Author: Jenn Northington

Happy Friday, monsters and marauders! Today in reviews we’re looking at the Dark Matter anthology and Seth Dickinson’s The Traitor Baru Cormorant, plus adaptation news, WakandaCon, animal sidekicks, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by The Unblemished Trilogy by Sara Ella.

Sara Ella masterfully takes readers to new worlds in the jaw-dropping finale to the Unblemished trilogy, as Eliyana fights to save everything—and everyone—she loves.

With the fate of the Reflections at stake, Eliyana must destroy the void… but at what cost? Traversing the realms of fantasy and reality through a labyrinth of plot twists, Unbreakable delivers a thrilling conclusion to Sara Ella’s Unblemished Trilogy. Sara Ella continues to examine real world issues young women face every day regarding their own self-worth, strength, and confidence to define themselves in a complicated, mixed-up world that doesn’t always make sense.

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Wakanda Forever, as well as this August in Chicago: Alert! This is not a drill! You can attend WakandaCon this summer! If you do go, please tell me about it and send pictures!!

Frankenstein turns 200 this year, and you may have noticed the abundance of coverage. There’s also a film opening later this May, starring Elle Fanning as Mary Godwin Shelley. In honor of the original horror/sci-fi writer, here are two favorite related posts. This one is a round-up of women writing in horror today, and here’s my favorite unpacking of the concept of motherhood in Frankenstein.

Need less capes in your comics? If you too are tapped out on superheroes, we’ve got a list of comics with plenty of SF/F adventures and zero characters bit by radioactive spiders.

Updates on The Passage‘s TV adaptation: Back in February, the adaptation underwent reshoots and entirely removed Alicia’s character. Earlier this week, Fox gave it the greenlight. I love the casting for Amy and Wolgast (and the continued career renaissance of Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who was fantastic in Pitch), but I cannot believe they took out Alicia. What plot changes have they made alongside character changes, I wonder? I suppose we’ll have to stay tuned.

Looking for climate-related fiction? I’m on the record as hating the term “cli-fi” (JUST CALL IT “near future” WHY DOES IT NEED A SPECIAL NAME), but others disagree and here’s a primer about the sub-genre if you are one of them.

Need some help selecting Star Wars reads? Our contributors have put together a list of their favorites.

What would your animal sidekick be? This quiz will tell you! I got unicorn and I am DELIGHTED.

Today’s reviews cover some backlist titles worth moving to the top of your TBR stack.

Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, edited by Sheree R. Thomas

Trigger warnings: issues with consent, gender identity, and sexuality

When I fell down the rabbit-hole of trying to find “books like Black Panther” for various askers, this was one of the ones that made it to my library holds list — and I’m here to tell you, it should definitely be on yours.

With 31 works by names that range from familiar (Octavia Butler, Samuel Delaney, Walter Mosley) to potentially surprising (W.E.B. DuBois) to personal favorites (Nalo Hopkinson, Tananarive Due, Nisi Shawl) to less well-known (Akua Lezli Hope, Evie Evie Shockley), this collection is both a revelation and an affirmation of the lengthy history of black writers in sci-fi and fantasy. Reading these stories one after another both builds on their power and contextualizes them. Rather than arrange them in chronological order, Thomas has chosen to move around in both time and space, and they flow beautifully from one to the next.

While all these stories envision fictional (often future) spaces, they are also clearly products of their respective times. But just as it’s helpful to envision where we wish to go next, it’s important to see where we’ve been, and these authors all had powerful visions. If you’re looking for more black authors in speculative fiction; if you love anthologies; if you’re curious about the roots of Afrofuturism; if you want to see what today’s authors are building on; you should pick up this collection post-haste.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Trigger warnings: institutionalized homophobia, torture

I read this book for our “Lady Vengeance”-themed SFF Yeah! episode, but it was too engrossing not to talk about it here as well. I also want to be sure that I adequately warn readers about the “this book will stomp on your heart” nature of The Traitor Baru Cormorant: seriously, consider yourself warned.

Baru is an anti-heroine, and how. When the Empire of Masks arrive on her isolated island, ostensibly just to trade, her parents are wary. And they are right to be wary: the Empire starts with economic dominance, and ends with the decimation of Baru’s culture, society, and her own family. Using her incredible mental talent for numbers and her sheer stubbornness, she attends one of the Empire’s schools with one goal: to achieve enough power to free her people from its grip.

