Author: Jenn Northington

Happy Friday, Yetis and Yridians! Today I’ve got more best-ofs, fandom ugly sweaters, Harry Potter doodles, warrior women, a review of Firefly #1 by Greg Pak and Dan McCaid, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Running Press, publisher of Fantastic Beasts: The Magizoologist’s Discovery Case.

This deluxe enchanted replica of Newt Scamander’s case, field notebook, and wand pen is loaded with interactive special features to make any fan of Wizarding World feel like a master Magizoologist.

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It is still too early for this, but Kirkus’s Best of 2018 list is up and the Fiction list includes a ton of speculative/genre titles, including personal faves How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by NK Jemisin, Severance by Ling Ma (reviewed here), and State Tectonics by Malka Older (which is high on my TBR).

Today’s review is for a comic, so it feels suitable that I have some other comic links for you! Here’s a pull list for characters outside the gender binary (must read Eth’s Skin ASAP!), and here’s a look at the FTL, Y’ALL anthology (which pubs 12/25) and whose premise I adore.

Also comics-related, G. Willow Wilson is going to be writing for Wonder Woman (!!!!) and we’ve got an interview.

And speaking of interviews, I keep forgetting to link to this one with Tamora Pierce about writing fantasy; it’s really, really good.

This list of SFF books inspired by neglected histories is GREAT, super highly recommend.

Barnes & Noble did a post on the 50 best SF/F debuts, and the list is way better than I was expecting.

Inktober is over but these wonderful Harry Potter doodles are still here for you.

Get prepared for the inevitable ugly sweater party right now, because there are both Game of Throne and Star Trek options!!!!

Strap in, y’all, because it’s time to talk about Firefly!

Firefly #1, written by Greg Pak, art by Dan McCaid

You may have noticed I’m a fan of Pak’s work — I started reading his work with The Totally Awesome Hulk — and so when I heard that he was writing the new Firefly comic, there was no way I wasn’t going to pick it up. (Team Zoe!) For those of you who don’t have a local comics shop and/or aren’t generally reading in issues, you can always wait for the collection.

The gang’s back together again for business as usual: parts are falling off Serenity, they’re short on cash, and they’ve taken a job that might not be on the up and up. Issue 1 includes two timelines: a “present” (set before the events of the movie Serenity) in which the crew is being pursued by a mysterious attacker, and Mal and Zoe’s past during the Unification War. Several flashbacks make it clear that Mal suffers from PTSD, and that their pursuers very likely have something to do with the war. In the meantime, the crew is guarding a caravan of pilgrims from bandits, and there is more to these pilgrims than meets the eye.

Pak nails the group dynamics: the casual banter, the push and pull between Inara and Mal, the uncanniness of River, the team’s fierce loyalty to each other (well, except for Jayne). There are several laugh-out-loud moments (Jayne’s bar fight was a personal favorite), which balances out the gravitas of the darker material. There’s plenty of foreboding to go around, and while I look forward to the exploration of the Unification War and the repercussions for Mal and Zoe, I’m glad to see that lightness intact.

McCaid gives his own spin on the characters, inspired by the original actors, and his color choices play beautifully off each other. Mal’s war memories are vividly red against the blue tones of the contemporary storyline, and the space sequences have some lovely depth and layers.

It’s too early to know if Pak will bring some much-needed character diversity to this series (a universe this Asian-influenced should have Asian characters!), but I’ve got my fingers crossed. And in the meantime, if you’re a die-hard browncoat you’ll want to read this run. If you’re new to the Firefly-verse, this is not the place to start; go watch the TV series, and then come back. It’s only 14 episodes, we’ll wait.

Bonus: You can hear Greg Pak talk about the stories he likes to tell on this episode of our Recommended podcast.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Keep flying,
Jenn

Happy Tuesday, boggarts and Betelgeusians! Today there is some very exciting and some very sad book news, the usual spate of adaptations, a terrible store about an author assistant, and a review of Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Mariner Books.

This “charming, confident follow-up to Creatures of Will and Temper” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) picks up in 1927 Long Island, where Ellie West fishes by day and sells moonshine by night to the citizens of her home town. But after Ellie’s father joins a mysterious church whose parishioners possess supernatural powers and a violent hatred for immigrants, Ellie finds she doesn’t know her beloved island, or her father, as well as she thought.

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In book and author news:

Marvel legend Stan Lee has passed away at 95.

Erin Morgenstern’s second book is coming next year! If, like many here at BR, The Night Circus was your jam, you’ll want to start counting down for The Starless Sea (November 2019).

This is just heartwarming — a bunch of the Fantastic Beasts cast surprised students at a school in Alabama during their Wizarding World Day.

J.K. Rowling had a terrible, lying, thieving assistant who spent company money on … cats???

The adaptation corner overflows, as ever:

Speaking of Fantastic Beasts, the movie sequel is receiving VERY MIXED reviews, and Syfy Wire has rounded them up.

