Category: Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships August 20

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date August 19, 2019

Marie Brennan’s Turning Darkness Into Light is a delightful fantasy of manners, the heir to the award-winning A Natural History of Dragons series.

As the granddaughter of Isabella Camherst, renowned dragon scholar, Audrey Camherst has always known she would want to make her scholarly mark.

When Lord Gleinheigh recruits Audrey to decipher a series of ancient tablets holding the secrets of the ancient Draconean civilization, she has no idea that her research will plunge her into an intricate conspiracy. Alongside dearest childhood friend and fellow archeologist Kudshayn, Audrey must find proof before it’s too late.

Avast, me hearties! It’s Alex, with the last newsletter they’ll be sending you from Dublin, Ireland. It’s been a massively busy and fun WorldCon, with only a few hiccups. First up, we’ve got news on the Hugo awards!

Congratulations, Hugo Award Winners!

Best Novel: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Best Novella: Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
Best Novelette: If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again by Zen Cho
Best Short Story: A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix E. Harrow
Best Series: Wayfarers by Becky Chambers (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit, and Record of a Spaceborn Few)
Best Related Work: Archive of Our Own

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: Jeannette Ng (author of Under the Pendulum Sun) (Also, you ought to read her acceptance speech.)
For the list of winners in the rest of the categories, see the Hugos site!
Next year’s Hugos will take place in Wellington, New Zealand at ConZealand, the 78th World Science Fiction Convention.

New Releases

The Cruel Stars by John Birmingham – The Sturm, a society of human “species purists” were thought to have died out long ago. But they’ve returned with a vengeance, and it’s up to a small band of flawed and reluctant heroes, all of them survivors of the Sturm attack, to rise up and resist.

The Trojan War Museum and Other Stories by Ayse Papatya Bucak – A short story collection that explores the fuzzy border between historical memory and myth.

News and Views

An excellent meta-read from Laurie Penny about nerds gaining power in pop culture (and fanfic).

Art Spiegelman (creator of the Pulitzer-prize winning graphic novel Maus) wrote an essay for the intro to a Marvel book about the golden age of comics; Marvel rejected it because it referred to Donald Trump. If you want to read the full essay, the Guardian’s posted it.

George R.R. Martin talks about the Game of Thrones TV show ending in an interview with the Guardian.

An autistic person writes about how Good Omens made them feel represented.

From io9: 30 very good sci-fi dogs.

Stephen Colbert has a Tolkien-off with Lee Pace.

#BoycottMulan started after Liu Yifei, star of the upcoming live-action Mulan, spoke in support of the Hong Kong police.

You had me at “intersectional feminist vampire movie.”

Haley Atwell talks a bit about Endgame.

We might be losing our most-consumed banana species to a fungus. (Bananas are fascinating.)

From the Department of “Why This?”: Colonies of aggressive, social spiders boom after a hurricane

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 August 16

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date August 16, 2019

Sponsored by Tor Books

Once again, prejudices against the use of chaos magic force Beltur and his companions to flee their refuge in Axalt. The rulers of nearby Montgren have offered them sanctuary and the opportunity to become the Councilors of the run-down and disintegrating town of Haven.

Montegren lacks any mages—white or black—making this seem like the perfect opportunity to start again.

However, Beltur and the others must reinstitute law and order, rebuild parts of the town, deal with brigands—and thwart an invading army.

Greetings from Dublin, shipmates! It’s Alex, with your Friday newsletter, though forgive me if I’m a bit distracted. Opening ceremonies for WorldCon were last night and we’re into the convention proper now. It’s massive, sprawling, and I’m basically running in circles. Two more days until the Hugo Awards!

News and Views

Amazon has revealed the first batch of casting for the Wheel of Time series. I don’t even go here, but my twitter list seems really happy about it.

Star Wars Barbies from Mattel!

In this week’s SFF Yeah! podcast, Sharifah and Jen talk about non-human narrators.

