Category: Swords and Spaceships

Happy Tuesday and I hope you’re ready for some new releases! It’s Alex, coming in fast on the delivery barge, and I’ve got some news besides. A bunch of fun interview stuff this week, for some reason.

In non-SFF news, this thread on cat coat genetics gave me some serious galaxy brain. Sort of related: what happens when you give a clouded leopard a Christmas tree.

New Releases

Burn the Dark by S.A. Hunt – A viral YouTube fiction series about a witch hunter is, unbeknownst to the millions who follow it, nonfiction. The creator of the series, Robin, is out for revenge on a coven of rural witches that wronged her mother long ago.

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez – Nia is the captain of a spaceship, adrift in time because she ages more slowly than any family or friends she’s ever had thanks to relativistic travel. She meets a mysterious, scarred boy who communicates only by playing music on a wooden flute and decides to welcome him into her crew–and family. But there are dangerous forces who want the boy for his gifts…

A Longer Fall by Charlaine Harris – Lizbeth Rose is hired onto a crew to protect a crate that’s going the last place on Earth she wants to be: Dixie. But what should have been a cake walk turns deadly quickly, with the rest of the crew massacred and the crate stolen. Lizbeth has no choice but to go undercover and call in old favors if she wants to finish the job.

The End of the Ocean by Maja Lunde, translated by Diane Oatley – In 2019, a seventy-year-old woman sets sail on a dangerous voyage, haunted by memories of her past. Twenty-two years later, a man and his daughter flee from a southern Europe that has been ravaged by drought and wars… and find a sailboat miles away from the nearest body of water.

A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen – In a post-plague world that has disintegrated into self-governing cities and wasteland gangs, a former pop star tries to create a new identity for herself so she can escape her domineering father. Her fate becomes intertwined with that of an event planner who just wants a fresh start and a father trying to keep custody of his daughter–and then a new outbreak of the plague begins.

Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore – In the summer of 1518, a mysterious sickness sweeps through Strasbourg, causing women ill with a burning fever to dance in the streets–some until they fall over, dead. A young woman and her family fall under suspicion of witchcraft. Five hundred years later, another young woman encounters a pair of red shoes that force her to dance uncontrollably. Her only chance of survival is solving a mystery that’s lain dormant for five centuries.

News and Views

SL Huang wrote this heart-rending thread about her short story As the Last I May Know. Both are worth your time to read.

A profile of Maurice Broaddus, author of Pimp My Airship.

The Guardian interview with William Gibson: “I was losing a sense of how weird the real world was.”

Tor.com made a cool graphic that shows where a bunch of fantasy second worlds sit on the axes Seanan McGuire created for her Wayward Children series.

Sir Ian McKellen has shared his production blogs from The Lord of the Rings.

A fun interview with William Jackson Harper, in which he uses Chidi to analyze Josh (the character he played in Midsommar).

Filed under “Video gamers are good, actually.”

I am extremely excited about the new Birds of Prey trailer.

I enjoy a good take-down perhaps far more than I should, especially when it involves something helmed by Steven Moffat: On the Profound Awfulness of Netflix’s Dracula

I’ve been not mentioning the continuing meltdown at Romance Writers of America because it’s not really our lane at this newsletter, but Hugo-nominated writer and Space Raptor Butt Invasion king Chuck Tingle got dragged into it by the now-ex-President, and he made a beautiful thing.

On Book Riot

15 Science Fiction Short Stories to Take You Out of This World

7 Amazing Illustrated Editions of Neil Gaiman’s Novels

5 Comics and Graphic Novels to Read if You Enjoyed The Witcher

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.

Happy Friday, space pirates! It’s Alex with some Friday news and some cool books you might want to check out. I will say, the best news I got all week is that Rian Johnson is already working on a sequel to Knives Out. And I am amused and, to be honest, a little puzzled by the trend of people seeing Cats while high out of their gourds. That’s sure a thing.

I know I normally try to keep things light in the intro, but if you’ll indulge me in being serious for a moment: everything I hear about the fires in Australia is breaking my heart. A couple of small ways we can help from half a world away are: Victoria Zoos’ Bushfire Emergency Wildlife Fund and Fire Relief Fund for First Nations Communities. Longer term, there’s Seed, an organization that supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people fighting for climate justice.

News and Views

Essay of the week and an absolute barn burner: Asimov’s Empire, Asimov’s Wall (There are still notably awards named after Asimov.)

Locus has a report from the Chengdu International Science Fiction Conference.

Dune is going to be a set of graphic novels.

In “[Some] Star Wars fans are good, actually“: Over 3300 donors have raised over $70,000 for Adam Driver’s charity.

A lovely post at Tor.com about the works of Silvia Moreno-Garcia. (All of them are good and you should read them.)

