Category: Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for October 6

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date October 5, 2020

Swords and Spaceships for October 2: Cosmic Horror

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date October 1, 2020

Sponsored by Skyhunter by Marie Lu, with Fierce Reads

A broken world. An overwhelming evil. A team of warriors ready to strike back. #1 New York Times-bestselling author Marie Lu is back with an adrenaline-laced novel about the lengths one warrior will go to fight for freedom and those she loves. “A riveting dystopian novel and a timely story of fighting for what’s right.” —PopSugar

Welcome to October, shipmates—the best month EVER (more on that later)!! It’s Alex with a bit of news and some rather… cosmic books to carry you into the first weekend of International Black Cat Month. (I made that up, but it should be true.) Stay safe, and may you find some joy this weekend, no matter how big or how small.

Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? Louisville Community Bail Fund

News and Views

If you’re quick, you can still grab a ticket for Literary Mothers: Influence and Inspiration with a panel of female Desi authors, hosted by the Carl Brandon Society (and if you don’t get to see the event livestreamed, sounds like there will be a recording you can watch later).

Neon Yang announces their next book!

Pulp Librarian did a thread of amazing (and NSFW) terrible old SFF book covers.

Queer Enchantments: Finding Fairy Tales to Suit a Rainbow of Desires

The Folio Society is doing an EVEN FANCIER version of Dune [than the one I own] for Frank Herbert’s 100th birthday. Limited edition, only 500 copies, and whew— $695 is a killer price tag.

Ms. Marvel has been cast!

Peter McLean’s Priest of Bones is being adapted for TV

On Book Riot

Cover reveal and excerpt: Seed of Cain by Agnes Gomillion (This is the sequel to The Record Keeper and I am VERY EXCITED.)

8 seriously unnerving science thrillers

Free Association Friday: Cosmic Horror in SFF

It’s the most wonderful time of the year
With spiders on cobwebs
And black cats with cute blebs in moonlight so clear
It’s the most wonderful time of the year

It’s the hap-happiest season of all
With kids trick-or-treating
Candy corn for the eating while the goths throw a ball
It’s the hap-happiest season of all!

At last, it’s October! Happy Halloween, everybody! To kick off the best freaking month of the year, how about some SFF with cosmic horror?

Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed – A white child prodigy, Johnny, and her brown, ever-faithful sidekick, Nick, go on a world-hopping quest to stop some very chthonic gods from crossing over into our world. The fact that there are chthonic gods nosing around in the first place may or may not be Johnny’s fault—and there are a lot of other things in Nick’s life that may or may not be her fault as well.

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle – Kind of goes without saying, right? But if you haven’t read this one yet, it’s an answer to “The Horror at Red Hook” and takes on what is the worst about Lovecraft head on. Also, better wordcraft than Lovecraft could have ever dreamed.

White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi – Give a gothic haunted house tale unmistakably cosmic underpinnings and this might be the book you get. Miranda’s mother dies on a trip abroad, which makes Miranda’s pica—which causes her to eat chalk–worsen… and then Miranda starts hearing spirits. Spirits that become extremely hostile when she brings friends to her strange family home.

She Walks in Shadows edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles – If you’re looking for some short cosmic horror, this brings together women from across the world with stories of the weird and Lovecraftian.

Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys – In the late 1920s, the US government rounded up the residents of Innsmouth and took them to the desert, far from their Deep One ancestors and their sleeping god. Only two people from Innsmouth survived… and now the government that took everything from them need their help in the midst of the Cold War.

Agents of Dreamland by Caitlín R. Kiernan – A government agent known only as the Signalman is tracking down a dangerous cult who eat a lot of “magic” mushrooms. Except rather than magic, those mushrooms might be something dangerous and alien… and there’s something out past Pluto that seems about to make contact with humanity, whether we like it or not.

Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw – John Persons is a PI who has been hired by a 10-year-old kid to murder the kid’s dad. But it’s okay, because the dad is a real piece of work. But this abusive, terrible dad might actually be something worse than an abominable human. Thankfully John is up to the job, since he’s ancient and magical himself.

Red Right Hand by Levi Black – Charlie is rescued from certain death at the teeth of three horrifying skinhounds by something that might be worse: the Man in Black, an elder god who demands she become his acolyte in payment for the rescue. But the Man in Black isn’t even the worst evil out there, and Charlie is forced to help him on his quest to destroy the other elder gods.