Jeremy Renner has an “outdoor collection,” which includes a bow?

This may be the best restaurant ad ever made.

If you had not heard about The Wise Man’s Butt, well, you’re welcome. Some days, Twitter is still a magical place.

There’s going to be a novel about the Lowell factory girls and witches and I AM SO EXCITED Y’ALL.

If you’re looking for books that have that quirky Good Omens flair, these seven might fit the bill.

Gormenghast is getting a TV adaptation on Showtime, with Neil Gaiman as one of the executive producers.

Okay, now I really need to see this movie: Richard Nixon and Vietnam are Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark‘s strangest monsters

Student fillmmakers in Nigeria are making really cool-looking short sci-fi films using cell phones and green-screens.

A UX expert reacts to sci-fi operating systems.

WorldCon kicked off by announcing the winners for the 1944 Retro-Hugos. (The retro-Hugos are retroactive Hugo awards given out to works that were published in years that no Hugo awards were given.)

Archaeologists found a wooden box near Pompeii with a ton of small artifacts in it.

Free Association Friday

Happy birthday, Taika Waititi! He’s 44 years old today, and hopefully it’s been a good one. In honor of his birthday, let’s list some science fiction and fantasy that’s humorous–with a twist. Because I think we could all do with a laugh these days. (Hard mode: avoiding the big names like Adams and Pratchett.)

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu puts us in Minor Universe 31, where a time travel technician (coincidentally also named Charles Yu) helps literally save people from themselves. Warcross by Marie Lu is more of a thriller by plot, about a hacker in a video game who gets tasked with infiltrating the extremely serious tournament for that game–but in the reading, it’s brilliantly funny. Sarah Kuhn’s Heroine Complex (and its sequels) gives us superhero novels with major heart, which are also pretty dang funny.

Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On is about the worst Chosen One ever, and it’s a ridiculous homage to Harry Potter. Patrick Ness’s Some of Us Just Live Here takes a different angle at the chosen one, where the main character is definitely Not Chosen, and still has to deal with extraorindary circumstances from an ordinary life. Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne is a much more straight-forward sendup of epic fantasy, and definitely belongs next to The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Dianna Wynn Jones on any book shelf.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships August 13

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date August 12, 2019

Sponsored by Tor Books

Developed by aliens and field-tested on Earth, the virus known as Xenovirus Takis-A changed the course of human history forever. Most of those infected die—and a tiny percentage become deformed beings known as jokers. A lucky few survivors become aces: superhumans gifted with amazing powers. Now the virus has reached Britain.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! This is your captain, Alex, and it’s time for some new releases and other news. Greetings from rainy Dublin, where we’re two days from WorldCon starting. But today I’m excited about this game called Elsinore, which combines two of my favorite things: Shakespeare and timeloops. I’m also a sucker for anything that gives Ophelia a better shake.

Now, on with the show!

New Releases

Pale Kings by Micah Yongo – A young assassin faces the secrets of his past and unravels the mystery of the ancient scroll he carries, which are perhaps the key to defeating the mysterious forces seeking to invade the peaceful Five Lands. (Sequel to Lost Gods.)

Before She Sleeps by Bina Shah – In a dystopian future, disease and sex selection has shifted the ratio of men to women dangerously, where women are forced to take multiple husbands and have children as quickly as possible. But some women resist…

Dahlia Black by Keith Thomas – A journalistic documentary of the Pulse, an alien intervention that can rewrite human DNA and promises to change the path of humanity forever.

The Heart of the Circle by Keren Landsman – A peaceful protest of sorcerers seeking an end to the religious persecution they face comes to a bloody, murderous end. The next sorcerer to be targeted complicates his own survival terribly by falling in love.

The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossain – A formerly imprisoned djinn king and a mass murdering former Gurkha take on the all-knowing, all-seeing tyrant of Kathmandu, bringing old crimes to light and forcing the city to change for all time.

