Category: Swords and Spaceships

Happy Tuesday, telepaths and Trekkies! I hope you all survived April Fool’s Day (my least favorite day on the Internet) unscathed and unfooled. Today we’re talking about an Octavia Butler adapation, an exciting sequel, Gollum, Pegasus by Robin McKinley, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Disney Publishing Worldwide and The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman.

After the death of her sister, Violet finds herself dragged to the hometown her mother fled years ago. Violet may be new to Four Paths, New York, but she soon learns her family isn’t. They’re one of the revered founding families of the town, where stone bells hang above every doorway and danger lurks in the depths of the woods. When Violet accidentally wanders into the Gray and unleashes the monster, Violet and her new friends must band together to unearth the dark truths behind their families’ abilities in order to defeat the monster… before the Gray devours them all.

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In book(ish) news:

If you’re as excited for The Night Country by Melissa Albert (follow-up to The Hazel Wood) as some of my Book Riot colleagues are, then you’ll be pleased to know that EW has an excerpt!

Keep an eye out: Alyssa Cole is writing a cyborg romance (per Twitter) and it will come out SOME TIME this year. I will give a prize to whoever first finds me a link to pre-order. The prize is bragging rights plus 100 points to your House.

Remember that time Chooseco, creaters of Choose Your Own Adventure, sued Netflix over Bandersnatch? Netflix is trying to get the case dismissed (per Publishers Weekly), under First Amendment grounds.

How would you like to play Gollum in a video game? io9 reports that such a thing might exist soon.

For my horror fans, we’ve got the full trailer for Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark, whose adaptation is co-written and produced by Guillermo del Toro.

Welp, they’ve done it. Amazon has finally figured out how to break me, and it is an adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed with Nnedi Okorafor and Wanuri Kahui attached. This is VERY GOOD NEWS for Butler fans (and very bad news for my corporate scruples)!

New month, new ebook deals!

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty, $1.99

Mem by Bethany C. Morrow, $1.99

The Spectral City by Leanna Renee Hieber, $0.99

And now, let’s talk about Pegasus (Pegasus #1) by Robin McKinley:

I mentioned recently on All the Backlist, when I was filling in for Liberty, that I found this book by accident in the library. A Robin McKinley book I didn’t know existed is a rare beast indeed, so of course I grabbed it. It’s a slow, atmospheric book, and if you are already a fan and a completist, I do think it’s worth picking up; if you’re new to McKinley’s work, however, I’d strongly suggest skipping for either of my personal all-time faves, Sunshine or the Damar duology (The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown).

Before I tell you anything about the plot, let me give you the warning I did not get: Pegasus ends on the cliff-hanger-iest of cliff-hangers, almost mid-scene. A cursory glance of Goodreads reviews reveals many distraught readers demanding news of the sequel, which does not appear to be happening any time soon. In addition, basically all the action happens in the last third of the book, so it’s an extraordinarily slow burn. Read at your own peril!

Sylvi is a princess in a remarkably well-adjusted royal family. Her father is mild-mannered until pressed, scholarly, and loving; her mother is a warrior, drily funny, and very caring. As the youngest and only girl, Sylvi is a loner and on the shy side, observant and thoughtful and with a knack for seeing through pretense. The story follows her from age 12, right before she’s first bound to her pegasus companion Ebon, to when she’s 16 (when all the action happens).

Royalty from both the human and pegasi courts are routinely bound together on the human’s 12th birthday, but unlike most other pairs Sylvi and Ebon can communicate telepathically. This is immediately troublesome, both because it’s unusual and because the court magicians are not having it. Their own utility is based largely on mediating communication between the two species; perfect communication through a pair threatens their power at court. While the head magician Fthoom (not a typo, that is his name) makes trouble both in front of and behind the scenes, Sylvi and Ebon try to navigate court politics — but mostly just want to fly together.

Pegasus is almost entirely a world-building tour through the courts of the human and pegasi, and if you’re up for many pages of lovingly detailed descriptions and vignettes without much plot, then dive on in. It’s a sweet story, and a nice distraction for a quiet afternoon or weekend, and who knows — maybe we’ll actually get the sequel someday.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

May your feathers be unruffled,
Jenn

Hello and happy Friday, foundlings and Fomorians. Today we’re talking about a Tolkien fandom project, vampires, swordswomen, continued Avengers feelings, Nightchaser by Amanda Bouchet, and more!

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This newsletter is sponsored by Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing, publishers of Sky Without Stars by Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell.

In the tradition of The Lunar Chronicles, this sweeping reimagining of Les Misérables tells the story of three teens from very different backgrounds who are thrown together amidst the looming threat of revolution on the French planet of Laterre.

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In the Olde-time Vampire Novels arena, there are two heavyweights: Carmilla and Dracula. I really love this take on which is better.

This week on SFF Yeah!, Sharifah and I talked about international SF/F, the Harry Potter AR game, and had some muppet arms about Time Bandits.

Calling all Tolkien fans: Marquette University, home to a large Tolkien archive, is putting together an oral history project featuring 3-minute stories from LOTR fans, and you could be one of them.

I ship it: Tessa Thompson and Brie Larson exchanging fan art of Valkyrie and Captain Marvel is the best thing that happened to my dash this week.

