook is coming our way: The Tale of Steven.

Ready for another Hidden Figures moment? Here’s an awesome Twitter thread about the only woman who was inside the control room during the Apollo 11 launch.

Robert Pattinson will be the next Batman. This has got to be my favorite tweet about it.

Whether you did or didn’t like the King Bran thing, it’s apparently GRRM’s fault?

The 2019 Eugie Award Finalists have been announced; check it out for a list of some good short fiction to try.

Yeah, we regret you didn’t make The Dark Tower movie horror, too, Ron Howard.

Good Omens easter eggs according to the cast and crew.

Baskin Robbins has some Stranger Things-themed treats.

This Feels Like it Should Be in a Science Fiction Novel Corner

This fascinating review of Underland is here to remind us that our planet can be more fantastic than fiction.

The title: Sonic black holes produce “Hawking radiation,” may confirm famous theory. It just gets cooler from there.

NASA picks three commercial companies to attempt moon landings.

From the department of “I smelled the sour milk so now I’m going to make you smell it too so we can all suffer together, plus holy wow is this some dystopian stuff so silly I don’t think anyone’s ever put it in a novel”: The Department of Energy did a press release that called natural gas “freedom gas” and “molecules of U.S. freedom.”

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships May 31

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date May 29, 2019

We made it to space port, me hearties–happy Friday! The rainbow nebula that is Pride Month is just on the horizon and coming in fast, so prepare the glitter canons. (And if you want something heartwarming, there’s this ad about a dad showing his trans son how to shave.) It’s Captain Alex, with at-least-peripherally-book-related news and whatever random thing from Wikipedia makes me feel like going off on a science fantasy tangent.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tor Books, publisher of A Chain Across the Dawn by Drew Williams.

Esa and her fellow agent Jane Kamali have been travelling across the known universe, searching for children who share Esa’s supernatural gifts, but they are not alone. A mysterious being with impossible powers will stop at nothing to get his hands on the very children Esa and Jane are trying to save.

News and Views

There’s a Good Omens-themed escape room? And David Tennant and Michael Sheen showed up?

SYFY Wire also has a super cute post with pictures of tattered copies of Good Omens and fans talking about how they met their beloved book.

For your heart punch of the day, Terry Pratchett’s hat and scarf had their own seat at the show’s world premiere.

A cover reveal and an excerpt from The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis.

Tor.com has an excerpt fromThe Iron Dragon’s Mother, which is the sequel to this gritty, diesel-punky with fairies book called The Iron Dragon’s Daughter. I mostly mention this because it is a blast from my person past. The Iron Dragon’s Daughter was originally published in 1997, the year before I graduated high school. So… wow.

Ever wonder what Myers-Briggs type various Star Wars characters might be? We’ve got you covered.

Okay, I normally leave comic book news to one of our other newsletters but Dynamite is going to have a miniseries where Bettie Page fights chthonic elder beings.

Tor.com has a round up of genre short fiction from May for you to read.

For the next 20 days or so, you can get the Science Fiction and Fantasy Satire Bundle (curated by Nick Mamatas) and the Afrofuturism Bundle (curated by Tenea D. Johnson) has a bit less than a week left. You can choose to donate 10% of your purchase to charities selected by the curators.

A gentle look at fans being overly possessive of media properties: “Not my Batman” is no way to go through life.

First reviews are in for the third season of The Handmaid’s Tale.

On the sisterhood of Arya and Sansa Stark.

Fans built a full-sized Atlantis Stargate.

The crowd-funded Star Trek: Deep Space Nine documentary is coming to US and Canadian theaters soon.

Astronomical fun: The merger of two white dwarf stars that might turn into a neutron star. And neutron stars might give us some clues about quarks.

Free Association Friday

May 31, 1223 was the Battle of Kalka River, during the Mongolian invasion of the Cumans. And 70 years later, Kublai Khan headed out to invade Java because King Kertanegara refused to pay tribute.

I’m sorry to say that my Google skills have failed mightily and I haven’t dug up any science fiction or fantasy by Mongolian authors for you. I actually haven’t even had much luck finding any literature or poetry in translation, other than this newsletter that’s got a little bit of poetry in it. In penance, I offer this badass music video by Mongolian metal band The Hu, which is guaranteed to make you want to get on a horse and go tearing across the nearest picturesque, steppe-like piece of land you can find. (Or on a motorcycle.)

