Category: Swords and Spaceships

This is Corina’s favorite book of all time, which I regretfully still haven’t gotten around to reading yet and I need to do it soon if we’re going to stay friends. Along with its long awaited sequel, This Virtual Night and Malka Older’s Infomocracy, these are also books she loosely groups as imagining what the internet could be in the future.

Sharon Shinn and Guy Gavriel Kay (her number one pick for him is Ysabel) are her automatic go-to authors for comfort reads that she returns to again and again. Archangel is extra cool because it’s science fiction masquerading as fantasy, which is always fun.

This is an epic fantasy with a gorgeous environmental message that hit Corina, as the child of two Colorado mountain hippies, particularly hard and really stuck with her. The prose requires some work to read but is incredibly rewarding, and you’ll be thinking about it for months after you’ve finished it.

This is another double feature recommendation, sitting alongside Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. Both are books about people who are really good at math in absolutely reality-bending ways. which is extra cool if you’re a person who’s not necessarily that great at math but still thinks it’s really neat on the principle of the thing.

I told Corina she had to read this book because, and I quote myself here, “it’s about disaster heteros.” She has seen the wisdom of my assessment. It’s a gorgeous Mugal fantasy book, but more importantly, you spend most of the pages wanting to squish the two main characters’ faces together so that they’ll just kiss already.

This book has reincarnation, it’s all about classism/caste, and the main character is a lady who takes absolutely zero crap off anyone.

Beyond the fact that this is a Culture novel and therefore has AI in it (one of Corina’s favorite things in a book, other than dragons), this particular novel has a really cool narrative structure that comes to fruition near the end–and does some really awesome character reveal work.

This is just a delightful, queer book to begin with. In addition, growing up in Colorado meant having grown up around a lot of Latinx culture… and it wasn’t something either of us saw reflected in much of what we read as kids. Cemetery Boys is a celebration of that familiar (if observed from the outside) culture–and such a beautiful story about being loved and accepted for who you truly are.

To celebrate fifteen years at the cutting edge of original short fiction, the podcasters at Escape Pod have put together fifteen stories, including new and exclusive work from Ken Liu, T. Kingfisher, and others.

The Archangels of Death and Disease are gone, but their evil legacy remains in the form of zombie-like creatures called the reborn. It is up to Titus, the Archangel who watches over the continent of Africa, to prevent their shambling spread. His only hope for aide is the Hummingbird, old and powerful and broken, if she will stand by his side to stop the rising tides of death.

Dragons have at last returned to the Hundred Isles, but they bring with them only war and destruction. Shipwife Meas and the crew of the Tide Child discover a derelict ship with a belly filled with dying enslaved people; this horrific find draws them into an even bloodier plot that will test their loyalty–and may well kill them.

The fourteenth anthology that collects short stories set in the universe of the Heralds of Valdemar, this collection includes an all-new story by Mercedes Lackey herself.

Wallace is used to moving around constantly–and he hates it. His dad works for an energy company, but refuses to explain why exactly this means they have to move across country every time his son starts settling into a new school. This time, it’s a sudden move to upstate New York, which has recently suffered an outbreak of strange hysterics–centered on the high school Wallace will attend. The town is more strange than Wallace could have imagined, with trees that talk to people and a student body president who might be falling for Wallace, or might just be sinking into a strange, otherworldly darkness. Wallace needs to find new friends who will listen to him better than his dad–and fight.

Just days after winning James Halliday’s contest, Wade discovers a new technology in the vaults that are newly his–and a new riddle, with a new Easter Egg that will lead to yet another prize. But this time, he’s not just competing against the rest of the OASIS. This time, his most dangerous rival will happily kill millions in pursuit of winning. With his life and the future of humanity at stake, Wade has his work cut out for him.

If you want the most up-to-date Fosterology, here it is: 13 fresh, short stories and novelettes, published in March of 2019.

