Categories
Swords and Spaceships

The Cozy Fantasy Hearth/Backpack Spectrum

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with your last round of new releases for January. And if there are any typos in this, please forgive me because I’m trying to type around a large tabby cat sprawled in my lap. He’s an old man now (17 years old) so I have a hard time saying no to him even when he’s being really helpful. Stay safe out there, space pirates, give your kitties a kiss for me, and I’ll see you on Friday!

Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process


New Releases

Cover of Light Years From Home by Mike Chen

Light Years from Home by Mike Chen

Kass and Evie haven’t been on speaking terms since the incident… which involved their dad and brother disappear on a camping trip. Dad was found wandering around a few days later, lost and claiming he’d been abducted by aliens; their brother never showed back up at all. Evie has dedicated herself to finding Jakob and become a UFO conspiracy nut, while Kass has given up on him as a runaway burnout. And then Jakob suddenly returns, talking about an intergalactic war…

The Broken Tower by Kelley Braffet

Judah finds herself wandering in an unknown forest beyond the Wall after leaping from the top of the castle tower, choosing freedom and possible death over betrayal. Alone for the first time in her life, she has a chance to try to figure out who she is and what she wants… but she won’t be free for long. Within her lies the key to unlocking the power long trapped in the world, and there are many who wish to find her and use her.

cover of Goliath

Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi

In the 2050s, those with privilege and means have left the Earth behind for the comfortable orbiting space colonies. Those left behind must struggle to survive in a world where, one piece at a time, everything good they could call their own is being sent up to the colonies, one piece at a time.

Midnight in Everwood by M.A. Kuzniar

A new retelling of The Nutcracker, in which a young woman named Marietta Stelle wishes only to be a ballerina, but will have to give up that dream to marry at the behest of her family. But when Dr. Drosselmeier, a mysterious toymaker, moves into the townhouse nextdoor, he brings hope and dark magic in equal measure. He builds her a set for her final performance that will lead her to a realm she could never have imagined.

Cover of Obsidian by Sarah J. Daley

Obsidian by Sarah J. Daley

Shade Nox is a lone witch among wizards, branded an abomination and a criminal by the Brotherhood church. In defiance, she wields her obsidian blades and wears her tattoos openly as she protects her fellow outcasts. With the land around them growing ever more unstable, she resolves to raise a Veil to protect her people, something no one’s been able to do in the last century. And the church swears to destroy her before she has a chance to complete her spell.

Make sure to get your own Read Harder Book Journal from Book Riot to track your reading for the year!

News and Views

The preliminary ballot for the 2021 Bram Stoker Awards has been released

Too Many Books and No Bad Books?

When Does The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Take Place?

Children of Blood & Bone’s Paramount Shift Happened Because of Star Wars

The real story of how Daft Punk became the robots

This is one of the most jaw-droppingly ridiculous things I’ve read about this month. Basically, some cryptobros wanted to make their own Dune and… don’t understand how rights work?

The Hearth/Backpack Spectrum (this is about cozy fantasy)

My Anthology Problem

Robot vacuum cleaner escapes from Cambridge Travelodge

New PenguinCam Takes You on a Chaotic Sardine Hunt

On Book Riot

Why I Gave Up Reading The Wheel of Time

Something’s Amiss: 12 of the Best Gothic YA Books

I Left You Favorite Book Off That List on Purpose

Middle Grad Books About Time Loops…Middle Grade Books About Time Loops

This month you can enter to win a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card and a Nook Glowlight Plus. Canadian readers can enter to win a waterproof Kobo.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!


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.

Categories
Swords and Spaceships

2022 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees

Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and this week I want to chat about the Philip K. Dick Award nominees for this year! Over here, we’re having a chilly week so I made some chili (and cornbread) to warm us up. Hope you’ve had warm and tasty things in your life, too. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I will see you on Tuesday!

Thing that made me smile today: Big Breakfast by Tom Cardy — I love basically everything this man does… prepare to fall down a rabbit hole if you like comedy songs.

Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process


News and Views

The nomination period for the 2022 Hugo Awards has started!

A Holocaust Survivor’s Hard-Boiled Science Fiction

There’s an entire one minute thing that I hesitate even to call a teaser, let alone a trailer, that announces the title of the Amazon LotR series.

Guillermo Del Toro: ‘I saw real corpses when I was growing up in Mexico’

Ursula Vernon has a newsletter

Old Spice has been winning with its ads for a while, but here’s a crossover with The Witcher that extra wins

On Book Riot

This week’s SFF Yeah! podcast is about adaptations.

Xiran Jay Zhao Auctions Signed Book They Sat on and Raises Over $1,000

You can win an audiobook download of the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi.

This month you can enter to win a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card and a Nook Glowlight Plus. Canadian readers can enter to win a waterproof Kobo.

Make sure to get your own Read Harder Book Journal from Book Riot to track your reading for the year!

Free Association Friday: 2022 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees

Yes, I know it’s been ten days since the nominees for this year were announced, but I had already planned to talk about tea-related books last Friday! The nominees are very worth putting a spotlight on, however–because it’s juried, the Philip K. Dick Awards tend to have a different array of books nominated than we see out of the Hugos and Nebulas.

