Author: Jenn Northington

Happy Friday, krakens and Kryptonians! Today I’m reviewing An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim and Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas, talking about forthcoming books from Becky Chambers and NK Jemisin, musing about Robin Hood, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Penguin Random House.

Emmett Atwater isn’t just leaving Detroit; he’s leaving Earth. Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family. Forever. Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whom have troubled pasts and are a long way from home. But Babel’s ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won’t forever compromise what it means to be human.

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Becky Chambers is writing a new series, and it’s going to be solarpunk! I am very here for this — her books are already what we’ve been calling “cozy” (a.k.a. feel good or optimistic) sci-fi, and I can’t wait to see what kinds of sustainable tech she comes up with.

Speaking of optimism! Here are books that will restore your faith in humanity, one spaceship or feral hippo at a time.

Y’all, I can’t help but enjoy this trailer for the newest, heistiest Robin Hood remake. It appears to be what you’d get if you mashed up Ocean’s Eleven, Robin Hood, and V for Vendetta.

Sometimes the universe wants us to have nice things, and I’m counting Noelle Stevenson’s take on She-Ra as one of them.

Also to be filed under “gifts from the universe” is NK Jemisin’s forthcoming, first ever short story collection! It’s called How Long ’til Black Future Month? and it will be out November 27, 2018.

Here’s a sci-fi poem: thanks to the excellent Pome Tinyletter I’ve become a poetry convert, and Quarto by Adrienne Rich delighted my SFF sensibilities when it showed up in my inbox.

Need some good, cheap summer reads? Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb are both on sale (for $3.99 and $1.99, respectively), and Amanda once jokingly described them as being about “a Superfund site plus dragons,” which is spot on. And Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber, which is a dark, brutal, and incredibly rich futuristic retelling of Caribbean folktales (trigger warnings: rape and child abuse), is on sale for $2.99!

Need a new Harry Potter quiz? This one will tell you what your wand would be! (I got laurel with a troll whisker core, which I definitely did not realize was an option.)

Reminder! We’re giving away $500 worth of the best YA books of 2018 so far, and you can enter to win right here.

Today in reviews, we’ve got a past-future time-travel novel and a sweetly supernatural graphic novel.

An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim

Trigger warning: sexual assualt

It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel, for any number of reasons. The pacing; the execution of the ambitious concept; the character development; the balance of absurdity and realism — Lim handles all these elements so deftly, and with such insight.

Imagine a world in which a plague struck America in the 1980s. Time travel had just been discovered, but you can’t go back in time to stop the epidemic — just forward, in 12 year leaps. Let’s say the corporation that controls time travel offered you, with your useful skills, an opportunity to go forward in exchange for medical treatment for your loved one. Would you go?

For Polly, the answer is yes. She’s still young and 12 years is nothing (or so she tells herself), and her relationship with Frank is worth it. They make a plan to meet up in Texas in the future, and she signs the contract. She arrives in the ’90s to find that she’s actually 17 years in the future due to a “reroute,” she’s indentured, and the world is nothing like the one she left behind. Not only is the geography different, but Texas is now part of a separate country from the United States, the “rules” of society have warped, and no one seems to want to explain anything to her.

Polly navigates the pitfalls of race, class, and gender in this slightly absurd, all-too-real future in a quest to find Frank and her remaining family. Lim asks the biggest questions about love — what is it, really? Can it last in prolonged absence? — and finds no easy answers. The journey is well worth your time; this book belongs on your shelf next to On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee, Pym by Mat Johnson, and Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich.

Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas

I was visiting friends last weekend and I can’t remember the conversation that led to one of them shoving Volume One of this comic into my hands, but I’m so glad for whatever it was. This is a delightful, supernatural-hijinks-filled small-town story, and it is still ongoing!

Oscar Wilde (yes, that’s really his name) is a floundering young writer who decides to rent a house on Craigslist in Podunk (yes, that’s really what the town is called), Oklahoma. What seems like a quiet backwater is actually a haven for ghosts, shapeshifters, and the magically inclined — and Oscar will find out in the most dramatic ways possible. Volume One follows him from one revelation to the next, with both hilarity and danger along the way.

This comic has so much heart, and so much humor! Each character’s name is a wink and a nudge, Oscar is just the right mix of smart guy and naive noob, and the colors and style are engaging and a pleasure to look at. (I am still laughing about Clifford the big red …. dog?) Volume One ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I was delighted to see that the comic is fully online — I’ll be catching up ASAP, and keeping an eye out for future collections.

