Category: Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Jul 20

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date July 19, 2018

Happy Friday, krakens and Kryptonians! Today I’m reviewing An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim and Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas, talking about forthcoming books from Becky Chambers and NK Jemisin, musing about Robin Hood, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by Penguin Random House.

Emmett Atwater isn’t just leaving Detroit; he’s leaving Earth. Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family. Forever. Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whom have troubled pasts and are a long way from home. But Babel’s ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won’t forever compromise what it means to be human.

Becky Chambers is writing a new series, and it’s going to be solarpunk! I am very here for this — her books are already what we’ve been calling “cozy” (a.k.a. feel good or optimistic) sci-fi, and I can’t wait to see what kinds of sustainable tech she comes up with.

Speaking of optimism! Here are books that will restore your faith in humanity, one spaceship or feral hippo at a time.

Y’all, I can’t help but enjoy this trailer for the newest, heistiest Robin Hood remake. It appears to be what you’d get if you mashed up Ocean’s Eleven, Robin Hood, and V for Vendetta.

Sometimes the universe wants us to have nice things, and I’m counting Noelle Stevenson’s take on She-Ra as one of them.

Also to be filed under “gifts from the universe” is NK Jemisin’s forthcoming, first ever short story collection! It’s called How Long ’til Black Future Month? and it will be out November 27, 2018.

Here’s a sci-fi poem: thanks to the excellent Pome Tinyletter I’ve become a poetry convert, and Quarto by Adrienne Rich delighted my SFF sensibilities when it showed up in my inbox.

Need some good, cheap summer reads? Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb are both on sale (for $3.99 and $1.99, respectively), and Amanda once jokingly described them as being about “a Superfund site plus dragons,” which is spot on. And Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber, which is a dark, brutal, and incredibly rich futuristic retelling of Caribbean folktales (trigger warnings: rape and child abuse), is on sale for $2.99!

Need a new Harry Potter quiz? This one will tell you what your wand would be! (I got laurel with a troll whisker core, which I definitely did not realize was an option.)

Reminder! We’re giving away $500 worth of the best YA books of 2018 so far, and you can enter to win right here.

Today in reviews, we’ve got a past-future time-travel novel and a sweetly supernatural graphic novel.

An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim

Trigger warning: sexual assualt

It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel, for any number of reasons. The pacing; the execution of the ambitious concept; the character development; the balance of absurdity and realism — Lim handles all these elements so deftly, and with such insight.

Imagine a world in which a plague struck America in the 1980s. Time travel had just been discovered, but you can’t go back in time to stop the epidemic — just forward, in 12 year leaps. Let’s say the corporation that controls time travel offered you, with your useful skills, an opportunity to go forward in exchange for medical treatment for your loved one. Would you go?

For Polly, the answer is yes. She’s still young and 12 years is nothing (or so she tells herself), and her relationship with Frank is worth it. They make a plan to meet up in Texas in the future, and she signs the contract. She arrives in the ’90s to find that she’s actually 17 years in the future due to a “reroute,” she’s indentured, and the world is nothing like the one she left behind. Not only is the geography different, but Texas is now part of a separate country from the United States, the “rules” of society have warped, and no one seems to want to explain anything to her.

Polly navigates the pitfalls of race, class, and gender in this slightly absurd, all-too-real future in a quest to find Frank and her remaining family. Lim asks the biggest questions about love — what is it, really? Can it last in prolonged absence? — and finds no easy answers. The journey is well worth your time; this book belongs on your shelf next to On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee, Pym by Mat Johnson, and Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich.

Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas

I was visiting friends last weekend and I can’t remember the conversation that led to one of them shoving Volume One of this comic into my hands, but I’m so glad for whatever it was. This is a delightful, supernatural-hijinks-filled small-town story, and it is still ongoing!

Oscar Wilde (yes, that’s really his name) is a floundering young writer who decides to rent a house on Craigslist in Podunk (yes, that’s really what the town is called), Oklahoma. What seems like a quiet backwater is actually a haven for ghosts, shapeshifters, and the magically inclined — and Oscar will find out in the most dramatic ways possible. Volume One follows him from one revelation to the next, with both hilarity and danger along the way.

This comic has so much heart, and so much humor! Each character’s name is a wink and a nudge, Oscar is just the right mix of smart guy and naive noob, and the colors and style are engaging and a pleasure to look at. (I am still laughing about Clifford the big red …. dog?) Volume One ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I was delighted to see that the comic is fully online — I’ll be catching up ASAP, and keeping an eye out for future collections.

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.

Long days and pleasant nights,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Jul 13

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date July 11, 2018

Happy Friday, friends! In today’s installment I’ve got reviews of Guardian Angels and Other Monsters by Daniel H. Wilson and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, plus the British Fantasy Awards shortlist, a Halo TV series, read-alikes for recent favorites, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by Fawkes by Nadine Brandes.

Both Epic Reads and BN Teen have named Fawkes to their ‘Most Anticipated July Reads’ lists.

“I was up late in the night reading, waiting to get to the fifth of November to see how the plot would actually unfold, and it did not disappoint. An imaginative, colorful tale about choosing for yourself between what’s right and what others insist is the truth.” –Cynthia Hand, New York Times bestselling author of My Lady Jane

“Hold on to your heart as this slow-burning adventure quickly escalates into an explosion of magic, love, and the truth about loyalty.” –Mary Weber, bestselling author of the Storm Siren Trilogy

The British Fantasy Award shortlist has been announced! Three cheers for Sofia Samatar’s Tender, Victor LaValle’s The Changeling, and S.A. Chakraborty for making the list. Somehow I haven’t read any of the nominees for Best Fantasy, must get on that.

