Category: Swords and Spaceships

Happy new release day, me hearties! It’s already Tuesday again–who let that happen?–so it’s me, Alex, with your new releases and some news. But I want to start you off with two things I saw on Twitter just now that made me howl with laughter: A thread of “Authentic catlike poses I am looking forward to seeing replicated on Catwoman covers” and this short video from Chris Hemsworth.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Tor Books.

Set in the universe of the New York Times bestselling Three-Body Problem trilogy, The Redemption of Time continues Cixin Liu’s multi-award-winning science fiction saga. This original story by Baoshu—published with Liu’s support—envisions the aftermath of war between humanity and the extraterrestrial Trisolarans.

Yun Tianming found himself on the front lines of an interstellar war. Captured and tortured beyond endurance for decades, Yun succumbed to helping the Trisolarans subjugate humanity in order to save Earth from destruction. Nearing the end of his existence, Yun is recruited to fight an entity that threatens the universe––but Yun has a plan to save humanity’s future…

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New Releases

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone – Can’t summarize it better than this: “Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love.”

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winters – The Omehi people are caught in an endless war; the entire culture is set for war and only war. A young man with no magical gifts intends to get himself injured so he can escape his fate as fodder for war–but when the people closest to him are brutally murdered, he fixates on revenge and changes his path forever.

The Unforseen by Molly Gloss – A career retrospective anthology of short stories, with three new stories.

The Border Keeper by Kerstin Hall – A man enters the underworld by striking a deal with the “end-of-the-line-woman” at its entrance; the chaotic realm of warring gods and demons he finds contains secrets that threaten the land of the living.

Avatar, the Last Airbender: The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee – The origin story of the longest-living Avatar, Kyoshi.

News and Views

Jeannette Ng (author of Under the Pendulum Sun) wrote a great piece about Mulan, “authenticity,” and retellings.

Don Cheadle has joined the cast of Space Jam 2.

A new species of fairy wrasse has been named in honor of Black Panther.

Holy wow, Paradise Hills looks GORGEOUS.

Tor.com started some shit on Twitter by asking if Godzilla is a dragon; the controversy is documented here. I am personally shocked and appalled that they did not include the definitive tweet on the topic, authored by my agent, DongWon Song.

Amazon is making a Lord of the Rings MMO.

Dare you take the hardest Lord of the Rings quiz?

Derek Kolstad, who created John Wick, has joined the writing team for the Marvel Falcon and the Winter Soldier series.

Take with an appropriately-sized grain of salt, but the Daily Mail is claiming Lashana Lynch will be the next 007.

Hayabusa 2 landed successfully on the asteroid Ryugu!

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! It’s Captain Alex with some SFF-related news and views and something random to top it off. Today, I was awestruck by the gorgeous fashion on display at the inaugural Indigenous Fashion Week and its vision of the future. I am also in a different kind of awe that the Japanese title of Hobbs & Shaw is Wild Speed Super Combo because it is clearly going to be the greatest movie ever made.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Tor Books.

From Cherie Priest, the author of The Family Plot and Maplecroft, comes The Toll, a tense and scary treat for modern fans of the traditionally strange and macabre.

Titus and Melanie Bell have reservations in the Okefenokee Swamp cabins for a honeymoon canoeing trip. But shortly before they reach their destination, the road narrows into a rickety bridge, with room for only one car.

Much later, Titus wakes up lying in the middle of the road, no bridge in sight. Melanie is missing. When he calls the police, they tell him there is no such bridge on Route 177…

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News and Views

There is a new poster for Picard and it’s the most adorable thing ever.

The newest episode of the SFF Yeah! Podcast is about SFF books with non-gloomy futures.

You can read an excerpt from Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Gods of Jade and Shadow, which releases in a little over two weeks.

We’re starting to get some deets on the Game of Thrones prequel.

5 novels inspired by Peter Pan.

In a 20-page opinion, judges on the Ninth Circuit court of appeals cited a plotline “rendered meaningless” in Game of Thrones.

James McAvoy talks about It: Chapter Two.

The artwork for the new edition of Dune is gorgeous.

Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 3: Here’s a dive into the weird actual USSR experiments the show nods at.

Microsoft celebrates Stranger Things with a Windows 1.0 emulator.

In the running to be the greatest title ever given to a science paper: Fantastic yeasts and where to find them: the hidden diversity of dimorphic fungal pathogens

Hey, Virgin Orbit just dropped a rocket from an airplane.

