Category: Swords and Spaceships

Happy Friday, shipmates. We made it through another week, and we should be proud. It’s Alex with some news and some book suggestions for Amistad Books’ Blackout Bestsellers challenge. It’s been hot as all heck so far this week where I live, but there’s a promise of rain coming–I hope the winds where you are blow your way, too.

Extremely cute: sometimes the void screams back.

This is a really cool thread about sleuthing internet folklore.

News and Views

Must read: L.L. McKinney on the role publishing plays in the commodification of Black pain

The love letters of Tove Jansson (creator of the Moomin series)

BBC radio has an interview with Nnedi Okorafor

Alex Brown has a list of must-read speculative short fiction for this month.

The visual narration of joyful queer futurism

Max Brooks’s Devolution is already being developed for feature film.

New short story from Sarah Pinsker: Two Truths and a Lie

Joe Cornish and John Boyega are talking about an Attack the Block sequel!!! (If you have not seen this movie, YOU MUST.)

You had me at “Tessa Thompson and Hot Jaffar”

A super cute tardigrade for you!

There’s a green glow around Mars. 2020 needs to calm the hell down.

On Book Riot

Once upon a time, there were 8 LGBTQ+ fairytales from 2020…

10 LGBTQIA+ fantasy and sci-fi adventures to take you far from here

4 apocalyptically good books like The Last of Us

This week’s SFF Yeah! podcast is about Pride Month, anti-racist SFF, and most-anticipated books of 2020.

Enter before the end of the month and you could win a 1-year subscription to Audible or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.

Free Association Friday: Blackout Bestsellers

Amistad Books has issued a challenge for the week of June 14-June 20 (that’s tomorrow): buy any two books by Black writers to try to Blackout the Bestseller Lists.

I bought Lakewood by Megan Giddings (an intense look at medical ethics and race) and The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin (living cities, come on!).

If you want to participate, here’s eight more suggestions for what you could purchase. I’m focusing on 2020 releases, since those are likely to be up in the numbers anyway–and pre-orders sadly aren’t going to count toward Amistad Books’ challenge, unless it’s for a book coming out next week. Though you should totally pre-order some books, too. If you want even more suggestions, N.K. Jemisin has a twitter thread.

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi – A Black girl with supernatural powers holds the fate of Los Angeles in her hands when she is devestated by the arrest and incarceration of of her brother.

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow – A young siren hiding her powers and a human girl who has literal demons in her past form an unbreakable bond of friendship that will help them survive their junior year of high school and the growing danger of the world around them.

Stormsong by C.L. Polk – In the wake of Aeland’s horrible secret being revealed, Grace must try to save her country from a series of ever-increasing storms from the outside, and from rogue mages and a queen uninterested in necessary change from the inside. Oh, and she might be falling in love with a nosy reporter named Avia Jessup.

A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell – An absolutely gorgeous SFF anthology filled with resistance, hope, and stories of Black women and gender non-conforming people.

Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown – A young wizard from the west side, a place of poverty and ubiquitous magic, transfers to a wealthy school on the east side. As she travels between those two worlds, she realizes that she leaves a part of herself behind on the east side… and not everything in the west side is as it seems.

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland – Jane just wants to head west to find her mother, but she ends up in a protected village called Nicodemus instead, and what she finds there has her questioning her life, her survival, and everything she’s learned as a slayer of the restless undead.

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown – When a vengeful spirit abducts his sister, Malik strikes a deal to secure her return–he must kill the Crown Princess Karina. Meanwhile, Karina has her own ambitious and deadly plans; she will resurrect her mother by marrying the winner of the festival competitions and then cut her husband’s still-beating heart out to fuel the ritual. And then Malik and Karina begin to fall for each other…

The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow – Aliens control the Earth, and emotional expression (and thus art) is outlawed after emotions caused an unfortunate misunderstanding that ended with the aliens killing one third of the Earth’s population. Ellie keeps a secret library of music and books… except one day she’s discovered by an alien commander. But instead of delivering her for execution, he finds he really enjoys music.

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See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates. The hits just keep on coming, huh? Alex here, and I’ve got some new releases and some news items if you need something to escape into for a bit. The power might be fighting us as hard as it can, but you can’t keep good space pirates down. Unfurl the black flag, keep the powder dry, and eyes up to the horizon!

A thing that made me smile: Geolgical baking!

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

New Releases

Note: There do not appear to be any authors of color on the new release lists for this week I have access to. (Just gonna gently set down the link for FIYAH’s Black SpecFic Report portal here.)

Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks – In the wake of Mount Rainier’s catastrophic erruption, the Greenloop Massacre was almost forgotten… until the journals of one of its victims came to light. The bloody, terrifying truths revealed in those journals are many, but the most earth-shattering is that Bigfoot walks among us, and is not friendly.