I can say there’s been a lot of really great Asian-inspired fantasy lately that definitely has not forgotten the Mongolians–and goes beyond the simple and problematic “barbarian horde” trope. The Tiger’s Daughter (and its sequel The Phoenix Empress) by K. Arsenault Rivera’s got to be one of my favorites; the world feels real and lived-in and like it has a history, and the beating heart of the story are lesbian soulmates. Ken Liu’s Grace of Kings is more concerned by civil war, but by the time we get to Wall of Storms, there’s someone knocking at Dara’s door. Elizabeth Bear’s Eternal Sky trilogy starts with the grandson of the Great Khan walking off a battlefield where he was left for dead in Range of Ghosts and proceeds apace. Kate Elliot’s Jaran is set in a sci-fi world with some very Steppe-like features, while her Crown of Stars series is fantasy with a rather Mongolian-esque culture.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships May 28

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date May 27, 2019

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday! In this corner, we have new releases, facing off with our every-newsletter feature of news and views! Whose cuisine will reign supreme? It’s Alex, with some horribly muddled pop culture references, books, and news–so much news!

This newsletter is sponsored by Alfred A. Knopf, publisher of Exhalation by Ted Chiang.

From the acclaimed author of Stories of Your Life and Others—the basis for the film Arrival—comes a groundbreaking short fiction collection, tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only Ted Chiang could imagine.

A portal through time forces a fabric seller in Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. An alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with universal ramifications. The ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radical examination of choice and free will. Including all-new stories as well as classic uncollected works, Exhalation is Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic, and revelatory.

New Releases

Five Unicorn Flush by TJ Berry – Sequel to Space Unicorn Blues, where interstellar travel is powered by unicorn horns; as you can imagine, it sucks to be a unicorn.

The Red-Stained Wings by Elizabeth Bear – sequel to The Stone in the Skull.

Longer by Michael Blumlein – In a universe where the wealthy can reboot themselves to a younger age twice–but not three times–married research scientists Gunjita and Cav have a problem. One of them is on their second and final reboot; one of them is not.

Lent by Jo Walton – Girolamo Savanarola seems to always be miraculously at the right place at the right time to change the course of history.

Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky – An astronaut has been separated from his expedition in a freak accident, and is now lost and alone in an alien artifact.

The Gameshouse by Claire North – The Gameshouse is a place where any game can be played… at any stakes. Including at the scale of empires.

The Quanderhorn Xperimentations by Rob Grand and Andrew Marshall – I think this bit of the back cover copy says it all: “England, 1952. A time of peace, regeneration and hope. A Golden Age. Unfortunately, it’s been 1952 for the past 65 years.”

The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg – The Kingdom is an immersive fantasy theme park created by bioengineering and technology; Ana is one the park’s creations, a perfect princess. She falls in love with a park employee… and then is accused of his murder.

News and Views

Happy belated Towel Day! Ever wondered what Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy character you’re most like? We’ve got a quiz for that.

Stranger Things has an absolutely gorgeous new art book coming out, and io9 has some images.

On the dubious origins of “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.” And on the topic of fairy tales, an argument that Ever After is one of the best adaptations out there.

More Hidden Figures: Two women programmers and the birth of chaos theory.

Scientists think they may have found extraterrestrial organic matter from carbon-rich meteorites mixed with spinels in a 3.3 billion-year-old sedimentary layer.

Also in cool science news: An Iron-age shield made out of bark has been found.

Speaking of wood, this chemically-altered wood may have some exciting applications for fighting climate change.

A deeper look at what star ratings on Amazon actually mean.

Taika Waititi is going to be directing the live-action Akira movie? (On one hand, he has earned my trust. On the other hand, that’s… real different from all of his other work I’ve seen.)

Tor.com collected a list of 13 optimistic fantasy novels.

James D. Nicoll writes about the inevitable trend of older SF books being forgotten.

An fascinating examination of Game of Thrones and the real historical conflicts that it mirrors.

Oh, and George R.R. Martin has at least jokingly indicated a timeline for The Winds of Winter.

Some scientists have attempted to model the tectonic history of Westeros and Essos.

One more Game of Thrones thing because this made me laugh. During filming, Jon Snow was the subject of some hilarious script directions.

Celebrating Alien‘s 40th anniversary with a Lego sculpture.

Inspector Gadget as a refutation of transhumanism.

Director Xavier Dolan called out the film industry for marking films as “gay” like it’s a distinct genre, and not heterosexual. Applies to book world too, I feel like.