This is not a drill: the sequel to Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown is called The True Queen and will be released on March 12, 2019! This is me right now.

Halo fans, rejoice: you’re getting a TV series, from Showtime.

Remember that time I raved about Witchmark by CL Polk? This piece recommends read-alikes! More delicious fantasy for my TBR. (Also I cosign that Gilded Cage rec, although it is an overall darker book.)

Need some non-Western fairytales? I love this list from S.A. Chakraborty for reading beyond One Thousand and One Nights.

You know who’s good at recommending books? Mary Robinette Kowal, that’s who.

Which Pevensie sibling are you? Apparently I am Susan, to my utter lack of surprise. (I am dying to know if anyone actually gets Edmund.)

Reminder! You can and should enter the drawing for our Best of the Year YA Giveaway, which includes such excellent SF/F YA titles as Dread Nation, Undead Girl Gang, Tess of the Road, and The Cruel Prince.

Today in reviews, we’ve got some spooky sci-fi tales and a fairytale retelling.

Guardian Angels and Other Monsters by Daniel H. Wilson

I first read Wilson earlier this year when I picked up The Clockwork Dynasty, and I was intrigued when I found Guardian Angels and Other Monsters in a friend’s book stacks. If you’re looking for dark and twisty sci-fi stories comparable to the works of Lauren Beukes and Victor LaValle, add this one to your TBR.

While the stories range in geography — Portland, Oklahoma, and Africa all feature — and in level of “OMG WTF,” there are a few through-lines. All are definitely on the sci-fi side of SF/F, and most are about family in one form or another. Whether they’re parents, siblings, or found family, the characters contemplate the most intimate relationships. A guardian robot tries to keep its charge safe; a mother contemplates her strange child; an abused, neurodiverse young man searches for respect from his older brother. And while scientific break-throughs might change the trappings of those relationships, ultimately the heart of them stays the same. Technology can hurt or it can heal, but people will always be people — for better or worse. Wilson explores what “better” and “worse” can look like, and the results are both chilling and engrossing.

For fans of Wilson’s work, there’s a story each attached to the Robopocalypse and Clockwork Dynasty worlds. For new fans, the stories stand well enough alone; no previous reading required.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Trigger warning: repeated acts of domestic violence and child abuse

Spinning Silver follows a rotating and shifting cast of first-person narrators from in and around a small, Russian-inspired medieval village. The three primary narrators, all young women, are also my favorites: Wanda, a young villager with an abusive father; Miryem, a Jewish girl who is the primary breadwinner for her family; and Irina, the daughter of a Duke who only sees her as a political bargaining chip. Each has a complicated relationship with her father, albeit in very different ways. Miryem has also unwittingly drawn the attention of a fairy king in the woods. As the characters’ orbits begin to overlap, the stakes get higher for everyone involved. What was once a matter of personal survival is now a question of life or death for untold innocents, and the paths to victory are tangled and uncertain.

Much like Uprooted, Novik is retelling a variety of fairy tales here; the Erlking, “Rumpelstiltskin,” and “The Juniper Tree” all feature. But this book is a much more timely and broad-ranging story, taking on anti-Semitism, abuse and trauma, and father-daughter relationships. She also digs deeply into even the “bad guys” of her story — and I put that in scare quotes for a reason. It’s a tightly paced, beautifully plotted and written book, and I think it’s my favorite thing she’s ever written.

I also gushed about this book on All the Books this week, if you want to listen to me try to summarize it out loud (which is always difficult for me!).

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships June 6

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date July 5, 2018

Happy Friday, explorers and Erinyes! Today I’m reviewing All Systems Red by Martha Wells and Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones, and talking about July releases, grimdark, audiobooks, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by Flatiron Books and Legendary by Stephanie Garber.

After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and the time to repay the debt has come.

Need some great reads this month? Swapna rounds up some of July’s new releases to consider, including Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (which I’ll be talking about next week!).

Prefer moral complexity to clear right and wrong? Here’s some grimdark for you. And while I’d never seen NK Jemisin’s The Fifth Season classified this way before, I’m hard-pressed to disagree with the rationale.

Need basically the opposite of grimdark? Have some funny fantasy! (Shout-out to Sarah Kuhn’s Heroine Complex series, they are the perfect summer reads.)

SFF for your earholes: If you’re heading out on a road trip, to the beach, on a plane, or cannot summon the energy to physically turn pages because this heat is just TOO MUCH, Alex has some fantasy audiobook suggestions for you.

Adaptations update! Here’s an overview on Tor.com of what’s in process right now. It is helpfully organized by release date, so go ahead and mark your calendars. (I can’t believe they are rebooting Gambit AGAIN.)

D&D alignments were my original Hogwarts-House sorting, so I was delighted with this post on kids book character alignments! Harriet is totally true-neutral.

It seems like we’ve seen every bit of sci-fi swag there is, and then a new Book Fetish post comes out. That Black Panther tote!!!!

Today in reviews we’ve got a found family plus AI and a family of origin plus werewolves.

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells

It only took a bajillion awards and the repeated insistence of various Book Riot Insiders for me to finally read All Systems Red, and I am happy to finally be on this bandwagon.

Despite the ominous name of the series, it’s surprisingly light on gore. All Systems Red follows the self-described Murderbot (technically a cyborg programmed to be a security guard) as it works to protect an exploratory team of humans on an uninhabited planet. This becomes very complicated when their comms go down, and dangers start to come from the least expected places. There are gun-battles, giant worms, and plots aplenty, but it’s ultimately more optimistic and fun than anything else — ideal summer reading.

