Category: Swords and Spaceships

Cas Russell can use mathematics like a magic superpower to dodge bullets. But after having her memories screwed with and her life manipulated, she is rightfully mad as hell by the time she gets to Null Set. That anger powers her to Fight Crime–and fix the problem she herself caused by crushing her last enemies.

The islands of Hans Lollik have been ravaged by colonizers, with families murdered and the survivors subjugated. The anger that comes from that pain drives one woman to try exact her revenge by way of the trhone, and in its sequel King of the Rising, powers former slave Loren to lead a revolution.

Navajo monster hunter Maggie Hoskie has a lot of reasons to be really mad at the world. She’s been given that anger by a lot of betrayal and a lot of death around her, and it’s been used to manipulate her. But it powers her into being almost unstoppable, both in pursuing revenge and pursuing justice.

The Fifth Season starts with an act of destructive anger, when Essun’s husband beats their son to death because he reveals he has the powers of an Orogene, someone who can manipulate seismic energies. It’s set in a world built upon injustice and iniquity, shaped by the rage of the Earth itself at what has been done to it. But Essun and many of the other characters use both their grief and the accompanying anger at what has been done to them to ultimately forge a better world–even if at great cost.

Two archrivals meet at a memory loss support group after having their pasts erased: Jamie, who uses his powers to read and erase the memories of others to hold up banks; and Zoe, who uses her powers of super speed and strength to mostly deliver fast food. They soon realize that the keys to their missing pasts lie in each other. As outer threats begin to mount, they must learn to trust each other–and themselves.

Rubi Whiting has convinced the galactic governing body that humanity deserves a seat at the table… and the responsibility of fixing its own problems. But humanity isn’t being welcomed universally into the galactic community of worlds, and there are those who would happily sabotage its stumbling attempts to stand on equal footing.

After her mother is murdered on her doorstep, Rue is taken away from her neighborhood and her sister, Tasha, by the father she never knew and whisked away to the hidden island of Ghizon. There she learns she is half-god among magic wielders who thrive on human suffering. She escapes to visit Tasha on the anniversary of their mother’s death and discovers her falling under the influence of those that took everything from them. Rue must embrace her true identity and powers if she’s to save her sister and her home.

Driwana is a soldier who works for a merchant guild, guarding their caravans. During a bandit attack, she discovers a corpse hidden in one of the caravan’s wagons. The body is of one of the Oskoro people, and thus a priceless object. As Driwana investigates where the body came from and where it was intended to go, she finds herself on the trail of a great evil that leaves deceit and corruption in its wake.

Catalina has lost everything: her throne, her people, her best friend. She’s been banished to the Yanu Jungle, but she won’t stop trying to escape and regain all she has lost. She’s rescued by Manuel, the son of a general. Together, they will search for the lost city of gold that could buy allies for them both. But first they must find a way to stop the corruption that’s threatening to destroy the jungle and its people from within.

After a terrible freshman year in which she loses her only friend, math prodigy Nephele invents time travel to give herself a chance at a do-over. Only instead, she traps herself in a time loop where time advances without her. On her tenth shot at the ninth grade, she has a teacher who used to be a classmate, and finally has a new friend in a student named Jazz. She’s also figured out how to undo her time loop, but why go back to the past when she has something worth staying for, now?

“I believe that any dad who raises his child to believe the world is full of magic, and that there’s always hope no matter what, truly deserves for her to rescue him one day when he needs it.”

Do you need any more than that? In a world of water, a submarine pilot must rescue her dad and take down a corrupt government.

After a meteor strike means humanity has to get off the planet right now (right now being the 1950s) the next step in the reach for the stars is establishing a moon base. Nicole Wargin, wife of a senator and a Lady Astronaut in her own right, takes what might be her last trip up to the Moon just in time for conspiracies to reach a head and disaster to strike. She and her crewmates have to figure out how to keep everyone alive, find the traitors—and remind the world that hope will be found in space. (This one also involves an epidemic, so take care if you want to avoid that.)

Aliens who are distantly related to humans are made into refugees when their homeland is destroyed, and so they reach out to the people of Earth for a new home. Now the two clashing societies must work together if they are to save themselves and find a new way of being.

