Category: Swords and Spaceships

Happy Friday, bards and brigands! I’m in a bit of a reading slump (it happens to all of us, alas), so today is a double-sized dose of linky goodness including more Best Of lists, interviews and guest posts from some favorite authors, holiday-themed reading, nerd gear, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Once a King and HMH Teen.

For twenty years, Channelers—women with a magical ability—have been persecuted in Malam by those without magic. Now King Aodren wants to end the bloody divide and unite his kingdom. But decades of hatred can’t be overcome by issuing decrees, and rumors of a deadly Channeler-made substance are only fueling people’s fears. Lirra has every reason to distrust Aodren. Yet when he asks for help to discover the truth behind the rumors, she can’t say no. With Lirra by his side, Aodren sees a way forward for his people. But can he rewrite the mistakes of the past before his enemies destroy the world he’s working so hard to rebuild?

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This week on SFF Yeah!, Sharifah and I gave our favorite picks for gift-giving (to yourself or others!) this holiday season.

The Best of 2018 lists, in all their various permutations, continue to roll in! Here’s a round-up:
– Goodreads Choice Awards (Fantasy: Circe by Madeline Miller; Sci-Fi: Vengeful, V.E. Schwab)
– Autostraddle (scroll down for the SF/F category, which includes So Lucky by Nicola Griffith, The Merry Spinster by Daniel Mallory Ortberg, and The Descent of Monsters by JY Yang)
– NPR’s Book Concierge (with shout-outs to Witchmark, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, Record of a Spaceborn Few, Gnomon, How Long Til Black Future Month, and many more)
– NYPL’s Top 100 (Circe and Spinning Silver made the top 10, there is definitely a pattern here)

Last year I crunched the SF/F titles on these lists for the most-picked, and I’ve decided to do it again. Tune into SFF Yeah!‘s 12/19 episode for those details!

On the flip side of “best of,” here’s a list of 2018 YA fantasy that Namera thinks were hugely underrated (including For a Muse of Fire, reviewed here).

And not an official “best of,” but here’s a round-up of 21 amazing horror books by women (including personal favs Tananarive Due, Mira Grant, Nalo Hopkinson, and Lauren Beukes).

Are we in a Golden Age of interplanetary stories? Here’s a list with compelling evidence (and an earworm for you).

A very happy Chanukah to those celebrating; here’s a list of Jewish SF/F for all of us to add to our TBRs.

I just reviewed Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri (here), so I was delighted to see this thoughtful guest post from her about magic’s role in faith and history.

Also in “I just reviewed that!” (here), NK Jemisin is making the interview rounds for How Long Til Black Future Month, and these two pieces are worth a read: Vulture chronicles her trajectory as a writer and looks at her forthcoming urban fantasy; and GQ talked to her about the mythology of cities, particularly New York, and political despair.

How do people really behave during an apocalypse? There’s research around this, and as Arkady Martine discusses, it’s not what you might think.

Waterworld but better: here’s a round-up of undersea SF/F, including some deep cuts that I now desperately need to read.

This post of fantasy-inspired makeup looks makes me want to get way better at makeup.

Do you or a loved one need a really fancy Hoth-inspired parka? Columbia is on it.

Also in the Star Wars-gifts realm, here’s a coffee table book of blueprints.

And in a final gifty deep-dive, here are three biographies for the Madeleine L’Engle completist in your life.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

May the odds be ever in your favor,
Jenn

Hello and happy Tuesday, demon-hunters and Daredevils. Today we’ve got the first of what will probably be many rounds of nerdy gift guides, some new book news and adaptations, a couple excellent e-book deals, a review of Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri, and more!

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by sponsored by our $250 All the Books Barnes and Noble gift card giveaway!

Enter to win a $250 gift card to Barnes and Noble in support of our All the Books! podcast. Click here for more info.

 

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In gift, adaptation, and book news:

Let’s kick off December with the first nerdy gift guide to appear in my inbox! The honor goes to Unbound Worlds.

We here at Book Riot also have a gift guide, which includes but is not limited to SF/F stuff.

Not to be outdone, here is PW’s (scroll down for the SF/F section), which includes An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim (reviewed here) and Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse (reviewed here).

Also also in gift news, here is lots of amazing Tamora Pierce/Tortall swag.

We’re getting another installment in the world of The Machineries of Empire from Yoon Ha Lee! It’s a short story collection called Hexarchate Stories, but it won’t be out til June 2019 (:weeps:).

Netflix is cancelling Daredevil, but I’m doing fine because Runaways will be back on December 21.

Meanwhile, Blade Runner is getting an anime series. Dare I hope that the showrunners have read the original, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, and we’ll get some specifics from that? Anyway I confess I am interested.

V.E. Schwab’s got another adaptation deal, this time for her novel City of Ghosts!