Check out Snowball the dancing cockatoo, who was the subject of a super cute scientific study!

Free Association Friday

I don’t know about you, but I’m still riding a total high from the USWNT World Cup victory, with extra rainbow sprinkles on top thanks to articles like this: Why the USWNT’s open queerness matters. Or (warning for nudity!) Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird being the first gay couple to be on the cover of ESPN’s Body Issue, complete with excellent interview.

I’ve never been that into sports, but this has sure given me the spirit. So you know what, let’s talk about sports in SFF books! The first thing that sprang to mind immediately was Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch, in which the main character Sunny is a great athlete who loves playing soccer… and she really can’t, since she’s also albino and can’t be in the sun that much. (Don’t worry; by Akata Warrior she’s magic enough she can play all the soccer she wants. And there’s a wrestling tournament in the book too.) Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett is also about soccer (football, rather) and is a beautiful, loving send-up of English football culture, complete with hooligans.

S.B. Divya’s Run Time has a marathon challenge where the athletes are augmented in every way you could imagine. There’s a martial arts tournament in Jade City by Fonda Lee. Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay has all the chariot-racing scenes your heart could desire.

Of course, for entirely made-up sports, I don’t want to get pelted by tomatoes, so of course I’ll mention that Harry Potter has quidditch–and if you want to know everything there is to know about it there’s a book for that. Court of Fives by Kate Elliott revolves around an athletic competition called The Fives. My personal favorite is Hilketa, the ultra-violent sport in John Scalzi’s Head On that can only be played by remotely-piloted robot units.

GOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!!! (Equal pay! Equal pay!)

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, me hearties! It’s Captain Alex, with some new releases and news hand-picked for you. And if you’re not already feeling like doing some serious fist pumping because it’s new release day, here’s the crowd at the World Cup after USA won chanting “Equal pay! Equal pay!“–and the first trailer for Disney’s live-action Mulan.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Tor Books.

Tor Books is the proud publisher of Dragonslayer by Duncan M. Hamilton, the first book in a fast-moving trilogy: a dangerous tale of magic, dragons, and honor. Once a member of the King’s personal guard, a disgraced hero is called upon to kill a dragon. Along the way he rescues a young barmaid harboring a vast reserve of raw magical power. Between his rusty swordsmanship and her unstable magic, what could go wrong?

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New Releases

Null Set by S.L. Huang – Sequel to Zero Sum Game. Cas Russell has decided to use her math powers to fight crime… and the current crime wave is kind of her fault.

David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa – There is no way I could come up with a more concise, better description than what the book already has: “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.”

Salvation Day by Kali Wallace – A salvage crew kidnaps the last survivor of a disastrous plague on an exploration ship so that they can get aboard and claim it for salvage. But something deadlier than a virus awaits them inside…

Eye Spy by Mercedes Lackey – Abidela, daughter of the Herald Spy of Valdemar and the King’s Own Herald, discovers that she has a unique magical gift… which could also make her a very good spy in her own right.

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim – Maia disguises herself as a boy to take her ailing father’s place when he’s summoned to the royal court to compete with twelve other tailors for the job to sew magical gowns for the emperor’s reluctant betrothed.

The Need by Helen Phillips – A young mother with two children hears footsteps in her house. While she tries to ignore the sounds at first, the footsteps turn out to be real, belonging to an intruder who knows far too much about her and her family.

Mission Critical edited by Jonathan Strahan – An anthology of stories where people overcome incredible challenges in deep space. Authors include Yoon Ha Lee, Aliette de Bodard, Greg Egan, Linda Nagata, and Tobias S. Buckell.

News and Views

Short news section today; all the news generators were watching soccer this weekend, I guess!

The cat who played Goose in Captain Marvel answers some of our burning questions.

The Fiyah Lit Mag editorial team are trying to make it to Dublin for WorldCon, since they’ve been nominated for the Hugo for Best Semiprozine. If you’d like to help them get together, you can chip in a donation. The poetry editor, Brandon O’Brien, is also selling a bundle of games he’s designed to help with his travel expenses.

(Spoiler within!) There’s an LGBTQ character in this season of Stranger Things.

Tor.com has a helpful and scarily massive list of all the SFF/Horror/Comics adaptations that are currently in the works.

The creator of The Mask wants a reboot with a woman in the lead role.

I agree with most of this, having seen the movie: (Spoilers within!) 20 Things We Loved (and 6 Things We Didn’t) About Spider-Man: Far From Home. And if you’d like to dig in a little more about the mid-credits scene, SyFy Wire has you covered.