John Boyega and Letitia Wright might be cast in an adaptation of Hold Back the Stars and while I haven’t read the book, I am here for this team-up.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth is the latest alt-history about fascism to get an adaptation, joining The Handmaid’s Tale and The Man in the High Castle as shows that are just too real at the moment. David Simon of The Wire is in charge, which I guess bodes well? *Goes back to rewatching The Great British Bake-Off for the umpteen-millionth time.*

A shoe adaptation! Seriously! Adidas is making sneakers supposedly inspired by various Houses from A Game of Thrones (but y’all, these just look like regular shoes to me).

And there’s some hopeful news for representation coming out of the Watchmen TV series writers’ room.

New releases to be acquired:

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri (which is high on my TBR)

In/Half by Jasmin Frelih, translated by Jason Blake (which looks fascinating)

Giveaways relevant to your interests:

You can enter this giveaway for Archenemies by Marissa Myeyer until tonight (Nov. 13).

We’ve also got a giveaway going for the recently released Girls of Paper and Fire, through Nov. 15!

And now, for the book that kept me happily occupied this weekend.

Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria

Can a group of teenagers bring down a corrupt government? Is fate real, or do our choices matter? What is the difference between revenge and rebellion? What does it mean to be a hero? And what does it mean to fight for the right side, when no single side is in the right? Destiny Soria tackles all of these questions in her new standalone fantasy, and the exploration yields quite a page-turner.

Told in the alternating POVs of Cassa (spunky leader), Evander (sly, jocular thief), Newt (quiet acrobat), Alys (anxious and pragmatic healer), and Vesper (conflicted undercover agent), the story jets along as the first four smuggle themselves into the citadel, hoping to uncover the truth behind a string of mysterious disappearances and deaths. The plot itself is a solid one: a ruling council desperate to hold onto power, wielding prophecies and force to keep themselves there, and a rebellion that has been crushed but for the spark these teens keep alive. There’s a monster deep in a cave, secrets and betrayals, crosses and double-crosses, and the tension ratchets up beautifully as the book goes on.

Soria deftly ends each chapter at the worst-best possible moment, which combined with the action itself kept me turning the pages. The playful (and sometimes infuriating) tossing of the plot from character to character is well-handled and gives each character a chance to shine, and Soria lovingly crafts each and every one. Their adventures both showcase and build their depth, with each subsequent chapter showing us more and more of their backstory and layers. None of this crew are what they seem at first glance, and I loved watching them discover not only truths about the citadel, but about themselves and each other.

If you love magical-and-medieval fantasy from authors like Tamora Pierce, are looking for LGBTQIA characters to root for, prefer a single-book story, and can handle some tragedy along with your triumph, then add this one to your TBR post-haste.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

We’ve made it to Friday, friends and frenemies! Good job all around. Today I have some podcasty goodness, space opera, Game of Thrones read-alikes, vampires, a review of Moon of the Crusted Snow, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Fierce Reads and Archenemies by Marissa Meyer.

They are the world’s best hope . . . but each other’s worst nightmare. In this second installment of the bestselling Renegades trilogy, Nova, Adrian, and the rest of their crew are faced with escalating crime in Gatlon City, while covert weapons and conflicting missions have Nova and Adrian questioning not only their beliefs about justice, but also the feelings they have for each other. The line between good and evil has been blurred, but what’s clear to them both is that too much power could mean the end of their city—and the world—as they know it.

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Follow-up from last week’s spotlight on SF/F artists! Reader Angela wrote in: “I’d suggest Richard Anderson‘s cover art! He did Kings of the Wyld, Emperor’s Blade, Dinosaur Lords, etc.”

Staff favorite Becky Chambers was on the Recommended podcast last week talking about her love for Ursula K. Le Guin, and you should definitely give it a listen.

Also in podcasting, Sharifah and I talked about our favorite opening and closing lines on SFF Yeah!, along with some Dracula and Discworld news.

Moar space opera! Here are 25 of Silvana’s favorites, including many of mine.

While we continue to wait forever for the newest installment in A Song of Ice and Fire, here are some read-alikes to tide you over. Note: this does not include my personal favorite read-alike, The Acacia series by David Anthony Durham, but I will not hold it against Grace.

Guess who’s back? Back again! Vampires are back, tell a friend. (Sorry not sorry.)

Which sci-fi hero are you? Our quiz will tell you! I got Binti and I am 100% fine with that.

Speaking of Binti! Here’s a solid list of #ownvoices SF/F, with a caveat that there is some debate around Rebecca Roanhorse and Trail of Lightning.

Related to today’s review, here are some reading lists from the apocalypse.

And now for the actual review! We’ve got a genre-bender of a book with a very different spin on the end of the world.

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

On a far-northern Anishinaabe reserve, winter is coming — and the satellite TV has gone out. Then cell service, then the power. At first, the community is unconcerned; this far north, things happen. But when there’s no word from the outside world and everything stays off, panic starts to set in. And when news finally does arrive? It’s not good. Following the young couple Evan and Nicole, Moon of the Crusted Snow imagines what a First Nations community might do if the world was ending.

