Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’m coming at you with some new releases and some more Julius Vogel Award finalists that you might want to check out. Get some New Zealand authors in your life! Over here in Colorado, it’s finally time to start putting plants outside and filling up flower beds since we’re now (hopefully) out of the frost danger zone. Hope you’ve got some greenery in your life. 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
Octavia E. Butler, in her own words
Oh, this is really cool! It’s a picture of Octavia E. Butler, made by color highlighting words from her novel Wild Seed. I love the work that the artist put in on this! $10 – $129
New Releases
Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings
The freighter Jonah is on the run from the last terrible days of a generations-long war with an alien race when it encounters the Gallion, a ship that claims to be from 152 years in the future. And the Gallion recognizes the Jonah as the ship of the Fortunate Five–the people who ended the war that’s now in their past. But nothing about the crew matches, and if history is to repeat, the crew of the Gallion needs to figure out what’s going on.
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
Riot Recommendations
Today, we’re rounding out the Youth Novel nominees for this year’s Sir Julius Vogel Award–and starting on the Novella/Novelette category with the first of Octavia Cade’s two nominations. I will note that the list isn’t as diverse as Book Riot’s lists usually are.
Spark Hunter by Sonya Wilson
There is something hiding in the forest of Fiordland National Park–Nissa Marhsall knows this for a fact. She’s seen the lights in the night. So when her school does a camping trip out into the forest, she abandons her group and loses herself in the forest as she searches for the truth. Alone and with the adults nowhere to be found, Nissa must survive in a dangerous wonderland and find her way home.
A Lair of Bones by Helen Scheuerer
The cyrens have ruled Saddoriel for centuries, powering the fortress and its labyrinth of tunnels with magic and music. Roh is the daughter of an infamous criminal who is allowed only the life of a bone cleaner. But when the Queen’s Tournament comes around, she sees an opportunity to snatch the crown of Saddoriel.
Scales, Tails, and Hagfish by Octavia Cade in the anthology Middle Distance edited by Craig Gamble
In an anthology specifically for novelettes (stories about 10,000 words in length), Octavia Cade offers a story that she says is about “an unpleasant little girl who wants to be a mermaid.”
Against the Grain by Melanie Harding-Shaw
Trinity is a witch with coeliac, and she’s starting over in the suburbs of New Zealand after a fling goes horribly wrong. While initially suburbia seems nonthreatening and downright relaxing, she soon realizes that something is trapping her familiar there… and that points to darker powers. Not just anyone can hold an ancient demon captive, after all.
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.