I will note that since this list is just the books nominated rather than something curated by me, it’s not as diverse as I normally like to see, and there are many diverse SFF books that deserved to be nominated as well.

Cover of Defekt by Nino Cipri

Defekt by Nino Cipri

Derek lives and breathes his job at LitenVärld to the extent that in his off hours he resides in a shipping container at the back of the massive store’s parking lot–and this is all he remembers. Then one day he takes his first ever sick day, an unheard of thing for a star employee like himself. Suddenly he finds he must prove his loyalty to the company by doing a special overnight inventory shift… with four other employees named Derek who all look like him. (Full disclosure: Nino and I have the same agent.)

Cover of Plague Birds by Jason Sanford

Plague Birds by Jason Sanford

The plague birds are hated and feared in the world that remains after civilization has collapsed; they are the merging of gene-modded human and AI, and they pass judgment on the those deemed criminal by the benevolent AI that watches over humanity. After seeing her mother killed by a plague bird as a child, Crista must become one of those feared monsters if she is to save her father and her home village.

Cover of Bug by Giacomo Sartori

Bug by Giacomo Sartori, translated by Frederika Randall

Bug is a self-declared “fast friend” who enters the life of the book’s young, deaf narrator without warning and seems to know far too much about both him and his family. But after continuously being misunderstood by the world at large and getting in trouble at school, at least at first, Bug’s help is a welcome relief… even if it’s not strictly legal.

cover of Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

When the ship Ragtime arrives in the Lagos system, first mate Michelle Campion wakes from hibernation to discover that some of her fellow travelers will never join her at their new home. She puts out a distress call, and investigator Rasheed Fin answers, determined to find the cause of these deaths. But its no simple system malfunction–and the repercussions of his discoveries will resonate as far as Earth itself.

Cover of The Escapement by Lavie Tidhar

The Escapement by Lavie Tidhar

A lone gunman called the Stranger embarks on a quest to save his son from another world, striding across the plane known as the Escapement, a place populated by strange and terrible versions of the boy’s favorite things. The Stranger must make it past the Mountains of Darkness if he wants a chance of success, but his time is growing short…

Cover of Dead Space by Kali Wallace

Dead Space by Kali Wallace

After being injured in an attack, Hester Marley finds herself stranded far from home and deep in debt. She has no choice but to take a security job with an asteroid mining company, where her main task is to help her employer maximize profits rather than provide any actual safety. Then she’s contacted by an old friend who was hurt in the same terrorist attack as her… and then that old friend gets murdered. Determined to find the killer, Hester soon realizes that the situation is far worse and more dangerous than she could have imagined.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!


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.

Categories
Swords and Spaceships

An Arctic Plague, a Murderous Instellar Ship, and more SFF New Releases!

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with your new releases for Tuesday and a few links for you to check out. Maybe one of these seven books will be what you need if you, like me, are having a bit of a January slump. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I will see you on Friday!

Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process


New Releases

Cover of Servant Mage by Kate Elliott

Servant Mage by Kate Elliott

Fellian has spent her life as an indentured servant; she’s a Lamplighter, a mage who can use her magic to provide illumination for others. She’s freed from servitude by a group of rebel Monarchists; in exchange they want her to help them rescue their compatriots who have been trapped underground in a mine. But there’s a conspiracy against them, to kill the latest royal child and destroy the Monarchist, and Fellian must find her way out of the conflict if she’s to preserve her new freedom–and her life.

Shattered Midnight by Dhonielle Clayton

Zora is a young Black woman who flees to New Orleans after a tragic accident that she caused with her magic. She wants nothing more than to disappear into the city–and avoid her aunt and her terrible cousins. But when she’s given the chance to perform at a jazz club, she can’t pass it up… and then she falls in love with the club’s white pianist, who has his own magic. They must navigate a love that’s forbidden by segregation and the complicated history they discover that exists between their families if their love is to survive.

Cover of How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

A collection of linked stories about the Arctic plague, an ancient virus unwittingly released on the world by the melting permafrost. The plague reshapes Earth and humanity for generations to come, and this book follows a cast of linked characters across the world and across years, exploring hope and resilience in the face of tragedy.

Akata Woman by Nnedi Okorafor

Sunny Nwazue has been on a long journey to control her magical powers and find a balance in her life between the many worlds she lives in–America and Nigeria, the physical world and the juju world, human and spirit. Now she is called upon to put all she has learned to the test, to embark on a dangerous quest to stop the world from being destroyed.

Cover of The Chosen Twelve by James Breakwell

The Chosen Twelve by James Breakwell

Robots have “deleted” most of the humans on the last interstellar colony ship, leaving only 22 remaining, all of them strangely immortal children. There are 12 seats on the lander that will go down to the monster-filled planet to start humanity’s reboot. But how to figure out which 12 should be chosen, when the robots want only to kill each other and the humans insist on asking a lot of useless questions instead of learning what they need to do…

The Beholden by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Celestia and Izara Da Malena are orphans who have only each other, the daughters of impoverished aristocracy. To keep their land, a failing rainforest acreage, Izara uses a spell she doesn’t fully understand to summon the local river goddess and ask for a rich husband for Celestia. But there is a cost for such favors, and five years late, the goddess returns to collect–and her price will set the sisters against their emperor, the husband the goddess sent to Celestia, and an even more powerful god.