Do you like free books and/or Arthuriana? We’re doing a giveaway for Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy, and you can enter through April 2.

I love a good action sequence, and therefore definitely love this round-up of swordswomen in fantasy, which has several personal favorites (Tavis!!!!!).

SF/F isn’t always subtle, so this list of films that make do without special effects is very intriguing. (Also I’ve seen none of them, how did I miss so many?)

ICYMI, the Avengers: Endgame posters have some reveals of, as io9 so perfectly frames it, who is sad and who is dead. 😭

And now, the space hijinks of Nightchaser (Endeavor #1) by Amanda Bouchet

Trigger warnings: mentions of sexual assault, medical experimentation, and child abuse

I’ve read Bouchet before, specifically A Promise of Fire (which, if you’re looking for a Greek-inspired fantasy romance with lots of magic powers and a kidnapping warlord who turns out to be the good guy, you should read), so I thought I knew what to expect when a friend send me Nightchaser. I was wrong! This is a completely different kind of book from start to finish, and I enjoyed it a lot — albeit with a caveat.

Let’s start with the good: this is a space-opera romance with a conscience. Our heroine is Tess Bailey (not her real name), captain of the Endeavor, and she and her crew have just “liberated” a government lab that is supposed to be full of vaccines. Her plan is to take them to the orphanage she grew up in to inoculate the kids, since the supply of things like medicine and vaccines is severely limited. Who can argue with that? The government, it turns out! Also? That’s not a vaccine, but a super-soldier serum.

On the run and trying to figure out what to do, she and her crew end up on the planet Albion 5 in desperate need of repairs. The shop she (un)fortunately walks into belongs to Shade Donovan, sexy repairman and secret bounty hunter. As Tess and Shade’s chemistry builds, he has to decide if he’s willing to lose the immense payout offered for turning her in, while Tess tries to figure out the ties between the super-soldier serum and her own past.

The action scenes are fun, the emotional stakes are sky-high, and the political shenanigans are tangled, all of which makes for a compelling read. Bouchet also deconstructs the Alpha Hero trope with Shade in a very satisfying way; I’m on record as Team Beta, but this I will take. It does end on a cliffhanger — consider yourself warned!

Now for the caveat, which is around the treatment of one specific character, who seems to become a punching bag for the plot. A woman of color with a traumatic past, she’s also the person the most tragic things happen to over the course of the book. However, many other characters have experienced trauma of some kind. There are also multiple other characters of color in the novel, many of whom are complete and total badasses and who experience their own triumphs, which I did appreciate.

On the whole, this is a promising start to a new series. If you like found-family stories, romance, and space opera, give this one a whirl.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Hello and happy Tuesday, ifrits and incubi! Today there are some very exciting announcements of books to come, Seanan McGuire adaptation news, new releases, and some gushing about The True Queen by Zen Cho. Let’s get to it!

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This newsletter is sponsored by Tor Books.

Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn’t an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan’s unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture and hiding a deadly technological secret.

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Let’s talk book(ish) news:

A new trilogy by Sylvain Neuvel is coming! It won’t be out til 2020, but in the meantime you can listen to him talk about his SF influences on Recommended.

Powerhouse editors Jeff and Ann VanderMeer have a new anthology coming out in July, called The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, and it will include international and never-before-translated stories.

Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone are collaborating on a book about star-crossed, time-traveling spies, and you can consider me Officially Interested.

Leigh Bardugo is writing a fantasy novel for adults (!) called Ninth House, about the Ivy League elite, and EW has the cover reveal.

You might remember Liberty gushing about Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir; if you’re curious, you can now read the first chapter.

Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series is getting a TV adaptation, and most of Book Riot is freaking out.

The Dark Tower TV adaptation, coming from Amazon, is a go.

And in Marvel news, the Black Widow solo movie is moving forward and might involve Florence Pugh.

In this week’s exciting new releases:

The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi, translated by Cathy Hirano: While I haven’t watched anime consistently since college, I miss having it as part of my media diet. This novel, about a girl who can communicate with animals and who must fight against war, is exactly up my alley, and I love the cover. By a popular Japanese writer, this series has been out there for some years and has already been turned into an anime, so obviously it’s going on my list.

Tiamat’s Wrath (Expanse #8) by James S.A. Corey: One of these days — maybe when the series is over? — I will give the Expanse novels another try. I got deeply squicked out by the body-horror in the opening chapter of the first book, but I’ve been repeatedly assured that that’s actually the worst of it, and everything I’ve heard about both the books and the TV series adaptation is amazing. One day! Meanwhile the rest of you have probably already pre-ordered this.

At long last, let us flail about The True Queen by Zen Cho

Like many, I’ve been waiting for this book to come out since 2015. Its publication date was changed more than once, leaving many of us in agonies, but I am delighted to report that I adored this book, and it was absolutely worth the wait.