The Unconquered City by K.A. Doore – It’s seven years after the hungry dead rose in an event called the Siege, the city of Ghadid remains unbowed, protected by its militia against the ever-increasing waves of flesh-hungry guul. Illi, trained to be an elite assassin in that militia, must face her inner demons and her past when a general from a neighboring nation arrives searching for the source of the guul–and in that search, the unearths a terrible secret hidden at the edges of Ghadid.

The Grand Tour by E. Catherine Tobler – A collection of stories of Jackson’s Unreal Circus and Mobile Maramalade. The steam train that brings the circus mysteriously to town might seem ancient, but its metal confines lead to destinations beyond the imagination, just waiting for the right visitor. The circus is a place where you can be whoever–or whatever–you want.

The Kinder Poison by Natalie Mae – Zahru is a lowly girl with magic that only allows her to commune with animals; she believes she’s fated to work in the royal stables until her magic runs dry and she dies. When the Crossing, a deadly race across the desert, is invoked to determine the next heir to the throne, Zahru sneaks into the palace for a night to enjoy the revelry. But one mistake puts her between the feuding heirs and directly in the middle of the Crossing–but not as a contestant. She’ll be the human sacrifice the triumphant heir will make at the end of the contest.

The Lightness by Emily Temple – After her father disappears while on a meditation retreat, Olivia follows him to the mountains to find out what happened. She signs up for a summer program for troubled teens at his last known location, the Levitation Center. She’s drawn to a trio of fast friends who are determined to achieve enlightenment this summer and learn to levitate.

Hella David Gerrold – Hella is a world that’s earned its name, home to dinosaur herds, mile-high trees, and a climate so vicious and extreme that the human colonists who live there have to migrate twice a year to escape it. A neuroatypical young man with real-time access to the colony’s computer become the bridge between the residents of Hella and a ship of refugees from Earth that arrives unexpectedly. Can a barely self-sufficient colony take the burden of a thousand new people, bringing with them many of the problems they were fleeing?

News and Views

Because we need joy to fuel the fire, the People of Colo(u)r Destroy… special issues of Lightspeed are now FREE.

New Star Wars anthology alert! From a Certain Point of View strikes back.

A delightful low-budget remake of Alien.

Sarah Pinsker’s A Song for a New Day has been optioned for television.

The next Doctor Who audio series is going to be about Rory, and what he was doing that whole time he was sitting around and guarding a giant box.

Hans Solo, ranked.

A history of slash in six ships.

Deep structures in the Earth! Geology is awesome!

How do neutrinos get their mass?

Kathy Sullivan was the first woman to walk in space, and now she’s the first woman to visit the Challenger Deep.

On Book Riot

15 Paranormal Mystery Books to Read Right Now

You can win a copy of Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams

Enter before the end of the month and you could win a 1-year subscription to Audible or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.

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See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.

Well, this has sure been a week, hasn’t it? But we did it, shipmates! We made it to Friday. Drink some water. Stretch. Unclench your jaw. It’s Alex, with some news and important (if difficult) essays, and then a bunch of books by trans and nonbinary authors for your perusal.

Something that brought me a lot of joy this week: if I haven’t mentioned it recently, I’m a dedicated player of the game Destiny. The look forward to the coming content gave me happy chills. And started my Tuesday this week in an exciting way.

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

News and Views

I’m not going to get into Those Statements by She Who Shall Not Be Named, because I’m sad and angry and frankly? Incredibly tired. But here are a few things worth reading:

• Book Riot’s succinct statement.
• Kacen Callender (author of Queen of the Conquered) shares their deeply personal story over at Them.
• Gabrielle Bellot writes about transphobia and growing up with Harry Potter.
• All around good human Daniel Radcliffe responds over at the Trevor Project.
• Tamora Pierce was a balm to my soul today.

Bogi Takács has done a twitter thread of books by Black intersex authors.

The finalists for this year’s Sturgeon Award have been announced.

New short story from K.M. Szpara: We’re Here, We’re Here

E. Catherine Tobler wrote a short story about a gay fashion vampire: True in His Fashion

Charlie Jane Anders on: Everything is broken! What do I write about?

Soulstar (third book in the series C.L. Polk started with Witchmark) has a cover and I want it now!

Also, A Desolation Called Peace (sequel to A Memory Called Empire) has a cover and it’s gorgeous! (full disclosure: Arkady and I share an agent.)

Bill & Ted Face the Music has a first trailer now.

Ronald McNair’s Civil Disobedience: The Illustrated Story of How a Little Boy Who Grew Up to Be a Trailblazing Astronaut Fought Segregation at the Public Library

On Book Riot

This week’s SFF Yeah! is about Black women in SFF.

How A Wrinkle in Time got me through depression.

Give Me More Sirens in Fantasy

Enter before the end of the month and you could win a 1-year subscription to Audible or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.

Free Association Friday: Trans and Nonbinary SFF Showcase
For reasons that should be obvious, I want to shine a spotlight on books written by trans and non-binary authors. Here’s a selection that’s just the tip of the rainbow iceberg. (And don’t forget Kacen, to whom I linked above!)