And it’s probably not a sea monster that caused some mysterious quakes … but could it be an orogene?!?! BRB, have to stuff my copy of The Fifth Season into my go-bag.

Some new releases for this week to keep an eye on:

Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare

Of Blood and Bone (Chronicles of the One #2) by Nora Roberts

And here are two great ebook deals:

Wintersong by S. Jae Jones (reviewed here), $2.99

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeanette Ng, $1.99

And today in reviews, we’ve got a young woman on an epic quest — always a good time!

Empire of Sand (The Books of Ambha #1) by Tasha Suri

Looking for a high fantasy to fill that Dreamblood Duology and/or The City of Brass and/or The Grace of Kings and/or Kushiel’s Legacy-shaped hole in your life? Look no further — Empire of Sand is a page-turner and an enthralling start to a new series.

Mehr is the illegitimate but pampered daughter of an imperial governor, raised in luxury and seclusion but with relatively little power, influence, or choice. Her mother, exiled from her daughters since Mehr was a little girl, is part of a tribe persecuted for their beliefs and their magic. Between avoiding her stepmother’s ire (basically impossible) and hanging on to what little she remembers of her mother and her culture, Mehr tries to live as best she can. When she discovers she inherited powers along with her mother’s blood, she draws the attention of the Emperor and is offered a choice that’s no choice at all — bring down the wrath of the Emperor on herself and her family, or marry an intimidating, aloof mystic and use her newly discovered powers for others’ dark purposes. And the choices she must make only get more complicated from there…

Suri has written an epic, high-stakes fantasy here, one that revolves around a question often implicit but less often directly addressed: what does choice mean in the grips of compulsion and coercion? The world-building, inspired in part by Mughal India, is immersive and lush — which is a weird word to use about a desert empire, but it really does feel vibrant and rich. The colors and textures of Mehr’s world practically sparkle on the page. There are demons, battles, and politics aplenty, plus a gorgeously complicated storyline about love and family.

Perhaps my favorite thing about this book is that it stands beautifully by itself — Suri sets everything up for more adventures, but the main plot is brought to an immensely satisfying close. While I can’t wait to see what’s next for these characters, I’m relieved that I will not have to wail and gnash my teeth for however long it takes til Book 2 comes out. So for all the high fantasy enthusiasts out there, particularly those looking for #ownvoices South Asian-inspired stories, treat yo’self to this one.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Stay frosty,
Jenn

Hello and happy Friday, centaurs and cyborgs! Today we’re talking SF/F sub-genres, dinosaurs, Margaret Atwood news, ASoIaF, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Yen Press.

The Empire can be seductive, particularly if you’re an aspiring young pilot… Thane Kyrell and Ciena Ree both know this very well when they enroll Imperial Academy, eager to pursue their dreams. When Thane discovers the darker side of the Empire, though, and defects to the Rebellion, the pair’s lifelong friendship will be put to the ultimate test. Will Thane and Ciena’s relationship — or even they themselves — survive this galactic conflict…?

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Normally I save the news for Tuesdays, but this one’s a big’un: Margaret Atwood has declared she will write a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale.

Did you know “low fantasy” was a thing? Because I sure didn’t! But I’m 100% behind the foundational concept, and a lot of those books are great reads, so I will accept this argument. (Side note: does that mean urban fantasy is a sub-genre of low fantasy?)

If you followed along with our SFF Yeah! book club for Rosewater by Tade Thompson — or if you just read it — you’ll want to check out this great interview with Thompson about his reading habits, inspirations, and what is coming next.

This is the kind of real world & SF/F crossover I live for: a newly discovered dinosaur has been named after Thanos! On purpose!! Carry on, paleontology nerds.

If you were on the fence, Chris Lough over at Tor.com thinks you should DEFINITELY read Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin: “I haven’t enjoyed a Song of Ice and Fire book this much since A Storm of Swords.”

I got distracted this week, as you will see below, so instead of a review we’ve got a sub-genre round-up!

I’d never heard of hopepunk before this essay by Alexandra Rowland made the rounds in the Insiders forum, but now it has my attention. This, in particular, caught my eye:

Hopepunk isn’t pristine and spotless. Hopepunk is grubby, because that’s what happens when you fight. It’s hard. It’s filthy, sweaty, backbreaking work that never ends. It isn’t pretty, and it isn’t noble, and it isn’t nice, though I expect the natural inclination (and even my own instinctive inclination) is to make it so—to forget the word “radical” in the phrase “radical kindness,” to forget the “punk” part of “hopepunk,” which is really the operative half of the word. To forget the anger of it and let it soften, because softness is what we’re aching for. We want the world to be better—kinder, more just, more merciful. We still yearn toward noblebright, toward an honest and desperate belief that love conquers all. Except, when the other guy has more guns and fewer moral objections than we do, it doesn’t.

Have I read any hopepunk? I’m trying in my head to distinguish between this and, for example, Becky Chambers’ books — which aren’t about defeating an oppressive regime, which I think is what makes them so restful, but are about people finding kindness and family, so let’s continue to call that cozy sci-fi. But since I can’t stop thinking about it, here’s my current approximation of a (short) hopepunk reading list. These books walk the line between documenting injustice and making you believe that, truly, humanity can be kind, hope is real, and while the war is never truly over, battles can be won. Arranged in order of least-dark to wow-things-get-really-dark-wow.

Witchmark by C.L. Polk
A veteran soldier-turned-doctor is fighting to save returning soldiers from a malicious form of PTSD in this Edwardian-esque fantasy. He’s also hiding from someone, when a murder victim falls into his lap. His search for the truth about the murder and his patients takes him deep into danger and conspiracy; full review here.

Hunger Makes the Wolf by Alex Wells
A young woman in a motorcycle gang on a corporate-controlled planet finds herself drawn into an intergalactic battle when her family is threatened by mysterious forces. Full review here.

The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt
A mercenary crew find an impossibly old spacecraft — and a survivor — and then witness the destruction of an entire space station. Their quest for justice takes them farther than they could ever have guessed. Full review here.

Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria
A group of teenaged rebels plots to bring down the council that rules by prophecy and violence — and must face dissension in their own ranks. Full review here.

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
A young mother living in a near-future Toronto gets pulled into a gang’s struggle for power by her no-good ex-boyfriend, and that struggle turns out to be supernatural as well as earthly. Full review here.

The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
I KNOW I KNOW I don’t even have to say it, but JUST IN CASE! Full review here.

The Machineries of Empire Trilogy by Yoon Ha Lee
I don’t care if you’re tired of hearing me talk about these, they are So. Good. Full review here.

Bonus: if you need some hopepunk for your ears, Polygon has a podcast listening list.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Hello and happy Tuesday, vagabonds and Vogons! Today we’re talking about Doctor Who, notable SF/F of 2018, new She-Ra books, a couple new releases, N.K. Jemisin’s collection How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Rebel Base Books and The Spectral City by Leanna Renee Hieber.

In 1899 New York City, the police have a secret spiritual go-to for solving the city’s most haunting crimes. Her name is Eve Whitby, gifted medium and leader of The Ghost Precinct. With her group of female psychics and wayward ghosts, nineteen-year-old Eve holds her own against New York’s darkest threats. But when her ghostly conduits begin to disappear, Eve realizes that a malevolent force is out to destroy the balance between two realms. Now, she must brave the darkness to make sure no one is ever left for dead.

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Here’s the latest very handy round-up of SF/F adaptations in the works on Tor.

The NY Times picked their 100 notable books of 2018, and congrats go out to the genre books that made the list: Eternal Life by Dara Horn (reviewed here), Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, and Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (critically acclaimed and high on my TBR).

We’ve got a trailer and a fancy shmancy website for the Harry Potter AR game over at Wizards Unite, and it’s very appealing to this Potterhead at least.

Where my Scots at? Scotland is getting its own SF, F, and Horror festival in 2019, and it looks very interesting.

In gifty news, my fellow Bitch Planet fans and I can now rock a non-compliant boot tag!

Get your pre-ordering engines ready; there will be Little Golden Books for He-Man and She-Ra in July!

Doctor Who actor Tom Baker has written a Doctor Who novel, based on a script that never saw the light of day. (Doctor? Doctor!)

New releases you might also be excited about:

Aladdin: A New Translation, translated by Yasmine Seale (very interested in this!)

The Mortal Word: An Invisible Library Story by Genevieve Cogman

Today’s review is for this week’s most exciting new release, AT LONG LAST!

How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin

The first short story of Jemisin’s I ever came into contact with was “Non-Zero Probabilities,” which she read at a group event in Brooklyn years ago. I gushed over it, thinking it was new, only to find out that it had come out in 2009 and was a Hugo award nominee. (DERP.) The chance to read it again here, having since read all of her novels and some other short works, was a delight. And let’s get right to it: I love this collection. Not only does it contain my favorite Jemisin short stories plus exciting new ones, it also includes an Introduction and Acknowledgements that shed light on her writing process (for all you aspiring writers/process lovers).

Whether they are from 2009 or 2004 or 2017, all of these stories hold up, and I couldn’t have told you from a first read which were more recent than others. (If anyone wants to really nerd out and read them in chronological order, they’re listed as such on the copyright page.) Instead, I just lost myself in each one. Each showcases in its own way her huge imagination and willingness to experiment with structure, voice, and place.

The collection kicks off with “The Ones Who Stay and Fight,” which is both a response to Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and a clarion call for accountability that is all too relevant in the current political climate. Others, including “The You Train,” “Non-Zero Probabilities,” “The City Born Great,” and “Cuisine des Mémoires,” are just the slightest bit off from our present world. Still others play with history (“The Effluent Engine”), and then there’s the hard sci-fi of “The Evaluators,” which is rare for Jemisin and most welcome to this reader. Longtime readers of hers will be delighted by “Stone Hunger,” which takes place in the Broken Earth ‘verse and contains some familiar characters, and “The Narcomancer,” which revisits the world of the Dreamblood Duology. And if I were going to make a playlist for this collection, which I am strongly tempted to do, I would pair “Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters” with Beyoncé’s “Formation.” Read it, and you’ll see why.

Whether she’s exploring alien life forms or political machinations, self-sacrifice or monsters in New Orleans, Jemisin’s characters are boldly drawn, complex, and so engaging. This is a great gift for any long-time fan and a solid introduction to her work for the curious, and I highly recommend you grab yourself the gorgeous hardcover version.

Bonus! You can read (either before or after the collection, suit yourself!) the piece entitled “How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?” that the collection was named after but does not contain.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

You gotta tip on the tightrope,
Jenn

Happy Friday, trollhunters and Targaryens! I am grateful for all of you, and for your continued interest in my meanderings about SF/F. Today in said meanderings we’ve got updated Satanic lawsuit news, warrior women, Star Trek controversy, mixed morality, and a review of The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Revell Books.

To save his enclave’s future, he’ll have to risk his own It’s been fifty years since the Great Crash. What was once America is now a collection of enclaves, governed on the local level and only loosely tied together by the farce of a federal government. Catawba, one of the largest and most affluent enclaves in the southern states, is relatively stable and maintains a successful business of trade with nearby enclaves. But when a new vein of gold is found beneath their feet, it’s only a matter of time before trouble finds them.

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In the continued saga of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the Church of Satan is totally fine with that statue (which the Satanic Temple is suing Netflix over). Related, if you want to do a deeper dive into Wicca and paganism, we’ve got a reading list for you.

One Rioter is struggling with her complicated feelings on the Harry Potter franchise and the latest Fantastic Beasts movie.

If you need a warm hug of a post, this round-up from Tor of some of their favorite things from 2018 is exactly that.

This list of warrior women in fantasy novels has my sword.

Exactly how controversial is the most controversial Star Trek book, Killing Time? Here’s a deep dive.

If, like me, you’re a fan of all things occult, you will be very interested in this interview about the historical overlap between technology and the supernatural.

For those who prefer their morals gray, Marissa Meyer recommends five books in which you’re not sure which side to root for.

For your ears, Sharifah and I talked about SF/F romances on SFF Yeah!, which was new territory for her.

And now, for a Game of Thrones read-alike that is also an unfinished series, let us all weep together.

The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Trigger warnings: dubious consent, institutionalized homophobia

Y’all, I’m going to try SO HARD not to give away any spoilers. Here goes.

Baru Cormorant continues to rise through the ranks of the Masquerade government, wielding her mathematical genius with ruthless cunning and keeping her true purpose to herself. But even Baru has scruples from time to time, and now she’s being pursued by a foe hell-bent on torment and her ultimate destruction. She’s also been sent on a mission to discover the truth behind rumors of a shadowy cabal — and the result of this mission could determine the fate of nations.

This sequel to The Traitor Baru Cormorant has all the twists, turns, betrayals, battles, and machinations that you’d expect. What I didn’t expect was, given the events of the first book, how connected to humanity Baru has stayed despite her best efforts. In the hands of another writer, the Baru of Monster could be just that: numbed, narcissistic, entirely convinced of her own rightness, and isolated by choice and/or design from those around her. Instead, we get a Baru who is tormented indeed, but far from numb. Every choice she has made and continues to make is a raw wound, and circumstances conspire time and again to force her to see those around her as people — with their own agendas, and their own wounds. And those people continue to see her as a person, which means she’s not allowed to forget that she is one. It would be easier for her if she could, and in fact this makes her anti-heroism all the more effective. She’s a smoking dumpster fire of internal conflict and contradictions and, as she manipulates and betrays others in the worst of ways, she feels every bit of it.

We also get occasional POV from other characters, and while the voice switches sometimes confused me (some are first-person, some second, some third), I loved the added perspective. Baru knows she’s not seeing everything on the table, and it’s both glorious and terrifying to be able to see what she can’t. My biggest complaint is the enormous, incredibly frustrating cliffhanger — exactly HOW LONG do we have to wait for the next installment?! *Flails arms dramatically*

For those of you who are dying (heh) for a dark, bloody, political-shenanigans-filled, heartbreaker of a series about an antiheroine, grab these two books and buckle up for a wild ride.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Stay strong and keep moving,
Jenn

Happy Tuesday, were-tigers and warlocks! It may be a holiday week in the US but we’re carrying on as usual. Today I’ve got lots of news for you about lots of things, including Game of Thrones, some more exciting adaptations, and some very sad news regarding William Goldman, plus a review of Nine Lives by Ursula K. Le Guin.

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This newsletter is sponsored by our $250 All the Books Barnes and Noble gift card giveaway!

Enter to win a $250 gift card to Barnes and Noble in support of our All the Books! podcast. Click here for more info.

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Book and adaptation news:

William Goldman, author of The Princess Bride, passed away last week.

We have casting news (plot spoilers warning!) for the adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s novelette, Nine Lives (reviewed below), and I am delighted — Jonny Lee Miller and Common will be playing mining scouts Pugh and Martin, and they are perrrrfectttttt. (Except now I’m dying to know who is going to be playing the ten-clone John Chow. Fancasts accepted!)

Jewel Gomez’s The Gilda Stories are being adapted and I could not be more excited for this story about Gilda, an escaped black slave and bisexual vampire, to come to the screen courtesy of Cheryl Dunye, a black lesbian woman.

Rolling in the Deep, the mermaid thriller by Mira Grant (a.k.a. Seanan McGuire), is being adapted for the screen by director Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary), it’s like someone out there just wants me to be happy.

The final season of Game of Thrones is coming to your TV in April…

and George R.R. Martin’s NOT-Game-of-Thrones property, Wild Cards, is probably going to Hulu.

On to a new release you might need:

Fire and Blood: 300 Years Before a Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin — because something is better than nothing?

How about an ebook deal?

Rosewater by Tade Thompson (our SFF Yeah! book club pick) is only $4.99.

 

And now for today’s review, which is a classic poised to become new again.

Nine Lives by Ursula K. Le Guin

Trigger warning: incest

People often ask me about the best place to start with Le Guin’s work, and depending on what they prefer (sci-fi or fantasy), I’ll say Lathe of Heaven or Earthsea, respectively. But I’m beginning to wonder if her shorter fiction wouldn’t be better — collections like The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, for example, which has both her SF and F and includes classics like “Vaster Than Empires And More Slow” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” All of this is to say that when I saw the news about the casting for Nine Lives, her novelette, I dove into The Wind’s Twelve Quarters to find it — and it is indeed a gorgeous starting place if you’re new to Le Guin, and a great reminder of her genius for her fans.

Mining scouts Owen Pugh and Alvaro Guillen Martin are out in space working on an unstable uranium mine, and help has finally arrived in the form of ten clones, five male and five female, known collectively as John Chow. The clones are brilliant, young, beautiful, and efficient; so efficient, in fact, that Owen and Alvaro find themselves mostly unable to interact with them. They have each other and that’s all they need. While Owen and Alvaro struggle with their emotional reactions to the clones, the clones carry on with the work — until disaster strikes.

To say more about the plot would be to give too much away (it is a novelette, after all), but what particularly struck me was the complicated, messy humanity of the piece. Here are two men who have become accustomed to dealing with each other’s quirks and flaws and have found an equilibrium, only to have that equilibrium upset by new person(s). And here are ten clones who have never known anything but equilibrium. How do you bridge a gap that seems unbridgeable? How do you learn to deal with external personalities when you’ve never had to? Through the lens of cloning and space exploration, Le Guin ponders the connectedness of people of all kinds, and what it means to relate — and truly connect — to one another.

It’s a heartbreaker of a story, and I remain a bit flabbergasted both that it originally ran in a 1968 edition of Playboy and that it holds up as well as it does. I have so many questions about how they’ll adapt it; there’s not a ton of plot, and I can see the Powers That Be adding more whizbangflash than it currently has. While I do love a good action movie, I live in hopes that the director cares about maintaining the story’s incredible emotional resonance as well.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Happy Friday, Yetis and Yridians! Today I’ve got more best-ofs, fandom ugly sweaters, Harry Potter doodles, warrior women, a review of Firefly #1 by Greg Pak and Dan McCaid, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Running Press, publisher of Fantastic Beasts: The Magizoologist’s Discovery Case.

This deluxe enchanted replica of Newt Scamander’s case, field notebook, and wand pen is loaded with interactive special features to make any fan of Wizarding World feel like a master Magizoologist.

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It is still too early for this, but Kirkus’s Best of 2018 list is up and the Fiction list includes a ton of speculative/genre titles, including personal faves How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by NK Jemisin, Severance by Ling Ma (reviewed here), and State Tectonics by Malka Older (which is high on my TBR).

Today’s review is for a comic, so it feels suitable that I have some other comic links for you! Here’s a pull list for characters outside the gender binary (must read Eth’s Skin ASAP!), and here’s a look at the FTL, Y’ALL anthology (which pubs 12/25) and whose premise I adore.

Also comics-related, G. Willow Wilson is going to be writing for Wonder Woman (!!!!) and we’ve got an interview.

