Category: Swords and Spaceships

Hello elves and extraterrestrials, and welcome to the first installment of our new twice-a-week Swords and Spaceships edition! On Tuesdays going forward you can expect adaptation news, upcoming releases, and deals, while Friday will continue to bring interesting links from in and around the SF/F world. And, of course, two reviews a week; today’s is for Temper by Nicky Drayden. Engage!

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This newsletter is sponsored by Dynamite Entertainment and Skin & Earth Volume One by Lights.

Caught between romance and cults, gods and mortals, and just trying to find a good borscht, Enaia Jin is lead down a dark path by new lovers that reveal a twisted fantasy world and her own true nature.

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Let’s kick things off with some adaptation news:

Ken Liu’s stories have been optioned by AMC! This is fantastic news! And it also means that this trend of TV anthology series (Black Mirror, American Horror Story, Electric Dreams etc.) continues, and I’m really into it.

Daniel H. Wilson (whose Guardian Angels & Other Monsters I recently reviewed) dropped some big news about his story “Special Automatic,” which has been optioned. That was one of the most intense stories in the collection, and I’m very curious to see how it will translate. There’s also a Robopocalypse film update in there!

Harry Potter will be back in theaters in August for its 20th anniversary. (How is it 20 years already?!)

Where my Terminator fans at? This photo from the upcoming film have me FREAKING OUT, it’s everything I never knew I wanted. It also has me pondering a dive into the franchise’s books — but only if I can find one specifically about Sarah Connor.

There are updates regarding The Passage‘s TV adaptation, including that they plan on focusing on just the present-day timeline in the first season.

io9 did a deep dive into SF/F movies released in August, in honor of The Darkest Minds adaptation coming to theaters. Side note: Should I go see Darkest Minds? I haven’t read the books but this trailer makes me feel like the answer is yes.

If you need even more adaptation news, I recommend you bookmark this post from Tor.com.

And now: book news, new releases, and deals! 

Charlie Jane Anders has a new book coming! The City in the Middle of the Night will be out in February 2019, and you can check out the cover reveal.

Books coming out this week that I am particularly excited about:

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells — the return of Murderbot!

The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018, edited by Rich Horton, which includes a lot of great names: Yoon Ha Lee, Samuel Delaney, Charlie Jane Anders, and Kameron Hurley, bestill my heart.

Temper by Nicky Drayden, obviously; read more in the review below.

This month in ebook deals: Laline Paull’s The Bees (which inspired this flowchart of bugs in literature) is on sale for $1.99. Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge by Paul Krueger is on sale for $1.99, and it’s a fantastic summer read — full of magic alcohol-fueled hijinks. And for the most bang for your buck, Samuel Delaney’s epic Dhalgren (836 pages in print) is also $1.99.

Here’s your reminder to enter our Recommended giveaway, which includes several great SF/F titles.

Your Tuesday review is a science fantasy like no other:

Temper by Nicky Drayden

Trigger warning: sexual assault.

This book is a bananapants shake with extra bananas on top — which I should have been expecting from the author of The Prey of Gods, but Temper goes even farther down the rabbithole of weird.

Set in an alternate Cape Town, South Africa, Temper introduces us to teenaged twins Auben and Kasim. Everyone in this world is a twin, and when they’re young the seven vices and virtues are divided between them. Auben got saddled with six vices and one virtue, while Kasim got the reverse — it’s a stacked deck, and it’s stacked against Auben. He makes the most of his vices (after all, why not?) until the day that he starts to hear a voice urging him to go farther, and be more evil, than he would have imagined by himself. And then there’s the blood lust…

This book is a little bit camp, a lot horror, a little sci-fi, and a bunch fantasy. Drayden invents a religion only to turn it inside out and back to front; she gives us twins who need each other to live but might destroy each other anyway; there is loads of body humor; and her world includes new genders, underground societies, flying librarians, and so much more.

This book is a rollercoaster from start to finish, not just in learning the world of the novel but in following the different characters. Good becomes bad, up becomes down, yes becomes no, and I was continually revising my opinions of and sympathies with the characters. There are no heroes here, and a whole lot of villains — but as we know, each villain is the hero of their own story, and Drayden wouldn’t have it any other way. If you love the feeling of having your brain shaken until it hurts, then pick this up 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.

Live long and prosper,
Jenn

Happy Friday, sirens and scriers! Today I’m reviewing The Descent of Monsters by J.Y. Yang and The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso, plus looking at the new Terminator, the witches of Discworld, under-hyped SFF, and more.