Cover of 36 Streets by TR Napper

36 Streets by T.R. Napper

Lin Vu has made a place for herself in the underworld and made her home in the 36 Streets of Hanoi despite being an outsider everywhere she goes. When the English creator of the immersive game Fat Victory, a simulation of the US-Vietnam War, comes to Hanoi searching for clues about his friend’s murder, Lin is drawn a web of conspiracies and power and she must choose between family, country, and gang.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

News and Views

Trends in Black Speculative Fiction

Notes on Mermaids and Passing as Human

Queer Reading Pleasure: Three Novels by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Interview with Fonda Lee

Lois McMaster Bujold has updated her reading order guide for her own books

The New Killers in Climate Disaster Thrillers

Where to begin reading the work of Juliet Marillier

Teaser trailer for Showtime’s The Man Who Fell to Earth series

Iron Widow author Xiran gives fans what they want: charity auction for sat-upon book

On Book Riot

Why are horror novels so obsessed with mushrooms?

Gideon the Ninth gifts for your necromancer heart

You can win an audiobook download of the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi.

This month you can enter to win a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card and a Nook Glowlight Plus. Canadian Rioters can enter to win a waterproof Kobo.


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.

Categories
Swords and Spaceships

SFF For National Hot Tea Month

Happy Friday, shipmates! Time to pour a nice hot cup of tea during a cold month and pull up a good book! It’s Alex, and I have some tea-related SFF for you and a few links to check out. Stay safe out there, space pirate, and I’ll see you on Tuesday!

Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process


News and Views

Congratulations to the nominees for the 2022 Philip K. Dick Award!

Kindred Adaptation Lands Series Order at FX

Paramount Pictures has picked up Children of Blood and Bone

The Kaiju Preservation Society has been optioned for TV

Interview with Sue Lynn Tan

Women of the Golden Age of Illustration: Florence Harrison

New York Times Magazine did an interview with Neal Stephenson

Loki Reveals the VFX Magic Cast to Create Its Breakout Star, Alligator Loki

On Book Riot

Most Anticipated Books of 2022 — a lot of SFF on here!

20 Must-Read Queer Found Family Books — and on here!

9 Nail-Biting Fantasy Books About Forbidden Magic

15 YA Books Like Firekeeper’s Daughter

This week’s SFF Yeah! is about the most anticipated reads of the first half of 2022.

This month you can enter to win a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card and a Nook Glowlight Plus. Canadian Rioters can enter to win a waterproof Kobo.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

Free Association Friday

Apparently January is national hot tea month? Makes sense when you’re in a place where it gets cold. My hot tea consumption has certainly been up. And tea certainly comes up in SFF a lot!

the tea master and the detective cover

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard

The tea is right in the title of the book, though what you might not know is that the tea master of the title is a sentient space ship who, Watson-like in many ways, joins up with the detective to investigate a murder. I know I’ve mentioned this book many a time, but it’s because I love it. I’m a sucker for both Sherlock Holmes pastiches and space opera.

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

This is actually the second book in this space opera series (the first is Ancillary Justice), but a huge chunk of the plot turns on the planet that produces the most tea for the Radch–an empire for which tea is a huge part of its ceremonial culture–and political machinations that are connected to it. And this, too, has a sentient spaceship as a main character… one that happens to be trapped in the body of an “ancillary.”

the cover of the order of the pure moon reflected in water

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho

The opening scene of this fun novella takes place in a tea house, and will make you think of every kung fu movie you’ve ever seen where there’s a fight in a tea house. Found family, wuxia, gender critique, zany goings-on… there is everything I love in this little book and I will never shut up about it.

Foreigner by CJ Cherryh

The start of a massive and long-running series about a human diplomat moving in an alien world. The whole series has a lot of fascinating politics and sociology in it… and a lot of the diplomacy takes place over slightly less formal teas or highly formal dinners. Tea and food both serve as a really neat window into character and culture. (Convergence is probably the most tea-heavy of the books, but it’s not a good starting place.)

cover of the witness for the dead by katherine addison

The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison

Ah, my favorite sad gay elf book. This is sort of a sequel to The Goblin Emperor, though I think you can get away without reading that book since this one is about Thara Celehar, the aforementioned sad gay elf. Anyway, the point here is that in addition to being sad and solving mysteries, Thara drinks a LOT of tea and frequents a lot of tea houses for plot reasons, and it’s such a fun cultural note that makes the world feel very lived-in.


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.

Categories
Swords and Spaceships

Turkish Delight and Other Fantasy Anomalies

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s the second Tuesday of this new year, and here comes Alex with the next round of new releases for your perusal. The last week has been a very snowy and chilly one where I’m at–and I know I’m not the only one–so I hope you all have been staying snug and warm and enjoying the hot beverage of your choice. (Hopefully with a good book at hand, too.) Stay safe out there, shipmates, and I’ll see you on Friday!

Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process


New Releases

Cover of The Amber Crown by Jacey Bedford

The Amber Crown by Jacey Bedford

The kingdom of Zavonia is on the brink of war, held by a usurper king after the rightful king is assassinated and his queen goes missing. The man who set this political cataclysm off, an assassin named Lind, must right the wrong he did and turn on the one who hired him. He can’t do it alone, but he has help: the captain of the guard who was framed for the murder, and a healer witch charged with a task by the ghost of the murdered king himself.

Ashes of Gold by J. Elle

Rue finds herself locked in a basement prison with no memory of how she got there. Worse, she has no magic and her allies are nowhere to be found. But she’s a girl from the East Row, and that means she doesn’t give up–she breaks out. Once she finds her friends, she must return the magic the Chancellor stole from her father’s people–and figure out how to be the leader they deserve.

Cover of Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

Xingyin has grown up in solitude on the moon, the daughter of the goddess who was exiled there after stealing the elixir of immortality from the Celestial Emperor. But when Xingyin’s magic manifests, she can no longer hide in peace; she’s forced to flee to the Celestial Kingdom in disguise. There, she learns how to use her magic alongside the crown prince, whom she falls in love with, before embarking on a dangerous quest to save her mother that will end in challenging the Celestial Emperor himself.

Battle of the Linguist Mages by Scotto Moore

Sparkle Dungeon is a VR game that combines medieval settings and raves, and Isobel is its queen by grace of her dance moves. Her skill and reputation earns her the opportunity to lean “power morphemes”–words that can warp reality, used by a powerful cabal to control California. But she’s also come to the attention of a resistance movement of magical anarchists. Isobel doesn’t have much time to choose a side, because far more alien threats are coming from other dimensions…

Cover of The Bone Spindle by Leslie Vedder

The Bone Spindle by Leslie Vedder

Fi and Shane are a treasure-hunting team of badass women, following a map to what they think will be riches. Then Fi pricks her finger on a bone spindle, which causes her to be hunted by the ghost of Briar Rose, a prince under a sleeping curse. Now it’s up to Shane and Fi to break the curse on his kingdom while a witch tries to steal Shane’s heart and Fi tries to avoid falling in love with the prince.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

News and Views

In Case You Didn’t Notice, The Matrix Resurrections Is a Trans Love Story

Working toward legacy: A conversation with Ann & Jeff Vandermeer

Tolkien, the Mob, and the Demagogue

The Nature of Imagination in Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story

Batman rewatch: We will never see anything like Adam West’s Batman again, alas

To Boldly Explore the Jewish Roots of Star Trek

Solving the Mystery of Turkish Delight (and Other Fantasy Anomalies)

Mark Yon compares the novel Dune with the two film adaptations

APoD: Hubble’s Jupiter and the Shrinking Great Red Spot

On Book Riot

12 YA Fantasy Books to Eagerly Expect in 2022

15 YA Books Like From Blood and Ash

This month you can enter to win a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card and a Nook Glowlight Plus. Canadian Rioters can enter to win a waterproof Kobo.


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.

Categories
Swords and Spaceships

Most Anticipated SFF Releases of 2022

Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and for our first Friday newsletter of the year, I’m getting a little self-indulgent again–I want to tell you about ten books I’m super looking forward to this year. There are a lot more awesome books coming out than just these ten, of course (and this only gets us as far as August so I expect to do this again in six or seven months), but this newsletter can only be so long. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I hope you’re keeping warm! See you on Tuesday.

Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process


News and Views

Everything you never knew about movie novelizations

Ten satisfying long-term payoffs in George RR Martin’s Wild Cards series

Why 2022 won’t be anything like the 2022 of Soylent Green

The Future in the Flesh: Why Cyberpunk Can’t Forget the Body

The First Generation Ship

NASA’s new space telescope “hunky-dory” after problems fixed

On Book Riot

This week’s SFF Yeah! podcast is about a couple of must-read sequels.

The Ultimate Guide to New Winter YA Books 2022: January-March

Edith Wharton: Horror Writer

You have until the 11th to enter to win a copy of The Starless Crown by James Rollins.

This month you can enter to win a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card and a Nook GlowLight Plus. Canadian Rioters can enter to win a waterproof Kobo.

Free Association Friday: Coming Up in 2022

I’m sorry for being a bit self-indulgent again, but for all my (I hope understandable) dread about the coming year, there’s a lot to look forward to. Movie-wise, we’re getting Everything Everywhere All at Once why actual goddess Michelle Yeoh and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and The Lost City. And books? EVEN MORE EXCITING! Here are the ten I’m looking forward to the most.

Cover of Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

Publication date: April 19

This is the sequel to Black Sun, which is one of the best books I read in 2021 and one of two epic fantasy series that’s managed to truly grab me in recent days. If I was only allowed to buy one book in 2022, it would be this one. GIVE IT TO ME N O W.

Cover of The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri

The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri

Publication date: August 16

Since we’re talking sequels I’m super looking forward to, here’s another one–the next book in Tasha Suri’s “morally grey lesbian” series that started with The Jasmine Throne. Looking forward to it, hoping the guy I really hate gets set on fire.

