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Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for August 4

Happy Tuesday, space pirates! It’s Alex, and there are SO MANY books coming out today. I’ve also got news for you, a lot of it Hugo-centric. And… I’m tired. WorldCon was shockingly exhausting for something that I attended via my house, partly because it… had some problems (see the news section for more info). Going back to work feels like a great break from my vacation, at this point.

Stay safe, and I’ll see you on Friday!

Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? blacklivesmatter.card.co and The Okra Project.

New Releases

The First Sister by Linden Lewis – The women of the Sisterhood have no name and no voice; they are “comfort women” that travel the stars alongside the soldiers of Earth and Mars. When First Sister’s captain dies, leaving her with no allies, she is ordered to spy on the new captain, Saito Ren, who has deadly enemies of his own.

Court of Lions by Somaya Daud – Amani, the body double of Princess Maram, is held in isolation. The world outside is ready for revolution, and any wrong move could get Amani executed for treason. But Maram wants Amani to play her part one more time in court…

Harrow the Ninth by Tasyn Muir – Harrow has been drafted by the Emperor to fight an unwinnable war–and as if that’s not bad enough, she has to cooperate with her most detested rival while her own health is failing and her mind threatens to unravel.

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson – Welcome to the multiverse, travel at will—but with one important catch. You can’t go to any world where your counterpart is still alive. Cara is an outlier who has died in almost all possible universes, and that makes her the ideal agent–and she’s happy to just be plucked out of the wasteland. But when one of her few remaining multiverse dopplegangers mysteriously dies, she begins to realize her own place in a plot that endangers all of the worlds.

Lobizona by Romina Garber – Manuela is an undocumented immigrant in hiding in Miami. When her mother is arrested by ICE and her grandmother is attacked, Manuela follows the only clues she has of her dead father and his criminal past. Those clues lead her to folklore about brujas and lobizónes, and to the horrible conclusion that her real heritage may make her very life illegal…

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy – Franny is a wanderer and lover of the rapidly-disappearing wild. She begins a journey to Greenland to see the last flock of Arctic terns and witness their final migration. But Franny has a lot of secrets, and their unraveling might very well threaten the crew of the ship carrying her on this journey.

Poe Dameron: Free Fall by Alex Segura – After the death of his mother, teenaged Poe runs away from home to search for adventure.

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer – The story of Twilight, told now from Edward’s perspective.

News and Views

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Sir Julius Vogel Awards! (I already ordered a copy of The Dawnhounds because it sounds fun as heck.) We will be talking more about these awards and the awesome books involved on Friday, so stayed tuned.

Congratulations for the winners of this year’s Hugo and Not-a-Hugo Awards! A Memory Called Empire won Best Novel and This Is How You Lose the Time War won Best Novella.

The awards themselves were, frankly, A Mess. A really upsetting, embarrassing, terrible mess thanks to Toastmaster GRRM spending more time talking about, say, noted racist and fascist John W. Campbell, for whom an award is no longer named, than any of the nominees for this year’s Astounding Award. That said, I’d rather focus on the winners, most of whom gave excellent speeches in opposition to the remarks that made the ceremony last over three and a half hours. Speeches of note:

You can also watch an edit of the Hugo Awards that’s just the good bits, which is only an hour and 40 minutes long here.

Cora Buhlert’s thoughts on the ceremony. Also definitely worth reading are thoughts from Cheryl Morgan and Natalie Luhrs.

The CoNZealand Fringe is a bit of companion programming that got set up by fans so there’d be a few more panels with European-friendly times. You can watch the recorded panels here.

Kacen Callender on the humanization of authors

Twelfth Planet Press is running a Kickstarter for a new anthology, Rebuilding Tomorrow

Olivia Munn showing off her sword skills

On Book Riot

28 J.R.R. Tolkien quotes form his books, essays, and letters

I’ve missed a couple episodes of the SFF Yeah! Podcast, mea culpa. Let’s catch up:


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.