Category: Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Mar 12

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date March 11, 2019

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.

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.

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

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Mar 8

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date March 7, 2019

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.

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.

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

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Mar 5

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date March 4, 2019

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.

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)?

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.

Allons-y!,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Mar 1

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date February 28, 2019

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!

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.

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.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Wormholes in IKEA and Necromancers in Space: Swords and Spaceships for Feb 26, 2019

Post author By Liberty Hardy
Post date February 25, 2019

Hello and happy Tuesday, darklings! It’s me, Liberty! I have attached myself to Jenn’s brain stem, and I am now driving the mother ship. Or she asked me to fill in for her today. One of these things is true. Either way, I am excited to be here! Today we’ve got the teaser for His Dark Materials, wormholes in IKEA, upcoming new releases, a review of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, and more.

Swords and Spaceships Feb 22

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date February 21, 2019

Hello and happy Friday, Fair Folk and Fremen! Today we’ve got some reading lists, a superhero with bipolar disorder, a queer classic, a review of A Big Ship At the Edge of the Universe by Alex White, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by Flatiron Books.

After her parents die, Camille must find a way to provide for her sister by transforming scraps of metal into money. But soon she begins to pursue a more dangerous mark: the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Camille transforms herself into a baroness and is swept up into life at Versailles. She meets a handsome young inventor, and begins to believe that love and liberty may both be possible. But magic has costs, and when revolution erupts, Camille must choose—before Paris burns.

Love you some magic and modernity? Here’s a great round-up of fantasy with modern elements.

Here’s a nice piece with the writer from The Unstoppable Wasp, on Nadia Van Dyne coping with bipolar disorder.

I’m super excited that Hadriana in All My Dreams (which I loved) made it into the on-going QUILTBAG+ Speculative Classics column on Tor.com!

Speculatively-related, the 2019 Read Harder includes a task to read a book of mythology or folklore, and here are some suggestions.

I talked about female time-travelers on Tuesday, and if you need more here’s a round-up.

With great power comes great responsibility, and here are eight books about magic wielders grappling with that!

Everyone is very hype about this bot’s writing ability; while I will grant you that the quoted Lord of the Rings-inspired scene is passable (barely) in terms of just basic writing, I can’t help but side-eye the assertion that anyone would mistake it for Tolkien’s writing.

Anyway! On to today’s review, which is a 10-lb plot in a 5-lb book, in a very satisfying way.

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White

Do you need some big, explosion-y fun with a diverse found-family crew of an outer-space starship trying to save the galaxy? Have I got a book for you. I have been describing this book as what might happen if you took some Murderbot and some Firefly and some Fast & Furious and added magic and upped the inclusivity, and I stand by it. (There’s a lot going on, y’all.)

Our two narrators couldn’t be more different. Nilah is an intergalactically famous race car driver with a literal magic touch, poised to become a champion and loving the limelight; Elizabeth, a.k.a. Boots, is the veteran of a horrible interplanetary conflict, is currently a con-artist, and faces constant prejudice because she’s one of the few humans who doesn’t have any magic at all (Muggles being rare in this ‘verse). When one of Nilah’s competitors buys a treasure map from Boots that gets him killed and Nilah accused of the murder, their paths cross, people start getting shot, and then more people start to die. What exactly is it about the fabled warship Harrow that someone is trying to keep secret? Boots, Nilah, and the crew of the Capricious might get killed anyway, so they might as well try to find out.

I really enjoyed this; White writes action well, and gleefully combines space opera and magic. I love the idea of a mechanic-mage almost as much as I love cranky, crochety, scarred, magic-less Boots, who grumped her way right into my heart. White has also clearly considered the ramifications of his world-building, exploring the injustices and inequities that might exist as well as the joys and treasures. Nilah’s journey from a pampered, albeit hard-working, diva to a member of the crew was a nice counterpoint to Boots, who is trying her mightiest to stay an outsider. The Big Bad is very big and very bad indeed, and it’s easy to root for these big-hearted, all too human characters.