On the hotness of beards.

Book Riot roundup of fashion at the Nebula Awards.

Rotten Tomatoes is making it harder for whiny manbabies to manipulate movie ratings.

If you feel like being punched in the heart, here’s a bit about the incorporation of Carrie Fisher into The Rise of Skywalker.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships May 24

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date May 23, 2019

Happy Friday, friends both Seelie and Unseelie. It’s Alex, with your news and some free association for this Friday. Since I’m a human being with a smart phone and a Twitter account, I will say this about Game of Thrones: If you were pleased with the finale, I’m happy for you; if you were upset, I’m really sorry to hear that; and as someone without a dog in the fight, I just want to say damn that was still one heck of an achievement, and here’s hoping that more awesome fantasy series get to ride onto the airwaves.

This newsletter is sponsored by Kingsbane by Claire Legrand.

The sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller Furyborn! Rielle Dardenne has been anointed Sun Queen, but her trials are far from over. The Gate keeping the angels at bay is falling. To repair it, Rielle must collect the seven hidden castings of the saints. Centuries later, Eliana Ferracora grapples with her new reality: She is the Sun Queen, humanity’s long-awaited savior. But fear of corruption—fear of becoming another Rielle—keeps Eliana’s power dangerous and unpredictable. Hunted by all, racing against time to save her dying friend Navi, Eliana must decide how to wear a crown she never wanted—by embracing her mother’s power, or rejecting it forever.

Belated New Releases

There are actually a couple of books I should have mentioned on Tuesday that I missed (shame! shame!), so I wanted to get them in front of your eyeballs now.

Do Not Go Quietly edited by Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner – An anthology of sci-fi/fantasy short stories and poetry about resistance, and the people who resist.

The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas – As you might guess from the title, it’s not fiction. It sounds really relevant to our interests at Book Riot, however; it’s an examination of race in some popular sci-fi/fantasy YA works–and the power of fanfiction.

(Non-Thrones) News and Views

An interview with Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy about queering King Arthur in Once & Future.

The first reviews for the Good Omens miniseries are coming in.

At Tor.com, a fun list of SFF duos that bring out the best and worst in each other.

If you ever wanted to know how many Lord of the Rings-themed wall calendars there have been, there’s a website for that.

Coca-Cola is reviving “New Coke” for Stranger Things.

NASA has put together a plan for returning to the moon after Vice President Pence kind of… sprang it on them. But this caught my eye because I just started reading The Fated Sky (an alternate history in which we’re on the moon in the 60s because Mary Robinette Kowal dropped an extinction-level event meteorite on the Earth in The Calculating Stars). Related, Wired has an interesting article about what an SOB lunar dust is to deal with.

Game of Thrones Stuff!

A video comprised of one second from every episode of the series.

Syfy Wire has a curated list of hot takes, if that’s your thing. And a selection from the Brienne the blogger meme.

Book Riot’s got a good wish list of what fantasy series deserve to get adapted for TV next. And a list of books for people who didn’t watch.

The final Gay of Thrones.

An oral history of Game of Thrones, told by its extras.

We all know who should really be on the Iron Throne.

Free Association Friday

I’m sorry if you’re already Eurovisioned out, but I found out that the first Eurovision was held on May 24, 1956, in Lugano, Switzerland. It’s probably due to my own ignorance as someone who’s only ever witnessed this event from the distance of “what the heck is even happening on Twitter?” that I didn’t realize it’s been going on almost long enough to qualify for Medicare. (Except it wouldn’t need Medicare, because Europe’s got it covered.)

Obviously, when we’re talking Eurovision, the first sci-fi that’s going to spring to mind is Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente, because that’s literally Eurovision in space. Crystal Singer by Anne McCaffrey also springs instantly to mind; in that book, people mine the crystals that basically power everything by singing to them. (There’s also a lot of singing in her Dragonriders of Pern series.) Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is about keeping music (and other art) alive in a post-apocalypse dystopia. In Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, there’s a former ship who sings quite a bit… even if she doesn’t have the voice for it. In a direct crossover from song, Rivers Solomon’s forthcoming novella The Deep flows from a clipping. song of the same name.

Sci-fi has had a close relationship with certain kinds of music from about the 60s onwards. Here’s an interesting look at what prog-rock owes to the genre. The BN blog did a cool list of songs that are basically sci-fi novels. Jimi Hendrix was apparently really into scifi and inspired by it. And then there’s this awesome non-fiction book by Jason Heller: Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded.

