Month: October 2017

Categories
Riot Rundown

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Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Scout Press.

Catherine Burns’s debut novel explores the complex truths we are able to keep hidden from ourselves and the twisted realities that can lurk beneath even the most serene of surfaces.
Marion Zetland lives with her domineering older brother John in a crumbling mansion on the edge of a northern seaside resort. A timid spinster in her fifties, Marion does her best to live by John’s rules, even if it means turning a blind eye to the noises she hears coming from behind the cellar door…and turning a blind eye to the women’s laundry in the hamper that isn’t hers….

Categories
The Stack

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Today’s The Stack is sponsored by Gallery 13.

An Arab-American college student struggles to live with epilepsy in this starkly colored and deeply-cutting graphic novel. Based on the author’s own experiences as an epileptic, Mis(h)adra is a boldly visual depiction of the daily struggles of living with a misunderstood condition in today’s hectic and uninformed world.

Categories
Today In Books

The National Book Awards Finalists: Today in Books

And The 2017 National Book Awards Finalists Are…

The judges have whittled down the longlist and selected the 20 National Book Awards finalists. The finalists include American Street by Ibi Zoboi in the Young Adult category, Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith in Poetry, and Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean in Nonfiction. Also, Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News, will receive the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and Dick Robinson, president and CEO of Scholastic, will receive the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. The rest of the winners will be announced on November 15.

La Borinqueña Steps In For Puerto Rico Relief Efforts

This evening, comic book creator Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez is selling original artwork to benefit Puerto Rico. Miranda-Rodriguez is the creator of La Borinqueña, an Afro-Latina, environmentally powered superhero. After hearing about the devastation left by Hurricane Maria, unable to reach his friends and family in Puerto Rico, and inspired by relief efforts by individuals, organizations, and public figures across the nation, he decided to sell La Borinqueña artwork to benefit the U.S. territory; more comic book industry artists joined in to donate. All proceeds from the event, “Arte de La Borinqueña/Fundraiser for Puerto Rico,” will go to La Corporación Piñones Se Integra.

Hemingway’s Earliest Work of Fiction

It turns out Hemingway has been writing fiction since he was at least 10 years old. Scholars found what at first appeared to be a travelogue (of course) by 10-year-old Ernest, but it turned out to be a complete work of fiction. The notebook, found wrapped in a freezer bag in an ammunition can, recounted a trip through Ireland and Scotland, complete with diary entries and letters sent to his parents. Except Hemingway didn’t travel to Europe until much later in life. Hemingway scholar Sandra Spanier described it as “an intelligent piece of work.” The kid apparently did his homework.

Thank you to Provenance by Ann Leckie for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

provenanceFollowing her record-breaking debut, award winner Ann Leckie, returns with a new novel of power, theft, privilege and birthright.

A power-driven young woman has one chance to secure the status she craves and regain priceless lost artifacts prized by her people. She must free their thief from a prison planet from which no one has ever returned.

Ingray and her charge return to her home and find their planet in political turmoil, at the heart of an escalating interstellar conflict. They must make a new plan to salvage her future, her family, and her world, before they are lost to her for good.

Categories
Audiobooks

A Novelist on Narrating Her Own Audiobook

Hey audiobookers! This week, we’re continuing our doing behind-the-scenes look at audiobook creation with a guest post by Jordanna Max Brodsky, author of The Immortals, which Whoopi Goldberg (a huge audiobook lover) picked as a Summer Reading Pick for The View. Before we get into that, though, I want to address the fact a lot of us feel like we are swimming in tragedy these days. There’s an ongoing crisis in Puerto Rico and other hurricane-devastated areas, the shooting in Las Vegas killed and injured a horrifying number of people–it’s just a lot. And while it can be a time to remember what we’re grateful for, or spur us to action, we also need to be soothed. So, I want to know which audiobooks and narrators you find the most soothing. Hit me up on Twitter or send an email to katie@riotnewmedia.com and I’ll compile a list for next week.

Sponsored by Penguin Random House Audio

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia, partly because its creator James Halliday has hidden a series of keys in it. Whoever finds all the keys and solves all the riddles will win big time. When Wade stumbles on the first key, suddenly the race is on. Wil Wheaton narrates the audiobook edition of this pop-culture loving adventure-filled quest.