Weird. Very weird: How Sci-Fi Shaped the Players in the Gawker Lawsuit

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 from your host, Alex, and nothing but respect for my pink-haired queen, Megan Rapinoe. (Look, I don’t even go there and I’m super jazzed about the World Cup final on Sunday.) If you want some hilarious and beautiful non-genre reading, may I suggest: So the President F*cking Hates My Girlfriend by Sue Bird. And now it’s time for the genre news!

By the way, if you’ll be around the North American Science Fiction Convention taking place in Layton, Utah this weekend, say “Hi!” if you see me!

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This newsletter is sponsored by Tor Books.

Vivian Liao is prone to radical thinking, quick decision-making, and reckless action. Her enemies want to destroy her and her legacy. So, Viv puts a plan into motion, one that will allow her to save the world…by conquering it.

Instead she’s catapulted through space and time to a far future ruled by an ancient, powerful Empress. Trapped between a horde of sentient machines and a fanatical sect of warrior monks, Viv must rally a strange group of allies to confront the Empress and find a way back to the world and life she left behind.

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News and Views 

I was super excited to see Comma Press tweet about the first anthology of science fiction from Palestine, edited by Basma Ghalayini. Palestine+100 isn’t available on American Amazon yet, but you can order through the publisher. The concept of the book, imagining futures 100 years after the Nakba, is sibling to the publisher’s 2016 anthology Iraq +100.

An amazing essay about The Good Place and the meta ways it relates to privilege and our current social issues.

Blackfish City won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science fiction novel published in 2018.

About Gori and Washimi’s bad bitch walk in Aggretsuko.

A Harry Potter prequel series is coming to television.

Dystopian YA never left, despite what Hollywood seems to think.

A new quarterly fantasy digest magazine with Mercedes Lackey editing will be launching soon via Kickstarter, with the Kickstarter intended to be a one-time thing. (This news via Jason Sanford’s Genre Grapevine column on Patreon.)

The newest episode of the SFF Yeah! podcast is about clones, twins, and doppelgängers.

Ars Technica takes a longitudinal look at the costuming of Spider-man, with Far From Home in consideration.

Halle Bailey will be playing Ariel in the live-action The Little Mermaid, and I’m excited! (Though I’ll admit, I first misread that as Halle Berry and I was so confused.) Cue the sound of a million Twitter racists who never gave a crap about The Little Mermaid suddenly being Very Concerned.

Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series will be directed by J.A. Bayona, who directed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

A Reddit user put together a list of the top 100 most discussed fantasy books on Reddit from 2018-2019.

Ever wondered why fireworks just don’t look great on TV? Wired has the answer.

London is considering what sounds to add to its electric buses so people can actually hear them. The current array under discussion is “spaceshippy.”

Stranger Things Corner

Read with caution if you haven’t watched the full season in the three whole seconds it’s been out.

Very helpful: Everything you need to remember about seasons 1 and 2.

The 10 strangest things about season 3.

How the show mastered smudgeless eye make up in pool scenes.

Every pop culture reference Vulture could find.

A not-too-spoilery review of the whole season.

Free Association Friday

July 5 is an important nerd day. Do you know why? It’s the glorious day in 1687 when Isaac Newton (long before he was an official Sir) published Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica and laid the groundwork (if not the language we’re familiar with) for calculus, to the delight of some (like me) and the despair of others. (It’s also the dragon Temeraire‘s favorite book.)

Math is its own kind of magic, whether you understand it or not, and it gets weirder the more purely you get into the discipline. So let’s talk math magic! In Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang, math is a superpower that lets Cas Russell dodge bullets and kick ass. (You can pre-order the sequel Null Set now.) Math is destructive space opera magic in Yoon Ha Lee’s Nine Fox Gambit.

Mathematical equations allow magical travel in The Phantom Tollbooth. It’s used to similar effect in Ellen Klages’s Passing Strange, and becomes a tool to save desperate people in 1940s Europe. Math becomes magic in Mandelbrot the Magnificent by Liz Ziemska, which is based on the real life of Benoit Mandelbrot.

And there’s a million science fiction books about math (not all of which are about orbital mechanics) but that’s a subject for another time!