It is a novella, so telling you much more about the story would be very spoilery. Instead, I will tell you that Wells envisions her AI character with wit and panache. Imagine if Spock and a computer had a painfully shy baby that just wanted to watch K-dramas all the time — that is Murderbot, more or less. Add to that the dynamics of the crew as they interact (or don’t) with their security bot and struggle to understand its personhood, and you’ve got a heartfelt, captivating story with great action and pacing. And there are sequels! Artificial Condition is out now, Rogue Protocol will be out on August 7, and Exit Strategy will be out in October.

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

Trigger warning: domestic violence, body horror

an illustration with a red-tinged silhouette of a wolf in the foreground and a standing person in front of power lines and a car against a yellow background We did an Octavia Butler read-alikes show on Get Booked recently, and I picked Mongrels for my Fledgling comp. I do not take comparisons to Octavia Butler lightly, but this book blew me away. Let me tell you a little bit about why.

In the same way that Butler took the vampires trope (traditionally white, traditionally romanticized) and exploded it, Graham Jones takes the werewolf trope and turns it inside out. Sometimes literally — this book is gross. Just flat-out gross. I’m not much of one for body horror, and have put books down for similar reasons, but somehow Mongrels kept pulling me back in, even as I cringed away.

The story follows a young boy who lives with his aunt and uncle (siblings, not a couple) as they constantly move from place to place, trying to outrun the law both for their actions as humans and potential discovery of their werewolf nature. As of yet, our narrator has shown no signs of inheriting the ability to change — and it’s all he wants in the world, even as he sees how difficult it makes life for his relatives. The stories that have been handed down to him, the truths that they conceal, and the realities of life when magic is mundane, all swirl together to form a thoroughly captivating narrative.

It’s a messy, complicated, hardscrabble life that Graham Jones has given his characters, and one that many will recognize. Right and wrong have almost no meaning for these characters; there is only survival, from one day to the next. And yet their love for each other and their fundamental humanity makes it impossible to dismiss them, if not flat-out love them like I ultimately did. This book is a stunner, and you should read it immediately.

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.

Stay frosty,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Jun 29

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date June 28, 2018

Happy Friday, demigods and dragonriders! Today I’m reviewing Dark Mirror by Diane Duane, Silver Silence and Ocean Light by Nalini Singh, and bringing you exciting LEGO news, the Locus Awards, sci-fi greats, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by Penguin Teen and Warcross by Marie Lu.

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down Warcross players who bet on the game illegally. Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation. Emika’s thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu conjures an immersive, exhilarating world where choosing who to trust may be the biggest gamble of all.

The Locus Awards are in! There aren’t a lot of surprises this year — all these authors are well-known and acclaimed for good reasons — but there are a few that were off my radar. I need to pick up The Book of Swords sooner rather than later!

Who are the best sci-fi authors? Erika has nominated eight. Using her criteria, my personal list has to include Ursula Le Guin and Yoon Ha Lee, but these are a reasonable start.

Need more Latinx authors in your life? This list of SF/F authors has some of my favorites (Malka Older! Carmen Maria Machado!), and some I need to bump up on my TBR.

You definitely need more indigenous authors to read, and author Rebecca Roanhorse is here to recommend some. You should read her too! Trail of Lightning is out now, and getting rave reviews.

You know what else you need? HARRY POTTER LEGOS.

How would you die on Game of Thrones? Our quiz will tell you! I was blown up at the Sept of Baylor, RIP me.

A Discovery of Witches still doesn’t have a US air date or platform (bidding war???), but you can watch the trailer.

And now in reviews, I give you dolphin scientists and dolphin changelings!

Dark Mirror (Star Trek: The Next Generation) by Diane Duane

So you want to be a starship captain? Yes, that Diane Duane wrote a ST:NG novel, and it is a delight. It also has the distinction of being the first and only Star Trek franchise I have ever read. I’m not necessarily opposed, but franchises are among my least-read sub-genres (I think I’ve read something like five of the Star Wars ones, and nothing of any others that I can recall).

Duane uses the plot of the ST:TOS episode “Mirror, Mirror” as her starting point. Picard’s Enterprise is exploring a quiet quadrant of space when they get sucked into an alternate, morally-inverted universe. Thanks to a visiting scientist (who is also a dolphin, and one of my all-time favorite new characters), the crew discovers this sooner rather than later and have just enough time to hatch a plan to thwart their evil selves. Of course, nothing every goes to plan…

I found this in a Little Free Library in my neighborhood and grabbed it on a whim, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a while. Janeway is the captain of my heart but Picard is the captain of my childhood, and it was lovely to be reunited with the crew of the NCC 1701-D. Duane clearly loves the characters herself, and inhabits them well. It’s funny, it’s gripping, and it balances female and male, human and alien characters nicely. Even better, when skimpy outfits are involved, both the men and the women are subject to them! And Duane has written several other Star Trek novels, which I will be attempting to get my hands on as soon as possible. This, it turns out, might be how I want to spend my summer.

Silver Silence and Ocean Light (Psy-Changeling Trinity #1 and #2) by Nalini Singh

If you’re listening to SFF Yeah!, you might recall that I talked about the Psy-Changeling series in Episode 11. It’s my all-time favorite paranormal romance series, but it’s a tough one to come to late — there are more than a dozen books currently, and Singh shows no signs of stopping (thankfully). Happily, as mentioned on a recent All the Books episode, the new installments in what Singh is referring to as “Psy-Changeling Season 2”, formally called the Psy-Changeling Trinity, are perfect jumping-on points.

The world of the series contains three races: the mentally super-powered Psy, the shapeshifting Changelings, and “vanilla” humans. The Psy have spent years in what they call Silence, barring themselves from feeling any emotions whatsoever in a search for ultimate efficiency. This has backfired conclusively, including breeding dangerous serial killers and psychopaths, and now the Psy are divided between those who want to heal and feel, and those who refuse to abandon Silence. The Changelings have been mostly concerned with protecting their own, but are starting to become more enmeshed with the Psy and humans, and the humans are trying to hold their own against the paranormal abilities of the Psy and Changelings. It’s a political and personal mess — but love might be able to save the day.