Without further ado, here’s Jordanna Max Brodsky on narrating her own audiobook and the unusual experience of being both storyteller and listener, reader, and writer.

A Novelist-Narrator’s Labor of Love 

by: Jordanna Max Brodsky

For the first time, I am both the reader and writer of my own book. The listener and the storyteller. Most thrillingly, I become its heroine, inhabiting her every emotion, her every action—even as I watch her tale unfold anew. That’s the power of narrating my own audiobook.

The recording booth feels like a sacred space. In it, I’ve found the sort of solitude and focus that novelists constantly seek and rarely acquire. At home, the phone rings, family intrudes. In the library, patrons bicker and children whine. Even when I’ve managed to unhook from the Internet and block out everyone I love, life’s ceaseless distractions beckon from afar. But when the heavy studio door whooshes shut and I raise the page of my book before my eyes, there’s only my story, my characters, and me. I have nowhere else to be, nothing else to do. Even the director, sitting just beyond the glass, is nothing but a disembodied voice who only occasionally interrupts my tale with a bit of encouragement or advice.

As a novelist, I reread my own book dozens of times before it goes to print. By the final copyedit, I know most of the passages by heart, and I’m capable of overlooking the same typo five times in a row. We’re often told to read our writing aloud to get a new perspective. That advice works great for a scene or a chapter, but no one ever mentions just how hard it is to read an entire four hundred-page novel out loud to yourself in the final editing stages. Sooner or later (usually sooner), your voice tires, you get bored, you start reading without listening to a damn word you’re saying. But step in front of a microphone, slide the headphone over your ears, and…magic. The story is reborn.

Inside the booth, I stop remembering previous versions of lines or worrying about whether chapter length. Instead, with my own voice echoing back through the headphones, I can read and listen at the same time—the best kind of ambidexterity for a writer. For hours at a time, for several days in a row, I live in my story. We generally record chronologically, so I get to experience the tale just as the reader does, from careful exposition to rousing climax to satisfying denouement.

I write because I’m happiest when completely subsumed in a story, and I can imagine no greater privilege than to create those stories for others. Yet it can be hard to fall into a story of my own creation in quite the same way. I know how the characters have evolved over the course of the process. Perhaps they’ve changed names or personalities or fates. Even though I see them more vividly than a reader might, I also see the shadows of their former selves, the scars of my sculpting and slicing. But in the recording booth, they jump off the page and take on lives of their own. As a writer, I create their words. As a narrator, I actually speak them. And unlike a reading at a bookstore or library, where I feel slightly absurd shouting or weeping or laughing through the dialogue, an audiobook demands that I inhabit the characters completely. When my heroine cries, I cry. When my villain growls, I growl. By the end, I’m exhausted, hoarse, and covered in sweat—but also reveling in the remembered thrill of writing the final line of the final chapter and turning off my computer for the night.

I wish all authors got a chance to record their own audiobooks. Not only for the pleasure, but for the instruction. Even as the story sweeps me along, I sometimes hit the odd boulder in the current: a word that I suddenly realize breaks the rhythm of a line, a phrase that feels out of place for a character, that last typo I could’ve sworn wasn’t there a month before. At that point, of course, it’s generally too late. The book is off to the printers, and all I can do is tuck away the lesson for the next novel. If I had my druthers, I’d sneak into the studio halfway through the writing process and record a version just for myself. I’d walk out with all sorts of insights I couldn’t get any other way—and probably an arrest record for trespassing.

So for now, I’ll leave the audiobook recording where it is: the final frenzied push in the long labor of bringing forth a novel, complete with sweat and screams and an aching back. When it’s all over, I get to hand over that squalling new child to the whole world. It’s not mine any longer—it belongs to those who read it. But unlike most authors, my voice will remain to shepherd it along. To give it life. I hope that’s a gift to my readers. I darn well know it’s a gift to me.

 

Categories
Giveaways

Win a $200 Books-A-Million Gift Card!