Freedom, Truth, Justice, and Reasonably Priced Love. The May revolutionaries of Ankh-Morpork aren’t asking for anything that unreasonable, are they? Sam Vimes gets to live through this revolution twice; once as an idiotic youth and once as his world-weary adult self, kicked back in time by a mysterious accident and still in pursuit of a murderer. He knows how the revolution goes; he knows how many of his friends fall. And he’ll try to save them anyway, even if it means sacrificing his own future life.

The Exodus Fleet is a living relic of humanity’s escape from Earth; humanity has mostly moved on at this point. While the Exodans grapple with their obsolete home and the fundamental question of if their way of life is worth saving at all, the fleet offers a new home and a new beginning to those who feel lost and disconnected from their own lives.

This one might be a bit close to home because the inciting incident for concerts (and other public gatherings) becoming illegal is a pandemic, but…

A musician who has been cut off from her audience performs illegal, underground concerts, and a young woman who spends all her life in the online world makes it her mission to find musicians and bring them to a new, virtual audience.

I generally don’t do graphic novels in this newsletter since they have their own newsletter, but I’m making an exception for this one. In a world where aliens are real and living among us, a Nigerian-American doctor anmed Future who is pregnant under “mysterious” circumstances smuggles an illegal alien plant into NYC and settles into her grandmother’s tenement, among African and shape-shifting alien immigrants. The community faces discrimination, travel bans, and other very topical problems… and if that’s not enough, Future’s pregnancy seems to be changing her…

An alien artifact falling from the sky takes everything from Fatima–even her name. The new name given to her is Sanokfa, and the Angel of Death is the one who named her. Now she searches for that alien artifact with only a fox as her companion, and anyone who gets in her way will face a girl whose simple glance can kill.

Nadezra is the city of dreams, but a corrupt nightmare has begun to weave its way through its underbelly. Ren, who left the city to save her sister and returned as a con artist to gain her revenge, finds herself at the heart of this tangled danger. If she does not save this city she returned to destroy, she’ll lose more than she can imagine.

The Arz has fallen and the battle on Sharr has ended. Though Altair has been captured, Zafira, Nasir, and Kifah are determined to finish the plan they set in motion, to return magic to Arawiya. Nasir must learn to command the magic in his blood while Zafira struggles to maintain her sanity against the bond with the Jawarat–and despite all this, they find themselves falling in love.

Hessa is a warrior priestess called an Eangi, exiled for her refusal to obey her goddess and kill a traveller. While she is exiled, her village is razed and the other Eangi are killed. Hessa has no choice but to try to win back her goddess’s favor by finishing the job she failed at–but along her journey of redemption she discovers the the gods are dying and the afterlife is fading. There is more on the line than her own life after death, and powers older than the gods are about to awaken.

The Forever Sea is a miles-high expanse of prairie grasses, sailed by harvesting vessels. The hearthfire keeper on one such vessel, Kindred, receives news that her grandmother has stepped into the Forever Sea from the railing of another ship and disappeared. But this was not an act of suicide–there’s something going on in the depths, and Kindred’s grandmother has gone to investigate. Kindred soon follows in her grandmother’s footsteps, discovering the conflicts simmering in the dark beneath the green waves–though it might cost her everything to learn.

In a future where corporations jealously guard their territory and tech over the ruins of human civilization, Tanta is an agent who has trained all her life to do InTech’s bidding. When she’s sent outside the corporate territory to retrieve a stolen hard drive, two of her team are killed and she barely makes it out alive. Determined to redeem herself, she starts an investigation that leads her to a conspiracy deep within her employer.

Humans land unprepared on an alien planet, only to find that they’re not the only intelligent life out there–and that intelligent life is nothing the humans could have ever imagined.

Where’s the fruit? The strange plants of this world bear many fruit, and it changes from day to day. Sometimes it’s delicious and addictive, others–poisonous.

After the mysterious death of her father, Faith discovers a strange tree, which grows healthy and bears fruit only if you whisper a lie to it.

Where’s the fruit? The fruit of this tree, if eaten, reveals a truth. And the bigger the lie that made the fruit, the bigger the truth it uncovers when eaten…

A sorceress named Beatrice must choose between making a good marriage for the sake of her family and thus losing her connection to her magic, and asserting herself as a sorceress and remaining forever unwed.

Where’s the fruit? Beatrice makes her midnight bargain by feeding the spirit she summons delicious fruit… among other things.

Although the people would rather live in a green yesterday than face the dying, poisoned present, an old man and his apprentice teach them to hope again.

Where’s the fruit? One of the main characters befriends an elephant by feeding it fruit… and then later, Mango the Elephant becomes instrumental to the story.