Survivalist takes on the collapse of the modern world aren’t uncommon (see also Alyssa Cole’s Off the Grid series, or Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins) but I haven’t read that many, and this is certainly the first I’ve read by an Indigenous author. Rice’s vision includes the tension, hoarding, and community panic you might expect, but also the folklore and skills of a community that has seen the end of their world more than once, and lived to tell their tales. While he doesn’t delve into the exact causes of the collapse, it makes perfect sense: the reserve wouldn’t be able to find out easily, and how much does it actually matter? What matters is what you choose to do when the lights go out — and what those around you choose.

In addition to being a new spin on the tech-pocalypse, it’s also an eerie, slightly fabulist novel. It’s a slow burn; Rice takes care to build the small town, its residents, and the general atmosphere before slowly cranking up the tension and the pace. It worked beautifully on me. The crunch of snow underfoot, the crack of a gunshot, the flash of teeth; these are the images that haunt me after devouring this book. And devour it I did: I read the entire book over the course of two long train rides on Monday. If you want a thoughtful, uncanny, snow-bound read that will have you battening your hatches for winter and rethinking what apocalypse means, pick this one up ASAP.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Happy Tuesday, krakens and Klingon! Today we’ve got some award-winners, adaptations all over the place, a big slate of new releases, and Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Lost Arrow, Book I of The Kalelah Series by Marshall Ross.

Millennia ago, the starship Kalelah buried itself seven miles beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean. We have no idea of its existence. It has no idea of ours. And once that changes, everything does. For the worse. Suddenly, two human civilizations – one alien and one Earth-bound – are forced to come to grips with a future neither had ever imagined. And a war nobody wants. It’s a colonization story turned on its head and crafted with all the intrigue and layers of a nail-biting thriller. Readers say, “Like Dan Brown wrote a Crichton story.”

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In book news:

Congratulations to the World Fantasy Award winners, in a tie for best novel!: Jade City by Fonda Lee and The Changeling by Victor LaValle (personal favorites). Big hearty Book Riot congrats also go to former contributors Justina Ireland and Troy Wiggins, whose lit mag FIYAH won for Special Award, Non-Professional.

io9 has an exclusive sneak peek at some illustrations and details from Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin.

In book adaptation news:

We’ve got a Discworld adaptation update! The City Watch goes to BBC America.

A queered adaptation of Frankenstein? Yes, please. A queered adaptation as the kick-off for an LGBTQIA sci-fi anthology show? HELL YES.

The Runaways TV show will be back for Season 2 in December, and if you’re anything like me you cannot wait to see how they’re going to handle the second part of the teen squad’s origin story. The trailer looks like they’re not going to have [redacted] be the [redacted], so what will they do instead? I am dying to know.

And I actually consider Watership Down a post-apocalypse (fight me), so I think it’s relevant to this newsletter that the Netflix/BBC mini-series adaptation is moving ahead with casting.

The director of It is working overtime — in addition to remaking Attack on Titan, Muschietti also has a script for H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. My love for Wells’s novel, flaws and all, goes way back, and I’m verrrrry interested to see what a modern team might make of that. Also we’re well due for a remake (I am ignoring the Guy Pearce 2002 one).

How’s about some book deals?

Galatea by Madeline Miller is $0.99.

Wintersong by S. Jae Jones is $2.99 (previously reviewed here).

Temper by Nicky Drayden is $2.99 (previously reviewed here).

Looking to get into the works of award-winner Adrian Tchaikovsky? The Tiger and the Wolf and Empire in Black and Gold are both $2.99!

And in new releases to keep an eye out for:

Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine: A Decade of Hugo & Nebula Award Winning Stories, 2005-2015

Mass Effect: Annihilation by Catherynne M. Valente

City of Ash and Red by Hye-young Pyun, Sora Kim-Russell

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Someone Like Me by MR Carey

In reviews, I bring you the final book in a duology that was everything I wanted and them some.

The Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao

In this deeply satisfying follow-up to Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (which I reviewed here), Dao moves the story forward 15 years. Jade, daughter of Xifeng’s erstwhile-rival the Empress Lihua, has been raised simply in a monastery at the Great Forest’s edge. She knows who she is, but wants nothing more than the life she has. That all changes when Xifeng summons her back to court, ostensibly to celebrate her 18th birthday. Jade has been hearing horrible rumors about Xifeng for years, and has witnessed the poverty and desperation of the citizens of Feng Lu. When she arrives at the palace, things are even worse than she could have imagined. Then, a quest to save Feng Lu and depose Xifeng comes calling, and Jade and her newfound friends must answer.

The genius of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns was in giving us the story, from her own perspective, of an Evil Queen in the making. Now, we see Xifeng and what she has wrought from Jade’s perspective — and it’s just as effective. Jade may be an innocent, and a truly good person, but she’s also afraid and adrift. She herself wonders about Xifeng and how she came to be the Empress that Jade knows and fears (girl, the stories I could tell you!). And even as Kingdom bears witness to the terrible consequences of Xifeng’s choices, it never loses sight of the backstory. Dao also brings some old friends back to play in surprising and pivotal roles.

She also plays fast and loose with original, iconic elements of Snow White. There’s an apple, but not the way I thought there would be; and there is a little person, but he’s no one’s whistling, bumbling lackey. Western readers like myself will find the familiar bits, beautifully immersed in an East Asian setting that gives new levels and textures to the original fairytale.