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.

Long days and pleasant nights,
Jenn

Happy Friday, friends! In today’s installment I’ve got reviews of Guardian Angels and Other Monsters by Daniel H. Wilson and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, plus the British Fantasy Awards shortlist, a Halo TV series, read-alikes for recent favorites, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Fawkes by Nadine Brandes.

Both Epic Reads and BN Teen have named Fawkes to their ‘Most Anticipated July Reads’ lists.

“I was up late in the night reading, waiting to get to the fifth of November to see how the plot would actually unfold, and it did not disappoint. An imaginative, colorful tale about choosing for yourself between what’s right and what others insist is the truth.” –Cynthia Hand, New York Times bestselling author of My Lady Jane

“Hold on to your heart as this slow-burning adventure quickly escalates into an explosion of magic, love, and the truth about loyalty.” –Mary Weber, bestselling author of the Storm Siren Trilogy

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The British Fantasy Award shortlist has been announced! Three cheers for Sofia Samatar’s Tender, Victor LaValle’s The Changeling, and S.A. Chakraborty for making the list. Somehow I haven’t read any of the nominees for Best Fantasy, must get on that.

This is not a drill: the sequel to Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown is called The True Queen and will be released on March 12, 2019! This is me right now.

Halo fans, rejoice: you’re getting a TV series, from Showtime.

Remember that time I raved about Witchmark by CL Polk? This piece recommends read-alikes! More delicious fantasy for my TBR. (Also I cosign that Gilded Cage rec, although it is an overall darker book.)

Need some non-Western fairytales? I love this list from S.A. Chakraborty for reading beyond One Thousand and One Nights.

You know who’s good at recommending books? Mary Robinette Kowal, that’s who.

Which Pevensie sibling are you? Apparently I am Susan, to my utter lack of surprise. (I am dying to know if anyone actually gets Edmund.)

Reminder! You can and should enter the drawing for our Best of the Year YA Giveaway, which includes such excellent SF/F YA titles as Dread Nation, Undead Girl Gang, Tess of the Road, and The Cruel Prince.

Today in reviews, we’ve got some spooky sci-fi tales and a fairytale retelling.

Guardian Angels and Other Monsters by Daniel H. Wilson

I first read Wilson earlier this year when I picked up The Clockwork Dynasty, and I was intrigued when I found Guardian Angels and Other Monsters in a friend’s book stacks. If you’re looking for dark and twisty sci-fi stories comparable to the works of Lauren Beukes and Victor LaValle, add this one to your TBR.

While the stories range in geography — Portland, Oklahoma, and Africa all feature — and in level of “OMG WTF,” there are a few through-lines. All are definitely on the sci-fi side of SF/F, and most are about family in one form or another. Whether they’re parents, siblings, or found family, the characters contemplate the most intimate relationships. A guardian robot tries to keep its charge safe; a mother contemplates her strange child; an abused, neurodiverse young man searches for respect from his older brother. And while scientific break-throughs might change the trappings of those relationships, ultimately the heart of them stays the same. Technology can hurt or it can heal, but people will always be people — for better or worse. Wilson explores what “better” and “worse” can look like, and the results are both chilling and engrossing.

For fans of Wilson’s work, there’s a story each attached to the Robopocalypse and Clockwork Dynasty worlds. For new fans, the stories stand well enough alone; no previous reading required.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Trigger warning: repeated acts of domestic violence and child abuse

Spinning Silver follows a rotating and shifting cast of first-person narrators from in and around a small, Russian-inspired medieval village. The three primary narrators, all young women, are also my favorites: Wanda, a young villager with an abusive father; Miryem, a Jewish girl who is the primary breadwinner for her family; and Irina, the daughter of a Duke who only sees her as a political bargaining chip. Each has a complicated relationship with her father, albeit in very different ways. Miryem has also unwittingly drawn the attention of a fairy king in the woods. As the characters’ orbits begin to overlap, the stakes get higher for everyone involved. What was once a matter of personal survival is now a question of life or death for untold innocents, and the paths to victory are tangled and uncertain.

Much like Uprooted, Novik is retelling a variety of fairy tales here; the Erlking, “Rumpelstiltskin,” and “The Juniper Tree” all feature. But this book is a much more timely and broad-ranging story, taking on anti-Semitism, abuse and trauma, and father-daughter relationships. She also digs deeply into even the “bad guys” of her story — and I put that in scare quotes for a reason. It’s a tightly paced, beautifully plotted and written book, and I think it’s my favorite thing she’s ever written.