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, and I’m unspeakably excited about the new Hobbs & Shaw trailer…which might technically not look particularly SF, but I would argue that the entire Fast and Furious franchise is actually an original working-class superhero mythos (Hobbs has super strength! Dom has super car driving powers! Idris Elba is playing Black Superman!) that went straight to film without ever stopping first in comics and is remarkable both for its level of racial diversity and its dodging of toxic, gatekeeping geek fans. My name is Alex; welcome to my TED Talk.

Just kidding. Mostly. It’s Tuesday, so let’s get some new releases!

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This newsletter is sponsored by Dynamite Entertainment.

Underpowered and overwhelmed, Kenton tries to hold the Sand Masters together as forces political and personal conspire against them. Now, in one final push, Kenton must tap the most dangerous depths of his own abilities to combat the enemies within his own guild, and discover the truth behind the ambush that killed his father and almost destroyed the Sand Masters for good.

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New Releases

Note: it was a very limited pool in terms of author diversity for the new releases this week.

Sealed by Naomi Booth – A pregnant woman, concerned by rumors of a “skin sealing” epidemic in the city, moves to the mountains with her husband. But the remote mountains hold different kinds of danger…

The Beckoning Shadow by Katharyn Blair – A girl with the power to bring someone’s worst fears into reality competes in the fighting competition called the Tournament of Unraveling for a chance to rewrite the mistakes of her past.

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig – A strange epidemic of sleepwalking, from which people cannot be awakened, hits America–and the sleepwalkers are all headed to a mysterious destination. Family and friends become “shepherds” who try to protect the sleepwalkers as society collapses around them. The source of the epidemic is a terrifying secret that can save the sleepwalkers…and may finish destroying the nation in the process.

Dragonslayer by Duncan M. Hamilton – With the dragons all dead, Dragonslayers have become redundant. Most are gone, and the one that remains is a disgraced drunkard. And then it turns out that there might be a dragon left…

Aftershocks by Marko Kloos – In a six-planet system struggling to recover from an interplanetary war, Aden Robertson, who picked the wrong side of that war, just wants to move on with his life and survive. But a brutal insurrection threatens the fragile system, and Aden has a chance to pick the right side this time… if he can figure out what it is.

News and Views

Congratulations to the winners of the 2019 Locus Awards! Of particular interest to us:

• Science Fiction Novel: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
• Fantasy Novel: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
• Young Adult Novel: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
• First Novel: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

You can read an excerpt of Nnedi Okorafor’s upcoming comic LaGuardia.

Ken Liu’s short story The Message has been acquired by the same people who brought us Arrival (adapted from Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life).

Tor.com has a great list of short fiction to read from June.

Looking for magical girl books? Here’s a list of 5 YA novels that fit the bill.

An acapella cover of the Star Wars cantina theme.

In infuriating news, Riz Ahmed wasn’t able to get to Star Wars Celebration because Homeland Security wouldn’t let him get on his flight.

Daisy Ridley shares a story about Carrie Fisher that, if you’re like me, will make you laugh and tear up at the same time.

Microsoft is closing its ebook store and will be removing purchased book from devices. At least it’s refunding the money? Not science fiction, but feels like it should be.

When Fandom is the problem.

These are cool as heck: Popmuertos. Black Nerd Problems has a great interview with Aaron, the creator.

George R.R. Martin talks about his successes and the coming spin-offs of Game of Thrones. 

Here’s a bonus SFF Yeah! podcast about Game of Thrones read-alikes.

If you’re curious about the new footage tacked onto the Endgame release but not curious enough to shell out to see the movie again, spoilers for you here.

Into the Spider-Verse is on Netflix now, by the way! And if you’ll be in the right bit of California (Alhambra), there’s a tribute art show under way.

Zendaya had a great dress at the Spider-Man: Far From Home premiere. And there’s a bunch of other great pics of her fashion in the link.

io9 has a round-up of all Dark Crystal-related stuff we’re getting in 2019.

Not sci-fi but cool: A new study of teeth finds that some ancient crocodiles might have been vegetarian.

Not sci-fi but worrying: A drone with a projector fooled a self-driving car.

You can use this neat tool courtesy of the LRO to tour the first Moon landing, step-by-step.

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 on the (Hugo-nominated!!!) Skiffy and Fanty Podcast or over at my personal site.

We did it, robots and dinosaurs! We made it to Friday! It’s me, your newsletter host Alex, and if you’re reading this, it means I didn’t gnaw off one of my own limbs during either of the debate nights, and I feel like that’s something we can all celebrate with some science fiction news and other silliness.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Tor Books.