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin – I can’t tell you why. Just trust me. Plus it’s a dang good book anyway.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for September 29

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date September 28, 2020

Sponsored by the audiobook edition of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini, read by Jennifer Hale.

From Christopher Paolini, author of Eragon, comes an epic adult fantasy debut, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. The audiobook is read by celebrated videogame voice actress, Jennifer Hale, whose varied roles include Commander Shepard in Mass Effect and Rosalind Lutece in BioShock Infinite. In the audiobook, Kira Navárez finds an alien relic on an uncolonized planet. At first, she’s delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move. As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! All hands on deck—new releases spotted off the port bow! It’s Alex, and there’s a bunch of new books to check out this week, as well as some fun news. The weather here has really turned and it’s starting to feel properly like autumn, cool and breezy and hopefully soon to be less on fire. This weekend I made two cakes and one of them turned out all right, so I’ll take my victories where I can. Stay safe, keep sailing, and I’ll see you again on Friday.

Need something to smile about? Fat Bear Week is coming!

Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? Louisville Community Bail Fund

New Releases

Burning Roses by S.L. Huang – Red Riding Hood and Hou Yi the Archer are both middle-aged, tired, and very ready to be REtired. But when sunbirds begin to ravage the countryside, they join forces to save everything they’ve come to love—and embark on an epic quest now with the wisdom of years even if they lack the vigor of youth.

Battle Ground by Jim Butcher – Harry Dresden has a problem. A big problem. Enormous. Titanic, even. Because the Last Titan has declared war on Chicago, and as if she’s not a big enough problem on her own, she’s also bringing an army with her. The only chance that Harry and the entire city have is to kill her, which will change the world forever.

Skyhunter by Marie Lu – Talin is a refugee from the Federation, a terrifying and aggressive empire that conquers and destroys everything in its path using mutant monsters called Ghosts. Talin finds a new home on the last free nation in the world, Mara, and becomes a member of its elite fighting force, a Striker. A mysterious prisoner captured from the Federation may make Talin wonder who he is, but she never questions her loyalty or her determination to fight to the death for the home she loves.

The Loop by Jeremy Robert Johnson – A small tourist town in western Oregon falls victim to a swift and terrifying epidemic of violence perpetrated by the children of executives at a local biotech firm. Lucy is a lonely young woman who’s an outsider in the close-knit community, but she becomes a leader of a band of fellow outcasts. If they stick together, they just might survive.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik – Scholomance is a magic school that regularly pits its students against each other or outright kills them. El is determined to survive the school; she may be unprepared upon arrival, but within her lives a dark power that can level mountains and kill millions. She doesn’t want to kill millions—just Orion Lake, the annoying popular boy who has now saved her life twice.

Spell Starter by Elsie Chapman – Aza Wu has her magic back, and has managed to pay off her parents’ debt to Saint Willow. Unfortunately, the cost of accomplishing those two all-important goals has put her in the permanent employ of a gang leader. But while she can try to settle into that life, Saint Willow has other ideas. She’d rather have Aza as a fighter she can control.

News and Views

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell is the winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award.

Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology is kickstarting

Dear Tolkien Fans: Black People Exist

Check out the trophies for the Ignyte Awards.

Patrick Stewart vs Mark Hamill

The Hidden Girl is becoming a TV series.

Disney has unveiled its tribute mural to Chadwick Boseman

Tomi Adeyemi is one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020, and John Boyega wrote about her.

Cory Doctorow is doing a virtual lecture series in October.

On Book Riot

8 YA fantasy novels set in far-flung corners of the Earth

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

This month, you can enter to win $50 to spend at your favorite indie bookstore and a free 1-year audible subscription.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for September 25: Happy Hamillday!

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date September 25, 2020

Sponsored by our 'Books by authors you should get to know' Book Bundle Giveaway!

Book Riot is teaming up with BookClubbish to give away one book bundle containing 5 books by authors you should add to your TBR list: The Woman Before Wallis by Bryn Turnbull, Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West, The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi, The Bright Lands by John Fram, and A Good Family by A.H. Kim.

