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Swords and Spaceships

Monstrous Alien Stories To Invade Your Shelves

Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with some space horror for you to check out for the weekend, some book deals, and some links. Last weekend, I went to my first convention in a while–Mile Hi Con. It was a weird experience to like… see people. And talk to them not through a computer. I had fun with it, though! Until my mask loops made my ears sore, at least. Hope everyone had an equally fun weekend–and you’ve got more fun to look forward to. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Tuesday!

Thing to smile about today: Hail to the [Fat Bear] King, baby

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

Young people read old SFF: Slow Sculpture by Theodore Sturgeon

Game of Thrones prequel: why we’ll all be hooked to House of the Dragon

There Are No Cruel Narnians: What The Horse and His Boy Can Tell Us About Racism, Cultural Superiority, Beauty Standards, and Inclusiveness

Revisiting Isaac Asimov’s Jewishness as Foundation Comes to Life Onscreen

Honestly unsure how I feel about this: Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed to Become TV Series

Islam, Science Fiction & Extraterrestrial Life: A Culture of Astrobiology in the Muslim World by Jörg Matthias Determann

Expanding Our Empathy Sphere Using F&SF, a History

SFF eBook Deals

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark for $2.99

Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik for $1.99

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White for $2.99

On Book Riot

Create a fantasy world and get your next new YA fantasy recommendation

How Earwig and the Witch helped me understand the benefits of horror for kids

Win a copy of Luminous by Mara Rutherford

Win a copy of Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

This month you can enter to win a Kindle Oasis, a waterproof Kindle Paperwhite, a year of free books, a stack of fall new releases, an audiobook bundle, and $100 to spend on books plus a romance tote bag.

This month only, you can get Book Riot merch to celebrate our 10th birthday!

Free Association Friday: Spooky Aliens

Spooky month, Friday number two! This time around, we’re going to focus on books that has scary aliens. Because while I normally prefer my aliens friendly, sometimes we just need monsters out in the great big nothingness of space. (Or sometimes, the aliens reveal we are the monsters…)

Cover of Parasite by Darcy Coates

Parasite by Darcy Coates

We can’t have alien horror without some very classic parasitic alien action. It’s a familiar story, where safety protocols get ignored at a remote outpost and next thing you know, there are aliens walking around wearing human skins and spreading themselves around. It’s up to a few plucky survivors to stop the advance and save all of humanity… if they can.

The Last Astronaut by David Wellington

An astronaut who retired in shame after her mission to Mars ended disastrously has a shot at redemption. There’s an alien object in the solar system that’s heading right for Earth, and she’s humanity’s best hope to figure out what it is–and then how the hell it might be stopped, because it’s very much not friendly.

cover of escaping exodus by nicky drayden

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden

It may not seem horror at first, but don’t worry, there’s some body horror in store for you, and alien eggs and other weird stuff. This takes place on a spaceship that’s carved into the body of an alien space whale that they are slowly consuming from the inside, which is a horror all its own. And the clan is planning on moving on soon, once they’ve completely taken over this creature.

Alien: Echo by Mira Grant

Olivia and Viola are twin daughters of xenobiologists, and they’re tired of being dragged around the galaxy while their parents do research. But in this newest temporary home of theirs, they find an alien artifact…one that contains eggs, and then things only go downhill from there. But among the chest bursters, there’s a terribly family secret about to burst into the open, too…

Cover of Frozen Hell by John W. Campbell

Frozen Hell by John W. Campbell, Jr.

It’s well known that John W. Campbell’s novella Who Goes There? inspired the extremely classic (and still good after all these years) movie The Thing. Well, here’s the original, previously unpublished version of that novella that has an extra 45 pages of backstory.

The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull

Aliens have come to earth and, by general international agreement, they’ve been given the run of the US Virgin Islands while they’re doing a mysterious “research” project. While at times they seem benevolent, they react to any threat, real or perceived, with terrifying and disproportionate force. This leaves the largely Black population of Water Island dealing with capricious aliens while the rest of the world enjoys the benefits of their relatively gentle invasion. When a young boy dies at the hands of the aliens, a greater conflict becomes inevitable.


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.