Sponsored by FSG / MCD
Vern—seven months pregnant and desperate to escape the religious compound where she was raised—flees for the shelter of the woods to raise her twins far from outside influence. But even in the woods, Vern is still forced to fight back against the community that refuses to let her go, as her body wracked by inexplicable changes. To understand her metamorphosis and to protect her small family, Vern has to face the past, and more troublingly, the future. Finding the truth will mean uncovering the secrets of the compound she fled but also the violent history in America that produced it.
Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with some ebook deals, some links, and a bit about Palestinian SFF for your free associating pleasure. In personal news, I still haven’t put my plants outside because despite my big talk about Mother’s Day in Colorado being the time for plants, it immediately snowed the day after. It’s great when your state overhears you talking and decides to make you look like a fool. Keep your fingers crossed for my potted grapefruit trees this weekend. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Tuesday.
Thing that made me laugh: How D&D classes use a bow
Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ and anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co
News and Views
If you missed Guy Gavriel Kay’s Tolkien lecture, you can watch the whole thing on YouTube
The Dark Crystal is gonna be a ballet
Samuel R. Delaney is getting a turn to pick the movies for MoMA’s Carte Blanche
Trailer for Woman in Motion, the documentary about Nichelle Nichols
Well, reading this, first I learned that they’re doing an animation of The amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, and then I learned David Tennant is going to be a voice in it.
The real-world locations of 14 sci-fi dystopias
NEW TRAILER FOR THE GREEN KNIGHT
Scientists find that cats love to sit inside squares – even fake ones
SFF Ebook Deals
A Practical Guide to Sorcery: A Conjuring of Ravens by Azalea Ellis for $0.99
The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood for $2.99
The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson for $1.99
On Book Riot
Netflix’s Shadow and Bone made me fall in love with the Six of Crows crew again
Why you should start a Dungeons & Dragons clubs in your library
Queernorm worlds: 37 fantasy books with no homophobia or transphobia
3 upcoming and new YA dystopian and apocalyptic novels
Quiz: What type of Grisha are you?
25 best comic and graphic novel fairytale retellings
This week’s SFF Yeah! is about dream adaptations
This month you can win an iPad mini, a one year subscription to Owlcrate, and a year of reading.
Free Association Friday: Palestinian SFF
As I often do when terrible things are happening in the world and I’ve made all the phone calls I can and I still feel helpless, I turn to SFF as one way we can all at least connect together. So let’s talk about SFF by Palestinian authors. There isn’t a lot in (or translated to) English, but it’s still very worth reading.
The speculative fiction magazine Strange Horizons published a Palestinian Special issue on March 29, 2021. There are short stories and poetry to check out there.
Palestine+100: Stories from the Century After the Nakba edited by Basma Ghalayini
An anthology of short SFF fiction by 12 Palestinian authors, who have been asked to imagine what 2048 will look like. Stories were translated to English by Raph Cormack, Mohamed Ghalaieny, Andrew Leber, Thoraya El-Rayyes, Yasmine Seale and Jonathan Wright. (IIRC this anthology was inspired by Iraq+100, which is also excellent.)
Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands by Sonia Nimir, translated by Marcia Lynx Qualey
Half historical novel, half fable, this is the story of a young Palestinian woman who travels the world (sometimes while disguising herself as a boy) solving mysteries and having adventures. She may never find a home for herself, but she builds a family.
Reworlding Ramallah edited by Callum Copley
This anthology of short fiction came out of a series of science fiction workshops run by Callum Copley. (This book does ship internationally.)
The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem translated by Sinan Antoon
This deeply unsettling novel imagines a world in which all of the Palestinians disappear all at once, leaving their Israeli neighbors confused and frightened. A traumatized Jewish journalist investigates and finds the journal of his vanished neighbor, Alaa, in which he converses with his dead grandmother.
While obviously not a book, Palestinian direction Larissa Sansour has filmed a trilogy of science fiction films. You can learn more about them at Mec Film along with In Vitro. There are VOD links, though sadly the films are only available in a small number of countries in Europe.
See you, space pirates. 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.