Category: Swords and Spaceships

Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, exhausted and covered with powdered sugar after thinking that baking treats for work was a good idea on a week night! (Don’t be like Alex.) As we head into the weekend, I’ve got some fun news items (the one about bats is my favorite) for you and baking on the brain.

News and Views

The National Book Awards announced the finalists for this year and genre is still going strong:

• Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James is a finalist in Fiction
• Pet by Akwaeke Emezi is a finalist in Young People’s Literature
• The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa is a finalist in Translated Literature

Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Gods of Jade and Shadow) and Lavie Tidhar (Unholy Land) have a new column in the Washington Post!

Favorite essay of this half week: Seanan McGuire on how the best horror stories commit to sincerity.

Though this is a close second: Ad Astra is an Unnecessary, Still Problematic Retelling of Heart of Darkness

And this ties for second: Why This Fanfiction Site’s Prestigious Literary Honor Is a Win for LGBTQ Representation (If you know and love AO3, prepare to get a little teared up.)

A great summary of the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy panel at NYCC, which was standing-room only.

Mary Robinette Kowal live-tweeted a space walk.

A conversation with the force behind Looking for Leia.

FIYAH has started its 2019 State of Black Speculative Fiction Writer Survey. (You can look at previous survey results at the site, too.)

You can donate your old Legos!

The most metal pterosaur ever has been discovered in Australia.

A scientist at the USGS would very much like us to stop using the term “supervolcano.” (As a geologist, I agree with them.)

Turns out that a lot of that bat squeaking is actually arguments.

How the first exoplanet was discovered.

Free Association Friday

I mentioned before that I have baking on the brain, since that basically just consumed my evening and I’m using a goopy mixture of cream cheese and eggs instead of a brain to power through this newsletter. So how about some nerdy cookbooks?

First, I have to mention Ad Astra: The 50th Anniversary SFWA Cookbook (edited by Cat Rambo and Fran Wilde), which is put out by the Science Fiction Writers of America. The recipes themselves are not necessarily nerdy, but as you page through, you’ll probably see something by one of your favorite authors.

I’m not sure if I’m surprised or not by the actual number of genre property tie-in cookbooks, but there’s plenty to choose from:

Firefly: The Big Damn Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel came out extremely recently and I’m still not over the fact that there’s a recipe for Mudder’s Milk.

The Star Wars Cook Book: Wookiee Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes by Robin Davis is only one of several Star Wars cookbooks, but it’s one I personally own and have utilized. It’s another kid-friendly cookbook, and it’s actually just fun to read because it’s full of ridiculous puns and galactic safety tips.

The Redwall Cookbook by Brian Jacques and Christopher Denise is aimed at being accessible for kids. The Redwall books were always wall-to-wall descriptions of absolutely mouthwatering food, so if any series was going to get a cookbook, this one deserved it. Deeper’n’ever Pie for everyone!

A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel is definitely more meat (a LOT of meat) than baking, but it’s a way to put together a Game of Thrones-style feast without anyone getting stabbed. I assume. I mean, I don’t know your life.

The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz is probably the best gift I ever gave my Harry Potter-nerd of a niece, because it’s something she still uses and has a ton of fun in the process. (She makes better brownies than me, and I’d say it’s unfair except she always lets me have one.)

Okay, and it’s not technically genre, but I still want to mention my favorite cookbook of all time because again, it’s more a hilarious journey than just a list of recipes: What the F*@# Should I Make for Dinner?: The Answers to Life’s Everyday Question by Zach Golden. I cannot make it through this book without becoming helpless with laughter from just reading the recipe titles.

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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! Here’s Alex with a selection of new releases and some SFF-related news. I think CBS is trying to kill me. Within 24 hours, they hit me with a new trailer for Picard and then went in for the KO with the Discovery season 3 trailer. But my favorite thing so far this week on Twitter is another scifi-themed crochet project that I definitely can’t add to my list because there’s no pattern.