Some short fiction recommendations from December, courtesy of Alex Brown at Tor.com. Or for an expansive list of short fiction recommendations that cover the whole year, Charles Payseur at Quick Sip Reviews has you covered.

Three Bill Williamson short stories by Harry Turtledove for your reading pleasure.

You can read the first chapter of Sarah Gailey’s Upright Women Wanted. (Full disclosure: We have the same agent.)

Any week I can link you to PNAS is a good week. Here’s a cool paper about a massive impact crater found in Laos, buried under a volcanic field. SyFy does a good layman’s summary of it if you prefer. It’s no Chicxulub, but it still would have been a bad day if you were in the neighborhood.

One more geology nerd thing: this interactive globe lets you see how a city’s location has changed over millions of years.

On Book Riot

15 of the Best LGBTQ Science Fiction Books

20 Must-Read 2020 SFF Books

In this week’s SFF Yeah! podcast we’re talking SFF with a dash of romance.

Free Association Friday: SFF Written by Muslim Authors

For absolutely no reason whatsoever, how about we talk about a few books by Muslim authors?

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal – Set in a fantasy ancient Arabia, a girl who disguises herself as a boy hunts to feed her people, and a Prince assassinates the enemies of his father. They’re both legends in their own right, whether they want to be or not, and they’re on a collision course as they both seek the same magical artifact.

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed – The Crescent Moon Kingdoms are already boiling over with intrigue and conflict, the home to epic power struggles and magical beings. Add to that mix a series of supernatural murders that may be part of a plot to overthrow the throne, and the entire world may just tear itself down to the foundations.

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson – A historical fantasy set in the last emirate of Musliim Spain, about a concubine and her friend the palace mapmaker, who has the magical gift to make maps of places he’s never seen–a gift viewed as dark sorcery by the rising Christian Spanish monarchy. With their lives and freedom at stake, the two friends have an impossible journey to make outside of the palace walls they’ve always known.

Palestine+100 – A short story anthology filled with the works of 12 Palestinian authors, imagining the not-so-far future of 2048 in ways that range from superheroes to sci-fi noir.

City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty – I absolutely adore this book, which is about a con woman with a mysterious past and a djinn warrior who is the sort of arrogant yet weirdly loveable a-hole you want to shake by the hair, briefly set against the backdrop of the Ottoman empire before they depart the human world for that of the daeva. Then it’s politics and magic and would the two of you just kiss already oh no there’s also a handsome and well-intentioned prince who is so gosh darn nice that everyones manipulating him and did I mention that he’s hot too oh noooooooo.

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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.

Happy First Round of New Releases for the New Year! That’s a holiday, right? Well, it is now. I’m Alex, and I’ve got six new books (among the many releasing today!) to check out, as well as some news in the queue. And yes, it really is just the first week of the new year.

There’s been a thing on Twitter this last week with people summarizing books using the Reddit AITA (Am I the Asshole?) format, and I have just been laughing so hard. The Mary Sue collected some of the best tweets.

New Releases

Lady Hotspur by Tessa Gratton – For those of us who have ever read Shakespeare’s Henry IV part 1 and 2 and wished there were more women. The Lady Knights, whose motto is “Strike Fast, Love Hard, Live Forever,” have a war of succession on their hands, and Lady Hotspur Persy will decide the fate of the kingdom by what side she chooses.

The Black Cathedral by Marcial Gala, translated by Anna Kushner – A preacher moves his family to Cienfuegos, and receives a vision: he must build a temple greater than any other in Cuba and turn the city into the new Jerusalem. Those who grow up in the shadow of the rising cathedral are marked by violence, cruelty, and selfishness–and they have stories to tell.

Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez – The usurper Atoc has killed or driven all but one of the Illustrian royal family from La Ciudad. Now he demands the hand of the survivor, Condesa, in marriage. But she sends her decoy Ximena to the wedding in her place–and Ximena is defined both by her ability to weave thread from moonlight and her all-consuming thirst for revenge.

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire – Jack has taken the body of her sister to the Moors, a place where death definitely isn’t permanent or necessarily a problem. When she returns to the School for Wayward Children, it’s clear something has gone disturbingly wrong in a way only a mad scientist can manage–and she desperately needs her friends’ help.

Shadowshaper Legacy by Daniel José Older – Sierra, now separated from the other Shadowshapers, those with the magical ability to infuse ancestral spirits into works of art. Now she must harness the Deck of Worlds and her own power if she’s to save them all from the impending war between the houses… just when an old deal that Sierra’s ancestors made with Death is coming home to roost.