Happy Friday, shipmates! We did it. We survived another week. Assuming that you haven’t completely transcended the mortal construct that is time at this point. It’s Alex, with a list of books that came out very silly, and some news items to share, many of which involve pre-orders being available so Past You can send Future You a nice present.

I hope you can keep on keeping on, and stay safe out there.

Happy thing for today: The new season of GBBO starts on Netflix TONIGHT. I am going to bake cake ALL WEEKEND.

Also, the Gundam is WALKING

Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? Louisville Community Bail Fund

News and Views

Cassandra Khaw has written her first full-length novel! You can already pre-order The All-Consuming World.

We’ve also got a cover reveal and excerpt for P. Djèlí Clark’s A Master of Djinn, which sure sounds like it’s in the same delightful universe as The Haunting of Tram Car 015.

Darcia Little Badger talks beautifully about her father, her grief for him, and the influence he had on her as a writer.

Rhianna Pratchett: “Dad would be smiling to see my name on a book”

Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki announced the launch of The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction.

You can now pre-order Silk & Steel: A Queer Speculative Fiction Anthology

The last words of every fallen Lord of the Rings villain and hero

Judith Butler ethered both a completely unprepared interviewer and She Who Must Not Be Named with the grace of an ice dancer and the supreme cutting edge and power of a diamond-bladed pathology saw.

I know I’m wandering a little far from books here, but everything I’ve read about the African Fantasy MMO The Wagadu Chronicles is just really cool

The Evolution of Costumes in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Get your avocados to Mars

On Book Riot

9+ Tolkien-inspired recipes to enjoy on Hobbit day

5 great speculative fiction anthologies of 2020

This month, you can enter to win $50 to spend at your favorite indie bookstore and a free 1-year audible subscription.

Free Association Friday: Happy Birthday, Mark Hamill!

On this day in 1951, Mark Hamill entered the world. Presumably he was not yet wielding a lightsaber, as that could have gotten very awkward. So how about some books that touch on his incredibly varied career?

Please note: Since I was looking for very specific books, this list didn’t come out with quite the diverse authorship I normally want. But hopefully it’s still fun and silly, at least.

The Joker: A Visual History of the Clown Prince of Crime by Daniel Wallace – This is the hill I will die on: Mark Hamill is the best Joker there has ever been (though I will also accept Cesar Romero). And Mark Hamill himself wrote the introduction to this book!

The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu – Luke is obviously Mark Hamill’s most iconic character, and this book explores the stories that the characters within the Star Wars universe tell about him–which may be true or not.

Or if you want a book that’s very Luke-centric from Legends, I definitely recommend Children of the Jedi by Barbara Hambly.

Zorro by Isabel Allende – Mark Hamill totally voiced Zorro in an animated version of the tale, 1997-1998. This book is not about those cartoons, but it sounds like a cool book about Zorro nonetheless.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy by Michael Teitelbaum – I had absolutely no idea that Mark Hamill was the voice of Fire Lord Ozai until I started really diving into his work history. So if you didn’t know either, now you know. There’s some cool backstory stuff about the Fire Nation (and Ozai) to be found in this here book.

How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell – You see, when DreamWorks made movies from these books, they also made a TV series. Mark Hamill was the voice of Alvin the Treacherous in those, which honestly sounds like a lot of fun.

Wing Commander: Heart of the Tiger by – William R. Forstchen and Andrew Keith – The first time I actually saw Mark Hamill outside of his role as Luke Skywalker was when I played Wing Commander III… which I never finished because our PC at the time couldn’t handle it. But it was cutting edge, it had video of him and everything. He plays Colonel Christopher “Maverick” Blair, the main character.

The Art of Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki – Yup, Mark Hamill did a voice in the English dub of Laputa: Castle in the Sky (he was Muska.) It’s also still one of my favorite Miyazaki films, which doesn’t actually have anything to do with Mark Hamill, though I’m sure his presence didn’t hurt.

I also learned that there is a cartoon called Biker Mice From Mars (based on comics) and he voiced the character Pierre Fluffbottom, so if I have to know that, so do you.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for September 22

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date September 21, 2020

Sponsored by Greythorne by Crystal Smith, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Brimming with deliciously mysterious magic, political intrigue, and a passionate heroine who will do anything to save the ones she loves—this highly anticipated sequel to Bloodleaf, praised as “enchanting, visceral, and twisty” by Laura Sebastian, won’t disappoint.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates. It’s Alex, here for another round of new releases. To be honest, this last weekend, with Ruth Bader Ginsburg passing away on Friday, felt pretty brutal. I guess I’m just saying that if you’re having a hard time with all the everything, you’re not alone. Stay safe and take a minute to breathe, even if breathe might mean something like, “turn off the internet for 48 hours and cry.” Then we keep sailing, together.

Rest in power, RBG.

If you need something that’ll make you smile, here’s a little boy and his best friend, the plastic skeleton.

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

New Releases

Miss Meteor by Tehlor Kay Mejia and Anna-Marie McLemore – Ex-best friends Lita and Chicky are both outsiders in their small New Mexico town. Lita wants to enter the Miss Meteor pageant to prove to the world—and herself—that girls who look like her have a place. Chicky decides to help her because it’s a great chance to get revenge on the people who have made them both miserable for most of their lives. (It’s SFF, trust me, but if I tell you how, it’d be a spoiler.)

Sweet Harmony by Claire North – Harmony is tired of everything in her life being as average as she is herself. But she decides to pursue self-improvement in the most modern way possible: upgrading her nanos, something that requires just a few swipes on an app. It seems so easy at first, but there are only so many upgrades a body can take…

Tamora Carter: Goblin Queen by Jim C. Hines – Tamora discovers a couple of goblins digging around in a dumpster one night after roller derby practice—and they’re not the only ones who have come through a magical portal into our world. She quickly realizes that they might be the key to what happened to her best friend, Andre—and that there are things out there much more dangerous than goblins.

The Seventh Perfection by Daniel Polansky – Manet became the God-King’s amanuensis by means of the seven perfections, rendering her body to the peak of physical performance and her mind incapable of forgetting anything she has ever seen. This perfection will ultimately drive her mad, but first she has an unsolvable riddle to unravel, which may destroy the God-King she has crafted herself to serve.

The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi – The consequences of thwarting the Fallen House are still haunting Séverin and his crew. In an attempt to assuage his own guilt, Séverin begins pursuing an artifact that, if the stories are true, will grant its holder the power of God. It’s a quest that takes the crew to Russia and threatens to destroy them before they can complete this one last job.

The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez by Rudy Ruiz – In the border town of La Frontera in the 1950s, tensions are high and cultures continually clash between the white and Mexican-American populations. And in that moment, a son of impoverished immigrants named Fulgencio falls in love with Carolina, the pharmacist’s daughter, a romance that is doomed by forces outside their control. Twenty years later, Fulgencio reads the obituary of Carolina’s husband and sees a second chance—though first he has to break his family’s curse.

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots – Anna is a temp who does office work for some truly terrible people… until an encounter with a “hero” leaves her terribly injured and jobless. With only her fury, the internet, and her office worker ability to collate data left to her, she quickly realizes that she’s not the only person who’s been injured by a so-called hero, and the “good” versus “evil” story being sold is almost entirely marketing. With some careful social media management, she can start pushing her own narrative. Her acumen lands her a new job, with one of the most evil villains remaining, but this time it might be her turn to save the world.

News and Views

Malka Older: The Only People Panicking Are the People in Charge

Let’s Stop With the Realism Versus Science Fiction and Fantasy Debate

You can watch Samuel R. Delany’s 2020 Windham-Campbell lecture

The first real trailer for WandaVision has been released

The 19 coolest starships from Star Trek

Tatiana Maslany will be She-Hulk

Oh my god, Chuck Tingle has made a “select your own timeline” adventure: Trouble in Tinglewood

There’s going to be a Japanese movie adaptation of Heinlein’s The Door into Summer

Terry Goodkind has died

The 2020 Ig Nobel Awards have been announced. You can watch the award ceremony here. It’s well worth your time even if it was virtual this year.

On Book Riot

Explore indigenous futurisms with these SFF books by indigenous authors

Middle Fantasy: a sub-genre for all fantasy lovers

Quiz: Which book of magic and mystery should you read next?

This month, you can enter to win $50 to spend at your favorite indie bookstore and a free 1-year audible subscription.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for September 18

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date September 17, 2020

Swords and Spaceships for September 15

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date September 14, 2020

Sponsored by Oni Lion Forge Publishing Group.

