Category: Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for February 18

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date February 17, 2020

In the coastal city of Skargakar, residents use dragons for everything from clothing to food, while airborne ships hunt the dragons in the cloud sea above. Lian does his part carving the kyrillian crystals that power the ships, but when he makes a dangerous and powerful enemy, Lian ships out on the next available vessel as a dragon hunter. He chooses the wrong ship. The fanatic Captain Adaron hunts more than just any dragon. His goal is the Firstborn Gargantuan—and Adaron is prepared to sacrifice everything for revenge.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, coming in with new releases and some genre news for you. I’ve been down all week with an absolutely horrible cold, so please think some healthy thoughts for me and give your hands an extra wash. (I’ve also learned that if you’re someone who can’t stand menthol, there are cough drops made with pectin instead! Who knew!) The good news is, this email transmission is guaranteed to be virus free (har har)!

In non-sick news, I’ve been reading about dams in the US, which are definitely items of human interference with geological processes. Or if you want something less technical, how about a cat scaring off a black bear?

New Releases

Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon – A retelling of Beauty and the Beast, with a centuries-old family feud played out by teenagers at an elite boarding school. Lord Grey Emerson is a misanthropic jerk, convinced he’s doomed when he turns 18 thanks to an ancient curse laid on his family by a long-gone matriarch of the Rao clan. Princess Jaya Rao wants revenge for her little sister, who was targeted by the awful Emerson family, and she hatches a plan to make Grey love her and then break his heart. As one might imagine, things don’t go according to plan.

Sword of Fire by Katharine Kerr – In the kingdom of Deverry, the bards are the peoples’ voice. The terribly corrupt state of the law courts are thrown into sharp relief when a bard is allowed to starve to death rather than let their grievances be heard. Alyssa has the evidence that could overthrow the corrupt courts, but the most powerful lords in the kingdom would rather kill than let even the smallest part of their privilege go.

Bridge 108 by Anne Charnock – In the near future, out of control wildfires force millions to flee southern Europe. Twelve-year-old Caleb is separated from his mother during the trek and taken by human traffickers to Manchester. With a fellow victim, he escapes and begins a new journey, looking for a better life and for his family.

The Golden Key by Marian Womack – In the wake of Queen Victoria’s death, seances and spiritualism rise to the fore in an England that practically heaves with the uncanny. A woman with the ability to find what is lost is hired by a lady who wants closure to a twenty-year-old mystery: the disappearance of her three stepdaughters in the Norfolk Fens. But the fens are a place of dark magic and the fae…

The Life Below by Alexandra Monir – Sequel to The Final Six. The teenage astronauts for the mission to Europa have been chosen, but there are still more questions than answers. What happened to the previous, failed mission? Is Europa a blank slate, waiting for humanity, or is there alien life there already? Teenage astronauts Leo and Naomi have to find answers before the mission is launched and its too late for everyone.

News and Views

Twitter basically lost its mind over this trailer for The Green Knight. Because Dev Patel, and this looks absolutely metal as hell.

The Hottest New Literary Genre Is “Doomer Lit” (and by doom, they mean climate doom)

Barbara Remington, whose Lord of the Rings illustrations were beloved by everyone but Tolkien, has died

Amal El-Mohtar has a game recommendation for you: For the Queen

io9 attempts a definitive list of the 10 best presidents in science fiction

The dark history behind Hansel and Gretel

First Stranger Things season 4 trailer is out.

Alan Tudyk plays the alien doctor in Resident Alien.

Eternals will have Marvel’s first big screen queer couple.

Tor.com would like you to pick your necromancy family from the houses of Gideon the Ninth

Cathy Yan breaks down the end fight scene of Birds of Prey where Harley is on roller skates

New images show Betelgeuse isn’t dimming evenly

On Book Riot

Discovering a Love of Science Fiction and Fantasy and Recent Favorites

See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for February 14

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date February 13, 2020

Sponsored by Tor Books

Humanity clings to life on January—a colonized planet divided between permanently frozen darkness on one side and blazing endless sunshine on the other. Two cities serve as the last bastions of civilization—but life inside them is just as dangerous as the uninhabitable wastelands outside. Sophie, a young student, is exiled into the dark after being part of a failed revolution. But she survives—with the help of a mysterious savior from beneath the ice. Burdened with a dangerous, painful secret, Sophie and her ragtag group of exiles face the ultimate challenge—and they are running out of time.

Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with the some news and a load of books to take you into the weekend. I’m still valiantly struggling to survive against the horrific onslaught of viral invaders, but I guess the good news is I’ve been getting a bit more reading done while I lay in bed and wait for the cough syrup to whisk me sweetly away. I just finished The Warrior Moon by K. Arsenault Rivera, which is the final book of an epic trilogy in which lesbians take on a god–and become gods themselves.

In non-SFF news, this interview with Bong Joon Ho is excellent and have I mentioned I love him? Also, the Oscars happened, so Genevieve Valentine has a red carpet rundown.

News and Views

Highlights from CL Polk’s reddit AMA.

Tor.com has a great introduction to KJ Charles’s work.

Black Girl Nerds have a list of six SFF books you should read during Black Future Month.

I honestly have no idea what is going on in this trailer, but I dig it.

Some of SFF artist Michael Whelan’s work has found a new home in a Louis Vuitton campaign.

Tochi Onyebuchi (Riot Baby) was on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah.

Just in case you, a foolish mortal, thought you could not possibly love Taika Waititi more, I bring you exhibit A and exhibit B.

We Asked a Hedgehog Dentist to Explain Why Sonic’s Human Teeth Are So Upsetting (You will come away from this article knowing many new facts about hedgehog teeth and how one cleans them.)

I just… These Crows Evolved Into a New Species, Boned the Old Species Too Much, Now Back Where They Started

On Book Riot

The Underground Railroad Book Club Questions and Reading Guide

This week’s SFF Yeah! podcast is about genre-blending SFF.

Don’t forget to check out the Black History Month Book Bundle give away! There’s three excellent SFF books in among the great selection.

Free Association Friday

Last week, I suggested some SFF retellings of literature from the “western canon” by non-white authors. There were a lot of other cool retellings that I ended up leaving off because my focus was so narrow. So how about another slice of retellings by PoC–this time it’s folklore edition!

Dark and Deepest Red by Anne-Marie McLemore – A retelling of “The Red Shoes,” updating the Strasbourg dancing plague of 1518 by five centuries when a pair of shoes seal onto an unwitting young woman’s feet.

Burning Roses by S.L. Huang – (Pre-order) This promises to be a mashup of Red Riding Hood and a genderbent Hou Yi the Archer.

Thorn by Intisar Khanani – A retelling of The Goose Girl, in which a princess who wishes to escape the pressures of royal life becomes the goose girl after a sorceress steals her identity.

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee – Overachieving student who just wants to get into an Ivy-league school (is that all) meets a hot transfer student who is literally the Monkey King of Journey to the West fame, just in time for her town to come under siege by demons.

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi – A Snow White retelling that delves into questions of race; a white woman marries a light-skinned African-American man who has an apparently white daughter and finds herself becoming the wicked (step)mother when the son they have together is dark-skinned.

Ash by Malinda Lo – A lesbian retelling of Cinderella, where instead of a prince, “Cinderella” meets the King’s huntress and befriends her… and then becomes more.

The Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao – A beautiful girl with a cruel witch of an aunt lives at the edge of a forest. But if the girl wants to achieve greatness, she must fuel the magic within her by eating the hearts of the recently killed. It’s Snow White with a definite twist.

The Changeling by Victor LaValle – A modern changeling story that crashes right into some horrific Norse myths about trolls–and horrific realities of white supremacy.