The Sol Majestic is a big-hearted, delightful intergalactic adventure for fans of Becky Chambers and The Good Place.

When Kenna, a destitute teen guru, wins a free dinner at The Sol Majestic, the galaxy’s most renowned restaurant, he thinks his luck has finally changed. His dream is jeopardized, however, when he learns his highly-publicized “free meal” risks putting the restaurant into financial ruin. Kenna and a gang of newfound friends—including a teleporting celebrity chef, a trust-fund adrenaline junkie, and a brilliant mistress of disguise—must concoct an extravagant scheme to save everything they cherish, and risk sacrificing their ideals in the process.

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News and Views

Writers Madeline Miller, Max Gladstone, John Rogers, and Kevin Hearne have been matching donations to RAICES. If they’ve hit their match limits by the time you read this, there’s a good chance other awesome SFF writers will have stepped in, too.

Today, let us remember Prince’s Batdance video from 1989.

Daveed Diggs will be narrating River Solomon’s novella of The Deep.

LGBTQ+ cosplayers talk about the queer video game characters they identify with. So many gorgeous pictures!

For more beautiful pictures, here’s 26 of the most gorgeous fantasy book covers from 2019.

If you wondered where the new Harry Potter mobile game falls in the timeline of the Potterverse, here’s how you can figure it out.

There’s going to be even more new Endgame footage, this time for the home release. They’re streaming it from another dimension, I don’t even know. But the legos are pretty cool!

Here’s an interview with Kaytalin Platt, author of
The Living God.

There are now three officially licensed Marvel plays.

Taika Waititi is going to take a “crack” at an animated Flash Gordon movie.

There are going to be more Short Treks for Star Trek: Discovery!

If you want to go down a rabbit hole from which you will never emerge, there’s a website that lets you create fake hybrid pokémon.

I’m a huge Sailor Moon fan from way back, so I have to share this: Sailor Moon and the Queer Art of Questioning Gender and Sexuality.

Myers-Briggs personality types for Lord of the Rings characters.

The full Game of Thrones TV box set is going to be 33 FREAKING DISCS.

The Last of Its Kind – I wish this was fiction, but it’s a beautiful and heartbreaking piece on scientists taking care of endlings during the present sixth great extinction.

Here’s a cool picture of a volcano erupting, taken from the ISS.

One last bit of cool IRL-but-has-definitely-been-in-scifi-or-should news: Scientists are putting sensors on antarctic seals and that’s helping them track water temperatures.

Free Association Friday

Look, I’ll admit right now, I don’t have anything real off the wall for this day in history because between my brother’s wedding this weekend (YAY BRO BRO!) and the first Democratic presidential debates with a bajillion candidates, half of whom look indiscernible, my brain is just non-functional. So instead, I’m just going to list ten science fiction/fantasy books I wish I could make all of the candidates read. Climate change, capitalism, societal decline, unions, healthcare… and a couple more utopian visions to round things out. In no particular order:

Infomocracy by Malka Older

Iraq + 100 edited by Hassan Blasim

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

Docile by K.M. Szpara

Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller

For the Win by Cory Doctorow

Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

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 on the (Hugo-nominated!!!) Skiffy and Fanty Podcast or over at my personal site.

Happy Tuesday (particularly to all lovers of the fiber arts out there), and let’s take a moment to remember when the Glory Gospel Singers covered Cruel Angel’s Thesis because we can all use a little beauty in our lives. It’s Alex, with your weekly picnic basket of new releases and news (occasionally very snerk-worthy) from the internet!

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This newsletter is sponsored by Doubleday.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world–a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

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New Releases

Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee – A collection of short stories set in the world of Ninefox Gambit.

The Iron Dragon’s Mother by Michael Swanwick – The half-human pilot of a sentient mechanical dragon is framed for the murder of her brother.

Wicked Fox by Kat Cho – Gu Miyoung is secretly a gumiho, a nine-tailed fox who devours the energy of men, living in modern Seoul. When she violates her own rules to save the life of a human boy named Jihoon, she loses the fox bead that is her soul in the process. Surrounded by dark forces, Miyoung faces a choice between retaining her immortal life and her developing relationship with Jihoon.

The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter – A young woman raised in the human realm discovers that she’s a fairy tale princess when she manifests the magical ability to commune with mirrors. Faced with betrayal after betrayal, she struggles against the dark side that wants her to be the Evil Queen that is Snow White’s greatest enemy.

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs by Katherine Howe – Connie Goodwin, an expert on the history of witchcraft in America, has a secret: she’s the direct descendent of one of the women tried for witchcraft in Salem, and her ancestor was much more magical than history is willing to admit. Her research and clues from her mother lead her to discover a centuries-old deadly curse that threatens the life of her partner–and only she can solve the mystery.

News and Views

Time to hit the app store: Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is now available.

If you’re feeling the darker side of science fiction and fantasy short fiction, there are four excellent magazines you should check out.

The Red Sonja adaptation is getting back on track after Bryan Singer got (thankfully) ejected, now with Jill Soloway (who is nonbinary and created Transparent) at the helm.

Netflix promises not to make any more episodes of Amazon’s Good Omens series in response to the unintentionally hilarious petition from a trantrum-y US Christian group.

Slightly related, Michael Sheen (who plays Aziraphale) defended fanfiction on Twitter. What a good.

Looks like The Three-Body Problem is headed for a TV adaptation.

A brief history of Doctor Who’s missing episodes.

Here’s a great list of 8 queer fiction podcasts.

First play demo for Jedi: Fallen Order looks hopeful.

I agree with… most… of these 10 sci-fi-ish music videos that deserve to be remastered.

We’ve got a list of 10 books about AI taking over.

The Vitamin String Quartet covered the Jurassic Park theme and there’s a 16-bit video to go with it.

James Marsden and Amber Heard might be starring in the upcoming CBS All Access miniseries of The Stand.

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 on the (Hugo-nominated!!!) Skiffy and Fanty Podcast or over at my personal site.

Happy solstice! I hope you’re enjoying your longest day if you’re in the Northern hemisphere, or having a cosy longest night with a good book if you’re in the Southern hemisphere. It’s Alex, with some news for you and some random fun for Friday! May the odds be ever in your favor!

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This newsletter is sponsored by Tor Books.

New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson triumphantly returns to epic fantasy with the Wake the Dragon series. Spine of the Dragon is a politically charged adventure of swords, sorcery, vengeance, and the rise of sleeping giants.

Two continents at war, the Three Kingdoms and Ishara, are divided by past bloodshed. When an outside threat arises—the reawakening of a powerful ancient race that wants to remake the world—the two warring nations must somehow set aside generational hatreds and form an alliance to fight their true enemy.

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News and Views

Rosamund Pike will be joining the Wheel of Time adaptation as Moiraine.

There will be a Hunger Games prequel novel in 2020.

Cover reveal for Realm of Ash I AM SO EXCITED. (Have you read Empire of Sand? It’s super good.)

Some juicy tidbits about Us from the blu-ray release.

Here’s a great list of 6 fantasy books about queer princesses. Also, the 7 most important umbrellas that have ever graced our genre.

Marvel is so desperate to beat Avatar‘s box office numbers that it’s going to do a theatrical re-release Avengers: Endgame with extra footage. Here’s hoping some of that extra footage is an intermission.

Some characters from Japanese folklore who have made an appearance in Studio Ghibli films.

Here’s our interview with Tabitha Bird, author of A Lifetime of Impossible Days.

This nonfiction book sounds interesting: Super Soldiers: A Salute to the Heroes and Villains Who Fought for Their Country

Adam Savage built an Iron Man suit. And it flies.

James D. Nicoll writes an interesting post about space opera that’s confined to a single star system.

There’s a robotic lion fish powered by “blood-like fluid.”

Show me your biggest trilobite.

Free Association Friday

June 21st has some pretty cool history on it, in addition to getting to be the solstice more than its fair share of the time*.

(* – I don’t know if this is actually a fact, but it is in my heart.)

So instead of going on a long thing, I’m going to pick the three coolest On This Day in Histories.

In 533 on June 21-ish, a Byzantine fleet left Constantinople, heading to Africa to attack the Vandals. If you, like me, had never heard of the Vandals, check Wikipedia because this is something World History class let me down on. But of course, if we’re talking Byzantine Empire, is there any other book to name except A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine? Well, of course Guy Gavriel Kay has written some rather Byzantine books, starting with Sailing to Sarantium. Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun definitely has that flavor as well.

Then if you jump forward 1,049 years, we hit the day that Oda Nobunaga was forced to commit seppuku. Sengoku was Japan’s warring states period, and a source of some really good classic literature like The Tale of the Heike. Epic feudal battles and warring clans! Of course there’s some fun fantasy out there. Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn is the first Sengoku-inspired novel I ever read. Then there’s The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson. While less overtly fantastical (and mostly takes place in the Edo rather than Sengoku period), I’d argue Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka still fits the bill. Eiki Yoshikawa’s Taiko is pure historical fiction, but it’s got Nobunaga himself in it and it’s darn good. Last, I want to mention how mad I am that 産霊山秘録 (Musubi no Yama Hiroku) still doesn’t have an official English translation.