When MNGR First Class João da Silva arrives on the moon of Titan to take charge of Homestead Station, he finds the massive mining colony plagued by tensions between the giant, genetically-engineered Titan workers and the Terran management. As anger mounts, what began as a routine posting quickly turns into something far more dangerous.

Happy Tuesday shipmates! Are you ready for some new books? It’s Alex, with a nice haul of new titles for the week, and some bits of news that you might find interesting. Stay safe out there, and take care of each other.

As I wrote this newsletter, I’d just got done watching The Princess Bride reunion, the table read the surviving original cast (and a bunch of awesome guests) did for the Wisonsin Dems. It was amazing and here’s hoping you can still get a little of how cool it was from checking out the hashtag on Twitter.

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

New Releases

Piranesi by Susana Clarke – Piranesi lives in a house of infinite rooms, its unending halls filled with statues, each one unique. An ocean is imprisoned in the house as well, but Piranesi knows its tides and how not to be trapped in the rooms it floods. His entire life is exploring the house; and the more he explores, the more he begins to unravel a terrible truth, that there is another occupant of the house.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini – Kira finds an alien relic during a routine mission to map a supposedly uninhabited world. But it’s not a relic, and the world is not uninhabited, and first contact isn’t anything she could have imagined.

Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro – Xochitl is the daughter of a conquered village, a wanderer of the desert who speaks to the winds and finds engimatic lines of poetry in the dunes around her. She wishes only to share her heart with a kindred spirit—and so she finds Emilia, the daughter of the murderous conquerer of Xochitl’s village. Together, they embark on a dangerous and mystical journey across the desert. (Full disclosure: Mark and I have the same agent.)

An Unnatural Life by Erin K. Wagner – 812-3, an artificial life-form, is in prison for murdering a human, though he claims to be innocent of that crime. While his kind have legal rights on Earth, the situation on the militarized moon Europa is far murkier. It’s up to his lawyer, a human who has to battle her own prejudices and interpersonal problems, to secure a fair trial and find the truth of what happened.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn – Bree tries to escape her grief at the death of her mother by joining a residential program for bright high school students at UNC. On her first night there, she witnesses a demon, the “Legendborn” students of UNC that fight it, and survives the experience with her memory intact, despite the best magical efforts of those students. It’s an experience that unlocks her own powers—and makes her realize that there is more to the “accident” that caused her mother’s death than she first realized.

The Art of Saving the World by Corinne Duyvis – When Hazel was born in a small Pennsylvania town, an interdimensional rift opened up nearby, one somehow linked to her. She’s never been able to leave her town, lest the rift become volatile. But when she turns sixteen, the rift goes completely out of control and starts spitting copies of Hazel into the world. And they’ll have to work together if they want to save the world.

News and Views

Susanna Clarke’s Fantasy World of Interiors

Scalzi and Zachary Quinto talk about Murder by Other Means

Dan Hanks on the power and pitfalls of nostalgia

Langston League is creating syllabi for each episode of Lovecraft Country

Nine East & Southeast Asian Electronic Artists Finding Inspiration in Speculative Fiction

Dune explained from the new trailer, by someone who has never read or seen any version of it.

James D. Nicoll writes about the Amazing Adventures of Space Cat

Syfy Wire has six sci-fi romances to recommend to you for September

You can see the pictures from the 2020 astronomy photographer of the year winners

If you’re wondering about the science behind the oppressive orange skies seen in California, Wired has it explained.

On Book Riot

The best Star Trek books for the final frontier

This month, you can enter to win $50 to spend at your favorite indie bookstore and a free 1-year audible subscription.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for September 11: SFF ♥ NYC

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date September 11, 2020

Sponsored by our 'Books by authors you should get to know' Book Bundle Giveaway!

Happy Friday, shipmates. We made it through another week, so take a deep breath—if you can—and let’s talk fiction to get away from reality. It’s Alex, with some book news and some themed book picks. Stay safe out there, space pirates, especially if you’re on the west coast. Please be safe.

A thing that made me smile this week: This snippet of a punk cover of How Far I’ll Go

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

News and Views

OMG Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas hit the NYT bestseller list!!! Trans book by a trans author on the NYT!!!

Cory Doctorow is running a kickstarter to produce the audiobook verision of Attack Surface, the third Little Brother book.