Madrenga is young and inexperienced and has no business carrying a vital royal message across a dangerous land, with only a runty horse and an even runtier dog as his companions. But he’s all the Queen has, and he’ll be a hero… or die trying.

Alan Dean Foster has done a lot of diving, and he uses all that experience to create an epic fantasy that takes place entirely under water. A merson and a cuttlefish find an unconscious female demon as they return from a shark hunt. A unique friendship develops from this moment, one that will change their world forever as the reef dwellers and the demon band together to protect their home.

In A Call to Arms, The False Mirror, and The Spoils of War, humans are caught in the endless conflict between the allied species of the Weave and the telepathic Amplitur, who would like to subsume all sapient life forms into their great “Purpose.” Both sides focus more on outthinking their foes and find violence generally abhorrent. Humans do not have this “problem.”

The start of the adventures of Flinx and Pip, a freckle-faced red-headed kid and his little–but deadly–flying dragon. Flinx was bought from the auction block for a pittance by Mother Mastiff, who raised him as family. But when she mysteriously disappears, he must search the winged world of Moth to save her, with only his wits, his strange “talent,” and Pip’s venom as his weapons.

This is the start of a portal fantasy series where a typical college student falls through an interdimensional rift and lands in a world where animals talk and sorcery is real. When he picks up a strange instrument called a duar, he discovers that he’s got his own brand of magic that might just be what this strange world has been looking for as it fights against the dark force that would consume it.

When Caiden’s home planet is destroyed, all he has left is a single-minded quest for revenge. Picked up by a crew of alien misfits who fly on a ship that might well be alive–and might contain its own universe–he pursues the slavers that took away everything he loved. His best chance for vengeance is to infiltrate his enemies and destroy them from the inside.

Kit Brightling is a foundling who has worked hard to rise in the ranks of the Crown Command and become one of the few female captains. Her magical affinity with the sea gives her small ship speed and maneuverability beyond its specifications. But when she’s sent on a special mission with Rian Grant, someone she has every reason to distrust, she must learn to set aside her suspicions if they’re to succeed at rescuing a spy and saving their country.

Left for dead by her so-called allies after saving Nikan from invaders and defeating an evil empress, Fang Runin still isn’t ready to give up. She returns to her roots in the southern provinces, and while the leadership of that coalition is untrustworthy, the millions of commoners echo her thirst for vengeance. She will use every weapon to defeat the new Dragon Republic and the colonizers, but will she be able to resist the Phoenix’s urge to burn everything?

The fourth book of the Stormlight Archive saga continues the brutal war of the human resistence against the invasion, with technological discoveries by Navani Kholin’s scholars promising to change the face of battle even as the enemy prepares its own deadly operation. The conflict becomes an arms race set to challenge the heart of the Radiant ideals–and perhaps reveal secrets better left buried.

In an unnamed slum in Argentina, a young woman is compelled to eat earth, and the consumption of it gives her visions of lost and broken lives. At first she keeps these visions to herself, but after befriending a withdrawn police office, word of her ability spreads and soon desperate people are searching her out, trying to find news of their lost loved ones.

In 1920s Shanghai, the streets run red with blood, drawn in a feud between two rival gangs. Juliette Cai, a former flapper who is now heir to the Scarlet, faces off against her first love who betrayed her, Roma Montagov of the White Flowers. But their bitter enmity must be set aside after rumors of a monster in the shadows causing death and madness reach their ears.

Princess Thanh is coming home at long last after years of being a hostage in the country of Ephteria. But she’s haunted by memories of her first romance—and the possibly magical fire that almost destroyed the Ephterian palace where she was held. Since she knows the Ephterians so well, she’s thrust into the role of diplomat… which puts her back into the mix with that lost love of hers—who wants too much from both Thanh, and her home. And always, the fire is calling.

In a 14th century China ruled by the Mongols, a girl and her brother are given opposite fates. For him, glory. For her, nothingness. But when their family is killed by bandits, it’s the boy who dies of despair, and the girl takes her brother’s identity and enters a monastery—and soon she will have the chance to claim his fate of greatness..