The True Queen starts out with an almost fable-like feel: two young women wash up on a beach. They have no memories of themselves or others, but they somehow recognize and can name each other. Luckily for them, they’ve washed ashore on Janda Baik, and are taken in by the inimitable Mak Genggang (#TeamMakGenggang). Sakti turns out to be incredibly talented in magic while Muna has none at all, but Muna is perfectly happy to be of use in other ways. When Sakti starts to disappear one piece at a time and the two discover that she’s been cursed by an unknown magician, their attempts to find a solution only make things worse. Forced to flee Janda Baik, they’re sent through the Unseen Realms of fairy to take refuge with the Sorceress Royal (#TeamPrunella) — but only Muna makes it to England.

Muna must try to save Sakti, who is trapped in Fairy, and navigate the complicated politics of English magic (which have not improved significantly since Sorcerer to the Crown), all without any magic of her own. Almost no one and no thing is exactly what they seem, and Muna must rely on her own wits to find her way and save the day. In the process, we follow her from Janda Baik to England to a dragon’s lair and the court of the Fairy Queen, and I’m delighted to tell you that favorites from Sorcerer make appearances, especially Damerell and Rollo! (#Team … ok, I am just #TeamEveryone, really.)

Amazing characters; two beautiful queer love stories; an expansion of the world-building; there’s so much to love here. My absolute favorite part, though? This is, much like Sorcerer to the Crown, a comedy of manners in the vein of Austen and Heyer. And, just like Sorcerer, Cho has flipped the script. Muna repeatedly triumphs just by being a decent human being, while (as you might guess) the English fail at this time and again. Cho claims the upper hand by turning colonialist, Eurocentric tropes upside down, inside out, and backwards, and does it with humor and aplomb. Excuse me while I go reread Sorcerer, just so I can have an excuse to reread True Queen as soon as possible.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Always say please and thank you,
Jenn

Hello and happy Friday, demigods and Dúnedain! Today we’re talking about who Captain Marvel might … eat? … next, intriguing author interviews, the best SF/F films of the last decade, We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Amazon Publishing and The Fever King by Victoria Lee.

In The Fever King by Victoria Lee, the first read in a captivating new series, a teen wakes up in a hospital bed with a magical new ability. Will he use his newfound power to become a hero for the downtrodden, or is he destined to become their oppressor? Read The Fever King by Victoria Lee.

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I asked about Dune series feelings in the last newsletter, and was assured by reader Ruth that “Only the first three books are worth reading in my opinion.” Thanks for weighing in — I’ve heard that before from others, so we’ll see what I can make time for!

Cannibal Captain Marvel? George R.R. Martin thinks she could eat Tony and Thor, and I can’t technically disagree.

If reading G. Willow Wilson’s The Bird King made you realize that you need more myth retellings in your life, behold! Here are 50.

And speaking of G. Willow Wilson, this is a fascinating and thoughtful interview with her about history, mythology, colonialism, and more.

In Star Wars news, the Force is strong with this review of EK Johnston’s Queen’s Shadow — it makes me want to read it IMMEDIATELY.

Ever wondered where Charlie Jane Anders (The City in the Middle of the Night) gets her ideas, or the importance of tidally locked planets, or what she’s working on next? This interview is a great read.

What’s the best SF/F film of the last decade? io9 is running a March Madness bracket! I will now spend way too long filling mine out.

Which Defense Against the Dark Arts professor are you? According to this quiz I am Remus Lupin *dusts shoulder off*.

I am, of course, not the only reader obsessed with Robin McKinley’s works, and this ode to her characters gives me all the “THIS!!!!” feels.

Just when I thought I was tired of YA dystopias….

We Set the Dark on Fire (#1) by Tehlor Kay Mejia

There are a lot of oppressive-government-plus-finishing-school-for-girls YA novels out there, y’all, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t still be done well, and Mejia has done it. We Set the Dark on Fire starts out with a gauzy myth and ends with a (literal) bang, and is a page-turner from start to finish.

Dani Vargas is a student at the Medio School for Girls, in training to become a Primera, or first wife, of one of Medio’s elite young men. In Medio, each upper class household consists of a husband, a Primera trained to be poised and intelligent, and a Segunda whose job is to be beautiful and satisfy the emotional needs of her husband. Dani is very, very good at being a Primera, maintaining a facade of calm and propriety at all times — and a big part of that is that she has a lot to hide. She’s actually from beyond the border wall of Medio, at school on illegal papers. Her parents spent years working to send her to the School for Girls so that she would have a better life, but on the eve of her graduation and selection, she can’t help but wonder how much better this life actually is. When her assigned husband, who may one day be the president of Medio, turns out to be a cold, ruthless, violent young man, her fears are confirmed … and then the rebellion contacts her.

Dani has so many choices to make: where to align herself politically, how to best protect herself and her family, how to use the skills she’s learned over the years, what to do about the new love awakening in her. What kind of life does she want, and what kind of life can she actually have? Mejia digs into the conflicts of family duty and personal loyalty, and the complicated morality of resistance, with thoughtfulness and nuance as well as strong emotion. Dani is also the least self-absorbed teen heroine I’ve seen in a while, as well as one of the most pragmatic. She has no high-flying, romantic notions, and is all too ready to sideline her own dreams and hopes for those of others. This is both a strength and a flaw, and a refreshing take on this familiar story.

