Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, coming at you with another Pride Month newsletter with new releases and some pre-orders to check out. What’s made me happy this week was my friend telling me that a nearby ice cream place has a “grilled peaches” flavor, and holy moly is it good. It’s also just about hot enough to be ice cream weather! Stay safe (and frosty) out there, space pirates, and 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.
Rainbow Dragon by BlueSideCustomDesign
This little dragon, already cute, is cast in resin that goes through the colors of the rainbow. There are some really neat pictures of how it catches the light! $23
New Releases
The City Inside by Samit Basu
Joey is a Reality Controller in near-future Delhi, where she manages the multimedia and multi-reality livestreams of an online celebrity who just so happens to be her ex from college. When she impulsively offers Rudra, a rich boy estranged from his family, a job, she gives him a chance to escape his family for good. But multiple conspiracies are waiting to pull them in, and their place in the middle of a surveillance capitalism complex makes figuring out how to do the right thing–or what the right thing is to begin with–very difficult.
Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane
In this queer reimagining of The Iliad, Achilles is a trans woman who flees her clan of Myrmidons to join with the priestesses of Aphrodite. When Odysseus comes to recruit her, still seeking a “prince”, it is Aphrodite who intervenes and transforms her body, promising her glory, fame, and victory–if she sets off in a war of vengeance.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Continuing on with Pride Month, I wanted to shine the spotlight on nonbinary authors next–and the best way to start is with some pre-orders. Both of these books sound AWESOME, and they’re coming at us a bit later this year.
The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang
Misery (she/they) is a nobody from a nowhere mining planet, but they can bend stone, a dangerous magic they’re not supposed to have. She finds herself taken to the center of the empire, where amidst rumors that they are the next Messiah, those in power seek to use them to win a war they do not want to fight. With the help of Lady Alodia Lightning, a rebellious member of the royal family, Misery decides to embrace the prophecy and become the Ninth Messiah, whether they believe it themself or not. (September 27)
August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White
The Vanguards are ultra-powerful robots from the dark heart of space, and they are coming to earth to destroy humanity… for reasons. Virtuoso jazz pianist Gus Kitko accepts the things he cannot change, and figures he’ll spend the last minutes of his life serenading the biggest finale of all time–until the mecha that comes to kill him saves him instead, and brings him to join a group of renegade Vanguards and their pilots who are fighting to save the world. (July 22)
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.