A vengeful princess wrongfully exiled by her despotic brother. A powerful priestess with a secret past who wants only to save her family. They meet in the decaying, ruined temple that is the site of the princess’s exile. Their fates and hearts will be intertwined—and they will change the destiny of an empire.

Danso is a disillusioned scholar who would like to escape his rigid life and obligations. He gets his chance when a skin-changing warrior named Lilong, who has magic that shouldn’t exist and is from a place that supposedly doesn’t exist, shows up in his barn. Wrapped up in a conspiracy they can only unravel together, Danso and Lilong set out on a journey to reveal history and magic that has too long been hidden.

I know I’ve mentioned this one a couple of times, and my enthusiasm remains undiminished. Former conductors in the Underground Railroad have settled in Philadelphia after the Civil War, and now they solve the murders and mysteries that the white authorities won’t touch.

The Five-Hop One-Stop is basically a galactic truck stop that orbits the uninhabitable planet of Gora, a place where travelers can pause between wormholes. But when wormhole traffic is suddenly halted, three strangers are thrown together at this unassuming place, and they have a chance to really learn who they are and where they’re going.

The aliens that have been nibbling at the edges of human–particularly Teixcalaanli–space have made their presence known, and they can neither be negotiated with nor destroyed. With no other options, Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus makes one last attempt at diplomacy, calling in Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass. (Full disclosure: Arkady and I have the same agent.)

If you need something done, you hire Cloke because they’re the best: a lab-created mage who is also a cyborg hacker with a big gun. Then they get hired to destroy other copies of themself—but the down payment of a new magical skill is not something they can turn down.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the release of The Empire Strikes Back, a diverse array of 40 authors have come together to take on iconic moments from the film—but from the point of view of the minor and often nameless characters.

Tsiora was ousted as the Queen of the Omehi, and her sister put in her place. She must team up with the battered and vengeance-obsessed warrior Tau in order to delay the strike of the indigenous people of Xidda against the capital… so Tsiora can attack, herself. If Tsiora can reclaim her place as queen and reunite her people, they might just survive the onslaught that comes next. This is the sequel to the excellent The Rage of Dragons!

Deep space exploration is run through virtual reality, with pilots maneuvering their ships extremely remotely thanks to a combination of neural integration and quantum entanglement. Helen Vectorvich pilots a ship involved in the construction of a wormhole gate—only to discover the corporate technology is being eaten by microscopic alien lifeforms, which may or may not be driven by an intelligence.

After Haidee and Odessa have had their lives shattered and rebuilt by being brought together and discovering they are twins, they are determined to leave the Great Abyss and set the world to rights. But while the world might be turning again, the creatures of the abyss have no intention of letting them go without the sacrifice of another goddess. If the sisters wish to survive and break this cycle together, their answers lie in the Cruel Kingdom of the underworld.

After leaving military service, all genetically engineered and technologically-enhanced former soldier Halvor Cullen is interested in is chasing the adrenaline rush he was created to crave. He’s not supposed to live long, anyway. His best friend convinces him to sign on to a salvage crew, and things seem to be looking up… until they find a strange sphere out in the black that downloads an alien presence into their ship. Suddenly, they’re in the sights of the military Hal left behind, and he will have to choose sides in a political struggle he never even realized was brewing.

Stormsong only edges out Witchmark because as much as I love the latter book, I do not like the narrator that much so that’s an “only read in print” situation. But I like Moira Quirk, and I like hearing the story of Dame Grace trying to figure out how to save her country while making sure it atones for the terrible wrong its done, all while she falls in love with a lady who’s a nosey and clever newspaper reporter.

This is actually the first of N.K. Jemisin’s books I ever read, and I got it as an audiobook… and it just completely grabbed hold of me and has never let me go. It’s a hidden princess dark fairy tale with deadly, dynastic politics and gods and ancient wrongs that need to be discovered and redeemed. Love this book, love this narrator, and it’s been a regular listen since I first read it over five years ago.

