Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’ve got a double dose of new releases for you today. One set is first book/standalone, and the other two are sequels pretty far along in their respective series. Not sci-fi-related, but this weekend I saw the movie Killers of the Flower Moon, and it was…really good. It takes a lot for a movie to earn that kind of running time with me, and this one did it. I’d read the book before, but the film brings the focus much more on the Osage people, particularly Mollie Kyle (even if it still doesn’t manage to center the Osage experience because it arguably couldn’t ). And I’m reading a book about a very different movie: The Spice Must Flow. Lots of culture going on here this week! Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Friday!
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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
Climate Stripes Sticker by PinSaveTheClimate
Cory Doctorow’s new book (see below) has me thinking about climate change even more than normal, so I went looking for a bookmark. This is actually a sticker, but it promises to be a great conversation starter. $4
(If you’re not sure what the climate stripes are, the University of Reading has you covered.)
New Releases
What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez
Inez Olivera is a wealthy young woman in nineteenth-century Buenos Aires who has everything she wants…except for her parents, whose travels mean she’s always left behind. But when they tragically die, she’s sent (with her newly inherited fortune) to her new guardian, an archaeologist who is working with his own Egyptian brother-in-law. Inez arrives in Cairo with her sketch pads and an old golden ring her father left in her care — one whose magic will lead her to the truth of her parents’ deaths.
The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow
In one generation, climate change, at last, goes from a fact contested by corporate interests to an inescapable reality that is at last getting the funding it needs — if perhaps too late. But while the younger people grapple with rebuilding society into something new that can endure, what of the angry old people, who are still being told by their alternate news source that the climate change happening around them is just a conspiracy and a scam?
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Here are a couple of new releases that are far along in their series, but they deserve attention!
System Collapse by Martha Wells
Murderbot returns, anxiously asking itself, “Am I making this worse?” Barish-Estranza Corp is sending a rescue ship with more SecUnits to help out the newly colonized planet, but Murderbot knows better than to trust any of this. It has other problems, though; there’s something wrong with its operating system, and ART and the human crew have their hands full enough trying to protect the colonists.
Before We Say Goodbye by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Everyone knows that Café Funiculi Funicula is actually quite magical: one of its off-menu items is an offer of time travel that could just help someone reunite with a lost love or find forgiveness with their estranged family. But time travel has risks. There are rules to follow, and there’s a new crop of customers looking to order.
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.