While this is the first book in a series, the ending wraps up very nicely; White ties up all the major plot threads while leaving the door open for further adventures. The bonus here is that Book 2, A Bad Deal For the Whole Galaxy, is already out! Book 3 is slated for 2020, so don’t barge through them too fast.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Feb 19

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date February 19, 2019

Hello and happy Tuesday, chrononauts and Kryptonians! Today we’re talking about the Dune cast (again), a new movie about J.R.R. Tolkien, Chinese sci-fi, The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas, and more.

This newsletter is brought to you by Tor Books, proud publisher of The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons.

Read the epic fantasy debut of the year. What if your destiny was not to save the world, but to destroy it? When a young thief is claimed against his will as the missing son of a treasonous prince, he finds himself at the mercy of his new family’s ruthless ambitions. Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians, calls The Ruin of Kings “Everything epic fantasy should be: rich, cruel, gorgeous, brilliant, enthralling and deeply, deeply satisfying.” Read The Ruin of Kings, available now wherever books are sold. For more info follow @torbooks.

Book news is light today, but as always there is plenty of adaptation news:

Have you already seen the Tolkien biopic trailer? I mentioned that Nicholas Holt is playing J.R.R. himself, and this teaser is way more magical than I was expecting (a failure of imagination on my part, clearly).

Lost producer Liz Sarnoff has optioned The Book of M by Peng Shepherd (which, as you might recall, I loved), for television, and I am SO EXCITED.

In the latest from the increasingly high-profile Dune casting news, Jason Momoa is in talks to play Duncan Idaho. I continue to not how how to feel, since these are all interesting actors, but none of them are matching up to my headcanon.

An adaptation of Cixin Liu’s novella The Wandering Earth has taken the Chinese box-offices by storm and is on track to become China’s highest grossing film of all time.

It’s another great week for exciting new releases:

Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation, edited by Ken Liu

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark

The Rising: The Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant

And here are your ebook deals for the week (or at least, at the time of this sending):

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (a classic) is $1.99.

Wild Seed by Octavia Buttler (Patternist #1) is $1.99 (do recommend)!

In today’s review: This is your brain. This is your brain on chronology.

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas

Trigger warnings: self-harm, suicidal ideation, hazing, eating disorders

This debut novel was pitched to me as Hidden Figures plus time travel, and that’s a pretty solid pitch; it is, in fact, a novel about diverse women in STEM — some of color, some queer — who invent time travel. It’s also a locked-room murder mystery with a multi-narrator, multi-timeline, Gordian knot of a structure. While I occasionally found some moments of exposition on the clunky side, on the whole this book was a delight to read — a delving of the human psyche when faced with the power to go anywhere, anywhen.

In 1967, scientists Kate, Barbara, Lucille, and Grace combine their specialties and really, actually invent time travel with remarkably little fuss. When both animal and human trials prove successful, they go public — but in the process, Barbara suffers a nervous breakdown. Steely, practical Margaret decides to cut Barbara off from the project permanently, setting in motion a chain of events that will unfold over the next four decades.

In 2017, the women’s project has grown into The Conclave, an independently governed, incredibly powerful organization that controls all time travel. Its employees are an elite band, bonded together by hazing as well as the unique nature of their job. And when an unidentified woman is found dead in the locked boiler room of a toy museum, all signs point back to The Conclave. Who is she and how did she die? The cast of characters swept up in these questions each have their own motivations and secrets, and some have more to hide — and more power to do so — than others.

I’m hard-pressed to say whether Ruby, Barbara’s granddaughter, or Odette, the young woman who finds the body, were my favorite characters; it’s a close tie. But in fact, each and every character drew me in in their own way, whether through horrified fascination, sympathy, or charm. Mascarenhas’s strength is, as the title says, in imagining how the human psyche might be impacted by, adapt to, and change with time travel. What gets lost and what gets magnified? What strange and terrible effects might it have on a person? What beautiful ones?