Bright Star by Erin Swan – A traumatized young woman, held as a servant in the home of a tyrant, makes her escape with a group of assassins and joins their rebellion. In resistance, she finds her strength and becomes a leader.

The Last Hope by Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchie – After being imprisoned for weeks on an enemy starship, a trio of friends must help a mysterious stranger if they wish to escape. The price of their freedom is a mission they cannot refuse–to search for a baby who can cloak and teleport planets.

News and Views

Looking for some sci-fi books for kids? We’ve got a list of 25 for you to choose from.

The Lord of the Rings Amazon series has been restricted to only the events of the Second Age by the Tolkien esate, which has some interesting (and concerning) implications.

Lavie Tidhar (author of Unholy Land), working with puzzle author Jake Olefsky, has written a non-linear interactive short story called Svalbard.

Subterranean Press has announced a story an novella collection: The Best of Elizabeth Bear

Ken Liu is also getting a new collection: The Hidden Girl and Other Stories

The headline says is all: Dance of the Vampires is the best and worst vampire musical ever made.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is out, and here’s a review to read.

Vulture has ranked all 82 of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Here’s a look at the upcoming Stranger Things artbook, Visions From the Upside Down.

If you’re a fan of Black Mirror, these short stories will be of interest.

This seems fine: “A remote-start app exposed thousands of cars to hackers.”

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships August 9

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date August 8, 2019

Sponsored by The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

Nikan’s third battle for its survival in the bloody Poppy Wars has just ended, but shaman and warrior Rin cannot forget the atrocity she committed to save her people. She doesn’t want to live, but refuses to die until she avenges the traitorous Empress who betrayed Rin’s homeland. Her only hope is to join forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who plots to conquer Nikan, unseat the Empress, and create a new republic. But the more Rin witnesses in the fight for power, the more she fears her love for Nikan will force her to use her deadly powers once more.

We made it–it’s Friday! It is I, Captain Alex, and as you read this, there’s a good chance I’m on an airplane, on my way to Dublin for WorldCon. I’m looking forward to having a live view of the Hugo Awards in a bit over a week. But until then, here’s some news and book chat to usher you into the weekend!

News and Views

This week’s SFF Yeah! podcast is about unusual vampires.

Elsa Sjunneson-Henry wrote a gorgeous piece about what Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness Quartet means to her.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo has an absolutely GORGEOUS cover.

Here’s a really great essay about “lifeboat thinking” in science fiction. It’s not just The Cold Equations.

Dragon Con has opened up voting for this year’s Dragon Awards. Anyone can vote by registering their email address.

Oh my god Snoop Dogg is Cousin Itt.

Lucasfilm’s first non-Indiana Jones/Star Wars project looks like it’s going to be an adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone.

An A+ interview with Angelina Jolie, in which she talks about why we need more wicked women.

Andy Serkis will be directing the sequel to the deeply weird recent Venom movie. (I saw it. I still don’t know how I feel about it?)

Cookies. In. Spaaaaaaaaaaace.

Here’s a fun (and long) piece about the science behind Idris Elba’s character in Hobbs and Shaw.

So there are tardigrades on the Moon now. Whoops.

Free Association Friday

Honestly, I’m still just thinking about the SFF “lifeboat” essay, because it’s so good. (Also, because it never fails when I vent about how much I hate The Cold Equations, someone feels the need to explain it to me. Like I haven’t read the story and understood it and that’s why I loathe it.) And I think it’s something we really need to think about in our genre, when so many books become elaborate, byzantine plots to get characters in situations where murder is the only possible choice.

I’m certainly not saying all fictional violence is bad–I think we all know the difference between fantasy and reality. But it’s something to interrogate, when so much SFF is focused on violence as a solution to all of the questions it poses. (Movies are particularly bad about this, I think.) Why is it treated like the most interesting question one can ask of a person is how far they have to be pushed to pull a trigger?