Though there’s a lot about science fiction and rock, rap and hip-hop are there, too! Jaenelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer film is nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form this year. Splendor & Misery by clipping. was nominated in the same category in 2017. And here’s a little overview from Vice about hip-hop’s relationship with Science fiction, as well as a Pop Matters list of 10 hip-hop artists who have made forays into the genre to add to your listen list.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships May 21

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date May 19, 2019

Happy Tuesday, space bards and airship pilots! It’s Alex, and today I’m excited about the Nebula Awards (they happened this past weekend) and a slew of new releases.

This newsletter is sponsored by Westside by W.M. Akers.

Gilda Carr is a young detective who specializes in tiny mysteries: the impossible puzzles that keep us awake at night. The tiny cases that distract Gilda from her grief, and the impossible question she knows she can’t answer: “How did my father die?” It’s 1921, and a thirteen-mile fence running the length of Broadway splits Manhattan, separating the prosperous Eastside from the Westside – an overgrown wasteland whose hostility to modern technology gives it the flavor of old New York. Only the poor and desperate remain, and it’s here that Gilda’s tiny mysteries end in blood.

Nebula Awards

The Nebula Awards are given out by the Science Fiction Writers of America–full disclosure, I’m a member–and are right up there with the Hugos when it comes to prestige and how long they’ve been running. (Since 1966 for the Nebulas.) Huge congratulations to the 2019 winners!

Best Novel: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (And I will note, the audiobook, which is narrated by the author, is an absolute delight.)

Best Novella: The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard

Best Novelette: The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander

Best Short Story: “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington” by Phenderson Djèlí Clark

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

New Releases

Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water by Vylar Kaftan – A telepath who cannot remember her supposed crimes is held on a prison planet with only one other prisoner, who assures her of her guilt. Until one day, she hears the voice of another telepath…

An Illusion of Thieves by Cate Glass – “A ragtag crew with forbidden magic must pull off an elaborate heist and stop a civil war.” Sounds like a fun pitch to me!

Starship Repo by Patrick S. Tomlinson – Repomen traveling the galaxy to repossess spaceships, and the main character is named Firstname Lastname… due to a clerical error.

Mischief and Mayhem by S.D. Nicholson – A long-slumbering darkness awakens and invades the land of the Faers. Ophelia Maplewood and the Woodland Scouts try to prevent the chaos from spreading.

Girl Gone Viral by Arvin Ahmadi – Seventeen-year-old coder Opal Hopper commits a small data hack in order to win a contest that will allow her to meet a billionaire entrepreneur who just might have murdered her father.

The Bone Charmer by Breeana Shields – An argument with her Bone Charmer mother causes causes seventeen-year-old Saskia’s future to split in half, and she begins to live both halves simultaneously.

News and Views

If you’re looking for some good shorter sci-fi to read, the Analog AnLab and Asimov’s Reader’s Awards have been announced.

Sady Doyle wrote a humdinger of an essay about the way men fear powerful women as it relates to the Game of Thrones books and show. TW for discussions of sexual violence, because, you know, Game of Thrones.

TIL that Fender has made Game of Thrones-themed guitars. And you can watch Tom Morello and some other guitar gods shred the show theme out on them here.

The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King is being adapted by Hulu.

New teaser for HBO’s adaptation of His Dark Materials.

At Book Riot, we’ve got a list of unlikeable female characters in YA fantasy. Also, the 10 most feminist YA fantasy books of this year.

The Mary Sue has a list of books with asexual representation; there are a couple genre titles.

Bless these Dutch scientists who are using physics to combat tea pot spout dribbling.

Tor.com is offering a downloadable sampler of selections from its 2019 debut novels.

Vulture’s got it right. When I watched the Nancy Drew trailer, my first thought was that it looked like it’s taking place in the same universe as Riverdale… and then there’s a ghost?

The Netherlands wins Eurovision and some other bits about the results. (Still relevant because of Space Opera.)

Data has started coming in from New Horizons’s time in the Kuiper Belt.

Swords and Spaceships

Nommo Awards, Queer SFF, and Gunpowder Fantasy

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date May 15, 2019

Happy Friday to Maleficent and only Maleficent. It’s Alex with a 1500-word ode to Angelina Jolie’s faerie-queen cheekbones because she can cut me with them any time… I MEAN. With your news for the week, most of which has nothing to do with Game of Thrones, and some free association on today in history.