Cover of Star Child by Ibi Zoboi

Star Child by Ibi Zoboi

Publication date: January 25

This isn’t a novel, but it’s about Octavia Butler–and it focuses on her childhood and early life during the space race and Civil Rights Movement.

Cover of Light Years From Home by Mike Chen

Light Years From Home by Mike Chen

Publication date: January 25

I’ve enjoyed every one of Mike Chen’s books I’ve read (and with each book it feels like he levels up) so I’m jazzed about his take on complicated sibling relationships and UFOs being real making things worse and then forcing sisters to figure their crap out.

Cover of Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston

Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston

Publication date: February 1

Andrea Hairston does gorgeous prose at all times, and I’m excited to see her bend her talents to alternate history that takes place in the vaudeville era, which has hoodoo conjurers also working as performers on the stage and struggling to find the magical world they envision.

Cover of Spear by Nicola Griffith

Spear by Nicola Griffith

Publication date: April 19

You had me at “queer Arthurian fantasy” and then you threw in “girl masquerades as a boy and becomes a warrior and hero who woos maidens.”

Cover of A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

Publication date: July 26

I am weak to a good arranged marriage trope, particularly when it gets hit with a queer twist, which this one promises with its gay character whose politically arranged wife gets traded out for her brother, much to everyone’s surprise.

Cover of The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Publication date: August 9

In this contemporary fantasy, “The Family” is a secretive clan of book eaters, whose scions literally eat books and retain all the information therein. Devon got fed fairytales and cautionary stories, unlike her brothers, and then when her son is born, he seems more inclined to eat human minds…

Cover of Servant Mage by Kate Elliott

Servant Mage by Kate Elliott

Publication date: January 18

A fire mage who gets saved from indentured servitude by monarchists… and then she gets caught up by a conspiracy to destroy those same monarchists by killing the youngest royal child. Sounds fun, and I love me some Kate Elliott.

Cover of Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik

Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik

Publication date: February 1

I had a heck of a good time with Jessie’s previous science fiction romance series (start with Polaris Rising) so I am on board to read about a bounty hunter and a former general in an enemies-to-lovers trope fest.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!


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.

Categories
Swords and Spaceships

2022, as Depicted by Sci Fi Books and Movies

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! Here we are, at the first Tuesday of 2022. Where did the time go? I’m Alex, and I’ve got your first set of new releases for 2022 and some links to check out. I hope everyone had good and safe holidays and your new year was significantly less exciting than what we had in my area of Colorado. (A massive grass fire that destroyed parts of two towns just up the road, followed immediately by a winter storm. Whee!) Stay safe out there, shipmates, and I’ll see you on Friday!

Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective, Jane’s Due Process, and Boulder County Wildfire Fund


New Releases

Cover of Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children isn’t the only place for those who have returned from their doors. There is also the Whitethorn Institute, where the headmaster runs things very differently–not friendly and not safe. Cora, the drowned girl, decides that she wants a different fate and asks to be transferred to this other school. She may get more than she bargained for.

The Starless Crown by James Rollins

When a student foretells the apocalypse, she’s sentenced to death in punishment. Her only hope for survival is to flee into the unknown, where she meets a broken soldier, a drunken prince, and an escaped prisoner who is also a thief. This group must learn to trust each other and uncover the secrets that could avert the coming doom… which draws closer every day.

Cover of Tiger Honor by Yoon Ha Lee

Tiger Honor by Yoon Ha Lee

A young tiger spirit named Sebin joins the Thousand World Space Forces to be like their Uncle Hwan, the captain of a battle cruiser. But when their acceptance letter arrives, so does the shocking news that Hwan is a traitor, having abandoned his duty to steal the Dragon Pearl and disappeared. Hwan’s new goal is to clear his name and restore honor to their clan–but Inspector Yi and their assistant Min are there to interfere with Hwan’s quest… and accuse them of sabotage as well.

The Crossing Gate by Asiel R. Lavie

Lenora lives in a world where adulthood is a magical transformation undergone by children going into the Crossing Gate. At seventeen years old, Lenora is determined to have her Crossing Day so she can start to work to support her family. It all goes horribly wrong when she’s accused of trying to foment a revolution. She must now obey every law to the letter to prove her loyalty… while trying to investigate why she can’t cross into adulthood.

Cover of The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman

The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman

Royal siblings Vira, Ronak, Kaleb, and Riya are estranged, to put it politely. They don’t particularly like each other. But what brings them back together is so important that mutual antipathy must be put aside; they must find the Ivory Key, which will lead them to a new source of magic for their country. Without it, their kingdom will surely fall. Each sibling will gain something different from finding the key, and lose something far worse if they don’t. And the enemies arrayed to keep it from them are deadly and numerous. Working together is the only path toward survival.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

News and Views

2022 according to science fiction, in novels and films

The 2021 Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Horrible Fictional Parents

International Interactions with Tolkien – A Roundtable

Five story-telling lessons from urban legends

Smeg and the art of sci-fi swearing

Fear Is the Mind Killer; What Enlivens the Mind? Dune‘s Alt-Victimhood and Radical Nonviolence in Nausicaä

What Speculative Fiction Writers Can Learn from the Origins and Evolution of the Wuxia Genre

Fellowship of the Ring at 20: The Film That Revitalised and Ruined Hollywood

Real-life quidditch leagues to change Harry Potter sport’s name after author’s anti-trans remarks (the follow-up Op-Ed here is worth a read if you’re interested in the topic.)