When her first posting is to an actively rebellious province, Baru has to decide if her own quest for freedom outweigh that of others. Will she join the rebels, or will she help to crush them? Will the woman she wants but can’t have be her downfall, or will she keep up her pretenses? The answers Baru finds are hard, so very hard. The world of the novel is huge, complex, and diverse, and the plot grapples with colonization, war, sexuality, and morality. If you had told me that a fantasy novel about an accountant would punch me in the gut and then rip my heart out of my chest, I would have laughed, but that’s exactly what this book did.

If you’re feeling strong and enjoy watching characters make terrible mistakes for complicated reasons, this is the book for you. Bonus: the sequel, The Monster Baru Cormorant, comes out October 30th.

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.

Never give up, never surrender,
Jenn

Happy Friday, archers and astral travelers! Today in reviews I’m looking at works by Rebecca Roanhorse and R.F. Kuang, and then there are fairytale retellings, awards finalists, book club picks, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Reborn, the first book in the Android Chronicles by Lance Erlick.

Synthia Cross is a state-of-the-art masterwork— the most perfect synthetic human ever created has been programmed to obey every directive. But Synthia is also showing signs of emergent behavior she’s not wired to understand. Repeatedly wiped of her history, she’s struggling to answer crucial questions about her past. And when her creator’s true intentions are called into question, Synthia knows it’s time to go beyond her limits—because Dr. Machten’s fervor to create the perfect A.I. is concealing a vengeful and deadly personal agenda.

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Do you love fairytale retellings? Like, REALLY love them? Here are 100 we recommend, you’re welcome.

Bound by fate: It’s a thing, and here’s a post rounding up a few duos. I am particularly delighted to see my favorite half-insane gods Itempas and Nahadoth (from The Inheritance Trilogy) listed — their push-pull relationship lasts three excellent books, if you’re looking for extended, delicious, world-shaking melodrama.

Trying to convince your book club to read more sci-fi/fantasy? Unbound Worlds has some suggestions for you. If they won’t read any of these, you might just need to start a new group.

Want to get international with your horror reads? We’ve got a beginner’s primer on Japanese horror! I’ll be over here hiding under my pillow-fort.

And here’s some awards news! The Arthur C. Clarke Award posted its shortlist; the Locus Award posted its finalists; and the NOMMO Awards announced their nominees.

Get yer cheap ebooks: Becky Chambers’ much-loved The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and A Closed and Common Orbit are on sale from Amazon for $2.99 — if “cozy, character-driven sci-fi” sounds like a thing you want, jump on these.

And now for reviews! We’ve got ghosts in the machine (so to speak) and an epic new fantasy.

“Welcome To Your Authentic Indian Experience (TM)” by Rebecca Roanhorse

Read it online courtesy of Apex Magazine.

I know weʼve had a spate of short stories in this newsletter; hereʼs another! While weʼre all eagerly awaiting Roanhorseʼs fantasy novel debut, Trail of Lightning, you can read this award-winning piece.

Set in a near future in which virtual reality is commonplace, the story follows — well, you, since it’s told in second person. Your name is Jesse Turnblatt, and you’re a Vision Quest guide, making your living fulfilling the dreams of tourists (white ones in particular) by guiding them through an Authentic Indian Experience. When a customer shows up one day who wonʼt follow the script, you find that more than just your job is on the line.

Roanhorse packs a mean punch in a small package, tackling appropriation, identity, and the long-reaching consequences of colonialism with gallows humor and scalpel-sharp prose. If this is any indication of what Trail of Lightning will be like, I absolutely cannot wait.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

Occasionally a book comes along that is so surprising, it takes time to process what you just read. The Poppy War is one of those books. It starts off feeling like a pre-Industrial silkpunk fantasy, similar to Dao’s Forest of a Thousand Lanterns or Liu’s The Grace of Kings; it becomes a somewhat wry underdog story set in a military academy; and then suddenly you are reading a drug-addled, supernaturally-twisted meditation on the horrors of war and prejudice. Iʼm still recovering from the emotional whiplash, but I cannot wait for the next installment in the series.

Rin is a war orphan, raised by abusive foster parents who want to sell her off into a loveless marriage. She takes matters into her own hands when she decides to take the Keju, a nation-wide test that can send her to school and give her a shot at a future of her own choosing. Her stubborn determination sees her through and she receives a scholarship to the prestigious military academy of Sinegard. If she can hack it there, sheʼll become a general in the Empressʼs army, and sheʼs determined to hack it — at any cost. And when war comes to Nikara, Rin is forced to face the darkest parts of both humanity and herself.

Kuang has noted in interviews that she was inspired by Chinaʼs history including the Song Dynasty and the Sino-Japanese Wars, as well as other military sf/f like Enderʼs Game and The Grace of Kings, and I found that this context was key to processing the book. While you donʼt need to know anything about any of that to read it, a work this multilayered and intense benefits from some research (or at least some judicious Googling) after you turn the last page. The grisliest parts of the novel were based on actual historical events, which gives The Poppy War even greater impact. Fans of silkpunk, grimdark, anti-heroes, madcap twists and turns, and fantasy that holds up a mirror to the parts of reality we would rather ignore will want to grab this one 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.

Live long and prosper,
Jenn

Happy Friday, archivists and archangels! Today includes reviews of Not So Stories and Before Mars, book news from Jacqueline Carey and George R.R. Martin, a djinn round-up, theoretical ancient civilations, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp.

Jude has been lying low since the storm, hiding from his own power, his divine former employer, and a debt owed to the Fortune god of New Orleans. But his six-year retirement ends abruptly when the Fortune god is murdered and Jude is drawn back into the world he tried so desperately to leave behind. A world where he must find out who is responsible for the Fortune god’s death, uncover the plot that threatens the city’s soul, and discover what his talent for lost things has always been trying to show him: what it means to be his father’s son.

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In continued ASoIaF news, we won’t be getting Winds of Winter this year, but we WILL get a prequel about the Targaryens.

Where my Joscelin fans at: Jacqueline Carey has announced that she’ll be writing a retelling of Kushiel’s Dart from the perspective of everyone’s favorite Casseline. Sharifah and I talked about my fan-feelings on this week’s SFF Yeah! episode if you’re curious.

Wish fulfilled: I finally wrote that djinn book round-up I promised! You’ve already seen reviews of some of these in this newsletter, but there might be a few I hadn’t gushed about already. While there are others out there (and definitely leave your thoughts in the comments!), these were my top favorites.

QUILTBAG classics update: The on-going Tor.com series is talking Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories.

Haven’t dived into the McGuire/Grant universes yet? We’ve got a reading pathway for Seanan McGuire a.k.a. Mira Grant! For what it’s worth, I started with Into the Drowning Deep and regret nothing.

If there were earlier civiliations on Earth, would we be able to tell? I love this thought-experiment from NASA director Gavin Schmidt, especially since it ties into the solarpunk discussions I’ve been following. Someone write me a Paleocene sustainable high-tech novel please!

Reminder time: We’re doing a mystery book giveaway! You could also win Lit Chat (which is an a+ bookish card game if we do say so ourselves). And last but not least, you can get a two-week free trial to Book Riot Insiders until April 30th.

And now, reviews! This week, it’s folktales and space tales.

Not So Stories, edited by David Thomas Moore

A whole short story collection dedicated to decolonizing Kipling, you say? Sign me up! I was incredibly excited to see this book announced, in large part because I went through an enormous Kipling phase as a teen. I (like many kids) was gifted Just So stories, and read Kim several times over. It would take me til college to really understand the problems inherent in Kipling’s framing of India and other lands east. I’ve since read a lot of great works of folktales from indigenous authors, but to see a book that acknowledges Kipling’s work while reframing and deconstructing it makes my heart sing.

And the stories are so good! While each author takes a slightly different angle on the prompt, there are some through-lines, particularly the use of “Best Beloved” to address the reader. Some stories stick with the folktale structure, while others are set at specific moments in history. The opening story, “How the Spider Got Her Legs” by Cassandra Khaw, sets the tone beautifully — it’s a beautifully done origin myth, dark and brimming over with righteous anger. Other favorites include “Best Beloved” by Wayne Santos and “Serpent, Crocodile, Tiger” by Zedeck Siew, but it’s hard to pick — each story has its own particular strengths.

While I would not recommend this to actual children (under a mature 12, let’s say), I definitely want to give it to teenagers and other adults who grew up on Kipling. I do think it’s most effective if you have some familiarity with his work, but if you have somehow managed to escape school without reading “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” I also believe it stands on its own.

Before Mars by Emma Newman

Every now and then I will see a galley up for grabs and neglect to check if it’s part of a series or not, and that’s what happened here. I’d been hearing buzz about Emma Newman, I saw a galley available, and I clicked. I was a third into the book when I realized it was #3 in the Planetfall series. Woops! But I’m here to tell you that it stands alone just fine, and did indeed make me want to go back to read the first two. So if a copy falls in your lap, feel free to dive in.

Anna Kubrin is a geologist and artist, and both of those things have put her on a flight to Mars. Contracted by the colonizing corporation to both expand the previous geological surveys and to produce one-of-a-kind paintings (to be sold for jillions of dollars of course, since this is a private enterprise), she arrives shaken and disoriented from months of solo space travel. The experience of deja vu she has is surely just from that — but then she finds a note in her new room, written in her own handwriting, telling her not to trust the colony psychologist. What follows is both a psychological thriller — who is sane and who is lying? — and an exploration of what private space enterprise might look like. Newman also looks at the difficulties of motherhood and post-partum depression, rocky marriages, and healing from family trauma. If that sounds like a lot that’s because it is, but Newman handles it all with a fairly light touch.

I’ve been thinking more about these psychologically oriented, private enterprise space stories — recent others include The Wanderers by Meg Howrey and Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty. The concerns of current sci-fi writers are moving in an interesting direction, and I’m curious to see where else this trend takes us. In the meantime, I’ll be backtracking to read the other Planetfall books, which have promised me cults in space.

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, my fellow booknerds! Today in reviews I give you The Unquiet and Her Body and Other Parties, and in news we’ve got adaptations, a Middle Earth sorting hat, and a variety of punks.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Tor.

Three Queens. One crown. All out war.

The king’s erratic decisions have drained Innis Lear of its magic, leaving behind a trail of barren crops and despondent subjects. Enemy nations circle the isle, sensing its growing vulnerability.

The king’s three daughters know the realm’s only chance is to crown a new sovereign. But their father won’t choose an heir until the longest night of the year, when prophecies align.

Refusing to leave their future in the hands of blind faith, the daughters of Innis Lear prepare for war—but regardless of who wins the crown, the shores of Innis will weep the blood of a house divided.

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I talked about reading Samuel Delaney on the SFF Yeah! podcast, and heard from a number of folks that they weren’t familiar with his work and didn’t know where to start. Here’s a reading pathway to fix that!

We built a LOTR Sorting Hat thanks to comics writer Greg Pak’s A+ suggestion, and here it is. I got Rohirrim which is super correct, so can attest to its accuracy.

How punk is cornpunk? Are we running away with ourselves naming subgenres of SF/F? Maybe, but I confess that I’m kind of enjoying it.

Alert alert alert! Ann Leckie is writing a fantasy novel! I have so enjoyed seeing her play with the tropes of science fiction and breathe fresh air into the vacuum of space (see what I did there), and I can’t wait to see what she’ll do with fantasy.

In equally exciting news, Ken Liu’s short story “The Hidden Girl” (collected in The Book of Swords) is getting an adaptation. I live in hopes of this getting developed and picked up by anyone other than Amazon (who are snapping up SF properties voraciously).

Reminders! We’re doing a crazy awesome mystery giveaway and you should enter. And if you’re not already a Book Riot Insider, you can get a 2-week free trial!

And now: child assassins and even more short stories.

The Unquiet by Mikaela Everett

Trigger warning: eating disorders, harm to children

This dark, strange YA novel has stuck in my brain and won’t be shaken out. “I liked it” feels like the wrong phrasing — I was drawn in by it, provoked by it, a little confused but also compelled by it.

We first meet Lirael when she’s very young, being trained in a cottage alongside other children her own age. As we quickly learn, they’re being trained to kill. There are two Earths, one a mirror of the other; while they used to have friendly and positive diplomatic relations, including people corresponding via satellite with their doppelgangers, things have broken down. One Earth is dying, and it’s secretly sending its inhabitants to the other to take over. When Lirael comes of age and passes her final test, she’ll be sent out to find her duplicate, kill her, and take over her life without anyone knowing.

The methods by which these children are trained are, inevitably, inhumane and traumatizing. Lirael knows that she’s being used, but she also is fully committed to fulfilling her duties as part of this underground army — mostly because it’s the only thing she knows how to do, and the consequences of failure are grim. She in turn damages herself, restricting her eating and separating herself from those who might befriend her. And as the secret war escalates, Lirael has to choose again and again where her loyalties lie.

When I put this book down, I had to sit for a minute. It’s not about the triumph of good over evil, or about choosing to stand up for what’s right at any cost; it’s more of a meditation about how trauma and programming shape us, and how impossible it can be to feel like we have choices. If that’s an exploration that appeals to you, pick it up — we can have thoughts together.

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

Trigger warnings: body horror, violence against women including rape and domestic violence

I talked about this recently on SFF Yeah!, but I need to talk about it some more, so here we are. BECAUSE WOW. The collection has been getting rave reviews, it was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, and it won the National Book Critic’s Circle John Leonard Prize. Clearly you don’t need me to tell you that it’s good, but I’m going to tell you so anyway. It’s really good.

What makes it good? For a start, the range of styles and genres Machado is utilizing. Magical realism would apply, as would horror, dystopia, and fairytales. Alongside bashing through genre boundaries, Machado is also exploring sexuality and feminism. What does a wife and mother owe, and what is she owed? How do our beliefs about our bodies haunt us? How do we grapple with the narratives that others try to sell us? What powers our fascination with violence against women in pop culture? How can we recover from trauma?

