Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with some new releases and some MLM fantasy recommendations for your perusal. I am sorry to say this is the last newsletter for Pride Month, because the calendar is an unforgiving and harsh mistress. (Though it is Pride Month every day in my heart… except when it’s Wrath Month, which seems to be happening more and more often these days.) I know we’re having a… really rough ending to June, but what better time to remember that Pride started as a riot and we’ve always fought like hell. Stay angry, space pirates, I love you and I see you.
Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process.
Bookish Goods
Create Queer Futures Poster by BoyPilotGoods
This gorgeous poster comes in up to 24″ x 36″ size. But what I really want to tell you is to go check out this person’s entire shop, because it is a delight and I could not possibly tell you everything that’s wonderful in it. But there is a lot of funny, cute queer stuff… and a lot of possums. $34
New Releases
Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert
Ivy is a normal suburban girl until her summer break starts off with a stranger appearing suddenly in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night — and things get weirder from there. From then on, Ivy must struggle with some strange happenings and corroded memories, all of which point to her mother being more than she’s ever admitted to. And she’s right to wonder; when Dana was sixteen, she stepped into the supernatural with two of her friends, and what was intended to be a summer fling turned far, far darker.
Godslayers (Gearbreakers #2) by Zoe Hana Mikuta
While the Gearbreakers might have won against the empire on Heavensday, the cost to them was incalculable and they survive only by hiding in the mountains. The victory also almost killed Eris, who has been held prisoner since–and things only become worse when she discovers the girl she loves, Sona, has been corrupted and cybernetically brainwashed by Zenith, the last surviving leader of Godolia. To win this war, Eris must find a way to bring Sona back to herself across the battle line.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
For our last newsletter of Pride Month, how about a couple of books with MLM characters in the fantasy genre? (You may note that this list is, unusually, all male authors; I wanted these all to be own voices, so that’s how it worked out for obvious reasons!)
Birth of a Dark Nation by Rashid Darden
Justin Kena was an average guy working a dead-end job for a mediocre Washington, DC nonprofit. Feeling he has nothing to lose, he accepts a proposition from Dante, the neighborhood corner boy, and gets more than he ever bargained for. Dante is his gateway to a world of daywalking vampires and demons, a world that soon consumes Justin’s life.
White Trash Warlock by David R. Slayton
Adam Binder was once committed to a psych ward by his brother because he has the Sight, which lets him see the other world that’s populated by magical beings and spirits. Finally free, he’s determined to take control of his life, find love, and use his self-taught magic to do some good in the world. While tracking down his missing, abusive father, he follows a trail of cursed artifacts to Denver, only to discover a hostile spirit has taken possession of his brother’s wife.
The Root by Na’amen Gobert Tilahun
Erik already has enough problems in his life; his ex-boyfriend is in jail because of this scandal that destroyed his own career as a teen star. But then he finds out that he’s descended from the Gods; he’s one of the Blooded, and that means he has a power that he doesn’t understand — and doesn’t know how to control. Worse, there’s a government agency kidnapping the Blooded and selling them off to be lab rats in an alternate-dimension San Francisco.
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.