This book is for readers craving a different take on the YA dystopia. Rooted in Latinx heritage, with an inclusive cast of characters including an LGBTQIA+ romance, We Set the Dark on Fire will suck you into its lush, detailed world and spit you out with a spinning brain and an urgent need to know what is going to happen next. (I also have an urgent need for the next installment to be told from Carmen’s perspective, so if anyone has any info on that, PLEASE SHARE.)

Bonus: here’s a great interview with Mejia about her own identity and influences, and the writing process.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Stay strong,
Jenn

Hello and happy Tuesday, makers and Martians! Today we’ve got Murderbot and Game of Thrones news, an expanded section on this week’s new releases, further musings about Dune, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles by Thomas Lennon, from Amulet Books.

Discover a world of law-breaking leprechauns and sly faeries in this new must-read fantasy series perfect for fans of The Land of Stories and Artemis Fowl! From writer and actor Thomas Lennon (Reno 911!, Night at the Museum), Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles follows fourteen-year-old Ronan Boyle, the lowliest recruit to the Garda Special Unit of Tir Na Nog, a secret organization that handles the misdeeds of numerous magical creatures. Despite his small size and numerous allergies, Ronan is determined to prove himself—even if it means confronting fiery leprechauns, sinister harpies and a whole world of monsters.

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Newsy news news:

ALERT ALERT ALERT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL: We are getting a full Murderbot novel! It will be called Network Effect and will come out in May 2020, so you’ve got plenty of time to reread all the novellas while you’re counting down the days.

If you’re a Game of Thrones show completist, you’ll be delighted to hear that there will be four tomes of behind-the-scenes material released, including one each on storyboards and costumes.

Related, here are the dates and run-times of the final episodes of Game of Thrones.

The sequel to Sangu Mandanna’s A Spark of White Fire, House of Rage and Sorrow, has a cover reveal! And it is gor. geous. I love that it captures both the fantastical and the sci-fi elements of the series.

Another cover reveal, PLUS an excerpt; this one is for Tochi Onyebuchi’s War Girls (October 15, 2019), a sci-fi tale set in Nigeria in 2172, and you have my attention.

Was someone cutting onions while you watched the Avengers: Endgame trailer? If you haven’t watched it yet, feelings warning.

Leah attended the Good Omens adaptation panel at SXSW and is here to spill all the secrets.

Speaking of panels, here’s a write-up and video of Noelle Stephenson at ECCC talking She-Ra, developing new and old characters, LGBT inclusion, and more.

New release I’m jazzed about (and why):

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
This latest novel from Hurley is solidly sci-fi, and follows a soldier who has been sent to the front lines of a war against Mars. The soldiers get there and back by being broken down into light, and not everyone comes back the same. I can’t wait to dig into this one; despite my peaceful nature, war stories are my jam, especially ones that exam PTSD and propaganda. I also noticed that the main character, Dietz, is not assigned a gender in the publisher copy, and Hurley regularly tackles LGBTQ+ issues in her work, so I am Very Interested.

The Deepest Blue: Tales of Renthia by Sarah Beth Durst
As you might have noticed in past reviews, I enjoyed all the Queens of Renthia books quite a bit. This book is not a direct sequel, just set in a different part of the same world. If you thought the body count was high in those, it seems like we should be prepared for even more — in the islands of Belene, rather than receiving training, those who have the potential to control the spirits are sent to an Island of Testing with no resources and very little hope of survival.

Some SUPER (ahem) ebook deals for your TBR:

Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Maas, $1.99

Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo, $1.99

Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu, $1.99

And now, some musings on Dune by Frank Herbert!

I confess it: I have not actually finished re-reading this book yet, and the last time I read it I was in my teens (so, about 20 years ago). But I am about 2/3 through, in preparation for a book club episode of SFF Yeah!, and I am having MANY THOUGHTS so you get to hear some of them.

First and foremost is that I definitely did not know what eugenics was the last (or first) time that I read Dune. And, as Emily Asher-Perrin notes in this great piece on why it’s worth talking about white savior narratives in regard to Dune, Paul Atreides is in fact the product of a successful eugenics experiment. The full horror of this is striking me on this read, and yikes! This is the kind of plot that makes me ask: If this is what the survival of the human race requires, is it actually worth it?

And secondly, the manipulation of religion as a political tool feels both timelier and more terrifying, given the current political climate. The use of “jihad” also feels, well, yikes. But, as Asher-Perrin’s piece also notes, Herbert isn’t exactly presenting this as a good thing. Paul refers repeatedly to his “terrible purpose,” and Jessica is shown to be very aware of the soulless manipulations of the Bene Gesserit, even as she goes along with them.

Thirdly, the ecological bent of this book is perhaps my favorite part. The sophisticated tech the Fremen have developed and the planetary scale of their goals and cooperation is just freaking glorious, and it hurts my soul how much this is overshadowed and twisted by the political bent of the novel. I am desperately jonesing for a solarpunk rewrite/fanfic of Dune, in which the Fremen do not get used as a lynchpin for a power grab and instead get to develop their culture and their planet in their own way and time — not struggle-free, because nothing in life is struggle-free, but without all the Atreides/Harkonnen machinations and eugenics and slaughter.

