Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’ve got two more new releases for you and a couple of recommendations for books written by veterans on this Veterans Day. I have spent an unseemly amount of time raking leaves, and boy, are my arms tired. All I can say is thank goodness for audiobooks. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and crunch some leaves! I’ll see you on Tuesday.
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Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here are two places to start: Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, which provides medical and humanitarian relief to children in the Middle East regardless of nationality, religion, or political affiliation; and Entertainment Community Fund, which supports entertainment workers who are striking for living wages and a future where humans can continue to create art for each other.
Bookish Goods
Dragon Bookmark and Bookshelf Display by bubbithings
This absolutely gorgeous bookmark is made from PLA and inspired by Rebecca Yarros’s book Fourth Wing. I’m honestly a little in awe of how pretty it is. You can also get a bookmark stand to go with it so you can just display it on its own. Available in several color variations. $15
New Releases
Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park
This is an alternate history that supposes what might happen if the Korean Provisional Government that formed in 1919 to protest the Japanese occupation of their country persisted well after World War II instead of dissolving on the eve of the civil war that split Korea into north and south.
The Future by Naomi Alderman
Martha Einkorn fled her father’s cult in Oregon and eventually became an employee of a powerful social media mogul…which she’s begun to realize may be a cult of its own, or perhaps the true subject of her father’s apocalyptic fox and rabbit sermon. Her path crosses a Singaporean survivalist named Lai Zhen, who’s on the run from an assassin after a mysterious piece of software popped up on her phone and gave her an escape route.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
This year, for veteran’s day, I’ve got two book recommendations for you from authors who are military veterans! I will point you to JR Handley’s blog as well, where he has an interview series with SFF authors who are veterans. Handley is a SFF author himself who mostly writes quite intense military sci-fi, and he’s also written a book titled Vacuums Suck Hard!
The Nymphos of Rocky Flats by Mario Acevedo
The logline of the book kind of says it all: “Felix Gomez went to Iraq a soldier. He came back a vampire.”
Though his vampiric return isn’t the end of the story, only the beginning. Now, he’s an investigator trying to discover the truth behind an outbreak of nymphomania at a secret government research facility in Rocky Flats.
Star Nomad by Lindsay Buroker
Everyone in the Alliance is celebrating their victory over a tyrannical empire…except for Captain Alisa Marchenko, who got shot down in the final battle and is now stranded on a backwater dustball of a planet with no money, no resources, and no way to get home to her young daughter. She has a plan that’s only slightly suicidal: steal a malfunctioning freighter from a junkyard patrolled by lawless pirates. Except, even worse, she finds someone else has had the same idea as her, and he’s an elite cyborg soldier from the empire.
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.