Qualityland by Marc Uwe-Kling – Welcome to Qualityland, the best country on Earth, where every aspect of a person’s life is determined by algorithms, including those that deliver products from TheShop to your doorstep before you even order them. The algorithms know best. Then a machine scrapper who can’t bring himself to actually scrap anything rebels by trying to return an item he knows he doesn’t want, shaking the very foundations of society.

News and Views

Hugo Nominations have opened for this year.

Every genre movie Netflix has announced for this year.

If you need a refresher before you leap into Come Tumbling Down, Seanan McGuire has recapped the series for you.

How Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings changed publishing forever.

The only other thing I’m going to say about The Rise of Skywalker is that I love John Boyega and I would wrestle a bear for him.

The Lost Diaries of General Hux

Cat Rambo has an amazing, massive essay that is well worth reading: The New Rude Masters of Fantasy & Science Fiction — and Romance

If you’ve ever wondered why writers spend so much time talking about money and how we never get any of it, here’s one of the reasons why.

This is fascinating on several levels: Academic paper in comic form explores ethics of treating torturer with PTSD

(Warning for annoying auto-play video) This headline is amazing: Mass. Palm Reader Stole Over $70,000 From Client in Exorcism Scheme, Police Say

On Book Riot

Roughing It in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Read Harder 2020: A Sci-Fi/Fantasy Novella

Take This Lord of the Rings Quiz to Find Your Next Fantasy Read

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See you in the new year, 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.

Happy new year, shipmates! We did it, we survived 2019 and escaped that weird, often times terrible (if not necessarily personally so) monstrosity of a year and even decade. Here’s Captain Alex to tell you that the good news is, there are a lot of awesome books coming at us in 2020, so we’re going to have a good start to the new decade.

Here’s some news and book-related silliness to give 2020 a good start–and I do want to say thank you all for reading this newsletter. I wasn’t sure how well I’d do it or how long I’d be able to when I took it over in 2019, but I’ve really enjoyed squealing about books with y’all. Let’s keep doing it in the roaring 2020s!

By the way, this is the best thing I’ve seen on Twitter all week. I am #TeamMom all the way.

News and Views

The 2019 Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Horrible Fictional Parents

A really interesting essay that academically examines the problematic roots of cyberpunk (by someone who loves cyberpunk): Techno-Orientalism in Science Fiction

The cover has been revealed for Matt Wallace’s new book, Savage Legion. (Matt and I share an agent.)

How Tolkien wrote the One Ring as its own character.

The science fiction that became science fact in 2019.

From the Department of Vampire Affairs: DNA Analysis Revelaed the Identity of 19th Century “Connecticut Vampire”

Tor.com has republished a Peter S. Beagle short story to enjoy to start off the year: The Story of Kao Yu

5 book covers from the 1970s that actually represent the story

If you’re interested in some deep genre wonkery, you should definitely check out Jason Sanford’s assessment of the state of genre magazines going into 2020.

Also wonky and interesting: Fandom Went Mainstream in the 2010s–for Better and Worse

The title says it all: How Kepler Invented Science Fiction and Defended His Mother in a Witchcraft Trial While Revolutionizing Our Understanding of the Universe

On Book Riot

Magic, Myths, and Assassins: 6 Latinx Fantasy Novels You Can’t Miss

16 of the Best Standalone SFF Novels from 2019

Quiz: What Should You Read Before THE RISE OF SKYWALKER?

In 2020, I resolve to…

New year, new goals, right? Time for some resolutions. If you’re not sure what goals to set for yourself, you can take an example from books. Like these!

…end corporate fascism: The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley.

…become the world’s greatest detective: Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger

…kill a god: The Warrior Moon by K. Arsenault Rivera

…choose which children’s book series will determine the very shape of reality: Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

…become the next ruler and wreak my vengeance: Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender

…make enough money for my goddamn rent: David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

…find the last dragon: The Bone Ships by R.J. Barker

…end daylight savings time: Nine Fox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

…keep everything shipshape and sparkly clean: Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines

…take care of that vermin problem we’ve been ignoring for months: Thrawn: Treason by Timothy Zahn

…boldly go where no one has gone before: To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

…finally confess my secret crush: Witchmark by C.L. Polk

…rescue the coal miners from the Goblin King: Desdemona and the Deep by C. Cooney

…become an astronaut and fight sexism: The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal

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See you in the new year, 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.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! We’ve almost powered through the home stretch of this year. Just a few more days (and an obstacle course composed mostly of cookies and fudge if your life is like mine) stands between us and a bright new year of new books! It’s Alex, with one last book celebration for the year, and just a little news on the side.

If you need an absolutely delightful Twitter thread for your day, here’s one of scientists explaining what they do in all-too-plain terms.

Also, there will not be a newsletter coming to you next Friday (December 27th) or Tuesday (December 31st), so I’ll see you in 2020!