And then there are the broader Arab/Islamic representation issues, which this piece does a great job digging into. Of course, the only reason any of us are spending this much time thinking about Dune is because of the forthcoming movie; here’s the latest casting news, in case you were wondering. I have feelings about that as well, but am saving them for the podcast.

In the meantime, I’m trying to decide if this reread means I’ll finally read any of the sequels. Thoughts on whether or not that’s worth the time are welcome, and I’d love to mention those on the podcast, so send ’em to sffyeah@bookriot.com if you’ve got ’em.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Happy Friday, kings, queens, and Kryptonians! Today we’re talking YA SF/F, Indian lore, Captain Marvel, aliens, The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Flatiron Books.

Welcome to Finale, the final book in Stephanie Garber’s #1 New York Times bestselling Caraval series! It’s been two months since the Fates were freed from a deck of cards, two months since Legend claimed the throne for his own, and two months since Tella discovered the boy she fell in love with doesn’t really exist. Tella must decide if she’s going to trust Legend. After uncovering a secret, Scarlett will need to do the impossible. And Legend has a choice to make that will forever change him. Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun.

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YA author CB Lee and I geeked out about Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Night Circus, and YA sci-fi and fiction on this week’s SFF Yeah! 

Related to last week’s review of The Raven Tower, here’s an interview with Ann Leckie about gods, gender, authors to watch, and more.

Remember how much I loved Sangu Mandanna’s A Spark of White Fire? Well here’s a list of five must-read SF/F books based on Indian lore including Spark and Empire of Sand (another personal fave) and I need theeeeeese.

If you need an entry-point for Captain Marvel before you go see it in the theaters, here’s an explainer!

Related, Captain Marvel did incredibly well during its opening weekend, including coming in second behind Black Panther for strongest superhero origin story debut. Oh captain, my captain!

Six hours per White Walker: This is a beautifully produced video about the cosmetic prosthetics on Game of Thrones, for those of you who love a behind-the-scenes look. It has some mild visual spoilers, but I’m multiple seasons behind on the show and didn’t see anything too surprising/shocking.

Do you know how many aliens there are in the original Star Wars trilogy? I definitely did not; but what was even more surprising to me (although it probably shouldn’t be) about this video is that each alien species, no matter how brief its cameo, has a very specific name.

And for my cosplayers, closet or full-on, here’s a Miles Morales round-up.

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

Some of you may have read G. Willow Wilson’s comics work on Ms. Marvel, A-Force, or perhaps her graphic novel Cairo; some of you might have read her first novel, Alif the Unseen (so good); others maybe read her memoir The Butterfly Mosque. Perhaps you’ve just read her Twitter! Regardless, if you’re already a fan and have not picked up The Bird King yet, you’re in for a treat. If you haven’t read anything by her and this is the first time you’re hearing her name, you are ALSO in for a treat.

Combining elements of the Sufi poem The Conference of the Birds and the events of the Spanish Inquisition, The Bird King is a compelling, beautifully paced, and beautifully written historical fantasy. Fatima is a concubine to the last sultan of Granada, coveted for her beauty and captive to the whims of the sultan, his mother, and others in the court at Alhambra. The Emirate is under siege by the forces of Ferdinand and Isabella, who have sent a delegation to negotiate their surrender. In that delegation is Luz, an Inquisitor for the Catholic Church, who befriends Fatima only to demand her conversion and the sacrifice of Fatima’s only friend at court. Hassan is a mapmaker with an amazing gift — the maps he draws come true. He’s also gay, and his gifts and sexuality make him an immediate target.

When Fatima and Hassan flee the court, they must try to survive the wider world with their (very limited) resources and skill sets. Luckily a jinn named Vikram has promised to help them; unluckily, there’s only so much he can do. Fatima and Hassan want only to take refuge in their favorite story, The Conference of the Birds. If they believe hard enough, can they find the mythical island of Qaf? If they run fast enough, can they outrun the Inquisition? They find both friends and foes along their journey, and test the limits of their own strength and conviction.

What didn’t I love about this book? (Nothing, that’s what.) Fatima is driven by anger and frustration, leading her to tantrums and poor choices as well as giving her the strength and stamina she needs to keep fighting the forces against her. Her friendship with Hassan is beautiful and nourishing, as well as jealous and dangerous for them both. It was nice to see some familiar characters from Alif (although I won’t say who.) And Luz! What even to say about Luz.

As promised in all the blurbs, Wilson skillfully navigates the dualities of love and hate, freedom and captivity, faith and doubt, choice and obligation, and finds all the shades of gray between them. I laughed, I cried, I bit my nails in terror, and I wanted nothing more than to continue spending time with Fatima, Hassan, and their merry band of misfits. An amazing new book from a genuine talent; and while I love her comics work, The Bird King makes me hope that we won’t have to wait another 7 years before her next novel.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Hello and happy Tuesday, friends! Today we’ve got a bajillion trailers, both of the book and screen variety, some very Star Wars beetles, exciting new releases and book deals, and a review of Tade Thompson’s The Rosewater Insurrection.

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This newsletter is sponsored by The Bird King​ by G. Willow Wilson, available now from Grove Press.