Wicked Fox by Kat Cho – A nine-tailed fox quietly living in the modern world decides to rescue a young man in trouble instead of eating him… and then her life only gets more complicated from there.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for February 11

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date February 10, 2020

Sponsored by Tor Books

War has come to Fireach Speuer. The once forgotten Xoconai Empire has declared war upon the people of Loch Beag. Lead by their peerless general, all that stands in the way of the God King’s grasp is Aoleyn, Talmadge, and their few remaining allies. But not all hope is lost. Far away from Fireach Speuer, an ancient tomb is uncovered by Brother Thaddius. Within it is the power to stop the onslaught of the empire and, possibly, reshape the very world itself.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! We all know what that means by now… Alex coming in at a slow, zombie-esque shuffle, fighting against the horrible infestation of cold viruses that have left them with barely enough strength to tow in the new releases. Okay, thankfully, that’s not how it goes every week. Please wash your hands a lot, y’all. And get your flu shot.

Happy things for the week, though! This happened at the Independent Spirit Awards and it was the best thing I’ve seen all week. Also, you might not know this about me, but I also really enjoy reading romance. So this list on Book Riot about romances that express queerness while also being m/f (which is something I think gets erased way too often) gave me a lot of books to add to my to-read pile.

New Releases

Stormsong by C.L. Polk – Grace must face the consequences of her decision to help her brother undo an atrocity. The power is out and a line of ferocious winter storms are coming in to batter Aeland. But while she’s trying to guide her family to safety, she must deal with interference from a vengeful queen, the murmurings of revolution–and worst of all, a photojournalist named Avia who has a nose for secrets and is aimed straight at Grace’s heart.

Tyll: A Novel by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin – A scrawny boy named Tyll is forced to flee his quiet village in the seventeenth century when his father’s interest in alchemy and magic is found out by the church. Tyll eventually becomes a traveling performer as he wanders a land devestated by the Thirty Years War and meets meets figures both historic and fictional.

A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers – Helen Lambert meets a man who claims he’s watched her for centuries–and unbeknownst to her, he has, through different lives as a musician and actress. She begins to have vivid dreams of these lives, all of them cut abruptly short–and in so doing develops uncanny powers that will perhaps help her break the curse she’s caught in.

And I Do Not Forgive You by Amber Sparks – A collection of weird and otherworldly stories about women, from the fantastic to the historical; each story seeks to return a voice to those who have been silenced, by the lies of history or the inequities of modern life.

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood – An orc priestess named Csorwe is “betrothed” to the god called the Unspoken One, which means she will be sacrificed to him in her fourteenth year. But as she climbs the mountain to his shrine to meet her fate, a mage intervenes and offers her a new life: become his hired sword and assassin, help him topple an empire and regain his rightful place as ruler, and she will live if she’s strong and clever enough. Csorwe takes her chance and embarks on her new life… but all debts come due eventually.

News and Views

Exploring the People of Middle-earth: Éowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan is a really fascinating piece about Éowyn’s evolution as a character during Tolkien’s writing process.

Darcie Little Badger’s debut novel now has a gorgeous cover (and you can read an excerpt)! You can also pre-order Elatsoe, though the cover hasn’t made it onto Amazon yet.

Here’s Alex Brown’s suggestions on what short fiction you should read from January.

Naomi Novik is going to write a new fantasy trilogy.

Birds of Prey is out now, and I’ve seen it and I love it, in case you were wondering. One of the things I loved best was the action sequences were flippin’ amazing. There’s a really good reason for that.

I know as a rule I don’t really link to book reviews, but I really want there to be more yelling about Given.

NASA brought Voyager 2 back online!

Something that definitely deserves to be explored in sci-fi: SpaceX’s satellites and the night sky

Christina Koch has set a new record for the longest space flight by a woman.

On Book Riot

The Best Bookish Games for Your Interests

Check out Book Marks, our new reading tracker and journal (complete with recommended reading lists from Book Riot)!

