Categories
Swords and Spaceships

Restless Dead, the Realm of the Djinn, a Poets’ War, and More SFF New Releases!

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with a round of really cool new releases for you.. on the Ides of March. I cannot attest that there is no brutal betrayal and stabbing in these books… but there also might not be. You’ll just have to read to find out. 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: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process


New Releases

cover of When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo; dark blue with pink and green flowers forming the outlines of a man and a woman

When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

Yejide and Darwin meet at the gates of Fidelis, an ancient and sprawling cemetery on the island of Trinidad. Yujide has been left a legacy she doesn’t want by a neglectful and bitter mother: she is the one woman with the power to shepherd the city’s souls to the afterlife. Darwin was raised as a devout Rastafarian, forbidden from interacting with death at all… but the only job he’s been able to find is as a gravedigger. Together, they will contend with the restless dead of the city and their own wounds that need to be healed.

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

Nell Young hasn’t spoken to her father, legendary cartographer Dr. Daniel Young, since he fired her and ruined her reputation over a cheap highway map that sparked an argument between them. But when her father is found dead in his office with that same worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell has no choice but to investigate both his death and the map. And what she finds is this apparently common thing might be the last of its kind–because a mysterious person has been hunting them down and destroying them.

Cover of Kundo Wakes Up by Saad Z. Hossain

Kundo Wakes Up by Saad Z. Hossain

After the powerful AI named Karma goes silent, there is nothing to save the dying city of Chittagong from falling into the sea and taking all of its remaining residents with it. Kundo goes searching through Chittagong for his missing wife; along the way he will build a crew of unlikely companions and journey from cyberspace to the magical realm of the djinn.

What We Harvest by Ann Fraistat

Hollow’s End is a picturesque small town turned tourist attraction because of its “miracle” crops, including the iridescent wheat grown on Wren’s family farm. But Quicksilver blight has come, destroying those crops one by one, and then bleeding into the earth, infecting the livestock and wildlife… and then the humans. Wren is one of the last people standing, and it’s up to her and her ex to find the source of the blight and save their town.

Cover of The Carnival of Ash by Tom Beckerlegge

The Carnival of Ash by Tom Beckerlegge

Cadenza is a city run by poets, also called the City of Words. Its libraries are legendary and legion; its printing presses are its thrumming heartbeat. Carlo Mazzoni arrives with the intention of making a name for himself, but as he steps through the gates, the city’s bells are tolling for the death of the poet-leader. Instead of an exciting place to perfect his art, he finds a city at the verge of war–and a web of intrigue that might destroy Cadenza and take him with it.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

News and Views

Storytelling and the Craft of Quiltmaking

My Le Guin Year: Storytelling Lessons from a Master

I Put a Spell on You: Robert E. Howard’s Conjure and Voodoo Stories

Hitchcock’s sci-fi movie, “a forecast of days to come”

You can watch Black Feminist Futures Series: Planting the Future

Star Wars fans rally to raise funds to support transgender youth: “This is something we refuse to stand by silently for”

Hoard of the rings: “lost” scripts for BBC Tolkien drama discovered

SFWA has finally changed its name from Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America to Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (this is a change we’ve been waiting on for a long time!)

Privatising the moon may sound like a ridiculous idea, but the sky’s no limit for avarice

On Book Riot

20 Must-Read Genre-Bending Sci-Fi Books

8 Fantastic Middle Grade Books for Dungeons & Dragons Fans

Enter to win a copy of The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

This month you can enter to win an iPad Mini, a Banned Books merch bundle, a Kindle Oasis, $200 at The Ripped Bodice, and a 1-year subscription to Book of the Month.


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.