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Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for November 22: Here’s to the Lady Team-Ups

Happy Friday to my favorite space pirates! I hope you have some great weekend plans. (I’ve got a D&D game coming, so not even the final slog of NaNoWriMo can dampen my mood. And by the way, if you’re on that slog–drink some water, take a screen break, YOU GOT THIS.) Here’s Alex with some news for your Friday and some books about teams of badass women. And appropriately enough… y’all. This is definitely fantasy, because reality can’t be this perfect: Mel and Sue, former GBBO hosts, play professional assassins in a new movie called Hitmen.

News and Views

Michael Moorcock’s Elric books have been optioned for TV.

The Mary Sue interviews author Chuck Wendig about apples. Just apples.

New book coming from E. Lily Yu in Fall 2020!

Interview with N.K. Jemisin about Afrofuturism and her Green Lantern.

The Expanse is circling back to bookshelves via The Art and Making of The Expanse

The Dragon Awards have opened for 2020 nominations.

This year’s Goodreads choice awards are in their final round. You’ve got until December 2 to vote.

You can read an excerpt from Chana Porter’s new novel The Seep, coming to shelves in January 2020.

I try not to go too overboard with TV stuff but Y’ALL KEVIN CONROY PLAYING BATMAN IN LIVE ACTION.

An early draft of Kevin Shinik’s YA Star Wars novel, Force Collector, accidentally contained major spoilers for The Rise of Skywalker.

More casting announcements for BBC’s The Watch, including Anna Chancellor as Lord Vetinari. I am here for this.

Well, this is gross: Emilia Clarke says she’s been pressured to do nude scenes so she ‘won’t disappoint Game of Thrones fans.’

Modern fan cultures (like Trekkies) arguably have their roots in… Jane Austen fans?

Amazing pictures of starling murmurations.

Here’s two 400-year-old warships wrecked at the bottom of a channel in Sweden if you need any writing inspiration today.

On Book Riot

This week’s SFF Yeah! podcast is about SFF for gift-giving.

28 of the greatest Wheel of Time quotes

16 authors like Neil Gaiman

Rioters share surprising secrets: The Harry Potter Confessions

Free Association Friday

For my birthday last week, I saw Charlie’s Angels because it looked like fun. The trailers did not prepare me for just how girl-power-banana-pants-spy-fy-playfulness I was getting… plus Kristen Stewart’s character checking out at least two other women over the course of the movie. It makes me very sad that it’s not getting the love it deserves… just like Terminator: Dark Fate.

I want more badass ladies teaming up and doing action and spy things. I want all of them! And in honor of the two lady team-up movies, here’s six more with teams of badass ladies:

there are two young asian women. one has her hair in a ponytail and is wearing a black catsuit, kicking a cupcake with teeth. the other is wearing a hoodie and a tshirt and holds a ball of fire in her right hand.Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn gives us Evie and Aveda. Aveda’s a superheroine and Evie’s her assistant. And then one day, Evie has to impersonate Aveda for a night… and discovers she’s a superheroine too. There’s plenty of ladies teaming up and being amazing in the series.

Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger has Lee and Xiulan, a would-be detective and her criminal companion fighting to change the regime of the Shang Empire, and they kick a lot of ass in the process.

the tiger's daughterThe Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera has the ultimate lovers, O Shizuka and Barsalayaa Shefali, divine empress and her infamous warrior, who may well be goddesses in their own right. Together, they fight to push back the demons that threaten to overrun their lands.

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss features a team-up of the women hidden in no-longer-under-copyright stories like The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde… which gives us Mary Jekyll, the main character of the first book. Friendship, mystery, mayhem, and the absolute delight of spotting familiar literary figures abounds.

a study in honorA Study in Honor by Claire O’Dell gives us a Holmes and Watson who are queer black women in a near-future Washington, DC. As you might expect, they form an unbreakable personal bond and solve some mysteries.

Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger is about a finishing school where young ladies go to learn some darker skills as well… like espionage. Lady friendships! Spies! Manners! Four unexpected things that one can do with a fan!


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 over at my personal site.