There is going to be a cat on Star Trek: Discovery. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. HE IS AN ABSOLUTE UNIT. Also, the season 3 trailer has me running in circles and screaming that it’s not October already.

When Speculative Fiction Becomes Reality

Nicky Drayden has put up her short fiction collection for free

Perhaps the best celebration of Star Trek Day. Though the Klingon cooking show pilot is a very close runner-up.

On Book Riot

The new Dune trailer is here!

Two episodes of SFF Yeah! for you: Episode 86.5 is about weird women in SFF! In episode 87, guest Preeti Chhibber chats about Baby Yoda, the Wheel of Time adaptation, and The Witcher.

This month, you can enter to win $50 to spend at your favorite indie bookstore and a free 1-year audible subscription.

Free Association Friday: SFF ♥ NYC

Well, Lin Manuel Miranda called New York City “the greatest city in the world” via the lyrics of Hamilton, and I’m not here to pick fights. It makes a great setting for fantasy—and a little bit of science fiction—and often, the city is a character itself, living and breathing and ugly and beautiful all at once. So here are some SFF books that heart emoji NYC big time:

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin has New York as a literally living city when its born into being. And unlike some other cities, it has six avatars—one for each borough and one for the city as a whole. And unfortunately just like many other cities that didn’t make it past their birth, there is an evil force not of this world trying to strangle it in its cradle…

New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson gives us a New York City 120 years in the future when the ice has melted and the coasts have flooded, but New York lives on with its skyscrapers jutting from the sea like glittering islands. New York City did not drown—it rode the wave.

The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty – A travel writer who needs a new start in life takes a job in New York City. Her first assignment is to write a tourist guide to the city itself, a daunting task of itself, but worse, it’s a guide for the undead. And since our writer heroine is very much alive and human, trying to write for an audience of monsters is more difficult than she could have imagined.

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson gives us New York City on the eve of World War II, the background for a noir tale about a white-passing Black woman who has “saint’s hands” that make her a gifted assassin. She’s given up her past for her life in the city, but her past hasn’t forgotten her.

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker – At the turn of the 20th century, a golem whose master has died and left her purposeless and a jinni who has been released but is still definitely not free meet in New York City. First they become friends, and then they become more, figuring out how to complete each other’s stories.

Disappearing Nightly by Laura Resnick – First of the Esther Diamond urban fantasy series, it’s about an actress who just wants to take her shot at stardom and not go back to waiting tables. When she receives a mysterious warning to give up the stage, she goes to her best friend, a 350-year-old mage whose job is protecting the city from capital-E Evil. Shenanigans ensue.

Daniel José Older has the Bone Street Rumba series (start with Half-Resurrection Blues) and the Shadowshaper Cypher series (start with Shadowshaper), both of which take place in a New York City that has weird and wonderful magic seething just below the surface. Half-Resurrection Blues gives us ghosts and necromancers and half-dead agents of the New York Council of the Dead; Shadowshaper gives us a young artist learning to give her work power by infusing it with ancestral spirits. All of it is in absolutely gorgeous, rhythmic prose.

Dead to Me by Anton Strout – A man with the power of psychometry (learning an object’s history by touching it) gives up his life of petty crime to join the Department of Extraordinary Affairs. And his first case involves the ghost of a beautiful woman who doesn’t actually realize she’s dead.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for September 8

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date September 8, 2020

Swords and Spaceships for September 4: Afrofuturism Spotlight

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date September 4, 2020

Sponsored by Vault Comics and #1 New York Times Bestselling author Brandon Sanderson’s new, original hardcover graphic novel DARK ONE!

From Brandon Sanderson comes Dark One, the first in a series of original graphic novels, from Vault Comics. Order now!

Some worlds are made to be broken. Paul Tanasin is a young man haunted by visions of a dark and fantastic world―visions he initially believes are hallucinations. But when he discovers they are prophecies from Mirandus, a world in which he’s destined to become a fearsome destroyer, he’ll have to embrace the fear, rise up as the Dark One, and shatter everything. Dark One examines the dual roles we often take on in life—the ability to be a savior as well as a destroyer.

Happy Friday, shipmates! We made it through another week! August has been consigned to the dustbin of history, and good riddance (unless your August didn’t suck, in which case, please do not let me toss it away). It’s Alex, with some news—a LOT happened this week, wow–and a very abbreviated glance at some Afrofuturist books, since that’s a topic way too broad to truly handle in one little newsletter. Take care and stay safe!