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Sponsored by Suicide Club by Rachel Heng. A novel about living. Published by Henry Holt & Co.

Lea Kirino is a “Lifer,” which means that a roll of the genetic dice has given her the potential to live forever—if she does everything right. After the return of her estranged father, Lea is drawn into the mysterious world of the Suicide Club, a network of powerful, rebellious individuals who reject society’s pursuit of immortality and choose to live—and die—on their own terms. Lea is forced to choose between a sanitized immortal existence and a short, bittersweet time with a man she has never really known but who is the only family she has left.

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As per last week’s review, the third Wayfarers book by Becky Chambers, Record of a Spaceborn Few, is out — and Tor.com is giving away the series so far! You should enter.

Speaking of giveaways! You should definitely enter our Recommended giveaway, which includes 16 books!

Linda Hamilton is back with a vengeance in these new photos from the new Terminator film, and I don’t know what to do with myself, I am SO EXCITED. *Inarticulate flailings ensue.*

You might not have these on your radar, but here are three upcoming books BR contributor Leah believes you should get excited about. I am very happy to cosign Rosewater by Tade Thompson, especially for the VanderMeer/Mieville/Beukes fans out there.

Did you learn life lessons from the witches of Discworld? Alice did, and this post makes me want to finally pick up these books. (I know, I know. Some day!)

Novellas have been around forever but they’re definitely getting more press these days, including in this piece from Wired. When novellas are available both digitally from my library and in physical form, I read way more of them — I can only hope that novella publishers continue to add to their distribution game, since the market is clearly here!

Your hoard, ahem, personal library probably needs some dragon bookends.

Today in reviews, we’ve got a monstrous investigation and an empire under attack.

The Descent of Monsters (Tensorate #3) by J.Y. Yang

In this dark third installment, the Tensorate series picks up where we left The Red Threads of Fortune, with the slaughter at the Rewar Teng Institute of Experimental Methods. The enormous beast may have been vanquished, but nothing has been resolved. What was going on at the Institute? Will Rider ever find who they’ve been looking for? And who is trying to cover this all up?

Descent of Monsters introduces a new player, Investigator Chuwan. She does her job, she does it by the book, and she does it well. The capture and interrogation of Sanao Akeha and Rider only adds more questions to the mix, and Chuwan must choose between finding the truth and doing what her superiors are telling her to do. Her decision leads her down a strange and winding path, in which even the answers she finds just lead to more questions.

Chuwan is a tart, prickly narrator (which I loved), and the switches in structure include letters and reports (which I also loved). After spending the first two books so closely tied to Sanao and Mokoya, it was fascinating to see them through a neutral pair of eyes. While I don’ think you can pick this up if you haven’t read the first two, I highly recommend doing just that. Yang continues to expand her world in exciting ways, playing with science, fantasy, and human nature, and I can’t wait to see where she takes us next.

The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso

I first heard about Melissa Caruso thanks to her excellent thread about sword-fighting in ballgowns. While I confess that I was a little disappointed that there weren’t duelling princesses in The Tethered Mage (although perhaps future installments?), there’s plenty to enjoy in this fantasy novel.

Set in European-esque cities (it read a bit like a mash-up of the Roman empire with Renaissance Italy to me), the story follows Amalia Cornaro, heir to a powerful countess. She’s bookish, a bit absent-minded, very well-meaning, and a little naive, none of which serves her well when she helps stop an out-of-control street urchin with fire magic and ends up bonded to the young woman, Zaira. Being a Falconer (i.e. the controller of a person with mage powers) puts her directly in the service of the Doge, which is a conflict of interest given her mother’s position at court, and definitely is going to interfere with her studies.

Amalia, Zaira, and the very swoon-worthy Lieutenant Marcello find themselves at the heart of a sinister plot to tear apart the empire. Amalia, due to her privileged upbringing, genuinely believes that it and the Falcon system are a good thing, which more than once made me shake my head and say “Oh, sweet summer child!” to the book in my hands. Her rose-tinted glasses get knocked a bit askew thanks to some zingers from the rightfully cynical Zaira, although there’s clearly plenty more room for her to grow and learn. In the meantime, there’s action aplenty. Kidnappings! Poisoning! Double crosses! Triple crosses! Evil princes! And of course, magic!

If you’re looking for an escapist fantasy with a love story, court intrigue, magical hijinks, and strong female representation, pop this into your day-bag and enjoy.

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.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Happy Friday, fairfolk and farseers! Today I’m reviewing Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers and A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman, plus talking WorldCon shenanigans, poolside reading, the Buffy reboot, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Tor.