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas – A trans boy named Yadriel accidentally summons the wrong ghost when he attempts to prove he’s a real Brujo… and then the ghost won’t leave.

Ardulum by J.S. Fields – Neek ekes out a living piloting a dilapidated transport, but her dreams are haunted by a traveling planet, Ardulum, which visited her people long ago and brought them art and technology before vanishing.

No Man of Woman Born by Ana Mardoll – A collection of short stories in which trans and nonbinary character subvert gendered prophecies.

Automaton by D.J. Goodman – In the near future, the creator of the first robot indistinguishable from a human discovers that some are willing to kill her over her creation. In the far future, an automaton discovers a human wandering in the woods… something that should be impossible because humans have been extinct for 300 years.

She of the Fallen Stars by Dane Figueroa Edidi – All you need to know is that it’s space opera, and there are trans space pirates.

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi – A trans girl tries to figure out how to stop monsters that no one will admit exist, aided by a terrifying creature who came from one of her mother’s paintings.

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee – Best, silliest summary: “Two ghosts have an argument about daylight savings time. Billions die.” (But make it space opera.)

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White – Treasure hunters in a race to find the greatest war ship the galaxy has ever seen, which has long been missing.

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy – A young woman investigating her best friend’s suicide traces him to a community of squatters watched over by a protector spirit… just as the spirit begins to turn on its summoners.

Stealing Thunder by Alina Boyden – A former crown prince leaves behind her royal life–and hateful father–to become a dancer and thief. But when she crosses paths with a prince of another kingdom, she loses her heart and finds herself embroiled in dangerous politics again.

Love after the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction edited by Joshua Whitehead – An anthology of utopian speculative stories by Two-Spirit and queer Indigenous writers.

Spellhacker by M.K. England – After a plague released by an earthquake devestates kills thousands and makes magic a commodity controlled by a nasty corporation, Diz and her friends make their living stealing and reselling it. And this is going to be the last heist they ever have to do…

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See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! I hope everyone has been hydrating, getting in some stretches, and pacing themselves. It’s me, Alex, bringing you the new releases for the coming week and a few SFF news links. My bright spot for the week is that I successfully made a sourdough starter (still need to figure out a name for it!) and then used it to make some extremely tasty cinnamon rolls this morning. I used this guide, if you want to get into the yeast wrangling game, though I will note I had to give mine way more water, maybe because I live in a high plains desert.

This thread by writer Ursula Vernon (aka T. Kingfisher) is an unexpected journey that I feel compelled to share.

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

New Releases

Note: The lists of new releases I have access to only included one author of color this week.

Spy, Spy Again by Mercedes Lackey – Prince Kyril and his friend Tory somehow share the Gift of Farsight. The puzzled Herald’s Collegium decides to test and train them anyway, even though they haven’t been Chosen… and then it turns out they actually have separate but complementary Gifts. When a distant cousin of Tory’s is kidnapped and that side of the family calls in an old debt in a desperate attempt to get her back, he’s certain he can find her and solve everyone’s problem. It’ll just take a dangerous journey to a distant land… and taking the prince with him.

Red Noise by John P. Murphy – An asteroid miner arrives on station, just wanting to sell her haul, have a little break, and be left alone. Instead she’s thrown into the middle of a standoff between crooked cops and criminal gangs. Given the choice to take a side or blast the whole thing to smithereens, she’s more than ready to start lobbing grenades.

No Man’s Land by A.J. Fitzwater – During the Second World War, Dorothea “Tea” Gray joins the Land Service and is sent to a farm in the golden plains of North Otago, on the South Island of Aotearoa. In the dust and hot sun, Tea finds more than the satisfaction (and exhaustion) of hard work–she finds a magic within herself that might be able to save her younger brother, sent off to fight in the war, and a love she never could have imagined.

The Deathless by Peter Newman – Humanity is hunted by the terrifying creatures that populated the endless forests of the Wild, waiting to make the unweary who try to scratch out a living into food. But humanity has protectors: the Deathless, seven royal families that rule from crystal castles and are reborn into flawless bodies. The Deathless and the Wild form a tentative balance… one that is shattered when the hunts of House Sapphire begin to fail and assassins come to call.

Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams – Agnes is a girl who loves her small community of Red Creek, watched over always by God who lays down strict laws and requires unquestioning obedience. Though Agnes fails at obedience, she barters regularly to get insulin for her younger brother, even though medicine is outlawed. Then she meets a boy from Outside and begins to realize the terrible truth: Red Creek is a cult, and the Prophet of God who controls is a cruel madman. But the Outside is not a perfect escape either; a pandemic is burning through the world at a terrifying rate…and Agnes is somehow connected to it.

Half Life by Lillian Clark – Lucille becomes the ultimate overachiever when she enrolls as a beta tester in an experimental cloning program. At first, her clone, Lucy, is everything Lucille dreamed; she Lucy picks up the slack so Lucille can have a social life again. But as Lucy begins to assert herself as a separate entity, Lucille realizes she’s watching someone live her life, and do it better than she ever could.