Together, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns and Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix make a welcome addition to the retold fairytales canon — inventive, immersive, and engrossing from the first page to the last.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

May the odds be ever in your favor,
Jenn

Happy Friday, vampires and Venusians! As we recover from our candy-overload doldrums, let’s talk about horror short stories, D&D monsters, magical reads, sci-fi and fantasy art, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

In a palace of illusions, nothing is what it seems. One girl must compete to become the next empress while keeping her keeping her identity and forbidden magic a secret in this Ancient Japan-inspired standalone fantasy.

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It is too early for this yet in my opinion — we’ve still got two whole months to go! — but PW has released their Best of 2018 and here’s the SF/F/Horror list.

It’s aliiiiiiiiiiive! Our SFF Yeah! book club on Rosewater by Tade Thompson was a blast to record, and I hope it’s at least half as much fun to listen to.

Here’s hoping you had the exact right level of spooky for your Halloween! If you’re still craving more, we’ve got nine short horror stories for you.

Calling all photoshop wizards: here’s a chance to design your own D&D monster, sanctioned by Wizards of the Coast!

I have finally finished watching Netflix’s The Dragon Prince and as such extremely cosign this wish for expanded universe options.

Just want to get away from it all? This list of magical reads from Frolic is a good start.

Feeeeeeelingggssss: This personal essay on A Wizard of Earthsea gave me some.

If you’re trying to convince a reader to give fantasy a shot, Sharifah and I recommend two gateway novels in particular.

I’m not sure how long this deal is good for, but the entirety of Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis series, a.k.a. Lilith’s Brood, is available for $3.99!

Spotlight: SF/F Artists

Many of us judge books by their covers, and I think we can all agree that pictures are indeed worth (at least) a thousand words. So when a feature about Killian Eng’s work showed up in my feed, it sent me down a wonderful SF/F art rabbithole that I am delighted to share with you.

Killian Eng: Whether he’s doing Star Wars, commissioned, or original work, his attention to detail and eye for composition slay me. And those colors!! A+ would plaster half a room in my apartment with these.

Fiona Staples: You may know her as the artist behind Saga, but you should also know she draws a mean elf. Staples is one of my all-time favorite working artists, and I live for the day when she has a print shop.

Rola Jungshan Chang: Chang is newly on my radar, thanks to the gorgeous covers she’s doing for R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War series. The brush work, the spare use of color, all of it rings all my visual bells. But it works for more than badass warriors — for example, this Deep Space 9 piece!

Wendy Xu: I first came across Xu’s work on the comic Mooncakes and then fell in love with Pigeon Boyfriend. (In point of fact, I have a Pigeon Boyfriend postcard taped to my monitor as I type this.) The whimsy! The blend of realism and the fantastical! I love it.

Chris Moore: I love the cover art for Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit as much as I love the book, which is saying something. Moore’s style is much more realistic than the other artists I’ve been featuring; some of them look like they could be photographs! I’m not sure whether or not I want to go to those worlds, but I deeply enjoy looking at them.

Afua Richardson: If you haven’t heard of Afua Richardson, you’re not paying attention to comics. She’s a rising star, and her work on World of Wakanda influenced the CG team on Black Panther. I’m over here in love with her mermaids.

Victo Ngai: I found Ngai’s work through her cover for J.Y. Yang’s Waiting on a Bright Moon (Tor.com novella mention, take a shot), only to discover she’d also done the cover for Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, as well as stamps for the UN.  The flowing lines of her work and the layering of colors and textures leave me in absolute awe. I mean. Just LOOK at these!

I’ll stop there (for now), but if you’re inclined to share your own favorite SF/F artists with me, hit reply and I’ll do a round-up in a future newsletter.

That’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

May the Force be with you,
Jenn

Hello and happy Tuesday, harpies and Harkonnens. Let’s talk about the NOMMO awards, magical board games, sequels, a horror adaptation, and Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis C. Chen!

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This newsletter is sponsored by Wolf of the Tesseract by Christopher D. Schmitz.

Everything in Claire’s life seemed perfectly normal, albeit charmed: an engagement to her high-school sweetheart, friends visiting from college, and an idyllic life in the sleepy northland. All of that changes when she is abducted by a shapeshifting hobo and whisked through a dimensional gate. The stranger claims nothing is what it seems, and that a powerful sorcerer believes she is the key to summoning his dark god. Will she run from her destiny forever, or can she claim the weapons of the mythic Architect King, and end the sorcerer’s reign of terror?

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First, some book news:

If you loved The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty and you’re an excerpt reader, we’ve got one for the sequel, The Kingdom of Copper! I am not an excerpt reader but I am still EXCITED for this book.

We’re getting a longer version of the story that inspired The Thing! The original is called “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, which you can read online if you poke around enough.

The 2018 NOMMO winners have been announced, and congratulations go to Tochi Onyebuchi and Tade Thompson who won for Novel and Novella, respectively! The NOMMOs are a great place to find African speculative writers (all y’all looking for Black Panther follow-ups, get thee to their site).

