Sponsored by Tor Books.
Millions died after the first contact. An alien weapon holds the key to redemption—or annihilation. Experience Karen Osborne’s unforgettable science fiction debut, Architects of Memory. Terminally ill salvage pilot Ash Jackson lost everything in the war with the alien Vai, but she’ll be damned if she loses her future. Her plan: to buy, beg, or lie her way out of corporate indenture and find a cure. When her crew salvages a genocidal weapon from a ravaged starship above a dead colony, Ash uncovers a conspiracy of corporate intrigue and betrayal that threatens to turn her into a living weapon.
Happy Tuesday, space pirates! Wow, there are a LOT of books coming out this week. This is Alex, bringing you just a small selection of all the goodies to be had–and a little bit of book-related news. In not-book news, Bill and Ted Face the Music just came out–and it’s on streaming, which is how I watched it–and to me, it was the movie I needed in this absolute nightmare of a year because it’s just so sincere and kind and just the right amount of silly and weird. Stay safe out there, be most excellent to each other, and I’ll see you on Friday!
Here, have a thread of Tom Hiddleston as macarons.
Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? blacklivesmatter.card.co and The Okra Project.
New Releases
Sanctuary by Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher – In near-future America, every citizen has a chip that tracks all their movements, and undocumented immigrants are hunted by the Deportation Forces. When Vali’s mom’s counterfeit chip malfunctions, the entire family is forced to flee the small Vermont town where they’ve been quietly living. Their only chance is to make it to California, a sanctuary state that’s being walled off from the rest of the country.
Find Layla by Meg Elison – When a school competition calls for exploration of a biome, underprivileged and bullied Layla chooses the hostile environment of her own fungi-filled, decrepit home. The video goes viral and Layla is taken from her family by Child Protective Services. Now she has to face friends and bullies alike on her own, and refuse to back down from the truth she’s shown the world.
Killing Frost by Seanan McGuire – Faerie’s archaic marriage traditions mean that Simon Torquill is legally October’s father, and she has to have him at her wedding whether she likes it or not if she doesn’t want to set off a storm of political turmoil. She has no choice to set off on a quest into her family’s past for the sake of her own future.
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas – Yadriel is determined to prove that he’s a real brujo after his very traditional family refuses to accept his gender. So he decides to summon the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free. Only he accidentally summons the ghost of Julian Diaz, former bad boy, who isn’t going to go quietly into death until he’s tied up some loose ends first. Yadriel agrees to help him to get the ghost to leave… but the longer they work together, the less Yadriel wants Julian to go.
Wayward Witch by Zoraida Córdova – Rose Mortiz is a fixer who’s had her course in life muddied by new powers she doesn’t understand–and the return of her father, who has amnesia. Only she discovers that he’s been faking his memory loss, and when she’s about to confront him, they’re sucked into the Caribbean fairy realm of Adas. If she wants to return home and try to put her family back together, she’ll have to fix Adas–and learn the true breadth of her own magic.
The Four Profound Weaves by R. Lemberg – In this queer fairytale, the city of Iyar lives in the shadow of an evil ruler. Two elder changers, people who have taken on different gender roles, must learn to weave from Death if they are to save their city and find their places in life.
In the Shadows of Men by Robert Jackson Bennet – In west Texas during the new oil boom brought about by fracking, two brothers start renovating an old motel, planning to cater to the workers coming in. The two men are after money, but they’re also running from their own histories. But the motel has its own dark history, and as strange things begin to happen, the two brothers discover that the building had saw other uses in the past…
News and Views
How about N.K. Jemisin reading a story by Amal El-Mohtar: And Their Lips Range With the Sun
All Is Fair in Love and Go: Strategy Gaming in This Is How You Lose the Time War
The Folio Society has done a new edition of Octavia Butler’s Kindred, and here’s an interview with the illustrator.
Rest in power, Chadwick Boseman.
Amazon is going to adapt Eoin Colfer’s novel Highfire, and Nic Cage is executive producing–and voicing Vern. OMG.
Artist Kip Rasmussen on Depicting Tolkien’s Silmarillion
Check out this Lord of the Rings fountain pen. (just don’t look at the price.)
The life of library cats during the pandemic
On Book Riot
Everything we know so far about Diana Gabaldon’s new Outlander book: Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone
8 of the best adult dragon books around
You could win a copy of Micaiah Johnson’s The Space Between Worlds. TRUST ME YOU WANT THIS ONE.
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.