News and Views

An Ode to Black Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers

Science fiction author Tananarive Due asks, “Can we live?”

A statement from the Science Fiction Writers of America about Black Lives Matter and the protests

The Pride story bundle has arrived!

Ken Liu recommends 5 books as the best of speculative fiction

This TikTok is an entire scifi movie

The 10 worst scifi movie vehicles, ranked

A really cool Twitter thread about the careers and art of Leo and Diane Dillon.

The finalists for the 2020 Eugie Award have been announced

Max Brooks talks about Bigfoot.

On Book Riot

Quiz: What should your next Neil Gaiman read be?

Enter before the end of the month and you could win a 1-year subscription to Audible or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.

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See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.

Happy Pride Month, shipmates, though I think with overwhelming consent we’ve skipped straight to Wrath. It’s Alex, with some genre news and another list of books from Black authors you should really check out. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and load your flintlocks with all the kindness they can hold.

Looking for something you can do to help? blacklivesmatter.card.co

Totally unrelated happy thing: You can stream The Merry Wives of Windsor from the Globe Theater until June 14. They did a fun 1930s-setting for this one.

News and Views

Must read essay: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream: The Duty of the Black Writer During Times of American Unrest

Freebird Books is offering sets of N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy for $30 to go to the NYC Books Through Bars program.

Speaking of N.K. Jemisin, now is a really good time to read her short story, The Ones Who Stay and Fight 

Nicky Drayden has posted a short story for free on her Patreon: The Horse Women of Cincinnati 

Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore in Minneapolis burned down during the protests; they’re running a GoFundMe to rebuild.

Strange Horizons, which has a long tradition of publishing new and global SFF stories (and now translations as well) is running its yearly fundraising drive.

Congratulations to the winners of the Lambda Literary Awards! Of particular interest to us:

• The Deep by Rivers Solomon, et al., won for LGBTQ SF/F/H
• The Grief Keeper by Alexandre Villasante won for LGBTQ YA
• Aurora’s Angel by Emily Noon won for Lesbian Romance

K.A. Doore has done a round up of queer adult SFF published in 2020 for Pride Month!

June 2 was the 100th birthday of Bob Madle, who named the Hugo Awards.

On Book Riot

Science Fiction for Early Readers: The Fantastic World of Dinosaur Train

This week’s SFF Yeah! is about anime and manga.

Enter before the end of the month and you could win a 1-year subscription to Audible or a $250 Barnes and Noble gift card.

Free Association Friday: Supporting Black SFF Authors Part 2

Let’s do this again, from the top. The best way to support writers is to buy their books (or get them from the library), read them, share them, review them. Here’s another set that you should definitely check out.

And this list is still non-exhaustive. We could do this all day.

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi – A Black girl with psychic powers holds the fate of LA in her hands when her brother is arrested.

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson – A mixed-race girl named Immanuelle tries fit in by following a life of absolute conformity and worship in her puritanical village. But when the spirits of the wood give her the diary of her long-dead mother, she begins to learn the grim truth about her village… and find the power within herself.

The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow – In an alien-controlled world where books and music are illegal thanks to a little misunderstanding that caused the death of one third of the world’s population, a human teenager and an alien commander bond over the power of music.

Slay by Brittney Morris – A Black teenager who is also a game developer must fight to save her creation, SLAY, from racist media smears and a determined online troll.

Lakewood by Megan Giddings – After her grandmother dies, Lena is forced to drop out of college and support her family. Luckily, she finds a good-paying job at Lakewood, a place that hosts the cutting edge of pharmeceutical and medical research. All she has to do is keep her mouth shut about what the research is doing to its subjects, many of whom are Black like her—because that’s the price of progress, right?

The Record Keeper by Agnes Gomillion – Arika lives in a world rebuilt in the aftermath of World War III, where race is caste and she’s privileged to become a Record Keeper for the Kongo. And she’s about to learn that everything she thought was true is a lie.

We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin – A biting, incredibly dark comedy set in a very-near-future America where Jim Crow has returned with a vengeance. A Black man obsesses over obtaining a “complete demelaniztion” procedure for his dark-skinned son in hopes of him having a brighter future.

Given by Nandi Taylor – Dragon children are so rare that each dragon only has one soul mate… but this dragon’s soul mate is a princess too busy trying to save her people to have time for him.

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna – Sixteen-year-old Deka’s worst fear comes to pass when, in the blood ceremony that will let her fully join her village, her blood runs gold. She can submit to the fate dictated by her impurity if she stays in her village–or she can join an army of girls like her to fight the emperor that threatens her land.

The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow – In an alien-controlled world where books and music are illegal thanks to a little misunderstanding that caused the death of one third of the world’s population, a human teenager and an alien commander bond over the power of music.

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson – Phyllis is lured from Harlem to the glittering underworld of Manhattan, where she becomes a knife for hire that strikes fear into the hearts of even the most powerful. But after ten years, her own history—and the history of her people—is about to catch up with her.

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See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.

Welcome to Tuesday, shipmates. It’s Alex, and I’ve got six new releases for you (a bit weighted on the YA side this week) and a few genre news items. In reality-land… it’s been one heck of a week, and a difficult one. I imagine most of us are still stuck at home (thanks, Covid-19), and it’s got a particular flavor of helplessness this last week, which doesn’t necessarily lend itself well to doing anything but watching the news and worrying. Be kind, listen, stay safe, and love one another.

Black Lives Matter.

Good non-SFF things for a Tuesday: Bail funds for Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Louisville, Houston, Detroit, and a master list of more.

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New Releases

The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso – “Nothing must unseal the door” is the most important directive given to Ryxander, a Warden of Gloamingard Castle. At the castle’s heart lies a black tower that has been sealed with magic for a thousand years, its dangerous secrets contained. But one bad, impetuous decision leaves Ryxander with blood on her hands and darkness about to burst forth and cover her world.

Star Wars: Queen’s Peril by E.K. Johnston – After winning the election for Queen of Naboo, Padmé Naberrie leaves her home for the palace and takes the name Amidala. She begins to recruit the trusted companions that will be her protectors, spies, and confidantes, learning each young woman’s strengths and figuring out how to unite them as a group. When the Trade Federation invades Naboo, it’s up to the young queen and her as-yet-untested handmaidens to defend their home.

Stormblood by Jeremy Szal – Harmony injected Vakov Fukasawa with alien DNA to make him a super soldier–a Reaper; while it worked on the side of bio-enhancement, it also permanently altered his body chemistry, leaving him addicted to adrenalin and aggression. And in so doing, Harmony discovered an entirely new drug market for millions of its civillians. Vakov walked away from Harmony, but now his former fellow Reapers are being murdered by someone–or something–and his brother might be involved. It’s an investigation Vakov can’t turn down.

The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant – In a world where the French Revolution failed, the people are caught between the ever-more cruel and merciless nobility and the nine criminal guilds that have become known as the Court of Miracles. Eponine is a talented cat burglar who spends her nights on robberies and her days on avoiding her abusive father and protecting her adopted sister, Cossette. When Tiger, the head of the Guild of Flesh, takes an interest in Cossette, Eponine must choose between losing her sister forever or setting off a war between the guilds.

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown – In an attempt to escape their war-torn home, Malik takes his sisters to the peaceful and prosperous desert city of Ziran. But the price of entry turns out to be the abduction of one of his sisters by a desert spirit, and if he wants her back, he’ll have to murder the Crown Princess of the City, Karina. The princess has her own plans, however. Karina plans to resurrect her mother, who was killed by an assassin, using ancient magic that requires the beating heart of a king. Malik plans to get at her by entering the Solstasia Festival Competition; Karina plans to get the heart by offering her hand in marriage to the victor and killing him. Then the worst happens to interfere with their murderous plans: they find each other attractive.

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow – Best friends Effie and Tavia try to navigate their junior year of high school as the world seems to be falling apart around them. In the wake of a highly publicized murder trial for a siren, Tavia accidentally lets her magical voice loose and reveals the powers she’s been hiding for years. Effie is dealing with family struggles and finds herself fighting demons from her past that are all too literal. Only their friendship might keep their heads above the rising waters.

News and Views

Congratulations to the winners of the 2019 Nebula Awards!!! File 770 has a post with some great screen shots of the winners on during the virtual ceremony.

The Locus Awards have announced the finalists.

City of Brass is coming to Netflix!

Jeannette Ng wrote a short story about ancestors mistaking burnt books as offerings: The Radicalised Dead

James D. Nicoll on how to recover from reader’s block

Penguin Classics is launching a science fiction series.

Animation fight!

Michelle Yeoh talks about getting to play the Nice Captain again in a Short Trek.

If you’re looking for Space Opera to read, Shaun Duke has compiled a google sheet of books written by trans, non-binary, and women writers.

The world of science fiction and fantasy model building – I am endlessly impressed by people who build models. I’ve never had the patience!

SpaceX has returned human space flight to America

On Book Riot

Why are the same fairy tales retold again and again?

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See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.

Happy Friday to all my favorite space pirates! I hope everyone has had an excellent and safe week, with lots of reading time in a sunny place. Hard to believe that May is almost over… it’s only been about seven years long. It’s Alex with some genre-rific news and an assortment of books with older characters!

It’s not sci-fi but it’s still on theme for the week: Lucky Grandma. It’s out for rent on several streaming services now, and I cannot wait.

Also, if you’re in the mood for a slow-motion train wreck, dear god, there’s an article about the omegaverse lawsuit in the New York Times.

News and Views

There’s an African Speculative Fiction story bundle available!