I also gushed about this book on All the Books this week, if you want to listen to me try to summarize it out loud (which is always difficult for me!).

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

Happy Friday, explorers and Erinyes! Today I’m reviewing All Systems Red by Martha Wells and Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones, and talking about July releases, grimdark, audiobooks, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Flatiron Books and Legendary by Stephanie Garber.

After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and the time to repay the debt has come.

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Need some great reads this month? Swapna rounds up some of July’s new releases to consider, including Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (which I’ll be talking about next week!).

Prefer moral complexity to clear right and wrong? Here’s some grimdark for you. And while I’d never seen NK Jemisin’s The Fifth Season classified this way before, I’m hard-pressed to disagree with the rationale.

Need basically the opposite of grimdark? Have some funny fantasy! (Shout-out to Sarah Kuhn’s Heroine Complex series, they are the perfect summer reads.)

SFF for your earholes: If you’re heading out on a road trip, to the beach, on a plane, or cannot summon the energy to physically turn pages because this heat is just TOO MUCH, Alex has some fantasy audiobook suggestions for you.

Adaptations update! Here’s an overview on Tor.com of what’s in process right now. It is helpfully organized by release date, so go ahead and mark your calendars. (I can’t believe they are rebooting Gambit AGAIN.)

D&D alignments were my original Hogwarts-House sorting, so I was delighted with this post on kids book character alignments! Harriet is totally true-neutral.

It seems like we’ve seen every bit of sci-fi swag there is, and then a new Book Fetish post comes out. That Black Panther tote!!!!

Today in reviews we’ve got a found family plus AI and a family of origin plus werewolves.

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells

It only took a bajillion awards and the repeated insistence of various Book Riot Insiders for me to finally read All Systems Red, and I am happy to finally be on this bandwagon.

Despite the ominous name of the series, it’s surprisingly light on gore. All Systems Red follows the self-described Murderbot (technically a cyborg programmed to be a security guard) as it works to protect an exploratory team of humans on an uninhabited planet. This becomes very complicated when their comms go down, and dangers start to come from the least expected places. There are gun-battles, giant worms, and plots aplenty, but it’s ultimately more optimistic and fun than anything else — ideal summer reading.

It is a novella, so telling you much more about the story would be very spoilery. Instead, I will tell you that Wells envisions her AI character with wit and panache. Imagine if Spock and a computer had a painfully shy baby that just wanted to watch K-dramas all the time — that is Murderbot, more or less. Add to that the dynamics of the crew as they interact (or don’t) with their security bot and struggle to understand its personhood, and you’ve got a heartfelt, captivating story with great action and pacing. And there are sequels! Artificial Condition is out now, Rogue Protocol will be out on August 7, and Exit Strategy will be out in October.

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

Trigger warning: domestic violence, body horror

We did an Octavia Butler read-alikes show on Get Booked recently, and I picked Mongrels for my Fledgling comp. I do not take comparisons to Octavia Butler lightly, but this book blew me away. Let me tell you a little bit about why.

In the same way that Butler took the vampires trope (traditionally white, traditionally romanticized) and exploded it, Graham Jones takes the werewolf trope and turns it inside out. Sometimes literally — this book is gross. Just flat-out gross. I’m not much of one for body horror, and have put books down for similar reasons, but somehow Mongrels kept pulling me back in, even as I cringed away.

The story follows a young boy who lives with his aunt and uncle (siblings, not a couple) as they constantly move from place to place, trying to outrun the law both for their actions as humans and potential discovery of their werewolf nature. As of yet, our narrator has shown no signs of inheriting the ability to change — and it’s all he wants in the world, even as he sees how difficult it makes life for his relatives. The stories that have been handed down to him, the truths that they conceal, and the realities of life when magic is mundane, all swirl together to form a thoroughly captivating narrative.

It’s a messy, complicated, hardscrabble life that Graham Jones has given his characters, and one that many will recognize. Right and wrong have almost no meaning for these characters; there is only survival, from one day to the next. And yet their love for each other and their fundamental humanity makes it impossible to dismiss them, if not flat-out love them like I ultimately did. This book is a stunner, and you should read it 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.

Stay frosty,
Jenn

Happy Friday, demigods and dragonriders! Today I’m reviewing Dark Mirror by Diane Duane, Silver Silence and Ocean Light by Nalini Singh, and bringing you exciting LEGO news, the Locus Awards, sci-fi greats, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Penguin Teen and Warcross by Marie Lu.