Time loops, paradoxes, legal battles, friendships broken and forged, love lost and found, soft and hard sciences; this book has a ton going on. If you’re willing to buckle up and hang tight through all the twists and turns, I think you’ll find it’s worth the ride.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Feb 15

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date February 14, 2019

Hello and happy Friday, monsters and magicians! Today I give you authors in conversation, the business of predicting the future, fantasy with monsters, a review of The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tor Books.

From Charlie Jane Anders, bestselling author of All the Birds in the Sky, comes a brilliant new novel set in a haunting future. January is a dying planet—divided between frozen darkness on one side and blazing sunshine on the other. Humanity clings to life in two archaic cities built in the sliver of habitable dusk. Sophie should be dead after being exiled into the night. Saved only by forming an unusual bond with the beasts who roam the ice, she vows to stay hidden from the world, hoping to heal. But fate has other plans—and Sophie’s odyssey will change the world.

A bunch of great SF/F writers including Victor LaValle and N.K. Jemisin were in conversation at the NYPL recently, and this recap includes some great tidbits (I definitely needed the section about hope).

If you like monsters, have we got a list for you — of monsters and magic in YA fantasy!

If you like interviews, S.A. Chakraborty (The Daevabad Trilogy) talked with us about her inspirations, Jersey, her writing process, and more.

And on the younger side of the reading spectrum, here are 50 must-read fantasies for kids organized by grade level (and also obviously, all fair game for adult readers)!

Authors + authors = magic: Nicky Drayden (author of The Prey of Gods) decided to cosplay the cover of N.K. Jemisin’s How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? and live-tweeted the process and it was AWESOME.

Which magician are you? Our quiz will help you find out! I am Zacharias Wythe apparently and I’m 100% fine with that.

And I found this deep-dive into the business of predicting the future — which is literally employing sci-fi writers these days — to be totally fascinating.

And now, for the weirdest book I read last year that I can’t stop thinking about.

The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya, translated by Asa Yoneda

Trigger warning: body horror, physical violence

If you’re a regular listener of the SFF Yeah! podcast, you heard me talk about this book on our Weird SFF show. If not, buckle up, because it’s a doozy.

A short story collection that takes reality and warps it every which way, The Lonesome Bodybuilder plays with your expectations at every turn. A noted advice columnist’s final piece goes increasingly off the rails; a newlywed woman notices that her husband’s face has started to rearrange itself; a dating couple end up in a literal battle of the sexes; a little boy discovers the secret to flight while waiting at a bus stop. The title story, “The Lonesome Bodybuilder,” follows a neglected housewife who finds a new passion and completely remakes her body — but her husband never notices.

Perhaps my favorite, and one of the funniest and creepiest stories in the collection, follows a young retail worker waiting on a customer who refuses to come out of the dressing room — and as the story goes on, we start to question whether the customer is even human. It reminds me a great deal of my favorite story from another collection I loved by Marie-Helene Bertino, Safe as Houses; apparently I have a thing for possibly-aliens interacting with humans in the most mundane of circumstances!

There is, as stated in the warnings, a great deal of body horror, creepiness, and both implicit and explicit violence; there’s also a great deal of wit, insight, and dark humor. If you’re feeling the need to dip in and out of a collection, and would like a regular influx of “What the heck did I just read?!”, treat yourself.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Feb 12

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date February 11, 2019

Hello and happy Tuesday, xenofauna and xenoflora! Today we’re talking about Maggie Stiefvater’s new series, a possible adaptation for Black Leopard, Red Wolf, some very good e-book deals, and The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders.

This newsletter is sponsored by Here and Now and Then, a uniquely thrilling, genre-bending debut novel by Mike Chen.

Kin Stewart is an everyday family man, working in I.T., trying to keep the spark in his marriage, and struggling to connect with his teenage daughter. But his current life is a far cry from his previous career…as a time-traveling agent from 2142.

Stranded in suburban San Francisco since the 1990s after a botched mission, Kin’s past is a secret from everyone, despite the increasing blackouts and memory loss affecting his time-traveler’s brain. But one day, his agency’s rescue team arrives…18 years too late. Their mission: return Kin to 2142 where he’s only been gone weeks, not years, and where another family is waiting for him—a family he can’t remember.