In Silver Silence and Ocean Light we get two cross-species romances: Psy/Changeling, and Changeling/human, respectively. While the cast of characters will be familiar to those who have been reading along, Singh takes great care to introduce new clans, characters, and plot elements, without belaboring or neglecting the backstory. They move the overall story forward while standing alone nicely, and I for one am delighted that we have finally gotten an underwater installment! Highly recommended if you want steamy, emotionally satisfying stories set in a beautifully imagined alternate Earth.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Jun 22

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date June 21, 2018

Happy Friday, witches and wendigos! Today I’m reviewing Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers, edited by Sarena Ulibarri, and Witchmark by C.L. Polk, and looking at a cosplay gala, some Star Trek news, fairytales, the Buffyverse, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by Becoming the Dragon by Alex Sapegin, translated by Elizabeth Kulikov.

Human or beast: the most terrifying is the one you least expect.

This is the story of Andy, the unassuming teen who stumbles on a high-voltage electromagnetic field and is transported to the faraway world of Ilanta, inhabited by both human and fantastical beings. In order to survive, Andy must embark on the journey of a lifetime, transforming by ancient ritual into the powerful, golden dragon Kerr… but will it make him less human?

The Dragon Inside series captivated its readership across the Russian-speaking world and is now available for English-language fantasy-readers everywhere!

A Buffyverse novel is coming! And the narrator kind of hates Buffy? You can read an excerpt of Kiersten White’s novel Slayer (not out until January 8 2019, which is just cruel) over on EW.

There’s been a bunch of news from the Star Trek: Discovery camp. First the Season 2 showrunners were fired (possibly for abusive behavior), with co-creator Alex Kurtzman taking over. Then Kurtzman signed a 5-year deal to develop “new series, mini-series and other content opportunities, including animation.” My biggest question is, will all that content be restricted to CBS All Access?

Tor.com’s reviewers have picked their current favorites of 2018, and a lot of these are well off my radar. To the library!

A cosplay gala is happening in September in Baltimore! Consider me intrigued.

Fairytale fans, if Once Upon a Time was your jam, we’ve got some read-alikes. I am beyond delighted to see Naguib Mahfouz’s Arabian Nights and Days mentioned!

And speaking of read-alikes, this week’s Get Booked episode was entirely dedicated to books to read if you love Octavia Butler.

In other podcast news, Sharifah and I picked the characters from SF/F we’d most like to be this week.

I need more SF/F t-shirts like I need a hole in the head, AND YET. Do want. All of those.

Today in reviews, I’ve got two new and very different favorites for you.

Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers, edited by Sarena Ulibarri

I’ve been on the lookout for anything related to solarpunk, and was very excited to see this title get mentioned in the Insiders forum! I’m happy to report that if this is what solarpunk looks like, I’m a fan. While the collection is (like many anthologies) a bit uneven, Glass and Gardens is refreshing, thought-provoking, and thoroughly enjoyable.

True to the book copy, each story shares an optimistic baseline. The worlds imagined aren’t perfect, and class, race, ability, and other access and resource inequities still exist. But these are not dystopian societies, just ones with problems to solve. From a village in the trees to a desert installation to a power plant to a city in the sky to a family farm to — well, you get the idea, the pieces imagine both familiar technology repurposed and new iterations. One of my favorite stories, “The Spider and the Stars” by D.K. Mok, involves sending spiders on space missions; another, “Cable Town Delivery” by M. Lopes da Silva, involves a dashing frontier librarian; a third by Edward Edmonds is a police procedural! No matter what your particular favorite flavor of science fiction is you’ll likely find a story tailored for you, and plenty of new authors to watch out for. And I can only hope that some of these stories come to the attention of engineers of all stripes; I’m very ready for some of these concepts to become reality!

Witchmark by C.L. Polk

If “a fantasy inspired by World World I, plus magic and fairies and a gay romance” sounds interesting to you, bump this book to the absolute top of your list!

Miles Singer is a psychiatrist at a veteran hospital, and is a veteran himself. They’re coming back from the war with Laneeri wounded in both body and soul, and Miles is determined to get to the bottom of a particularly mysterious psychosis. He’s both aided and hampered in this by his magical talent for healing — because magic is outlawed in Aeland, and “Miles Singer” isn’t his actual name. He’s been on the run from his family for years, ever since he refused to submit to a system that would have turned him into the equivalent of a magical battery and servant for his sister. The night a poisoning victim comes into his hospital, carried in by a handsome stranger, changes everything. And not just for Miles; the fates of all of Aeland could change as well, and not necessarily for the better.

From the aristocracy’s mansions and court intrigues, to the halls of the cash-strapped hospital, city to village, breakfast table to asylum, Witchmark covers quite a lot of ground. Polk paces it beautifully, alternating revelations and plot twists with some beautiful character set pieces. I could have spent a whole novel with just Miles learning magic from [redacted for mild spoilers], honestly. This is a wonderful debut, and I can only hope we get more adventures in this fun, fascinating world.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Jun 15

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date June 14, 2018

Happy Friday, lieutenants and loup garou! Today we’re talking Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee, Borderline by Mishell Baker, adaptation updates, queer SF/F, magical apocalypses (I always want to say ‘apocalypsi’), and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by Prisoner of the Crown, the first book in the Chronicles of Dasnaria series from award-winning author Jeffe Kennedy.