And speaking of interviews, I keep forgetting to link to this one with Tamora Pierce about writing fantasy; it’s really, really good.

This list of SFF books inspired by neglected histories is GREAT, super highly recommend.

Barnes & Noble did a post on the 50 best SF/F debuts, and the list is way better than I was expecting.

Inktober is over but these wonderful Harry Potter doodles are still here for you.

Get prepared for the inevitable ugly sweater party right now, because there are both Game of Throne and Star Trek options!!!!

Strap in, y’all, because it’s time to talk about Firefly!

Firefly #1, written by Greg Pak, art by Dan McCaid

You may have noticed I’m a fan of Pak’s work — I started reading his work with The Totally Awesome Hulk — and so when I heard that he was writing the new Firefly comic, there was no way I wasn’t going to pick it up. (Team Zoe!) For those of you who don’t have a local comics shop and/or aren’t generally reading in issues, you can always wait for the collection.

The gang’s back together again for business as usual: parts are falling off Serenity, they’re short on cash, and they’ve taken a job that might not be on the up and up. Issue 1 includes two timelines: a “present” (set before the events of the movie Serenity) in which the crew is being pursued by a mysterious attacker, and Mal and Zoe’s past during the Unification War. Several flashbacks make it clear that Mal suffers from PTSD, and that their pursuers very likely have something to do with the war. In the meantime, the crew is guarding a caravan of pilgrims from bandits, and there is more to these pilgrims than meets the eye.

Pak nails the group dynamics: the casual banter, the push and pull between Inara and Mal, the uncanniness of River, the team’s fierce loyalty to each other (well, except for Jayne). There are several laugh-out-loud moments (Jayne’s bar fight was a personal favorite), which balances out the gravitas of the darker material. There’s plenty of foreboding to go around, and while I look forward to the exploration of the Unification War and the repercussions for Mal and Zoe, I’m glad to see that lightness intact.

McCaid gives his own spin on the characters, inspired by the original actors, and his color choices play beautifully off each other. Mal’s war memories are vividly red against the blue tones of the contemporary storyline, and the space sequences have some lovely depth and layers.

It’s too early to know if Pak will bring some much-needed character diversity to this series (a universe this Asian-influenced should have Asian characters!), but I’ve got my fingers crossed. And in the meantime, if you’re a die-hard browncoat you’ll want to read this run. If you’re new to the Firefly-verse, this is not the place to start; go watch the TV series, and then come back. It’s only 14 episodes, we’ll wait.

Bonus: You can hear Greg Pak talk about the stories he likes to tell on this episode of our Recommended podcast.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Keep flying,
Jenn

Happy Tuesday, boggarts and Betelgeusians! Today there is some very exciting and some very sad book news, the usual spate of adaptations, a terrible store about an author assistant, and a review of Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Mariner Books.

This “charming, confident follow-up to Creatures of Will and Temper” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) picks up in 1927 Long Island, where Ellie West fishes by day and sells moonshine by night to the citizens of her home town. But after Ellie’s father joins a mysterious church whose parishioners possess supernatural powers and a violent hatred for immigrants, Ellie finds she doesn’t know her beloved island, or her father, as well as she thought.

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In book and author news:

Marvel legend Stan Lee has passed away at 95.

Erin Morgenstern’s second book is coming next year! If, like many here at BR, The Night Circus was your jam, you’ll want to start counting down for The Starless Sea (November 2019).

This is just heartwarming — a bunch of the Fantastic Beasts cast surprised students at a school in Alabama during their Wizarding World Day.

J.K. Rowling had a terrible, lying, thieving assistant who spent company money on … cats???

The adaptation corner overflows, as ever:

Speaking of Fantastic Beasts, the movie sequel is receiving VERY MIXED reviews, and Syfy Wire has rounded them up.

John Boyega and Letitia Wright might be cast in an adaptation of Hold Back the Stars and while I haven’t read the book, I am here for this team-up.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth is the latest alt-history about fascism to get an adaptation, joining The Handmaid’s Tale and The Man in the High Castle as shows that are just too real at the moment. David Simon of The Wire is in charge, which I guess bodes well? *Goes back to rewatching The Great British Bake-Off for the umpteen-millionth time.*

A shoe adaptation! Seriously! Adidas is making sneakers supposedly inspired by various Houses from A Game of Thrones (but y’all, these just look like regular shoes to me).

And there’s some hopeful news for representation coming out of the Watchmen TV series writers’ room.

New releases to be acquired:

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri (which is high on my TBR)

In/Half by Jasmin Frelih, translated by Jason Blake (which looks fascinating)

Giveaways relevant to your interests:

You can enter this giveaway for Archenemies by Marissa Myeyer until tonight (Nov. 13).

We’ve also got a giveaway going for the recently released Girls of Paper and Fire, through Nov. 15!

And now, for the book that kept me happily occupied this weekend.

Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria

Can a group of teenagers bring down a corrupt government? Is fate real, or do our choices matter? What is the difference between revenge and rebellion? What does it mean to be a hero? And what does it mean to fight for the right side, when no single side is in the right? Destiny Soria tackles all of these questions in her new standalone fantasy, and the exploration yields quite a page-turner.

Told in the alternating POVs of Cassa (spunky leader), Evander (sly, jocular thief), Newt (quiet acrobat), Alys (anxious and pragmatic healer), and Vesper (conflicted undercover agent), the story jets along as the first four smuggle themselves into the citadel, hoping to uncover the truth behind a string of mysterious disappearances and deaths. The plot itself is a solid one: a ruling council desperate to hold onto power, wielding prophecies and force to keep themselves there, and a rebellion that has been crushed but for the spark these teens keep alive. There’s a monster deep in a cave, secrets and betrayals, crosses and double-crosses, and the tension ratchets up beautifully as the book goes on.

Soria deftly ends each chapter at the worst-best possible moment, which combined with the action itself kept me turning the pages. The playful (and sometimes infuriating) tossing of the plot from character to character is well-handled and gives each character a chance to shine, and Soria lovingly crafts each and every one. Their adventures both showcase and build their depth, with each subsequent chapter showing us more and more of their backstory and layers. None of this crew are what they seem at first glance, and I loved watching them discover not only truths about the citadel, but about themselves and each other.

If you love magical-and-medieval fantasy from authors like Tamora Pierce, are looking for LGBTQIA characters to root for, prefer a single-book story, and can handle some tragedy along with your triumph, then add this one to your TBR post-haste.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

We’ve made it to Friday, friends and frenemies! Good job all around. Today I have some podcasty goodness, space opera, Game of Thrones read-alikes, vampires, a review of Moon of the Crusted Snow, and more.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Fierce Reads and Archenemies by Marissa Meyer.

They are the world’s best hope . . . but each other’s worst nightmare. In this second installment of the bestselling Renegades trilogy, Nova, Adrian, and the rest of their crew are faced with escalating crime in Gatlon City, while covert weapons and conflicting missions have Nova and Adrian questioning not only their beliefs about justice, but also the feelings they have for each other. The line between good and evil has been blurred, but what’s clear to them both is that too much power could mean the end of their city—and the world—as they know it.

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Follow-up from last week’s spotlight on SF/F artists! Reader Angela wrote in: “I’d suggest Richard Anderson‘s cover art! He did Kings of the Wyld, Emperor’s Blade, Dinosaur Lords, etc.”

Staff favorite Becky Chambers was on the Recommended podcast last week talking about her love for Ursula K. Le Guin, and you should definitely give it a listen.

Also in podcasting, Sharifah and I talked about our favorite opening and closing lines on SFF Yeah!, along with some Dracula and Discworld news.

Moar space opera! Here are 25 of Silvana’s favorites, including many of mine.

While we continue to wait forever for the newest installment in A Song of Ice and Fire, here are some read-alikes to tide you over. Note: this does not include my personal favorite read-alike, The Acacia series by David Anthony Durham, but I will not hold it against Grace.

Guess who’s back? Back again! Vampires are back, tell a friend. (Sorry not sorry.)

Which sci-fi hero are you? Our quiz will tell you! I got Binti and I am 100% fine with that.

Speaking of Binti! Here’s a solid list of #ownvoices SF/F, with a caveat that there is some debate around Rebecca Roanhorse and Trail of Lightning.

Related to today’s review, here are some reading lists from the apocalypse.

And now for the actual review! We’ve got a genre-bender of a book with a very different spin on the end of the world.

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

On a far-northern Anishinaabe reserve, winter is coming — and the satellite TV has gone out. Then cell service, then the power. At first, the community is unconcerned; this far north, things happen. But when there’s no word from the outside world and everything stays off, panic starts to set in. And when news finally does arrive? It’s not good. Following the young couple Evan and Nicole, Moon of the Crusted Snow imagines what a First Nations community might do if the world was ending.

Survivalist takes on the collapse of the modern world aren’t uncommon (see also Alyssa Cole’s Off the Grid series, or Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins) but I haven’t read that many, and this is certainly the first I’ve read by an Indigenous author. Rice’s vision includes the tension, hoarding, and community panic you might expect, but also the folklore and skills of a community that has seen the end of their world more than once, and lived to tell their tales. While he doesn’t delve into the exact causes of the collapse, it makes perfect sense: the reserve wouldn’t be able to find out easily, and how much does it actually matter? What matters is what you choose to do when the lights go out — and what those around you choose.