14 Small Press and Indie Books From 2019

Of Dawn and Embers by Kyoko M – This is the third book of a series about conservation, dragons, and bad people cloning dragons. The first book is Of Cinder and Bone.

Retaking Elysium by M. Darusha Wehm – Jules Morales takes a trip out to Mars, a planet “caught between capitalist exploitation and human exploration” intending to just make a buck, maybe have an adventure. They get more than they bargained for.

The Demon Door by Kim Alexander – This is a whole four book series, and I love Kim’s quick summary: “Two worlds, a hot depressed hero, a fierce and passionate heroine, his mother, her sister(s), his best friend, his best friend’s boyfriend, a bunch of evil wizards, a snotty little girl who is also a wizard, and a whole lot of poor decision making!”

Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove edited by E.D.E. Bell is anthology of flash and short fiction and contains stories like this gorgeous one by Jasre’ Ellis: By the Light of the New Moon

The Evolved Ones: Awakening by Natasha Oliver – Humanity seems more curious than afraid of the Evolved Ones among them, with scientists trying to discern why some humans are developing abilities while others do not. For humans, it’s exciting. For the Evolved Ones, it’s hide or disappear.

The Trans Space Octopus Congregation by Bogi Takács – A collection of LGBTQ SFF stories that go from space opera to a bit of body horror.

Strangers by V.S. Holmes – the third book of a trilogy about lesbian archaeologists in space. The first book is Travelers.

By Dark by T. Thorn Coyle – Part of the Witches of Portland series, which is paranormal urban fantasy with a little bit of romance in it, set in (yup) Portland. Book one is By Earth.

Trinity Sight by Jennifer Givhan – An anthroplogist pregnant with twins wakes up to find herself in a terrifying wasteland, a post-apocalyptic New Mexico. As volcanoes erupt and long-dead monsters wake, she must reclaim the heritage she once denied if she’s to have a hope of saving herself or her children.

Salvage by R.J. Theodore – Floating island nations, aliens, gods, and airships. Book one is Flotsam.

Double Edged by Jessie Kwak – When your arch nemesis dies, it’s incredibly rude of them to leave one last puzzle sitting on your doorstep. When it’s a puzzle that could stop a civil war or maybe just kill everyone, that’s even ruder.

The Hammer Falls by Travis Heermann – A gene modified pit fighter has to save the woman he loves–before his heart, damaged by too manny injuries and resurrections, gives out.

Caleuche by Jonathan Ward – The last ship of refugees to escape a world ruined by self-replicating killing machines is the Caleuche. Those on board are frightened, traumatized, and face a new fight for their lives as they try to survive.

The Best Vegan Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories of 2018 edited by B. Morris Allen – Metaphorosis has several anthologies out this year, but this one caught my eye because of the concept. Vegan SFF stories are ones that involve no meat, no hunting, no leather, no use of animals for things such as horseback riding, etc.

News and Views

After thinking about it, I’m not linking to any The Rise of Skywalker news for this week, since I know there are a hideous amount of spoilers floating around out there.

2010-2019: A Decade of Change in Science Fiction and Fantasy

An art exhibit that brings together Star Wars and Southwestern Indigenous artists: The Force is With Our People

The Pen Ten did an interview with Amal El-Mohtar, and you must read it. Amal is half the team that brought you This Is How You Lose the Time War, and you should also check out The Honey Month.

How genre is inspiring Season 18 of Project Runway.

Hulu will not be adapting Anne Rice’s vampire novels after all.

This is an interesting one from the Mary Sue – all of the bestselling books this decade have had female leads.

Looking for Leia is now streaming on SYFY.

A really chewy piece here for us SFF fans: The Decade Fandom Went Corporate

On Book Riot

6 Book Recommendations for Douglas Adams fans

15 of the Best Night Circus quotes from Morgenstern’s Classic

JK Rowling no. JK Rowling why. (CW: Transphobia)

19 Magical Books Like The Night Circus

See you in the new year, 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.

Happy Friday, Resistance pilots and Jedi! It’s Star Wars week, and if you don’t Star or War, I’m sorry in advance, because it’s consuming my brain. Yes, it’s Blue Three, aka Alex, with some links and news–most of which is not actually Star Wars-related, I promise–to take you into the weekend and a little chatter about the Star Wars books I love.

News and Views

I am not linking to what people are already saying about The Rise of Skywalker because it’s honestly too much and I want to let the movie be what it’s going to be when I see it shortly. Instead, I’m going to link to Jeannette Ng’s gorgeous essay about what The Last Jedi meant to her. And also this deeply person essay about grief, loss, and Star Wars.

Orlando Jones was fired from American Gods and this is what he had to say about it. It’s incredibly upsetting. A spokesperson for the show provided a statement to Syfy wire.

Mousa Kraish was also ejected from the show, but was much quieter about it.

If you’d like to read the first couple of chapters of Docile by K.M. Szpara, Tor.com has you covered.

Historical sources and N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy.

Neil Gaiman’s getting another adaptation… to comic books.

Young People Read Old SFF: A Matter of Proportion by Anne Walker

An argument that scifi novels from the 1960s are still good because they got everything so gloriously wrong: Science Fiction’s Wonderful Mistakes

The Netflix Christmas Expanded Universe.

Oscar Isaac says the new Dune movie will be ‘shocking’ and ‘nightmarish.’ But can it really be more shocking and nightmarish than Sting’s far future speedo in the David Lynch version?

Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan looks back on the big reveal in The Empire Strikes Back.

So there’s a nuclear war simulator if you’re looking to either depress yourself or write something truly post-apocalyptic.

Want five and a half minutes of Henry Cavill reading to you from The Last Wish?

Jason Isaacs has a few things to say about racists claiming to be fans of Star Trek.

Audobon takes on a very serious question: When is a bird a ‘birb’?

A glorious Twitter thread from the annual Planet Labs gingerbread spacecraft competition.

On Book Riot

This week’s SFF Yeah! has most-anticipated books of 2020.

10 Epic Fantasy Books Like Wheel of Time

A Magic Beyond: A Guide to Harry Potter Music

Quiz: Which Marvel Superhero Are You?

Free Association Friday: Star Wars

Because what else could I talk about today of all days? There’s still a relatively limited number of books that actually count as canon–particularly when compared to the sprawling and occasionally extremely wacky mess that is the Expanded Universe–but there’s still enough to be worth cutting it down to just a few books that are either very necessary or just darn good.

(And if you want to chat about Expanded Universe books some day, we can do that, too. Hilariously, thanks to my older brother having the worst luck when it comes to picking books, most of the EU books I’ve read have wound up on “worst” lists.)

Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse is probably the number one most important Star Wars book at the moment. It’s the bridge between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker and also ties together some disparate properties like Battlefield II. Of course, if you don’t get around to it in the time before you see the movie, I’m sure the opening crawl will explain everything we need to know anyway.

Last Shot by Daniel José Older is a Han and Lando novel, and do you really need to know anything more than that? Han’s just started his family with Leia with Lando shows up on their doorstep, needing help thanks to a criminal from their mutual past showing up.

Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson gives us the full origin story of Captain Phasma, and she is Not A Nice Lady, shockingly.

Leia, Princess of Alderaan and Bloodline by Claudia Gray are both excellent novels about our favorite space princess. The first book tells us about how her friendship with Holdo came to be–and makes us feel even sadder about Alderaan’s eventual fate because Leia’s mom is AWESOME–and the second book examines both the origins of the Resistance and the repercussions of Vader being Leia’s biological father.

Thrawn by Timothy Zahn has, in my opinion, the best part of the EU returning to canon. I love the first novel of the new Thrawn books because you learn about Thrawn and his human sidekick, Eli Vanto. To be honest, I loved the first book so much that the second book, Thrawn: Alliances, felt a little disappointing because there isn’t as much emotional meat; it’s mostly Vader being a dick and Thrawn being twistily Holmesian, which is satisfying, but not at the same level–though it does also feature some good moments for Padme, who is certainly owed them.

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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.

Ahoy, shipmates! Here’s Alex, and we’re doing something a little bit different this Tuesday. There wasn’t much in the way of new releases again this week, so we’re going retrospective once more. And there are SO MANY THINGS I wanted to tell you about, I’m going to give you a double helping of news on Friday to leave more room for talking about books here. Enjoy!

17 SFF Series That Finished in 2019

I wanted to look at what series have finished in 2019, in case you know some people averse to picking up a series until it’s done. (Though seriously, please don’t wait until the bitter end. If the early books of a series don’t sell enough, the later books never get published.) There are a lot of great series to choose from here, and it’s an opportunity to put any bookstore gift cards to good use!

Huge thanks to everyone on book Twitter who told me their favorite series that finished this year. I could not have put this list together without all of the help–and I’m sorry I still couldn’t fit them all!

The Custard Protocol Series by Gail Carriger – World-hopping steampunk rebels with bonus werewolves and vampires. Start with Prudence. Book 2 is Imprudence; book 3 is Competence; book 4 is Reticence.

The Wormwood Trilogy by Tade Thompson – Aliens come to Nigeria and build a biodome; the humans try to build their own city and their own lives alongside this invasion. Start with Rosewater. Book 2 is The Rosewater Insurrection; book 3 is The Rosewater Redemption.

Dr. Greta Helsing by Vivian Shaw – Dr. Helsing is a medical provider for the undead, intent on living a quiet life of getting by… until there’s a murder to be solved. Start with Strange Practice. Book 2 is Dreadful Company; book 3 is Grave Importance.

The Tensorate Series by JY Yang – Silk punk where people choose their gender and ride on dinosaurs while they fight the authoritarian establishment. Start with The Black Tides of Heaven. Book 2 is The Red Threads of Fortune; book 3 is The Descent of Monsters; book 4 is Ascent to Godhood. (Full disclosure: I share an agent with JY.)

The Amberlough Dossier by Lara Elena Donnelly – A roaring twenties-flavored and very queer spy thriller that explores the roots of nationalism, fascism, and hatred–and the fight against them. Start with Amberlough. Book 2 is Armistice; book 3 is Amnesty.

Their Bright Ascendancy by K. Arsenault Rivera – In an Asia-based fantasy world, two fated lovers fight demons… and become goddesses. Start with The Tiger’s Daughter. Book 2 is The Phoenix Empress; book 3 is The Warrior Moon.

Gods of Blood and Powder by Brian McClellan – A young nation of settlers and sorcerers face a an ancient threat at the frontier they push forward. Black powder fantasy. Start with Sins of Empire. Book 2 is Wrath of Empire; book 3 is Blood of Empire.

A Dominion of the Fallen by Aliette de Bodard – Gothic fantasy in a Paris that’s been devestated by a magical war–and there are fallen Angels. Start with The House of Shattered Wings. Book 2 is The House of Binding Thorns and book 3 is The House of Sundering Flames.

Miram Black by Chuck Wendig – Hard-boiled, urban fantasy thrillers about a woman who sees everyone’s inevitable death and really hates it. Start with Blackbirds. Book 2 is Mockingbird; book 3 is The Cormorant; book 4 is Thunderbird; book 5 is The Raptor & The Wren; book 6 is Vultures.

Machineries of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee – I cannot put it better than I saw an anonymous poster do on the internet: Two ghosts argue about daylight savings time. Billions die. (And it’s military space opera.) Start with Ninefox Gambit. Book 2 is Raven Strategem; book 3 is Revenant Gun; book 4 is Hexarchate Stories.

Timekeeper by Tara Sim – An alternate Victorian world that’s controlled by clocktowers, in which those who repair the towers have the skill to repair the fabric of time itself. (Or stop it.) Start with Timekeeper. Book 2 is Chainbreaker; book 3 is Firestarter.

The Bone Witch Series by Rin Chupeco – Forbidden magic reveals terrible truths about the past in an Asian fantasy world. Start with The Bone Witch. Book 2 is The Heart Forger; book 3 is The Shadowglass.

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton – In Orleans, the Belles control beauty, and beauty is the only currency that matters. Start with The Belles. Book 2 is The Everlasting Rose.

Titan’s Forest by Thoraiya Dyer –  In a giant, mythical rain forest where mortals can be reborn as gods, a youg woman fights to meet her own destiny. Start with Crossroads of Canopy; book 2 is Echoes of Understorey; book 3 is Tides of the Titans.

Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden – Vasilisa grows up at the edge of the wintery Russian wilderness and grows up on traditional stories. Then she meets one of the monsters of those stories, the winter demon Frost. Start with The Bear and the Nightingale. Book 2 is The Girl in the Tower; book 3 is Winter of the Witch.

Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence – A nine-year-old girl falsely accused of murder is bought by the Convent of Sweet Mercy and trained to be a mystical assassin. Start with Red Sister. Book 2 is Grey Sister; book 3 is Holy Sister.

Analog by Eliot Peper – Information is power in these very-near-future techno thrillers about politics in the digital age. Start with Bandwidth. Book 2 is Borderless; book 3 is Breach.

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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.

Happy Friday, shipmates! How the heck is it already Friday? Where did the time go? (My theory is still: Time Witches.) Anyway, it’s Alex coming to you with some news to read and a selection of SFF books that depict disability well.

Also, to get into the holiday spirit, I’d like to remind you of this gingerbread Star Destroyer from last year. Also, as a geologist, I must share with you this beautiful, cross-sectional Tweet.

News and Views

Lois McMaster Bujold has become SFWA’s 36th Damon Knight Grand Master. Here’s an interview they did with her in 2012.

The New Yorker profiled William Gibson and asked how he keeps his science fiction ‘real.’

Dive Into Worldbuilding had a great talk with Paul Krueger about Steel Crow Saga. (Paul and I share an agent.)

io9 has done an “in memorium” for the fictional characters lost in 2019. WARNING FOR ATOMIC SPOILERS!

This is a really interesting post about Karin Tidbeck’s book Amatka and the use of language in dystopian fiction.

Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is They.

A cave in Indonesia might have the earliest depiction of hunting yet found.

We’re still not good at predicting volcanic eruptions for a lot of reasons. Regarding the eruption in New Zealand that just happened…

On Book Riot

This week’s SFF Yeah! podcast is about nostalgic SFF.

Everything we know (for now) about the Winds of Winter release date.

15 Must-Read Erotic Dramione Fan Fictions (if you’re into that?)

Free Association Friday

Thirteen years ago today, the UN adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which is a pretty big deal. Parties to this Convention are required to ensure that people with disabilities in their countries enjoy full human rights and protection under the law. (The USA, I will note, has signed on to the Convention, but then ratification failed in the Senate by six votes in 2012.)

To celebrate this major (but not final) step in ensuring the rights of people with disabilities/disabled people, how about some SFF that portrays disabilitiy realistically and postively?

Let’s start with some anthologies that offer great short stories and more: Accessing the Future edited by Djibril Al-Ayad and Kathryn Allan brings short fiction and artwork. Uncanny Magazine offers a two-fer of fiction and essays: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, edited by Dominik Parisen and Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Nicolette Barischoff, S. Qioyi Lu, and Judith Tarr; and Disabled People Destroy Fantasy, edited by Katharine Duckett, Nicolette Barischoff, and Lisa M. Bradley. Also, definitely check out Crips in Space from the Deaf Poets Society.

On the more scifi end of the spectrum, there’s Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi; the main character is a “sky surgeon” who repairs spaceships while dealing with a chronic illness, and many of the secondary characters have disabilities as well. Space Unicorn Blues (and its sequel Five Unicorn Flush) have a spaceship captain who is a wheelchair user (when she’s not just tooling around in her ship, kept at zero-G for her convenience). Salt Fish Girl by Larissa Lai is a little more abstract, but brings an examination of how people with non-ideal bodies are treated and exploited.

On the fantasy side, Into the Drowning Deep has two d/Deaf characters who are dealing with murderous mermaids. Fran Wilde’s Bone Universe Trilogy, which starts with Updraft, has several characters with disabilities–and some of them are flying across the world’s sky on handcrafted wings. Borderline (first book of the Arcadia series) by Michelle Baker has a heroine with borderline personality disorder who is called on to oversee the relationship between Hollywood and Fairyland. Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson is about two girls (who are demigods) born as conjoined twins; their separation leaves them each with a different disability.

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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.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, with some news and books for you… but since there aren’t many new releases today (December is a barren place when it comes to new books), I’m doing something a bit different this week: focusing on standalone novels that were released this year.

(Standalones make really great gifts for people you might be trying to tempt into reading more science fiction. Just saying.)

16 Standalone SFF Novels from 2019

Disclaimer: These are standalones to the best of my knowledge and ability to google. If I’m wrong, mea culpa.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone – “Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love.”

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi – “How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?“

Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger – Battle couples, magical animal companions, and snark. (Full disclosure: Paul and I share an agent.)

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie – The kingdom of Iraden is protected by the god known as the Raven, whose tower conceals a dark history.

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire – Complicated sibling relationships, alchemy, and godhood. The world is in a lot of trouble.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon, et al. – The descendants of pregnant African women who were thrown overboard from slave ships live deep under the ocean, forgetting their traumatic memories by giving them to their historian, Yetu.

Ormeshadow by Priya Sharma – A family drama on a farm seated over Orme, a buried, ancient dragon who dreams of resentment, jealousy, and death.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – A young woman in the jazz age dreams of escaping a life of domestic drudgery until she accidentally frees the Mayan god of death and is handed a life or death quest.

The Sol Majestic by Ferrett Steinmetz – A teen guru who wants to advise the galaxy’s one percenters wins a fabulous free dinner at the Sol Majestic.

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden – Seske, a young woman unexpectedly thrust into the role of leader, must find answers to tremors disturbing the new vacuum-breathing space beast her clan has moved into–while fending off a challenge by her confident, cunning sister.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow – January, the ward of a wealthy hunter of arcane artifacts, finds a book in his mansion that promises adventures in other worlds and truths about her own.

David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa – “David Mogo, demigod and godhunter, has one task: capture two of the most powerful gods in the city and deliver them to the wizard gangster Lukmon Ajala.”

The Record Keeper by Agnes Gomillion – In a world brought to ruins by a third world war, Arika Cobane meets a new student who forces her to question her most deeply held beliefs: What does peace matter if innocent lives are lost to maintain it?

Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather – Sisters of the Order of Saint Rita respond to the distress call of a new colony and find themselves caught in a web of politics and corruption that runs through both the central government and the church.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo – Alex Stern, the only survivor of an unsolved multiple homicide, is offered a too-good-to-be-true deal: a full ride to Yale, and the only price is that she has to monitor the school’s secret societies.