Here are a few great bits of news from the books and adaptations world:

Clarkesworld Magazine is working on a dedicated translation imprint, and starting with Chinese sci-fi author Xia Jia!

Children of Blood and Bone is up for a 2019 Audie award.

For my Raven Cycle fans, Maggie Stiefvater has announced a new series, coming in November.

And the third book in S.A. Chakraborty’s Daevabad Trilogy has a title (and a GIF).

In some beautiful synergy, Michael B. Jordan has acquired the rights to Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James as his first producer gig, and this could be incredible.

And Y: The Last Man‘s TV adaptation will be coming to FX in 2020.

In exciting new releases news, out this week:

Early Riser by Jasper Fforde (!!!!)

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas (which I am reading now and thoroughly enjoying)

And here are some ebooks to get on the cheap:

How about a free one? Everything Change is sci-fi around climate change, with an intro from Kim Stanley Robinson.

A couple of N.K. Jemisin’s ebooks are downpriced, including How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? for $4.99 and the entire Inheritance Trilogy for $9.99.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley (a perennial personal favorite) is $1.99.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (also a favorite) is $2.99.

Today in reviews, I have a lot of FEELINGS.

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

I enjoyed the heck out of Anders’ first novel, All the Birds in the Sky, not least because it’s an action-packed mash-up of sci-fi and fantasy. Her second book is a completely different beast; it’s a colonization story, an alien-encounter story, an identity and family story, a survival story.

Our setting: the tidally-locked planet January, where humanity has settled and eked out a tenuous existence in the dusk zone. They cluster in a handful of cities, trying to defend themselves from the indigenous megafauna and keep enough Earth-tech going to ensure their survival — and time may be running out.

Our cast: Sophie and Mouth.

Sophie is a lower-class outsider living in Xiosphant who works her way into college, only to be left for dead outside the city gates for being involved with an illegal political student group. She’s rescued by a creature she knows only as a “crocodile,” a tentacled creature who finds a way to communicate with her and reveals that they have a massive city of their own. Sophie’s struggle to understand and repay the Gelet clashes directly with her obsessive friendship with and love for the glamorous, wealthy, ambitious Bianca.

Mouth was born on the road and is used to the harshest of January’s ways, quick to violence, and the last surviving member of an itinerant religious community. When a chance to retrieve an artifact from her community crosses her path, she in turn crosses Sophie and Bianca’s paths, and the result might change the fate of all of January’s inhabitants.

The first and last third are indeed action-packed, with pirate attacks, political machinations, gangsters battling in the streets, giant squid, and desperate struggles for survival aplenty. But the middle section is a ramble through January itself, a meander into the world-building, and a deep dive into each character’s psyche. While some readers might lose patience with that long, slow middle section, I found I didn’t care that the plot had come to rest for a moment. Mouth and Sophie were continually surprising me, as well as becoming beautifully familiar. January and the Gelet are fascinatingly complex, and I would have spent far more time among the Gelet in particular if it had been offered.

And the ending, friends! While some doors have closed, nothing is wrapped up with a bow and no one’s survival is assured; the future is deeply unclear. I closed the book and sat there having feelings for a good five minutes. What will happen to Sophie and Mouth? What does it mean to be human? What does our past grant us, and what should we set down? And why do we pick the wrong people to love? There are no answers, just various beings struggling with these questions. If that sounds like your jam as well, then grab a copy and @ me when you’re done; we can have feelings together.

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

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Feb 8

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date February 7, 2019

Hello and happy Friday, centaurs and space cadets! Today we’ve got linky goodness in the form of hard sci-fi round-ups, speculative poetry, black writers to watch for, and more, plus a review of Nicola Griffith’s Ammonite.

This newsletter is sponsored by HMH Teen.

First in a duology, this darkly thrilling page-turner set in the world of the best-selling His Fair Assassin series is perfect for fans of Throne of Glass, Red Queen, and Game of Thrones. Told in alternating perspectives, when Sybella discovers there is another trained assassin from St. Mortain’s convent deep undercover in the French court, she must use every skill in her arsenal to navigate the deadly royal politics and find her sister in arms before her time—and that of the newly crowned queen—runs out.

I’m still working my way through Black Leopard, Red Wolf, and can only currently say WOW THIS BOOK. (I’m enjoying it but also fair warning; I’m 100 pages in and my trigger warning count currently includes domestic violence, harm to children, child abuse, female genital mutilation, homophobia, torture, and a lot of gore.) Until I finish and can review it properly, may I suggest you read this conversation between Marlon James and Victor LaValle?

And speaking of incredible black writers, here’s a round-up of books coming out this spring and summer to get on your radar (including several debuts, exciting!).

I’m officially already behind on February, and the month has barely started, so here’s a round-up of some books from this month that should be on your radar.

Did you know speculative poetry was a thing? Because it totally is! I had no idea there was such a thing as the Science Fiction Poetry Association and am fascinated.

If you need more hard sci-fi in your life, here’s a list focused on sci-fi grouped around themes like tech, aliens, world-building, and more.

And on the “softer” side of SF/F, here’s a round-up of five books about family (including the bananapants Temper by Nicky Drayden, do recommend).

Last but not least, if you’ve been looking for a starting point with Harry Potter fanfiction (and who amongst us has not), Namera has you covered.

I complain about being behind on February, and it’s all backlist’s fault.

Ammonite by Nicola Griffith

There have been a crop of SF/F novels lately that take the male/female binary as grounds for a “what if” — what if all the women had electrical superpowers, or could only say so many words per week, or all turned into mushroom-people, etc. (I’m paraphrasing but The Power, Vox, and The Beauty in case you’re wondering.) I’m on record as being disinterested in this, because gender isn’t binary and it feels like in this, The Year of Our Continued Angst 2019, we should be able to come up with some more interesting and intersectional explorations of gender dynamics. With all that as my current mental context, I wasn’t sure what I’d think of Ammonite; it’s more than 20 years old now, and it eschews a binary for a more monochrome version of gender. But in Griffith’s skilled hands, a world of women turns into an exploration of the full range of human emotion and behavior, and I’m so glad to have finally read this book.

Marghe Taishan is an anthropologist from Earth who’s been dreaming of studying a far-off planet colloquially referred to as Jeep, and she’s about to get her wish. As she travels from the nearby space station to the planet’s surface, she’s faced with multiple challenges right from the get-go. To avoid getting the virus that contaminates the entire planet’s human population she must faithfully take an experimental vaccine, and even that will only protect her for six months; she has to act within the self-serving strictures of the controlling Company; and the women meant to be her assistants have either refused to return to the planet or gone missing.

Jeep itself is a mystery: a native virus killed all the original male settlers, with only some of the women surviving. It’s no static utopia, monolithic culture, or aimless hive, but a planet with all the complexities of any other. How the inhabitants procreate, how their societies and languages function, how their customs and methods have evolved since they first left Earth, all of these are open questions that Marghe is meant to answer — but finding out the answers might endanger her life.

The journey Marghe goes on is a Quest in the classic sense, and the mental dangers she faces are just as real as the physical dangers. Alienation, childhood trauma, and resilience; identity, love, sexuality, and community; Griffith explores these things and more through Marghe’s interactions with Jeep’s different clans and cultures. For counterpoint, we also get to follow the commanding officer of the Company outpost as she comes to terms with the realities of the Company’s situation on Jeep, and these intertwining storylines build to a beautiful crescendo.

Griffith notes in an afterword that in writing this book, she set out to combat the simplification and stereotyping of women, and to show that the gender contains all of the many positive and negative attributes of humanity as a whole. Ammonite focuses specifically on womanhood in order to make a necessary point: that any person, of any gender, embodies a complete and complex human experience. Whatever our identity may be, we each contain multitudes. And perhaps we should not have to be told or reminded of this, but here we are. If you want to explore the vagaries of humanity and read an amazing “what if” story in the process, pick up Ammonite immediately.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn