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Beyond the Martial Empire the threat of war looms ever larger. Helene Aquilla, the Blood Shrike, is desperate to protect her sister’s life and the lives of everyone in the Empire. But she knows that danger lurks on all sides: Emperor Marcus, grows increasingly unstable, while Keris Veturia, capitalizes on the Emperor’s volatility-regardless of the carnage she leaves in her path. Picking up just a few months after A Reaper at the Gates left off… prepare for the jaw-dropping finale of Sabaa Tahir’s beloved New York Times bestselling An Ember in the Ashes fantasy series, and discover: who will survive the storm?
Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with some new releases and bookish news for you. And wow, a lot of good books came out today. I had a tough time narrowing it down to the six I listed. It’s fun times in eastern Colorado right now, where we’re hoping the sudden September snow (woo, 93F on Monday, 26F on Tuesday, I love you Colorado) will maybe put out the wildfires that have had ash raining out of the sky like we’re Silent Hill with ski bums. Take care, stay safe, and I hope your skies are clearer than ours!
Looking for non-book things you can do to help in the quest for justice? blacklivesmatter.card.co and The Okra Project.
New Releases
Master of Poisons by Andrea Hairston – The world around the Arkhysian Empire is changing, with poisonous desert encroaching on once-good farmland and deadly storms sweeping sand and sadness across the land. The exiled spymaster of a lord of the empire and a young woman training to be a powerful griot both face the impending death of their world and must try to save it.
The Phlebotomist by Chris Panatier – In a world long torn by war, mandatory blood draws called “the Harvest” have been instated, and that has led to a society segregated by blood type. Willa works as a phlebotomist for the blood contractor Patriot to support herself and her grandson. When Willa tries to resurrect a long-disused blood-drawing technique, she uncovers an awful truth that her employer will happily kill to protect.
Prime Deceptions by Valerie Valdes – Captain Eva Innocente still has some serious trust issues with her sister, for good reason, but when she gets the offer of a job that’ll have a big payday and is nominally a noble cause—finding a missing scientist—she can’t quite bring herself to refuse. The search takes her and her crew from a bot-fighting arena to a never-ending convention to an apparent paradise populated by dangerous psychic animals. But will she be able to complete this mission without the dark deeds of her past coming to light?
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart – For decades, the Emperor has maintained his rule through his mastery of bone shard magic. But with his strength failing, revolution is beginning to threaten his empire, and yet he refuses to recognize his daughter, Lin, as his heir. Lin vows to prove her worth by mastering the same bone shard magic—but with revolution at the gates, she has to decide if the price that it will exact from her is worth paying.
Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne – The war with the aliens known as the Vai cost humanity a lot; for salvage pilot Ash Jackson, it cost her everything. Now terminally ill, she will do anything to escape corporate indenture and find a cure. But when her next salvage mission uncovers a weapon of genocide, she realizes she’s caught in a corporate conspiracy that might turn her into the next weapon.
The Sentient by Nadia Afifi – Amira Valdez is a brilliant scientist doing her best to move forward from a life started in a strict religious compound. She dreams of going to space, but that goal is jeopardized when she’s assigned to a human cloning project that many would kill to stop. Using her ability to read memories, Amira begins to unravel the conspiracy, which leads her toward a confrontration with her own past.
News and Views
Usman Malik has announced his first short story collection!
Jeannette Ng writes a very pointed thread about all the Three Body Problem adaptation hot takes going around.
New short story from Stephen Graham Jones: Wait for Night
The winners for the 2020 Dragon Awards have been announced
Tor.com has summarized all the new Dune news from Empire Magazine
Get a free opinion about science in science fiction
The exhibition A Conversation Larger Than the Universe: Science Fiction and the Literature of the Fantasitc from the collection of Henry Wessells has been mostly reproduced online
The cast of The Princess Bride is coming together for a one-night-only virtual table read to raise funds for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin
Innocent Chizaram Ilo’s contibution to Sarah Gailey’s Personal Canons series: Personal Canons: Lesley Nneka Arimah
How a former officer changed Russian science fiction
The Evolution of the Ballad of Mulan
On Book Riot
10 books like The Dresden Files
Reconstructing Frankenstein: reviving Shelley’s monster
This month, you can enter to win $50 to spend at your favorite indie bookstore and a free 1-year audible subscription.
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.