Forward 318 more years, and China formally declares war on the US, Britain, Germany, France, and Japan and the Boxer Rebellion officially starts. R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War doesn’t riff off that period, but it’s got some rhyming notes. (And the sequel, The Dragon Republic, is coming out in August. Squee!) I know I mention Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem trilogy a lot, but the first contact scenario presented in the books definitely carries some notes of the Boxer Rebellion and other clashes with it. In Jade City by Fonda Lee, foreign occupation is successfully repulsed from a fantasy country. (Also, its sequel, Jade War, is coming in July! Double squee!) And I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t mention Aliette de Bodard’s sprawling Xuya Universe, in which the Chinese came to America before the Europeans and Asian countries dominate the future. My favorite from it so far is The Tea Master and the Detective.

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 on the (Hugo-nominated!!!) Skiffy and Fanty Podcast or over at my personal site.

It’s Tuesday again, that most wonderful time of the week when we get a bolus of new books to add to our teetering TBR stacks. I’m your host, Alex, with some new books and a broadside of SFF-related news.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Quillion, the gaming imprint of Lion Forge.

This collected edition of Rolled & Told contains all the adventures, mini-adventures, comics, and articles from issues zero to six along with extra content you couldn’t get in the single issues! It provides hours of pick-up-and-play modules designed both for players new to tabletop role playing and for those who have played for years. Every page is filled with beautiful illustrations, comics coinciding with adventures, and splash art from your favorite comic artists to inspire your players! You forge the adventure with Rolled & Told Vol. 1 in stores now from the Quillion imprint of Lion Forge!

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New Releases

The Record Keeper by Agnes Gomillion – In a world brought to ruins by a third world war, law reigns, to be obeyed perfectly is the only guarantor of survival. Arika Cobane is about to take her place in enforcing those laws until she 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?

Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone – Vivian Lao is an inventor trying to stay ahead of her thieving rivals; she catapults herself accidentally into the far reaches of time and space, where the known universe is ruled by an all-powerful empress who can destroy planets with a single thought. Rebellion against the empress has been unthinkable… but Vivian is no stranger to radical thought or reckless action.

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh – The woods near Greenhollow are occupied by a Wild Man. Tobias is content enough to live quietly in his cottage at the edge of the woods with his cats–and dryads–until a new owner comes to Greenhollow Hall and disturbs things better left buried.

The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull – Aliens called the Ynaa came to the US Virgin Islands five years ago on an undisclosed research mission. This occupation has been mostly peaceful–unless they’re provoked–until a young boy dies at the hands of the aliens.

Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected by Nnedi Okorafor – Not fiction, but rather a memoir of sorts; Nnedi Okorafor explores her personal setbacks and challenges and addresses limitations as fuel for the creative fire.

News and Views

An unpublished manuscript by Anthony Burgess has been found, which is in part about his experience writing A Clockwork Orange and his reaction to the filming of it.

Stranger Things has its own Coke ad.

Yoshida Naoki (creative director of FFXIV) would like to collaborate with George R.R. Martin… but also wants him to finish the books.

Stephen King would like a more faithful adaptation of Under the Dome.

Pride month continues with news of a lesbian couple in My Little Pony!

Umbrella Academy season 2 has started filming.

A look at 6,000 years of fashion that Good Omens skips through.

Here’s a list of 7 mother figures from SFF to be disappointed with you. (Yep, I can definitely feel Nineteen Adze’s [from A Memory Called Empire] disapproval from here.)

Representation for women isn’t really getting any better in video games.

A Book Riot contributor sends out a heartfelt “Thank you, Dad,” for his love of sci-fi.

If you’re in the mood for zombies and some fourth-wall-breaking, deadpan humor, The Dead Don’t Die is out. (I saw it during the weekend and it was… very Jim Jarmusch with an utterly hilarious moment of peak Tilda Swinton.)

More news about the Stephen Universe movie, including Chance the Rapper.

A new sci-fi short film subverts the ‘missing girl’ trope.

On the use of current idioms in fantasy books.

Captain Georgiou? Michael? Is that you? There’s a Star Fleet emblem on Mars.