In addition to being a new spin on the tech-pocalypse, it’s also an eerie, slightly fabulist novel. It’s a slow burn; Rice takes care to build the small town, its residents, and the general atmosphere before slowly cranking up the tension and the pace. It worked beautifully on me. The crunch of snow underfoot, the crack of a gunshot, the flash of teeth; these are the images that haunt me after devouring this book. And devour it I did: I read the entire book over the course of two long train rides on Monday. If you want a thoughtful, uncanny, snow-bound read that will have you battening your hatches for winter and rethinking what apocalypse means, pick this one up ASAP.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

Happy Tuesday, krakens and Klingon! Today we’ve got some award-winners, adaptations all over the place, a big slate of new releases, and Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Lost Arrow, Book I of The Kalelah Series by Marshall Ross.

Millennia ago, the starship Kalelah buried itself seven miles beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean. We have no idea of its existence. It has no idea of ours. And once that changes, everything does. For the worse. Suddenly, two human civilizations – one alien and one Earth-bound – are forced to come to grips with a future neither had ever imagined. And a war nobody wants. It’s a colonization story turned on its head and crafted with all the intrigue and layers of a nail-biting thriller. Readers say, “Like Dan Brown wrote a Crichton story.”

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In book news:

Congratulations to the World Fantasy Award winners, in a tie for best novel!: Jade City by Fonda Lee and The Changeling by Victor LaValle (personal favorites). Big hearty Book Riot congrats also go to former contributors Justina Ireland and Troy Wiggins, whose lit mag FIYAH won for Special Award, Non-Professional.

io9 has an exclusive sneak peek at some illustrations and details from Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin.

In book adaptation news:

We’ve got a Discworld adaptation update! The City Watch goes to BBC America.

A queered adaptation of Frankenstein? Yes, please. A queered adaptation as the kick-off for an LGBTQIA sci-fi anthology show? HELL YES.

The Runaways TV show will be back for Season 2 in December, and if you’re anything like me you cannot wait to see how they’re going to handle the second part of the teen squad’s origin story. The trailer looks like they’re not going to have [redacted] be the [redacted], so what will they do instead? I am dying to know.

And I actually consider Watership Down a post-apocalypse (fight me), so I think it’s relevant to this newsletter that the Netflix/BBC mini-series adaptation is moving ahead with casting.

The director of It is working overtime — in addition to remaking Attack on Titan, Muschietti also has a script for H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. My love for Wells’s novel, flaws and all, goes way back, and I’m verrrrry interested to see what a modern team might make of that. Also we’re well due for a remake (I am ignoring the Guy Pearce 2002 one).

How’s about some book deals?

Galatea by Madeline Miller is $0.99.

Wintersong by S. Jae Jones is $2.99 (previously reviewed here).

Temper by Nicky Drayden is $2.99 (previously reviewed here).

Looking to get into the works of award-winner Adrian Tchaikovsky? The Tiger and the Wolf and Empire in Black and Gold are both $2.99!

And in new releases to keep an eye out for:

Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine: A Decade of Hugo & Nebula Award Winning Stories, 2005-2015

Mass Effect: Annihilation by Catherynne M. Valente

City of Ash and Red by Hye-young Pyun, Sora Kim-Russell

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Someone Like Me by MR Carey

In reviews, I bring you the final book in a duology that was everything I wanted and them some.

The Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao

In this deeply satisfying follow-up to Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (which I reviewed here), Dao moves the story forward 15 years. Jade, daughter of Xifeng’s erstwhile-rival the Empress Lihua, has been raised simply in a monastery at the Great Forest’s edge. She knows who she is, but wants nothing more than the life she has. That all changes when Xifeng summons her back to court, ostensibly to celebrate her 18th birthday. Jade has been hearing horrible rumors about Xifeng for years, and has witnessed the poverty and desperation of the citizens of Feng Lu. When she arrives at the palace, things are even worse than she could have imagined. Then, a quest to save Feng Lu and depose Xifeng comes calling, and Jade and her newfound friends must answer.

The genius of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns was in giving us the story, from her own perspective, of an Evil Queen in the making. Now, we see Xifeng and what she has wrought from Jade’s perspective — and it’s just as effective. Jade may be an innocent, and a truly good person, but she’s also afraid and adrift. She herself wonders about Xifeng and how she came to be the Empress that Jade knows and fears (girl, the stories I could tell you!). And even as Kingdom bears witness to the terrible consequences of Xifeng’s choices, it never loses sight of the backstory. Dao also brings some old friends back to play in surprising and pivotal roles.

She also plays fast and loose with original, iconic elements of Snow White. There’s an apple, but not the way I thought there would be; and there is a little person, but he’s no one’s whistling, bumbling lackey. Western readers like myself will find the familiar bits, beautifully immersed in an East Asian setting that gives new levels and textures to the original fairytale.

Together, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns and Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix make a welcome addition to the retold fairytales canon — inventive, immersive, and engrossing from the first page to the last.

And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda, or on Twitter as jennIRL.

May the odds be ever in your favor,
Jenn