Naomi Novik’s upcoming fantasy series has already had its film rights snapped up.

An interview with author Marko Kloos about his Frontlines books, among other things.

Tor.com’s socially distant read-along is continuing with The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.

George RR Martin is now part of a group that owns Santa Fe Southern Railway. (Guess that RR stands for RailRoad now amirite.) He talks about it over on his Not A Blog.

Nalo Hopkinson and stem cell research

A look at how Picard explores disability through the xBs.

An ansolutely gorgeous walk through all of the Star Trek opening themes.

Labyrinth is finally getting a sequel. Jaenelle Monae for Goblin King.

Someone with some serious lockdown jitters did a scene by scene chronology of the MCU.

On Book Riot

3 on a YA Theme: Standalone YA Fantasy Novels

20 Completed YA Fantasy Series to Revisit or Pick Up for the First Time

You can enter to win $50 at your favorite indie book store and/or a 1-year subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Free Association Friday: Respect Your Elders

It’s National Elderly Day if you’re in Indonesia. And that got me thinking… the vast majority of books tend to focus on young (or at the most, middle-aged) protagonists. How about some love for the silver-haired badasses out there?

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames is about a band of mercenaries that have long since retired… but now they need to get back together for one last, impossible mission. Classic heist movie story trope, but make it epic fantasy.

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed has a POV character that’s a 70-year-old exorcist who would really just like to retire… and marry the widow who runs his favorite tea house.

The Dream-Quest of Villett Boe by Kij Johnson has a sixty-year-old protagonist, who is a professor at a prestigious women’s college in the dreamlands, and she has to go chasing after one of her students who foolishly elopes with a dreamer from the waking world.

Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon has an elderly woman named Ofelia who has spent most of her life on the world that houses Colony 3245.12… but then the corporation that owns the place decides to abandon the colony, and thus pack up all the colonists and ship them elsewhere. Ofelia, wanting to finish her life in peaceful solitude, stays behind. Until a reconnaissance ship shows up… and the crew gets murdered by someone who is definitely not her.

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro has an elderly couple in post-Arthurian Britain set off to visit their son now that the Saxons and the Britons have finally stopped murdering each other. But a strange mist descends on ther land, causing mass amnesia, and they can barely remember anything about him now…

Silver Moon by Catherine Lundoff is about that special change in a woman’s life, when menopause comes with a side of lycanthropy. A post-menopausal divorcee finds a new home with an all-female (and all gray) wolf pack.

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson has an old, female ecologist who has been working to reclaim Earth from its long series of human-caused ecological disasters. She’s given the opportunity to time travel and see how the world was before humanity really screwed it up.

Dendera by Yuya Sato, translated by Edwin Hawkes, is about an old woman who has been left out on the mountain as a traditional sacrifice. Instead of perishing quietly as is traditional, she ends up in a utopian village of all the other old women who were abandoned. Then the bear attacks.

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See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s time for some new books for your shelves and a few internet items to read to pass the time, and I’m just the Alex to bring it to you. I hope all the US-ians out there had a lovely holiday weekend even if we’re pretty much doing staycations, with lots of reading and silly movies, and I hope the same for everyone who didn’t have a long weekend!

Not SFF as such, but KJ Charles wrote an amazing craft essay about consent in romance as a thing that speaks meaningfully to character and it’s SO GOOD.

Also: GLACIER MICE! (they are not really mice. They are cuter than mice. And photosynthesize.)

New Releases

Note: The lists of new releases I have access to only included one author of color this week.

Sunshield by Emily B. Martin – The lush country of Moquoia maintains its opulent lifestyle and runs its factory on slave labor abducted from the nearby canyons of desert Alcoro. But the Sunshield Bandit, Lark, has made her name attacking and stopping those slave caravans; her mission is to shake the foundations of Moquoia while protecting those she rescues from the harsh and unforgiving environment in which they live. She unknowingly has allies inside of Moquoia, and soon the bandit, a diplomat, and a prisoner may with their individual actions change the world forever.

Ballistic by Marko Kloos – Aden chose the wrong side in a reckless war, and the price he pays is having to start a new life that demands his past stay hidden. He’s gotten himself a place on a merchant ship smuggling goods through dangerous space and that takes him to Gretia, an occupied world that’s a hotbed of political conspiracy. As war threatens to break out again, Aden must rediscover who he is, and see if he can choose the right side this time.

The Archer at Dawn by Swati Teerdhala – A soldier and a newly-minted royal advisor infiltrate the enemy court to seek allies for the rebel cause. Their ultimate goal is to rescue the long-missing princess, Rehala, who is the key to throne. The Sun Mela festival and games seems like the perfect cover for this mission, but the glitter and celebration hide deadly secrets, and the allies will soon have to reassess their loyalties to their countries and each other if they want to make it out alive, let alone successful.

The City of a Thousand Faces by Walker Dryden – Tumanbay is the most magnificent city on Earth and the beating heart of a sprawling empire. Paranoia and suspicion run rampant; the Master of the Palace Guard never runs out of spies and assassins to route out, while other court officials watch their underlings with suspicions. All of this suspicion and preparation do not prepare them for the day a stranger arrives in court, bearing a gift for the Sultan.

Queen of Coin and Whispers by Helen Corcoran – Idealistic Lia becomes queen after her uncle dies, leaving her a kingdom that’s been badly mismanaged, is bankrupt, and has neighboring powers circling like vultures that smell easy pickings. She wants to do a better job than her uncle, and it shouldn’t be too hard—but first she has to beat the court at its own games. Xania becomes the new Spymaster after Lia offers her a choice: pursue the investigation of your father’s murder while working for me, or be executed. The last thing on either of their minds in this complicated web of politics, lies, and treason is falling in love; too bad their hearts have other ideas.

News and Views

Isabel Yap’s short story collection has a gorgeous cover–and you can pre-order it.

Mallory O’Meara, author of The Lady From the Black Lagoon, asks the important questions. Like “Did Frankenstein Bone?”

Why She-Ra Will Go Down in History

A look at the art of Jenn Ravenna 

So Jason Momoa and Peter Dinklage are going to team up as a vampire and Van Helsing respectively in Good Bad & Undead and I need this RIGHT NOW.

A tornado under the ocean! If you want to see more of the reef dive, there’s over six hours of it on YouTube.

Who says Twitter doesn’t put any good into the world? It helped scientists find a new species of parasitic fungus that infects millipedes.

I expect to be reading a fantasy novel about this shortly: Bolivian orchestra stranded at ‘haunted’ German castle surrounded by wolves

On Book Riot

Last week’s SFF Yeah! podcast had the hosts rereading some old favs.

Quiz: How well do you know the Hitchhiker’s Guide trilogy?

You can enter to win $50 at your favorite indie book store and/or a 1-year subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

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See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.

Happy Friday, shipmates! At least I assume it’s Friday. Time is a mortal construct that I have long since transcended, and now I exist on all Fridays simultaneously. Yes, it’s Alex, with some news and some well-dressed but monochromatic books.

Thing that made me happy that I must share with you: You can watch the Globe’s production of The Winter’s Tale until May 31!

News and Views

Congratulations to the BSFA award winners!

There’s a cover and a title for the next Wayward Children book, Across the Green Grass Fields!

There’s also a cover for Rise of the Red Hand by Olivia Chadha, which involves revolutionaries fighting a crushing technocratic government and climate change in South Asia.

Alyssa Cole is coming for us; she’s written a sci-fi romcom called The A.I. Who Loved Me. I’m only mad that I can’t get it until June 3.

An amazing Twitter thread about the 18 kinds of songs in Disney movies, which finishes by putting them in a periodic table.

Man breaks into Australian museum, takes selfies with dinosaurs

Patrick Stewart got some help for sonnet 57

TNT, what are you doing to Snowpiercer?

May 18 was the 40th anniversary of the Mt. St. Helens eruption. I cannot recommend the 2012 blog series from Scientific American enough, but if you want to read just one entry, read this one: The Cataclysm: “Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!”

And this Twitter thread about geologist Harry Glicken broke my heart.

On Book Riot

Taika Waititi is hosting a reading series of James and the Giant Peach.

Everything we know about Rick Riordan’s new book, Tower of Nero.

Quiz: Which character from Twilight are you?

Today is your last chance to win a copy of Superman Smashes the Klan!

You can enter to win $50 at your favorite indie book store and/or a 1-year subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Free Association Friday

I had no idea, but May 22 is World Goth Day. According to the extremely cute World Goth Day site, “World Goth Day is exactly what it says on the wrapper-a day where the goth scene gets to celebrate its own being, and an opportunity to make its presence known to the rest of the world.”

I can’t think of a better way for this newsletter to celebrate than to call out some of the most Goth SFF out there. And we’re doing it hard mode: no vampires.

True fact: Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng was actually the first book I thought of. Because it’s gothic, yes, but it’s also got that aesthetic that is undeniably plain goth. This book is such a spiritual sibling to Crimson Peak, which is both gothic horror and incredibly goth thanks to its Guillermo del Toro leave-no-fabric-behind look. (And the two stories certainly have another thing or two in common that I won’t be elaborating on here, because spoilers.)

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is probably the most obvious recent choice, which I can’t possibly leave out if I don’t want to get my hands slapped. I mean, just look at the cover. There’s necromancers. We don’t really need to go further than that.

The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson is something that sits on the grittier end of goth, in my opinion. Every time Molly bleeds even a little, another Molly is born, one who desperately wants to kill her progenitor. Molly’s getting pretty tired of killing herself in self-defense.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones and Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire are about Jack and Jill in their native environment of the Moors, which is probably the second most goth world of the Wayward Children series–the first mentioned thus far is definitely the Halls of the Dead. Yes, there is technically a vampire in the Moors, but the books aren’t about him, so I’m giving myself a pass.

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht is set in a dying, plague-choked city, surrounded by a sea that twists everything that touches it. Tell me more. There’s a monster without a name stalking it. Even better. Then a sorcerer hires the monster, and they start hunting down everyone who has wronged them. And it’s very, very gay.

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado is the token short story collection for this list, and it swings through some thoroughly dark and gothy places in some of its tales.

A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar has a lingering ghost haunting the son of a pepper merchant, and while two religious cults are trying to use him as a pawn, he has to figure out how to free himself by freeing the ghost. Bonus: the book synopsis also calls reading “that seductive necromancy.”

I promise I haven’t forgotten Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake. Please don’t yell at me. This is basically the grandaddy of the goth(ic) fantasy novel. The family lives in a crumbling castle and is called Groan, for goodness sake.

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See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! You know what that means–new releases and SFF news with Alex. Though I’ll admit the new releases are, at times, getting a little more wiley to hunt down. It could be that May has always been a bit of a dead zone–though thankfully not like December–or that release dates are getting shuffled and reshuffled thanks to the pandemic. But this is giving me an opportunity to find more indie SFF, so I’m going to count this as a win!

Here’s a thing that made me smile:

Two penguins from the Kansas City Zoo visit the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

New Releases

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins – As the Tenth Hunger Games is about to kick off, eighteen-year-old Cornelius Snow readies himself to regain the glory of his now-fallen family, staking their chances on the ultimate gamble: he must out-charm, out-maneuver, and out-wit all of the other mentors and place himself with the winning tribute. But he’s given the female tribute from District 12, an utterly humiliating assignment that seems doomed from the start. Outside the arena, every choice he makes could turn the tide for her while she fights for her life inside. Worse, he begins to empathize with her plight. Soon, he must weigh his own belief in the rules against her survival–and his own chances.

Dragon Physician by Joyce Chng – The lucrative world of dragon racing is run by women, but Jixin dreams of being a dragon rider anyway. The son of a dragon physician, it was always expected he’d follow in his mother’s footsteps… until the powerful scion of a Rookery takes a shine to him.

Chaos Reigning by Jessie Mihalik – Catarina von Hasenberg is the youngest of the ruling family of the High House, and used to being watched closely by her overprotective siblings. Her youth and outwardly cheerful personality–and incisively clever mind–make her the perfect spy to go to a rival House’s summer retreat, and Cat is eager to prove herself. Unfortunately, she’s forced to take Alex, a frustratingly handsome bodyguard, with her under the cover story that he’s her lover. Even more unfortunately, the cover story starts sounding like a nice reality the longer they work together, uncovering treason and avoiding being murdered—and uncovering the truth that will throw all the High Houses on Earth into complete chaos.

Boys of Alabama by Genevieve Hudson – Newly moved to Alabama, Max’s German parents don’t know what to make of the South, while he embraces it wholeheartedly. He’s unexpectedly adopted by the football team and does his best to fit in, though it means he must carefully hide his supernatural powers. When he meets a goth boy named Pan in his physics class, he feels truly seen for the first time since his arrival. As their relationship deepens, they begin to wonder what is more dangerous: their true selves, or being who they are in Alabama.

Doorway to Scorn by Dimitrius Jones – A cursed gate that horrifyingly disfigures all who enter it looms over the village of Holo; the citizens helplessly wish for a hero to save them from its malevolent power. Lex dreams only of escaping the village as a Soldier and taking his friends with him. But when the ceremony that would give him that class turns into a disaster, his only option is to embark on a dangerous journey that will teach him more than he ever wanted to know about the gate–and himself.

News and Views

Cover reveal for the next Murderbot novel, Fugitive Telemetry.

Charlie Jane Anders has some great advice on how to make your own imaginary friends.

Author Lois Lowry says we are living through the prequel to The Giver.

Ooh, you can read an excerpt from Tanaz Bhathena’s upcoming novel set in medieval India, Hunted by the Sky.

Short fiction recommendations from April by Alex Brown.

CBS has announced a new Star Trek series: Strange New Worlds. A little more information here.

To celebrate the anniversary of Mad Max: Fury Road, Charlize Theron posted some of her behind the scenes memories… including her first sight of her war rig. Also, there’s going to be a prequel about Furiosa.

I had not heard about The Old Guard before now, but it’s a fantasy action movie with a female director and an all-female cast and I am here for it.

On the occasion of Gargoyles coming to Disney+, an epic interview with Greg Weisman, in which I learned that Lexington was always meant to be gay.

Glitter worms at the bottom of the ocean!

Scientists make the world’s first liquid metal lattice – “It’s like the Terminator, only much less murdery.”

On Book Riot

Percy Jackson TV series coming to Disney+.

You could win a copy of Superman Smashes the Klan

You can enter to win $50 at your favorite indie book store and/or a 1-year subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

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See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.