A future reeling from a multitude of ecological disasters sends expeditions to the past to observe what earth was like before humans ruined it.

Where’s the fruit? There really isn’t one, but the ship is named the Lucky Peach and I there’s something about that, you know?

An orphaned boy escapes his horrible aunts by rolling away in a magical, giant peach inahbited by enormous, friendly bugs.

Where’s the fruit? The peach is real, and giant. Worth reading once… or twice, even.

Delly, a partly-educated fire witch who also happens to be a part-time thief and con artist, fast talks her way into a bodyguard job for a wealthy lady who will soon be married. She quickly has designs of her own on one of her fellow bodyguards who is out of her league and absolutely irresistible. But soon unknown assassins really are trying to kill Delly’s charge. Can she save one lady and romance another?

The heir to the Frozen Crown of Seravesh must seek an alliance with the nation of Vishir if she’s to save her people from invaders unleashed by a mad emperor. But she’s ill-equipped to play politics and she’s soon mired in court intrigues and far in over her head and threatens to reveal one of her darkest secrets–that she’s a witch.

Another wayward child finds her way to a magical doorway that takes her to a land of centaurs, kelpies, and unicorns–a land where she’s expected to be a hero, though heroism comes in many forms.

Zax travels to a new reality every time he falls asleep, with no control over where he ends up. He has to rely on his wits and what small advantages he can find in each world if he wants to survive–though sometimes he can take friends with him if they’re unconscious in his arms before he falls asleep. And there’s someone following him, someone who wants his uncontrollable power, which would require taking his blood.

Sik is an ordinary kid who just wants to go to school and help his parents out in the deli they own. But then the Mesopotamian god Nergal comes looking for him, convinced that Sik holds the secret to eternal life–and indeed, Sik is unexpectedly immortal. Soon, he’s embroiled in ancient business, and he’s got to work with the adopted daughter of Ishtar and a retired hero named Gilgamesh if he’s going to save New York City from a plague.

The Stranger Times is a newspaper that covers the unexplained and inexplicable, run by a rag-tag group of journalist-rejects who all have their own serious problems. But as their newest reporter starts to dig into her first investigation, they realize that some stories they’ve recently dismissed are real, and indicate the presence of unimaginable powerful and dark forces.

Maia is the half-goblin, youngest son of the Emperor and has lived his entire life in exile, comfortable in the knowledge that he will never have to be involved in politics. When his father and all of half-brothers are killed in an airship “accident,” he suddenly finds himself in power, navigating intrigue that he was never prepared to deal with.

Persephone Station is a backwater planet that the United Republic of Worlds is content to ignore while a corporation makes its home there—and keeps its secrets. Rosie is the owner of a bar that caters to tourists and criminals; Angel is a criminal who does a favor for her. The result is that they both end up in hot water with the corporation—and its private army.

Noah, a man with a shiny new PhD in genetics lands his dream job at a company where he gets to design new lines of living, breathing dragons. These creatures have mostly been used for industrial purposes until now, but the company’s eager to break into the general retail market by designing dragons into the perfect pet. But Noah has other ideas, and his own changes he wants to make to the draconic genome…

A newly-minted 16-year-old Jedi Knight named Vernestra Rwoh is handed a first assignment that feels frustratingly like a babysitting gig: supervise an aspiring inventor four years her junior as they head to a new space station. But bombs go off in the ship as soon as they’re out of reach of easy help, and Vernestra has to keep her charge and several other survivors of the bombing alive after they land their escape pod on a nearby moon.

A humble scribe who thought she was only supposed to record the great deeds of others discovers she may have more power than she could have imagined in a world that stands at the brink of the next Great Dying.

Every seven years, nine Greek gods must walk the earth as mortals. There, they are hunted by those eager to kill a god and seize their immortality. Lore is the survivor of a line of these hunters who were brutally murdered by a rival family. Now, she’s got a chance for revenge against the man-turned-god responsible for their deaths.

Twelve years after a bloody war that has left two nations licking their wounds and smoldering with leftover animosity, the villagers of an isolated village named Jalard have been largely untouched by this trauma. But their yearly contact with the outside world brings shocking changes. Normally, representatives of the Academy come to take two villagers away to join the institute, which has been a great honor. Until this year, when a shocking announcement leaves the residents of Jalard questioning just where their people have been going all these years.