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

News and Views

Octavia Butler finally hit the NYT bestseller list (for the week of August 29). The snip in the tweet is from the Paperback Trade Fiction list, with Parable of the Sower at number 14. For more on her work, there’s a great Book Riot post to get you started.

The Three Body Problem is being adapted for a Netflix series. Here’s a New Yorker profile of Cixin Liu from 2019.

Star Trek: Discovery has announced more of its season 3 cast, which includes a nonbinary actor and a trans man actor.

FIYAHCon invites you to enjoy all of its Friday programming for free.

John Boyega did an excellent and absolutely unflinching interview with GQ Magazine that is a must read. No, really. Go read it. Right now. I’ll wait.

New short story from Tochi Onyebuchi: How to Pay Reparations: A Documentary

Strange Horizons just published its 20th birthday issue.

New Zen Cho novel on the horizon!!

Ryan Coogler writes about Chadwick Boseman. Marvel put together an incredibly touching tribute to him. Letitia Wright wrote a beautiful poem.

As an aside, this is a cool article about the evolution of the Dora Milaje from comics to how they were seen in Black Panther.

Per KJ Charles, you’ve only got a limited time left to snag Samit Basu’s amazing novel Chosen Spirits.

On Book Riot

How The Hunger Games prequel helped me realize I’ve changed

10 of the best urban fantasy series to read

This month, you can enter to win $50 to spend at your favorite indie bookstore and a free 1-year audible subscription.

Free Association Friday: Afrofuturism Spotlight

In honor of Chadwick Boseman’s most famous role (though did you know he was also an award-winning playwright before he broke out as an actor?) I wanted to put the spotlight on Afrofuturism, since Black Panther is arguably what put a much older (though the term itself originated in 1994) literary movement into the broader [white] cultural spotlight.

(Also as a note, Nnedi Okorafor draws a distinction between Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism, which is why her books aren’t going to be in this FAF. I’m also not educated enough to go further into the academic discussion.)

Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler – This is a compendium of the entire Xenogenesis trilogy, which was actually my introduction to Butler’s work (and left me actually angy that I hadn’t known to read her earlier). Humanity has been almost destroyed, and their only chance for survival is a strange kind of symbiosis with the alien Oankali.

The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead – The Department of Elevator Inspectors is divided between the good-old-boy Empiricists, who do everything by the book, and the Intuitionists, who are able to understand any defect an elevator has via meditation. Lila Mae is the first Black woman inspector; she’s an Intuitionist, and she is never wrong. When an elevator goes into freefall on her watch, the Empiricists jump at the chance to blame her… so she decides to start her own investigation into the incident, one that will lead her to a secret that will change her life forever.

Blood Colony by Tananarive Due – The blood of immortals is the source of a drug called “Glow,” which can cure almost any illness–including the scourge that is AIDS. But the people who make and distribute Glow are being murdered by a violent, fanatical sect linked to the Vatican… and ultimately, it’s up to one teenaged immortal girl to stop them before they take everything she loves.

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delaney – In a dead city at the center of the United States, only madmen and criminals wander the streets. Into this place arrives a young man known only as the Kid, a poet and wanderer, who will uncover its mysteries.

Mindscape by Andrea Hairston – For 115 years, the world has been divided by the Barrier, created by an extraterrestrial and epi-dimensional entity seemingly intent on dividing humans into warring factions. A treaty has been painstakingly created to end the wars, but the architect is assassinated, much to the glee of the power-hungry politicians and religious fanatics who liked the conflict the way it was. It’s up to her protege, Elleni, to repair the shattered treaty.

Prey of the Gods by Nicky Drayden – A future South Africa rapidly advancing with personal robots and new renewable energy infrastructure is about to get hit with a triple whammy: a new hallucinogenic drug, an AI uprising, and an ancient demigoddess who wants to reclaim her power with a lot of human blood. It’s up to a quirky cast, each of whom has their own serious issues, to keep their bright future—or any future at all—alive.

Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett – I can’t do a punchier summary than this: “A computer program etched into the atmosphere has a story to tell, the story of two people, of a city lost to chaos, of survival and love. The program’s data, however, has been corrupted.”