In a society where women are valued only for their ability to produce heirs and provide pleasure, even the eldest daughter of the emperor has no power. Her Imperial Highness Princess Jenna is raised to be a dutiful wife, polished and docile. But Jenna’s new husband is a terror, and she must escape the brutal marriage or die trying.

Now, unprotected and alone for the first time in her life, she finds that a chance at freedom outweighs her fears. Resolved to become stronger, not just for herself but for her kingdom, Jenna makes a vow of her own. To take revenge.

The Wheel of Time turns, and we still are maybe getting an adaptation. Probably. Maybe.

Speaking of adaptations, The Changeling by Victor LaValle has been picked up by FX! I cannot control my glee for him! But also who will they cast????

Also in gleeful news, Marlon James’ forthcoming fantasy novel now has a gorgeous cover and some details. If those details pique your interest, be sure to pick up David Anthony Durham’s Acacia series and Maurice Broaddus’s Buffalo Soldier while you’re waiting — they both seem like excellent comps to what James is working on.

Do you need more queer publishers and characters in your life? Of course you do! And this string of Tumblr posts is a wealth of information.

Peng Shepherd loves a good magical apocalypse and she wrote about a few favorites for Tor.com, and it’s a great list. It does not surprise me that we have similar taste, since her novel The Book of M is one of my favorites of 2018!

Find some living favorites: So often our all-time, top-of-the-list authors have already died. Here are 15 of the best SF/F authors publishing right now, so there’s more to look forward to!

Today’s reviews deal with some heavy topics, so buckle up.

Revenant Gun (Machineries of Empire #3) by Yoon Ha Lee

Trigger warnings: rape, coercion, suicide

Rather than talk plot points for a third-in-series (which always feels strange, because spoilers!) let’s talk about what makes Machineries of Empire one of my all-time favorite SF series to date.

Lee has done some of the most original world-building I’ve had the pleasure to witness — the bizarre maths that run this universe are incomprehensible, but ultimately believable. And with a world this complex the temptation to infodump must have been strong, but there’s very little (if any?) of that to be found. He lets us find our way through this maze of the book, trusts us to hang tight and pick up on context, and proceeds with the actual story.

Then there’s his mastery of POV, about which I cannot say enough. As the universe of these books unfold, we get new POV characters — but he also knows when to withhold a certain POV to keep us guessing. (Raven Stratagem, I am looking at you.)

And then there’s the story itself. It’s dark and brutal (some of the math runs on torture, after all), and none of the characters are blameless. In Revenant Gun, Lee follows all of that world-building to its ultimate implications, and they are not pretty. Is consent possible when the choices are rigged? What does it mean to be a self-aware monster? What does it mean to struggle against a society that sets you up to be a monster? Lee is exploring these questions and more, and taking us along for the ride.

I’ll be over here with a box of tissues, starting a reread as soon as possible. Gird yourselves, friends, and dive in.

Borderline by Mishell Baker

Trigger warning: depiction of suicide

Millie Parker, the narrator of Borderline, is caustic, depressed, a failed filmmaker, and kind of a jerk. She’s also a recent double amputee, a suicide-attempt survivor, and has Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). She is also being recruited by this thing called the Arcadia Project, which would have her believe that magic is real and fairies are deeply involved in the Los Angeles film scene. She has some feelings about this, as you might expect.

It’s a lot, right? That Borderline doesn’t somehow buckle under the weight of all this is a testament to Baker’s skill as a writer. Baker shares the BPD diagnosis with her main character, which explains how sensitively written Millie is; Baker also did her research about amputees. Combined with her full-speed-ahead imagination, these details make Borderline a complicated, compelling read. And while Millie isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, the supporting cast adds dimensions that are very welcome; there’s a lot of heart to balance out the hurt. They call her out on her crap and become one of the strangest, most fascinating found families I’ve read.

With plenty of gallows humor and action, Borderline is a magical whodunnit that kept me turning the pages. Millie’s struggle to come to terms with the hidden layers of supernatural LA play off her struggles with her mental health, sometimes to her benefit and sometimes … not so much. I’ll never think about fauns the same way, or George Lucas for that matter. If you’re looking for fantasy that grapples with the very real issues of mental illness with a hefty does of Hollywood, look no further.

May the odds be ever in your favor,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Jun 8

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date June 7, 2018

Happy Friday, aliens and archivists! Today I’ve got reviews of The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt and The Book of M by Peng Shepherd, plus some film news, SF in translation, YA picks, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by Epic Reads and The Bird and the Blade by Megan Bannen.

When the kingdom is conquered by enemy forces, Jinghua she finds herself a conspirator in the escape of Prince Khalaf and his father.

While on the run, Jinghua’s feelings for Khalaf begin to evolve into an impossible love. But Khalaf seeks to restore his kingdom by forging a marriage alliance with Turandokht, who requires all potential suitors to solve three impossible riddles to win her hand. If they fail, they die.

With Khalaf’s life and kingdom at stake, Jinghua must reconcile her past with her feelings for Khalaf . . . even if it means losing him to the girl who’d sooner take his life than his heart.

Craving some feminist YA fantasy? Us too, and these have all been released in 2018!

Thinking about sci-fi in translation is something Dale Knickerbocker (editor of the Lingua Cosmica anthology) has done a lot of, and I love this interview with him.

A film historian sat down and ranked Star Wars by screen time for women, and the results are not surprising, but very telling. It is deeply sad that all of the prequels underperform everything except for A New Hope. Not because I care for the prequels (I do not!) but because we clearly lost ground there.

In exciting film news, Cat Valente’s Space Opera is getting an adaptation! I cannot wait to hear how they interpret the music from the book.

And of course, I could not pass up this Patronus quiz. I got a Komodo dragon which is miles more exciting than whatever I got on Pottermore (clearly, since I don’t even remember).