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down Warcross players who bet on the game illegally. Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation. Emika’s thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu conjures an immersive, exhilarating world where choosing who to trust may be the biggest gamble of all.

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The Locus Awards are in! There aren’t a lot of surprises this year — all these authors are well-known and acclaimed for good reasons — but there are a few that were off my radar. I need to pick up The Book of Swords sooner rather than later!

Who are the best sci-fi authors? Erika has nominated eight. Using her criteria, my personal list has to include Ursula Le Guin and Yoon Ha Lee, but these are a reasonable start.

Need more Latinx authors in your life? This list of SF/F authors has some of my favorites (Malka Older! Carmen Maria Machado!), and some I need to bump up on my TBR.

You definitely need more indigenous authors to read, and author Rebecca Roanhorse is here to recommend some. You should read her too! Trail of Lightning is out now, and getting rave reviews.

You know what else you need? HARRY POTTER LEGOS.

How would you die on Game of Thrones? Our quiz will tell you! I was blown up at the Sept of Baylor, RIP me.

A Discovery of Witches still doesn’t have a US air date or platform (bidding war???), but you can watch the trailer.

And now in reviews, I give you dolphin scientists and dolphin changelings!

Dark Mirror (Star Trek: The Next Generation) by Diane Duane

So you want to be a starship captain? Yes, that Diane Duane wrote a ST:NG novel, and it is a delight. It also has the distinction of being the first and only Star Trek franchise I have ever read. I’m not necessarily opposed, but franchises are among my least-read sub-genres (I think I’ve read something like five of the Star Wars ones, and nothing of any others that I can recall).

Duane uses the plot of the ST:TOS episode “Mirror, Mirror” as her starting point. Picard’s Enterprise is exploring a quiet quadrant of space when they get sucked into an alternate, morally-inverted universe. Thanks to a visiting scientist (who is also a dolphin, and one of my all-time favorite new characters), the crew discovers this sooner rather than later and have just enough time to hatch a plan to thwart their evil selves. Of course, nothing every goes to plan…

I found this in a Little Free Library in my neighborhood and grabbed it on a whim, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a while. Janeway is the captain of my heart but Picard is the captain of my childhood, and it was lovely to be reunited with the crew of the NCC 1701-D. Duane clearly loves the characters herself, and inhabits them well. It’s funny, it’s gripping, and it balances female and male, human and alien characters nicely. Even better, when skimpy outfits are involved, both the men and the women are subject to them! And Duane has written several other Star Trek novels, which I will be attempting to get my hands on as soon as possible. This, it turns out, might be how I want to spend my summer.

Silver Silence and Ocean Light (Psy-Changeling Trinity #1 and #2) by Nalini Singh

If you’re listening to SFF Yeah!, you might recall that I talked about the Psy-Changeling series in Episode 11. It’s my all-time favorite paranormal romance series, but it’s a tough one to come to late — there are more than a dozen books currently, and Singh shows no signs of stopping (thankfully). Happily, as mentioned on a recent All the Books episode, the new installments in what Singh is referring to as “Psy-Changeling Season 2”, formally called the Psy-Changeling Trinity, are perfect jumping-on points.

The world of the series contains three races: the mentally super-powered Psy, the shapeshifting Changelings, and “vanilla” humans. The Psy have spent years in what they call Silence, barring themselves from feeling any emotions whatsoever in a search for ultimate efficiency. This has backfired conclusively, including breeding dangerous serial killers and psychopaths, and now the Psy are divided between those who want to heal and feel, and those who refuse to abandon Silence. The Changelings have been mostly concerned with protecting their own, but are starting to become more enmeshed with the Psy and humans, and the humans are trying to hold their own against the paranormal abilities of the Psy and Changelings. It’s a political and personal mess — but love might be able to save the day.

In Silver Silence and Ocean Light we get two cross-species romances: Psy/Changeling, and Changeling/human, respectively. While the cast of characters will be familiar to those who have been reading along, Singh takes great care to introduce new clans, characters, and plot elements, without belaboring or neglecting the backstory. They move the overall story forward while standing alone nicely, and I for one am delighted that we have finally gotten an underwater installment! Highly recommended if you want steamy, emotionally satisfying stories set in a beautifully imagined alternate Earth.