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for February 7: SFF Retellings

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date February 6, 2020

Sponsored by Tor Books

The Bard’s Blade is the start of the new Sorcerer’s Song fantasy adventure series from Brian D. Anderson. Mariyah enjoys a simple life in Vylari, a land magically sealed off from the outside world. There she’s a renowned wine maker and her betrothed, Lem, is a musician of rare talent. Then a stranger enters Vylari for the first time in centuries, bringing a dark prophecy that forces Lem and Mariyah down separate paths. How far will they have to go to stop a rising darkness? And how much of themselves will they have to give up along the way?

Happy Friday, shipmates! Whew, it sure has been a month this week, hasn’t it? But we got through it; it’s time for the weekend, which means time to catch up on reading (and, if you’re me, the weekly episode of Picard.) It’s Alex, with a bit of SFF-related news and a set of books you might want to check out, given… current events.

I confess, I’m not a sports afficiando, so I’m only now just catching up with the Super Bowl commercials. Some things are eldritch horrors that shall not be mentioned, but I’m going to share my two favorites because they both make me smile: Jeep’s homage to one of my favorite movies ever, Groundhog Day; and the Doritos commercial that brought together two of my favorite guys.

News and Views

Here’s a short story from C.L. Polk: St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid

Because I like you and want you to be happy, here’s a picture of Gates McFadden in her Star Trek uniform, on a unicycle.

A history of Star Trek’s uneasy relationship with androids.

A 4-minute VFX reel from The Rise of Skywalker, which includes shots of how they brought Carrie Fisher into the film.

Seanan McGuire’s next Wayward Children book will be called Across the Green Grass Fields.

There are many good Twitter threads about the most recent publishing “are you f*****g kidding me?” moment. SL Huang’s is a good one. And so is NK Jemisin’s.

A cat in Siberia who lost all four of her paws to severe frostbite now has 3D-printed, titanium prosthetics.

On Book Riot

This week’s SFF Yeah! podcast is about mind-bending SFF.

Free Association Friday

For a different no particular reason than last week (goodness, but you’d think the publishing world would run out of YIKES eventually), let’s take a look at some SFF takes on “classic literature”–by which I mean works generally considered to be part of the “Western canon”–that are written by non-white authors!

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard – Genderbent Sherlock Holmes meets space opera, where Watson is an intelligent, tea-blending space ship. Have I mentioned I love this book? Because I love this book.

Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim – This is a fantasy retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo… and as a bonus, it’s gender-swapped!

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi – Just what it says on the tin: a horrific and darkly humorous take on the most classic of all scifi, set in contemporary, US-occupied Baghdad.

Destroyer by Victor LaValle – Also a take on Frankenstein, but this one is set in the modern United States and is very much about state (police) violence against Black people. Bonus: check out his book The Ballad of Black Tom for a retelling of one of Lovecraft’s most racist (and there’s stiff competition) stories, The Horror of Red Hook.

A Blade so Black and A Dream so Dark by L.L. McKinney – A modern, urban fantasy retelling of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that starts in Atlanta and goes quickly through the looking glass.

King Maker: The Knights of Breton Court by Maurice Broaddus – A King Arthur retelling that’s set in Indianapolis and follows a hustler named King, who must unite gang members and criminals–and lead them on an epic, righteous quest.

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige – A retelling of The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy isn’t helping her friends find hearts and brains… she’s out to remove them by whatever means necessary.

The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer – A steampunk, fantastical take on Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, which in this imagining, takes place on a zeppelin flying high above a rich and mysterious metropolis.

The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delaney – A retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, but it’s Delaney, so hold onto your butts. Things get weird fast.

Bonus round! Not strictly a retelling, but you should still check this out:

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – This is a take on every gothic horror novel you’ve known and loved–think: The Turn of the Screw–but set in Mexico in the 1950s.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for February 4

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date February 3, 2020

Swords and Spaceships for January 31: Mexicanx SFF

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date January 30, 2020

Swords and Spaceships for January 28

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date January 27, 2020

Sponsored by Flatiron Books, publishers of The Night Country by Melissa Albert

The highly anticipated sequel to Melissa Albert’s beloved, New York Times bestselling debut The Hazel Wood! In The Night Country, Alice Proserpine dives back into a menacing, mesmerizing world of dark fairy tales and hidden doors. Follow her and Ellery Finch as they learn The Hazel Wood was just the beginning, and that worlds die not with a whimper, but a bang.

