Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, coming at you with some new releases, recommendations, and a bookish good for your perusal. I am still struggling with extended vacation brain after my holiday weekend foray, so I can’t begin to say how much I’m looking forward to the weekend. (My feet are still feeling all that vacation walking!) Have a wonderful weekend and stay safe out there, space pirates. I’ll see you on Tuesday!
Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process.
Lightsaber Pride Cross Stitch Pattern by PixelPerfectPatterns
May the Force be with us this Pride Month! It’s been years since I’ve cross stitched, but this pattern is so cute and clean–lightsabers in every color of the rainbow. $5
New Releases
The Fae Keeper by H.E. Edgmon
Asalin is still in turmoil, two weeks after the gates to Faery have once more been closed. Wyatt and Emyr are hunting down the betrayers that caused such strife while trying to reshape the politics of every kingdom. And then when it’s discovered what the true place of witches in fae society is, they realize the problems, already vast, are so much deeper than they initially thought.
Together We Burn by Isabel Ibañez
Zarela is the daughter of the most famous Dragonador in all of Hispalia; adoring fans line up to watch him fight and slay dragons. But during one show, everything goes terribly wrong–and a girl who was once dreaming to be a flamenco dancers whose bright star could match her father’s must instead follow in his footsteps–and hunt dragons to protect his legacy.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Happy pride month! So you know what that means? All month, there will be recommendations of books written by queer authors. And getting off to a good start… how about a couple books by trans writers? (And there’s another, above, in the new releases!)
Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy From Transgender Writers edited by Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett
This anthology won a bunch of awards back in 2018, and this is the place to go if you want some short fiction. You get 25 stories by trans authors that expand the full range of our favorite genres.
A Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy
A journalist is sent to the front where the Imperial Army is continuing its aggressive colonial expansion, seeking to consume coal and iron. He soon finds his cynical patriotism called into question as he travels the villages of an invaded land and goes to the refugee city of Hronople, a Utopia besieged by the empire he’s part of.
Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
Foster child Bitter has been chosen to attend a special arts school called Eucalyptus in the city of Lucille. She wants to just focus on her painting, but the deep injustices that rend her city soon draw her friends toward revolution… and face her with the choice between pure creative pursuit and the desire for justice that may come at a high cost.
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.