I love this book for a multitude of reasons, but most of all because it’s ultimately about a character whose superpower is empathy and kindness slowly figuring out how to navigate cut throat politics without letting them destroy what is best about him. Plus, I’m admittedly not very good with a lot of constructed language stuff, and listening to it helps me keep track of the characters and vocabulary in a really useful way. Plus, Kyle McCarley is a really good narrator.

Look, by now there can be no doubt that I love the entire Vorkosigan Saga, and I’m here to tell you that Grover Gardner is my favorite audiobook narrator of all time—and he does the whole series. I re-listen to these constantly. I just picked Memory as my favorite because it’s the book that marks black sheep and snarky, hyperactive, and disabled pain-in-the-ass Miles Vorkosigan shifting from his space military commander phase to his space Nancy Drew phase.

I’ll admit this is not the most relaxing book to read, because it’s an urban fantasy mystery where stuff is constantly going down, but the reason I love this book and its sequels is because listening to it is a transformative experience compared to reading. Listening to Daniel José Older read his own prose reveals a cadence like spoken word poetry. It’s honestly pretty unusual to run across a writer who’s actually really GOOD at reading their own work, and he sets the bar HIGH.

Sin du Jour is a series of seven novellas; this audiobook covers the first three. I love them because they’ve got a diverse set of characters running an urban fantasy catering company for the magic underbelly for demons and elves and such that always tweaks the nose of current events. There’s a fun plot that mixes humor and some scary stakes that’s really there to string together some fantastic food porn.

I’m calling this the “bonus not actually SFF pick but this it Alex’s list of things that bring them comfort when their brain is melting and it would be super dishonest not to put a romance novel on it.” Look, I love this book. It’s got an awesome trans lady as a protagonist, a hot physics professor, a You’ve Got Mail-but-updated thing where they fall in love via an internet that forgot AOL a long time ago, and the narrators are fantastic.

Earth abandoned its interstellar colonists when deep-space travel altered their genes and made them into “Variants” who live in the space stations of the Outworlds. When a major waystation is destroyed in a puzzling suicide attack by a young man who was recieving messages from supposedly uninhabited space and playing a virtual reality game, an explorer and a game designer team up to unravel the mystery.

Prisoner Alpha is an enigma that Dr. Ryan, a military psychiatrist, cannot solve. She speaks a language no one understands, doodles strange pictures, and it’s impossible to tell if she’s a cunning spy who is very committed to her act or… something else. While he tries to unravel that mystery, an archaelogist in Egypt discovers an 18th Dynasty tomb filled with relics that couldn’t possibly have existed at its time. The archaeologist is kidnapped away to a hidden lab. And Alpha… disappears from Dr. Ryan’s ward, and he becomes the prime suspect in her escape.

The mill girls of Lowell have had enough with terrible working conditions dictated by the uncaring bosses and penny-pinching owners. But Lowell has seen strikes before—and seen strikes fold. This time, they have something to reinforce the picket line and make sure no one crosses and no one leaves: a little witchcraft.

In a civil war that has ground to a stalemate, both sides are willing to do anything and give everything to win. On one side is a King at the edge of madness; on the other, a set of allies searching for truths that will tear his forces apart. Two friends caught on opposite sides have their own chance to end the war before the most bitter end possible can be reached… but there are many who would like to stop them.

An overachiever named Prudence Daniels feels like she’s won the jackpot when she wakes up one morning with the magical ability to place instant karma on the lazy and rude residents of her town. It works like a charm on everyone… except her slacker lab partner, Quint, who despite his failure in the lab shows a lot more life working at a rescue center for sea animals. Prudence is in for unraveling the secrets of baby sea otters… and mixed romantic signals.