Happy new release day, shipmates! Here we are again, about to plunge into the teeming bookstores and come back, lighter in the wallet but richer in some really aweome books. It’s Alex, with some news and a few new releases you might want to check out.

Also, I come bearing the gospel of Picard; I somehow managed to not cry through the entire first episodes, but I am on tenterhooks waiting for the second. If you have access to the CBS streaming service, make sure to catch up on the Short Treks (they’re all in their own section now) because there are some really cute ones. When you get to The Trouble With Edward (warning: I spent the entire time almost howling with horrified laughter), do yourself a favor and make sure to watch ALL the way to the end.

Fun thing for the week: this is an absolutely amazing Twitter thread that reminds me Qualityland for reasons you will easily divine.

New Releases

Highfire by Eoin Colfer – The great and terrifying Wyvern, Lord Highfire of the Highfire Eyrie, once struck fear into the hearts of humans everywhere. Now, disguised as a human you can just call “Vern,” he would rather sit on his recliner and drink vodka while he watches Flashdance for the nth time. His peaceful existence of complete dissipation is interrupted by a canny young man called Squib who has just witnessed a murder and the corrupt cop who tries to blow him up with a grenade launcher. Squib’s a clever young man and cuts a deal with “Vern” — he’ll bring the dragon all the vodka he wants and listen to him talk about his favorite movie, in exchange for protection.

Seven Deadly Shadows by Courtney Alameda and Valynne E. Maetani – Bullied by her classmates and ignored by her parents, Kira only has one thing going for her, and it might be more of a curse than a blessing: she can see the yokai that travel the streets of Kyoto. When she learns that the demon king will rise during the next blood moon to hunt down an ancient relic that he will use to end the world, she knows she must seek the help of seven powerful death gods if she wants the world to have a fighting chance.

Buzz Kill by David Sosnowski – Two hackers–one the daughter of an online therapist to Silicon Valley’s best and “squirreliest,” and the other a White Hat who has been chatting with her dad after begin given the opportunity to go legit–meet online and conceive a bouncing baby AI named BUZZ.

Cast in Wisdom by Michelle Sagara – The sentient Towers of the city of Elantra guard the world against the encroaching Shadow. Between the towers exists a border zone where magic works differently and the geography changes from one day to the next. When a Shadow escapes the reach of the towers, Kaylin and her dragon companion must figure out how and why; if the Shadows can reach the heart of Elantra, the city will be devoured.

News and Views

Jeannette Ng hits it out of the park with another excellent essay: Confessions of a Hate Reader, or Bad Writing Habits I Picked up from Bad Criticism

My new favorite Twitter account ever: Science Diagrams That Look Like Shitposts

New short story from Maria Dahvana Headley: The Girlfriend’s Guide to Gods

Adam Driver did another round of Undercover Boss on SNL.

Big Data and The Centenal Cycle by Malka Older

Still on the fence about seeing Color Out of Space. And worth asking: Can you tell an HP Lovecraft story while rejecting his hatred?

Rudy Rucker discusses Agency with William Gibson

It’s definitely not unusual for Star Trek to be very political, but the Daily Beast argues that Picard might be the most political show currently out there.

Relevant to my interests and perhaps yours: The first cookies have been baked in space.

On Book Riot

19 Door-Opening Quotes from The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

What Is Speculative Fiction?

5 Reasons Why You Should Be Reading Seanan McGuire

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for January 24

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date January 23, 2020

Sponsored by A Twist Of Starlight by Betty Valentine, one weekend will test the bonds of a friendship spanning centuries

A new world hidden in the one you already knew. Dave Freeman thought a trip up the mountain with his widowed father Jon and the friends who helped raise him would heal his damaged soul. Tiny cigar chewing Bernie, skirt chasing Marc and ancient drunken Hugh had other ideas. He thought he would surprise them, but they sure as hell ended up surprising him. At the end of the weekend one is out of the closet, two are out of this world and the other out of his mind. Full of warmth, humour, and the bonds of friendship spanning centuries.

Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s been one heck of a week, but we got through it with the power of books, among other wonderful things. It’s Alex with some news and some slightly (okay, more than slightly) murder-y books to take you into the weekend.

Thing that made me happy cry today so I had to share: Just watch this clip of Patrick Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg on The View.

News and Views

A beautiful profile of N.K. Jemisin in The New Yorker.

Preeti Chhiber has written an adorable Star Wars picture book that’ll come out October 6. You can check out some of the super cute pictures from it here.

At Young People Read Old SFF, The White Pony by Jane Rice.

The Witcher is getting an animated film in addition to a second season. Also, if you’ve been chomping at the bit for the soundtrack, it’s coming. You can already Toss a Coin to Your Witcher right now.

Oh good. We’re getting at least one more season of Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor.

Christopher Tolkien the cartographer.

The protagonist of The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has been revealed. I am… not excited, to be honest.

Can’t wait to read the novel about this: Federal officials seized Alan Turing’s missing-since-1984 doctorate and knighthood medal when someone offered to “loan” them to the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Sarcos is making fully mobile and strong industrial exoskeletons, so we’re on track to fight aliens Ripley-style.

Known class traitor Mr. Peanut is finally getting the fate he deserves.

This will come as no surprise to anyone who’s ever owned a cat, but our little feline pals will happily nom us when we’re gone–and it has been scientifically determined which bits of us they’ll find tastiest. Bless their evil, adorable little hearts.

On Book Riot

This week’s SFF Yeah! is about historical sci-fi and fantasy.

5 YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels That Tackle Climate Change

Free Association Friday

Happy… 31st anniversary of Ted Bundy being given the chair? A little yikes, a little grim, but it’s a good prompt for looking at SFF that blends with the (mostly murder) mystery.

Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard – You might think that a priestess showing up covered in blood in the Aztec Empire, which runs on human sacrifice, would not be a big deal. But you’d be wrong, and Acatl, High Priest of the Dead, is called on to investigate this little problem. That turns into a much deeper, bigger problem than anyone could have expected, involving politics and magic. This is the start of a series of Aztec noir mysteries.

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin – In Gujaareh, priests of the dream-goddess harvest magic from sleepers that dream and use it to heal, keep the peace… and kill if necessary. But someone begins to murder the dreamers of Gujaareh, and the Gatherer Ehiru finds himself called on to not only protect a woman he was sent to kill, but unwind the dark cause of these deaths.

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty – It’s still murder, even if it’s a clone. Maria wakesand her six crew mates wake up in blood-streaked clone vats on a spaceship with no memories of how they died… which is bad, actually, since that means there something worse than a simple mass murder going on. Each of the seven crew members has a secret, and each of them could very well be the killer…

The Ark by Patrick S. Tomlinson – On a generation ship that’s within spitting distance of its destination, being the Chief of Police is basically a symbolic role for former sports hero Bryan Benson because there isn’t any crime. Until a crew member goes missing, and then Bryan has to solve a locked room mystery… where the room is an impossibly massive spaceship.

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters – Detective Hank Palace has decided to investigate the apparent suicide of a depressed man as a potential homicide… despite the planet-killing asteroid that’s bearing down on Earth, promising to end all life in six months.

The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes – Ideas that people love a lot become Real… but where do they go when the people who had them no longer need them? They live in the Imagination, a strange and at times Toon-Town-esque place where they all try to make a new life. One of these Ideas is Tippy the Triceratops, who is filled with Detective Stuff… and his Stuff gets a workout when someone in Imagination decides that murder is a great idea, too.

Honorable Mention: Jade City by Fonda Lee – It’s not so much a murder mystery, where a good person wants to solve the crime and stop the bad person–rather it’s that close cousin, the crime novel. This book is basically about the mafia in magical not-China–and there is a murder that happens. Plus it’s fun as heck.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships for January 21

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date January 20, 2020

Sponsored by Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

Charlaine Harris is back! The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series (the books that inspired HBO’s True Blood) has an all-new series that fans new and old will adore. Perfect for readers of alternate history and weird westerns, A LONGER FALL is set in a world where Franklin D. Roosevelt was assassinated, and follows gunslinger Lizbeth Rose in the fractured countries and territories that were once the United States of America. Tying in touches of magic and mystery, this is one for all readers of speculative fiction and thriller will enjoy.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex with some new releases for you and news, including some even-further-in-the-future releases that I am totally freaking out about.

My favorite thing of the week so far is this cartoon, because this is exactly what it’s like to do science.

New Releases

Agency by William Gibson – Verity takes on a job to test a new app, a digital assistant that operates in a pair of ordinary-looking glasses. She discovers an AI named Eunice, who has a face, a fragmented past, and a worryingly good grasp of combat strategy. A century in the future and in a different timeline, Verity and Eunice are the current “project” of a woman who can look into alternate pasts and nudge them in the direction she wishes.

Remembrance by Rita Woods – Separated out across two centuries, the lives of three Black women (two of whom are enslaved and seeking the road to freedom) are intertwined by the mysterious power that each possesses. If you liked Kindred by Octavia Butler, you don’t want to miss this one.

Given by Nandi Taylor – Yenni, a warrior princess of the Yirba, seeks the cure for her father’s mysterious illness, traveling alone to the Empire of Cresh. Unfortunately, no one warned her about the dragons there… let alone that a particularly arrogant one would try to claim her as his destined mate.

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi – Ella has a Thing, one that lets her see events that haven’t happened yet, make herself invisible, and more, fueled in part by her helpless anger at the foundation-deep racism her family and her city constantly face. When her brother Kev, who was born in the middle of a riot, is incarcerated, she must decide what to do with this power of hers that can destroy cities.

Ashlords by Scott Reintgen – Phoenix horses are magical creatures made of ash and alchemy, a gift to the Ashlords by their gods. Over the centuries, their cultural orbit around the phoenix horses has created a multi-day, high stakes event: The Races. This year, three of the eleven riders competing are riding for even higher stakes than grievous bodily harm and glory–who will win?

A Queen in Hiding by Sarah Kozloff – Can’t really get more concise than what the publisher had to say: “Orphaned, exiled and hunted, Cerulia, Princess of Weirandale, must master the magic that is her birthright, become a ruthless guerilla fighter, and transform into the queen she is destined to be. But to do it she must win the favor of the spirits who play in mortal affairs, assemble an unlikely group of rebels, and wrest the throne from a corrupt aristocracy whose rot has spread throughout her kingdom.”

News and Views

Wanna read a short story about a cat fighting demons? For He Can Creep

We’re going to be getting a “vengeful Desi, f/f epic fantasy” from Tasha Suri and I AM SO EXCITED. (Tasha wrote Empire of Sand.)

Suyi Davis Okungbowa will be writing a fantasy series inspired by Wes African empires. I AM ALSO EXCITED FOR THIS! (Suyi wrote David Mogo, Godhunter.)

The Watch has released some stills and some fans are pretty concerned. To be honest, I’m willing to roll with a lot, but where they seem to be going with Sybil is getting a big NOPESPIDER.GIF from me.

Elon Musk apparently would love to make some horrible scifi futures for the not-rich (including the one I wrote; company towns are bad, y’all) actually real. Tobias S. Buckell also has a good point about the squirmy way we talk about going to space. Silvia Moreno-Garcia also wrote a very relevant book: Prime Meridian.

Christopher Tolkien passed away at the age of 95.

Aw, PICARDilly Circus!

Life debts in fiction.

Australian firefighters saved the world’s only groves of Wollemi Pines, a plant species that has outlived the dinosaurs and was thought to be extinct until 1994.

Physicists have confirmed the fastest way to load passengers on an airplane.

A draft genome of the giant squid has been published.