So what are some books to read that push back against lifeboat thinking and the (very American) focus on violence as a way to solve problems? Or more broadly, deeply humane books that value life?

The essay mentions The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal, because it’s all about figuring out solutions to tough choices… and trying to fit everyone on the lifeboat. Becky Chambers’s Record of a Spaceborn Few is so deeply compassionate that I can’t describe it without tearing up. Walkaway by Cory Doctorow imagines an apocalypse where your neighbor brings casseroles instead of guns (which is more accurate to how humans actually behave, by the way).

Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell is wonderfully slice-of-life, about a ship crew going about their business. Karen Lord’s The Best of All Possible Worlds is about alien refugees trying to rebuild their civilization on a new world, with the help of a man and a woman who come from different civilizations. And perhaps Iain M. Banks’s Culture novels fit this bill… in which case, start with Excession.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships August 6

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date August 5, 2019

Sponsored by Tor Books

Bershad can not die… When he was caught trying to assassinate a fellow noble, Flawless Bershad received a death sentence: fight monsters and die serving the kingdom. He’s the most successful dragon slayer in history, but marked as a doomed man, Bershad stands apart from the world.

That is about to change. The man who sentenced Bershad has just given him an out. Kill a king and walk free forever. However, Bershad could care less about the fates of kings and kingdoms, until he discovers he may be the only person able to save every creature in Terra.

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex with some new releases to check out for the week, as well as a helping of SFF news! I had a heck of a good weekend and I hope you did too–and part of my A+ Saturday was seeing the ridiculous action funtimes that are Hobbs and Shaw. Basically, I agree with everything in this review. (And it’s got a massively fun cameo in it that I guess is a spoiler? But at least no one’s yelled at me on Twitter for mentioning it.) Also, baking season is coming.

New Releases

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang – Sequel of The Poppy War. Warrior and shaman Rin is on the run; addicted to opium and haunted by the atrocities she’s committed, she refuses to die until she has revenge on the Empress. Her best chance may be to join up with the Dragon Warlord, who wants to unseat the Empress and create a republic.

First Cosmic Velocity by Zach Powers – A blending of fact and fiction about the Cold War Soviet space program, a sham that depends on the use of twins to hide the fact that no one it has launched into space has returned successfully to Earth.

Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge: A Crash of Fate by Zoraida Córdova – Jules and Izzy were best friends as children on Batuu. After being separated for years, Izzy returns to Batuu while delivering a mysterious package and runs into Jules again. The two find themselves on the run, dodging danger and sorting out their feelings for each other.

The Gossamer Mage by Julie E. Czerneda – The Deathless Goddess extracts a terrible price for the use of the magic for which she is the only source. Determined to end the certain death waiting for magic users, the greatest mage vows to destroy the goddess–but he doesn’t have the full story.

Cry Pilot by Joel Dane – Earth is at war with a mysterious enemy armed with rogue bio-weapons. Maseo Kaytu volunteers for a suicide mission as a ‘cry pilot’ and finds himself bonding with his platoon of misfits.

News and Views

N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth Trilogy is going to be a tabletop RPG!

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are going to do a horror-comedy series about ghost hunters for Amazon Prime.

A succinct and hilarious thread that explains who all the cats in the Cats trailer are.

The showrunner for WandaVision pushed for a diverse writer’s room and got a lot of what she wanted.

Leslie Jones livetweeted Avengers: Endgame.

The Alamo Drafthouse will have clown-only screenings of It: Chapter Two. And Stephen King added a totally new scene to that movie, BTW.

A new adaptation of The Man Who Fell to Earth is coming to TV, from the Star Trek: Discovery team.

Someone watched all of the Fast and Furious movies in 4 days and shared the collected wisdom.

…is Jeremy Renner okay?

Baking bread with ancient Egyption yeast.

A weird and fascinating story about an infectious cancer found in dogs.

Jason Momoa and Dwayne Johnson have joined the ‘Protect Mauna Kea’ protests.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships August 2

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date August 1, 2019

Sponsored by Vow of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson, and Fierce Reads

Vow of Thieves is the thrilling sequel to Dance of Thieves, set in the same world as Mary E. Pearson’s New York Times-bestselling Remnant Chronicles.

Kazi and Jase have survived, stronger and more in love than ever. Their new life now lies before them—the Ballengers will be outlaws no longer, Tor’s Watch will be a kingdom, and Kazi and Jase will meet all challenges side by side, together at last.

But an ominous warning mars their journey back, and they soon find themselves captured in a tangled web of deceit woven by their greatest enemies and unlikeliest allies, a place where betrayals run deeper and more deadly than either had thought possible, and where timeless ambitions threaten to destroy them both.

Happy Friday, shipmates! We all made it, and your reward from Captain Alex is an odd grab bag of news and some free association of novels. Oh, and if you need an end-of-the-week pick-me-up, I heartily recommend the #TerribleMCUCasting hashtag on Twitter.

News and Views

Harry Potter turned 39 on Wednesday.

Author Sherrilyn Keynon dropped her lawsuit against her husband.

Black Nerd Problems has a really great, deep look at David Mogo, Godhunter.

Ada Hoffman (author of The Outside) wrote a great essay about portrayals of disability in Star Wars.

And this is one heck of a question: Too many Star Wars books, or not enough?

There’s a documentary about Ursula K. Le Guin coming to PBS on August 2.

Jaimie Alexander is volunteering for Sif to be Valkyrie’s queen and all I can say is YES. (How about a love triangle where no one loses?)

Madeline Miller’s Circe is coming to HBO.

The creator of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski’s autobiography, Becoming Superman, just came out, and he talked to SyFy Wire about it.

Fast Color is going to go from being a movie to a series on Amazon!

And there’s a new Dungeons and Dragons movie coming? (Insert uncertainface here.)

An interesting examination of Stranger Things as uniquely suburban horror.

From Tor.com, a great roundup of short fiction from July.

I am excited about seeing Lupita Nyongo’o in the zomcom Little Monsters.

This ancient Roman stylus shows that gifts from tourists really haven’t changed in 2000 years.

It’s been a big week for fossils. A triceratops skull was found in the North Dakota Badlands by a university student. And an 1,100 lb sauropod bone got dug up in southwestern France. And a little Chinese boy found fossilized dinosaur eggs.

Free Association Friday

So today in history, Emperor Majorian got arrested in 461 and deposed… but when I first read that name, I read it as “Majoran” which became “Majora” in my head, and instantly I was thinking about Majora’s Mask and it’s brain-bending countdown and world-salvaging time loop.

The first thing I leapt to was trying to figure out books that use the sort of screaming-tension countdown that has made Majora’s Mask a popular meme. And… my finite knowledge and google skills kind of failed me, I admit. It’s a device I used in one of my own books (Blood Binds the Pack if you’ll forgive the shameless plug) but it’s not really so explicit as an on-the-page countdown in much of anything else. There are definitely some books with tight timelines! Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen has a pretty ramped-up timeline that involves time travel at the end of the book. Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire has a pretty implicit, tight timeline that kicks in partway through the book, which I will not spoil here. And so on.

But time loops? There’s a lot of fun books with time loops… though most of those are triggered by the death of the protagonist rather than a deliberate choice to use an Ocarina of Time-esque MacGuffin. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver reminds me a lot of Happy Death Day, except without the serial killer. The timeloop in Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds is driven by love. All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka has humans and aliens battling it out over who will figure out how to win the timeloop first. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North is perhaps the most Majora’s Mask-esque, with a timeloop that is one step closer to the apocalypse every time it triggers.

In a slightly different vein, Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes has not so much a timeloop as a… clone loop. And the characters have to figure out what is going on before they run out of clones. And Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde is a fun riff on the infinite lives of video games, which become their own kind of weird timeloop for players.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships July 30

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date July 30, 2019

A Brit and a Booker Longlist, Kubrick-esque Recs, and More

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date July 26, 2019

Hypersonic Squeals of Valkyrian Joy

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date July 23, 2019

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Captain Alex, and considering we just passed by SDCC weekend, there’s a lot of good stuff to share with you. Personally, I’m most excited about Thor: Love and Thunder because I’m an Asgardian at heart, and Taika Waititi not only retrieved Natalie Portman from the Marvel forgetting hole, he’s making her Thor–and letting Valkyrie be out and proud in this one. Basically, if you heard hypersonic squeals of joy on Saturday night, that was probably me. Sorry about your windows.

This newsletter is sponsored by Meerkat Press and Claiming T-Mo by Eugen Bacon.

Perfect for fans of Toni Morrison and N.K. Jemisin. In this lushly written interplanetary tale, an immortal priest commits an act that unleashes a Jekyll-and-Hyde boy upon the world. Three distinctive women—his mother, his wife, his child—must confront their fears and navigate the treacherous paths to claiming him from a darkness that threatens them all.

“Packed with so much love, fear, pain, and hope, that it invites multiple re-readings, and is good enough to justify the time spent doing so.” —Lightspeed Magazine

New Releases

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.

Sweet Dreams by Tricia Sullivan – Charlie is a dreamhacker, someone who can enter dreams and change them. Her booming business suddenly turns deadly when one of her clients sleepwalks off a building.

Jade War by Fonda Lee – The Kaul family battles rival clans and encroaching foreign threats that seek the island of Kekon’s jade. Sequel to the award-winning Jade City.

How We Became Wicked by Alexander Yates – An insect-borne plague divides the world into the infected Wicked, the isolated and plague-free True, and the immune Vexed. In this world, three 16-year-old teens struggle to survive.

Desdemona and the Deep by C. S. E. Cooney – “The spoiled, daughter of a rich mining family must retrieve the tithe of men her father promised to the world below. On the surface, her world is rife with industrial pollution that ruins the health of poor factory workers while the idle rich indulge themselves in unheard-of luxury. Below are goblins, mysterious kingdoms, and an entirely different hierarchy.”

News and Views

Science fiction and fantasy writers talk about what it was like to watch the moon landing.

The original 1979 Dune board game is getting a re-release.

A list of 5 ways science has made SF more interesting.

An interesting (and slightly depressing article) about city planners utilizing computer modeling for increased flooding as climate change progresses.

Total science fiction [corporate dystopia] fuel: how the heck could you even regulate Facebook’s Libra?

This Twitter thread documents an amazing interaction a bookseller had with Carrie Fisher.

If you wanted a gag reel for The Good Place, you’re in luck.

The SDCC Highlight Reel

Everything from SDCC about the MCU. A fun ranking of those announcements, though I strongly disagree with how low on the list Shang-Chi falls. Black Girl Nerds has a list of the black talent that will be involved.

I want to draw your attention to the casting of The Eternals, which is pretty exciting. If you, like me, have no idea who the Eternals are, here’s a guide.

An update from V.E. Schwab on the progress of her next two books.

Here’s four things Vulture learned about the His Dark Materials mini-series at the SDCC panel.

A roundup of trailers from SDCC.

Here’s a breakdown of the trailer for The Witcher.

Guillermo del Toro talked about the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark movie.

Trailer for The Expanse season 4!

George Takei was at SDCC to talk about his graphic memoir, They Called Us Enemy. It’s an important work, considering current events.

Swords and Spaceships

Swords and Spaceships July 19

Post author By Alex Acks
Post date July 18, 2019

Happy Friday, book friends! You made it–and for those of you that survived the hideous heatwave, extra congratulations and electrolytes to you. It’s your ship captain, Alex, with news and fun stuff for Friday–and I come bearing congratulations to Team Japan, which won the Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship in Finland last week. (Coincidentally, that phrase is the most Finland thing I’ve read all year.)