California Appeals Court Rejects Cochran’s Effort to Overturn Judgment Favoring Peter S. Beagle

The Creative and Inspiring People We Lost in 2021: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Superhero Icons

On Book Riot

Make your own map room with these gorgeous fantasy maps

Excellent Queer Fantasy Romance Books

A Celebration of Series: The Best SFF Series of 2021

8 books like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

10 Showstopper Books for K-Drama Fans

This month you can enter to win a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card. Canadians can enter to win a waterproof Kobo.


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.

Categories
Swords and Spaceships

More of the Best Indie SFF of 2021

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with your second installment of indie books (self pub and small press) from 2021 to check out. As a heads up, Book Riot will be taking a break over the holidays, so it’ll be two weeks before you get your next newsletter, on January 4… 2022. I hope you have happy and safe holidays, and I’ll see you in the future!

Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process


2021 Indie Spotlight Part 2

Cover of Girls of Might and Magic

Girls of Might and Magic edited by K.R.S. McEntire

This is an anthology of short stories written entirely by authors of color and featuring diverse characters in coming-of-age YA adventures centered around magic and self-discovery.

The Black Parade Boxed Set by Kyoko M

This newly published box set contains the novels The Black Parade, She Who Fights Monsters, and The Holy Dark, chronicling the adventures of seer and demon-slayer Jordan Amador and her partner (and lover) Michael as they combat archdemons, ghosts, and any other supernatural baddy who would like to cause hell on Earth.

Cover of A Touch of Fever by Nazri Noor

A Touch of Fever by Nazri Noor

Jackson Prdye has never been good with actually casting spells, so he’s turned his magic instead to creating enchanted devices as an artificer. But his nextdoor neighbor, Xander Wright, is a pretentious jerk–and worse, an actually good mage–who constantly clashes with him over all the noise. These neighborhood enemies are forced to team up with a strange fever starts tearing through their community, driving mages into murderous rages.

Saving Shadows by Eugen Bacon

This is a collection of 48 pieces of speculative prose poetry and micro-lit, 22 of which are brand new and never before published. This collection also includes 35 illustrations from Elena Betti.

Cover of Cyberfunk! edited by Milton Davis

Cyberfunk! edited by Milton Davis

An anthology of 19 stories by Black speculative fiction authors, this imagines a future where the Singularity is freed from its Eurocentric shackles. Authors in the anthology include Eugen Bacon, Zig Zag Clayborne, Kyoko M, Violette Meier, and more!

Monster of the Dark by KT Belt

At the age of six, Carmen Grey was taken away from her family by three men in black and brought to an underground facility that housed those like her–Clairvoyants. Those who run the facility strip away her identity and carefully train her into a weapon that they aim at their enemies.

Cover of A Theft Most Fowl by Nicole Givens Kurtz

A Theft Most Fowl by Nicole Givens Kurtz

The Kingdom of Aves is an oligarchy where most of the bird clans follow the phoenix goddess who united them, and the Order governs the churches and therefore the lives of the people. After successfully solving one mystery, Hawk Prentice Tasifa returns to her university to find a sacred relic has been stolen from the Museum of the Goddess–and her mentor is being framed for the crime. With the Order breathing down her neck, Prentice is on a short timetable to solve this mystery… but all is not as it seems.

Family Solstice by Kate Maruyama

For generations the Massey family has lived in the same house, on land that’s belonged to them for even longer. It’s a place where everyone comes for fun in the summer, a place of fun and games. And in the winter? The children have to train for their turn to fight what lives in the basement. No child knows what they will be facing down there–it’s a secret–but winning that battle every solstice is what makes the house the warm, beautiful place it is every other day. But this year something is wrong…

Cover of Spelunkers by Cora Buhlert

Spelunkers by Cora Buhlert

College students Evan and Matt (and Evan’s sister Kate, who’s always been responsible for keeping him in one piece) decide to go spelunking during a holiday in Belgium, and that desire takes them to an unexplored cave in the Ardennes. What they find is a portal to another world, and across its threshold could wait adventure… or death.

Scion of Gaia by Michele Amitrani

Persephone (yes, that Persephone, the queen of the Underworld) finds her mother in the ruins of the forest, having been driven mad by some unknown force. Demeter’s madness manifests widespread death and destruction in the world, and Persephone has little time to stop the destruction before it will be too late. She must either save her mother by delving painfully into her own past… or save the world by committing the ultimate crime.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

News and Views

Big congratulations to all of this year’s Hugo Award winners!! (A few highlights: Best Novel was Network Effect by Martha Wells, Best Novella was The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo, and Best Related Work Maria Dahvana Headley’s Beowulf: A New Translation.)