The House of Wisdom was a massive exploration ship; now it’s a ghost ship, abandoned for a decade due to an outbreak of a deadly virus on board, one that killed its entire crew—minus one—in a matter of hours. Any would-be shipbreak has a rich target, and all they need to do to get it is not care about the potential for the disease surviving… and kidnap the sole survivor of the disaster, whose gene code will allow entry to the ship. Zahra head a ship breaking crew brave (and stupid) enough to do just that… but none of them are prepared for what they find waiting on board.

The bioship Cyclo is a home to many secrets—one of which is Hana, a child hidden by her mother in a secret room, until one day the entire crew simply disappears. But the Cyclo is destined to die as well, and a group of mercenaries have been sent to observe her death. One of the mercenaries befriends Hana, and the two of them must figure out how to survive the dying ship and all the secrets that the human government would like to die with her.

An expedition to map mineral deposits promises mundane dangers like gear malfunctions and cave collapses. The fat paycheck seems well worth the risk to Gyre… until she gets Em as her surface contact, Em who has no problem manipulating her with drugs, withholding information, and blackmail. And there’s more in the caves than just Gyre—there’s the Tunneler that calls them home, and the ghosts in her own head that grow ever louder.

Two months ago, 65,000 alien objects coated the atmosphere of the Earth, screaming out that humans were being watched for a brief second before burning up in the atmosphere. After those days of tense silence, an almost-defunct probe catches an alien signal—but it’s not there to talk to us. Something is coming, and it doesn’t care about humanity. The only hope to attempt First Contact with a disinterested alien mind is to send a group of humans who seem alien to their own species, and hope they can handle what’s waiting for them out in the black.

Human civilization is dying, and the key to its salvation might wait in the hold of the USS John Muir, a chunk of Earth taken from the planet long before straits became so dire. The crew of the John Muir have been in cryogenic sleep for centuries and have no idea what’s going on… but that’s no problem for ship raider Laura Cruz. But soon she and the no longer sleeping crew have a different, more immediate problem: alien monsters that can kill with a sound.

You may be familiar with the movies this book spawned—the evil video tape that kills, the mysterious monster named Sadako who crawls out of your TV. But the deadly threat that kills in seven days has a far different—and much more science fiction—origin in the book, and a much more tragic and horrifying history. I’ll also note this is one of the best translations from Japanese I’ve ever read that wasn’t a Murakami novel.

A poor scholar and a mindship that is a notorious thief and master of disguise meet in the orbitals of the Scattered Pearls Belt. Vân (the scholar) and Sunless Woods are brought together by a corpse found in the quarters of Vân’s student; together they work to unravel a mystery that leads them from tea house to mindship corpse, while the secrets they’ve hidden from each other threaten to destroy them both.

Emilia and Victoria are twins, and both of them are strega—witches living secretly among humans—living out a normal life and working in their family’s Sicilian restaurant. One night, Victoria misses dinner service, and Emilia finds her body, horrifically desecrated, soon after. Emilia will do anything to avenge her beloved twin, even using long-forbidden magic.

The bonds between Midgard and the gods are straining to the breaking point, and the world shows the strain. A demon is accidentally released from Muspelheim; a village that follows the old ways is slaughtered by marauding Christians. Hilda, Ragnar, and their tribesman must find a way to save their gods and save their traditions in the face of a changing, violent world.

Rory Thorne has renounced her title after kicking over everything in her range, and retired to a more peaceful life as an unglamorous privateer at the edge of space. But she and her crew get drawn back into the multiverse’s problems when they find an abandoned ship that seems to have fallen victim to an attack, and take on its cargo: a rose bush that turns out to be both sentient and a powerful biological weapon.

Reynevan is a healer, magician, and quite possibly a charlatan, depending on who you ask. A foolish indiscretion leaves him pursued by some vengeful brothers, and far worse, the Holy Inquisition. His flight leads him to the Tower of Fools, an asylum that might be for the mad or might be for those who have dared imagine a different world. Escaping it will be his most challenging trick yet.