“Especially Heinous,” which riffs on Law & Order: SVU, is one of the most frequently mentioned stories. But I am a person who cannot watch crime procedurals with any regularity, and while I appreciated the brilliance of that novella, it was “Inventory” (which you can read here, courtesy of Strange Horizons) that was my favorite. The way that Machado is playing with the therapeutic techniques of anxiety, coupled with a dystopia story and a woman’s contemplation of her sex life, absolutely blew me away. The whole collection is stunning; get it, read it, tell your friends.

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, sirens and Cylons! Today I’ve got two novellas for you, Waiting on a Bright Moon and A Dead Djinn in Cairo, plus queer classics, disability in science fiction, a new Tolkien book, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy.

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Need some queer classics? I’m looking forward to this post series on QUILTBAG+ Speculative Fiction, and the first book to be discussed — Jewelle Gomez’s Gilda Stories — has long been on my radar. Time to bump it up!

Remember Beren and Lúthien? We’re getting another “new” Tolkien book in August, this one called The Fall of Gondolin. As far as I can tell from the details released it will be a similar format — various drafts of an unfinished work, annotated/edited by Christopher Tolkien. Excited? Meh? I can’t quite decide yet.

The Kitchies Winners have been announced! You can find the full winner list here. Shout out to Book Riot contributor Alex Acks, who won for ze’s debut novel Hunger Makes the Wolf!

I am here for all your Octavia Butler pieces, and this one is great because it delves into her life and work in ways that are interesting both for longtime fans and those new to her work. Bonus for Janelle Monae mentions!

Speaking of contributor Alex AND of Octavia Butler! Here’s the latest pairings of SF/F books and beers, and it has some of my favorites of each included.

Alas, poor Yorick: An adaptation of Y: The Last Man has been in the works for. ev. er, but it looks like it’s finally moving forward; FX has ordered a pilot episode!

Speaking of adaptations! If you’re in the UK, the mini-series of China Mieville’s City and the City should already be on the air. And if you are in the UK and have watched it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The SF/F version of Dear Abby: Daniel Mallory Ortberg did an advice column for Tor.com and it is GOLD.

Let’s talk about disability in SF/F, specifically in the Vorkosigan Saga. There’s a lot of great food for thought here, and I’m specifically thankful for the way Grace discusses the range of representation within one series.

Today in reviews, we’ve got a space story with magic and a supernatural story with clockwork. Both happen to be from Tor.com, who are killing it in the short fiction game.

Waiting on a Bright Moon by JY Yang

Read it online.

You might recall me gushing about Yang’s Tensorate novellas and I’ve been on a short story/novella kick lately, so it was with great pleasure I stumbled across “Waiting on a Bright Moon.”

Set on an outlying colony of a far-flung interstellar empire, the story follows Xin, a human ansible. Using her magical talents and syncing via music, Xin opens transport portals with the rest of her cluster, each located on a different world. When a dead body comes through, it ruins her day; when it appears that the body is connected to an underground rebellion, it could ruin her life. As Xin contemplates her past and present, she’s also becoming closer to an intimidating starmage named Suqing.

Yang is exploring colonization, queerness, and magic, and doing it in 40-odd digital pages, and this is one of those stories that feels much bigger on the inside. I would happily read a series of books set in this world, but I also found it satisfying as a stand-alone. It’s a beautiful, tiny gem of a story, and I continue to follow Yang’s career with interest.

A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djeli Clark

Read it online.

In the course of doing research for a djinn/jinn/genie stories round up (that I will link to as soon as it’s up online), I stumbled across this novella and fell in love. An alt-history story set in Cairo in 1912, it’s both a supernatural story, a romance, and a police procedural.

Special Investigator Fatma gets called in on an odd case: a djinn has committed suicide under very strange circumstances. Unfamiliar glyphs are carved on the site, and there’s no blood at all. The only witness is a prostitute who doesn’t want to talk to law enforcement. As Fatma starts to peel back the layers surrounding the incident, she finds herself working with an enigmatic woman named Siti who seems as likely to be a foe as a friend. On top of it all, she’s navigating gender politics alongside local political alliances.

Creatures abound, and the humans aren’t all that trustworthy either. Then there’s the clockwork technology laced through-out, which mixes and melds with the magic in interesting new ways. Clark’s vision of a Cairo teeming with magic and mayhem is compelling, and this is one of those stories that leaves me craving a sequel — I definitely need more of Fatma’s adventures.

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.

May the odds be ever in your favor,
Jenn