Hades makes history as the first video game to win a Hugo Award

The Precarious Now

It’s time to reimagine the future of Cyberpunk

Magic and Culture Thrive in Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

The second coming of Octavia E. Butler

The Hugo Awards undermined themselves by being sponsored by Raytheon

“Your family needs you” – Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Dragonlance returns in 2022 with a new protagonist after settled lawsuit

On Book Riot

10 queer fantasy romances to warm your cold, cold heart

Why we used to tell ghost stories on Christmas Eve (and why we should restart the tradition)

This month, enter to win a pair of Airpods Pro and a personal reading retreat. Or, if you’re in Canada, you can enter to win a Waterproof Kobo!


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.

Categories
Swords and Spaceships

My Favorite SFF Reads of 2021

Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with a slightly self-indulgent Friday. This is the last Friday newsletter you’ll be getting from me until 2022 thanks to the upcoming holidays, so I want to tell you about my ten favorite books I’ve read this year. Some of them, you probably already know. Some of them you might now. But maybe there’ll be something in the list that you’ll enjoy just as much! Stay safe out there, shipmates, and I’ll see you on Tuesday!

Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process


On Book Riot

The Atlas Six is being adapted into a series by Amazon

Realms to Remember: The Best Fictional Worlds

Murder Mysteries in Space: 10 Thrillers Set Where No One Can Hear You Scream

Anne Rice, beloved author of The Vampire Chronicles, dies at 80

This week’s SFF Yeah! is about year-end favorites

How to start writing fan fiction

Into Every Generation: Buffy Books for Slayers of All Ages

8 fanfics that are even better than the original stories

The best Grishaverse cross-stitch patterns for Leigh Bardugo fans

The mystery of the anonymous fantasy author taking over BookTok

The ideal way to introduce your kids to Middle-Earth

Register by 12/20 to win a copy of Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan.

This month, enter to win a pair of Airpods Pro and a personal reading retreat. Or, if you’re in Canada, you can enter to win a Waterproof Kobo!

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

Free Association Friday: Favorites of 2021

This is the last Friday newsletter I’ll be writing for you this year, and I’m going to be a little self indulgent. I’ve mentioned some books I’ve really enjoyed throughout the year as I’ve read them, but I’d like to just tell you my faves in one place as we head toward 2022. This is drawn from everything I’ve read this year–so there may be some books in here that aren’t from 2021.

the cover of The Mirror Season

The Mirror Season by Anne-Marie McLemore

Considering I wrote an entire spot on how much I freaking love this book, its inclusion in my favorites should be no surprise. All I can say is that I’m still thinking about and recommending this book to anyone who will listen, even months later. It’s gorgeous, and thoughtful, and healing. But remember, trigger warnings in this one, particularly for sexual assault.

Cover of Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

This is just such a fun book, a combination of bananapants mecha action (I’m glad we’re apparently riding a mecha wave in SF novels right now) and absolute rage against the injustice of gender roles and patriarchy. All I can say is there darn tootin’ better be a sequel.

cover image of the empress of salt and fprtune

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

This is a fairly short novella that I would argue is more character portrait than story, in which you learn about the title character through the imprint she’s left in the lives of others. It’s so delicately and deftly done that it was a pleasure to read.

cover of the witness for the dead by katherine addison

The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison

Another “no surprise” book–everyone knows by now that I love The Goblin Emperor, and I was pretty much doomed to love anything that followed, but particularly since it’s about my favorite sad gay elf, Celehar. This is very slice of life at times, which I find delightful, and was just screaming for a sequel… which is coming next year: The Grief of Stones

Cover of Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

I am not much of a one for epic fantasy, but Rebecca Roanhorse got me good with this one. Her world is vivid and well drawn, she manages to make the politics of it legible and interesting, and she got me to buy all in on what is fundamentally a religious dispute with historically conquered people still resisting (partially) their conquest. The characters absolutely make it.

Cover of The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

This book is honestly a bit too on the didactic side for my general taste, but it’s still on my list because there are just so many crunchy, interesting ideas… and it also offers a sense of hope about the slow motion climate catastrophe. There’s no airily waving the disaster away with science fiction, but offering that one can imagine a potentially realistic way to get through this, even with a world that isn’t terribly united.

Cover of Savage Bounty by Matt Wallace

Savage Bounty by Matt Wallace

The second installment of a series I love (first book: Savage Legion) and looking at it from a distance, I can say that I love it for many of the same reasons as I love Black Sun. It’s epic fantasy that operates on an imperial scale that’s very interested in examining how messed up empire fundamentally is and how it’s predicated on the existence of second-, third-, or worse- class citizens. Matt does it with such an economy of language that the books just fly.

And here’s three non-SFF books I want to call attention to, while I’m being self-indulgent!

image of in the dream house book cover

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

I’ve been hearing for years how good and important this book is, and everything I’ve heard was true. Carmen Maria Machado takes on a topic that gets swept under the rug far too often in the LGBTQ community (domestic abuse, so big TW on this one) and does so with beauty and very necessary empathy for for herself.

Cover of Underland by Robert Macfarlane

Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane

Another absolutely gorgeous book that I was destined to love because it’s about the geological depths of the earth that have been created over millions of years. I’m a geologist, I can’t help it.