New Releases

The Rosewater Redemption by Tade Thompson – The independent city-state of Rosewater faces threats from all sides. Debts from the insurrection are coming home to roost. Nigeria isn’t willing to let Rosewater go without a fight. And the aliens that inhabit the city are threatening mass murder.

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia – When the enigmatic billionare Vincent Pryce dies, he leaves behind a treasure hunt that will lead to his fortune, directed by clues inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. Puzzle-loving loner Tuesday joins with a group of other misfits on the hunt, which not only requires all their combined brainpower, but will force them to face painful ghosts from their pasts.

The Beautiful by Renée Ahdiehm – Nineteenth-century New Orleans is ruled by vampires, which makes it an ideal safe haven for Celine, a dress maker who was forced to flee from Paris. Rather than finding safety, she falls in with the city’s underworld… and then dead girls begin to show up, stirring up fears that a serial killer is on the loose.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo – Alex Stern dropped out of school young and went into a downward spiral of bad decisions that ended with her as the only survivor of an unsolved multiple homicide. Recovering in the hospital, she’s offered a too-good-to-be-true deal: a full ride to Yale, and the only price is that she has to monitor the school’s secret societies… which dabble in forbidden magic.

A Kingdom for a Stage by Heidi Heileg – Jetta is wanted by both sides of a civil war, for the magic in her blood that can animate ordinary objects–or weapons. But Jetta fears using her power will turn her into a tyrannical necromancer like her father. Is saving her country worth sacrificing her soul?

How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse by K. Eason – Rory is a princess who received thirteen fairy blessings, the most useful of which is the ability to see through flattery. After the birth of her younger brother means she will no longer be taking over the throne after her father, she’s betrothed to a prince on a distant world. Her talents soon have her uncovering a plot in her new home and leading a small group of friends to save her betrothed.

News and Views

Apparently the Nancy Drew series on the CW is going to have actual ghosts, unlike the books it’s loosely based on.

Amazon’s got a short story collection coming, with stories from from N.K. Jemisin and Andy Weir.

Robin Hobb on 25 years of Assassin’s Apprentice.

Essay of the week: Why Has Ursula K. Le Guin Inspired So Many Musicians?

Good Morning America revealed the cover and title of the prequel to The Hunger Games.

The writer of John Wick has been hired to adapt A Darker Shade of Magic.

Roundup of post-Rise of Skywalker plans for Star Wars, which includes more Thrawn novels from Timothy Zahn! Also, check out io9’s aptly named post: So Many Goddamn Star Wars Books and Comics Got Announced at New York Comic Con.

The Geeks of Color panel at NYCC was about fandom joy (and featured some familiar names!)

We’ve got recommendations for sci-fi books you can cozy up with as the weather gets colder.

Stephen King’s scariest villain is at the center of season 2 of Castle Rock.

Also, there’s a new trailer for His Dark Materials that looks pretty dang epic.

Le Creuset is doing a Star Wars collection. Just don’t look at the prices.

Star Trek wine tasting.

First look at Outlander season five.

The Ohio State University marching band did a super cool space-themed half-time show that was definitely the Right Stuff.

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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, me hearties. Everyone got a good book or three queued up for the weekend? If not, here’s Alex, with some news and a random assortment of books that you might find interesting.

My favorite non-SFF thing all week: This reminder about the Dutch Police putting a bird in jail. I mean, it’s technically not SFF but someone should totally write this book. Second place in my heart and also, weirdly, bird-related is the new trailer for Birds of Prey.

News and Views

This week’s SFF Yeah! is about fashion in fiction.

Dark Horse Comics is releasing a collection of Neil Gaiman’s short fiction. You can pre-order on Amazon now.

Exciting adaptation news! Michael B. Jordan’s production company has acquired Rena Barron’s Kingdom of Souls.

The Wheel of Time on Prime Twitter account has a quick little video from a table read of the show.

io9 has a first look at the new series from M.R. Carey, author of The Girl With All the Gifts.

JY Yang (author of The Black Tides of Heaven) drew some absolutely gorgeous fanart for Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness.