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

Happy Friday, witches and wendigos! Today I’m reviewing Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers, edited by Sarena Ulibarri, and Witchmark by C.L. Polk, and looking at a cosplay gala, some Star Trek news, fairytales, the Buffyverse, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Becoming the Dragon by Alex Sapegin, translated by Elizabeth Kulikov.

Human or beast: the most terrifying is the one you least expect.

This is the story of Andy, the unassuming teen who stumbles on a high-voltage electromagnetic field and is transported to the faraway world of Ilanta, inhabited by both human and fantastical beings. In order to survive, Andy must embark on the journey of a lifetime, transforming by ancient ritual into the powerful, golden dragon Kerr… but will it make him less human?

The Dragon Inside series captivated its readership across the Russian-speaking world and is now available for English-language fantasy-readers everywhere!

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A Buffyverse novel is coming! And the narrator kind of hates Buffy? You can read an excerpt of Kiersten White’s novel Slayer (not out until January 8 2019, which is just cruel) over on EW.

There’s been a bunch of news from the Star Trek: Discovery camp. First the Season 2 showrunners were fired (possibly for abusive behavior), with co-creator Alex Kurtzman taking over. Then Kurtzman signed a 5-year deal to develop “new series, mini-series and other content opportunities, including animation.” My biggest question is, will all that content be restricted to CBS All Access?

Tor.com’s reviewers have picked their current favorites of 2018, and a lot of these are well off my radar. To the library!

A cosplay gala is happening in September in Baltimore! Consider me intrigued.

Fairytale fans, if Once Upon a Time was your jam, we’ve got some read-alikes. I am beyond delighted to see Naguib Mahfouz’s Arabian Nights and Days mentioned!

And speaking of read-alikes, this week’s Get Booked episode was entirely dedicated to books to read if you love Octavia Butler.

In other podcast news, Sharifah and I picked the characters from SF/F we’d most like to be this week.

I need more SF/F t-shirts like I need a hole in the head, AND YET. Do want. All of those.

Today in reviews, I’ve got two new and very different favorites for you.

Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers, edited by Sarena Ulibarri

I’ve been on the lookout for anything related to solarpunk, and was very excited to see this title get mentioned in the Insiders forum! I’m happy to report that if this is what solarpunk looks like, I’m a fan. While the collection is (like many anthologies) a bit uneven, Glass and Gardens is refreshing, thought-provoking, and thoroughly enjoyable.

True to the book copy, each story shares an optimistic baseline. The worlds imagined aren’t perfect, and class, race, ability, and other access and resource inequities still exist. But these are not dystopian societies, just ones with problems to solve. From a village in the trees to a desert installation to a power plant to a city in the sky to a family farm to — well, you get the idea, the pieces imagine both familiar technology repurposed and new iterations. One of my favorite stories, “The Spider and the Stars” by D.K. Mok, involves sending spiders on space missions; another, “Cable Town Delivery” by M. Lopes da Silva, involves a dashing frontier librarian; a third by Edward Edmonds is a police procedural! No matter what your particular favorite flavor of science fiction is you’ll likely find a story tailored for you, and plenty of new authors to watch out for. And I can only hope that some of these stories come to the attention of engineers of all stripes; I’m very ready for some of these concepts to become reality!

Witchmark by C.L. Polk

If “a fantasy inspired by World World I, plus magic and fairies and a gay romance” sounds interesting to you, bump this book to the absolute top of your list!

Miles Singer is a psychiatrist at a veteran hospital, and is a veteran himself. They’re coming back from the war with Laneeri wounded in both body and soul, and Miles is determined to get to the bottom of a particularly mysterious psychosis. He’s both aided and hampered in this by his magical talent for healing — because magic is outlawed in Aeland, and “Miles Singer” isn’t his actual name. He’s been on the run from his family for years, ever since he refused to submit to a system that would have turned him into the equivalent of a magical battery and servant for his sister. The night a poisoning victim comes into his hospital, carried in by a handsome stranger, changes everything. And not just for Miles; the fates of all of Aeland could change as well, and not necessarily for the better.

From the aristocracy’s mansions and court intrigues, to the halls of the cash-strapped hospital, city to village, breakfast table to asylum, Witchmark covers quite a lot of ground. Polk paces it beautifully, alternating revelations and plot twists with some beautiful character set pieces. I could have spent a whole novel with just Miles learning magic from [redacted for mild spoilers], honestly. This is a wonderful debut, and I can only hope we get more adventures in this fun, fascinating world.

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