How about some ebook deals? Molly Tanzer’s queer rewrite of The Picture of Dorian Grey, Creatures of Will and Temper, is on sale for $2.99. The first book in Michelle Sagara’s Elantra series, Cast in Shadow, which I’ve recommended several times on various podcasts, is on sale for $1.99! And Zoo City, by personal favorite Lauren Beukes, is $2.99. Enjoy!

And now, reviews!

The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt

Take some Firefly and Aliens, mix with a dash of Douglas Adams and Lovecraft, then make it queer and racially diverse, and you’ve got something like The Wrong Stars. I found it thanks to this excellent Twitter thread, which exploded my library holds list, and I am so grateful to the OP for it!

The White Raven’s motley crew are a little bit mercenaries, a little bit salvage, and a little bit freighters; they patrol the edges of the solar system, taking what jobs they can get. They’re doing pretty well when they stumble across a wreck of a 500-year-old spaceship and discover it has a survivor on board, in cryo-sleep. A lot of things don’t add up about this (what is the craft doing where it is? How did it survive for so long? How did it not get found earlier?), and things only get more complicated when they wake up the survivor. The story she tells about an alien encounter doesn’t jive with the established relationships humanity has with the alien race they call the Liars. In the process of trying to find out what really happened to her, they stumble upon a galactic conspiracy that changes everything.

This book takes a ton of my favorite tropes and mashes them all together with glee and skill. Found family; alien encounters; wormhole travel; space stations; the complications of galactic law enforcement; AI; and a ticking clock race to the finish — I literally could not ask for more. Pratt gives all his characters and his galactic civilizations depth, his action sequences are page-turners, and the tone stays light-hearted (and sometimes even meta) despite the high stakes. I don’t use the word “rollicking” often, but it applies here. The sequel should be out this fall, and I will be awaiting it with the grabbiest of grabby-hands.

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

Set in a version of our world where people’s memories are disappearing along with their shadows, The Book of M asks big questions about identity and love, and provides a road trip through a shattered America along the way. It is, hands down, one of my favorite books of 2018 so far.

Max and Ory have been holed up in a hotel ever since the epidemic started. No one knows how or why it spreads, but people around the world are losing their shadows, then their memories, and then dying. It’s not just memories of friends and families; eventually, the shadowless forget to eat, or how to breathe. So far the couple is managing fine — until the day Max’s shadow disappears. Ory comes back from a supply-gathering trip to find her gone, and heads off in search of her. Meanwhile Naz — an Olympic-bound archer who is forced on the run with her sister — is just trying to stay alive. Her journey from her apartment in Boston to DC gives us a close-up view of the crumbling urban spaces of the Northeast. As Max, Ory, and Naz’s stories begin to overlap and intersect, there is hope, terror, and magic aplenty.

I white-knuckled my way through the last few chapters of this plot, both because of the final battle sequence (it’s a doozy) and the final puzzle piece of character interactions. Then I cried, and had to just sit on the couch for a bit to put myself back together again. Shepherd has written a beautiful, thoughtful, and engrossing debut, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Happy Pride this month and all months!,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Jun 1

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date May 31, 2018

Happy Friday, banshees and bounty hunters! This week, I’ve got reviews of Hunger Makes the Wolf by Alex Wells and Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn, plus Afrofuturism, YA sci-fi, time travel, queer reads, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by Flatiron Books and Legendary by Stephanie Garber.

After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and the time to repay the debt has come.

Reminder: you’ve got til June 21 to enter our $500 bookstore gift card giveaway, right here.

Where is the YA sci-fi? That’s what Fonda Lee wants to know, in this piece discussing the publication process for Exo and Cross Fire. It’s an interesting question; as she notes, there are plenty being published, but anecdotally, they’re definitely not getting the same amount of public recognition. I checked my reading spreadsheet, and I’m reading at least double the amount of YA fantasy as YA sci-fi.

When I get around to fixing that ratio, here’s where I’m going to start: 100 Must-Read YA Sci-Fi!

For time travel fans: Jess has assembled a list of time travel romances, to scratch that Outlander/The Time Traveler’s Wife itch. I confess that time travel stories (specifically ones with time loops) frequently drive me batty, and yet I can’t stop reading them…

A reading pathway for a movie director: That’s right! You can read your way into Guillermo Del Toro’s work, not just watch it.

“Breathtaking” is admittedly a wiggly category, but Martin Cahill makes his case for five SF/F novels. One of these days I really need to read Max Gladstone.

Did Black Panther leave you wanting more Afrofuturism? I made you a list of options!

Are you reading along with Tor’s QUILTBAG book club? Here’s the latest book review, for Sea, Swallow Me and Other Stories.

Today in reviews, I give you space motorcycle gangs and an even weirder San Francisco, with bonus fire powers!

Hunger Makes the Wolf by Alex Wells

I picked this book up both because it is by a Book Riot contributor (oh hey!) and because it won a Golden Tentacle for Debut (I adore the Kitchies). You should pick it up immediately, for those reasons and also because it’s one of the most fun, most unexpected additions to the Weird Space Western genre I’ve read in a long while.

Set on the dusty, arid planet called Tanegawa’s World, it follows several characters as they navigate an increasingly overlapping tangle of personal and political crises. Hob, part of a mercenary biker gang, is still working her way up the hierarchy from a huge error in judgement a few years back. She gets no special treatment being the adopted daughter of the leader — if anything, the opposite. Her former best friend, Mags, is supposed to be headed off-world for a chance at a better life, away from the corporation that controls life on their world, but her father is murdered and Mags herself disappears under strange circumstances. There are a few others, but I’ll leave you to discover them on your own. Suffice it to say that Wells tosses the narrative back and forth with ease and great timing, unfolding both the backstory of Tanegawa’s World and the characters while balancing it nicely with action.