An in-depth review of The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games.

Annalee Newitz on time travel stories and how they reflect on our current timeline.

Tor.com has a preview of some of the gorgeous art from the new illustrated edition of Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice.

SyFy Wire has an interview with Wesley Chu about his The Walking Dead novel, Typhoon.

Star Wars Resistance has the franchise’s first on-screen actually gay couple, according to the producers. (It’s an alien couple. I have conflicting feelings about this.)

Some casting news for Netflix’s Shadow and Bone adaptation.

Netflix has also confirmed there will be a fourth season of Stranger Things.

There’s a new, live-action version of Treasure Island coming, helmed by the writer/director of How to Train Your Dragon.

Some cool science! Swedish biologists are using footprints to track polar bears and map their genetics.

Free Association Friday

Last week my brain was filled with Pokémon. I regret to inform you that this week, my brain is now full of Destiny, since the newest expansion released. It’s creepy, it’s filled with nightmares, there’s giant, deathless, chitinous monsters with swords that want to murder you and utterly destroy your soul for the glory of their disturbing death-and-torture-cult. Honestly, it’s a perfect start for October.

So let’s talk necromancers: generally bad news people bringing the dead back to life for their own nefarious purposes.

The most appropriate book for this free association is Gideon the Ninth. It’s a perfect fit in the sense that not only are there necromancers, they’re… IN… SPACE! And there’s a haunted gothic palace, which is basically what I’ve spent all night running around and shooting things in via an Xbox controller.

Urban fantasy-wise, there’s several examples of books narrated by necromancers who have to deal with the dead, the undead, and mysteries while often dodging their own demise. Arranged in order of most to least grim: Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore, Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton, Grave Witch by Kaylana Price, and How to Save an Undead Life by Hailey Edwards (contains an undead parakeet). That’s just a taste from urban fantasy; there’s a lot of necromancy going on out there in the wild streets.

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone starts off his Craft Sequence, which has quite a bit of necromancy in it. In the first book, Tara, who is an associate at an international necromantic firm, has to bring a murdered god back to life in order to keep an entire city alive. For a more historical and gothic turn, but with a good dash of humor, there’s Johannes Cabal the Necromancer. Johannes sold his soul to Satan to learn necromancy, and now if he wants to get it back, he has to convince 100 other people to sign theirs over instead. It’s a soul pyramid scheme, really.

Into more pure fantasy, The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco starts a YA series about a girl named Tea, who accidentally raises her brother from the dead and is then ostracized from her community. The Wolf of Winter by Paula Volsky has a prince far down in the line of succession learning the forbidden art of necromancy–which he intends to use to reshape the kingdom.

Honorable not-quite-necromancer-but-still-in-with-the-god-of-death-but-in-a-totally-non-evil-way book: Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard. It’s a fantasy historical crime procedural…and the main character is an Aztec priest.

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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 to everyone, but mostly to Dr. Leon Advogato, one of the lawyers at the Order of Attorneys of Brazil. It’s Alex, with new releases and a random collection of news for your perusal. Something that’s been bringing me joy these last few days: a clip of Fayard and Harold Nichols doing their dance routine from Stormy Weather (1943).

New Releases

Future Tense Fiction: Stories of Tomorrow commissioned by Slate, New America, and Arizona State University – A collection of short fiction that focuses on emerging technologies from a wide list of excellent authors including Nnedi Okorafor, Paolo Bacigalupi, Annalee Newitz, and Deji Bryce Olukotun.

Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight by Aliette de Bodard – Aliette de Bodard’s first short story collection, which includes tales from her Xuya universe.

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher – A young woman works to sort out the house of her dead grandmother, who was a hoarder. While cleaning, she finds her dead step-grandfather’s journal, which describes terrifying things that she begins to encounter in the woods.