A fantastical journey set at the height of the Spanish Inquisition from the award-winning author of ​Alif the Unseen​ and writer of the Ms. Marvel series, G. Willow Wilson’s ​The Bird King​ is a jubilant story of love versus power, religion versus faith, and freedom versus safety. The novel follows Fatima, the only remaining Circassian concubine to the sultan, and her dearest friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker, on their quest to find the mysterious, possibly mythic island of The Bird King, whose shifting boundaries will hopefully keep them safe.

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Today’s news round-up includes a bonanza of trailers:

Here’s the trailer for the final season of Game of Thrones.

And here’s the first full trailer for the adaptation of Good Omens.

And here’s a book trailer for The Dysasters by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast.

In adaptation news, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez has been acquired by Netflix, for a Spanish-language series, and I am sure I am not the only magical realism fan who is (potentially) very excited about this. Let the fancasting begin!

The Lord of the Rings TV adaptation will be set during the Second Age, which is good news for Silmarillion fans but bad news for people who wanted to see young Aragorn; let us now all hope for young(er) Elrond and Galadriel! I remain skeptical but curious.

In “not a trailer” news: details have FINALLY been released about the Harry Potter AR game from the makers of Pokémon Go, and it’s available for pre-order on Google Play (although no official release date yet).

In my continued glee over science nerdery, I present you with beetles named after Yoda and Artemis, among others.

And last but not least, in case you too are still playing catch-up with late February, this year’s Oscar’s red carpet rundown from Genevieve Valentine includes a fable about JLo. (Seriously.)

And in this week’s stand-out new releases:

The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

The Rosewater Insurrection by Tade Thompson (reviewed below!)

The ebook deal gods have smiled upon us with the discounts on the first books of several series:

The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1) by N.K. Jemisin, $2.99

Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1) by James S.A. Corey, $2.99

The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy #1) by Katherine Arden, $1.99

Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch #1) by Ann Leckie, $2.99

And in today’s review, we have aliens and zombies and special agents, oh my!

The Rosewater Insurrection (The Wormwood Trilogy #2) by Tade Thompson

Trigger warnings: self-harm, child abuse

We did a whole SFF Yeah! book club episode on Rosewater, so you can imagine my excitement about the next installment — especially considering that my one wish upon finishing Rosewater was to get more story from Aminat’s perspective, and The Rosewater Insurrection does just that! Of course, it’s not all Aminat; instead we get multiple narrators, across multiple timelines, in the next gloriously tangled installment of this war for the fate of Earth and humanity.

To recap: Rosewater is the name of a city that formed around an alien creature that implanted itself into the planet, formed a biodome, and released spores and xenoflaura and -fauna. Some of those alien elements heal people, some hurt people, and some humans were granted psychic powers as the result of exposure. Kaaro, our narrator in the first book, was one of those “sensitives,” who began to uncover exactly what the alien structure was, as well as its goal — nothing less than the takeover of the planet, and the possible end of humanity.

In Book 2, we follow Rosewater’s mayor Jack Jacques, bad-ass S-45 special agent Aminat (who is dating Kaaro), and a soldier named Eric, among others, all of whom have a different part to play and whose own motivations are not always clear. Aminat’s storyline was both my favorite and is the easiest to sum up: S-45 has discovered a human who has unusually high levels of alien DNA, and wants her brought in for examination and questioning. Aminat is sent out to locate and acquire this target, and in the process must make her way through riots, gunfights, pseudo-zombies and killer plants, and her own organization’s twisted methods. That’s just the tip of the plot iceberg, but it’s a solid start, and to tell you anymore would spoil the fun (and actual plot points).

I’ve read a few sequels recently that suffer a bit from sophomore slump, or are very slow burns; The Rosewater Insurrection is anything but. This book is a whirlwind from start to finish, building on the foundation of Rosewater and ratcheting up the stakes, the action, and the plot threads, with an incredible finale that changes, yet again, the rules of this potentially deadly game. If you too were a fan of the first book, get this ASAP; if you haven’t started yet, there’s no time like the present.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Stay away from suspicious domes,
Jenn

Hello and happy Friday, godlings and Groots. Today we’re talking about the Iron Throne, SF/F audiobooks, beer and book pairings, The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Flatiron Books, publishers of The Reign of the Kingfisher by T.J. Martinson.

Thirty years ago a superhero tried to save Chicago. Now the city is again under siege, in this gritty, suspenseful, and beautifully written novel from award-winning debut author T.J. Martinson.

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Got a preferred candidate for the Iron Throne? This endorsement for Sansa Stark is compelling.

I did not know Harry Potter-themed Escape Rooms were a thing, and yet I am completely unsurprised.

Ready your earholes! Alex has rounded up 25 of the best SF/F audiobooks and it is quite a list.

Here’s a semi-secret: I’m prepping for an SFF Yeah! episode dedicated to Dune, with a very special guest (no I will not tell you who it is). So this piece on whether or not Dune is a “white savior” narrative is both relevant to my interests and very thoughtfully laid out.

Another find from my trip to LA: I scored an awesome print at the Time Travel Mart, and you should definitely check out their wares. Bonus: proceeds benefit 826LA,a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

I’m not saying it’s aliens, but …. the evidence around water on Mars could very well mean that Martians existed! My body is now ready for “A long time ago, on a planet not that far away…” space operas.