Arsenic and Adobo cover image

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

I mostly read romance when I need a little break from SFF, but I decided to give this cozy mystery a try–and it’s the first cozy I’ve read, I’d say. This book was just hecka fun, and it’s also got a cookie recipe in the back that I want to try.


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.

Categories
Swords and Spaceships

The Best Indie SFF of 2021

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex with some books for you to check out this lovely day. We’ve at last hit the doldrums of December where not a whole lot is being published… so I’ve decided to take this opportunity to delve into indie (both self published and small press) SFF that’s been published over the last year to spotlight some books I unfortunately didn’t hear about until I went looking. Discoverability: the true challenge of our book reading time. Here’s part one of my findings, and you’ll get part two next week–there’s a lot of fun stuff out there. Stay safe, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Friday!

Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process


2021 Indie Spotlight Part 1

Cover of Evolving Crane by Dave Welch

Evolving Crane: Book One by Dave Welch

In deep space far from our solar system, an alien race struggles to avoid possible extinction. Arlo Crane, a known felon from Earth, is abducted to serve as a tool of salvation–leaving the child he was supposed to be watching alone while his partner, Agent Lawson, is away in London. But Crane unfortunately has far bigger worries, with a multiverse war about to begin…

Exiles of a Gilded Moon Volume 2: Kingdom’s Edge by Dustin R. Cummings

Darshima and his companions have made a daring escape to the kingdom of Tiriyuud on the planet Iberwight, a place that’s been long sealed away from the rest of worlds. These refugees steep themselves in the new culture and find unexpected truths about their own history in it… but they will soon be called upon to defend their new home.

Cover of Once Bitten by Tina Glasneck

Once Bitten by Tina Glasneck

Leslie, a romance author who just wants to unwind by going on a cruise, should have died when she fell overboard into the North Sea. Instead, she’s rescued by something that looks suspiciously like Nessie, who actually turns out to be a shapeshifting dragon. Unfortunately, his last minute intervention turned her into a vampire and sucked her into a supernatural world she knows nothing about.

Purge Sequence by Maquel A. Jacob

The war effort is threatened by the depletion of the Hybrid population. Hana joins forces with some truly shady government organizations to convince people to keep hybrids. The results is… not what he wanted: an underground sex market for those who can afford it. Hana needs to devise a new plan to get humanity back on track before it’s too late.

Cover of The Darkest Soul by D.L. Howard

The Darkest Soul by D.L. Howard

Zazi Ravendark is the scion of an outcast mage family who would like to live her life free of any supernatural obligations, particularly considering her once-proud family is a laughingstock due to their lack of magic. But it turns out Zazi isn’t as magic-less as she thought, and she has no choice but to attend the Shadowcrest University of Magical Arts and Reaping, where it the syllabus doesn’t get you, the gate to the underworld just might.

Galaxy Bound by Vidar Hokstad

With the opening of the Centauri Gate, humanity has at last stepped into a wider galaxy. But when a freighter from Earth is destroyed in this new space, Zara Ortega and her crew are sent to investigate. Soon, they’re finding themselves facing off with a heavily armed fleet who will happily destroy them to keep the truth unknown… and cause a war in the process.

Cover of Songs of Insurrection by JC Kang

Songs of Insurrection by JC Kang

Once the Dragon Singers liberated humanity from the tyranny of the orcs, using their songs to summon typhoons and destroy armies. With a new cataclysm threatening the world, the legends must be reborn, and the best hope is Kaiya, a misfit blessed with a perfect voice. With no one else to guide her, she must rely on a disgraced paladin whose motives may not be entirely noble. (This is a reissue of a book first published in 2018, which contains two new chapters and a short story.)

Chrystine’s Sleep Solution by Danielle Williams

Chrystine Brown is an insomniac who hasn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in over a year. But she’s found a new music app that can put her to sleep–and keep her asleep–but there’s something hiding behind the interface that is a horror that may never let her sleep again…

Cover of Evasion by Glynn Stewart

Evasion by Glynn Stewart

A former nova fighter pilot turned owner-operator of a freelance star freighter, Captain Evridiki Bardacki has had enough betrayal and trouble to last a lifetime. He just wants to trek across space in the Evasion and deliver his cargo on time. But when the victim of a powerful crime syndicate stows away on his ship, he finds he might finally have something to fight for again.

The Awakening by Dusk Peterson

Barrett Boyd was dead a short time ago. Alive again, he’s trying to make sense of a life that’s baffling to him. He’s a guard in the Eternal Dungeon, the royal prison of the queendom; that at least makes sense. But why do some of the prisoners feel so important to him? Why do some of the other guards act as if they have claims to him? And how is he going to survive all this?

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

On Book Riot

The Best Gender-Flipped Retellings

Retellings That Haven’t Happened But Should

How Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine Helped Teach Me to Read

Retellings of Asian Myths, Epics, and Folklore

Enter before 12/16 to win a $100 ThriftBooks gift card!

This month, enter to win a pair of Airpods Pro and a personal reading retreat. Or, if you’re in Canada, you can enter to win a Waterproof Kobo!


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.