The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith – The Unwritten Wing is a neutral place in Hell where stories never finished by their authors live. Claire is the head librarian of these stories, mostly tasked with hunting down characters who have come to life and begun searching for their writers. But a simple retrieval goes wrong when an angel attacks…

Shadow Frost by Coco Ma – A princess on a desperate quest to save her kingdom from the demons who threaten it discovers a plot for her own assassination along the way. She and her friends must unravel this plot, with strands that lead back into their group–if the demons don’t get them first.

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis – Five girls, called “good luck girls,” are sold to a “welcome house” and branded with cursed markings. When one of them accidentally kills a man, they embark on a dangerous journey toward freedom, justice, and revenge, guided by a bedtime story passed down among their sistren.

The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl by Theodora Goss – A new adventure for the Athena Club, that wonderful pastiche of female characters who often had their agency stolen or stories not written in classic literature. After their adventure rescuing Lucina van Helsing, the monstrous gentlewomen return home to find that both Alice and Shelock Holmes have been kidnapped.

News and Views

In the wake of the discussions about awards named for Campbell and Tiptree, Jason Sanford points out another one that really needs to be discussed: Arthur C. Clarke

Wired reviews Lost Transmissions, a book about forgotten works that deserve some fan love.

Karen Gillan and Ryan Reynolds hilariously get into it in the AGBO Superhero Fantasy Football League, which has mandated trash-talking.

Chuck Tingle now has an official TTRPG: The Tingleverse: The Official Chuck Tingle Role-Playing Game. Tingle has succinctly addressed the lack of mechanics for “pounding” on Twitter.

Alex Brown’s short fiction recommendations for September.

NYT is bringing back mass market paperback and graphic novel/manga best seller lists, and they’re adding in MG and YA.

Volume 327 of Book Fetish is all about fantasy.

Gollancz and author Ben Aaronovitch (author of Rivers of London) are launching an award for British BAME [black, Asian, and minority ethnic] science fiction and fantasy authors.

Ewilan’s Quest is becoming an animated series.

io9 picked their 10 favorite films from Fantastic Fest 2019 and I am SO EXCITED.

Paul Krueger, author of Steel Crow Saga, did a Reddit AMA… which his mom crashed.

Ever wondered what Guardians of the Galaxy character you are? We’ve got a quiz for that.

Sony and Marvel have managed to reach an agreement over Spider-Man.

Thor and Lokie are heading to Serial Box in Thor: Metal Gods.

Deep math nerdery ahoy: progress on the twin primes conjecture.

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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! It’s Alex with some news and a slightly spooky warm-up since we’re heading toward October. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend–and before you go, check out this test animation Ray Harryhausen did for his never-made War of the Worlds movie.

News and Views

We’ve got a post for you about the 2019 Rhysling Award winners. SFF poetry!

This week’s SFF Yeah! podcast is all about African SF/F.

The Daily Bugle has pivoted to video.

Favorite essay of the week: The care and feeding of Supervillains.

Runner up in the essay department: What Today’s Sci-Fi Should Learn from Flash Gordon.

Matt Wallace on your true cyberpunk name.

The Emmys happened. Awards were won. Honestly all I care about is Gwendoline Christie looking like a neck-snapping goddess.

And here’s a list of six books about space to check out.

This week’s LeVar Burton Reads podcast is JY Yang’s Tiger Baby.

Oh no there’s a recipe for Mudder’s Milk in Firefly: The Big Damn Cookbook.

They finally figured out a way to make me watch another Jurassic World movie. Because it’ll involve Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum.

Check out NASA’s new spacesuits!

Phil Plait explains a new paper about how an asteroid impact gave life a helping hand 466 million years ago.

A study finds that cats are just as loyal to their humans as dogs, and was definitely not authored by a cat wearing glasses and a lab coat.

Snopes is 25 years old and I have just turned into dust and blown away.

Free Association Friday

Look, I’m writing this to you from the deep past that is Wednesday evening having just spent an hour frantically poking the screen of my cell phone to defeat a giant pokémon that is both a dragon AND a ghost. I also might or might not have imbibed a beer at this point. So let’s talk ghosts, dragons, and ghost dragons!