And while February is over, this round-up of speculative romances paired with beer is still worth your clicks.

Tuesday’s review was for a book that had both magic and science in it, and today’s is … sort of same? But also very different.

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

Trigger warning: self-harm, transphobia

This is Leckie’s first fantasy novel, and while it is hugely different from the Imperial Radch series, it also contains many elements that will be familiar to her fans. Narrated by a god who is literally a giant sentient rock, with a transgender main character, The Raven Tower examines the nature of reality, the power of words, the meaning of worship and sacrifice, and the bonds of friendship.

A note about voice: the book is told in second person, but not to you the reader — rather, to the you that is Eolo, our main character. I strongly encourage you, even if you think you don’t like second-person narration, to give this a shot; Leckie pulls it off beautifully.

Eolo is the aide and good friend to Mawat, the heir to the current ruler of Vastai. Mawat has been summoned home; his father is ailing, and it will likely soon be time for him to take up the mantle of power. In this case, that means an actual sacrifice: the ruler is the Raven’s Lease, who is granted power by a god called the Raven and who, in exchange for that power, must ritually kill himself at the end of his rule. Mawat has been raised in this tradition and is ready and willing to take up the burden, but he arrives to find his father missing and his uncle on the throne. (If you’re seeing shades of Hamlet here, you’re not wrong!) While Mawat stages a public protest, Eolo starts to investigate behind the scenes — and thus enters into a dark world of intrigue, including both political and actual backstabbing.

Our godly narrator, in the meantime, gives us centuries (millennia?) worth of information about the world of The Raven Tower. We see the evolution (although not named as such) of the humans, the cultural clashes of different tribes and settlements, and the clashes between different gods. It’s where these last two overlap, of course, that things start to get really interesting.

There is magic aplenty, as well as all-out battles, subterfuge, romance, and a full and varied cast of characters; if there are more books set in this world, there are a few people and things I am dying to know more about. And while it fits solidly into the pre-Industrial fantasy genre, The Raven Tower also strays into scientific territory more than once (for example, the laws of conservation of matter and energy make a cameo). The result is a science-minded fantasy that I found incredibly satisfying; giving me a rousing, action-packed tale while also pondering the mechanics of the universe is a sure way to my heart.

For Leckie fans, this will likely be another keeper for your shelf; for those who haven’t read her, this is a great intro to her work. It may also give you nightmares about ravens and/or rocks; you’ve been forewarned!

And that’s a wrap. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Beware the old gods and the new,
Jenn

Hello and happy Tuesday, trolls and Time Lords! Today we’re looking at some cover reveals, directorial news for The Night Circus, a very nerdy musical, exciting new releases, and a review of Tentacle by Rita Indiana, translated by Achy Obejas.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Disney Publishing Worldwide.

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents a brilliant sci-fi romp with Cuban influence that poses this question: What would you do if you had the power to reach through time and space and retrieve anything you want, including your mother, who is no longer living (in this universe, anyway)?

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News from hither and yon: 

The Night Circus movie has a director! And is also mistakenly identified as YA, c’mon Hollywood.

I definitely forgot that a Dark Phoenix movie was in the works, but here’s a trailer. I have mixed feelings about the newer X-Men movies (as well as the older ones), but I will at the very least be renting this one because I just cannot help myself.

If you would like to speculate a bunch about the Wheel of Time TV adaptation, Tor.com has you covered.

Related, Tor.com also has a cover reveal for the posthumously published Robert Jordan novel, Warrior of the Altaii.

Not technically books, but Jonathan Frakes will be directing some of Patrick Stewart’s new Star Trek series!

Also not technically books but very nerdy, the Buffy musical is coming to vinyl. I do not own a record player, but dang if that artwork isn’t fantastic.

New releases for this week!

Mahimata by Rati Mehrotra (Asiana #2), please note, I am reading this right now and it’s GREAT

Famous Men Who Never Lived by K. Chess

Star Wars: Queen’s Shadow by E.K. Johnston

The Shadowglass by Rin Chupeco (The Bone Witch #3), SO EXCITED FOR THIS ONE

Please also have some ebook deals:

Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly, $2.99

Geekerella: A Fangirl Fairy Tale Vol. 1 by Ashley Poston, $1.99

Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu, $1.99

And now for today’s review, of a book that came to me like a fever dream.

Tentacle by Rita Indiana, translated by Achy Obejas

Trigger warnings: rape, homophobia, racial and homophobic slurs

As I mentioned, I was in Los Angeles last week, and one of my vacation rituals is to visit bookstores and grab a book that I’ve never heard of or seen anywhere else, usually off the Staff Picks shelf. Skylight Books in Los Feliz had this one on a Translated Fiction display, and both the cover and staff blurb grabbed me. Add to that that Achy Obejas is the one translator I can name at this moment in time, and this became my plane book. I read it cover to cover in one sitting, and it is a knockout.

Acilde Figueroa is a prostitute working the streets of a harsh future Santo Domingo when a trick unexpectedly comes with a job, as housekeeper to an old santera named Esther. All Acilde wants is to earn enough money, by hook or by crook, for the sex-change drug RainbowBrite; the path there ends up involving a cult of the sea anemone, a prison sentence, and dislocation in time.