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz – Tess, from the future, has dedicated herself to shifting the past to create a safer world in her time, trying to find a way to make her edits stay while she avoids fellow travelers willing to stop her with deadly force.

News and Views

Alix E. Harrow has two new novellas coming.

Wonder Woman 1984 trailer!!!!

Must-read short SFF fiction from November 2019.

Rest in peace, Rene Auberjonois.

Tamora Pierce says Alanna of Trebond is gender fluid.

Vulture makes a brave attempt to answer all our questions about the plot and universe of Cats.

The Parker Solar Probe has found some funky things in the solar wind as it goes close to the Sun.

On Book Riot

Quiz: Which All Systems Red character are you?

Gabriel García Márquez books: A brief look at the master of magical realism

20 of the best Harry Potter earrings

Read Harder: Fairytale retellings by authors of color

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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.

Happy Friday, shipmates! Made it through another week, and we’re crashing solidly into the holiday season. But together, I know we can get through this. It’s Alex, with some news and books for you today.

My unrelated-to-SFF thing of the week is the return of Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman’s show Making It, which is the second most wholesome thing I have ever watched in my life. (The first is, of course, The Great British Bake Off.) If you want to know why I love it, just watch this.

News and Views

New York Times Magazine has a profile of Ken Liu, in which he talks about bringing Chinese sci-fi to American readers.

I do believe you need a short story by E. Lily Yu: The Time Invariance of Snow

Here’s a really good article about Indigenous sci-fi: An Old New World

Jeff VanderMeer’s playlist for Dead Astronauts.

NPR interview with Tomi Adeyemi.

An interview with Juliette Wade about Mazes of Power.

James D. Nicoll has advice on how to recover from reader’s block.

More casting for the Wheel of Time TV show.

Wired makes the argument that Ewoks are the most tactically advanced fighting force in Star Wars.

The best Baby Yoda tweet.

Rest in peace, Star Trek writer D.C. Fontana.

JJ Abrams teases some kind of LGBTQ representation in Star Wars (which will definitely not be Finn/Poe). I’ll believe it when I f*****g see it, and if it’s anything like the “representation” we got out of Avengers: End Game, I’ll probably be chucking my popcorn at the screen.

The trailer for No Time to Die is out. I mostly mention this because Lashana Lynch.

A periodic table of rejected element names.

On Book Riot

This week’s SFF Yeah! podcast is about SFF with mysteries in them.

Free Association Friday

I’m currently reading How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr, and if you want to learn a lot of absolutely infuriating American history, I cannot recommend it enough. (And unless history curricula have changed a lot in the last–yikes–20 years, there’s going to be a lot of new-to-you information in it, like there was for me.) Colonialism has a… troubled history in SFF to say the least, with works up through today imagining horrors of colonialism being visited on white people, often as a means of coming up with baroque excuses for heinous behavior.

So how about a few anti-colonial and post-colonial SFF books?

First off, if you’re in the mood for some academic reading, Jessica Langer wrote Postcolonialism and Science Fiction (you can read a little excerpt here) and Masoof Ashraf Raja edited an essay collection on The Postnational Fantasy which includes examinations of postcolonialism in the genre. And for shorter reading, Strange Horizons did an excellent Indigenous Futurisms roundtable in 2017.

Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan edited a short story anthology that focuses on the stories of people who have historically been “alienated” from the genre: So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Ficton & Fantasy. (Another Nalo Hopkinson-edited anthology, New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, has some massively good postcolonial short stories in it.) There’s also a great anthology of Indegenous science fiction edited by Grace L. Dillon: Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction.

The Gaslight Dogs by Karin Lowachee is at its heart a story about Indigenous people fighting an encroaching empire. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang draws on the horrors of historical real world colonialism for a gripping story about the seas of blood that surround empires and revenge. The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth J Dickinson is a very anti-colonial novel; it’s about a young girl whose people are colonized, the horrors that ensue, and the revenge that she decides to take because of it. Octavia Butler examines the mark colonialism leaves on people in a lot of her work, but I think perhaps the pinnacle of that examination is her Xenogensis Trilogy, which starts with Dawn.

Zen Cho has called her book Sorcerer to the Crown “post-colonial fluff for book nerds,” though it’s definitely got some meat in it with its examination of the diversity within the British Empire that so often gets papered over in historically-based fiction. The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord springboards from the post-colonial Caribbean to bring aliens who have lost their homeland and the humans they hope will help them together, with the big question being will the cultures bend with change or break? Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James isn’t so much post-colonial as post-post-colonial (something the author’s said about himself); it’s epic fantasy but not as we know it.

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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.