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Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with a selection of new releases for you this lovely October day. The leaves on the tree outside my office window have just started changing color, going from green to bright yellow, and there’s a nice chill in the air every night. This is, as I’m sure you’re tired of me telling you, my favorite time of the year. It’s also apple cider time in Colorado, so pour yourself a hot and spicy cup if you can, and settle in with a good book. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Friday!
Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ and anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co
New Releases
Jade Fire Gold June C. L. Tan
Ahn is a girl with no family and no past, a throw-away. Altan is a boy whose inheritance and future were stolen from him as a child. Each sees the other as a potential tool for regaining what they have lost— or never had in the first place. But the price of a throne and a past is steeper than either could imagine.
Dragonblood Ring by Amparo Oritz
Sequel to Blazewrath Games. After cancelling the Blazewrath World Cup forever, Lana Torres’s team has nothing to do but return to Puerto Rico and try to recover and find a new purpose. But they’re not going to get the breathing space they need; they find out someone is kidnapping dragons, and is coming for theirs next. If they want to save their dragons, the team from Puerto Rico needs to take down an evil underground dragon fighting ring… a hard enough task already, but this fighting ring is also run by magicians.
Trailer Park Trickster by David R. Slayton
Sequel to White Trash Warlock. Adam Binder returns to his small hometown in Oklahoma for the funeral of a beloved aunt, where he finds an evil druid is hunting down members of his family. This all seems connected to the long-ago death of Adam’s father— who may not be dead after all. With the police on his trail and the man he loves in danger, Adam must investigate his family’s secrets and come face to face with the enemy he’s vowed to stop.
Star Wars Visions: Ronin by Emma Mieko Candon
Before the Empire, the Jedi were in the service of feuding lords and their clans. One sect of Jedi, tired of the infighting, rebelled in an effort to control their own destiny; they became known as the Sith. Now, a lone Sith wanders the Outer Rim and belongs to no sect, serving no lord. No one knows his past or where his future will take him, but a bandit also claiming to be Sith crosses paths with him and demands a duel; his former life has finally caught up with him.
Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett
Humanity has been resettled on the planet of Eleusis after Earth was destroyed by alien conquerers. The planet has only four habitable areas, which become stratified, the residents of each clashing as they interact with each other and their alien captors. A confrontation is coming where the fate of all on Eleusis will be decided.
Glimmer by Marjorie B. Kellogg
Less than 100 years in the future, Earth is ice free and there is still no fix for the ongoing climate crisis that has altered the surface of the planet and the fabric of human society. As conditions continue to worsen, it’s up to a population of poor people, artists, and misfits, those who were left behind in the mass exodus inland, to find a new sustainable society.
News and Views
Strange Horizons has starts its 2022 funding drive
Amanda Lien: On chronic illness rep in spec fic, from my own experience
From BBC 4: Reason, numbers, and Mr Spock
Interview withe the team that is James S. A. Corey
Interview with Cadwell Turnbull
Interview with Tobias S. Buckell
I’m excited for the next season of Lost in Space!
Sympathy for the Devil: Reading Beyond Likability
On Book Riot
Why you should pick up sci-fi and fantasy books with weird covers
This week’s SFF Yeah! is about recent faves and news!
There’s some great SFF on this list of 20 must-read adult books by trans & genderqueer authors from 2021
Enter to win a copy of The Starless Crown by James Rollins.
Enter to win a copy of Tides of Mutiny by Rebecca Rhodes.
You have until tonight to enter to win a copy of Luminous by Mara Rutherford.
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.
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.