Acilde is by far my favorite narrator, but is not our only one; we also get the macho cokehead artist Argenis, who has screwed up one opportunity after another and has one last shot: an artist colony funded by a rich couple obsessed with saving the marine life of Sosúa.

Both Argenis and Acilde become unmoored in time, and find themselves living simultaneous lives in different timelines of the Dominican Republic’s past, present, and future. (Think Cloud Atlas but on just so many drugs.) The plot winds around and through itself like a nautilus, and the story winds around and through the lives of its characters, but it always comes back to Indiana’s central theme: the destruction we inflict on our environment, and on ourselves.

A beautiful ode to marine ecology; a call for awareness and action; and a deep dive into the complex, difficult, sometimes unsavory, sometimes transcendent human psyche, Tentacle is both a difficult and noteworthy read. Art, queer politics, faith, magic, colonialism, class, race, time travel, drugs, sex, and identity — it packs a huge punch in its 132 pages. It also won the Grand Prize of the Association of Caribbean Writers, and translator Obejas is both a Pulitzer winner for journalism and winner of two Lambda Literary Awards. So if you’re looking for award-winning fiction, translated fiction, and above all weird speculative fiction, get this novel posthaste.

Bonus and/or TL;DR:  My fellow Rioter Amanda also recently read this book, and describes it as “like if China Miéville wrote queer Dominican eco disaster fic,” to which I can only offer a hearty cosign.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Allons-y!,
Jenn

Hello, fiends and fauns! I have just returned from a vacation that included the very alien-planet-looking Joshua Tree National Park, and am full of SF/F thoughts. Let’s talk about this year’s Nebula Awards, stand-alone fantasy, Oppy, dragons, and camping in SF/F!

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This newsletter is sponsored by Wednesday Books.

An all new paranormal fantasy series from #1 bestselling authors P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast ignites a world of earth-shattering action and romance where a group of teens question their supernatural abilities. Nothing is what it seems as nature’s power takes control. The wind can change everything and everyone.

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The 2018 Nebula Awards ballot has been announced, and we talked about it a bit on this week’s SFF Yeah!

Silvana picked her favorite stand-alone fantasy novels, and some personal favorites (Temper! Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge! The Black God’s Drums!) as well as lots that are new to me made the cut.

This ode to Oppy the Mars Rover (and dive into robots in SF) gave me all the feelings.

Speaking of feelings, this is a lovely piece on two fantasy novels that process the aftermath of trauma.

Any round-up of sci-fi-themed music videos that includes Janelle Monae is all right with me.

This post about how to build your own dragon was not what I was expecting, but I will accept it nonetheless and will be trying to figure out where to get my own Bombardier Beetle.

Fantasy thrillers is not a sub-genre I read often, but this review of two new ones makes a compelling case.

And this riff on the new Game of Thrones-branded Oreo cookies cracked me up.

Given how much I read, it’s probably inevitable that most real-life situations remind me of books. And since I went camping this week, today we’re looking at a few of my favorite books about roughing it in sci-fi and fantasy!

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler: This is the first book I thought of, mainly because it takes place in the Pacific Northwest and there’s a whole section about how to make acorns edible. Lauren and her traveling companions are fleeing the destruction of their community, searching for a safe place to start again — there’s a lot of peril along the way, as well as a beautiful spiritual journey.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: And this was the second book I thought of, likely because the Traveling Symphony bits of this book were my favorite. A caravan of people putting on theatrical productions for the survivors of a pandemic? Amazing. Jumping between the moment that a killer flu hits civilization and then 15 years in the future, when the world has changed dramatically, this mid- and post-apocalypse novel feels all too possible, and highly compelling.

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd: Another cataclysmic novel; people start to develop magical powers but lose their memories in the process, and civilization begins to unravel. Includes hunting, gathering, and wilderness peril as well as dangerous cityscapes, and this was one of my favorites of last year.

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin: There is a theme developing here, in that surviving an apocalypse often involves camping. Of course, it helps if you’ve been training your whole life for this to happen, and you have superpowers — with the awful caveat that those powers are why you’re on the run in the wilderness. If you haven’t picked up this book yet, what are you even waiting for! Trigger warnings: harm to children.

Ammonite by Nicola Griffith: You’re probably tired of hearing me talk about this book, but there is a fantastic survivalist section in the middle that made me incredibly grateful for extreme-cold-rated sleeping bags.

The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson: Camping may go with apocalypses (apocalypsi?) in sci-fi, but anyone can camp in fantasy… including a demi-god. Hiding his true nature, Demane signs on with a caravan and then finds himself relying on his powers when a terrifying creature starts killing his brothers-in-arms.

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri: Some folks choose the wilderness life, and some have it thrust upon them. Such is the plight of Mehr, the illegitimate but pampered daughter of an imperial governor and an exiled tribeswoman. When her family is threatened, she agrees to a marriage and pledges her fledgling magical powers to the service of the Emperor, and a harrowing trip across the desert is only the start of her troubles.

Honorable mentions are, of course, due to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (I liked the camping bits!) and the Lord of the Rings, which maybe wins for Most Camping Of Any Epic. When will REI start carrying lembas, is my question.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn