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Swords and Spaceships

Top Sci-Fi Books on Goodreads and May the Fourth Be With You: Swords and Spaceships May 7, 2019

Avast, ye book-reading rogues! It’s Tuesday, the absolute best day of the week, and I’m not just saying that because it’s my regular pub-quiz-and-pizza night. It’s book release day, and we’ve got some good ones coming down the pike… with a helping of nerdy news.


Sponsored by Carmilla by Kim Turrisi from KCP Loft

An adaptation of Shaftesbury’s award-winning, groundbreaking queer vampire web series of the same name, Carmilla mixes the camp of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the snark of Veronica Mars, and the mysterious atmosphere of Welcome to Nightvale.


New Releases

Exhalation by Ted Chiang – I still haven’t emotionally recovered from his last short story collection (Stories of Your Life and Others); this one promises some brand new stories, as well as previously published (but not collected) work.

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire – “Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained.” Sold.

Snakeskins by Tim Majors – A sci-fi thriller about cloning and shadowy people trying to take over the government.

Westside: A Novel by W.M. Akers – Historical fantasy set in Manhattan in 1921, about a detective named Gilda Carr.

Finale by Stephanie Garber – The final book in the Caraval trilogy

News and Views

Holly Black is writing a middle-grade novel about Maleficent, due to come out in October.

The Aso­ciación de Literatura de Ciencia Ficción y Fantástica has been founded in Chile and is open to members from other countries. Sounds like they’ll be trying to bring Spanish-speaking fans together and bring work by Chilean authors to the attention of the worldwide fandom.

An update from GRRM on the Game of Thrones spin-offs.

Ray Bradbury’s hometown of Waukegan, Illinois, will have a statue of him dedicated in front of its public library on his birthday, August 22. It looks like a pretty fun statue, not gonna lie.

Circe by Madeline Miller made it onto the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist.

We’re starting to get reviews of Tolkien, which comes out on May 10.

There’s a documentary about Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books, and I must see it.

SYFY Wire has a behind the scenes look at the forthcoming Game of Thrones storyboard book.

At Book Riot, we’ve got a look at the current 30 top Sci-fi books on Goodreads.

Special Belated May the Fourth Be With You News

There was so much good Star Wars stuff this week, I felt like it needed its own section. My apologies if Star Wars is Not Your Thing (and no judgment here!) but it was formative piece of space fantasy for a lot of us. I’m personally a massive The Empire Strikes Back and The Last Jedi fan, which you could probably use to decently profile my personality if you wanted it. And while I feel like we’ve still got light years to go in a lot of ways (where are my on-screen queer Jedi?) it never fails to get me choked up when I think about the new generation of rebels–Rey, Finn, Rose, and Poe–carrying on for General Leia.

The California state legislature officially recognized May the Fourth as Star Wars Day.

Rebecca Roanhorse is writing a Star Wars novel! Sounds like it’ll bridge the gap between The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker. (And by the way, if you haven’t read her debut novel, Trail of Lightning, I heartily recommend it. The sequel, Storm of Locusts, just came out.)

There’s a bunch of other new Star Wars novels coming at us. Including a middle-grade novel by Justina Ireland, author of Dread Nation.

An academic study has looked at costuming for Leia and Padme to examine the impacts of romance on their power. (Spoiler: the more they were an object of romance, the more objectified they got.)

As an aside, if the traveling exhibit Star Wars and the Power of Costume ever comes to an art museum near you, it is super worth going.

A Physics Analysis of Every Jedi Jump in All of Star Wars.

Tor.com has a list of nine Star Wars books that are there to meet your specific fandom needs.

We said goodbye to Peter Mayhew last week; his family has asked that those who would like to express their grief with gifts or flowers consider donating to his charity foundation. Also oh my heart.

May the Force be with you, always.

See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me on the (Hugo-nominated!!!) Skiffy and Fanty Podcast or over at my personal site.