Obviously, there are a zillion books that involve ghosts and a zillion and a half that involve dragons in our genre. But I’m looking at the standouts that grabbed me by the throat and shook me like a ghost dragon.

Ghost-wise, we’re starting with An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. Because the ghosts are right there in the title. And just because they’re mostly metaphorical ghosts as opposed to beings created of ectoplasm doesn’t make them any less horrifying. The twisted ghosts of societal history, the more personal ghosts of absent friends and family, the horrible ghosts of trauma. They’re all there, and they’d probably be easier to deal with if they were real. For a much more literal ghost, how about The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco. The cover’s so deliberately evocative of the antagonist from Ring by Suzuki Koji, but the formerly vengeful ghost is at least looking out for the little guy, unlike Sadako. Seanan McGuire’s Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day is chock full of ghosts in a complex earth-bound afterlife, with bonus witches.

What about dragons? Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho has magicians and dragons in regency England, yes please. Of Cinder and Bone by Kyoko M has the perfect pitch: Jurassic Park, but with Dragons. Nothing else needs to be said. A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan follows the world’s most renowned dragon naturalist on her adventures. Smoke Eaters by Sean Grigsby is about a firefighter who discovers he’s immune to dragon smoke… so he gets inducted to the elite dragon-fighting force of his city. And last but not least–I read The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanwick when I was a teenager and I’m still thinking about its factory-made flying war machines twenty years later.

So what about ghost dragons? Well, in Red Threads of Fortune by JY Yang, it’s not dragons precisely, but human souls can end up in things that are distressingly large and scaley. And in RJ Barker’s The Bone Ships, there are literal ships made out of literal dragon bones, though it’s more totally metal than ghostly.

But for no reason at all–definitely not getting into details–I’m just going to gently slide Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb across the table.

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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 you’re ready for a broadside of new releases, because there are some great ones this week. It’s Captain Alex with a barrage of books and some fun news items. Also, I want to share with you what is totally going to be my next crochet project and a video game about a horrible goose that I now need.

New Releases

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz – A time travel story where Tess, from the future, has dedicated herself to shifting the past to create a safer world in her time, trying to find a way to make her edits stay while she avoids fellow travelers willing to stop her with deadly force. Her life intertwines with that of Beth, on her own path of violence and vengeance after helping her friends hide the body of an abusive boyfriend.

Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger – An unlikely band of four people, ranging from criminals to royalty, unites to hunt down a killer that defies not only earthly laws, but those of magic as well. Expect battle couples, magical animal companions, and snark. (Full disclosure: Paul and I share an agent.)

The Bone Ships by RJ Barker – The people of the Hundred Isles have long built their ships from the bones of dragons, now thought to be extinct. But a new dragon has been spotted in far-off waters, and a race to claim it is on. Whoever takes the dragon will shift not just battles, but the endless war in their favor.

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht – A monster that cannot die stalks the ruined, festering, abandoned city of Elendhaven, sent on tasks by his frail master. The monster’s ultimate goal is revenge on all those who have wronged his city, no matter what he will destroy along his path.

A Dream So Dark by L.L. McKinney – Still reeling from the events of A Blade So Black, Alice returns to rescue her friends and stop the Black Knight–and save Wonderland once and for all. But what if Wonderland has actually been trying to save her?

Stormrise by Jillian Boehme – A girl named Rain disguises herself as a boy using dragon magic, so that she can become a warrior. As war threatens her home, she realizes the very magic that has enabled her disguise might be the key to awakening the ancient dragons that slumber–and save her home.

News and Views

There’s some great SFF on the National Book Award longlists. Not gonna lie, I’m most excited about Pet by Akwaeke Emezi.

Aron Eisenberg, who played Nog on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, passed away.

My favorite thing I read all week: Let Liv Tyler go to space

Highlights from Neil Gaiman’s Reddit AMA.

Author Eric Flint has an epic rant about the electoral college.

