Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s time to kick off the first full week of July, are you ready? This is Alex, and I’m here to tell you that there is a bananapants amount of new releases this week — I guess the publishers were keeping their powder dry over the holiday. So coming at you this week will be a double-double dose of new releases because there are so many books I do not want you to miss. I hope you are staying cool in the heat that’s baking most of the world. Be careful, drink water, and stay safe space pirates! I will see you on Friday.
What do S.A. Cosby, Khaled Hosseini, Sarah Bakewell, and Yahdon Israel have in common? They’ve been guests on Book Riot’s newest podcast, First Edition where BookRiot.com co-founder Jeff O’Neal explores the wide bookish world. Subscribe to hear them and stay to hear Book Riot’s editors pick the “it” book of the month.
Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: Entertainment Community Fund, which supports entertainment workers impacted by the strikes.
Bookish Goods
Space Elevator Poster by chopshopstore
This is a cool-looking poster (available in two sizes) that represents the space elevator that gets written about so often in science fiction. And it immediately caught my eye as relevant to one of the new releases this week…$29
New Releases
Counterweight by Djuna, translated by Anton Hur
The Korean conglomerate LK is building a space elevator on the island of Patusan, turning a once-resort into a travel hub that has the native residents more than upset. But the junk acting as the counterweight to the elevator is an even bigger deal: hidden inside it is a memory fragment of LK’s former CEO, which holds information that could affect the future of the entire world. A wide array of people, from the grand to the humble to the deeply strange, race to find that fragment first and take control of humanity’s future.
The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
The surrender of the last emperor in the wake of a failed war of conquest might be a big deal to politicians and nobility, but to a minor scribe like Enitan, it’s barely a blip. All she would like is to get out of being a scribe and run her tea business full-time. But then her lover is assassinated and her sibling is kidnapped by soldiers of the Empire, making all of the politics very much her problem. Armed with a tea tray, she will soon learn of herself what she will do for vengeance, for rescuing her sibling — and for freeing her homeland.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
As mentioned in my intro, the number of new releases this week is an absolute deluge, so here are two more must-sees.
The Judas Blossom by Stephen Aryan
In Persia, the year 1260, the Mongol Empire covers much of the world, but Hulagu Khan, would see its borders expand further — using violence. When this fails, he gives his youngest son, Temujin, a chance to prove himself. But more powerful forces than simple blood and death are stirring. One of Hulagu’s wives seeks her own path to power; a Persian rebel has an opportunity to destroy the empire from within if only he can set his personal feelings aside. And an empire will rise or fall through all of their actions.
A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow
Zaira is the reincarnation of the god Indigo, whose song created the universe and banished the god of destruction, Ozvios. So of course, an emperor would like to sacrifice her to honor Ozvios; her only chance of survival is to escape and find a boy named Wesley, who per prophecy is supposed to help her truly defeat Ozvios and the empire. No one asked Wesley if he wanted that fate; he’s a pilot and would-be smuggler who wants to finish his biggest payday yet, smuggling a celebrity wanted by the empire to a backwater planet called Earth. But when fate comes knocking, he’s not going to be able to smuggle any of them out of this…
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.