 

We do a bunch of giveaways, and there is just something really great about a simple one like this. Two hundred books to blow on books. This is a gift card for book people. No frills, no fuss, just $200 to spend at Books-A-Million.

The giveaway is open to U.S. residents, and entries will be accepted until October 17th at 11:59pm Eastern. Winner will be selected randomly and will have 72 hours to respond before another winner is chosen.

Go here to enter, or just click the image below. Good luck!

Categories
Kissing Books

Join the Romance Resistance

I don’t even know where to start today, y’all.

The world still sucks, and we still have romance. I had this whole section written about the NYT article that came out last week and some awesome people’s responses to it, but I’d rather just skip to the happy parts. You want my opinions on the other stuff, hit me up. Let’s look at the good stuff in romancelandia.

Sponsored by Amazon Publishing

Anything But Love by Abigail Strom

Socialite Jessica Bullock can’t catch a break. After a lifetime of chasing perfection, hoping to please her parents, all her hard work is set to pay off. But on her wedding day, her fiancé leaves her high and dry. Humiliated, she finds her calm, cool facade beginning to crumble…until an unexpected wedding guest, her childhood best friend and crush, offers to help her pick up the pieces.

Some authors got together to do something for disaster relief. Will you donate? 

Jezebel interviewed Alisha Rai and she has some bitching things to say.

We’ve got a Romance Resistance going on. And there are so many books on this list that I haven’t managed to read yet. Why are there so many books?!

Want to lift someone up? Support this start-up publisher of inclusive speculative fiction and romance. They’re gonna go places, if we can help them reach their goal!

This is romance adjacent, but I know we’ll all love watching Idris Elba read erotic fanfiction about himself. Oh my.

In adaptation news, Passionflix is chugging along with original projects, including The Trouble With Mistletoe, and their most recent addition to their streaming collection is Somewhere in Time. I LOVE THAT MOVIE. (I’ll admit I haven’t read the Matheson, though it’s been on my list for years. I imagine it’s just as good but does it have Superman and Dr. Quinn? NO. It does not.)

Have you tried out this Jane Austen game? I don’t know how I feel about it.

How about this podcast? I feel like romance readers would enjoy it. It sounds fun!

Okay, enough links. DEALS!

Hot Cop by Laurelin Paige is 1.20 right now.

And you can get Rochelle Alers’ The Inheritance for 2.99.

And hey, it’s hockey season! Get in the mood with Changing Lines.  

Mariana Zapata’s Rhythm, Chord & Malykhin is 1.99, too, if you’d rather have rock stars in your life.

Over on Book Riot:

I know I said I wasn’t gonna talk about the article but Amanda.

Erin loves Chesapeake Shoresfor people who love it just as much. And she’s got some book recs .

I was wandering through a nice, long list of time-travel romance and noticed there are very few with black leads. I knew exactly why.

It’s a bit of old news now, but did you know Google Search will now reveal if the ebook you’re looking for is available at your library? Unfortunately, it looks like it’s only for libraries that have OverDrive, but it’s still handy!

Okay, now, a couple recs.

The Duchess Deal
Tessa Dare

This book. This book just made me so happy from start to finish. Even during the part I was vocally exclaiming about punching Ash in the face, I was still enjoying the crap out of myself. Let’s go with the opening scene between our hero and heroine: Khan, the Duke of Ashbury’s loyal, long-suffering, droll butler, informs him there’s a woman at the door wearing a wedding dress. Ash thinks that’s just perfect, as he’s just written the words “I need a wife” in a letter to his solicitors. So when the woman who arrives is a seamstress asking to be paid for her labor after the woman with whom he just broke off an engagement never picked it up, Ash leaps on the case. He can pay her…or she can marry him.

With a hook like that, can you see where I was just thrilled? Close proximity, getting to know each other, sex in the library—it’s like Beauty and the Beast but without the whole forced imprisonment thing. Though the concept of marriage of convenience as its own type of long-term jailing is briefly touched upon. And I’m going to tell you: you’re going to be in love with Khan by the end. I know Tessa is working hard to get this series going, but I would not cry if she decided “hey, I think I’ll write a Girl Meets Duke 1.5 novella all about Khan.” (hint hint nudge nudge)

Take the Lead
Alexis Daria

THIS BOOK, y’all. I have no idea why I was crying at the end of this book. Well, actually, I do. It was an emotional rollercoaster and the feeling and the dancing and the resolution and even the acknowledgements got me all in my feelings. I felt very fragile and vulnerable and couldn’t pick up another book for several days.