The BN blog asks: Does science fiction have a moral imperative to address climate change?

If you’ve wanted to read Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series and aren’t sure what order to go in, here you go.

100% this: An ode to Robin Wright from Princess to Queen

A cute list of funny Weasley twins moments from the Harry Potter books.

This truck was obviously playing Shadowrun.

I want to share this amazing Twitter thread about the Four Tigers Sword with everyone.

Architectural photography from megacities to remind us that the future is now.

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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, gentlebeings! We’ve made it through another week; if you’re in the northern hemisphere, it’s hopefully starting to feel a bit like fall (my favorite time of the year). And it’s me, Alex, with some links and a list of sort-of random books. If you need a laugh to take you into the weekend, I cannot recommend the finalists for the 2019 Wildlife Comedy Photography Awards enough.

News and Views

Elsa Sjunneson-Henry on what it means to win a Hugo as a blind person.

On overcoming white bias in literature.

The Archived by V.E. Schwab will be adapted for the CW.

In other adaptation news, Kingkiller Chronicle is looking for a new home after Showtime released the rights.

This week’s SFFYeah! podcast is about books with spooky houses.

Christopher Eccleston (the Ninth Doctor) talks about his battles with depression and disordered eating.

Anathema Magazine, which focuses on stories by Queer/Two-Spirit POC/Indigenous creators, is running its yearly fundraiser.

Michelle Goldberg wrote about The Handmaid’s Tale and the way literary dystopias don’t keep up with reality.

If you’re looking for YA Science Fiction, we’ve got some suggestions for you.

It’s been proposed that an a Shakespeare First Folio has annotations in it from John Milton.

Free Association Friday

You might have heard that some unnamed people (probably wishing to remain nameless because they don’t want the might of the internet to fall on their heads) want to remake The Princess Bride. Cary Elwes responded with a perfect Tweet and also expanded his opinion a bit over at SyFy Wire. And this might get me in trouble with the gods of Book Riot, but here’s my hill I’m going to die on: I like the movie scripted by the inimitable William Goldman orders of magnitude better than I liked his original novel.

So in honor of that movie, let’s talk some other books that strike a chord with The Princess Bride!

The book that leaps most immediately to mind is Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner, I’m not even going to be coy with you. It’s got lots of sword fights and intrigue and while there isn’t exactly true love to be had, it’s gay as all hell–all while still having an amused tone. And in that vein, I feel compelled to also mention The Henchmen of Zenda by K.J. Charles, which is more filed under romance than fantasy; it falls more under thought experiments of what the Dread Pirate Roberts’s crew might have been a bit like (many a buckle is swashed), while also being Extremely Gay.

If I think about true love like we get it in The Princess Bride, I immediately jump to The Tiger’s Daughter; it’s tonally a lot more serious, but if you want to talk about a couple whose love rivals Wesley and Buttercup’s, that’s where to find them. Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn is a little bit lighter. Political intrigue, court, a really nasty piece of work as a prince, and true love waiting in the wings.

On the more free association end of things, the first book I actually thought of while coming up with this list was JY Yang’s The Red Threads of Fortune. Why? Well first off, we don’t call this “Alex has an objectively defensible reason for everything backed up by an annotated bibliography Friday.” There are just certain ways my brain works. Anyway, there’s a lot going on in behind the events of this novella; a lot of machinations and politics, and the protagonist is just exasperated. There’s a scene that involved a lot of cussing. You’ll know what I mean when you read it. I also want to throw Steel Crow Saga in here for the adventure factor and the humor that Paul Krueger uses to leaven the definitely-darker-than-The-Princess-Bride subject matter. (Full disclosure: I share an agent with both Paul and JY.)

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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 Alex with some new releases for you and such news items as I found interesting. If you’ve got some time and you’re looking for a laugh, the 29th First Annual Ig Nobel Awards were held on September 12th and you can watch the ceremony here. (If you just want the summary, File 770 has a list of the award winners.)