Urban fantasy where elves, vampires, and djinn rub elbows in North Carolina. In this world, PI (and sylph) Arden Finch just wants to practice her forbidden magic and live her life. Too bad the elves have a bounty out on elementals like her… and then one of them accidentally hires her. There’s a second book in the series, too: Eldritch Sparks!

A human scientist, in collaboration with a mysterious counterpart he’s never seen, designs a warship that the government immediately orders him to dismantle. But his collaborator reveals that aliens are coming to conquer humanity, and the ship is what they need to survive. (The second book is out, too: The Last Guardian.)

An anthology of stories and poetry written entirely by authors of Africa and the African Diaspora. Just check out the author list–it’s strong as heck.

The author describes this series as “cozy, optimistic apocalypse.” It focuses on humans doing their human thing, surviving and figuring out how to thrive after the end of the world. In this installment, Jack needs to search for a cure for his three-year-old found sister, Poppy, when her weakened immune system gets hit with an aggressive virus. The answers are out in the wasteland.

Rhona has been battling the malevolent AI that wants to wipe out humanity for as long as the war has been going… until it kills her. Now she’s back, new body, same personality, minus some very important memories. She needs to figure out how to reshape her life and find her way–and get back in the fight.

A collection of seven short stories in which a mated pair of dragon-shifters have adventures that include an egg hunt, illness, and even a murder investigation.

Kira didn’t exactly expect a medal for her wartime heroics, but assassins out for her blood when her government betrays her as part of their surrender terms is exponentially worse. She and her comrades are forced to flee to the edge of civilized space, where they try to build new homes and new lives. But their enemies have a long reach…

A collection of paranormal humor and horror short stories with a New Zealand twist.

An American leaves her failing gallery behind and moves to England after inheriting a manor house in Herfordshire… from a relative she’s never heard of. Soon she’s immersed in the 400-year history of the crumbling house and its overgrown garden, and in that long past, she may at last find herself.

This is the final book of The Poppy War fantasy trilogy, the whole of which is an incredibly tense fantasy series about colonialism and war and the horrible things those both do to people. If you want to give it a whirl, start with The Poppy War.

Final book of The Witches of Lychford fantasy series. Lychford has been a strange place from the start of this five book series, where witches are real and this almost model country village is always threatening to slip into another world. Start with Witches of Lychford.

This is the final book of The Daevabad Trilogy, which is about a canny con woman in Ottoman-era Cairo who finds out that she’s far more than she could have ever imagined, and gets taken into the mysterious world of djinn and immersed deeply in its internecine politics and historical struggles. Start with The City of Brass.

Second in a fantasy duology that starts with The Merciful Crow. A fantasy society with a caste system where the Crows take the dead. A dying king and a prince may or may not keep a promise to change it all.

Second in the duoloy that starts wth The Brothers Jetstream: Leviathan. Epic space opera where crews of total badasses just try to live their lives while the galaxy definitely has other ideas.

Third book in The Salvagers trilogy; start with A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe. This science fiction series is about the rag-tag salvage crew of the Capricious, who are just trying to make ends meet out in the black and keep getting themselves into a whole lot of trouble.

Second book in The Blood in the Stars fantasy duology. Start with Spin the Dawn. A girl who dreams of being a tailor poses as a boy to compete in place of her father in a competition to make the magic gowns for an emperor’s reluctant bride. Her craft will cost her more than she can know.

Final book in the Green Creek series; start with Wolfsong. A pack of humans, witches, and werewolves live in a town called Green Creek, defending the people and palce they love from all comers.

This book finished the fantasy duology that starts with The Never Tilting World about the twin goddesses that have ruled the world of Aeon until one sister betrayed the other. Now there’s half a realm of eternal light, the other of eternal night—and the daughters of the goddesses hope to heal their broken world.

Final book of the Chronicles of Ghadid trilogy; start with The Perfect Assassin. A fantasy series about assassins, first tasked with solving a murder, then forced to fight the undead.

Final book of The Harwood Spellbook fantasy series; start with Snowspelled. In an alternate “Angland,” the ladies rule politics with an iron fist and the more softly emotional gentlemen limit themselves to the practice of magic. But of course no one follows the rules…

Final book in the Diamondsong fantasy serial, which starts with Escape. The Ja-lal have prevented contact with the fairies in the forest they guard for many lifetimes, but those barriers are beginning to crumble and the fairies have their own dangerous agenda.