Women are shining in every genre of speculative fiction, and it is no longer enough to say “Women are here.” Instead, #FearlessWomen everywhere are taking a stand to say “Women will
thrive here.”

This summer a new generation of #FearlessWomen are shaping new blockbuster worlds—and reshaping our own. Discover new novels from bestselling authors V. E. Schwab, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Jacqueline Carey as well as titles from acclaimed and debut authors including Mary Robinette Kowal, Tessa Gratton, Sam Hawke, and Robyn Bennis. Join the conversation online with #FearlessWomen.

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WorldCon is less than a month away, and is redoing their entire program. Here’s what’s going on and why, courtesy of BR’s own Alex Acks. If you’ve got any interest in the inner workings of the SF/F world, are familiar with the Sad and Rabid Puppies of years past, and/or are curious about the future of SF/F events, this is very worth a read.

In nicer award news, here are the finalists for the World Fantasy Awards! I’m delighted to see a bunch of personal favorites on the list, and will have to bump a few others of these up on my TBR.

Need some poolside reading? Here are some YA SF/F recs, none of which I have read somehow and all of which I now need to check out.

A Buffy reboot is in the offing, and they’re casting a black lead actress, and have a black female show-runner. Response to this news has been Very Mixed, and I’m very curious to see what exactly “reboot” means in this case. This statement from showrunner Monica Owusu-Breen gives me hope!

The Discovery of Witches TV show finally has a US distributor, one which I find super confusing yet again. Sundance has a subscription service?!

If you need more space in your life, here are both true and fictional stories to scratch the itch.

Want to do a deep dive into the process of world-building? This roundtable discussion is fascinating, thorough, and features several authors whose works I love (Peng Shepherd! Tade Thompson! Malka Older!)

Today in reviews, we’ve got a generation ship reboot and fairytale retellings.

Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers #3) by Becky Chambers 

If I had to boil down the premises of each of the Wayfarers books into a single sentence, it would go like this:
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is about finding your family.
A Closed and Common Orbit is about finding yourself.
Record of a Spaceborn Few is about finding your place.

Record returns to an ensemble cast, like Long Way, but for the most part these characters don’t know each other. This time we get a deep dive into the Exodus Fleet, which was built to save humanity from a dying Earth. They took to the stars in generation ships looking for a new inhabitable planet, encountered the alien races of the Galactic Commons, and ended up never leaving their ships. Now they orbit around a sun gifted to them by the Harmagians, leading an insular and entirely space-based life.

The story explores the Exodans from various perspectives: a working mother, a young emigrant, an alien researching human cultures, a teenager looking for ways to rebel, and more. The Fleet is under threat from several directions including decreasing population, worn-out machinery, and internal disagreement over incorporating alien technologies. They’re also still recovering from a catastrophic accident that killed thousands. Each character must decide what change means to them, what traditions they hold dear, and how — and where — they want to spend their lives.

Both a meditation on mortality and a celebration of what it means to choose your life, Record of a Spaceborn Few adds new depth to Chambers’ world-building, a new take on the generation ship trope, and new characters to love.

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman

Disclosure: Anthology contributor Preeti Chhibber is a personal friend and a former Book Riot contributor.

My excitement for this collection to come out was immense, not just because a good friend was in it but because fairytales — especially fairytale retellings — are my jam. Add to that that this anthology explores Asian fairytales, which are much less familiar to me than European ones, and I was basically throwing my money at this. Friends, I regret nothing.

Like with any collection I have my favorites, and my favorites are many. Aswangs in NYC courtesy of Melissa de la Cruz, hungry ghosts in Arizona thanks to Alyssa Wong, shapeshifting sisters from Aliette de Bodard, a ghost-ridden MMORPG courtesy of E.C. Myers, and now I am running out of word-count so I will stop. There are compelling characters, subtle world-building, and above all thoughtful contemplation of what traditional stories might look like through a modern lens. Each story also comes with a brief writers’ statement about the original folktale and why they chose it to rework, which also means we can now fall down a rabbithole of reading the originals! Highly recommended for all fairytale fanatics, but in particular this needs to get into the hands of each and every teenager looking for themselves on the page.

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.

Wishing you a happily ever after (or at least a happy for today),
Jenn

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.

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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.

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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

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.

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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

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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!).

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.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

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.

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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.

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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

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

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

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.

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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!

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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.

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.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

May the odds be ever in your favor,
Jenn

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

Happy Pride this month and all months!,
Jenn