Oh and! Don’t forget to enter our giveaway of the year’s 10 best mystery/thrillers so far!

New Releases

A Hero Born by Jin Yong – A wuxia novel from the master, Jin Yong, available for the first time in the US. After the murder of his father, Guo Jing and his mother flee to join Genghis Khan. Later, under the guidance of the Seven Heroes of the South, Guo Jin returns to China to fulfill his destiny.

Gamechanger by L.X. Beckett – Rubi is a public defender in the Bounceback generation, the first generation to be free of the troubles of the 21st century. But when she’s assigned to help Luce, she has to figure out why he’s been targeted by the governments of the world–and why he seems determined to stop the global recovery.

Chilling Effect by Valeria Valdes – After Captain Eva Innocente’s sister Mira is kidnapped by the Fridge, a shadowy criminal syndicate that holds people in cryostasis, Eva must undertake a series of missions across the galaxy to pay the ransom–including one that includes psychic cats.

Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction by Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson – Just what it says on the tin. Mary Shelley is often credited as the writer of the first science fiction novel, but she wasn’t alone in the genre. This book explores the fascinating lives of women who were on the cutting edge of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

News and Views

NBC has made six short episodes for The Good Place set at the end of season 3. You can watch them at NBC’s site or on their app.

The cutest thing I’ve seen all week: A Detroit high school allowing seniors to cosplay for their IDs.

Way Station by Clifford D. Simak is being adapted for Netflix.

We’ve got a great list of Dragon Books for Grown-ups!

Hulu’s Castle Rock has a trailer out for season 2.

HBO is apparently ordering a pilot for a Game of Thrones prequel about the Targaryens.

Carnival Row has an official TTRPG that you can download for free.

The Wheel of Time has started filming in Prague and they took a super cute cast photo.

From the Department of This Is the Stage of Dystopian Capitalism We Are Now In So Writers Keep That In Mind: KFC is making a Colonel Sanders dating sim that looks upsettingly cute. One of the characters is a deep fryer. No, really.

A long but fascinating read: The search for a warning that lasts as long as nuclear waste. Which of course immediately makes me think of The Only Harmless Great Thing.

I’m a geologist, so that means you get cool geology things when I see them. Like this article about the geology of the Chicxulub Crater.

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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.

We did it, space pirates! Survived another week. Happy weekend if you’re a Monday through Friday kind of person, and wishes for strength if you’re rolling up your sleeves for work.

News and Views

BBC America announced the leads for its Discworld-inspired series The Watch and it’s pretty exciting. Just looking at the casting, you can already see where there’s going to be some variance from the books. Personally, I can’t wait to see where they go with it.

James D. Nicoll does an analysis of Hugo finalists by gender. Here’s a companion Twitter thread with a great alternate visualization to his powerful use of typography.

In this week’s SFF Yeah! there’s discussion of The Testaments and renaming awards.

Speaking of, the Tiptree Motherboard has reversed their earlier position after extensive community discussion and are looking in to renaming the award.

You can pre-order Aliette de Bodard’s first short story collection Of Wars, Memories, and Starlight now.

It’s going to be Alexander Skarsgård versus Whoopi Goldberg in the upcoming adaptation of The Stand.

An essay exploring the Chosen One trope.

Scientists have detected water vapor on a “super earth” exoplanet!

Moon’s Haunted

“Tell me,” he says, “have you ever heard of something called a moon?” — FromThe Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. Basically, that’s a line that made me crap my drawers when I read it, though I’m not going to expand on why because that would be a massive spoiler. (But my goodness, if you haven’t read this series yet, why not?)

But in honor of Friday the 13th–which is my favorite day, since I was born on a 13th day (not in September) and get to have the spookiest birthdays possible now and then–and the fact that it’s going to be a Friday the 13th with a full Moon, we’re going full “Moon’s haunted.” And I’m not just talking about the Guardians retruning to the Moon in Destiny.