So what’s it about? Gina is a professional dancer on The Dance Off, and we meet her as she’s headed to Alaska with a camera crew to meet her new celebrity partner. He’s a giant, lumbering, gorgeous wild man whose family has a reality tv show about living in the bush, off the grid. Think Ryan Hurst in Outsiders, but a little better groomed. And with way fewer issues. If you’ve seen Dancing With the Stars, you know the process: dance competition, eliminations, behind the scenes rehearsal footage. Apparently showmances are also a thing on competition shows, and the producers want it to look like Gina and Stone (yes, that’s his real name) are it for the season. Gina doesn’t want to fake a romance, since it never goes well for the woman involved, but their chemistry has other ideas. This is Alexis Daria’s debut novel and boy…I can’t wait for more from her. The feelings just jump off the page; the dance scenes are vivid. This is definitely going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship…between Alexis and my wallet.

And if you’re looking for romance by Latinx authors, here are seven more!

That’s it for recs this week, but hey how about some new and upcoming Releases!

His Perfect Partner, Priscilla Oliveras

Drop Dead Gorgeous, Juliet Lyons

To Love a Scandalous Duke, Liana De La Rosa

An Unsuitable Heir, KJ Charles

Her Dream Come True, Jamie Wesley

The Love Experiment, Ainslie Paton

One Summer Night, Caridad Piniero

Sightlines, Santino Hassell (October 9)

Hooked, Cathy Yardley (October 10)

Hamilton’s Battalion, Rose Lerner, Courtney Milan, Alyssa Cole (October 17)

Crazy in Love, Crystal B Bright

Not to mention it’s getting to be that time: all the winter holiday books are coming out! Maybe we’ll have a look at a couple soon. I’m gonna try to read The Trouble With Mistletoe before the Passionflix release, but otherwise, I’ll wait until after Halloween to start thinking about holly and snow.

That’s probably enough for now, huh? In the meantime, catch me on Twitter @jessisreading or Instagram @jess_is_reading, or send me an email at jessica@riotnewmedia.com if you’ve got feedback or just want to say hi!

Categories
Today In Books

Solving the Mystery of Anne Frank: Today in Books

Ex-FBI Agent Opens Cold Case On Anne Frank Betrayal

Retired FBI agent Vince Pankoke launched a cold case review to identify the individuals who gave up the secret of the Frank family’s hiding location to the Gestapo. I (and I’m sure many others who read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl in school) have always wondered how their location was discovered. Using current investigative techniques, the skills of 19 forensic experts, and the archives of the Anne Frank House, Pankoke and his team hope to unveil the project’s findings next summer on the 75th anniversary of the arrest of the Frank family.

Nnedi Okorafor Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

Nnedi Okorafor is writing a new Black Panther story! The award-winning author of Binti will be working on Black Panther: Long Live the King, to be released on comiXology and Kindle bi-weekly, starting this December. Writers Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay also worked on Black Panther stories before Marvel cancelled their comics. I’m wishing this one all the luck (and sales), and I can’t wait to see what Okorafor does with the world of Wakanda.

Sylvia Plath’s Bikini Book Cover

There’s an ongoing argument in the literary community about the U.K. cover of The Letters of Sylvia Plath. Here’s the thing: the U.S. cover shows a brunette Plath in a coat while the U.K. version features a blonde Plath in a bikini. Some, like Plath scholar Cathleen Allyn Conway, argue that this depiction of Plath in semi-undress disrespects her literary contributions, and others, like writer and feminist Anne Thériault think it’s all a lot of pearl clutching.

Thank you to Bethany House, publisher of Blind Spot by Dani Pettrey, for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

When a terrorist investigation leads FBI agent Declan Grey to a closed immigrant community, he turns to crisis counselor Tanner Shaw for help. Despite the tension between them, he needs the best of the best on this case. Under imminent threat, they’ll have to race against the clock to stop a plot that could cost thousands of lives—including theirs.

Categories
Unusual Suspects

Kristen Bell Gets a Mystery Podcast, and More!

Hello fellow mystery fans! Kristen Bell and Anna Chlumsky have a new dark comedy murder mystery series podcast, Deadly Manners, and I’m going to drop everything and go listen. Er–I mean first newsletter, then listen!

Sponsored by GANGSTER NATION by Tod Goldberg, published by Counterpoint Press

It’s been two years since the events of Gangsterland, when legendary Chicago hitman Sal Cupertine disappeared into the guise of Las Vegas Rabbi David Cohen. Now, in September of 2001, Sal wants out. He’s almost made enough money to slip away and start fresh, but when his cousin falls into the hands of a former FBI agent, he’s suddenly trapped in Las Vegas, with the law, society, and the post-9/11 world closing in around him. With the wit and gritty glamour that defines his writing, Goldberg traces how the things we most value in our lives have been built on the enterprises of criminals.

Interesting “Past and Present” Mystery:

The Last Day of Emily LindseyThe Last Day of Emily Lindsey cover image: left side red background with title and then it appears ripped with a white woman walking away by Nic Joseph: This was a page-turner for me for two reasons: Even though it isn’t fabulism, it felt like it could be; the detective character was unique and intriguing. Detective Steven Paul was raised in foster care before being adopted by a loving couple and he’s spent his life with night terrors that no one can figure out, but that have taken a toll on his life. His wife divorced him and is making it difficult for him to see her son (who he’d raised with her), and an incident at work has his partner and boss doubting his ability and stability. Then he gets the case of a woman covered in blood and holding a knife who draws a symbol from his terrors–what is happening?! In between the current chapters of Paul trying to solve the case while keeping his life from crumbling any further are chapters with another storyline about a group of kids who are communally parented and are trying to solve a mystery of their own. Good read especially for fans of “then and now” and novels that mix adult and child POV.

Links Worth a Click:

On Book Riot: Inclusive Mystery/Thrillers From September and October (Some of the year’s best mysteries are on the list.)

After the Eclipse cover image: mother and young daughter sitting next to each other with an eclipse photo overlayed on topOver on Bust: Rioter Jaime R. Herndon interviewed Sarah Perry: How “After The Eclipse” Author Sarah Perry Wrote A Memoir About Her Mother’s Murder

Rincey and Katie talk Miss Fisher’s Kickstarter and books, plus the mysteries they’ve recently finished and just picked up on Read or Dead.

Whoopsie: Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department sought an apology when the Who Shot Biggie & Tupac? documentary aired the wrong police photo.

In the Woods cover image: white background with the title letters having tree branches growing out of themSarah Phelps is adapting Tana French’s 1st two novels in the Dublin Murder Squad (In the Woods ; The Likeness) for the BBC.

In true crime news: Thanks to DNA advances there’s finally been an arrest in a nearly 30 year cold case of a killer dressed as a clown having fatally shot Marlene Warren.

For fans of Dick Wolf (Law & Order creator): CBS ordered a 13-episode procedural for the 2018-19 season tentatively titled F.B.I.

Never a fan of authors talking about not being readers in what they write, but here’s an interview with Dan Brown on Origin, his 5th book in the Robert Langdon series. (And the book is officially released out into the wild so you can finally read it!)

Students Conquering Cold Cases: “At the University of Pittsburgh, there’s a student club devoted to solving crimes, one that’s taken seriously by law enforcement. And it’s run by young women.”

The Behind Her Eyes Author is Back with a YA Mean Girls Mystery:

13 Minutes13 Minutes cover image: light purple background with a teen girl's face from nose up and eyes shut by Sarah Pinborough: 13 minutes is the amount of time Natasha was dead before being pulled from the river. She has no memory of how she ended up there or why she escaped from her bedroom window in the middle of the night. But her brush with death now has everyone wondering if she accidentally fell in, or if someone had tried to murder her? As the popular girl in school, her surviving has thrown the social order at school into chaos now that she’s back and reviving an old friendship with Becca, an outcast. But really how dangerous could a potential murderer be when you have to compete with mean girls?

Suspense With a Bite (Trigger Warning: Domestic Abuse):

White BodiesWhite Bodies cover image: black and white photo of white woman laying in a bathtub and the same image is mirrored upside down on top half of cover by Jane Robins: Callie is worried about her sister Tilda: She thinks Tilda’s boyfriend Felix is abusing her. There have been moments that she witnessed that don’t feel right and now her sister’s arms always seem to have bruises. But Tilda doesn’t want help, she’s in love and Felix is quickly becoming her everything. Callie, needing to do something, joins an online support group in hopes of getting advice on how to save her sister. After befriending two other members Callie finds herself in the unwanted position of being offered a trade: Felix will be murdered if Callie will murder another abusive spouse. What will Callie do?

Kindle Monthly Deal:

Good BehaviorGood Behavior cover image: show poster of actress with red hair bob cut in low cut dress holding sunglasses and staring by Blake Crouch is $1.99 (Con artist crime novel that has been adapted into a TNT series. You can stream the 1st season on Hulu and season 2 returns Sunday, Oct. 15 at 9/8c on TNT.)

 

 

 

I Have To Go Shopping Now:

Baker St print: bicycle with 221B on it and a key and lettering

I am Sherlocked Geekery Bicycle Art Print by DexMex

Nancy Drew pin: enamel pin shaped like a book with yellow cover and blonde girl with magnifying glass

Nancy Drew Book Pin by JaneMount

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And if you like to put a pin in things here’s an Unusual Suspects board.

Until next time, keep investigating! And in the meantime come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canaves.

Categories
Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships Oct 6

Happy Friday, explorers and ectoplasms! Today we’re talking about An Unkindness of Ghosts and the Riddle-Master trilogy, upcoming books for your list, short stories, space swag, and more.

cover of The Last NamsaraThis newsletter is sponsored by The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli.

Kristen Ciccarelli’s debut fantasy explores an intricately woven world that fantasy fans won’t be able to resist!

Asha, daughter of the king of Firgaard, is the fiercest, most feared dragon slayer in the land. But no kill can free her from the shackles that await her at home: her betrothal to the cruel commandant. When she’s offered the chance to gain her freedom in exchange for the life of the most powerful dragon in Firgaard, she finds that there may be more truth to the ancient legends of the past than she ever could have expected.

Charles Yu has been a favorite author of mine since I read How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, so I’m delighted he’s editing this year’s Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology. Wired interviewed him and John Joseph Adams, and there are some gems in here about the writing process, Westworld, and more.

Curious about what’s coming in October and should be on your list? Here’s a round-up of some highly recommended and inclusive sf/f, including today’s reviewed book An Unkindness of Ghosts!

Do you love short stories? Thea James of The Book Smugglers (and this sf/f-themed episode of Get Booked) has a list of six that you definitely need to read if you haven’t already.

Scientists unearthed 3.95-billion year-old evidence of life, and primordial life is definitely something that I now want science fiction about. Here is my question, though: is “historical” science fiction possible? (And I don’t mean steampunk or time travel.)

I know you love space-related swag because you’re getting this email. Here are 30 non-book things you might want to own or gift; sorry not sorry.

And now for some cheap e-books! Fledgling by Octavia Butler (a formative book for me) is only $3.99 right now on Kindle. And if you’re interested in Golden Age sci-fi, The Day of The Triffids is only $3.49 and is a weird and interesting read.

Today in reviews, we have a very timely and innovative sci-fi debut, and an immersive high fantasy series to get lost in.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers SolomonTrigger warnings for physical and sexual violence.

I love a generation-ship premise, so it’s no surprise that I was eager to read An Unkindness of Ghosts. What I wasn’t expecting was how Solomon takes a classic trope in a new direction, and does it with skill and verve.

Aster, the primary narrator, is a self-taught healer onboard the enormous spaceship Matilda, which has been traveling through space in search of a new home planet for many generations. Instead of creating a new society and culture, humanity has fallen back on its worst history. The upper decks are landscaped, lush, beautiful, and populated entirely by white people, while the lower decks arepopulated by the darker-skinned inhabitants of the ship: enslaved, rationed, and patrolled and abused by armed guards. Ruthless violence keeps them working for the upper-deckers, and a religious dictatorship enforces class and race order across levels.

Aster, a lower-decker, doesn’t have any plans to be a revolutionary. She says more than once that if she knew how to kill the Sovereign and blow up the ship, she would; in the meantime she takes solace in science and medicine. But when her friend Giselle points out a coded message in Aster’s dead mother’s diaries, everything begins to shift.

Aster is a neurodiverse character, who sees clearly enough the world around her but can’t always communicate like she wants or like others want her too. The web of relationships, fraught and tender, that Solomon has built around her are beautifully rendered and layered. The world-building is detailed, thoroughly envisioned, and all too familiar. I’m still processing my feelings about the ending. An Unkindness of Ghosts is the debut of a powerful new voice in science fiction, and a must-read for fans of Ursula Le Guin, NK Jemisin, Octavia Butler, and Margaret Atwood.

The Riddle-Master trilogy: The Riddle-Master of Hed, Heir of Sea and Fire, and Harpist in the Wind by Patricia McKillip

The Riddle-Master of Hed TrilogyI grew up reading Patricia McKillip — never very systematically, it always felt like I was discovering her by chance each time. I first found the Riddle-Master books whilst digging through the fantasy section in a used bookstore, and definitely bought them because of this cover. I started rereading them last week, and two decades later they’re even better than I remember.

The Riddle-Master of Hed is a classic high fantasy hero’s journey. Morgon of Hed has inherited the rulership after his parents’ sudden death, and he’s still learning to be kingly. Meaning, the book opens with him and his brother Eliard getting in a fist-fight in the rose bushes, at which point his sister Tristan empties a jug of milk on them. Morgon also won a crown in a riddle contest with a ghost, and the “prize” is the hand of Raederle of An, the second most beautiful woman in the realm. (Eyeroll, I know. BUT WAIT.) As he heads out on a journey to her court, he discovers that the three stars on his brow have marked him for a mysterious destiny, and shapechangers hidden for centuries are coming back to prevent him from fulfilling it. Classic, right? Where it gets interesting is in the sidelong humor (witness the rosebush fight) and depth of character that McKillip roots the story in.

And then things get even better in Heir of Sea and Fire. Morgon has gone missing, and Raederle is tired of waiting around to see what’s going to happen next. So she steals a ship with the help of Morgon’s sister Tristan and ultimate bad-ass Lyra of Herun and heads off on her own quest to find him. In the process, she finds out that her own history is far from what she thought, and that she has powers no one could have expected.

I am not, obviously, going to tell you anything about Harpist in the Wind.

Morgon and Raederle both fight their destinies every step of the way, regardless of the forces pushing them forward. The way they choose their battles; the choices they make when all the options are terrible; the way that they come to own themselves, even as they become unrecognizable to those around them; these are what makes The Riddle-Master series stand the test of time, and give me all The Feels to boot.

And that’s a wrap! 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.

So long and thanks for all the fish,
Jenn

Categories
Giveaways

Win a BEATRICE ZINKER, UPSIDE DOWN THINKER Prize Pack!

Be An Upside Down Thinker! We have a Beatrice Zinker, UpsideDown Thinker Prize pack to give away!

One winner receives:

Copy of Beatrice Zinker, Upside Down Thinker
“Upside Down Thinker” beanie
And branded pencil case and notepad!

Here’s more about Beatrice Zinker, Upside Down Thinker:

Beatrice does her best thinking upside down.

Hanging from trees by her knees, doing handstands…for Beatrice Zinker, upside down works every time. She was definitely upside down when she and her best friend, Lenny, agreed to wear matching ninja suits on the first day of third grade. But when Beatrice shows up at school dressed in black, Lenny arrives with a cool new outfit and a cool new friend. Even worse, she seems to have forgotten all about the top-secret operation they planned!

Can Beatrice use her topsy-turvy way of thinking to save the mission, mend their friendship, and flip things sunny-side up?

Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click on the cover image below. Good luck!