And there is action aplenty — train heists, miner strikes, gun battles, covert operations, undercover hijinks, backstabbing, murder, mayhem, you name it. There’s also a hefty dose of magic that reminded me of nothing so much as the earth-shifting powers from the Earth 2 series (oh, ’90s sci-fi), in the best way. If you’re craving an inclusive found family story that’s also an outerspace Western, and/or a new read in the vein of Becky Chambers’ Wayfarer series, Felix Gilman’s The Half-Made World, and Firefly, you need this on your shelf. Bonus: the sequel, Blood Binds the Pack, is out now!

Heroine Complex (Heroine Complex #1) by Sarah Kuhn

This book features demon cupcakes, quirky super powers, friendships and sibling shenanigans, a romance, and an alternate San Fransisco. Some of you have already TBR’d it; for the rest of you, let me tell you a bit more.

Evie Tanaka is the personal assistant to a highly strung crime-fighting diva called Aveda Jupiter, and she’s great at her job. She’s also been best friends with Aveda since they were little, which is why she puts up with all the drama. That, and Evie has a secret, one that means she needs a secure, steady, predictable job to keep her calm. One wouldn’t think that chasing around after a demon-killing superhero would work for that, but it does for Evie. That is, until Aveda gets injured and Evie has to pose as her until she’s better. All bets are suddenly off, and Evie has to contend with her own secrets, her changing friend status with Aveda, a sudden attraction for a geeky and infuriating scientist, her rebellious younger sister, and, of course, the ever-present demon infestation.

This book is an absolute delight, and I inhaled it from start to finish. Evie is a snarky and entertaining narrator, the relationships among the characters are both drama-filled and beautifully complex, and the plot moves along at a brisk pace. This is a perfect summer read — take it to a cabin or a beach or a pool, make sure you have some cupcakes handy, and dive in.

Peace favor your sword,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships May 25

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date May 24, 2018

Happy Friday, you hoopy froods, and happy Towel Day! Today we’re talking MEM by Bethany C. Morrow and The Queen of Sorrow by Sarah Beth Durst, young Aragorn, the Nebulas, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by Penguin Teen.

Unforgivable betrayals, devious motives, and forbidden love collide in the first installment of internationally bestselling author Sally Green’s epic new fantasy series, perfect for Game of Thrones fans.

In a land tinged with magic and a bustling trade in an illicit supernatural substance, destiny will intertwine the fates of five players:
A visionary princess determined to forge her own path.
An idealistic soldier whose heart is at odds with his duty.
A streetwise hunter tracking the most dangerous prey.
A charming thief with a powerful hidden identity.
A loyal servant on a quest to avenge his kingdom.
All are driven by ambition, honor, and desperation on the cusp of war. But who will be left standing when the smoke clears?

The Nebulas have been awarded! Huge congratulations to the winners — there are a lot of personal and Book Riot favorites in here, and I talked about Rebecca Roanhorse’s “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience TM” in the Short Fiction episode of SFF Yeah.

Elementary, my dear Watson: Along with the many in the mystery/thriller genre, here are a few speculative takes on Sherlock Holmes. (I’m a huge fan of that Aliette de Bodard series as well!)

There’s been no official statement yet, but rumors abound that Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings TV series will follow Aragorn. This sounds at least plausible to me (although I have to say that if I had my druthers we would get the Adventures of Galadriel).

Let’s get steamy: Need more erotic fantasy and sci-fi in your life? Here’s a list. There are some classics on there, as well as a few surprises.

Emo zombies! It’s a thing. This headline made me laugh so hard, and then I actually read the piece, and can’t really argue with any of their recommendations. I will add, however, that if you need a “cozy” zombie movie to chase all those feelings (BECAUSE THAT ALSO EXISTS), may I recommend Fido?

Because you don’t have enough nerdy swag, here are some very excellent further options. I need the Octavia Butler AND the Ursula Le Guin shirts, to round out my collection (which already includes this one).

Today’s reviews include got extracted memories and tree spirits.

MEM by Bethany C. Morrow

What if you could pull a memory from someone’s mind? Set in Montreal in an alternate 1900s, MEM plays with identity, personhood, and medical ethics. In the process of playing with these concepts, Morrow delivers a thought-provoking and page-turning novel.

The inventors of the procedure specifically wanted to help their patients heal from trauma — and what better way than to just remove the trauma entirely? A human can undergo the treatment up to three times in their lives, and many of those able to afford the procedure do just that. The resulting Mems are embodied, zombie-esque creatures, stuck in the loop of the memory that created them until they die. All except for Elsie, a.k.a. Dolores Extract #3, who has survived for decades as a fully functioning being. While she’s not exactly granted full personhood, and remains the property of the original Dolores, she is granted a certain level of freedom. But then she’s recalled to the Vault; procedures are going awry, Dolores is in failing health, and the scientists think Elsie holds the information they need to make things work again.

As Elsie learns more about both herself and the science that created her, she’s also thrown into interactions with new people that shake up the life she’s known. What does it mean to be a person? What makes one memory different from another? What makes Elsie so special? The answers are connected in MEM, and the journey to them is an excellent one.

Atmospheric, beautifully detailed, and thought-provoking, MEM is a strong debut, and I can’t wait to see Morrow’s next works.

The Queen of Sorrow (Queens of Renthia #3) by Sarah Beth Durst

Last June, I reviewed Books 1 and 2 in the Queens of Renthia series, and I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since. I said it then and I’ll say it again now: this is a great summer reading series, full of blood, magic, intrigue, and heroines you can’t help root (ahem) for.

Daleina, Naelin, and their friends and family survived the invasion of Renthia and are focused on rebuilding. It should be fine: there are two queens now, working together. What could go wrong? Naelin’s children getting kidnapped, that’s what. As Naelin struggles to control her emotions and do what’s best for her family as well as her country, Daleina has to try to out-think her former best friend, now her greatest threat.

The main plot alone would make this a good third book; the expansion of the world makes it a great one. As Daleina and Naelin head out on their adventures, they dig deeper into the origins of Renthia and the neighboring countries. Why are the spirits the way they are? What if there was another way to co-exist? And just what is Baen anyway? Durst deepens her world-building as she expands the scope of the story, with the result that while I’m content with how the current story arc has tied up, I need MORE. Thankfully, in the afterword she mentions she’s working on a companion story; hopefully we won’t have too long to wait.

Always know where your towel is,
Jenn

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships May 18

Post author By Jenn Northington
Post date May 17, 2018

Happy Friday, outriders and oracles! Today’s newsletter includes reviews of Foz Meadows’ An Accident of Stars and Jason Mott’s The Crossing, plus AAPI reads, exciting news from Earthsea, awards news, and more.

This newsletter is sponsored by Vault Comics.

NYT best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson and TV writer-producer Steven L. Sears collaborate with artist Mike Ratera to bring to life this sci-fi story about space exploration, aliens, and war. Joe Human is taken to a harsh P.O.W. camp on a distant planet where he will be examined, tortured, and forced to endure experiments that rip into his very mind, as the alien Krael seek to answer the question: What is human? At 192 pages, this full-length hardback graphic novel also offers an original novella written by Anderson and Sears with art by Nathan Gooden.

May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and this list of books by Asian women that should be movies is the perfect way to celebrate. Also, I have read most of these books and extremely cosign.

When everything is awful, why not read about OTHER things that are awful? Here’s a list of 15 dystopias that might make you feel better about life — and at the least, will provide some nice distraction.

ALERT ALERT, the illustrated edition of Ursula Le Guin’s The Books of Earthsea finally has a release date! Please join me in drooling over the beauty of Charles Vess’s work.

Did your favorite SF/F show make it? A slew of shows got cancelled last week, including Syfy’s The Expanse (although many are holding out hope that another network will pick it up). While this doesn’t necessarily help with that, I was delighted to see that Lost in Space is getting a second season (it is better than it has any right to be, y’all) and 3%, Netflix’s Brazilian dystopia that I have mentioned before, has a second season available now.

And speaking of James S.A. Corey, the writing team has announced a new series! They cite both Left Hand of Darkness and Dune as inspirations; you have my attention, sirs.

In genre-bendey sort-of-SFF news, the Shirley Jackson award nominees for this year have been announced! Big congrats to The Changeling by Victor LaValle, which is also the only book of the batch that I’ve read. The Jackson awards specifically honor “psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic,” and these are a great starting point if that’s a wheelhouse you want to explore.

Today’s reviews have nothing in common other than that I read them recently and they gave me Thoughts.

An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows

In the opening book of this series, Foz Meadows asks us to consider something that, as a white reader, I had not put much thought into. When a person from Earth goes through a portal to a fantasy land, that person is more than just a fish out of water; they’re also a person bringing all their Earthy moral, ethical, and political baggage with them. Which, for example, means that a young white teenager from Australia who gets ported into a kingdom inhabited mostly by brown people will indeed have to reckon with internalized racism, as well as learn to ride a two-legged beastie and undergo magical trials.

Portal fantasy is a favorite subgenre of mine, partly because there’s still the 10-year-old kid in me who thinks it could happen and checks every coat closet, and partly because it can play with received wisdom in interesting ways. Meadows offers up a fully fledged, detailed world-building experience, but also makes explicit the baggage that a (Western, white, cis) reader might grapple with alongside an adventure. She balances it out with alternating POVs; we’re treated to multiple characters, both Earth-citizens and inhabitants of Kena. Political intrigue, magic, heretical sects, dragons, and tangled family alliances all come together in a high-stakes adventure that ends on a “So help me I will throw this book across the room, HOW DARE YOU, now I must get Book 2” plot point. It is also, as one reviewer put it, “hella queer” and thoroughly delightful.

I realize I haven’t told you much about the actual plot (here’s a link for that). I did very much enjoy the plot, but it’s the meta-examination of portal fantasy that Meadows has worked into the text that made this book so thought-provoking. In a genre where I frequently read for escapism, it was a welcome nudge to think through the implications of a favorite trope.

The Crossing by Jason Mott

As I mentioned on this week’s episode of All the Books, I’m new to Jason Mott’s work — and The Crossing will definitely be the start of a dive into his backlist. It’s a thinky, slow-burn of a near-future novel about war, grief, and family above all.

Teenaged twins Virginia and Tommy are on a road-trip, but not the fun kind. Tommy has received a draft notice for a war long made pointless by an epidemic that is sweeping the globe, and Virginia is determined to get to Cape Canaveral, to see a rocket launch — probably the last ever launch. They run away from their foster home, and as their adventure unfolds we also learn about their past. Orphaned at the age of 5, they’ve only had each other to lean on. Their sibling bond is made more intense by Virginia’s perfect memory and Tommy’s forgetfulness. As we learn about their world and their lives, this seemingly simple story acquires layer after layer. With the clock ticking down on both the characters and humanity as a whole, this book asks us to consider the importance of identity and the push-me, pull-you bonds of family.

If speculative fiction that focuses more on character than plot is your jam; if you love sibling stories; if a tour through a very possible, but still strange, new world appeals to you; if you love warped road-trip novels; if you want clean, crisp prose that nevertheless meanders along the way; this book is for you.

Don’t panic,
Jenn