I’ve got to start with 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad. NASA runs a contest to select three teenagers to go into space–and to the moon. But little do they know there is a long-forgotten, dark secret waiting there, ready to kill them. In a similar vein there’s oldie-but-goodie Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys, where an alien artefact waits on the dark side of the moon. The artefact is actually a maze filled with utter murder.

The moon is literally trying to kill us all at the start of Seveneves. Breaking up, bombarding the Earth with massive chunks of itself. What a jerk. And the Moon is similarly murderous in Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It series, where an asteroid knocks the moon closer to the Earth and basically starts a global geologic apocalypse.

On the “hell is people” front, I have for you Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald, in which the Moon is basically the most cynical version of the Wild West but with the chance of asphyxiating and five powerful families threaten everyone’s existence with their political games and power plays. Dove Arising by Karen Bao, where a teenager has to join the brutal Lunar militia after her mother is arrested.

And for a gentler sort of “haunting” rather than directly haunted, how about When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore? It’s difficult to describe, but there’s strange magic, and witches, and pictures of the moon. I also still have a lot of love in my heart for Inherit the Stars by James P. Hogan even if the depictions of women in it were inexcusably dated even when it was published in 1977. Astronauts find a skeleton on the moon, one wearing a strange spacesuit… and it’s 50,000 years old. The mystery only gets deeper and stranger from there.

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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, space pirates! I hope everyone had a great and hopefully relaxing weekend. It’s Alex, with a selection of new releases and some (at times extremely hilarious) news items. But before we get started, here’s what I’m loving right now, mostly because I never get tired of music videos about Steve Rogers. Bonus: this homecoming assembly Marvel-themed dance routine, holy forking shirtballs.

New Releases

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi – There are no monsters in the city of Lucille. But when a creature made of horns, color, and claws crawls out of a painting in Jam’s house, she’s forced to reconsider this truism. The creature is named Pet, and has come to hunt a monster–one that no on will admit exists.

A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker – Look, I think the hook alone on this book is enough: “Public gatherings are illegal, making concerts impossible, except for those willing to break the law for the love of music–and for one chance at human connection.”

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow – January is the ward of a wealthy man and feels little different than the arcane artifcats that he stocks his sprawling mansion with–until she finds a book that promises adventures in other worlds and truths about her own.

The Resurrectionist of Caligo by Wendy Trimboli and Alicia Zaloga – A body thief who makes his living selling cadavers to medical schools is framed for the murder of one of those cadavers. To escape execution, he agrees to bind himself to a former friend forever in a blood magic ritual–and then help her find the real murderer running loose in their city.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir – Space necromancers in a gothic sci-fi universe vie to ascend to immortality. Gideon is a swordswoman dragged into this murderous contest by her childhood nemesis when all she really wants is out.

News and Views

McSweeney’s, killing it as always: I’m just the guy to write your female empowerment series.

Volume 5 of the Long List Anthology (an anthology of stories that didn’t quite make the finalist cut for the Hugos) is crowdfunding now.

Maria Haskins has short fiction recommendations from the month of August.

Fonda Lee (author of Jade War) is writing for Marvel’s Sword Master, starting with issue #4.

A list of fiction’s greatest technopaths.

Supernova Era by Cixin Liu is going to be adapted for film in China.

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders has been optioned for series development by Sony.

Jonathan Igla, who was a writer and the executive story editor for Mad Men has been hired to write the Hawkeye series for Disney+.

Here’s the first look at the final season of The Good Place.

NPR had Margaret Atwood do an exclusive reading from The Testaments.

There’s an actual statue of Iron Man in Italy and reading about it made me tear up.

Joker won the Golden Lion (the highest honor) at the Venice Film Festival.

A personal essay about recognizing fannish toxicity in oneself.

Walter Mosley left the Star Trek: Discovery writers room after being warned by HR to not use the N-word. (For context: Walter Mosley is African-American.)

The TSA has relented on those soda bottles from Galaxy’s Edge.

We have all seen this movie and most recently it was called The Meg.

Pairing solar panels and certain crops can be a win-win.

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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.