From the Departments of Hold Me I’m Scared and This Is Totally Novel Fuel, hackers that already went after some petroleum facilities are probing at power grids.

This is cool: Seals with sensors and ice holes in Antarctica.

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 on the (Hugo-nominated!!!) Skiffy and Fanty Podcast or over at my personal site.

Happy Aggretsuko Friday, secretary birds and fennec foxes! May your day be filled with your favorite kind of metal and cute food. It’s Alex, with your dose of news and some free association to take you into the weekend.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Tor Books.

Ivy Gamble was born without magic and never wanted it.

Ivy Gamble is perfectly happy with her life – or at least, she’s perfectly fine.

She doesn’t in any way wish she was like Tabitha, her estranged, gifted twin sister.

Ivy Gamble is a liar.

When a gruesome murder is discovered at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages, where her estranged twin sister teaches Theoretical Magic, reluctant detective Ivy Gamble is pulled into the world of untold power and dangerous secrets. She will have to find a murderer and reclaim her sister—without losing herself.

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News and Views

The 2019 Ditmar Award Winners (for Australian SFF) have been announced.

A discussion well worth reading about the frustrations of disabled fans with the Game of Thrones finale.

A cool interview with artist Justin Gerard, who’s done a lot of fantasy lit art.

If you haven’t gotten a copy of the New Suns anthology yet, perhaps this excellent review will convince you.

Russian Doll will be getting a second season.

A really cool piece on the origins of the Green Man.

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is going to be an animated film!

You can read an excerpt of Cixin Liu’s Supernova Era over at Tor.com.

Dune: The Sisterhood has been greenlit for yet another streaming service. It’s apparently going to be about the Dune universe viewed through the eyes of the Bene Gesserit, not to be confused with the book of the same title. (I love Dune, but I’m feeling pretty unsure-face about a series that’s all Bene Gesserit that doesn’t seem to involve any women in the upper creative roles?)

At E3, we got a reveal on a game that’s a collaboration between George R.R. Martin and Hidetaka Miyazaki (the creator of Dark Souls).

Ooh, we’re getting reviews of Men In Black: International.

US Weather forecasts got a much-needed software upgrade.

Sci-fi novel idea! There’s a conspicuously large spot of extra mass on the Moon. (It’s probably an old asteroid. But technically we don’t know…)

Free Association Friday

Okay, this is a super cool today in history! In 1822 on June 14, Charles Babbage announced his invention of the difference engine to the Royal Astronomical Society via a paper. This was Difference Engine 0, the first and smallest, which he wanted to use to automate the calculation of astronomical tables that were used by sailors. (Creating tables was tedious, time-consuming work, and errors in the calculations could very well kill people who relied on them.) Babbage’s paper got him funding to work on further difference engines; they weren’t simple calculators, but could be used to calculate polynomial equations. (If you want a more complex description of how they work, see here.) Ada Lovelace got involved in a more ambitious spin-off of the project, the Analytical Engine, and built the foundation for the discipline of scientific computing before her untimely death of cancer at the age of 37.

The impetus for Babbage to start work on the difference engine is attributed to him, frustrated at some terrible, error-ridden astronomical tables, exclaiming: “I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam!”

So you bet your analytical engines this is going to a steampunk place. Of course I have to start off mentioning its cyberpunky crossover in The Difference Engine by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson, in which the computer age arrives a century early and is powered by steam. Ada Lovelace also puts in an appearance as a pre-eminent and elderly scientist in Lev A.C. Rosen’s All Men of Genius.

Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina has an inventor heroine who is living a double life as an engineer on both sides of the law. We’ve got Haitian scientists and mysterious weapons in The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark. In Everfair by Nisi Shawl, Africans develop steam technology ahead of Europeans, and the world is set on a new and gorgeous course. The Sea Is Ours: Tales From Steampunk Southeast Asia edited by Jaymee Goh and Joyce Chng is exactly what it says on the tin and well worth reading. Maurice Broaddus’s Buffalo Soldier starts off in a steampunk Jamaica where a former spy has to go on the run with a mysterious boy. (Maurice also brought us Pimp My Airship.) Rings of Anubis by E. Catherine Tobler sets an archaeologist on a fantastical steampunk adventure through Egypt as she searches for the truth behind her mother’s disappearance. And an automaton that can do alchemy gets involved in a proletarian revolution in The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia.

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 on the (Hugo-nominated!!!) Skiffy and Fanty Podcast or over at my personal site.