Related: the very special SFF Yeah! book club episode for Rosewater by Tade Thompson goes live tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Resist: Tales from a Future Worth Fighting Against, edited by Gary Whitta, Hugh Howey, and Christa Yant, is out as of today and the author-lineup on this is bonkers good! Bonus: You can get it as part of this incredibly good Humble Bundle, proceeds of which go to the ACLU. (Related: are you all set to vote?)

Adaptations, ahoy:

The Bird Box movie adaptation finally has a trailer! Cue a thousand readers going “I read this BEFORE they made A Quiet Place!” I haven’t read Bird Box for reasons of being a scaredy-cat, but it made the rounds of BR and I’ve heard from reliable sources that it appears (from the trailer, so who really knows) they’ve changed a fair amount.

In non-screen adaptation news, Osprey Games is making a Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell board game! Did someone read my diary!?! Do they need beta-test players?! CALL ME, OSPREY.

New releases to add to your overflowing TBR:

The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson (sequel to The Traitor Baru Cormorant, which I reviewed previously)

The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition by Ursula K. Le Guin, illustrated by Charles Vess

Last Shot: A Han and Lando Story by Daniel José Older (in audio)

Reminder! Our custom book stamp giveaway closes on Wednesday, so if you haven’t already entered, get on that.

And now in reviews, here’s a wacky Secret Agent In Space story!

Waypoint Kangaroo (Kangaroo #1) by Curtis C. Chen

How does the idea of a locked-room murder mystery on a cruise ship in outer space featuring a super-powered secret agent appeal to you? Working in the fine tradition of comedic sci-fi, Chen delivers a whole lot of mayhem and some really endearing characters in this first installment of a series I will definitely be following.

Kangaroo, our narrator and secret agent, bungled his most recent mission (mid-bungle is right where the book starts off) and is being sent away on …. vacation? His covert-ops department is under scrutiny and his boss just wants him out of the way, and what better way to sideline an agent than on a cruise ship to Mars? Of course, Kangaroo has zero experience being a civilian, much less a relaxed cruise-going one, and starts seeing nefarious potential plots around every corner. Then a family turns up murdered, a crew member knows his call-sign, and his paranoia suddenly seems completely justified. Oh and by the way, Kangaroo also happens to be the only super-powered agent in the galaxy; his talent is that he has access to a pocket universe that he can stash things in and retrieve as necessary.

A man-hunt, a romance, and interstellar political intrigue complete with space-walks, space-battles, and spaceship-ventilation-shaft crawls, make this an action-packed, quick-paced, thoroughly enjoyable romp of a space opera. My one caveat is that it occasionally gets a little heavy-handed with technical jargon and explanations; but a more science-minded reader might enjoy that, and the rest of us can just wave our hands and move on. In the meantime, I need my own pocket universe STAT. (Mostly for ice cream.)

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Nanu nanu,
Jenn

Hello space invaders and incubi! We made it to Friday. I’ve got linky goodness in the form of podcasts, a fairytale quiz, monsters, women in space, and more, and instead of a single review we’re talking trans/nonbinary/genderqueer authors for your shelf.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Fierce Reads and Renegades by Marissa Meyer.

The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies—humans with extraordinary abilities—who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone . . . except the villains they once overthrew. Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice—and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to the villains who have the power to end them both.

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By no particular design, the most recent two episodes of Recommended are very SF/F focused — Ep #7 features RF Kuang, author of The Poppy War, alongside John Jennings talking about Octavia Butler, and Ep #8 has both Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Moon) and Sonia Faruqi (The Oyster Thief)!

On this week’s SFF Yeah!, Sharifah and I got excited about novellas.

What fairytale should you read next? Here’s the quiz, you know what to do.

Creature feature: Frolic has a list of paranormal books featuring various monsters, and it’s a good one.

Women in spaaaaaaace — space comics, that is. These are on my TBR for sure.

Every time I think I’ve read all the post-apocalypse novels there are, someone goes and makes a list like this one. Back to the TBR…

If you need something to help you believe in the world again, here’s a piece from the eight-year-old girl who pulled a sword from a lake and surely will one day be queen of us all (or a vet).

Related, this high school dance troupe did a Harry Potter-inspired routine and I am in awe.

Trans and genderqueer rights continue to be attacked, and if you’re looking for a way to push back and support the community, here are some great books to pick up by trans, nonbinary, and genderqueer authors in SF/F.

The Machineries of Empire series by Yoon Ha Lee

Content warnings: compulsion, rape, suicide

Set in an intergalactic empire where torture has been institutionalized and a war is on, this trilogy follows Kel Cheris, a soldier who finds herself unexpectedly promoted into a position she’s not likely to survive, and Jedao, the ghost (really) of a psychopathic genius tactician. The world-building is stunning and original, the plot is a head-spinner, and Lee is a masterful plotter.

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

Outsiders Patricia, born with witchy powers, and Laurence, a technological genius, help each other through bullying at school, only to lose contact and be reunited many years later when the fate of the world is at stake. This novel is funny, snappy, and a great meld of the best tropes from science fiction and fantasy, and the ending had me cheering from my couch.

Dreadnought by April Daniels

Content warnings: transphobia, family abuse

Teenager Danny Tozer is hiding behind a mall when a superhero crash-lands and dies next to her. As the dying superhero’s mantle is passed on, it remakes Danny’s male body. Along with super strength and super speed, Danny also is now finally, visibly, a young woman. But as we know, with great power comes great responsibility, and Danny has to figure out how to handle her super powers and the varied and conflicting expectations of those around her — plus there’s a cyborg villain on the loose.

The Tensorate series by JY Yang

While you can read the novellas in this series as stand-alones, I love how they build on each other. Welcome to a world in which magic is called the Slack, a corrupt government is suppressing a resistance that includes the grown children of its highest official, strange beasts lurk in the deserts, and matters of the heart intersect with those of the wider world. Yang continues to expand this world in exciting ways, playing with science, fantasy, and human nature, and I can’t wait to see where they take us next.

Hunger Makes the Wolf by Alex Wells

My short pitch for this book is “motorcycle gang in space!” It’s also got train heists, miner strikes, gun battles, covert operations, backstabbing, murder, and mayhem, along with a hefty dose of magic. If you’re craving an inclusive found family story that’s also an outer-space Western, and/or a new read in the vein of Becky Chambers’ Wayfarer series, you need this on your shelf.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Content warnings: physical and sexual violence

Aster, is a self-taught healer onboard the generation ship Matilda, which has been traveling through space in search of a new home planet. The beautiful upper decks are populated entirely by white people, while on the lower decks the darker-skinned inhabitants of the ship are enslaved, rationed, and patrolled and abused by armed guards. A religious dictatorship enforces class and race order across levels. Aster, a lower-decker, doesn’t have any plans to be a revolutionary — but circumstances have a way of forcing your hand.

Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers, edited by Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett
This collection is on my TBR, and I’m so excited to get to it. Twenty-five transgender writers come together to imagine a huge range of different worlds, and here’s the review from Bitch Media that originally piqued my interest.

Bonus: Across the full LGBTQIA spectrum, the Queers Destroy series includes SF, Horror, and Fantasy and is well worth your time.

And if you’re looking to go beyond literary activism, Bustle has excellent suggestions on concrete actions you can take.

That’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Hold tight,
Jenn

Hello and happy Tuesday, Transformers and terraformers! Today we’ve got lots of sequel news, some exciting adaptations, seasonally appropriate ebook sales, and a review of An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Vault Comics.

Billy Bane is a prophet who got it all wrong, and the galaxy has been burning ever since. All he wants is to waste away in the darkest corner of space with his best pal Dust, a supercharged Fuq bot. But when a new prophet comes calling, Billy is summoned to save the galaxy he’s at least partially responsible for destroying.

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Let’s start with the specifically-books news:

We have a cover reveal for R.F. Kuang’s The Dragon Republic, sequel to previously-reviewed The Poppy War! I love this illustration style and the single pop of color; these are gonna look amazing on the shelf next to each other.

Are you on the Tea Dragon train? I love Katie O’Neill’s webcomic, which is also available as a beautiful collection, and I’ve spent a happy afternoon or two playing the card game, so I’m very happy to fire the confetti canons for a sequel, The Tea Dragon Festival!

We’re getting a nonfiction book from sci-fi author extraordinaire Nnedi Okorafor! The novella-length book, Broken Places and Outer Spaces (June 2019)  will include elements of memoir and a look the creative process, and my body is ready.

And now for some screen news:

There’s an update on the adaptation of Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties — FX has picked it up and it’s in development for a TV series.

We’re getting a modern-day Sword in the Stone movie, called The Kid Who Would Be King, and this trailer is ev. ery. thing. Enemies to friends! Diverse casting! School jokes! Here for it.

The BBC and Netflix are making a Dracula mini-series and it will be a period piece. (Which I’m confused about the need to make a point of, aren’t all adaptations of the book period pieces?! Anyway.)

Ryan Coogler got a deal to write AND direct Black Panther 2! Wakanda forever! Now might be a good time to catch up on the comics, which Ta-Nehisi Coates has been writing — you can start with Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, Book 1.

How about some new releases? I’ve got my eye on:

Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass #7) by Sarah J. Maas,

Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson (who is going to be on Recommended tomorrow, so keep an ear out),

Kat Howard’s short story collection, A Cathedral of Myth and Bone,

And Dragons in a Bag, written by Zetta Elliott and Geneva B, which looks ADORABLE.

Also, here are some cheap e-books:

Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1), $2.99

Seasonally appropriate: A Secret History of Witches by Louisa Morgan, $2.99, The Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz, $2.99, and Akata Witch (Akata Witch #2) by Nnedi Okorafor $2.99

Heartstone by Elle Katharine White, $1.99 (which is Pride & Prejudice with dragons)

And now, a review of another addition to the weird Western/Historicals category:

An Easy Death (Gunnie Rose #1) by Charlaine Harris 

Content warning: rape

There have been several great additions to “weird Westerns” and/or “weird historicals” lately — Trail of Lightning, The Black God’s Drums, Dread Nation, River of Teeth — and I’m here for it. An Easy Death is for those who are ready for the next one, as well as fans awaiting the next book from Harris.

In the twisted history of An Easy Death, FDR was assassinated and the states, weakened by the loss of the president and the Depression, fractured. Various states have now become allied with or ruled by other countries, including Russia and Great Britain, Mexico is expanding northwards, and the Native population has reclaimed their land. Lizbeth Rose lives in Texoma right near the Mexican border, and is a gunslinger for a crew that runs people back and forth, protecting them from bandits. A job goes horribly wrong, leaving Rose emotionally drained and out of work — and then two Russian wizards show up with an offer of employment that she has no choice but to take. From family secrets to international politics to bandits to magic ambushes, she’s got more than enough on her plate and only so many bullets.

Rose is beautifully voiced; she’s pragmatic almost to the point of flatness, gruff, and isolated — in fact, she reminds me a lot of Magic Bites-era Kate Daniels. She’s also carving her way through a man’s world, and she’s not afraid to kill in the process. I loved reading her, in all her murderous glory, and will definitely be hanging around for the next installment.

As for the world-building, it’s an interesting twist on the alternative US history trope, and Harris avoids the standard Western pitfalls by giving a few positive cameos to Native characters, as well as characters of color. There aren’t too many characters of color that make it to the end of the book aside from Lizbeth herself (who is definitely half-Russian and implied to be half-Latina), but the body count is incredibly high and pretty indiscriminate.

TL;DR: If you like gun battles, magic, and crochety heroines, and/or Charlaine Harris, pick this up.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Happy Friday, Belters and boggarts! Today I’ve found you a book club, fantasy series, horror, alien babies, a round-up of witchy reads, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Epic Reads.

Monster. Villain. Hero. Which supercreature will they be? It’s been four years since the events of GONE. The dome is down, but the horrors within have spread, and now all of humanity is in danger. An alien virus is creating monsters that walk the cities and countryside, terrorizing all. And the only people who can stop a superpowered villain, are superpowered heroes. Michael Grant returns to the globally bestselling GONE universe in this follow-up novel to the hotly anticipated MONSTER. Old foes return and new ones rise. The fight will be bloody. This isn’t another battle, this is the war to save the human race.

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Our SFF Yeah! podcast is doing its first book club, and you’re invited! Sharifah and I will be discussing Rosewater by Tade Thompson in a special Halloween episode, and you should definitely read along with us. You can catch up with the podcast here, if you’re so inclined.

Need a new fantasy series for your fall/winter reading? We’ve got recommendations. And if that’s not enough, here’s a quiz to help you pick!

This list of horror books for wimps could use more diversity in the picks, but is otherwise solid, and I’m a wimp so I would know. Cosign on Get in Trouble, Mongrels (with warning for LOTS of gore), and The Historian.

I love this list of crimey SF/F; I’ve read all but Silenced and Zero Sum Game and both are now on my TBR.

More Doctor Who reads! This time it’s a list of what the companions are reading, because obviously.

Sharifah and I talked a bunch about the new slew of Avatar: The Last Airbender adaptations on SFF Yeah, and relevant to that conversation is this interview with an Alaska Native about Inuit representation on the show.

If I told you someone did a maternity photo-shoot inspired by the Alien franchise, would you click? Here you go — the choice is yours (but I personally found this DELIGHTFUL).

‘Tis the season to get witchy, tra la la la la, la la la la! Here are six of my favs, in addition to the previously rec’d The Witches of New York:

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova (Brooklyn Brujas #1)
This YA novel follows the adventures of Alex, for whom magic is both everyday and hugely unwanted. Her family, who live in Brooklyn, are part of a magical community and her Deathday Celebration, when she is supposed to come fully into her magic, is approaching. But magic has brought her nothing but pain and terror, and all she wants is to get rid of it. So she decides to do her own spell — a spell to take away her magic.

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco (Bone Witch #1)
Tea is born to a family of witches — but no one is prepared for her to have the power to raise the dead. When her powers manifest, she’s sent off to be trained by the other asha and prepared for a life of service to the crown. But she quickly learns that everyone wants to use her powers, and she has to decide for herself where her loyalties lie.

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
Sisters Gillian and Sally are the latest in the long line of witchy Owens women. Gillian left home early and has jumped from relationship to relationship, job to job, state to state ever since. Sally, who wants nothing more than a regular life, got married, had kids, and thought that she’d finally found her best life. When her husband dies, that shatters, and she moves her family away from their hometown and settles into pretending that Everything Is Fine And Completely Normal, even though it’s far from. When Sally shows up in the middle of the night with her abusive boyfriend dead in the backseat, it sets off a string of events that will change how three generations of women — Sally and Gillian, Sally’s daughters, and the aunts — relate to each other and their relationship with the powers that they’ve inherited.