This newsletter is sponsored by Sourcebooks.

Exiled Charmer Leena Edenfrell is running out of time. Empty pockets forced her to sell her beloved magical beasts—an offense punishable by death—and now there’s a price on her head. With the realm’s most talented murderer-for-hire nipping at her heels, Leena makes Noc an offer he can’t refuse: powerful mythical creatures in exchange for her life.

Plagued by a curse that kills everyone he loves, Noc agrees to Leena’s terms in hopes of finding a cure. Never mind that the dark magic binding the assassin’s oath will eventually force him to choose between Leena’s continued survival…and his own.

News and Views

Tade Thompson just won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for his novel Rosewater!

Congratulations to the 2018 Shirley Jackson Award winners! Of particular interest to us are:

Novella Winner: The Taiga Syndrome by Cristina Rivera Garza
Single Author Collection Winner: All the Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma
Edited Anthology Winner: Robots vs. Fairies edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe

Argh, right in the nostalgia! There’s a sequel to The Last Starfighter in development, 35 years later.

Over at the SFF Yeah! podcast, they’re talking audio dramas and fiction podcasts.

The good news: Taika Waititi is back for Thor 4! The bad news: Live-action, Asian-cast Akira is dead and the studio excuse is B A D.

Mary Robinette Kowal and Ken Liu have some beautiful things to say about the Apollo 11 moon landing. Kowal also just wrote a really good piece about the way unconscious gender bias is hampering female astronauts.

We’ve got a massive list of portal fantasy books for your perusal at Book Riot.

There’s a Harry Potter fashion collection debuting at SDCC.

An interview with Duncan Jones about his still-relevant-and-amazing film Moon.

Game of Thrones bags 32 Emmy nominations, which is a new record.

Free Association Friday

Look, three days ago it was the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing, and it’s still on my mind. If you’re the slightest bit into space history and you haven’t seen the new documentary that came out this year in honor of Apollo 11–called, simply Apollo 11–do yourself a favor and make it happen. It’s one that definitely belongs on the big screen.

But what about books, you ask? I’m so glad that you did? I know I’ve mentioned it several times before because I freaking love this book, but The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal are perfect books to read in this anniversary year. Mary’s also been putting all of her lady astronaut research to good use, like I mentioned above, writing about the challenges women have and still face trying to get into space. Another alternate history, Nigerians in Space by Deji Bryce Olukotun, is close to my heart because it’s about a lunar geologist.

But rather than focusing just on our moon, I want to talk space exploration instead, because that’s in the real spirit of the anniversary. So this’ll be a science-fiction heavy Friday. I promise next week it’ll be a whole lot of fantasy! I have to mention a couple of classics that have a major place in my heart: Heinlein’s Have Space Suit, Will Travel, which is a cute and fun adventure story that’ll teach you more about space suits than you ever wanted to know, and Frederick Pohl’s Gateway, which is one of those rare older SF books that still really holds up when you read it today–and it’s about exploration roulette using the technology of long-vanished aliens.

Newer, James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse series, which starts at Leviathan Wakes, is space exploration with a hefty helping of human political intrigue. (Warning: I bounced pretty hard off the first book, but I don’t regret my choice to give the series a second chance with Caliban’s War, which is much better to its female characters.) Kameron Hurley’s The Stars Are Legion gives us space exploration in a decaying fleet that’s a necessity for survival. The Wanderers by Meg Howrey delivers a story about three astronauts training (on Earth) for the first mission to Mars.

If you want something a little more on the fantastical side, how about Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente, about a documentary filmmaker in a fantastical solar system. Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber gives us an expansive universe with alternate dimensions to explore–or escape into.

There’s also a great list of 50 Must-Read Book Set in Space for your perusal at Book Riot, if you’re wanting more emphasis on the space part of the equation!