Voodoo Dreams by Jewell Parker Rhodes
First year medical student Marie Levant finds herself relocating to New Orleans, drawn by terrible dreams, only to find that she’s a successor to the infamous Marie Laveau, Voodoo Queen. Rhodes brings both modern-day and past New Orleans to life, with generous sprinklings of ghosts, zombies, and other supernatural adventures, and it’s #ownvoices to boot.

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (Akata Witch #1)
12-year-old Sunny is having a hard enough time adjusting to life in Nigeria after being born and raised in New York, so getting enmeshed in a quest to stop a supernatural serial killer and learning that she herself has powers is the last thing she needs in her life. But as she learns more about the secret supernatural world, she finds both real friends and starts to learn about her own true self.

Calling on Dragons by Patricia Wrede (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles #3)
I know I raved about The Enchanted Forest Chronicles in a recent newsletter, so this is just a reminder that the third installment is narrated by the unflappable and extremely tidy witch Morwen, owner of a jillion cats, and is fantastic.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Happy Tuesday, Balrogs and banshees! Today we’re talking about Fortnite books, The Passage trailer, a new vampire series, more witchy reads, and Future Fiction: New Dimensions in International Science Fiction.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Vesuvian Books.

Sixteen-year-old Jaclyn admires her father. A man who once fought for the king, he now teaches Jaclyn how to use her wits—and her sword. But he has a secret. And his secret may have a connection to something Jaclyn is hiding. Hearing “monsters” are terrorizing the villages around Black Mountain, Jaclyn’s father goes to hunt them but doesn’t return. Armed only with her sword and magic beans—a gift from a mysterious old woman—Jaclyn will need to break a centuries old curse to save not only her father but the townspeople the “beasts” plan to lay waste to.

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Let’s talk about adaptations and book announcements!

In the world of video games-turned-novels, Fortnite has a book deal! Not sure what Fortnite is? The New Yorker has a deep dive.

Where my Eragon fans at? Christopher Paolini has a new book of stories set in Alagaësia, The Fork, The Witch, and The Worm, and it will be out on December 31 2018.

I finally got around to watching the trailer for The Passage, and I’m very conflicted. On the one hand, it looks well-acted and well-cast. On the other hand, it contains explicit footage of black people being kidnapped, harmed, and experimented on against their will by white people. While I know the storyline of the books and therefore have some idea where it’s all going, that doesn’t make it less painful to watch — and very possibly triggering for some viewers, so fair warning.

We’re getting a vampire series from Renee Ahdieh!

I went to a Halloween episode screening of Buffy: TVS at a cemetery last weekend, so it seems appropriate to note that the team for BOOM! Studios new comics has been announced: Jordie Bellaire (Pretty Deadly, Hawkeye) and Dan Mora are on board, and I’m delighted that Bellaire will be involved.

Judging by how many of you clicked on The Witches of New York in last week’s newsletter (it’s a record, I do believe), I think you’ll be very interested to hear that Katherine Howe is finally giving us the sequel to The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane called The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs.

This week in new releases I’ve got my eye on:

The Black Khan by Ausma Zehanat Khan (sequel to The Bloodprint)

The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi (sequel to The Collapsing Empire)

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2018 edited by Paula Guran (including Stephen Graham Jones, Aliette de Bodard, and Kai Ashante Wilson!)

And here’s your reminder that we’re doing a book stamp giveaway, because your personal library definitely needs customization.

And now, a review of a fascinating new science fiction anthology!

Future Fiction: New Dimensions in International Science Fiction, edited by Bill Campbell and Francesco Verso

Content warnings:
Suicide, “Grey Noise” and “Proposition 23”
Bestiality, “The International Studbook of the Giant Panda”
Animal and human experimentation, “Creative Surgery”

I love a good anthology, and I have been working on reading more international science fiction, so this collection was meant for me. And, having read it, I think it is also meant for you!

The only author I’d read previously was Ekaterina Sedia, whose collection Moscow But Dreaming I reviewed last October. She’s also the most fabulist author in the collection — the other stories are solidly hard science fiction, playing in particular with technology and the environment. Taken together, these stories span the globe and handily accomplish the collection’s goal: to introduce both writers and new ideas.

It’s a very thoughtfully arranged anthology — “Tongtong’s Summer” by Xia Jia is a gentle look at AI and healthcare, told from a child’s perspective. The next few stories flow from there, all concerned in some regard with family, and edging step by step towards darker material. Things take a hard turn with Tendai Huchu’s all-too-possible “HostBods,” which follows a “bod” for hire as he goes from one virtual possession to the next, in increasingly dire circumstances. Hernandez’s “The International Studbook of the Giant Panda” (about scientists using neurally-linked robotic pandas to teach the bears how to mate) competes with “Creative Surgery” by Clelia Farris, about two genetic scientists creating increasingly bizarre chimeras, for being the ones I found the most unnerving to read — and also the most surprising. Ending with Efe Tokunbo’s excellent novelette “Proposition 23” was exactly the right choice — a story of dys/u-topia and political upheaval, it packs a beautiful final punch.

If you like weird, brain-bending fiction; if you like short stories; if you love different perspectives; if you like to see authors stretch the bounds of science and technology; if you want to read more in-translation; or all of the above, then get yourself Future Fiction immediately.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn