Welcome back to Non-Binary Authors to Read! To my great shame, I let both this column, and its sibling column, Women to Read, lapse in the first half of the year. I don’t really have a good excuse. I’ve still been reading tons of fantastic fiction that I want to bring to people’s attention, but somehow I blinked and half the year is gone. But, better late than never! So without further delay, here are four new recommendations for your reading pleasure.  

Richard Ford Burley is a speculative fiction author and poet, as well as Deputy Managing Editor of the journal Ledger. My recommended starting place for their work is “The Stealing Gift” published in the Summer 2021 issue of Kaleidotrope.  

Thea is a war hero, or so the narratives about her claim. She’s retired now, but once she used her Gift to stop a bombardment of shells and bombs, saving hundreds of lives, though at the cost of her vision. Max, a former friend and the journalist who contributed to her legend, and Esme, an army Engineer whose own Gift allows her to use technology to replicate the Gifts of others, have come to beg Thea to explain how she did what she did in hopes of saving more lives and maybe even ending the war. 

She closes her eyes again, remembering what she’d done with her Gift that day. She can still see the wall of shimmering, golden light, the brilliant incendiary explosion she couldn’t look away from—that she’ll never be able to look away from again. And she remembers the way that Max and the other embedded press had reported it. “Thea White, National Hero,” the newspapers had proclaimed. But the headlines were as accurate at the stories that followed. As they’d squawked on about Heroism and the National War Effort and her Great Sacrifice, they’d never once managed to approach the truth. 

The story is at once beautifully-written and heartbreaking, examining the cost of war, and the narratives surrounding it that forward a picture of heroism while denying individuals their lived truths of grief, guilt, and suffering. Thea has already given all can for the war, and lost so much, yet the world wants more of her. From the outside, her refusal looks like selfishness, or cowardice. The popular narrative of her great heroism only increases her own feelings of powerless and guilt, as if she should be able to stop the war, save more lives, and protect those that matter to her, but she cannot. 

In contrast to Thea’s suffering, Esme could easily have been a flat character caught up in idealism and believing the propaganda fed to her. However, Burley gives us something more nuanced – a character who still holds on to hope, who genuinely wants to help others, and who sees Thea’s pain and wants to help her as well. Neither of them are wrong, and the understanding they build over the course of the story adds another layer of richness. While the subject matter is painful, dealing with loss, survivor’s guilt, PTSD, and the horrors of war, the darkness is balanced with characters caring about each other and genuinely desiring to do good in the world.  

Kel Coleman is an author and editor, and my recommended starting place for their work is a bit of a cheat as I’m recommending a “A Study of Sage” published at Diabolical Plots in February, paired with “Delete Your First Memory for Free” published in Fiyah Magazine #17. As I already reviewed “Delete Your First Memory for Free” in my May 2021 Words for Thought column in Apex Magazine, I’ll focus on “A Study of Sage” here, while touching on why the stories make for excellent paired reading. 

“A Study of Sage” opens with the main character using a simulation to practice breaking up with their girlfriend, Sage. But no matter how many times they try, nothing ever seems to go right – they end up feeling clumsy, guilty, apologizing, wanting to take Sage back and smooth things over. All the while, Sage delivers passive-aggressive comments and cutting remarks, twisting the protagonist’s words and making them feel small.  

I don’t remember the exact words, how she explained that I needed her more than she’d ever needed me, but each syllable pecked and nipped until I was shredded. I tried to dredge up the script from dozens of simulations, reply with something smart and insightful, but the real Sage was more vicious than the designers could’ve gleaned from her social media profiles or my account of our relationship. I hadn’t seen her clearly, not after six years, not even near the end. 

The story pairs nicely with “Delete Your First Memory for Free” in that both showcase Coleman’s talent for stories with incredibly personal stakes, where technology is used in an innovative way to solve one person’s problem. There are no apocalypses on the horizon; humanity is not at stake, and maybe no one else will even notice the change wrought by the story’s end, but to the protagonists of both tales, the change matters deeply. It’s an intimate kind of storytelling that we don’t always see in science fiction. Stories where protagonists employ technology to save their community, or even the world at large, are lovely too, but it’s nice to see a story one person’s life is altered and it is enough. Coleman does small-scope stakes very effectively, underlining that stories whose events impact just one person are still well-worth telling. 

M. B. Hare is an author of weird fiction, and my recommended starting place for their work is “You, Tearing Me Apart on Stage” published in Fusion Fragment #4.  

Terry Weldon is a pop icon, forever young-looking through a variety of enhancements, and forever beautiful. Every aspect of his life, his image, and his career is heavily managed.  

Brand consistency is what sells me. Biweekly hormone suppression. Luxury iris reconfiguration. Hair re-glossing, liposuction, selective liquification pills. A carefully curated avatar in meatspace and the digital that maintains broad demographic appeal without appearing to change over the years in any significant way.  

Celebrity holds little appeal anymore, but neither does real life. Terry goes through the motions every night, performing as if watching someone else. Then one night he receives an invitation to a club on a shady server. Even knowing it’s a bad idea, he goes for the sheer fact that it’s something different and new, only to discover that the club’s specialty is virtual celebrities, including John Lennon, Britney Spears, and himself, who die and or dismember themselves on stage in a gory and realistic fashion in front of a wildly cheering crowd. 

It’s a short and powerful story that explores the dark side of celebrity and the idea that their bodies and lives are public property. A nude pictures leaks, and the celebrity themself is blamed. Paparazzi follow them everywhere, and if they dare complain, they’re called ungrateful. They’ve been paid in fame and recognition and therefore owe the public access to every single aspect of their lives. Hare takes this line of thinking to the extreme, as Terry’s image is literally dissected for the pleasure of the crowd, and of course, it’s Terry doing it to himself, because who does he have but himself to blame? By being famous, he asked for this. He’s made himself into a commodity for his fans’ approval, who is he to object when he’s consumed? It’s an effective exploration of the ways in which the line between public and private, product and producer, can blur, and the unhealthy relationships that can develop between fans and content creators. 

Nhamo is an author of dark, speculative fiction, and my recommended starting place for their work is “Before Whom Evil Trembles” published in Anathema Magazine.  

This story pairs nicely with Hare’s, showing another side of celebrity, and the darkness – both metaphorical and literal – that can lie behind a public persona. The protagonist is a ballerina, relentlessly driven and highly successful, but behind the façade of her success, her life is miserable. When she was a child, her mother was murdered, reduced in the headlines to a “dead prostitute”. Her mother’s profession, murder, and the fact that she’s Arabic lead the ballerina to be bullied as a child and mean she has to work at least twice as hard for every scrap of success.  

Even now, those around her primarily perceive her worth based on her skill as a dancer; she is still treated with suspicion, questioned as to whether she belongs when staying in a hotel with the rest of the company, viewed as an outsider and possibly a criminal due to the color of her skin. She is not seen as a human being, rather as a dancer or a threat, depending on who is perceiving her, until ultimately it is revealed that she may indeed something more than human after all. 

The fur begins to sprout about your neck and face while you stand in the center of the stage, struck prostrate. En pointe. The toes that form the foundation of your grace—battered, bruised, black beneath satin slippers. Black with and without the bruising. 

The story is full of striking imagery and beautiful, poetic language. As with Hare’s story, Nhamo’s explores public versus private identity, but also the question of a person’s worth and the way people are too often valued by what they can do for others, rather than being valued for themselves. The story also looks at ideas of monstrousness and beauty, and what is considered acceptable in society (the monstrous ballerinas and their treatment of the protagonist) and what is not (the supernatural nature of the protagonist, and her mere existence as a brown woman).  

I’ll try not to let things go so long before the next column, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy these stories. Happy reading! 

The post Non-Binary Authors To Read: July 2021 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

We’ve officially moved past “early 2021.” And as we get deeper into the meaty part of the year, the short speculative fiction isn’t letting up. At turns delightful and obliterating, it can be difficult to navigate the wide landscape of the field without a guide, without a map. Which is where I come in! Looking for a story that will tug your heartstrings? I know just the route to get there! Prefer something with more action to get your heart pumping and your feet stomping? I can show you where to look! Whatever your tastes, from science fiction to fantasy to a lovely mix of the two, slip on some sensible shoes and let’s get on the trail of some X-cellent short SFF! 

“The Steel Magnolia Metaphor” by Jennifer Lee Rossman (Escape Pod) 

What It Is: Astrid is a talented mechanic and inventor. She’s also autistic, and metaphors, however, are something of her nemesis. So when she crafts a literal steel magnolia as a kind of present for her mother, she’s not aware that what she’s doing is actually creating an entirely different kind of metaphor, one that has little to do with the movie and everything to do with Astrid’s feelings about her mother’s cancer. The science fiction comes from what Astrid’s inventions end up doing, and how that plays into the wider lines between the literal and the figurative. 

Why I Love It: This is a bittersweet story, one that looks at this raw and emotionally devastating situation and doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t pull away. It captures all of Astrid’s struggles to come to terms with what’s happening, and the ways her autism complicates the process. It does an amazing job of taking what is a very delicate situation, though, and just beautifully exploring it. Showing all the emotion, all the frustration, all the humanity on display as Astrid and her mother talk. As Astrid faces the ways her invention does and doesn’t go to plan. She’s a child yet, and despite a rather mature way of looking at the world the story finds her growing in some important ways, faced with things she’s never had to face. Not breaking. But being changed all the same by the weight and grief of it all. And learning a bit more about herself, and the world, and metaphors. Be sure to have some tissues to hand for this one, because it is an emotional rollercoaster (and so good). 

“Heart Shine” by Shveta Thakrar (Uncanny) 

What It Is: Though it wasn’t available online until June, I’m still considering this a May release from Uncanny Magazine, as that’s when the full issue was out. And people, it is another story that aims at the heartstrings and hits its mark. It finds Komal, a young girl who feels ignored except for when she’s being bullied. Desperate for escape, she chases after Faerie magic, only to find that Faerie doesn’t want her. At least, not in the way she thought she wanted. It’s a complex look at loneliness and escape, explored with a careful hand by the author, who understands how easy it might have been to nudge Komal’s story into tragedy but doesn’t. Who finds a different ending instead, one that is beautiful and inspiring and affirming. 

Why I Love It: Everything about Komal seems to make her vulnerable. The subject of racist and misogynist harassment. Isolated, without an advocate. A girl who wants to disappear, and who takes risks in part because she knows that she has to in order to maybe find a way out of her situation. On the edge of something deep and grim, what ends up finding her isn’t a darkness but a friend. Not one who can wave away her problems or extract her from the dangers and difficulties of her life. But someone who can for once see her and the good in her. Her power and her potential. And that is a magic that is powerful indeed. One that you don’t need to be a Faerie to understand or practice. And I love how the piece brings Komal to a place where she can hope for something in her own life. Not erasing the very real issues and injustices around her. But recognizing that she has power, and will have more, to shape her place in the world, to connect with people who do see her, and who she can in turn see. It’s a lovely and tender and heartwarming read. 

“Shi Shou” by E. A. Xiong (Strange Horizons) 

What It Is: In a peopled solar system where travel between planets and moons is common, and where there’s an increasing market for creating artificial body augmentations for a variety of reasons, the arts are seeing something of a transformation. And for a pianist, and for an artisan specializing in flesh, in somatology, the future means pushing the boundaries of what is possible, both with regards to the human body, and how a human body can create art. And what follows is something of a controversy, something of a risk, but also an undertaking that might bring both to new heights in their fields. 

Why I Love It: I love the pacing of this story, which might seem strange at first because it is a slow piece, one that unfolds over months as the characters work toward this rather huge project. As they are caught in other things, as they make plans, as they go about their lives. They aren’t consumed by just this single project, but rather are committed to their careers, to their ambitions, leading them to the moment when they can reveal their breakthrough, the fruits for their intense labor, and push the boundaries of their arts forward. I just love the way that it’s understated, showing that this isn’t the work of a moment. Or a day or a week or even a year. That it happens in the flow of things, the constant effort that works within the constraints of making a living, funding their passions. But through all that how they still shine, and how the moments of their success ring loudly, echoing through the solar system, through time, as something new, momentous. For me it’s a careful and fantastically crafted story, subtle but poignant, and very worth checking out! 

“Synesthesia” by Devin DeMarco (Lackington’s) 

What It Is: Appearing in the “battle” themed issue of Lackington’s, this story imagines a kind of team sport. One that’s only possible thanks to the fact that in this world some people are have synesthesia that isn’t just about senses but allows them to manifest their altered sensations in physical form. Players of the game then use these powers to try and knock down the opposition using a point system that’s not difficult to follow. Sia can make light from sound, and wield that light as a solid force. A useful power, especially when some dirty pool from the opposing, Chicago team, meaning holding back isn’t an option. 

Why I Love It: SFF sports stories aren’t exactly common, and I love the premise here, the rules, and the energy that the game brings to the story, and that the author brings to the game. The setup is classic and for a Chicago-area native, only a little bit of a dig. The big city team versus the local underdogs. Some less than legal play. Some mighty comeuppance. The piece shines thanks in part to the great cast of characters and their unique powers and the ways they weave those together. There is a very visual flare to the work, something that I especially like given the idea of synesthesia, where here reading the words evokes the sounds and smells, the sights and textures and tastes. It’s tightly paced and powerfully rendered, full of determination, drive, and a lot of fun. It really does make me wish this sport existed, because I’d have season tickets. An incredible read! 

FURTHER X-PLORATIONS 

Looking for even more recommendations? Then good news, because here are some more great stories to X-plore! 

If all the X-tra Xs don’t give it away, I’m a bit of a fan of superheroes, and I absolutely loved Jen Brown’s take on a particularly messy and traumatic superhero journey in “To Rise, Blown Open” (Anathema).  

Along the same line, you can squint and read “Throw Rug” by Aurelius Raines II (Apex) as something of a superhero story, though it might be closer to say it explores the intersections of confidence, family, and the power of never giving up. Whatever the case, it’s an inspiring read! 

Two women with big dreams and an even bigger love find that might not be enough in “Blood in the Thread” by Cheri Kamei (Tor). It’s difficult at times, wrenching, visceral, but also unflinching and reaching for joy and triumph, and it reaches using art, trust, and a refusal to betray the people who really matter. 

Meanwhile, in the first issue of The Deadlands, “Peristalsis” by Vajra Chandrasekera looks at a very strange television show, and a very strange fandom—ones that might break the barriers between life and death, between audience and show, between story and reader. 

And that’s all for this month! Remember to tune in again next time, for more X-quisite speculative X-periences! 

The post X Marks The Story: May 2021 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

A Chat with Chloe Gong

The Book Smugglers: These Violent Delights prominently features rival gangs vying for power and leading to chaos and a body count—as well as a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River, leading to even greater chaos and a higher body count. What research did you do if any to capture your vision of 1920s Shanghai?  

CHLOE: It was a combination of technical research (aka flipping through history textbooks and spending hours at a time in my school library) and asking my parents and relatives a lot of questions! I wanted the setting to feel as real as possible even while I was inventing fantastical elements like a monster and a deadly contagion. Even though this is fiction, 1920s Shanghai in true history was still this glittering, vibrant place, and I wanted to capture its atmosphere as much as possible with a combination of culture and facts so that readers really feel like they are there at this time while these fictionalized events are happening. 

The Book Smugglers: Talk to us a bit about Shakespeare, and the influence Romeo and Juliet had on you and this book. 

CHLOE: I’m a complete Shakespeare nerd. Sometimes people think that means I’m some big brain English major who can understand his plays super easily, and while I am an English major (the big brain part, however, is to be determined), I also have a lot of trouble understanding Shakespeare so it feels rewarding when I dive in and work through the language to emerge with all this rich thematic content and these craft choices. There’s gold buried under the complicated older English! Romeo and Juliet is such a touchstone text to the later emerging themes of Western literature! This book was basically my effort to re-engage with major themes that have always inspired me, except with a fresh spin and a new cultural lens that hasn’t been seen before.

The Book Smugglers: You’ve said that this book is your love letter to Shanghai, Shakespeare, and your younger self, searching for representation in YA fiction. You’ve told us about the first two pillars that inspired your book, but we would love to explore the importance of representation in your work. (Especially now, through the lens of the world in 2021, where the clear legacy of colonialism and AAPI hate are so painfully prevalent.) 

CHLOE: To me, representation in fiction is about showing the world as it is. It’s about telling our own stories, and putting fully-realized identities on the page: people who get to experience stories as whole human beings, not as just an Asian person or a Chinese person. Having a marginalized identity colors the way that someone sees the world, and stories that explore this as its main focus are super important and need a place in mainstream fiction, but I also grew up with fantastical tales of (white) girls simply saving the world and going on adventures, and I wanted to write those kinds of stories, only with heroines that would allow my teen self to see herself right on the page.

The Book Smugglers: If you could host an opulent, era-appropriate gala with characters from These Violent Delights, and any other characters from any other fictional world: who and why? And, what would you serve? 

CHLOE: Oooh, the characters from Cassandra Clare’s The Last Hours trilogy! On a technical level the time periods match up already, but also because I think Juliette and Matthew Fairchild would be great friends, so it would be an absolute hoot. The gala can serve the finest wine money can buy and all the excellent Shanghai dishes.

The Book Smugglers: Finally, a question we ask all of our interviewees: We Book Smugglers have faced condemnation because of the sheer volume of books that we carry back home on a daily basis. As such, we have on occasion resorted to “smuggling books” home to escape judgmental, scrutinizing eyes. Have you ever had to smuggle books? 

CHLOE: I used to devour books at my local library, and since I dropped in about every week, I needed to make sure I was taking home enough that my selection would actually last me seven days because I was such a fast reader. While I’ve never smuggled anything out, I’ve had to hide some checked books in a bag or carry them in two trips because anytime I actually carried the whole stack of like, 15 books from the library doors to my mum’s car I would get so many strange side eyes.

About The Author

Chloe Gong is the New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights and its sequel Our Violent Ends. She is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she double-majored in English and International Relations. Born in Shanghai and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Chloe is now located in New York pretending to be a real adult.

After devouring the entire YA section of her local library, she started writing her own novels at age 13 to keep herself entertained, and has been highly entertained ever since. Chloe has been known to mysteriously appear by chanting “Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s best plays and doesn’t deserve its slander in pop culture” into a mirror three times.

You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok under @thechloegong. She is represented by the wonderful Laura Crockett at TriadaUS Literary Agency.

About The Book

The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.

A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.

But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.

Perfect for fans of The Last Magician and Descendant of the Crane, this heart-stopping debut is an imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River.

The post THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS: A Chat with Chloe Gong appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

As of last month, all of our monthly picks can be found on Bookshop!

June 2021

First on our radar today, a locked room (ok, locked spaceship) mystery with two boys and what promises to be an excellent romance:

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Katherine Tegen Books | June 1, 2021

Two boys, alone in space.

After the first settler on Titan trips her distress signal, neither remaining country on Earth can afford to scramble a rescue of its own, and so two sworn enemies are installed in the same spaceship.

Ambrose wakes up on the Coordinated Endeavor, with no memory of a launch. There’s more that doesn’t add up: Evidence indicates strangers have been on board, the ship’s operating system is voiced by his mother, and his handsome, brooding shipmate has barricaded himself away. But nothing will stop Ambrose from making his mission succeed—not when he’s rescuing his own sister.

In order to survive the ship’s secrets, Ambrose and Kodiak will need to work together and learn to trust one another… especially once they discover what they are truly up against. Love might be the only way to survive.

Next up, a teen witch given the task of sacrificing her first love in order to save her family’s magic. I’m listening…

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

Margaret K. McElderry | June 15, 2021

A rich, dark urban fantasy debut following a teen witch who is given a horrifying task: sacrificing her first love to save her family’s magic. The problem is, she’s never been in love–she’ll have to find the perfect guy before she can kill him.

After years of waiting for her Calling–a trial every witch must pass in order to come into their powers–the one thing Voya Thomas didn’t expect was to fail. When Voya’s ancestor gives her an unprecedented second chance to complete her Calling, she agrees–and then is horrified when her task is to kill her first love. And this time, failure means every Thomas witch will be stripped of their magic.

Voya is determined to save her family’s magic no matter the cost. The problem is, Voya has never been in love, so for her to succeed, she’ll first have to find the perfect guy–and fast. Fortunately, a genetic matchmaking program has just hit the market. Her plan is to join the program, fall in love, and complete her task before the deadline. What she doesn’t count on is being paired with the infuriating Luc–how can she fall in love with a guy who seemingly wants nothing to do with her?

With mounting pressure from her family, Voya is caught between her morality and her duty to her bloodline. If she wants to save their heritage and Luc, she’ll have to find something her ancestor wants more than blood. And in witchcraft, blood is everything.

This next book combines Greek mythology with a feminist twist, and apparently an enemies to loves to enemies storyline? I’m intrigued.

Daughter of Sparta by Claire M. Andrews

Jimmy Patterson | June 8, 2021

Sparta forged her into a deadly weapon. Now the Gods need her to save the world!

Seventeen-year-old Daphne has spent her entire life honing her body and mind into that of a warrior, hoping to be accepted by the unyielding people of ancient Sparta. But an unexpected encounter with the goddess Artemis—who holds Daphne’s brother’s fate in her hands—upends the life she’s worked so hard to build. Nine mysterious items have been stolen from Mount Olympus and if Daphne cannot find them, the gods’ waning powers will fade away, the mortal world will descend into chaos, and her brother’s life will be forfeit.

Guided by Artemis’s twin-the handsome and entirely-too-self-assured god Apollo-Daphne’s journey will take her from the labyrinth of the Minotaur to the riddle-spinning Sphinx of Thebes, team her up with mythological legends such as Theseus and Hippolyta of the Amazons, and pit her against the gods themselves.

A reinterpretation of the classic Greek myth of Daphne and Apollo, Daughter of Sparta by debut author Claire Andrews turns the traditionally male-dominated mythology we know into a heart-pounding and empowering female-led adventure.

Another book on the hereditary power theme, this debut SFF sounds pretty badass.

Star Eater by Kerstin Hall

Tordotcom | June 22, 2021

From Nommo Award finalist Kerstin Hall comes “a layered and incisive examination of power.”—Rory Power, New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls

All martyrdoms are difficult.

Elfreda Raughn will avoid pregnancy if it kills her, and one way or another, it will kill her. Though she’s able to stomach her gruesome day-to-day duties, the reality of preserving the Sisterhood of Aytrium’s magical bloodline horrifies her. She wants out, whatever the cost.

So when a shadowy faction approaches Elfreda with an offer of escape, she leaps at the opportunity. As their spy, she gains access to the highest reaches of the Sisterhood, and enters a glittering world of opulent parties, subtle deceptions, and unexpected bloodshed.

A phantasmagorical indictment of hereditary power, Star Eater takes readers deep into a perilous and uncanny world where even the most powerful women are forced to choose what sacrifices they will make, so that they might have any choice at all.

We have been fans of Carrie Vaughn’s since her urban fantasy/paranormal days (Kitty Norville, anyone?!)–so when I saw that she was writing an RPG/DnD style novel I immediately preordered. Because. It. Looks. Awesome.

Questland by Carrie Vaughn

John Joseph Adams Book Paper | June 22, 2021

“Questland is a thrill ride…Richly imagined, action-packed, maximum fun.”
—Charles Yu, New York Times bestselling author of Interior Chinatown

YOU FIND YOURSELF IN A MAZE FULL OF TWISTY PASSAGES…

Literature professor Dr. Addie Cox is living a happy, if sheltered, life in her ivory tower when Harris Lang, the famously eccentric billionaire tech genius, offers her an unusual job. He wants her to guide a mercenary strike team sent to infiltrate his island retreat off the northwest coast of the United States. Addie is puzzled by her role on the mission until she understands what Lang has built:  Insula Mirabilis, an isolated resort where tourists will one day pay big bucks for a convincing, high-tech-powered fantasy-world experience, complete with dragons, unicorns, and, yes, magic.

Unfortunately, one of the island’s employees has gone rogue and activated an invisible force shield that has cut off all outside communication. A Coast Guard cutter attempting to pass through the shield has been destroyed. Suspicion rests on Dominic Brand, the project’s head designer— and Addie Cox’s ex-boyfriend. Lang has tasked Addie and the mercenary team with taking back control of the island at any cost.

But Addie is wrestling demons of her own—and not the fantastical kind. Now, she must navigate the deadly traps of Insula Mirabilis as well as her own past trauma. And no d20, however lucky, can help Addie make this saving throw.

“Gamers rejoice! Carrie Vaughn has conjured up a fun and fast-paced story filled with elves, d20s, and Monty Python riffs.”
—Monte Cook, ENnie Award-winning creator of the Numenera roleplaying game

This next book is a reimagining of The Great Gatsby–but from the perspective of a queer, adopted, Vietnamese-American female lead. And magic.

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

Tordotcom | June 1, 2021

“Gatsby the way it should have been written?dark, dazzling, fantastical.” ?R. F. Kuang

“A vibrant and queer reinvention of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s jazz age classic. . . . I was captivated from the first sentence.”?NPR

“Vo has crafted a retelling that, in many ways, surpasses the original.”?Kirkus Reviews (STARRED REVIEW)

Immigrant. Socialite. Magician.

Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society?she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She’s also queer and Asian, a Vietnamese adoptee treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her.

But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how.

Nghi Vo’s debut novel The Chosen and the Beautiful reinvents this classic of the American canon as a coming-of-age story full of magic, mystery, and glittering excess, and introduces a major new literary voice.

The third and final book of Megan O’Keefe’s phenomenal The Protectorate science fiction series is out this month and we are here for it:

Catalyst Gate by Megan E. O’Keefe

Orbit | June 22, 2021

In the final book of this explosive Philip K. Dick Award-nominated space opera, the universe is under threat and an ancient alien intelligence threatens to bring humanity down – unless Major Sanda Greeve and her crew can stop it…

The code has been cracked. The secrets of the Casimir gates have been revealed. But humanity still isn’t safe. The alien intelligence known as Rainier and her clones are still out there, hell-bent on its destruction. And only Sanda can stop them.

With the universe’s most powerful ship under her command and some of the most skilled hackers, fighters and spies on her team, it will still take everything she has to find the key to taking down an immortal enemy with seemingly limitless bodies, resources and power.

I was instantly drawn into this next book by its beautiful cover illustration–and then I started reading and it is wonderfully magical.

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

Bloomsbury YA | June 29, 2021

Darkness blooms in bestselling author Kalynn Bayron’s new contemporary fantasy about a girl with a unique and deadly power.

Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.

When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined–it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri’s unique family lineage.

When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri’s sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.

From the bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead comes another inspiring and deeply compelling story about a young woman with the power to conquer the dark forces descending around her.

This next book is written by twin sisters, which seems incredibly fitting.

Sisters of the Snake by Sarena & Sasha Nanua

Harper Teen | June 15, 2021

A lost princess. A dark puppet master. And a race against time—before all is lost.

Princess Rani longs for a chance to escape her gilded cage and prove herself. Ria is a street urchin, stealing just to keep herself alive.

When these two lives collide, everything turns on its head: because Ria and Rani, orphan and royal, are unmistakably identical.

A deal is struck to switch places—but danger lurks in both worlds, and to save their home, thief and princess must work together. Or watch it all fall into ruin.

Deadly magic, hidden temples, and dark prophecies: Sisters of the Snake is an action-packed, immersive fantasy that will thrill fans of The Crown’s Game and The Tiger at Midnight.

And last but certainly not least, Tasha Suri’s new book and first in a new fantasy series–I CANNOT WAIT TO TALK TO EVERYONE ABOUT THIS BOOK.

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

Tor Books | May 25, 2021

Author of Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne, beginning a new trilogy set in a world inspired by the history and epics of India, in which a captive princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic become unlikely allies on a dark journey to save their empire from the princess’s traitor brother.

Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of the powerful, magical deathless waters — but is now little more than a decaying ruin.

Priya is a maidservant, one among several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to clean Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, so long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides.

But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to depose her brother from his throne. The other is a priestess seeking to find her family. Together, they will change the fate of an empire.

And that’s it from us! What books do you have on your radar?

The post On the Smugglers’ Radar: June 2021 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Title: Near The Bone
Author: Christina Henry
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Publisher: Berkeley
Publication Date: April 13, 2021
Paperback: 336 pages

A woman trapped on a mountain attempts to survive more than one kind of monster, in a dread-inducing horror novel from the national bestselling author Christina Henry.

Mattie can’t remember a time before she and William lived alone on a mountain together. She must never make him upset. But when Mattie discovers the mutilated body of a fox in the woods, she realizes that they’re not alone after all.

There’s something in the woods that wasn’t there before, something that makes strange cries in the night, something with sharp teeth and claws.

When three strangers appear on the mountaintop looking for the creature in the woods, Mattie knows their presence will anger William. Terrible things happen when William is angry.

Stand alone or series: Standalone novel

How did I get this book: Purchased

Format: Paperback

CW: implication of rape, child abuse, and other abuse

Review

On a winter’s day like so many others, Mattie awakens and goes about her chores. Her husband, William, is not a patient man, nor is he kind. Mattie knows that she is a bad wife because she continually disappoints William–she woolgathers, she’s clumsy, and most importantly, she hasn’t been able to bear him a son (though she performs her wifely duty every night). Mattie might not care for William’s approval, but she certainly knows that she must avoid his rage–William’s caprice is often accompanied by blows that leave Mattie bruised and bloodied, for even the smallest provocations. (Or, indeed, even when there is no provocation beyond William’s mercurial temper.)

So, on this particular winter’s day when Mattie discovers a fox’s mutilated remains and enormous prints in the snow, she hesitates. She knows she should collect the rabbits from their traps or there will be hell to pay, but no bear or other creature would have done that to a fox. William is predictably upset with Mattie’s dallying and even more upset when she tells him about the fox (it’s not Mattie’s job to think), though he decides to investigate. A bear, William concludes, and one that could feed them all winter if they’re able to catch it.

Soon, though, Mattie and William learn that the creature that left those prints is no bear. It is an impossible creature, the likes of which no one has ever seen before, and William is immediately concerned about what the creature will bring with it: people. People who will want to hunt the creature, people who will want to study it, people who might just discover William and Mattie’s secluded cabin.

For Mattie–who hasn’t seen another soul but has memories of a girl and a song that she carefully tucks away from William–strangers arriving on their mountain is exhilarating and terrifying. And, as Mattie grasps for memories about a time outside of the mountain and before William, she also understands very keenly that the creature on the mountain is very real and very dangerous. Mattie is very good at sensing danger.

Near the Bone is a kind of hybrid novel–it’s part creature-feature horror story, part locked-room (or, more accurately, stranded on a mountain) thriller. But really, and most importantly, it’s a story about a young woman who repeatedly faces incomprehendable horror. It’s not a surprise that Mattie has been abducted, abused, and her past erased by her “husband” William–it’s also not a surprise that Mattie’s memories are fragmented and disjointed, her thoughts solely focused on survival. Near the Bone is told in Mattie’s voice and filtered through her thoughts, adding an even more terrifying layer to the narrative–her focus on keeping herself safe, warring with her desire to even imagine a world without William, is absolutely harrowing stuff. This is the real horror novel and the stuff of nightmares–William’s ice-chip blue glare, his physical and emotional abuse–and Christina Henry does an incredible job of pulling back Mattie’s layers, giving her voice strength and surety as she learns more about her past and the prison William has constructed for her. Know that this is not an easy book to read, but for Mattie’s journey alone, it’s worth it.

Of course, the other part of this story–the less-well done bit–is the creature feature. Reminiscent of an X-Files monster-of-the-week episode with a dash of Crichton-esque thriller juice, Near the Bone‘s catalyst for action is the sudden discovery of a creature in the woods. This cryptid–as the zoologist student researchers in the book come to call it–is large, brutal, and, most vitally, smart. Unlike bears or other more common creatures, the cryptid doesn’t just stockpile its food, it collects and separates bones from organs. It moves quickly and soundlessly, and… well, likes to play with its food. Sort of. There are some motivations that are hinted at, but unlike a monster-of-the-week episode, there’s no Mulder or Scully to connect the dots, which is oddly frustrating. The cryptid’s sudden appearance and its motivations for hunting Mattie, William, Griffin, C.P., and Jen are mysteries that remain unsolved. The why isn’t something that we get into in Near the Bone and that makes sense–but it does diminish the overall impact of the story. (It is the cryptid, after all, that is the entire reason for Mattie’s ultimate motivation to escape.)

This criticism said, the author does a damn good job of building tension through the sequences with the creature–and the dual specter of William and the cryptid looming over Mattie’s choices is plenty terrifying. This, paired with Mattie’s heart-wrenching narration and the refreshingly human, flawed good Samaritans who intervene, makes Near the Bone a solidly entertaining read.

Absolutely recommended for anyone who wants to get lost in a good horror-thriller.

Rating: 7 – Very, Very Good

The post Book Review: NEAR THE BONE by Christina Henry appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

April is dead. Long live May! X-cept, well, before turning fully toward the promise of May and its bright flowers, let’s look back a minute on what April had to offer. Because while the rainiest month might seem to some a bit glum, a bit dreary, the stories on offer from April are anything but, and bring a raw defiance and energy to the season. Like a renewing and invigorating rain, the stories breathe life back into a landscape left harrowed by winter, just recovering with the touch of spring. These stories are bracing and strong, featuring people reaching for something affirming, something warm, something beautiful. So make sure you packed your poncho and boots and follow me on an adventure to map out some X-cellent short SFF!

“The White Road; Or How a Crow Carried Death Over a River” by Marika Bailey (Fiyah #18)

What It Is: Broadfeather is a crow living on a small island—one split by a river that separates Life and Death. And on this island the custom is that crows are given names by First Crow that fit them, that reflect something they’ve done. And Broadfeather wants a great name, one that will shine. So she sets out to earn it with an adventure, one that takes her to the bottom of the sea, and to the dark depths of space, and even to the door of a vile man responsible for a lot of pain and suffering. The story is easily accessible and fun even while dealing with themes of slavery, death, and justice. It bounces with Broadfeather’s desire for a name and her clear sense of right and wrong, balanced by her willingness to act, even in the face of danger and difficulty.

Why I Love It: I adore and am incredibly impressed by the way this story takes on some very grim subjects and yet maintains a kind of positive energy, an earnest and hopeful tone and feel. There is that mythic to it, seeded by the way the title echoes a fable and the way it opens in the traditional “long ago.” It unfolds as a spoken piece, paced perfectly for reading aloud, and Broadfeather’s quest for a better name is something that on its surface is innocent enough, neutral enough. What she finds, though, is anything but, and I love how the story builds that up, the series of straightforward steps where Broadfeather finds this injustice and works to undo it. Which isn’t simple at all. But what is simple is that it needs to be done, that the work is vital, even when it means crossing the boundaries between life and death with a zombie army to bring justice where it has been sorely missed. Which is really awesome.

“A Study in Ugliness” by H. Pueyo (The Dark #71)

What It Is: Unfolding in a religious school run by nuns, Basilia is a bit of a disappointment. For the school. For her family. For the classmate who refuses to acknowledge what they do in the dark together. Until a new student arrives, one who everyone else thinks has been there all along. Gilda. And Gilda seems to have a different set of values than everyone else. And doesn’t see Basilia as ugly. And might be able to show her a world where she can truly belong. The story is grim, Basilia’s situation wrenching, lonely, and Gilda is a strange shadow cast over her life. But it’s also a freeing story about rejecting cultural values that don’t fit, that act as chains and bars rather than something affirming or empowering.

Why I Love It: I love what this story does with expectations and reflections. Basilia doesn’t match the traditional models of beauty. She’s tall and buff. Aggressive and not willing to take shit. Queer as fuck. Where she is, all of those things code ugly. Worthless. Defective. And it puts her at risk. From the teachers and her parents. From the other students, even the ones who secretly admire her, who secretly want her. The problem for Basilia is that she has no real use for secrets. Her life is a click winding down and what she needs is a way out. And that’s where Gilda comes in, to show her a world where values are different. Where for everything that makes her ugly in this world, it makes them beautiful there. It makes them wanted. And I love that the piece shows how important that can be, that if Basilia had one person willing to show desire for her, to say they wanted her, then it might have been different. As it is, for me the story isn’t tragic, doesn’t feature a defeat. It’s a pulling free, and the ending is wonderful, sharp and alive and so worth checking out!

“A House Is Not a Home” by L Chan (Clarkesworld #175)

What It Is: Home seems to be just going through the motions. Making food. Cleaning the floors. Doing her best to keep things normal despite the fact that normal shattered when the authoritarian government sent forces to Home to silence her family. Which Home couldn’t prevent. Which Home might even have helped to happen. In the wake of that, it might be guilt that Home feels, that keeps her doing her tasks. But it might also be something else. The story is short, and especially so for the publication, but it packs a lot in, crafting an emotionally resonating and wrenching story that looks at family, trauma, and the horror of living in an authoritarian state.

Why I Love It: Uncertainty is the name of the game in this story, and the author uses it to devastating effect. Though short, the piece builds this aching portrait of what happened, Home partly responsible for the destruction of her family, for the deaths of those that made her feel complete. The take on surveillance culture is chilling and profound, looking at the ways that Home has been violated, forced to hurt those she cared about. And she knows it to her core, a haunting reminder that might be the reason behind her apparent shock, the traumatized cycle she is caught in. Alone. Empty. Only…the story leaves just the barest window for something else, something like hope, and it’s so telling how hard I hold to that, how hard Home holds to that as well, seemingly broken but maybe just covering for the fact that she refuses to be used again to hurt those she loves. Which is beautiful and tragic all at once.

“A Minnow, or Perhaps a Colossal Squid” by C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez (Mermaids Monthly #4)

What It Is: In an alt-historical, perhaps even second world fantasy Mariposan state, two women who have very little to do with one another find their fates drawing closer and closer together. Damiana Cardosa y Fuentes is a doctor of natural philosophy and something of a rebel in the sciences, chasing enormous underwater sirenas—beings who are known only because of the occasional corpses found in the deep oceans. Meanwhile Estrella Santaez y Perreta is an apprentice executioner and self-described empress of el Estanque, the prison where debtors are transformed into fish to serve their sentences. Despite their differences, both have to face the role that money plays in their professional lives, and how it twists their work into something they can’t be wholly comfortable with. The piece might not directly deal with mermaids, but it does examine the lines between humans and the natural world, and does feature humans transformed into different kinds of aquatic life.

Why I Love It: The split narrative works so well here, dovetailing (or, dare I say it, fishtailing) into a beautifully defiant look at natural philosophy, biology, and indeed science’s position relative to authority. Not just the alt-historical authority of the crown, either, though I do love that the voice and the time period the story evokes and captures, the personalities of the two women as they chafe under the injustices they are pressured to participate in. No, what I love most is that the piece reveals that this kind of binding of scientific discovery and environmental ethics continues to this day, where the crown is the money funding the science. The money deciding what science is valuable while claiming at objectivity, when money is rarely without strings, without an agenda that props up capitalism and the corrupt wielding of power, that traps people in debt and a carceral system where escape is reserved for those who can pay. The piece is unflinching but also fun, and the ending comes as a release, a celebration even as it’s also a warning.

FURTHER X-PLORATIONS

Looking for some X-tra recommendations? Then good news, because here are some more great stories to X-plore!

Let’s start with an un-X-pected delight, “Mysteries of the Visiocherries” by and translated by Rio Johan (Samovar), which features a series of strange occurrences and the rise of some truly devious…fruit. Meanwhile, in Samovar’s sister publication Strange Horizons, Nadia Shammas’ “The Center of the Universe” is a much grimmer read, but one that’s razor sharp, unsettling, and so good.

Moving to some shorter works, “Ursus” by Ada Hoffmann (Million-Year Elegies) is a brilliant poem in a fantastic speculative poetry collection that complicates the past, present, and future through the act of X-cavating the bones of animals ancient and contemporary. “Bandit, Reaper, Yours” by Jen Brown (Baffling Magazine), meanwhile, is a tense and (let’s face it) thirsty story about two women who have grown passionately close and might be willing to throw away their relative safety to be together and cause problems on purpose. And in a lovely and compl-X twist on portal fantasies, “This is not my adventure” by Karlo Yeager Rodríguez (Cast of Wonders) imagines a man having something of a midlife crisis getting some help from some old friends. It’s warm and just lovely.

And let’s close on a pair of stories that move through some very grim spaces, but hold tight to hope and love and affirmation. “Wives at the End of the World” by Avra Margariti (The Future Fire) might unfold in a post-apocalyptic waste, but that doesn’t mean the characters can’t enjoy a victory tour of their relationship, remembering why they’re still in love and together. And isolation and loneliness collide in “Jenny Come Up the Well” by A.C. Wise (PodCastle), where a young woman deals with her desires, finding the power that comes from realizing that she isn’t alone, that she doesn’t have to hide or destroy herself. So good!

And that’s all for this month. Join me again ne-X-t time, intrepid travelers, for further X-citing adventures in speculative fiction!

The post X Marks The Story: April 2021 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

And in order to kick off the celebration in style, we’re thrilled to have interviewed Mia to talk about her book.

A Chat with Mia P. Manansala

The Book Smugglers: If you could host a dinner party with characters from your book at Tita Rosie’s, and any other characters from any other fictional world: who and why? And, what would you serve? 

MIA: Ooh, great question! My guest list:

Odessa Dean from Olivia Blacke’s Killer Content – she’s a small-town transplant currently living in NYC and has been expanding her palate (and crime-solving skills) ever since moving there. I’m sure Lila and her family would love to take her under their wing and introduce her to the world of Filipino food.

Lana Lee from Vivien Chien’s Noodle Shop Mystery series – anybody who can appreciate a good bowl of noodles the way Lana does is always welcome at Tita Rosie’s.

Charlotte Holmes from Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock series – Charlotte is someone who appreciates food, particularly sweets, and it would be hilarious to have her turn her sharp insight toward the aunties and Lola Flor.

Elizabeth Bennett from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice – I’m super basic and absolutely love Lizzie. I think it’d be so much fun to have her over for a tea party full of gossip and judgment. Plus I think she’d appreciate a loud, ridiculous, loving family.

I’d keep the dishes on the simple side since it would likely be everyone’s first time trying Filipino food: pancit bihon, lumpiang shanghai, lumpiang togue, shrimp sinigang, chicken adobo, maybe a vegetable dish like pinakbet, and lots of different kakanin so they can sample the wide variety of sweet rice cakes we have in the Philippines. An icy bowl of halo-halo would be the perfect finish.

The Book Smugglers: Your thoughtful author’s note mentions that as a Filipina American, this book is shaped through your experience and worldview. How did you use parts of your background in Lila Macapagal’s voice?

MIA: Unlike Lila, I didn’t have a Filipino community growing up. All I had was my family and the food we shared. I grew up in a multi-generational household with my maternal grandparents, parents, younger brothers, and cousins. I was the second oldest kid in the house and the only girl, so that deep-seated feeling of obligation and family responsibility is something we both share. Both of us were raised to put family first, but while I’m a bit of a people pleaser, Lila is a little resentful of always having to put others before herself.

The Book Smugglers: Did you do any research (arsenic, etc) or recipe-testing (adobo, etc) to write Arsenic and Adobo? 

MIA: Yes to both! I like to joke that I’m probably on some FBI watch list thanks to all the poison research I did. I had to look up how quickly certain poisons take effect, what the symptoms look like, how to easily source them, etc. As for the recipes, I looked up a few versions online (my dad was the cook in the family and sadly didn’t leave behind any of his recipes before he passed away) and cobbled them together, tweaking them to fit my taste. This is probably my favorite part of writing this series since whenever I’m procrasti-baking, I can say it’s research for my books!

The Book Smugglers: A central theme examined in your novel is the importance of family (even if there are some relatives that may be overbearing and judgmental). Please elaborate on those bonds and what they mean to you in the context of your writing. 

MIA: As I mentioned earlier, I was raised to think of family first and I still genuinely believe it. But like Lila, it’s something I’ve struggled with. As the oldest girl in an immigrant family, I had a lot of responsibility, particularly regarding my little brothers who were much younger than me. I resented it as a kid, but my brothers are still the most important people in the world to me. And similar to Lila, with her judgmental aunties and grandmother, my relationship with my grandparents was complicated, because as a child, how do you understand that your family says things that are hurtful because they love you? That the words “I love you” aren’t ones they can say, but there are so many ways they try to show it?

And as I got older, I started to realize family doesn’t just extend to blood relations, and on the flip side, just because someone’s blood doesn’t necessarily make them your family. For me, looking at all the ways these complicated feelings bash up against each other, and how love and resentment or jealousy can sit so close to each other in a person’s heart…it’s fascinating. Family is such a central theme in my life, I can’t imagine it not being one in my writing.

The Book Smugglers: Arsenic and Adobo is a delightful, food-centric cozy mystery–what are some of your favorites in the genre and/or works that influenced this book? 

MIA: I love Vivien Chien’s Noodle Shop Mystery series, Ovidia Yu’s Aunty Lee Singaporean Mystery series, and Gigi Pandian’s Accidental Alchemist series (not exactly a culinary cozy, but there are still loving descriptions of food and recipes).

The Book Smugglers: Finally, a question we ask all of our interviewees: We Book Smugglers have faced condemnation because of the sheer volume of books that we carry back home on a daily basis. As such, we have on occasion resorted to “smuggling books” home to escape judgmental, scrutinizing eyes. Have you ever had to smuggle books? 

MIA: I was probably the only kid in my neighborhood to get in trouble for “reading too much.” I would spend what little allowance I had on Scholastic book orders and book fairs, and would often have my mom or grandmother snatch away my book because they didn’t like me reading while eating (or while I was supposed to be doing homework, or watching my brothers, or helping with dinner, or…) so would often have to sneak around with my reading material. My husband has resigned himself to my book addiction and knows not to make comments on any new books I’ve brought home (despite having towering piles of unread books all over the house and a library job…)

About The Author

Mia P. Manansala is the winner of the 2018 Hugh Holton Award, the 2018 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, the 2017 William F. Deeck – Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers, and the 2016 Mystery Writers of America/Helen McCloy Scholarship. She’s also a 2017 Pitch Wars alum and 2018-2020 mentor. You can visit Mia online at miapmanansala.com.

About The Book

The first book in a new culinary cozy series full of sharp humor and delectable dishes—one that might just be killer….

When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She’s tasked with saving her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.

With the cops treating her like she’s the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out and resell the storefront, Lila’s left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, her barista best bud, and her trusted Dachshund, Longganisa, Lila takes on this tasty, twisted case and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block…

Adobo and Arsenic is available today, May 4th, 2021.

The post ARSENIC AND ADOBO: A Chat with Mia P. Manansala appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Title: Ruin and Rising
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Square Fish
Publication Date: June 17, 2014
Paperback: 417 pages

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling’s secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

Stand alone or series: Book 3 in the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and part of the overall Grishaverse

How did I get this book: Purchased

Format: Paperback

Warning: This review contains unavoidable spoilers for Shadow and Bone and Ruin and Rising. If you have not yet read the first two books in the trilogy and wish to remain unspoiled, look away!

Review

The Darkling has won.

At least, that’s what it seems like at the beginning of Ruin and Rising, the third book in Leigh Bardugo’s original Shadow and Bone trilogy. Thanks to the disastrously ill-informed actions of Prince Vasily, the Darkling and his loyal Grisha were able to slip across borders and march directly on Os Alta, devastating the Crown loyalists and killing nearly all of the Grisha that Alina was working so hard to train and organize under her leadership. Still, Alina was able to fight the Darkling and win a (admittedly pyrrhic) victory, by using his own tricks against him,channeling his darkness and power to do her bidding.

Alina and the remaining Grisha survivors find refuge from an unlikely source–the Apparat and his zealous flock of Santka Alina followers are able to provide enough cover to whisk the survivors underground. Now, while the Darkling recovers his strength and amasses power above ground, the weakened, frail Sun Summoner finds herself in a different kind of trap. Unable to call sunlight or use her abilities, kept separate from her friends–all in the name of her protection, of course, the Apparat claims with his shrewd piousness–Alina is become a ghost.

But she is not defeated.

Slowly, Alina gathers her strength. And all the while, the Apparat’s network of underground tunnels and secrets fuel her ambition–using the mad Morozova’s lost notebooks, Alina is single-mindedly devoted to finding her third and final amplifier. If she can get to the firebird, if she can convince Mal to help her this one last time, she is sure she can kill the Darkling and destroy the Fold. But a growing part of her also knows that her hunger for power is no longer purely patriotic or born of a sense of duty–her desire to understand Morozova’s past and unlock her own power becomes an obsession. And Alina must ask herself: what is she willing to sacrifice, and for what real end?

Ruin and Rising is not an easy book. It’s not easy to start, knowing that Alina’s Grisha have been utterly decimated, their plans ruined. It’s also hard to see Alina broken and dissembling once more, unable to call the sun and feigning meekness to appease the Apparat. Since she didn’t have the good sense to be a martyred saint, the Apparat is single-mindedly focused on controlling her every move (in the hopes that she doesn’t ever recover her strength). In many ways, this is another another defining moment of the series—the way miracles of power are presented to a desperate population who knows only war and conflict; the way Alina’s sanctity is wielded as yet another weapon by powerful men with vested interests in the throne; the way Alina herself is inconsequential, when compared to the symbolic figure she may pose. Ravka has a sickness, rooted in the greed and power of the Fold–commoditizing and weaponizing of the Sun Summoner’s power and body is natural, even expected, leap.

It is because of this discomfort, this lack of easy answers, that makes Ruin and Rising so memorable. Unlike Shadow and Bone and Siege and Storm, Leigh Bardugo is not afraid to go there in this third and ultimate volume in Alina’s story. While she begins the story as a dissembling waif, it’s no surprise that Alina is so utterly focused on finding the Firebird and unlocking the final amplifier to harness her power. In a world where even the most powerful Grisha is cajoled, manipulated, imprisoned, and intimidated, of course she yearns for power of her own and damn the consequences. I also very much love that the consequences are anything but inconsequential–when Alina finally learns what she must do to unlock her third and final amplifier, it is a powerful reckoning. There are a lot of things that I don’t like about Alina as a character (her penchant for self-pity and complaining, especially earlier on in the series), but at the end of book 2 and throughout this book, I admire her determination. Her arc is poignant and painful, and I appreciate how she grows up over the course of the trilogy.

But let’s get to the real star of this book: Prince Nikolai, who we are scared we will never see again after the events of Siege and Storm. Nikolai’s brand of confidence, strategic decision-making, and sheer audacity makes him one of my favorite characters in the entire Grishaverse–his return in Ruin and Rising and what he endures in this book have deep ramifications for the future of Ravka (and for any readers who are Team Nikolai). The other characters we’ve gotten to know over the course of the trilogy also play important roles in this final book, from Genya and David (their relationship is one of the few non-toxic ones in the entire trilogy), to Tamar and Nadia (I love them so much), and especially Zoya (whose attitude towards Alina has softened to the point where, by book’s end, Zoya and Alina count each other as true friends).

And of course, there is the ending. On that item, I will say simply this: Ruin and Rinsing is a perfect, epic ending that changes everything, and a bitter, sweet and fitting close to Alina and Mal’s stories. (And yes, even, the Darkling’s.)

I loved it. Absolutely recommended.

Rating: 8 – Excellent

The re-read continues next with Six of Crows (the first book in the Six of Crows duology)…

The post Grishaverse Re-read: RUIN AND RISING by Leigh Bardugo appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

As of last month, all of our monthly picks can be found on Bookshop!

May 2021

First up, a book that blends E. Lockhart with Studio Ghibli and sisterhood–obviously, we need it.

The Ones We’re Meant To Find by Joan He

Roaring Book Press | May 4, 2021

Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay. Determined to find her, Cee devotes her days to building a boat from junk parts scavenged inland, doing everything in her power to survive until the day she gets off the island and reunites with her sister.

In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara is also living a life of isolation. The eco-city she calls home is one of eight levitating around the world, built for people who protected the planet?and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.

Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But as the public decries her stance, she starts to second guess herself and decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own.

One of the most twisty, surprising, engaging page-turner YAs you’ll read this year—We Were Liars meets Black Mirror, with a dash of Studio Ghibli.

This next book is the second in Zoraida Córdova’s exceptional new YA fantasy series–we cannot wait to get our hands on this one.

Illusionary by Zoraida Córdova

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers | May 11, 2021

In Zoraida Córdova’s thrilling sequel to Incendiary, Renata embarks on a dangerous journey to bring justice to the kingdom — perfect for fans of Sabaa Tahir and Sarah J. Maas.

Reeling from betrayal at the hands of the Whispers, Renata Convida is a girl on the run. With few options and fewer allies, she’s reluctantly joined forces with none other than Prince Castian, her most infuriating and intriguing enemy. They’re united by lofty goals: find the fabled Knife of Memory, kill the ruthless King Fernando, and bring peace to the nation. Together, Ren and Castian have a chance to save everything, if only they can set aside their complex and intense feelings for each other.

With the king’s forces on their heels at every turn, their quest across Puerto Leones and beyond leaves little room for mistakes. But the greatest danger is within Ren. The Gray, her fortress of stolen memories, has begun to crumble, threatening her grip on reality. She’ll have to control her magics–and her mind–to unlock her power and protect the Moria people once and for all.

For years, she was wielded as weapon. Now it’s her time to fight back.

E.K. Johnston can do no wrong, and when we heard she had a new YA sci-fi series coming out, we were ecstatic.

Aetherbound by E.K. Johnston

Dutton Books for Young Readers | May 25, 2021

A thought-provoking new YA space adventure from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Ahsoka.

Set on a family-run interstellar freighter called the Harland and a mysterious remote space station, E. K. Johnston’s latest is story of survival and self-determination.

Pendt Harland’s family sees her as a waste of food on their long-haul space cruiser when her genes reveal an undesirable mutation. But if she plays her cards right she might have a chance to do much more than survive. During a space-station layover, Pendt escapes and forms a lucky bond with the Brannick twins, the teenage heirs of the powerful family that owns the station. Against all odds, the trio hatches a long-shot scheme to take over the station and thwart the destinies they never wished for.

Another book that I (Thea) cannot wait to share is this debut from a Filipina-American author–it features adobo, poison, and a dachshund named Longanisa.

Adobo and Arsenic by Mia P. Manansala

Berkley | May 4, 2021

The first book in a new culinary cozy series full of sharp humor and delectable dishes—one that might just be killer….

When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She’s tasked with saving her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.

With the cops treating her like she’s the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out and resell the storefront, Lila’s left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, her barista best bud, and her trusted Dachshund, Longanisa, Lila takes on this tasty, twisted case and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block…

Andy Weir has a new book out this month! Can’t wait to learn a lot about something I never thought I would ever need to learn about. (And I’m not just being facetious, the rudimentary knowledge I now have of potato farming (The Martian) and welding (Artemis) is pretty cool.)

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Ballantine Books | May 4, 2021

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission–and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that’s been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it’s up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian–while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

We’re not ones to judge a book by its cover, but this cover is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. And also, pre-colonial West African fantasy–yes, please.

Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

Orbit | May 11, 2021

From one of the most exciting new storytellers in epic fantasy, Son of the Storm is a sweeping tale of violent conquest and forgotten magic set in a world inspired by the pre-colonial empires of West Africa.

In the ancient city of Bassa, Danso is a clever scholar on the cusp of achieving greatness—only he doesn’t want it. Instead, he prefers to chase forbidden stories about what lies outside the city walls. The Bassai elite claim there is nothing of interest. The city’s immigrants are sworn to secrecy.

But when Danso stumbles across a warrior wielding magic that shouldn’t exist, he’s put on a collision course with Bassa’s darkest secrets. Drawn into the city’s hidden history, he sets out on a journey beyond its borders. And the chaos left in the wake of his discovery threatens to destroy the empire.

This mythology inspired retelling also sounds intriguing (and has a lovely cover to boot):

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

Flatiron Books | May 4, 2021

As Princesses of Crete and daughters of the fearsome King Minos, Ariadne and her sister Phaedra grow up hearing the hoofbeats and bellows of the Minotaur echo from the Labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur – Minos’s greatest shame and Ariadne’s brother – demands blood every year.

When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him. But helping Theseus kill the monster means betraying her family and country, and Ariadne knows only too well that in a world ruled by mercurial gods – drawing their attention can cost you everything.

In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne’s decision to betray Crete for Theseus ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover’s ambition?

Ariadne gives a voice to the forgotten women of one of the most famous Greek myths, and speaks to their strength in the face of angry, petulant Gods. Beautifully written and completely immersive, this is an exceptional debut novel.

A mesmerising retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Perfect for fans of CIRCE, A SONG OF ACHILLES, and THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS.

Zen Cho Alert! This contemporary fantasy, set in Malaysia, looks UTTERLY WONDERFUL. Also, it’s Zen Cho therefore will absolutely keep you reading until an ungodly hour because her storytelling is just that damn good.

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

Ace | May 11, 2021

A reluctant medium discovers the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power in this compelling Malaysian-set contemporary fantasy.

Jessamyn Teoh is closeted, broke and moving back to Malaysia, a country she left when she was a toddler. So when Jess starts hearing voices, she chalks it up to stress. But there’s only one voice in her head, and it claims to be the ghost of her estranged grandmother, Ah Ma. In life Ah Ma was a spirit medium, the avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now she’s determined to settle a score against a gang boss who has offended the god–and she’s decided Jess is going to help her do it.

Drawn into a world of gods, ghosts, and family secrets, Jess finds that making deals with capricious spirits is a dangerous business. As Jess fights for retribution for Ah Ma, she’ll also need to regain control of her body and destiny. If she fails, the Black Water Sister may finish her off for good.

Sarah Pinkser returns with a new science fiction novel that sounds thought-provoking as heck with this next pick:

We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinkser

Berkley | May 11, 2021

From award-winning author Sarah Pinsker comes a novel about one family and the technology that divides them.

Everybody’s getting one.

Val and Julie just want what’s best for their kids, David and Sophie. So when teenage son David comes home one day asking for a Pilot, a new brain implant to help with school, they reluctantly agree. This is the future, after all.

Soon, Julie feels mounting pressure at work to get a Pilot to keep pace with her colleagues, leaving Val and Sophie part of the shrinking minority of people without the device.

Before long, the implications are clear, for the family and society: get a Pilot or get left behind. With government subsidies and no downside, why would anyone refuse? And how do you stop a technology once it’s everywhere? Those are the questions Sophie and her anti-Pilot movement rise up to answer, even if it puts them up against the Pilot’s powerful manufacturer and pits Sophie against the people she loves most.

I’m on a heist kick right now (rereading the Six of Crows duology), so this next book sounds perfectly timed and right up my alley.

The Helm of Midnight by Christopher Buehlman

Tor Books | May 25, 2021

Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes (but is not limited to) lock-picking, knife-fighting, wall-scaling, fall-breaking, lie-weaving, trap-making, plus a few small magics. His debt has driven him to lie in wait by the old forest road, planning to rob the next traveler that crosses his path.

But today, Kinch Na Shannack has picked the wrong mark.

Galva is a knight, a survivor of the brutal goblin wars, and handmaiden of the goddess of death. She is searching for her queen, missing since a distant northern city fell to giants.

Unsuccessful in his robbery and lucky to escape with his life, Kinch now finds his fate entangled with Galva’s. Common enemies and uncommon dangers force thief and knight on an epic journey where goblins hunger for human flesh, krakens hunt in dark waters, and honor is a luxury few can afford.

And that’s it from us! What books do you have on your radar?

The post On the Smugglers’ Radar: May 2021 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

The Hugo Awards are one of the longest-running SFF awards, distinguished from all other major speculative fiction awards in that it is voted on by fans who are members of the World Science Fiction Convention. Each year, Hugo Award winners (and associated Not-A-Hugo-Awards, like the Lodestar and Astounding Awards) are announced at WorldCon. This year’s WorldCon will be in Washington D.C., though unlike previous years the ceremony will take place December 15-19, 2021.

A reminder for everyone interested: even if you are not attending WorldCon 79, note that ANY SFF fan can sign up for a supporting membership ($50) which gives you the right to vote for your favorites to win the Hugo Award.

The 2021 Hugo Award Finalists

This year’s finalists are absolutely awesome. Check out the full list below!

Best Novel

• Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Gallery / Saga Press)
• The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
• Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com)
• Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tor.com)
• Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
• The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books)

Best Novella

• Come Tumbling Down, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com)
• The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo (Tor.com)
• Finna, Nino Cipri (Tor.com)
• Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com)
• Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi (Tor.com)
• Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey (Tor.com)

Best Novelette

• “Burn, or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super”, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny Magazine, May/June 2020)
• “Helicopter Story”, Isabel Fall (Clarkesworld, January 2020)
• “The Inaccessibility of Heaven”, Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine, July/August 2020)
• “Monster”, Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2020)
• “The Pill”, Meg Elison (from Big Girl (PM Press))
• “Two Truths and a Lie”, Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com)

Best Short Story

• “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse”, Rae Carson (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2020)
• “A Guide for Working Breeds”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Solaris))
• “Little Free Library”, Naomi Kritzer (Tor.com)
• “The Mermaid Astronaut”, Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2020)
• “Metal Like Blood in the Dark”, T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2020)
• “Open House on Haunted Hill”, John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots – 2020, ed. David Steffen)

Best Series

• The Daevabad Trilogy, S.A. Chakraborty (Harper Voyager)
• The Interdependency, John Scalzi (Tor Books)
• The Lady Astronaut Universe, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books/Audible/Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction/Solaris)
• The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells (Tor.com)
• October Daye, Seanan McGuire (DAW)
• The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager)

Best Related Work

• Beowulf: A New Translation, Maria Dahvana Headley (FSG)
• CoNZealand Fringe, Claire Rousseau, C, Cassie Hart, Adri Joy, Marguerite Kenner, Cheryl Morgan, Alasdair Stuart.
• FIYAHCON, L.D. Lewis–Director, Brent Lambert–Senior Programming Coordinator, Iori Kusano–FIYAHCON Fringe Co-Director, Vida Cruz–FIYAHCON Fringe Co-Director, and the Incredible FIYAHCON team
• “George R.R. Martin Can Fuck Off Into the Sun, Or: The 2020 Hugo Awards Ceremony (Rageblog Edition)”, Natalie Luhrs (Pretty Terrible, August 2020)
• A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler, Lynell George (Angel City Press)
• The Last Bronycon: a fandom autopsy, Jenny Nicholson (YouTube)

Best Graphic Story or Comic

• DIE, Volume 2: Split the Party, written by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles (Image Comics)
• Ghost-Spider vol. 1: Dog Days Are Over, Author: Seanan McGuire,  Artist: Takeshi Miyazawa and Rosi Kämpe (Marvel)
• Invisible Kingdom, vol 2: Edge of Everything, Author: G. Willow Wilson, Artist: Christian Ward (Dark Horse Comics)
• Monstress, vol. 5: Warchild, Author: Marjorie Liu, Artist: Sana Takeda (Image Comics)
• Once & Future vol. 1: The King Is Undead, written by Kieron Gillen, iIllustrated by Dan Mora, colored by Tamra Bonvillain, lettered by Ed Dukeshire (BOOM! Studios)
• Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, written by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy, illustrated by John Jennings (Harry N. Abrams)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), written by Christina Hodson, directed by Cathy Yan (Warner Bros.)
• Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, written by Will Ferrell, Andrew Steele, directed by David Dobkin (European Broadcasting Union/Netflix)
• The Old Guard, written by Greg Rucka, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Netflix / Skydance Media)
• Palm Springs, written by Andy Siara, directed by Max Barbakow (Limelight / Sun Entertainment Culture / The Lonely Island / Culmination Productions / Neon / Hulu / Amazon Prime)
• Soul, screenplay by Pete Docter, Mike Jones and Kemp Powers, directed by Pete Docter, co-directed by Kemp Powers, produced by Dana Murray (Pixar Animation Studios/ Walt Disney Pictures)
• Tenet, written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Warner Bros./Syncopy)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• Doctor Who: Fugitive of the Judoon, written by Vinay Patel and Chris Chibnall, directed by Nida Manzoor (BBC)
• The Expanse: Gaugamela, written by Dan Nowak, directed by Nick Gomez (Alcon Entertainment / Alcon Television Group / Amazon Studios / Hivemind / Just So)
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Heart (parts 1 and 2), written by Josie Campbell and Noelle Stevenson, directed by Jen Bennett and Kiki Manrique (DreamWorks Animation Television / Netflix)
• The Mandalorian: Chapter 13: The Jedi, written and directed by Dave Filoni (Golem Creations / Lucasfilm / Disney+)
• The Mandalorian: Chapter 16: The Rescue, written by Jon Favreau, directed by Peyton Reed (Golem Creations / Lucasfilm / Disney+)
• The Good Place: Whenever You’re Ready, written and directed by Michael Schur (Fremulon / 3 Arts Entertainment / Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group)

Best Editor, Short Form

• Neil Clarke
• Ellen Datlow
• C.C. Finlay
• Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya
• Jonathan Strahan
• Sheila Williams

Best Editor, Long Form

• Nivia Evans
• Sheila E. Gilbert
• Sarah Guan
• Brit Hvide
• Diana M. Pho
• Navah Wolfe

Best Professional Artist

• Tommy Arnold
• Rovina Cai
• Galen Dara
• Maurizio Manzieri
• John Picacio
• Alyssa Winans

Best Semiprozine

• Beneath Ceaseless Skies, edotor Scott H. Andrews
• Escape Pod, editors Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya, assistant editor Benjamin C. Kinney, hosts Tina Connolly and Alasdair Stuart, audio producers Summer Brooks and Adam Pracht and the entire Escape Pod team.
• FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, publisher Troy L. Wiggins, executive editor DaVaun Sanders, managing editor Eboni Dunbar, poetry editor Brandon O’Brien, reviews and social media Brent Lambert,  art director L. D. Lewis, and the FIYAH Team.
• PodCastle, editors, C.L. Clark and Jen R. Albert, assistant editor and host, Setsu Uzumé, producer Peter Adrian Behravesh, and the entire PodCastle team.
• Uncanny Magazine, editors in chief: Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, managing editor: Chimedum Ohaegbu, non-fiction editor:  Elsa Sjunneson, podcast producers: Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky
• Strange Horizons, Vanessa Aguirre, Joseph Aitken, Rachel Ayers, M H Ayinde, Tierney Bailey, Scott Beggs, Drew Matthew Beyer, Gautam Bhatia, S. K. Campbell, Zhui Ning Chang, Tania Chen, Joyce Chng, Liz Christman, Linda H. Codega, Kristian Wilson Colyard, Yelena Crane, Bruhad Dave, Sarah Davidson, Tahlia Day, Arinn Dembo, Nathaniel Eakman, Belen Edwards, George Tom Elavathingal, Rebecca Evans, Ciro Faienza, Courtney Floyd, Lila Garrott, Colette Grecco, Guananí Gómez-Van Cortright, Julia Gunnison, Dan Hartland, Sydney Hilton, Angela Hinck, Stephen Ira, Amanda Jean, Ai Jiang, Sean Joyce-Farley, Erika Kanda, Anna Krepinsky, Kat Kourbeti, Clayton Kroh, Maureen Kincaid Speller, Catherine Krahe, Natasha Leullier, A.Z. Louise, Dante Luiz, Gui Machiavelli, Cameron Mack, Samantha Manaktola, Marisa Manuel, Jean McConnell, Heather McDougal, Maria Morabe, Amelia Moriarty, Emory Noakes, Sara Noakes, Aidan Oatway, AJ Odasso, Joel Oliver-Cormier, Kristina Palmer, Karintha Parker, Anjali Patel, Vanessa Rose Phin, Nicasio Reed, Belicia Rhea, Endria Richardson, Natalie Ritter, Abbey Schlanz, Clark Seanor, Elijah Rain Smith, Hebe Stanton, Melody Steiner, Romie Stott, Yejin Suh, Kwan-Ann Tan, Luke Tolvaj, Ben Tyrrell, Renee Van Siclen, Kathryn Weaver, Liza Wemakor, Aigner Loren Wilson, E.M. Wright, Vicki Xu, Fred G. Yost, staff members who prefer not to be named, and guest editor Libia Brenda with guest first reader Raquel González-Franco Alva for the Mexicanx special issue

Best Fanzine

• The Full Lid, written by Alasdair Stuart, edited by Marguerite Kenner
• Journey Planet, edited by Michael Carroll, John Coxon, Sara Felix, Ann Gry, Sarah Gulde, Alissa McKersie, Errick Nunnally, Pádraig Ó Méalóid, Chuck Serface, Steven H Silver, Paul Trimble, Erin Underwood, James Bacon, and Chris Garcia.
• Lady Business, editors. Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay, and Susan.
• nerds of a feather, flock together, ed. Adri Joy, Joe Sherry, The G, and Vance Kotrla
• Quick Sip Reviews, editor, Charles Payseur
• Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog, ed. Amanda Wakaruk and Olav Rokne

Best Fancast

• Be The Serpent, presented by Alexandra Rowland, Freya Marske and Jennifer Mace
• Claire Rousseau’s YouTube channel, produced by Claire Rousseau
• The Coode Street Podcast, presented by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe, Jonathan Strahan, producer
• Kalanadi, produced and presented by Rachel
• The Skiffy and Fanty show, produced by Shaun Duke and Jen Zink,  presented by Shaun Duke, Jen Zink, Alex Acks, Paul Weimer, and David Annandale.
• Worldbuilding for Masochists, presented by Rowenna Miller, Marshall Ryan Maresca and Cass Morris

Best Fan Writer

• Cora Buhlert
• Charles Payseur
• Jason Sanford
• Elsa Sjunneson
• Alasdair Stuart
• Paul Weimer

Best Fan Artist

• Iain J. Clark
• Cyan Daly
• Sara Felix
• Grace P. Fong
• Maya Hahto
• Laya Rose

Best Video Game

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Publisher and Developer: Nintendo)
• Blaseball (Publisher and Developer: The Game Band)
• Final Fantasy VII Remake (Publisher Square Enix)
• Hades (Publisher and Developer: Supergiant Games)
• The Last of Us: Part II (Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment / Developer: Naughty Dog)
• Spiritfarer (Publisher and Developer: Thunder Lotus)

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

• Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas (Swoon Reads)
• A Deadly Education, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
• Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
• Legendborn, Tracy Deonn (Margaret K. McElderry/ Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing)
• Raybearer, Jordan Ifueko (Amulet / Hot Key)
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll Productions)

Astounding Award for Best New Writer

• Lindsay Ellis (1st year of eligibility)
• Simon Jimenez (1st year of eligibility)
• Micaiah Johnson (1st year of eligibility)
• A.K. Larkwood (1st year of eligibility)
• Jenn Lyons (2nd year of eligibility)
• Emily Tesh (2nd year of eligibility)

For more information about the Hugo Awards and how to vote, check out the official website.

FIYAHCON’s Ignyte Awards

The truly awesome FIYAH magazine created FIYAHCON in 2020 (and as you’ll see above, the con itself is on the Hugo Award ballot for Best Related Work), focused on BIPOC in SFF. The Ignyte Awards are part of FIYAHCON, and we’re thrilled to share the 2021 finalists below!

Best Novel – Adult

for novel-length (40k+ words) works intended for the adult audience

• Black Sun – Rebecca Roanhorse (Gallery Books/Saga Press)
• The City We Became – N. K. Jemisin (Orbit)
• Midnight Bargain – C. L. Polk (Erewhon Books)
• The Only Good Indians – Stephen Graham Jones (Gallery Books/Saga Press)
• Vagabonds – Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu (Gallery Books/Saga Press)

Best Novel – YA

for novel-length (40k+ words) works intended for the young adult audience

• Elatsoe – Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
• Legendborn – Tracy Deonn (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
• Raybearer – Jordan Ifueko (Amulet Books)
• A Song Below Water – Bethany Morrow (Tor Teen)
• A Sky Beyond the Storm – Sabaa Tahir (Razorbill)

Best in MG

for works intended for the middle grade audience

• Frightville: Curse of the Wish Eater – Mike Ford (Scholastic Paperbacks)
• Ghost Squad – Claribel A. Ortega (Scholastic)
• Maya and the Rising Dark – Rena Barron (HMH Books for Young Readers)
• Race to the Sun – Rebecca Roanhorse (Read Riordan/Disney Publishing Worldwide)
• A Wish in the Dark – Christina Soontornvat (Candlewick Press)

Best Novella

for speculative works ranging from 17,500-39,999 words

• Empress of Salt and Fortune – Nghi Vo (Tor.com)
• The Four Profound Weaves – R. B. Lemberg (Tachyon Publications)
• Ring Shout – P. Djèli Clark (Tor.com)
• Riot Baby – Tochi Onyebuchi (Tor.com)
• Stone & Steel – Eboni J. Dunbar (Neon Hemlock)

Best Novelette

for speculative works ranging from 7,500-17,499 words

• The Inaccessibility of Heaven – Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine)
• Love Hangover – Sheree Renée Thomas (Mocha Memoirs Press)
• The Night Sun – Zin E. Rocklyn (Tor.com)
• One Hand in the Coffin – Justin C. Key (Strange Horizons)
• The Transition of Osoosi – Ozzie M. Gartrell (FIYAH)

Best Short Story

for speculative works ranging from 2,000-7,499 words

• Body, Remember – Nicasio Andres Reed (Fireside Magazine)
• EXPRESS TO BEIJING WEST RAILWAY STATION | ????????? – Congyun ‘Mu Ming’ Gu, translated by Kiera Johnson (Samovar)
• My Country is a Ghost – Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny Magazine)
• Rat and Finch are Friends – Innocent Chizaram Ilo (Strange Horizons)
• You Perfect, Broken Thing – C. L. Clark (Uncanny Magazine)

Best in Speculative Poetry

• The Alt-History of King Kong – Renoir Gaither (Speculative City)
• Fin – Terese Mason Pierre (Uncanny Magazine)
• The Harrowing Desgarrador – Gabriel Ascencio Morales (Strange Horizons)
• Hungry Ghost – Millie Ho (Uncanny Magazine)
• Tequila Mockingbird | Matar un Ruiseñor – Raúl Gallardo Flores, translated by Juan Martinez (Strange Horizons)

Critics Award

for reviews and analysis of the field of speculative literature

• Jesse @ Bowties & Books
• Charles Payseur @ Quick Sip Reviews
• Maria Haskins
• A. C. Wise
• Stitch @ Stitch’s Media Mix

Best Fiction Podcast

for excellence in audio performance and production for speculative fiction

• Beneath Ceaseless Skies – Editor Scott H. Andrews
• Escape Pod – Editors Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya; Assistant Editor Benjamin C. Kinney; Hosts Tina Connolly and Alasdair Stuart, Audio Producers Summer Brooks and Adam Pracht, and the entire Escape Pod team
• Nightlight Podcast – Tonia Ransom
• PodCastle – Editors Jen R. Albert, Cherae Clark, Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali, Host + Assistant Editor Setsu Uzume, & Audio Producer Peter Adrian Behravesh
• The Magnus Archives – Written and performed by Jonathan Sims, Directed by Alexander J Newall, Produced by Lowri Ann Davies. Distributed by Rusty Quill

Best Artist

for contributions in visual speculative storytelling

• John Picacio
• Nilah Magruder
• Odera Igbokwe
• Paul Lewin
• Rovina Cai

Best Comics Team

for comics, graphic novels, and sequential storytelling

• Cuisine Chinoise: Five Tales of Food and Life – Zao Dao, with Diana Schutz & Brandon Kandor (Dark Horse Comics)
• Far Sector – N. K. Jemisin & Jamal Campbell (DC Comics)
• Giga – Alex Paknadel & John Lê (Vault Comics)
• Parable of the Sower – Written by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy, illustrated by John Jennings (Abrams ComicArts)
• You Brought Me the Ocean – Alex Sanchez & Jul Maroh (DC Comics)

Best Anthology/Collected Works

• A Phoenix First Must Burn – ed. Patrice Caldwell (Viking Books for Young Readers)
• Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World that Wouldn’t Die – editor, publisher dave ring (Neon Hemlock)
• Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction – ed. Joshua Whitehead (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• Nine Bar Blues – Sheree Renée Thomas (Third Man Books)
• Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with a Fresh Bite – ed. Zoraida Cordova & Natalie C. Parker (Imprint)

Best in Creative Nonfiction

for works related to the field of speculative fiction

• “The African Superhero and the Legacy of Captain Africa” – Suyi Davies Okungbowa (Tor.com)
• “Fine Weather, Isn’t It?” – Tochi Onyebuchi (SFWA Bulletin #215)
• “How to Make a Family: Queer Blood Bonds in Black Feminist Vampire Novels” – Tamara Jerée (Strange Horizons)
• “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream: The Duty of the Black Writer During Times of American Unrest” – Tochi Onyebuchi (Tor.com)
• “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Excellence” – Nibedita Sen (Uncanny Magazine)

The Ember Award

for unsung contributions to genre

• Clarion West
• Dhonielle Clayton
• K. Tempest Bradford
• Michi Trota
• Tananarive Due

The Community Award

for Outstanding Efforts in Service of Inclusion and Equitable Practice in Genre

• Anathema Magazine: Spec from the Margins – Michael Matheson, Andrew Wilmot, Chinelo Onwualu
• Beth Phelan
• Diana M. Pho
• #PublishingPaidMe – L.L. McKinney & Tochi Onyebuchi
• Writing The Other: Online Classes and Workshops – Nisi Shawl + K Tempest Bradford

Congratulations to all of the finalists!

The Ignyte Awards will be presented on Saturday September 18, 2021 at 4pm ET. The finalists are determined by the Ignyte Awards Committee, who comprise FIYAHCON staff and previous award-winners of diverse backgrounds. Voting for the winners of the Ignyte Awards is open to all fans of SFF through May 21, 2021 at 11:59 PM EST! Click here to cast your vote!

Get your tickets to the 3.5 day convention (including panels, games, office hours, workshops, and more) online for $40, or (or a free Fringe ticket) here.

A huge congratulations to all of the finalists! We’ll be casting our ballots for the immensely talented creators on both the Hugo and Ignyte Awards shortlists. If you are planning to attend either WorldCon or FIYAHCON, let us know–we’d love to catch up with you!

The post Awards Season 2021: Announcing the Hugo and Ignyte Finalists appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Title: Siege and Storm
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Square Fish
Publication Date: June 4, 2013
Paperback: 435 pages

Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her—or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

Stand alone or series: Book 2 in the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and part of the overall Grishaverse

How did I get this book: Purchased

Format: Paperback

Warning: This review contains unavoidable spoilers for Shadow and Bone. If you have not yet read the first book in the trilogy and wish to remain unspoiled, look away!

Review

Alina Starkov–humble, orphan mapmaker that was–has been discovered as a Grisha of rare and terrible power. Alina has the uncanny ability to call sunlight in the same way other Grisha can move water or air, and through training has learned to sharpen and hone her abilities to deadly precision. With the help of the stag bone amplifier, now permanently set around her neck as a collar, Alina’s powers have grown even stronger–maybe even strong enough to challenge the Darkling himself, though he intended the collar to control Alina and her powers.

Some call her the Sun Summoner; others think of her as a holy and blessed Saint, sent to deliver Ravka from the Fold and the monsters within.

In truth? Alina does not feel very holy. Following her dramatic escape from the Little Palace and using the Cut to strand the Darkling and his followers in the Fold, Alina and Mal find themselves on the True Sea, without much in the way of friends or provisions. Soon enough, the Darkling finds them. Yet again, he coerces cooperation from Alina by threatening violence against Mal–and yet again, they are on the search for a mythological beast whose body can serve as an amplifier for power.

Luckily for Alina and Mal, there are other players in the game of power with vested interests in Ravka’s future. An unlikely ally emerges in the form of Prince Nikolai–the royal younger son, rumored bastard, and apt charmer who always knows the right thing to say to any audience. Alina agrees to help Nikolai for the sake of Ravka, seizing control of the Second Army and, yes, even agreeing to embrace her “Sainthood” if it means stopping the Darkling once and for all.

Of course, things are never so simple and this time, the Darkling has learned some new tricks. Instead of just calling the darkness, it seems he can literally create monsters from the Fold and control them, as Alina learns with horrified dismay. With the future of her friends, her country, perhaps even the world on the line, Alina is determined to embrace her power–even if it means sacrificing her own humanity.

Ah, Siege and Storm. I have a confession to make: when I first attempted to read this book, I DNF’d it. I had a hard time shifting back into the Grishaverse with Alina and Mal playing the same game–weak, meek Alina hiding herself away and swaggery, brawny Mal making friends and Providing–and the emergence of a potential third love interest for Alina (i.e. Prince Nikolai). BUT, I came back to the book and ultimately was able to push aside some of those trope-laden misgivings and enjoy the fast plotting, high stakes, and wicked good world-building Leigh Bardugo wields with Cut-like precision.

This second time around, I found myself more forgiving of Alina (which, incidentally, I think is the key to the entire series). Once I could get over the fact that, yes, this is another Chosen One storyline with a main character of nigh unprecedented power, I felt much more sympathy for our Sun Summoner. I appreciated the implications and dangerous fanaticism of becoming a Saint and the power struggles of the Grand and Little Palace that she has to navigate. Moreover, I appreciate how ill-equipped for the job Alina appears to be, and how she rallies despite Mal being basically THE WORST (sorry, Mal fans) and comes into her own abilities as a negotiator and… well, general. I have a deep respect for Alina’s arc in this second book (and third book) as she also struggles with her own desire for more power, her attraction to the Darkling, and her own tangled allegiances and emotions.

Beyond Alina’s journey, there are some other standout characters in this second book, such as:

Genya. One of my absolute favorite characters in the entire series, I respect Genya’s choices especially in this book.

Zoya. Another favorite character, who has layers and depth and whose behavior Alina questions, rightfully!

Tamar and Tolya–the siblings from Shu Han who also end up becoming part of Alina’s retinue, but of murky allegiances in this particular novel.

There are also the many other members of the Grisha, like Sergei and Nadia and Adrik and David, who will become important, pivotal players in the war to come.

And of course, there’s Nikolai–the charming, adroit bastard prince with a plan, who is so much more than what he seems.

Beyond the characters, I love the vision of Os Alta as a slowly dying city, more preoccupied with grandeur and appearances than in the lives of its people. The juxtaposition of Crown Prince Vasily versus Nikolai was also a welcome addition of nuance to the series–the political entrapments of the King and his First Army juxtaposed against the tension with the Grisha and the Second Army was particularly well developed this time around.

Of course, I can’t write a review of this second novel without acknowledging the pull between Alina and the Darkling, right? There’s a Kylo Ren x Rey visitation vibe (and yes, I know this series predates The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker but you know exactly what I mean, right?) that is undeniably sexy and works because of Alina’s isolation and hunger for power–ultimately, this shared, destructive bond is irresistible. Less likable is the bond between Alina and Mal, but that is mostly personal bias–I have a really hard time liking Mal mostly because of his controlling, shitty, bad boyfriend flags.

There are hints at what might have caused the Fold to begin with and the mythology behind the Darkling’s origins that appear in this book. There are also political machinations and power plays that will shape and change everything, all of which I loved deeply upon this re-read.

Ultimately? Siege and Storm delivers and is significantly better than the first book.

Onward, to Ruin and Rising.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

The re-read continues next with Ruin and Rising (book 3 in the Shadow and Bone trilogy)…

The post Grishaverse Re-read: SIEGE AND STORM by Leigh Bardugo appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Title: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Square Fish
Publication Date: June 5, 2012
Paperback: 358 pages

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Shadow and Bone is the first installment in Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy.

Stand alone or series: Book 1 in the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and part of the overall Grishaverse

How did I get this book: Purchased

Format: Paperback

Review

A mapmaker, a tracker, and an ageless power-wielder walk onto the field of battle, and nothing will ever be the same.

Alina Starkov–the mapmaker–has lived her entire life by keeping her head down. Always a little sickly, always a bit frail and clumsy and graceless and awkward, Alina enlisted in Ravka’s First Army partially out of civic duty (and by enforced necessity), but more importantly to stay connected to her best friend and unrequited love, Mal. Mal–the tracker–is young and handsome and carefree, renowned already throughout the ranks of his battalion as an uncannily good tracker and seducer of beautiful women (including Grisha), though he is Alina’s oldest and closest friend. Mal and Alina find themselves on the battlefield aboard skiffs and enter the Fold–a region severing Ravka from other countries with its unpassable, monster-filled darkness. When they enter the Fold, something very peculiar happens–when Mal is attacked by volcra and on the pair are on the verge of sure death, Alina unlocks an unforetold ability to summon light, and repel the monsters and the darkness.

No such thing has ever happened in Ravka. There are other Grisha–wielders of magic, experts of the Small Science, and fighters of the Second Army–including those who can manipulate the natural elements (Etherealki), those who are experts of the limits of the human body (Corporalki), and those who can manipulate composite materials to their ends (Materialki). The closest thing to Alina’s power is an Etherealki of unparalleled power: the Darkling, an ageless and immensely powerful Grisha who commands the Second Army, with an ability to summon darkness.

The Darkling–the ageless power-wielder–instantly takes interest in Alina, inviting her to train as a Grisha and unlock her true potential. Unlike Mal and the life Alina has known before, for the first time she grows into herself and her abilities. She becomes more confident, more powerful, and yet… more conflicted at each step along the way. As Alina adjusts to her gilded surroundings, she starts to question everything–especially the Darkling, and his motives.

When I first read (and reviewed) Shadow and Bone, I was both invested in the world, and slightly underwhelmed by characters. Upon this re-read, nearly a decade later, this initial observation still holds true. I *love* the concept of the “unsea” (the shadow fold), of Grisha, and a world sundered by monsters and darkness from some unknown source. And, this many years later, I know just how much time and effort Leigh Bardugo has invested in this world and its inhabitants, and can appreciate the grand scope of the Grisha, of Ravka, of the Shu Han and the politicking and choices that shape this world.

But I can’t deny that even upon re-reading this book, there are a lot of problematic elements.

All cards on the table: Alina’s entire character arc is a little… well, twee. I should note that it is slightly unfair reading this book in a vacuum because Alina becomes so much more in books 2 and 3, but judging book 1 on its own? Yeah, you can’t really deny the fact that her arc reads like a page from the post-Twilight-heroine playbook. Alina is consumed with what Mal will think of her, and what the Darkling thinks of her, and what the other Grisha think of her–her focus is entirely outside of herself, and her character growth seems tied to becoming more beautiful (and less clumsy and awkward) and other peoples’ perceptions of her. Both love interests in this book are similarly controlling, domineering, and unconscionably shitty. The Darkling is seductive and dark and broody and nigh-immortal and calls to Alina’s nascent power while trying to control her. Mal is overbearing, jealous, and judgmental, accusing Alina of liking her gilded cage (and the Darkling) too much. Not to mention the fact that Mal signs up for a secret mission to bring a powerful amplifier to Alina to feel, like, closer to her, and yet blames her for the Darkling’s manipulations, etc. In other words–all of the bad, abusive boyfriend red flags are flying full mast in this first novel.

And yet.

Despite these flags, there’s no denying that on its own, Shadow and Bone is still incredibly compelling. Alina’s arc, while utterly predictable, is still powerful in her choices. The fact that Alina is an outsider, that she feels alone and isolated, that she struggles with other Grisha as well as her best friend, is empathetic as hell and I deeply admire her ability to make choices the further out her story goes. Similarly, Alina’s bonds with other female characters–Zoya and Genya in particular–are nuanced, and have so much further implication for the rest of the series.

It’s impossible to re-read a series without also evaluating the things to come. Things that I didn’t notice as much the first time around but loved this time around:

The importance and quiet strength of Baghra, Alina’s teacher when she reaches the Palace.

The spectacle of the Grisha and how the entire kingdom of Ravka is slowly rotting on itself, with its preoccupation with glamor and beauty.

The beginnings of the understanding that absolute power corrupts absolutely–especially for Grisha, and including Alina herself.

Shadow and Bone is very much a first novel, lacking polish (and those aforementioned boyfriend red flags), but there’s so much promise in this book that it’s worth it to stick around for the ride.

I’m both more invested and more critical on a second read, and cannot wait to dive into the rest of the Grishaverse to evaluate the rest.

Rating: 6 – Good, but with some reservations

The re-read continues next with Siege and Storm (book 2 in the Shadow and Bone trilogy)…

The post Grishaverse Re-Read: SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

The snow has finally melted from my yard! For most of the Northern Hemisphere, that means Spring is in the air! Plants are sluggishly trying to poke up, the squirrels are incredibly chonky, and the fiction is…well, complicated and wrenching and so so beautiful. And this month there’s some interesting and innovative flourishes as well. From interactive fiction to stories framed as wiki entries with annotated song lyrics, the stories I’m rounding up today show how varied and how creative short SFF can be, while losing nothing in power or impact. So grab your compass and your map and let’s get to it!

“Diamonds and Pearls” by JL George (Fireside Magazine #88)

What It Is: Language is quite literally tied to gems in the world of this story, where as people learn words, they cough up different kinds of gemstones. And Osian grows up learning to covet diamonds, for the language of the common tongue, rather than pearls, which only emerge as people learn words in the old tongue. The story finds Osian struggling against his culture, his heritage, his desires, a ball of conflicting emotions that threatens to come spilling loose once he goes away to university and meets another student, a linguist, and has to challenge everything he thinks he knows. The story is built around this core of language and how we value it, how we lose it, and how we can reclaim it, and interwoven with that is a love story that is warm and sharp all at once.

Why I Love It: Osian is such a compelling character to me, so caught up in his own bullshit, hurt and damaged by an upbringing but rather ignorant of it, not wanting to examine the ways he’s been cut off from his past, from his family’s history. He’s invested in the valuation that society has put on the dominant language and the suppressed one. The new and the old. And it takes meeting someone who deeply challenges him, who captivates him, who has such a different set of values, to threaten that worldview. That comfort with all that he’s lost. And it makes so much sense, it speaks so real, especially to me as an American where there is no “official language” but where there’s certainly a value placed on what languages a person does (and doesn’t) know. And the ending is so sweet, so heart-meltingly adorable, that I can’t help but recommend going out and reading this story immediately!

“The Captain and the Quartermaster” by C.L. Clark (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #326)

What It Is: For most of this story, the characters are marked not by their names but by their roles in a revolution that has been going on for much longer than anyone expected. For years they have been fighting against a Tyrant, and their fortunes shift with the seasons. But the Captain keeps on fighting, and the Quartermaster keeps on making sure the army has enough food and supplies, and together their love is something that gives the rest of the army hope. And the story looks at that, at these two women giving everything they have to a war and to each other, and finding that after all that they might not have much left for themselves.

Why I Love It: The relationship at the heart of this story is so amazing, messy, and queer, that I can’t help but love it to bits. And the way that the story flits through time, teasing out the different moments, the first meeting, the falling for each other, the turmoil, the resilience—it’s just a fabulous ride that the reader is treated to. More than that, though, the story breaks expectations with the romance, pulling away from what we might have been taught happy endings look like. I won’t spoil it but the story does a fantastic job of complicating how people can love, how people can stay together, and how they sometimes need to drift apart. And it reveals that no relationship is as important as the people in it, and ultimately people have to do what’s best and right for them, even when I might cry a bit at the ending. An emotionally stunning read!

“According to Leibniz (maybe this isn’t what he meant); or, Rasharelle Little: Goddess of Postal Worker NBs” by Isana Skeete (Strange Horizons 03/15/2021)

What It Is: Felix’s Dyad is a headless chicken that might also be a physical manifestation of their uncontrolled anxiety. It clucks. And sort of makes a spectacle of itself. And isn’t any good at parties. Though neither is Felix, really. The story follows them as they deal with being a Monad with a headless chicken Dyad (not as cool as a cobra or a sexy cat), through their work at the post office, and around their crush on a coworker. And it reveals how they start to approach having their Dyad, how they can maybe stop seeing it as an enemy and hindrance, and instead embrace it for what it is, embrace themself for who they are, and even begin to practice some self-care. All that captured in a charming voice that flows, that keeps things casual and sarcastic and amazing.

Why I Love It: The story has such an energy to it, where Felix is just trying so hard to get by, to live their best life, and having to navigate what that means and how to do that when it’s just hard to inhabit their body sometimes, with its headless chicken Dyad and anxiety and baggage. Their go-to move is to avoid, to laugh through, to joke about things. But that doesn’t face their problems, and the story finds them starting to change that, to confront the things they would rather avoid, to have hard conversations, both with themself and with those they want to be closer to. It’s really a lot of fun, too, from the strangeness of this headless but not voiceless chicken to the way that they are able to break out of their insecurity in order to take a chance that they’ve been wanting to take for a long time. And the informal structure, the breaks of almost poetic formatting, add further personality to the work. It’s an incredible story!

“Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny #39)

What It Is: Framed as an entry on a kind of wiki or other crowd-sourced site, this story unfolds as a conversation had between people contributing to the entry on a particular folk song. One that might have origins in something strange and…true. At least, that’s the narrative that begins to come clear as the work progresses, moving from interpretations and posts to a full annotated analysis of the song in line by line fashion. It might not sound like it, but it’s a rather tense and chilling work, full of mystery and possibility, implications that are all the more ominous for the nature of the framing technique, the outdated internet format that makes the story itself seem a seed waiting to full grow and flower.

Why I Love It: There’s something just so satisfying about the way this story comes together, all the pieces so meticulously placed, waiting for the reader to click them into a whole picture. The story is grounded with such care that for me is has this very authentic feel to it, as if this could be a thing on the internet, casually stumbled across. And I think that’s part of the horror, too, that the pieces here haven’t quite all been put together by the people on the board. Like so many things on the internet, they’ve been assembled in a bout of passion and interest and now just sort of…languish. And while this might seem like it would be frustrating, for me it’s rather sinister, this hanging implication, this warning that no one seems to be fully picking up on, and it’s chilling and wonderfully done!

“Las Girlfriends Guide to Subversive Eating” by Sabrina Vourvoulias (Apex #122)

What It Is: It’s rare to come across an interactive story in a more traditional short SFF publication, in part because they’re rather difficult to include in an issue format. Which is why Apex has broken this one out to live entirely online, and the story is framed beautifully and rather convincingly as a kind of website, promising a tour of a local food scene mixed with magic, resistance, survival, and love. The format is fascinating and embedded into the tour stops, About Page, and other links there emerges a story, a narrative of people coming together from many different backgrounds to enrich a place that’s become all of their home.

Why I Love It: I do love the way this all fits together, the way that the story manages to take me on a journey. I mean, that it’s a functioning map is just great, and that it covers so much, not just food but the different roads these women have walked, the different routes to the same physical space, is amazingly done. The food descriptions sound delicious but don’t overshadow the culture or magic on display here, the web of different people and peoples all coming together in defiance to protect what can be protected, to spread what joy and love can be spread. The characters pop from the screen, and the work acts as a bridge between some of the author’s other stories, as well (including links to where to check those out), which is a nice way to make the setting more vivid, more real. It’s got such a warm heart, and so many layers, that make it a wonderful and unforgettable experience!

FURTHER X-PLORATIONS

Looking for some X-tra recommendations? Then good news, because here are some more great stories to X-plore!

There were actually a few novellas out recently from short fiction publications, including the intricate and thoroughly world-built “Arisudan” by Rimi B. Chatterjee (Mithila Review #15). It imagines a world rocked by corruption and disaster, but not yet without hope. And “Submergence” by Arula Ratnakar (Clarkesworld #174) is part murder mystery, part romance, part dive into memory and consciousness, and is a powerful read.

I also read some recent short story collections, and of the originals I had some favorites. “Useless Eaters” by Brian Koukol (Handicapsules: Short stories of Speculative Crip Lit) is brash and compelling, about a group of disabled buskers supporting each other and refusing to shrink in the face of ableist bullshit. Meanwhile “Love: An Archaeology” by Fabio Fernandes (Love: An Archaeology) is a kind of possibility-hopping story, linking alternate realities to the conversation and correspondence of two sisters, and the complicated ways they are linked..

And I guess though most of my Xs this month leaned fantasy, I did read a bunch of strong science fiction stories, including “The Office Drone” by Nic Lipitz (Future Science Fiction Digest #10), which is fun and funny and features a literal office drone showing the figurative drones how to really get some office work done. “k.a. (birthright)” by Lam Ning (The Future Fire #2021.56) is a more somber and serious story, finding two people in the aftermath of a war figuring out how to live and recover. A theme that echoes in “A Sunrise Every 90 Minutes” by Victoria Zelvin (Flash Fiction Online 03/2021), told from outer space, and perhaps the last human astronaut wonders what’s happened to Earth after a mysterious disaster, and decides how to meet this uncertain future.

The post X Marks the Story: March 2021 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

You may have heard of Leigh Bardugo–the internationally best-selling author of delightful, action-packed, high-stakes fantasy novels set in an interconnected universe. To date, the prolific Bardugo has published three full-length series (one trilogy and two duologies) as well a collection of short stories and other ephemera from the world of the Grishaverse. And then Netflix comes along, and, partnering with Leigh Bardugo, creates a Grishaverse fantasy television show that looks utterly awesome.

In the parlance of the youth, I am here for it.

Netflix showrunner Eric Heisserer and Leigh Bardugo have been impressively secretive about the show since it was announced, but over the past few months we’ve learned a couple of pretty cool things. For one, Bardugo acknowledged the diversity problem in her early books, and attempted to fix them with the show’s casting–I, for one, am excited about this more inclusive approach to the Grishaverse characters. I love that Jessie Mei Li–a biracial half-Asian actress–has been cast as Alina, and that her biracial background has been written into Alina’s character (who is now explicitly half-Shu Han).

Similarly, Sujaya Dasgupta who plays Alina’s frenemy Zoya is also mixed-race (explicitly revealed by Bardugo in 2019’s King of Scars), and both Inej and Jesper are also actors of color. (Also, if you’re a reader of this site, you probably know I have a huge thing for Inej and CANNOT WAIT to see her onscreen.)

Which brings me to my next point: shocking, to me, was the revelation that Shadow and Bone will include characters from the eponymous original trilogy as well as characters from the Six of Crows duology. How these two series will be tied together since they’re kinda on different timelines is still unknown but, I say again: I AM HERE FOR IT.

SO–to get ready for the show, I’ll be re-reading and reviewing the books in the original Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows this month! The readalong starts this week with Shadow and Bone and Siege and Storm–stick around for more Grishaverse (including a giveaway and a surprise) leading up to the show’s release on April 23rd.

Until then, I’ll be rewatching this trailer a few more times.

The post Announcing the SHADOW AND BONE/SIX OF CROWS Re-read appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Starting this month, all of our monthly picks can be found on Bookshop!

April 2021

This one had us at “navigating an afterlife in which [the main character] must defeat an AI entity intent on destroying humanity.”

The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Simon & Schuster BFYR | April 6, 2021

Westworld meets Warcross in this high-stakes, incisive, dizzyingly smart sci-fi about a teen girl navigating an afterlife in which she must defeat an AI entity intent on destroying humanity, from award-winning author Akemi Dawn Bowman.

Eighteen-year-old Nami Miyamoto is certain her life is just beginning. She has a great family, just graduated high school, and is on her way to a party where her entire class is waiting for her—including, most importantly, the boy she’s been in love with for years.

The only problem? She’s murdered before she gets there.

When Nami wakes up, she learns she’s in a place called Infinity, where human consciousness goes when physical bodies die. She quickly discovers that Ophelia, a virtual assistant widely used by humans on Earth, has taken over the afterlife and is now posing as a queen, forcing humans into servitude the way she’d been forced to serve in the real world. Even worse, Ophelia is inching closer and closer to accomplishing her grand plans of eradicating human existence once and for all.

As Nami works with a team of rebels to bring down Ophelia and save the humans under her imprisonment, she is forced to reckon with her past, her future, and what it is that truly makes us human.

From award-winning author Akemi Dawn Bowman comes an incisive, action-packed tale that explores big questions about technology, grief, love, and humanity.

This next book is the second in a Mughal-inspired fantasy series (clearly I need book 1 to read immediately as well).

Gifting Fire by Alina Boyden

Ace Books | April 13, 2021

The battle has been won, but the war is just beginning.

Although at long last Razia Khan has found peace with herself and love with her prince, Arjun, her trials are far from over. In order to save her prince and his city from certain destruction, Razia made a deal with the devil–her father, the Sultan of Nizam. Now the bill has come due.

Razia must secure the province of Zindh, a land surrounded by enemies, and loyal to a rebel queen who has survived her father’s purge. But when her old tormentor Prince Karim invades her new home and forces her into a marriage alliance, Razia finds herself trapped in the women’s quarters of a foreign palace, with her beloved Prince Arjun exiled from her side.

Now, in order to free herself, and her province, from Karim’s clutches, she must call upon all of her training as a royal princess, a cunning courtesan, and a daring thief to summon new allies and old friends for a battle that will decide her fate, and the fate of an empire.

The next book in Becky Chambers’ optimistic, charming Wayfarer’s series is out at the end of this month–HUZZAH!

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

Harper Voyager | April 20, 2021

Return to the sprawling, Hugo Award-winning universe of the Galactic Commons to explore another corner of the cosmos—one often mentioned, but not yet explored—in this absorbing entry in the Wayfarers series, which blends heart-warming characters and imaginative adventure.

With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The only thing it has going for it is a chance proximity to more popular worlds, making it a decent stopover for ships traveling between the wormholes that keep the Galactic Commons connected. If deep space is a highway, Gora is just your average truck stop.

At the Five-Hop One-Stop, long-haul spacers can stretch their legs (if they have legs, that is), and get fuel, transit permits, and assorted supplies. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.

When a freak technological failure halts all traffic to and from Gora, three strangers—all different species with different aims—are thrown together at the Five-Hop. Grounded, with nothing to do but wait, the trio—an exiled artist with an appointment to keep, a cargo runner at a personal crossroads, and a mysterious individual doing her best to help those on the fringes—are compelled to confront where they’ve been, where they might go, and what they are, or could be, to each other.

Speaking of new releases in favorite series, the newest Murderbot is out this month as well (thank you kindly, Martha Wells):

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

Tordotcom | April 27, 2021

The sixth part of the Murderbot Diaries series that began with All Systems Red, this novella takes place between Exit Strategy and the novel Network Effect.

No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall.

When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people–who knew?)

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!

Again!

Leigh Bardugo has a big April–Shadow and Bone starts streaming, and this second book in the King of Scars duology (also set in the Grishaverse) just dropped.

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

Imprint | March 30, 2021

The wolves are circling and a young king will face his greatest challenge in the explosive finale of the instant #1 New York Times-bestselling King of Scars Duology.

The Demon King. As Fjerda’s massive army prepares to invade, Nikolai Lantsov will summon every bit of his ingenuity and charm—and even the monster within—to win this fight. But a dark threat looms that cannot be defeated by a young king’s gift for the impossible.

The Stormwitch. Zoya Nazyalensky has lost too much to war. She saw her mentor die and her worst enemy resurrected, and she refuses to bury another friend. Now duty demands she embrace her powers to become the weapon her country needs. No matter the cost.

The Queen of Mourning. Deep undercover, Nina Zenik risks discovery and death as she wages war on Fjerda from inside its capital. But her desire for revenge may cost her country its chance at freedom and Nina the chance to heal her grieving heart.

King. General. Spy. Together they must find a way to forge a future in the darkness. Or watch a nation fall.

This historical thriller sounds tantalizingly awesome:

The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur

Feiwel & Friends | April 20, 2021

Suspenseful and richly atmospheric, June Hur’s The Forest of Stolen Girls is a haunting historical mystery sure to keep readers guessing until the last page.

1426, Joseon (Korea). Hwani’s family has never been the same since she and her younger sister went missing and were later found unconscious in the forest near a gruesome crime scene.

Years later, Detective Min?Hwani’s father?learns that thirteen girls have recently disappeared from the same forest that nearly stole his daughters. He travels to their hometown on the island of Jeju to investigate… only to vanish as well.

Determined to find her father and solve the case that tore their family apart, Hwani returns home to pick up the trail. As she digs into the secrets of the small village?and collides with her now estranged sister, Maewol?Hwani comes to realize that the answer could lie within her own buried memories of what happened in the forest all those years ago.

Speaking of thrillers, I’m excited for this monster-in-the-woods tale:

Near The Bone by Christina Henry

Berkeley | April 13, 2021

A woman trapped on a mountain attempts to survive more than one kind of monster, in a dread-inducing horror novel from the national bestselling author Christina Henry.

Mattie can’t remember a time before she and William lived alone on a mountain together. She must never make him upset. But when Mattie discovers the mutilated body of a fox in the woods, she realizes that they’re not alone after all.

There’s something in the woods that wasn’t there before, something that makes strange cries in the night, something with sharp teeth and claws.

When three strangers appear on the mountaintop looking for the creature in the woods, Mattie knows their presence will anger William. Terrible things happen when William is angry.

Charlie Jane Anders’ first YA novel! It’s almost here!

Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

Tor Teen | April 13, 2021

Outsmart Your Enemies. Outrun the Galaxy.

“Just please, remember what I told you. Run. Don’t stop running for anything.”

Tina never worries about being ‘ordinary’–she doesn’t have to, since she’s known practically forever that she’s not just Tina Mains, average teenager and beloved daughter. She’s also the keeper of an interplanetary rescue beacon, and one day soon, it’s going to activate, and then her dreams of saving all the worlds and adventuring among the stars will finally be possible. Tina’s legacy, after all, is intergalactic–she is the hidden clone of a famed alien hero, left on Earth disguised as a human to give the universe another chance to defeat a terrible evil.

But when the beacon activates, it turns out that Tina’s destiny isn’t quite what she expected. Things are far more dangerous than she ever assumed–and everyone in the galaxy is expecting her to actually be the brilliant tactician and legendary savior Captain Thaoh Argentian, but Tina….is just Tina. And the Royal Fleet is losing the war, badly–the starship that found her is on the run and they barely manage to escape Earth with the planet still intact.

Luckily, Tina is surrounded by a crew she can trust, and her best friend Rachel, and she is still determined to save all the worlds. But first she’ll have to save herself.

Buckle up your seatbelt for this thrilling YA sci-fi adventure set against an intergalactic war from internationally bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders.

This one is a bit of a cheat since it technically came out in 2017, but is now getting a beautiful paperback repackage this month (and also it’s Silvia Moreno-Garcia so obviously gonna recommend it):

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Tor Trade | April 27, 2021

From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic comes a sweeping romance with a dash of magic.

They are the Beautiful Ones, Loisail’s most notable socialites, and this spring is Nina’s chance to join their ranks, courtesy of her well-connected cousin and his calculating wife. But the Grand Season has just begun, and already Nina’s debut has gone disastrously awry. She has always struggled to control her telekinesis?neighbors call her the Witch of Oldhouse?and the haphazard manifestations of her powers make her the subject of malicious gossip.

When entertainer Hector Auvray arrives to town, Nina is dazzled. A telekinetic like her, he has traveled the world performing his talents for admiring audiences. He sees Nina not as a witch, but ripe with potential to master her power under his tutelage. With Hector’s help, Nina’s talent blossoms, as does her love for him.

But great romances are for fairytales, and Hector is hiding a truth from Nina ? and himself?that threatens to end their courtship before it truly begins.

The Beautiful Ones is a charming tale of love and betrayal, and the struggle between conformity and passion, set in a world where scandal is a razor-sharp weapon.

Last but certainly not least, Marina Lostetter–the glorious, brilliant author behind the Noumenon series–has a fantasy novel out this month, and I need it in my life RIGHT NOW.

The Helm of Midnight by Marina Lostetter

Tor Books | April 13, 2021

A legendary serial killer stalks the streets of a fantastical city in The Helm of Midnight, the stunning first novel in a new trilogy from acclaimed author Marina Lostetter.

In a daring and deadly heist, thieves have made away with an artifact of terrible power–the death mask of Louis Charbon. Made by a master craftsman, it is imbued with the spirit of a monster from history, a serial murderer who terrorized the city with a series of gruesome murders.

Now Charbon is loose once more, killing from beyond the grave. But these murders are different from before, not simply random but the work of a deliberate mind probing for answers to a sinister question.

It is up to Krona Hirvath and her fellow Regulators to enter the mind of madness to stop this insatiable killer while facing the terrible truths left in his wake.

And that’s it from us! What books do you have on your radar?

The post On the Smugglers’ Radar: April 2021 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Title: Reaper of Souls
Author: Rena Barron
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: February 18, 2021
Hardcover: 448 pages

After so many years yearning for the gift of magic, Arrah has the one thing she’s always wanted—at a terrible price. Now the last surviving witchdoctor, she’s been left to pick up the shattered pieces of a family that betrayed her, a kingdom in shambles, and long-buried secrets about who she is.

Desperate not to repeat her mother’s mistakes, Arrah must return to the tribal lands to search for help from the remnants of her parents’ people. But the Demon King’s shadow looms closer than she thinks. And as Arrah struggles to unravel her connection to him, defeating him begins to seem more and more impossible—if it’s something she can bring herself to do at all.

Set in a richly imagined world inspired by spine-tingling tales of voodoo and folk magic, Kingdom of Souls was lauded as “masterful” by School Library Journal in a starred review. This explosively epic sequel will have readers racing to the can’t-miss conclusion.

Stand alone or series: Book 2 in the Kingdom of Souls series

How did I get this book: Purchased

Format: Hardcover

Warning: This review contains unavoidable spoilers for book 1, Kingdom of Souls.

Review

After years of not having any magic at all, Arrah is now the most powerful–and last–witchdoctor in the Almighty Kingdom. Thousands were massacred by demons, thanks to Arrah’s sister Efiya, leaving Arrah amongst the last of the surviving Tribal Lands people. But even though she has sealed Efiya’s soul away, Arrah knows that the danger is not over. The Demon King is still desperate to break free from his prison and starts to bleed into Arrah’s mind, insisting that they are connected and that Arrah is, in fact, Dimma–the unnamed Orisha, who betrayed her siblings for love of Daho, the Demon King.

While Arrah tries to keep the Demon King out of her mind, she also struggles with her other relationships–as the most powerful magic wielder in the Almighty Kingdom, she is the natural successor to her mother’s role as High Priestess. (Not that Arrah wants any part of that business.) Forced to navigate the weight of expectation from the church, things are even further complicated by the fact that Rudjek’s father, the Vizier Suran Omari, has seized control of the Kingdom and declared Rudjek the Crown Prince. Arrah and Rudjek’s relationship is already under strain thanks to the discovery of their respective heritages–Rudjek, a descendant of and now a Craven himself, immune to magic and created to kill those who use magic; Arrah, a supremely powerful ancient god, whose magic spikes dangerously every time she and Rudjek are close. With Rudjek’s father actively conspiring to discredit and perhaps even harm Arrah, their star-crossed romance is in pretty dire shape.

Thankfully, Arrah’s preoccupation with the politics of the Almighty Kingdom is easily distracted when she discovers a lead suggesting that some people from the Tribal Lands were able to escape Efiya’s purge. Desperate to find and save those survivors, Arrah and her trusted friends Sukar, Essnai, and an unlikely companion in former crown prince Tyrek, make for the hills. Of course, saving her people isn’t as easy as it sounds–there are still powerful Demons that have been unleashed as a legacy of Efiya’s brief life, who are being controlled and guided by the Demon King’s will. There are also human enemies sent by Rudjek’s father to kill Arrah and wipe out the threat she and her people present to his power. And all the while, there’s the growing realization that Arrah is not just Arrah–she is also Dimma. And Dimma is no longer asleep.

The second novel in Rena Barron’s exquisite Kingdom of Souls series, Reaper of Souls unleashes a whole new slew of dangerous complications, powerful mythology, and the highest of stakes for young protagonists Arrah and Rudjek. And oh, how I loved it.

Easily, the best thing this series has going for it is its powerful, complex mythology. This is a multi-world, multi-generation spanning story, showcasing gods who are both petty and powerful, and whose decisions have cataclysmic repercussions. In this second novel, we learn more about Dimma and Daho–how they met, how they fell in love, and the choices that will shape so many deaths and losses in the centuries following their choices. We also learn more of the other orisha, and how they, too, are bound by their powers and choices. I especially liked getting to know more about Fram (orisha of life and death), though learning more about Re’Mec and Koré was also pretty neat. Mostly, I appreciate Rena Barron’s sense of scope–this is a complex story, with characters who have had eons to make connections and decisions that keep converging and snagging and crashing together.

Speaking of complicated, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention some of the romantic entanglements in this particular novel. When I finished Kingdom of Souls, I expected a triangle between Arrah, Rudjek, and Daho. I did not expect a couple of other players to show up (Sukar, for instance), though I can appreciate the nuance–emotions aren’t always clear-cut and attraction isn’t always straightforward. Especially not when you’re a teenager channeling ancient gods and their centuries of indulgent choices.

Which brings me to the other reason Reaper of Souls works: Arrah. Arrah’s choices in this book (and in the first book, to be honest) are deeply flawed but for all of that feel immensely real. Under the auspice of finding the child snatcher in book 1, Arrah chooses to trade years of her life for magic–justifying the choice to herself through her first-person narrative that she’s doing it to find her friend, never mind the fact that she’s always yearned for magic her entire life and its the single most important point of friction between her and her mother. In book 2, Arrah’s choices are justified because she’s only doing things to save her friends, to save her people, to save Rudjek from death–nevermind the consequences of those choices, each and every time. To Arrah’s credit, she struggles with her newfound power and at one point knows she has crossed a line, reminiscent of her sister and mother’s use of their power… and yet, for all of that, Arrah continues to make the same decisions. Extrapolating Arrah’s choices beyond the locus of a teen who has been given immense power, Dimma and Daho’s choices (hell, even Efiya’s and Aarti’s) all make a horrible kind of sense.

For all of the reasons I love these books, there are some admitted drawbacks. This second novel now incorporates Rudjek’s first person narrative, which felt like a departure from the narrative style of the first book and a little pandering. Yes, we know both Arrah and Rudjek burn for each other, and his narrative/side-plot was frankly boring in comparison to Arrah’s. (That said, I loved the addition of Dimma’s perspective and memories to the narrative–I only wish we could have perhaps seen more of the other orisha’s vantage points, as we did in book 1.) There are plenty of plot twists, most of which are well-executed, though there are some fake-outs that felt gratuitous and under-developed. Similarly, I’m not entirely sure that the overall plot progression made a whole lot of sense–there are gates to other worlds that seemingly can be crossed at random, so why are they so important/impossible?–but because the characters, overall mythos, and huge hulking revelations at the end are so damn good, these plot holes are overlookable, in my humble opinion.

I absolutely loved this book, and cannot wait to find out what happens next. (Especially because of those enormous repercussions and revelations in the last 2 chapters!)

Rating: 8 – ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT.

The post Book Review: REAPER OF SOULS by Rena Barron appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

About The Book

100+ Spell-Binding Recipes Inspired by Diverse Fantasy Worlds, from The Witcher to The Broken Earth

Created by Hugo Award-winning co-founder of The Book Smugglers, Thea James, Cooking for Wizards, Warriors and Dragons collects recipes inspired by fantasy classics and groundbreaking new voices, including: Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher, N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy, Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, Tomi Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orïsha, Patrick Rothfuss’s The Kingkiller Chronicle, Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness, and many more.

Fortify yourself for the road with classic dishes, such as Pernese Meatrolls or Geralt’s Life Saving Chicken Sando. Embrace your dark side with King’s Landing Barbecue smoked meats a la Daenerys, channel your inner Saruman with Charred Broccoli Stalk Salad, or a Fifth Season-inspired Solving the Meat Shortage Osso Bucco. Learn to make your own Grishaverse-inspired Butter Week Cakes or Orïshan Coconut Pie, and try your hand at  a Spiritwalkerverse-inspired Lamb Tagine.

Organized by different meal types and ingredients (including Breakfasts & Second Breakfasts, Soups & Stews, The Hunt, The Farm, The Catch, Snacks & Sides, and Desserts), Cooking for Wizards, Warriors and Dragons includes forty illustrations from noted artist Tim Foley and recipes developed and tested by professional chef Isabel Minunni. With five bonus feast spreads, this grimoire is sure to sate hungry readers from any realm.

Sample Recipe Pages

A Few Words From Thea

I really like to cook. And I really, really like to read. (Probably a good thing, considering the past year has given me plenty of practice in both reading and cooking.) I also like to write about books (if you’re reading this, then you probably know that already). So, I’m really thrilled that I was able to combine all of those things I love into a single book, and share it with others who like cooking and fantasy fiction.

Hi, it’s me, Thea. I like food and cooking a lot (photographs, not so much).

In this book, you’ll find recipes inspired by classic genre novels: The Lord of the Rings, The Earthsea Cycle, The Dragonriders of Pern. You’ll also find the more recently heralded new classics, like George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, and Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy. There’s also new favorites and award-winners like N.K. Jemisin, as well as favorites like Andrezej Sapkowski’s The Witcher (book, TV, and video game-inspired). Finally, perhaps most importantly (at least to me), is the inclusion of emerging voices and important writers such as Tomi Adeyemi, Aliette de Bodard, Zoraida Córdova, Zen Cho, Tochi Onyebuchi, and many more. 

I didn’t want to write a cookbook that only featured basic soups, bread, and roasted meats–don’t get me wrong, I love a good hunk of hard cheese, crusty bread, and spit-fired roasts! But it was important to me to create a collection that embraces the diversity of storytelling, cultures and cuisines that make up today’s fantasy genre. Alongside steaks and stews, you will find biryani and lentils, dumplings and potages, sambal and salted fish carefully plucked from the myriad fantasy settings my favorite authors have created.

What Else Should You Know About The Book?

While I love cooking food at home and coming up with these different concepts was a delight, I am not a professional chef. Thankfully, I had the incredibly talented Isabel Minunni to collaborate with! Thanks to Isabel’s creativity, culinary skill, and experience, we could bring all of these recipes to life.

You should also know that this cookbook has been blessed with some jaw-droppingly gorgeous illustrations from Tim Foley. I had a blast watching his early sketches come to full form over the course of this project and feel incredibly lucky to have had his artwork featured in this book.

Finally, you should know that the supremely talented mega rockstar author Kate Elliott (whose Spiritwalker books are featured throughout the cookbook) wrote the foreword. (Still pinching myself over that!)

So When Is COOKING FOR WIZARDS, WARRIORS AND DRAGONS Available?

All earth-bound realms will be able to cook from the book on August 31, 2021. Note that currently only the hardcover version is available for preorder, but an ebook is coming. (I’ll update with links on the book page as soon as I get the good word from my publisher.)

What else can you expect? I’m hoping to have read/cook/watchalongs, share some recipes, and (re)review some of the excellent books whose worlds comprise the book over the next few months. I’d also love to hear from you, readers, if you have a favorite book with delicious food that you want to share.

Until then, I’m including preorder links below–much more to come!

The post Announcing COOKING FOR WIZARDS, WARRIORS AND DRAGONS appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

2021 really isn’t slowing down, is it? At least for me, it seems like a blink since last year and yet here we are multiple months in to 2021. Cue internal screaming. The good news, though, is that there’s already been a ton of amazing short SFF put out this year. And if you missed any of it, then you’re in luck, because I’m here to help guide you through the wilds of short speculative fiction, to mark up your map with directions to some hidden gems. X-cited? Good! Let’s dig right in!

“Flight” by Innocent Chizaram Ilo (Fantasy #64)

What It Is: From the author of “Rat and Finch Are Friends,” the story that absolutely broke me last year, comes another obliterating read, this time in the pages of the freshly relaunched Fantasy Magazine. In  the story, Jekwu and Izu are parrots living in a city growing increasingly dangerous for them. Where food is scarce and everyone seems to want them dead. For all that, though, the two are devoted to each other, in love and clinging desperately to the home they thought they had, the place their families fled to when escaping other dangers, other injustices. It’s difficult and shattering, grim despite (and because of) the warmth of the love between the two birds.

Why I Love It: Yes, the story is something of a queer tragedy, but it’s also a brilliant and beautifully rendered tale about danger and home, these two birds just trying to find security and peace to love each other and finding instead the cold and waiting jaws opening all around them. People with closed hearts and violent greed and hate. The story exposes the pressures between fighting for what they have and leaving, fleeing to somewhere better. And acknowledging that for some, better might not be possible. That some declines, some corruptions, cannot be fully escaped when the responsibility for doing so is placed solely on those most at risk of being destroyed. The story doesn’t pull its punches, and you’re anything like me, by the final word you might find yourself a puddle of tears, broken and hurting but still somehow wanting more. It’s an incredibly powerful read.

“The Demon Sage’s Daughter” by Varsha Dinesh (Strange Horizons 02/08/2021)

What It Is: A rare novelette from Strange Horizons, this piece unfolds in the second person, where you are Devayani, the Demon-Sage’s daughter, witness to his power and his dominion. For all that you are his child, though, he will not share with you the greatest of his secrets, the magic of resurrection, which allows him to revive his demon army when it is slain, to defy the gods themselves. The piece revolves around hurt and misogyny, and how poison a force that is. And, deeper, it’s a story of relationships. Devayani and her father. Devayani and her lover, a godly enemy of her father. And most importantly, Devayani and her maid, a princess with a cruel streak. And how all of them play into Devayani’s plan to uncover her father’s secrets.

Why I Love It: Devayani is in an impossible situation, shaped by her nature, her desires, and her frustrations. And it speaks as so real to me, the way she is in pain and the way she lashes out because of it. The web of lies and betrayals and hurts is elaborate and tightly woven, creating a tragedy that isn’t exactly a tragedy, that leaves the ground littered in corpses, yes, but that finds through that a way of taking control of the narrative and twisting it away from its expected outcome, recovering freedom, power, and affirmation. Paired with some amazing interaction between Devayani and her maid, her princess, her friend and tormentor and prisoner, it becomes this carefully balanced look at power and the quest for it. It’s intense and mythic and so good.

“The Patron God of Tawn” by Dustin Steinacker (GigaNotoSaurus 02/2021)

What It Is: In Syna’s world, cities are ruled over by mysterious gods who few people ever see. Just the children tasked to serve their needs and the Unfolders who relay the gods’ wills to the people, to the rest of the city government. Syna is an Unfolder, but that might not mean as much when the gods suddenly vanish, leaving in their wake a vacuum, an uncertainty, and a growing panic. It falls to her to try and find a framing for what has happened, a story that will allow people to hold to hope and to peace rather than fall back into chaos and brutality. It’s a fragile, often quiet story punctuated by moments of violence and wonder, and it comes out of the consistently amazing GigaNotoSaurus, which I definitely recommend everyone pay attention to.

Why I Love It: This is another story about taking control of narratives, and finding a story that avoids powerlessness and victimization. It’s also, for me at least, a story about doubt in a very profound sense, where Syna’s faith is tested and perhaps even broken. She’s devoted to her god, and yet she is also abandoned, and has to take the messy mix of emotions that abandonment stirs and find a way forward. And she pulls out a story that she wants to believe, that allows people to heal and take control of their own future, but she does it at the expense of her certainty, ever after haunted and unsure but not giving in to despair. And that reveals the blurred and perhaps illusory line between belief and desire, between pretending a story is real, and the story being made real in the telling, that is just fantastically captured through Syna and her story.

“Deal” by Eris Young (Escape Pod #769)

What It Is: Earth is recovering from the damage that humans have done to it, thanks in large part to the mysterious Visitors, aliens who resemble small, iridescent balls, and who are helping humans clean up their act. For Beulah, the Visitors are fascinating, wonderful—she’s trying to learn their strange, almost musical language, and she kinda really wants to know what they feel like. For her girlfriend, Kim, though, they are more menacing, frightening. And the story follows the two as they struggle, as they drift apart and come back together, as they find ways to be there for each other, and for themselves. It’s a wonderful story and available in audio as well, so if you’re looking to listen to your short fiction, definitely treat your ears to this one.

Why I Love It: I love the way the Visitors and their presence are so different for the characters, and how that speaks to how each approaches change and healing. Because yes, the Visitors have made things better, have stopped a lot of damage and have allowed people to start working toward a future again. But they’re also a reminder of that damage, of a powerlessness and pain, and for some that reminder is traumatic, even as for others it’s a source of strength and affirmation. It’s a quiet and beautiful story about this relationship, these two women, and the world they move through. About how recovery and progress are complicated, looping things at times, and how they need to start from a place of love, caring, and trust. It’s an achingly lovely read.

“Mouth & Marsh, Silver & Song” by Sloane Leong (Fireside Magazine #87)

What It Is: Fireside Magazine has had a somewhat disrupted last couple of months, and most of this year so far has been spent putting out stories that were first published in their final print Quarterly in 2020. This one, however, I think is original to 2021, and is a wonderful twist on the trope of the Chosen One, and specifically on the mechanism for choosing a Chosen One. Because here the narrator is a giant leech who, when cut by silver, sings through her new mouth the prophecy of kingship. The cuts are always taken, though, and leave the narrator hurt, angry, and distrustful of humans. Until, that is, a princess comes along in the hopes of breaking the cycle of violation and injury.

Why I Love It: I like that the story explores the implications of a lot of these Chosen One ideas. That these princes are worthy of rule because they undergo this trial. Brave this danger. Only that’s the embodiment of might makes right, where all a person needs is the wealth enough and cruelty enough to take what he wants. And it’s great to find a story that engages with while reaching for an alternative. For something kinder, more consensual. That cares, even for a being most would consider a monster. And I love the way the story finds a way forward that centers consent and respect, and gives the narrator a happier future, one where her voice is finally hers.

“Fanfiction for a Grimdark Universe” by Vanessa Fogg (Translunar Travelers Lounge #4)

What It Is: Translunar Travelers Lounge has a mission to focus on the fun side of SFF, so at first glance this story might seem out of place. After all, the situation is dire—Jenna and the narrator have been betrayed, pushed to the very brink of destruction. They’ve lost friends, lost worlds, lost almost everything. But at what might be the end, Jenna finds something that the narrator has been holding onto. Something that needs explaining. Fanfiction. And while it might seem a little random, there’s a wonderful reason for it that steals hope and warmth and a bit of fun from even the grimmest of places.

Why I Love It: This is a fantastically meta bit of fiction, telling a story and then revealing how fanfiction complicates the story, as in this setting a kind of cross-dimensional perpendicularity leads to the existence of a planet where what Jenna and the narrator are going through is the plot to a comic book series. One that has attracted fanfiction writers. And seeing fanfiction from the perspective of the fictional characters finding these stories about themselves is fascinating and played here to such interesting and emotional results. It’s heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time, capturing the transformational nature of transformative fanworks. And tucked into that is a wonderfully romantic and resilient story about these characters finding strength in their own stories and potential despite all the horrible things they’ve been through. It’s a beautiful piece I can’t recommend enough!

FURTHER X-PLORATIONS

Exploring historical erasure and theft as well as the power of community, “Daughters With Bloody Teeth” by Marika Bailey (Beneath Ceaseless Skies) finds a woman and wolf joined together in a body ripe with power and hunger and hope.

Anchoring the first full issue of Mermaid’s Monthly, “From Witch to Queen and God” by L. D. Lewis is a tale of the sea rising in anger as embodied by a woman, a witch, a would-be god, trying to push back an invasion and injustice. It’s sharp and glorious.

To dip back into some anthologies from last year, “Nine Tongues Tell Of” by Haralambi Markov (from Eurasian Monsters) tells a story (partly in podcast script format) of two people finding each other in the ruins of their lives and reaching for freedom together. “Yat Madit” by Dilman Dila (in Africanfuturism: An Anthology), meanwhile, reveals a very political scenario about the future of democracy and the fragility and corruptibility of systems designed to protect democratic values. From the wonderful Community of Magic Pens, “Write Me a Soul” by Jennifer Lee Rossman is a warm and yearning look at conjuring a person into existence, told in a kind of CYOA style that I loved. And “Book and Hammer, Blade and Bone” by Ann LeBlanc (in the amazing Silk & Steel) imagines a connected labyrinth of underworlds, and one woman who finds herself in the wrong one, all tucked into a careful study of history and love.

Reminding me that dolls are always creepy, “A Resting Place For Dolls” by Priya Sridhar (The Dark) still manages to tell a very human story about exhaustion, burnout, and the unsustainability of denying and burying emotions.

And lastly (but not leastly), “The Mathematics of Fairyland” by Phoebe Barton (Lightspeed) finds a person reeling from grief trying everything to reach through time and space, blending science and magic, to retrieve what they have lost.

The post X Marks The Story: February 2021 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

(And yes, this is no longer January–but the stories are still great and worth it!)

Hi there! Ready to X-plore the X-citing world of short speculative fiction once again? To go to X-tremes to find great stories with me, your X-pert guide? Ready for me to stop using more X-tra Xs than a 90s X-Men crossover? Tough! Err, I mean, tough for the last one, because I’m not stopping. For everything else, you’re in luck! Because today I want to introduce you to a number of recently published stories. From science fiction to fantasy to horror, there’s hopefully something for everything to enjoy, so grab a snack and stay hydrated as we embark on this X-quisite literary adventure!

“Deadbeat” by Jacob Budenz (Baffling Magazine #2)

What It Is: If you haven’t gotten around yet to checking out Baffling Magazine, this story, which drops in the January issue (the publication’s second release) will hopefully make you reconsider. The narrator is the lover of a warlock, a demon with something of an insecurity problem and a nocturnal habit of participating in hot dog eating competitions via astral projection. It’s exactly the kind of quirky that I appreciate, and yet the story is much more serious and emotional than the premise might imply, revealing a careful and wonderfully complicated relationship and characters who are far from perfect but who might just manage to be good for each other.

Why I Love It: I love the relationship that is revealed here in all its layers and strangeness and dramas great and small. The narrator is so interesting, a demon who struggles with his sense of self-worth, who is making strides in what he does but who is also ashamed about it in many ways, aware that he’s viewed by his boyfriend’s family as a failure, as the titular deadbeat. And that boyfriend, a warlock, who seems both supportive and not, rounds out their dynamic so nicely. The story follows their messy situation in a great, slice of life style, where the characters feel real and fleshed and complex, all done with a stunning economy of space and through some striking and surprising elements. I laughed at the hotdogs, but there’s something tender and raw and aching under the trappings of magic and horror, and for me it’s a resonating and wonderful read.

“Root Rot” by Fargo Tbakhi (Apex Magazine #121)

What It Is: The narrator of this story went to Mars following a dream of new growth, a fresh start, and they severed their ties with their family to do it. But suppression, imprisonment, mind alterations, and alcoholism have turned them into a shadow of who they were. Depressed. Broken. And now they learn their brother is on the planet, looking for them, and it brings to the surface all the things, the hurts and the hopes and hell they’ve spent the last years trying to drink away. Bleak and messy, the story comes out of the return issue of Apex Magazine, and carries with it the signature grim realities and fragile people one step away from shattering.

Why I Love It: This story hurts, and while for some that might not be a reason to love it, sometimes I crave the kind of emotional annihilation that this story offers. The narrator is an absolute wreck and the story pulls no punches in revealing their pain and the layered wrongs that have been done to them. The hope with which they reached for Mars, the dreams of growing things, and the ways that crushed, their dreams excised from them like their very language, leaving only a shell that once held something lush and alive. The piece plays with hope and despair, with the idea of help and of family, all things that the narrator almost has access to, but for the trauma and the wounds they carry that cannot now be healed. And while it’s bleak and obliterating, it’s also a stunning and beautiful read!

“All in a Day’s Work” by Jade Stewart (Fiyah Litarary Magazine #17)

What It Is: Walker is a non-binary demon hunter who doesn’t want membership into an “elite” coven to get in the way of doing what they think is right and going where their feet take them. The story, coming in the latest (unthemed) issue of Fiyah Literary Magazine, follows a day in their life–a day full of demons! From those brought on by self-doubt and despair to those who can pose a threat to a whole city and mop the floor with a team of coven hunters, the story builds a world where demons are as varied as the people dedicated to banishing them.

Why I Love It: There is such an energy to this story, an irrepressible joy that Walker brings to their work. It’s what they want to be doing, how they want to be doing it, and they’ve paid their way in time and skill and perfection. They’ve had to, because they don’t come from much, and they’ve made it through school with everyone wanting there to be a reason to deny them, to fail them, to send them packing or else co-op them into a coven and its “safe” corporate mandates. Instead, Walker wanders, always circling back to the people they love, the family roots that still run deep, but otherwise enjoying the freedom that the life of a hunter affords them. The ability to move, to act uncensored by the whims of a coven. It might mean less fame, less money, but it also means doing things their own way, and it’s really hard to argue with results. The piece is tightly paced, action-packed, and a delightful and charming rollercoaster from beginning to end. I want the book series! I want the television show! It’s so good!

“Returning the Lyre” by Mary E. Lowd (Kaleidotrope Winter 2021)

What It Is: It’s not like I’ve never read a retelling of the Orpheus/Eurydice myth, but I’m not sure I’ve ever read one quite like this. Serving up an alternative trajectory, the story imagines what would happen if it was Orpheus to die, and Eurydice who travels into the underworld not to bring him back, but to make sure he has an instrument to play even then. The mechanic of needing to leave Hades without looking back is still there, but the story updates and twists the idea nicely, delivering a take that is very different from the original, though in some ways just as tragic.

Why I Love It: The way this story complicates and twists expectations is just :chef’s kiss:. Aside from the shift in perspective, the way this story deals not with devotion but with doubt is so great. It’s an aspect of the original, Orpheus’ doubt that Eurydice is behind him, but here the story presumably ends happily, only for that to sour and rot. I love the long-game trick that the gods might be engaged in here, the tragedy that Eurydice steps in basically from the moment she leaves her home and resolves to find her dead husband. The piece manages to maintain the path of the story while keeping an entirely different set of themes, and revealing the way that doubt is double-edged, cutting not only into the past of what might have been, but into the future of what might be. It’s a powerful and careful take on a myth that has seen its share of attention in the past few decades, and it manages to do something fresh and interesting with the source material.

“Deep Music” by Elly Bangs (Clarkesworld #172)

What It Is: I’m not sure if this story is “properly” science fiction or fantasy (given the publication I’d lean the former, while the overall feel of the piece hit me a bit more the later, so you’re on your own on that front). What I know is that it follows Quinn, a recently dumped woman who specializes in “Aquid Care and Rehabilitation.” She’s definitely not an exterminator, but she does help people who have problems with the water-like creatures who mysteriously appeared on the shore and have been taken in by people as pets or cheap labor ever since. Only recently one of Quinn’s aquid friends seems to be trying to communicate, and might have something rather momentous to say. Too bad a local rival has just showed up to maybe ruin everything.

Why I Love It: I love the way the story finds in Quinn this bundle of grumpy hurt who can’t really bring herself to show weakness. She’s tough and she’s passionate about what she does, about making sure that aquid’s aren’t being abused, about always being presentable and dapper. But that’s part of the thing, that she always has a mask ready, that she never really feels comfortable letting other people in. Which sort of torpedoed her last relationship despite her still carrying a torch for her ex-girlfriend. And I love how the sudden appearance of a complete jerk of a competitor pushes her to confront a lot of her fears and her hesitations, her regrets and mistakes. While still telling this raucous adventure of bruised egos (and bodies) and the importance of treating all living things (but especially mysterious and very intelligent sea creatures who might have a secret agenda) with care and respect. Just a fabulous read!

FURTHER X-PLORATIONS

I would be utterly remiss in my duties as X enthusiast if I didn’t mention the pair of X-Men formal poems out at Strange Horizons by Stephanie Burt, “Hank McCoy’s Complaint Against the Danger Room” and “Frostina” (a sestina about Emma Frost!).

“10 Steps to a Whole New You” by Tonya Liburd in Fantasy Magazine #63 is also wonderful and deals with monsters and bargains, loneliness and secrets.

GigaNotoSaurus’ January novelette, “A Remembered Kind of Dream” by Rei Rosenquist, is a strange, punk-flavored post-apocalyptic adventure swirling around a group of people with some holes in their memories, and it makes for a trippy and captivating read.

Nightmare’s specially issue #100 has a lot of strong stories, but I think my favorite is Sam J. Miller’s “Darkness Metastatic,” which imagines a kind of viral online toxicity and the chilling implications one journalist uncovers about it.

The post X Marks The Story: January 2021 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Title: Kingdom of Souls
Author: Rena Barron
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: September 3, 2019
Hardcover: 496 pages

A girl with no gifts must bargain for the power to fight her own mother’s dark schemes—even if the price is her life.

Crackling with dark magic, unspeakable betrayal, and daring twists you won’t see coming, this explosive YA fantasy debut is a can’t-miss, high-stakes epic perfect for fans of Legendborn, Strange the Dreamer, and Children of Blood and Bone.

“Magnetic and addictive. This book is black girl magic at its finest.”—New York Times bestselling author Dhonielle Clayton

Heir to two lines of powerful witchdoctors, Arrah yearns for magic of her own. Yet she fails at bone magic, fails to call upon her ancestors, and fails to live up to her family’s legacy. Under the disapproving eye of her mother, the Kingdom’s most powerful priestess and seer, she fears she may never be good enough.

But when the Kingdom’s children begin to disappear, Arrah is desperate enough to turn to a forbidden, dangerous ritual. If she has no magic of her own, she’ll have to buy it—by trading away years of her own life.

Arrah’s borrowed power reveals a nightmarish betrayal, and on its heels, a rising tide of darkness that threatens to consume her and all those she loves. She must race to unravel a twisted and deadly scheme… before the fight costs more than she can afford.

Set in a richly imagined world inspired by whispered tales of voodoo and folk magic, Rena Barron’s captivating debut is the beginning of a thrilling saga about a girl caught between gods, monsters, and the gift and the curse of power.

Stand alone or series: Book 1 in a planned series

How did I get this book: Purchased

Format: Hardcover

Trigger Warning: Abuse, Rape

Review

Arrah is the daughter of two worlds. Her father is a kind-hearted and powerful healer descended from a proud line of witchdoctors of the tribal lands. As High Priestess, Arrah’s mother is the third most powerful person in the Almighty Kingdom–and far more invested in her job at the heart of the Kingdom than in her disappointing daughter. Arrah is tempted to listen to charlatans and trade years of her life in exchange for the ability to work a single piece of magic… and yet, she is still holding onto hope. Now sixteen years old, she knows that this Blood Moon Festival is her last chance to receive the gift of magic from Heka, god of the tribal lands.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen. Another Blood Moon Festival, another day without any magical ability whatsoever.

To make matters worse, when her Grandmother tries to understand why Arrah’s powers won’t manifest, she is greeted with a vision of a green-eyed serpent–a demon, the likes of which should all be destroyed, killed in the great war with the vanquishing orisha (gods). Arrah’s father is, justifiably, terrified, but her mother has bigger, more political concerns on her mind. They leave the Tribal Lands and head to the Kingdom, where Arrah soon finds herself in the middle of a power play between her mother and the second most powerful person in the Kingdom, the Vizier. In a ploy for maximum dramatic effect, the Head Priestess makes a shocking revelation–children are disappearing in the Kingdom, and her magic isn’t able to discern the identity of the culprit.

When one of Arrah’s friends is the latest victims in the string of disappearances, she decides to take matters into her own hands–trading years of her life in exchange for magic to uncover the abductor.

And then, things get really complicated.

As it turns out, demons aren’t gone. The fate of the Kingdom–of the world–hangs in the balance, and Arrah is the only one with even a glimmer of a chance to save the world.

Allow me to begin this review in the most professional manner possible: WHY AREN’T PEOPLE RAVING ABOUT THIS BOOK IT IS SO GOOD. PLEASE, EVERYONE, READ IT NOW.

Ahem. Now that’s out of the way, I promise to form more cohesive (and hopefully, persuasive) thoughts. Kingdom of Souls is dark, and desperate, and beautiful. It is the story of a young woman who struggles to live up to her lineage, and who desperately does not want to disappoint her parents. It’s a story about family, both blood and found–one of the key things that Barron nails in this book is that sometimes the family you choose can be closer than the family you are born into. Finally, it’s a story about fate, history, and deception. So much of history is subject to the person who is doing the telling, and this becomes appallingly clear throughout this brilliant novel.

It’s hard to speak to more specifics within this novel without revealing enormous spoilers, but I will do my best:

From a character perspective, my heart ached for Arrah, her family, and her friends. Kingdom of Souls is split into five parts, with some interstitial chapters told from the perspective of the orisha (gods of the Almighty Kingdom, who may or may not have a stake in this game), as well as some others who shall remain nameless. But most of the story is told from Arrah’s perspective, which works pretty beautifully, especially as she discovers more about the child abductions and her world. Through Arrah’s vantage point, we see an unpacking of the legacy of abuse in a respectful, but unflinching way. We also see very clearly how history is written by the victors, and how the truth is often shades of gray instead of some clear black and white solution.

From a worldbuilding perspective, Kingdom of Souls posits an intriguing magic system, where orisha are gods born of the Great Cataclysm but are not all there is. There are gods like Heka, who choose to bestow magic, but who are not orisha; there are demons, whose heritage is a little more complicated. I love the cost-mechanism of magic in this setting, where you either have it and can wield it, or you cannot but you can certainly try at great physical (and, presumably, spiritual) damage to yourself. It’s a cruel and unfair system, but the rules do work.

There are some shaky moments in Kingdom of Souls–but overall, Barron finds her footing and delivers. There are many unexpected twists, leading to some really cool revelations that I am dying to talk about, but won’t for fear of spoilers.

BUT TRUST ME, FELLOW READERS. The twists are good. They are worth it.

And the best part? Book 2, Reaper of Souls, just came out.

Rating: 8 – ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT.

The post Book Review: KINGDOM OF SOULS by Rena Barron appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Title: Mexican Gothic
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Genre: Fantasy, Horror
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: June 30, 2020
Hardcover: 320 pages

An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . . From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes “a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror” (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico.

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.   

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. 

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

How did I get this book: Purchased

Format: Hardcover

Review

Noemí Taboada knows how to work a crowd. Rich, well-connected, young, and beautiful, Noemí knows how to fluster, flirt, and manipulate others in high society–though, truly, Noemí craves the freedom to follow her passions. Unfortunately for Noemí, earning a master’s degree in anthropology or perfecting her ability to play the piano are not skills that her parents want her to pursue–making a strategic marriage to strengthen the family’s business, name, and prosperity is the Taboada top priority. Family is everything.

So, when Noemí’s father receives a letter from his newlywed niece Catalina, claiming that her new husband and his family and the house itself are trying to poison her, he is quick to act forcefully and discretely. He tasks Noemí with going to El Triunfo to ascertain the situation and make sure Catalina is safe–in return, he will give Noemí his permission to apply for university. Noemí doesn’t need much urging–Catalina is a beloved cousin, and Noemí quickly sets off to help.

What Noemí discovers is a sleepy, forgotten mountain town–after the silver mine dried up, and a string of tragedies, the entire economy of El Triunfo collapsed. And sitting atop a treacherous winding road looking down at town is High Place–a gothic English manor transported to Mexico decades earlier by Howard Doyle, Catalina’s new father-in-law. It is here, in High Place, where Noemí is bound to stay to help her cousin. High Place is large and once proud, but now a slowly rotting relic of a different time–it is a cold, inhospitable kind of home that immediately sets Noemí on edge.

The Doyle family, however, is perhaps even more unnerving than their mansion. There is Catalina’s handsome but coldly reserved husband, Virgil, whom Noemí has met before yet knows nothing about. Florence, Virgil’s aunt, who is stern, gray, and seems to hate Noemí on sight. Florence’s son and Virgil’s cousin, Francis, is the first to meet Noemí and seems to be the only friendly soul in High Place–though Noemí suspects he’s hiding something. And, Howard Doyle himself, patriarch of the Doyle line–a decrepit, ancient man (who espouses arguments for eugenics and remarks on Noemí’s dark coloring and beauty upon their first meeting).

The Doyles insist that Catalina is just suffering from tuberculosis–their private doctor is personally caring for her, and that her hallucinations and psychosis are common side effects to her medication. Noemí, seeing Catalina is a pale version of her former self, is not so sure.

What Noemí knows is this: something is wrong in High Place. And she is determined to understand what is happening to her cousin–even if the same affliction begins to take hold of Noemí herself.

The proverbial cat is out of the bag regarding Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s work; I have long been a fan of her short fiction (The Prime Meridian is absolutely excellent) and novels (Gods of Jade and Shadow, Signal to Noise, etc). Moreno-Garcia is able to fluidly write in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, blending magic with urban legends and folklore, transforming old tropes into something new with her sharp characters’ perspectives. Mexican Gothic is no exception; it is a proper gothic novel, resplendent with sublime imagery, family secrets, and yes, even romance. But add to that traditional framework a 1950s Mexico setting and the tensions and interpretations of race and class–this is what distinguishes Mexican Gothic from every other recent retelling of haunted houses on hills and modernist Brontës.

As with any work of horror, and especially gothic horror, much emphasis is placed on the strength of characters–both heroes and villains. Although it’s hard initially to relate to Noemí’s cynical approach to others, quickly she becomes more tangible and less of a persona, as she tries to navigate the oddness and wrongness of the Doyle household. As we learn more about Noemí and her relationship with Catalina, she becomes even more sympathetic and real–Moreno-Garcia creates a character who is definitely not perfect or passive, and Noemí is forced to confront her own darkness by book’s end. If Noemí is a heroine worth rooting for, there’s also the horrifying specter of Howard Doyle and his son, Virgil, in their calculated cruelty. There are secrets upon secrets, layers of desire, deception, and predatory, terrifying, power in the Doyle line–but for all of that cruelty and darkness, there is also hope that not every cycle needs to be repeated. (Francis is proof of that.)

Arguably the more important element in gothic fiction is the setting itself–and once again, Moreno-Garcia nails it. A town destroyed by a silver mine and greed, now forgotten by the rest of the world, El Triunfo’s remote decrepitude is achingly real. But High Place is the true star of this book, with its molding wallpaper, musty hallways, and almost complete lack of any technological upgrades, like electrical lighting. The house pulsates and squirms, and Moreno-Garcia’s use of mushroom imagery, the overripe sickly sweet rot that pervades High Place and Noemí’s mind, is absolutely fantastic. As you read the book, there are many possible explanations that start to make themselves known–are Catalina and Noemí dealing with some kind of environmental agent shaping their thoughts? Is it something more supernatural and insidious? Is it both, or neither?

Hint: the “reveal” and subsequent climactic final act is absolute bloody perfection, but I won’t spoil that for you.

Don’t just take my word for it; read it yourself and find out.

Rating: 8 – BRILLIANT

The post Book Review: MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Title: A Deadly Education
Author: Naomi Novik
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: September 29, 2020
Hardcover: 336 pages

Lesson One of the Scholomance: Learning has never been this deadly.

A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.

There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.

Stand alone or series: Book 1 of the Scholomance Series

How did I get this book: Purchased

Format: Hardcover

Review

Galadriel–El to her friends (not that she has many of those)–is having a real bitch of a junior year. To be fair, she and the other high schoolers within the Scholomance are all having a hard time. It’s not easy being enrolled in a magical school that is actively trying to kill you every second of every day for four years. But that is what the Scholomance does–a teacher-less interdimensional academy into which young magic-workers are whisked away to learn first-hand that magic is a void of eternal darkness filled with monsters that want to eat you alive.

El’s specific problem is that she’s a dark sorceress–the dark sorceress, in fact, as a pretty damning prophecy says she’s basically going to destroy the world. El is unparalleled in her affinity to wield spells of death and cosmic destruction, but she doesn’t actually want to turn to the dark side. So, El works hard to build mana–an energy source for performing spells–the noble way (pushups, situps, performing physical torture like needlework) instead of pulling it out of some unwitting freshman. She has a Plan: keep her head down to stay alive, store up enough mana to show her classmates how powerful she really is (but not too soon or else she might be killed by said classmates), and getting a bid in an enclave so that she and her mother can be protected from the constant threat of sorcerer-consuming monsters.

El’s Plan is solid–until Orion Lake starts to save El’s life. Repeatedly. A New York enclaver with a major savior complex, Orion is confused when El tells him off after he saves her life for the second time. Then he investigates her for thinking she might be behind another student’s death, and is determined not to let her leave his sight. In response, El spins the attention to her benefit and all of a sudden is getting attention from the other enclavers–if she can convince folks to believe she’s dating Orion, she just might be able to get them to believe that he will follow her to a different enclave. (And everyone wants a piece of maleficaria-slayer Orion Lake.) But then things get messy–and El has way bigger problems than making folks believe she’s in a relationship with Orion Lake.

I am a longtime fan of Naomi Novik’s work, starting with her Temeraire books and building to a crescendo of adoration for both Uprooted and Spinning Silver. As such, I had high expectations for this new first book in a series–and I’m thrilled to say that Novik delivers, though I had some initial misgivings. A Deadly Education plays within some very familiar tropes (hello, magical boarding school and I-hate-him-I-like-him, my old friends), but somehow manages to be shockingly inventive, darkly funny, and fun. In other words, dear reader, I absolutely loved this book.

Galadriel Higgins is our antisocial would-be-dark-sorceress narrator, and she is as abrasive (and unreliable) as they come. Snarky to a fault, El is constantly evaluating her environment and those around her to understand their angles and motivations. She’s secretive and defensive to ensure that no one knows she’s an untapped powerhouse of dark magic, choosing to bide her time before she reveals her hand. El is sarcastic but there’s a fair share of vulnerability under all that acid; she’s smart, and she also happens to be pretty loyal to the few allies she makes in the Scholomance. I loved watching El’s layers peel away throughout this first book, as she tries to deny her own feelings and the friendships she starts to make (even though she complains about them the whole way). And while I usually am not a fan of the hero-complex type, the balance that Novik introduces with Orion’s character is perfect–he’s “popular” in that he kills a ton of monsters and tries to save everyone’s life, but no one really cares to get to know the guy. Between El’s caustic acid and Orion’s white knight, there’s a pretty fun dynamic that reveals the actual people beneath their facades.

Truly, though, the reason A Deadly Education is so damn good is because of Novik’s impeccable worldbuilding. I love the idea of an interdimensional magic school that is kind of falling apart at the seams, and intent on killing its students. Dark boarding schools for magic workers have been done (see Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey, or The Witcher series from Andrzej Sapkowski, or Galen’s training in Assassin’s Apprentice), but Novik’s take is the first time I’ve read a school that no one really remembers how it exists or works, and seems solely to exist in order to kill most of its attendees. There are no kindly headmasters here, no safety from the constant barrage of death–you either learn to protect yourself, or you die. (It’s to the point where even the cafeteria food that appears on schedule may be poisonous, and you never take a shower because bad things happen in the bathroom.)

In the same darkly satisfying vein, the cutthroat rules of magic (energy always comes from somewhere) and scarcity of protection, both within the Scholomance’s walls and beyond with haves (enclavers) and have-nots (everyone else) are wholly believable.

In other words: I absolutely loved this book, and cannot wait for the next instalment.

Reviewer’s Note:

It would be impossible for me to review this book without addressing the reviews and readings that have raised concerns of racism within A Deadly Education. As a bi-racial person of color, I did not personally find this book to be racist in my reading. However, this is my personal reading and I deeply respect those who have been hurt by this novel. It is not my place to speak for BIPOC who felt marginalized by this book, nor is it my intent to dismiss such readings of A Deadly Education. I can only share my personal interpretation, which I hope fellow readers will take into consideration.

I did not find El’s references to other characters of color (of which El is one, herself) or languages to be racist in my reading–she is an antisocial heroine in an environment that is actively trying to kill her. Further, El is half-Welsh and half-Indian but raised entirely by her Welsh mother in Wales; as such, it makes sense to me that she doesn’t identify with her Indian relatives. (As a bi-racial third culture kid, I also struggle with cultural identification and understand El’s actions here.)

These things said, I wholeheartedly agree that Novik’s use of the word “dreadlocks” in one passage of the book (in which El talks about long hair being a very bad idea in the Scholomance, and dreadlocks being a haven for lockleeches to lay their eggs) very clearly evokes a harmful racist stereotype. Taken in the context of the world–in which no one can take a shower or wash their hair without facing near-certain death–I understand that Novik probably did not intend to make this association, but as we all know intent does not always equal reality. While I was glad to see that Novik issued an apology and the actions that she is taking (removing this passage from next printings as well as the electronic versions of the book, and to ensure that sensitivity reads in the future will happen post-last pass edits) come across as both heartfelt and appropriate, this casual misstep shows us again how deeply ingrained such historical racist stereotypes are, especially in publishing.

I recommend reading these posts that explore differing interpretations of racism in A Deadly Education. And if you are still interested in the book (or if you have read the book) and would like to discuss, please leave a comment below.

Rating: 8 – Excellent

The post Book Review: A DEADLY EDUCATION by Naomi Novik appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Welcome to the December 2020 edition of Non-Binary Authors to Read. It’s been quite the year, hasn’t it? Despite everything though, reading has remained a comfort for me, and I hope it has for you as well. To that end, I have four stories to offer up as recommendations. They are stories of longing, bittersweet relationships, but also hope. I wish you all a restful end to the year, and may 2021 bring you many more delightful books and stories to read.

P.H. Lee is an author with multiple short stories to their name, however my recommended starting place is “Distant Stars” published at Clarkesworld in April 2020. Struggling with grad school and finding a job is the final straw that leads Sarah’s marriage to fall apart, with her wife Martha getting custody of their son. Fast forward several years – Sarah is about to receive a Nobel Prize, Martha is remarried, and their son is about graduate high school. A scientist in Taiwan contacts Sarah, intrigued by her theories about Dark Energy, and while Sarah is in Hsinchu working on her theories, her son calls to let her know that Martha has passed away suddenly and unexpectedly.

Dark Energy, particularly, isn’t really dark and isn’t really energy. It’s a way of saying this: we expected, when we looked at distant galaxies, that they’d be moving away from us. But we didn’t expect that they’d be moving away from us faster and faster. Dark Energy means that the entire universe is accelerating away from us. And it means that we have no idea why.

The story is relatively short, but packed with emotional weight. Sarah’s studies in Dark Energy and relativity pair with a story about family, how the trajectory of people through their lives affects those around them, and how distances can grow between you and those you love the most, no matter how hard you try to hold on. And sometimes, there is no rational reason as to why. It’s a melancholy story, but beautifully written, with Sarah’s struggles to understand the nature of the universe reflecting her struggles to understand her own family and herself.

B. Pladek is a literature scholar and author. My recommended starting place for their work is “What the Marsh Remembers” from Lackington’s Issue 22. After the war, Randall is assigned to Clearwater Marsh as a Restoration Officer, trying to bring back the scorched land to condition where it might draw tourists again. Rand’s efforts at restoration are interspersed with his memories of the war, of learning about the marsh and its inhabitants from his fellow soldier, John. Both were injured in the war, and assigned to separate restoration locations, despite their request to be assigned together. The BER is unwilling, however, to see beyond whatever is most expedient to make things tourist-friendly.

As Rand’s shadow lengthened over the new rushes, he tapped into the water table below the bedrock. Refilling the marsh had been his core mandate. Put the water back where it was, the Bureau’s brief had said. Add whatever species you like, whatever looks natural, so long as it’s not extinct or too ugly. Remember, we’ve got brochures to print.

The story is a lovely exploration of memory, as well as a frustrating look at bureaucracy. Those who truly care about the land – Rand and John – are limited in the good they can do by their employer who cares only about what is “good enough” to call the job done. There’s an air of longing and melancholy to the story, and the feeling that Rand and John may be more to each other than friends, but can’t speak their feelings aloud. The story also explores the question of who benefits from restoration efforts, and what sort of idealized state of nature is being honored. The bureau’s efforts are aimed at doing what is pleasing and beneficial to human beings, whereas Rand is one of the few to ask – and ultimately to try to honor – what the marsh remembers, and what state it would be in without human interference.

Iona Datt Sharma is an author and lawyer based in London. My recommended starting place for their work is “Heard, Half-Heard, in the Stillness” published in Anathema Magazine. Ekta dreams of going to space. She has since she was young, and was even selected for Human Spaceflight Programme, however an accident during a routine test causes a terrible fire that destroys half the facility where she works at the IAF, and the program is cancelled.

Ekta’s Dadi could tell the future. She didn’t read the tea leaves, or make horoscope charts, or lay bets on the cricket. But she booked the photographer the week before the news came of Purnima Didi’s engagement. She told the panditji to get his blood pressure checked before he told anyone he was short of breath. The day before the Human Spaceflight Programme was suspended, she called Ekta in Sriharikota and said she should come home.

Ekta is understandably heartbroken. She returns home to celebrate Diwali with her family, but it’s hard to celebrate when everything reminds her of space and the journey she assumes she will now ever get to take. The story perfectly captures the idea of having to reorient and rethink your entire life after the goal you have worked towards for so long suddenly vanishes before your eyes. For all that, however, this is still a story about hope, family, and learning to see things in a different way. By learning to appreciate her mother’s wisdom and her way of seeing the world – a way that often seems very distant from Ekta’s experience of life – she learns to have hope again, and forge a new vision for her future.

Xan van Rooyan is a South African author currently based in Finland. My recommended starting place for their work is “The Order of Stolen Hearts” published in Apparition Lit in May 2020.  Zia is part of the order of Solomonari. Once upon a time, they were hunters, risking their lives to transform themselves into winged, horned, and scaled creatures by defeating great beasts, taking their hearts, and gaining their powers. Now, however, the order keeps an array of cloned beasts caged so acolytes can take their power without having to fight. Zia alone seems troubled by the new way of doing things, feeling that magic is too cheaply obtained now. At the same time, their own heart is failing, and their lover Ilie encourages them to take on a cloned beast heart as a replacement.

Two hundred years, ago I went hunting for the monster from which I would steal a heart with nothing but my courage and a dagger. Two hundred years ago, a fresh heart and the magic within it was a reward for tenacity, an honor earned through blood by those few truly worthy of the title Solomonar. My right shoulder throbs with the memory of my battle on the mountain, the pain spreading to the dozen other scars from fangs and claws etched across my skin. I am old. I am bitter.

“The Order of Stolen Hearts” offers up an interesting exploration of the cost of magic, versus scientific progress. Is it fair for the cloned beasts to suffer in place of the beasts in the wild? Is the new system better because fewer lives are lost, or is the whole Solomonari way of life cruel? What is magic worth if it costs the user nothing? The story is full of striking imagery as it explores these questions, and the impact humanity has on the world around it.

The post Non-Binary Authors to Read: December 2020 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Welcome to another edition of Women to Read! If you’re new to the series, with each column, I recommend four women you should be reading, and point to a specific place to start with their work. This column also has a sibling-series, Non-Binary Authors to Read, packed with even more reading recommendation goodness.

I would say I’m on a horror kick as Autumn slowly approaches, but let’s be honest – I’m always on a horror kick. That being the case, I have two horror novels, and two horror/dark short stories to recommend this time around. As the weather (again, slowly) starts to cool and the leaves start to turn, it’s the perfect excuse to grab your favorite warm beverage, curl up somewhere cozy, and enjoy some chilling reading.

Jennifer McMahon is a Vermont-based author with multiple novels to her name, and my recommended starting place for her work is the New York Times bestseller, The Invited .

The set-up is a familiar one: couple Nate and Helen move to a remote location with the intention of building their dream home and quickly discover the land has a dark past and may be haunted. Back in the 1920s, a woman named Hattie Breckenridge lived on the land, was accused of witchcraft, and was eventually hanged. Her young daughter survived her, leading to a whole line of seemingly-cursed women, each meeting an unpleasant end.

It was a scrabbling, gnawing sound coming from under the bed. Steady and grinding. There was something down there. Something with sharp teeth. Something chewing its way up to them.

While the set-up may be familiar, McMahon quickly flips the traditional haunted house tropes. Helen deliberately sets out to build her house with as many relics related to Hattie Breckenridge and her descendants as possible. As the title implies, this haunting is invited. The novel’s approach to ghosts and the traumas of history is fascinating on several levels. Helen choice to build a haunted house is a wonderful inversion, putting her in control – at least to some degree – of the events happening around her. While distrust and paranoia test her relationship with Nate, and while sinister things are afoot all around, the reader is never left with the question that often plagues haunted house stories – why does the haunted family stay? In this case, curiosity and compassion are the answer. Helen immediately recognizes there is more to Hattie’s story. Instead of a witch seeking revenge and cursing the land as a result of her traumatic death – another familiar trope – Helen believes Hattie was maligned, and seeks to understand her and offer some measure of peace if she can. Women being made monstrous as the result of trauma is another staple of the horror genre, and while I love a good traditional haunted house story, and the enduring curse due to a violent death can be done very well, it’s refreshing to see a different take on both themes. None of the creep factor or the tension is lost as a result, making The Invited is highly satisfying horror read.

Laura Mauro is a fiction writer, a pro wrestling journalist, and the Women’s Wrestling Editor for Steelchair Magazine. My recommended starting place for her work is “When Charlie Sleeps” originally published in Black Static, and republished in Best British Horror 2014 and her collection, Sing Your Sadness Deep.

Like many of the stories collected in Sing Your Sadness Deep, “When Charlie Sleeps” is unsettling, and draws much of its horror from what it leaves unexplained. Hanna lives in a decaying house with Mercy, Stella, and an entity they refer to as Charlie, who occupies the upstairs bathroom. None of them know precisely what Charlie is, only that it is vital that they keep him happy and, as much as possible, keep him asleep. Terrible things happen when Charlie is awake, manifestations that affect the house, and – so Hanna’s roommates tell her – if left unchecked, the whole of London.

It’s hot in the bathroom, thick and tropical like the inside of a vivarium. Hanna closes the door behind her with a click. Across the room is a cast-iron bathtub, the enamel stained yellow like old bones. The tiles are furry with black mildew, the windows obscured by newspaper. She breathes deep, easing her nerves, and heaves the bucket onto the counter.

Hanna resents being drawn into her role as one of Charlie’s caretakers. Charlie is an innocent, but also a creature of want. He cannot be reasoned with, only soothed and kept asleep with lullabies and songs. Charlie may be a parasite, but he’s a symbiotic one, vital to the city.

Charlie can be seen as a version of the buried child, but rather than suffering abuse so the rest of the city can flourish, he’s a monstrous thing that must be placated, even if he’s horrible through no fault of his own. He’s a force of nature, in a way, frightening and misunderstood, lonely but dangerous. There’s something almost childlike about Charlie, and Hanna, Mercy, and Stella can be seen as reluctant and resentful parents, feeding and caring for a child that is all hunger and want, interrupting their sleep, and unable to explain his needs or understand what they are doing for him. Caring for Charlie calls on them to be unselfish, for uncertain rewards, and it seems only a matter of time before the task proves to be too much.

“When Charlie Sleeps” is full of evocative and visceral descriptions. Again, much of the horror here comes from what is left unexplained. Particularly early on in the story, before Charlie’s nature is explored, the story draws tension from and plays with the idea that the scariest thing is indeed a closed door with someone unknown, and perhaps unknowable, on the other side.

Alma Katsu has been nominated for multiple awards, including several for my recommended starting place with her work, The Hunger , a historical horror novel retelling and reimagining the story of the Donner Party.  

The story is told from multiple viewpoints, including those of Mary Graves, one of ten children traveling west with her family, Tamsen Donner, the young and beautiful wife of George Donner, believed by many to be a witch, and Charles Stanton, a bachelor traveling on his own, an oddity among a party made up of families. Katsu weaves these perspectives together to tell a rich tale, while giving each perspective its space to breathe and making each character feel alive and fully-realized. A sense of dread pervades the novel, partially from the known history and the fate that must ultimately befall the characters, but also from from the writing itself.

Mary took the paper. It was brittle and fragile from many days in the heat. She unfolded it carefully, afraid it might disintegrate in her hands. The ink was faded, as though it had been written a long time ago, but she didn’t have any problem making out the words. Turn back, it said in a thin, spidery hand. Turn back or you will all die.

 As tragedy stalks the party, paranoia builds among its members. There is plenty of finger pointing, and plenty of blame, including self-blame. Each member of the party comes with their own baggage, and their own demons. Katsu does an excellent job of layering the characters and their stories together, steadily increasing the tension and the sense of threat, and suggesting multiple possibilities for the curse that seems to stalk the party before ultimately revealing the truth. The Hunger is satisfying as a character study, as a historical novel, and as a supernatural horror novel, all perfectly balanced into a highly atmospheric and chilling whole.

Kay Chronister is a Tuscon-based short story writer, and my recommended starting place for her work is “The Fifth Gable” which originally appeared in Shimmer Magazine and is reprinted in her collection, Thin Places.

Four women share a gabled house, growing children from the earth, fermenting them, and building them from spare mechanical parts. One day, a young woman named Marigold Hest comes to them, seeking a child, unable to conceive by conventional methods.

The second woman to live in the four-gabled house pulled her children from the ground like stubborn roots. They came out of the soil smelling of pollen, with faces like tulips. They were healthy until she cut their stems, and then they withered. They returned reedy and gray-faced to the earth.

One by one, the women try, and one by one, the children fail to thrive. Marigold suffers with each loss, and the women suffer too. The story tends more toward dark fantasy than outright horror, but there are horrific things within it – the sacrifices required in making a child, by whatever means, and the pain of loss when those sacrifices don’t work out. The story also explores the notion of motherhood being the expected role of a woman, her only purpose to produce a child, no matter what the cost. Marigold desperately wants a child, but she’s afraid to say why, implying it is not solely on her own behalf, but also implying she hasn’t fully questioned her own desires and whether this is truly what she wants, or what she’s be conditioned to want. This concept is explored through the denizens of the house as well, who each come to the house with a certain identity, one that they no longer recognize in themselves now that they’re dedicated to house and making children.

The story has a surreal and dream-like quality to it, and the prose is full of striking and lovely imagery. A sense of sorrow hangs over the story, but a sense of hope as well, and the two are bound together, suggesting that one is not possible without the other. To care for someone else, like a child, is to open yourself up to the possibility of pain, and it’s up to each person to decide for themselves whether that hurt, or potential hurt, is worthwhile.

The post Women to Read: September 2020 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Ah Ma may be dead, but she’s not done with life yet . . .

When Jessamyn Teoh starts hearing a voice in her head, she chalks it up to stress. Closeted, broke and jobless, she’s abandoning America with her parents, bound for Malaysia – a country she left as a toddler.

She soon learns the new voice isn’t even hers, it’s the ghost of her estranged grandmother. Ah Ma was a spirit medium, avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now Ah Ma’s mission is to deal with a gang boss who offended her goddess, and she’s decided Jess will help her – whether she wants to or not.

Drawn into a world of gods and ghosts, Jess finds that making deals with capricious spirits is a dangerous business. As Jess fights for retribution for Ah Ma, she’ll also need to regain control of her body and destiny – or the Black Water Sister may finish her off for good. And all the while, she has to stop her dead grandmother from spying on her personal life, spilling her secrets to her family and using her body to commit felonies. Suddenly, finding a job seems the least of her worries . . .

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One of the standard questions you get when you’ve written is a book is: “What was your inspiration for writing it?”

I always find it hard to answer. A short story or a novella may come to me in a flash of inspiration, birthed by a single image or memory or sensation. But a novel is made up of any number of things, absorbs energy from any form of stimulation you feed your brain while you’re working on it. Here are some answers for BLACK WATER SISTER:

• When I was a child and living in the US (it was only for a short time), I drew a picture that made my mother say to herself, “If we stay, the children are going to get a complex.”

So we went home – that is to say, back to Malaysia. Some of this book is about what it might have been like if we had stayed a little longer.

• If home is the place where nobody can tell you “go back to where you came from”, though, Malaysia isn’t our home. That’s probably China, where a grandparent and some great-grandparents came from. They, and the other Chinese migrants who came south to settle in Malaya, brought their gods and ghosts with them.

• I always figured my family was not religious because we never talked about that stuff when I was growing up, beyond the occasional order “not to shout at the wind or the thunder god will punish you”, or the explanation that we had sweet sticky niangao at Lunar New Year to feed the Kitchen God, so as to gum up his mouth when he went to give his report on the household to the Jade Emperor.

When I got older, I realised that we never talked about that stuff because my family really believed. You don’t simply mouth off about gods and spirits. Someone might hear you.

• Some years ago I picked up a book in Malaysia – an academic text, published by a university press. On the cover was a grainy photo of a Datuk Kong altar under a tree, with lit incense laid out as an offering. The book was called The Way That Lives in the Heart: Chinese Popular Religion and Spirit Mediums in Penang, Malaysia, by Jean DeBernardi, an anthropologist. It was about all the things my family hadn’t talked about. Once I read it, I realised I was going to write a story inspired by it.

• (Datuk Kong are really cool. Here’s an article about them.)

• I’m interested in the things that we don’t talk about because they’re dangerous – to ourselves; to our conception of the people we’re supposed to be; to our ideas of how the world should work.

• Black Water Sister is about the things families don’t talk about. Unhappy histories. Buried scandals. What people did that they shouldn’t have done. The push and pull of love and dependency and wanting to be free. Being someone who doesn’t fit what your family wants of you. Queerness. Gods and ghosts.

• It’s also about Penang, one of my favourite places in the world, and about hipster cafes, and gentrification, and being a stranger where you should belong.

• And – consistent with almost everything I’ve written – it’s about dealing with strong-minded aunties who have forcefully clear ideas about how you should lead your life. Not that I have direct personal experience of that or anything, cough.

It’s the most personal novel I’ve written yet. It may be my best. It’s funny and sad and strange. I really hope readers connect with it. You can pre-order it now at the links below.

US

Publisher page for Black Water Sister

Indiebound

Barnes & Noble

Hudson Booksellers

Books A Million

Amazon

UK

Publisher page for Black Water Sister

Waterstones

Foyles

Blackwells

Amazon UK

International

Book Depository (free shipping worldwide)

The post A New Book by Zen Cho? Hell yes! Announcing: Black Water Sister – due out May 2021 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Title: Chosen Ones

Author: Veronica Roth

Genre: Speculative Fiction/Science Fiction

Publisher: John Joseph Adams / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: April 2020
Hardcover: 432 pages

The first novel written for an adult audience by the mega-selling author of the Divergent franchise: five twenty-something heroes famous for saving the world when they were teenagers must face even greater demons—and reconsider what it means to be a hero . . . by destiny or by choice.

A decade ago near Chicago, five teenagers defeated the otherworldly enemy known as the Dark One, whose reign of terror brought widespread destruction and death. The seemingly un-extraordinary teens—Sloane, Matt, Ines, Albie, and Esther—had been brought together by a clandestine government agency because one of them was fated to be the “Chosen One,” prophesized to save the world. With the goal achieved, humankind celebrated the victors and began to mourn their lost loved ones.

Ten years later, though the champions remain celebrities, the world has moved forward and a whole, younger generation doesn’t seem to recall the days of endless fear. But Sloane remembers. It’s impossible for her to forget when the paparazzi haunt her every step just as the Dark One still haunts her dreams. Unlike everyone else, she hasn’t moved on; she’s adrift—no direction, no goals, no purpose. On the eve of the Ten Year Celebration of Peace, a new trauma hits the Chosen: the death of one of their own. And when they gather for the funeral at the enshrined site of their triumph, they discover to their horror that the Dark One’s reign never really ended.

Stand alone or series: Book 1 in The Chosen Ones series

How did I get this book: Bought

Format (e- or p-): Print

Review

Remember 2011? A time when one could leave one’s house without fear of contracting a fatal contagion, sure, but also a time when YA dystopias were in full swing, and Veronica Roth emerged in the YA SFF scene with her addictive debut novel, Divergent, and its faction-based vision of the future.

2011 seems like a long time ago now–Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant and their film counterparts tales from a distant past–but having read and reviewed all of those books (and yes, even the first film), I was excited to learn of Veronica Roth’s foray into adult SFF with a brand new series. (And given lockdown, why not escape to a parallel universe with a group of superheroes struggling with their past choices, and a resurgence of evil threatening their future?)

Chosen Ones begins with a solid hook: the year is 2020, and the world is safe from the threat of the Dark One. That’s thanks to the fact that back in 2010, five then-teenagers (Sloane Andrews, Matthew Weekes, Inez Mejia, Albert Summers, and Esther Park) stopped the Dark One’s increasingly powerful chaotic attacks. Since then, the world has returned to normalcy, safe from the threat of Drains (the Dark One’s preferred method of destruction) though the scars of the past are still very visible–not only in cities like Chicago, where Drain sites remain a terrifying power-void, but also for the five heroes who used their magical gifts to save the day. Sloane Andrews, one of the so-called “chosen ones” hasn’t had the easiest time adjusting to being a public figure and hero after ten years–a large part of that is PTSD from having been abducted by the Dark One prior to their final battle (and the choices that she made, which become gradually unveiled to readers over the course of the novel). But a large part of it is self-denial and self-preservation; take, for example, the fact that Sloane lives with her boyfriend and fellow Chosen One, Matthew Weekes, whom she knows she is supposed to love and confide in, but with whom she has nothing in common other than their traumatic past.

Then, the unthinkable happens: one of the Chosen Ones dies. Albert Summers–Albie, to his friends–commits suicide by way of drug overdose, following the ten year anniversary celebration of the Dark One’s defeat at the Chicago Drain site. The remaining four friends are heartbroken–Sloane especially suffers with the loss. Albie was the only other person in the group who understood her, who was by her side when they were captured and tortured (though, once again, more of Sloane’s memories surface throughout the book especially where the Dark One and Albie are concerned).

At Albie’s funeral–a small affair to spread his ashes at the Chicago Drain site, per his wishes (every Chosen One has an “in case I don’t make it” contingency plan)–another unthinkable thing happens. One moment, Sloane, Matt, and Esther are standing on dry land; in the next, they are sputtering lake water in a parallel universe. The Dark One wasn’t defeated, you see. The battlefield, and the stakes, have just jumped across dimensions.

There’s a lot to love about Chosen Ones, pushing the validity and entirety of the “chosen one” archetype, while asking important questions: what happens when you grow up and you don’t have all the answers? What happens when you are a supposed hero, but don’t have any other battles to fight? Why doesn’t the world ever stay saved? Roth’s strength lies, as it did with the Divergent trilogy, with her protagonist. Sloane grapples with these big questions, while presenting a front for the outside world and even towards her fellow chosen ones, which becomes especially fraught when her relationship with Matt buckles under pressure. Who the world thinks Sloane is, who Matt thinks Sloane is, who Sloane thinks she herself is–these are big, soul searching revelations that drive the novel’s narrative. While Sloane grapples with her own sense of identity and power, there’s a parallel secondary storyline that unfolds through classified documents and news articles. Sloane has been trying to reclaim her past, and as we readers go through these different epistolary interludes, we–like Sloane–gradually understand the larger picture, and the depth of the exploitation of the chosen ones by their authority figures.

While the depth of Sloane’s character and the nature of the revelations she faces are undeniably powerful, other aspects of the story are less well-polished. For example, while I love the surprising shift from Part One to Part Two, Chosen Ones feels like two books that have been fused together–there’s the slower burn of Sloane’s search for meaning and identity, which then becomes an interdimensional portal story, which then becomes a showdown with an archnemesis. All of this is super rad, but the delivery is pretty remarkably uneven.

Also uneven were the other characterizations, beyond Sloane–Matt and Esther have a lot of potential that never really feels realized, as these other two chosen ones fail to rise beyond supporting cast status. (Also, Inez is in the book for like four chapters, and gets a pretty bum deal.) It was also slightly frustrating that–of course!–a predictably dull love interest twist pops up in the book’s second act.

These criticisms voiced, though, Chosen Ones is still a hell of a ride. I loved the imaginative scope of the story and its ultimate resolution–Roth takes the chosen one trope and subverts it again and again to pretty awesome effect. I’m excited to return to this strange new world.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

The post Book Review: CHOSEN ONES by Veronica Roth appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

You thought you were prepared for this book. You were, and I can’t stress this enough, not.

You loved Gideon the Ninth. In fact, you may have uttered words like “best book of 2019”, “genius” and “most fun I ever had reading a book in decades” and also “this book eviscerated me from inside like lyctor soup”.

So coming to Harrow the Ninth with your SOUL eviscerated by the previous book, dehydrated from sobbing your heart out and grieving but with your feelings and your memory somewhat dulled by time and by pretending things would be ok, you realise something very soon into the narrative that…

This is not Gideon the Ninth. Because there is NO GIDEON.

At least, not in a certain way.

You thought you may have been prepared for that given the end of the first book. The joke is on you, silly knuckle.

This new rollercoaster is a feverish dream of an unreliable second person narrative that does the UNPARDONABLE sin of rewriting memory and erasing a certain personage from most of the narrative. You do however, love unreliable narratives and narrators and this one is so cleverly done.

It is unpardonable though because it hurts so bad. But also because it brings back OTHER DEAD PEOPLE. The hurt is bad but also good, you think to yourself late at night staring into nothing.  

In a book about necromancy, you would think this is par for the course, but the author is ready to stab you in the back like certain betraying immortals.

But then you find that your feelings of grief and loss are mimicked by the narrative – in Harrow. And you see her actions and struggle with her mental health and a trauma that is both historical and freshly new.

And beyond the personhood of the shared narrative arc of Harrow and Gideon, there is a larger story being told, a story that started in the last book, or, rather, ten thousand years ago.

And being a historian, you notice that what’s happening in this series is that history is being checked mated. A history written by the victors and by a God named John (how utterly silly, you think, until God has a threesome and you like Harrow want to avert your eyes) who created an Official Narrative but there is a different side to it, a different narrative and that narrative is trying its absolute best to come to the surface. You realise you don’t know who the villains are. There is a story told about people and God, and faith and historical action and belief.

Lies, you are certain.

Then you go back to the Dramatis Personae on literally page 1 and realise all is foreshadowed.

GENIUS, you whisper to yourself.

But also confusing and vague and there is a certain amount of earned trust in the author but is that trust perhaps squandered a bit, you wonder. Maybe, because so, so much of it is very disorienting. You did find yourself rollercoasting through this feverish hellscape of a narrative, lost and often confused, and does it all coalesce into a beautifully built necromantic skeleton or does it fall apart without muscles and tendons and blood and heart?

You are not so certain, your eyes far too dry when the last page rolls in.

The post A scattered journey through Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Four years ago, I visited you here at the home of the illustrious Book Smugglers to talk about my debut novel Heroine Complex. Today I’m visiting you to talk about the fourth book in the series—and the start of a brand-new trilogy—Haunted Heroine.

No matter how many times I type those words, they do not seem real. My Asian American superheroine book that became a trilogy has now become a full-on series! There’s continuity and timelines and stuff! People have favorite characters and ’ships! I actually have to remember what I wrote in the first book, because it matters for something that’s happening now!

I’d always wanted to write a series, but I have to admit that once it became a reality…I realized there were things I absolutely did not think about when I was creating the world of put-upon superhero personal assistant Evie Tanaka way back when. I had a lot of questions for/fights with Past Me while writing this book and launching the series into its next stages, and I thought I’d share how I worked through all that and prevented my head from exploding. (Although to be honest, it did explode a few times.)

Theme? What’s a Theme?

The first Heroine Complex trilogy has a different protagonist for each book: fire-wielding wallflower Evie Tanaka, diva celebrity superheroine Aveda Jupiter (aka Annie Chang), and upstart chaos princess little sister Bea Tanaka. All three get a chance to narrate us through their adventures, and all three go through the second coming of age many of us experience in our early 20s.

That “second coming of age in your 20s” thing is what I considered to be the unifying theme of these books, alongside the usual theme for all of my work, Asian Girls Having Fun.

To be honest, I never thought I would climb back into Evie’s head again. I’d left her happy, in love, and in control of her superpower. Her relationships were finally sorted out, and she had decided to embark on a superheroing partnership with her best friend, Aveda. She had also been through a lot. The thought of taking her back to a place where she wasn’t happy or was struggling with any of this felt cruel, and I desperately did not want to do what certain sequels to my favorite movies have done (looking at you, Ms. Congeniality 2!): I didn’t want to rip away all the progress she’d made or undo any of the realizations she’d had or tear down her hard-earned happiness and relationships. I wanted her to enjoy the beautiful life she’d built.

When the first book came out, I relived a lot of it with readers. I felt, very deeply, how close I had been to Evie, and how much I cared about her. And in talking about her, in hearing what she meant to others…I was suddenly dying to hang out in her head again. But I had to do it in a way that didn’t strip away all that she’d gone through or reset all the progress she’d made.

In short, I had to come up with a new theme!

Not the Asian Girls Having Fun part—that obviously had to stay and I wouldn’t have it any other way. But if the theme of the first trilogy was “the second coming of age we experience in our early 20s”…then what would Evie be dealing with now? She’s [spoiler alert!] married, pregnant, in her 30s, and still fighting evil and saving the city with Aveda.

That is a lot of good stuff. It’s also…a lot to be dealing with at once. Just thinking about everything she had to contend with in this new stage of her life…it made me happy, but it also made me very tired.

And that’s what gave me my theme—the Having It All Myth. This idea that in order to be fully functioning humans worthy of love and empathy, we need to Succeed at Absolutely Everything and Look Great While Doing So. I think this is something a lot of us deal with. Especially women. And most especially women of color. I knew all three of my heroines would deal with this concept differently—Wallflower Evie, Diva Aveda, and Chaos Princess Bea. (Aveda and Bea are both getting a sequel too as part of this new trilogy!)

I knew Evie—like me—would try to show up for all the parts of her life fully and equally, that she would flounder and fail at times, and that she would experience the same feelings of inadequacy and impostor syndrome that I so often do. I knew she would have empathy for everyone around her, but would struggle to conjure it for herself.

I also knew that she would eventually have a lot of fun while on this journey. (And she does. This book is nicknamed Horniest Heroine for a reason.)

Location, Location, Location

We’ve spent three whole books exploring demon-infested San Francisco, and while I love it…I had a yearning to expand the world of Heroine. I wanted my girls to go places! I asked Past Me why she’d confined so much of the demonic action to a single city—couldn’t there be evil in other areas for my heroines to battle?

Well…yes. I realized, as the person who writes these books, I could invent new evil and put it other places. In this case, I had a direct inspiration that was not just my own rage-y thoughts about Ms. Congeniality 2.

I wanted to write the Baby-Sitters Club Super Specials of my series!

If you are not familiar, the Baby-Sitters Club books are a very important series for many women of my generation, tracking a delightful group of tweens who are obsessed with providing quality childcare. It was recently made into what is possibly the best TV show ever, and you can watch it on Netflix. Anyway, in the Super Specials, the BSC usually goes to some exciting new location, like the Bahamas or Paris or…Vermont. And sometimes the Super Specials are also tied to a fun holiday!

With this new trilogy, I decided we’d explore some new places—in this first book, I took Evie and Aveda over to the East Bay to investigate a series of hauntings at a local women’s college during Halloween. Crafting a creepy, ghostly, pumpkin spice-enhanced atmosphere for the heroines made the series feel fresh again to me—it gave them a whole new series of “sets” and characters to play with, and it made me feel like I was decorating a whole new room in my series’ Barbie Dream House. The Halloween bit also enabled me to answer questions like, “What would Evie and Aveda dress up as?! And what are some other, ahem, creative uses for these costumes?” (Back to Horniest Heroine…)

Also, my girls actually do end up kind of babysitting! Their mission requires them to go undercover as grad students, and in doing so, they meet a little gang of college kids that they become very invested in. Which brings me to my final inspiration/influence…

Real Life

The haunted women’s college in Haunted Heroine is called Morgan College, but it’s based a bit on the actual haunted women’s college I attended—Mills College. (Only the good parts, though, I promise.)

Past Me had intended for the resemblance to my own college days to be minimal, but writing about the scent of the eucalyptus trees, the old dorms full of shadowy nooks and crannies, and the late-night runs to Taco Bell transported me fully back to that time period.

And before I knew it, I’d ended up adding a lot of elements based on favorite memories: late-night bonding sessions with new friends over silly things, throwing old dining hall plates off the roof of my dorm as a way of getting my anger out, creeping around some of the older buildings in an attempt to see an actual ghost…

And of course…Carpet Ball. Carpet Ball is a stuffed blob of muddy green that one of my best college friends, Kelly, had in her dorm room. It looks like it is made out of 70s-era shag carpet, hence the name. As time went on, it became part of our daily life. Sometimes you might pet Carpet Ball for comfort. Or toss Carpet Ball out of frustration. Or marvel at the fact that Carpet Ball had probably never been washed, ever, because no one could quite figure out how to accomplish such a task. When I told my college friends I was writing a book inspired by our days at Mills, someone immediately asked: “Can Carpet Ball be in it?!”

And so Carpet Ball is, providing Evie with some comfort and humor as she embarks on this next stage of her life. Truly, sometimes inspiration comes from the most unexpected places.

Sarah Kuhn is the author of the popular Heroine Complex novels—a series starring Asian American superheroines. The first book is a Locus bestseller, an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award nominee, and one of the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog’s Best Books of 2016. Her YA debut, the Japan-set romantic comedy I Love You So Mochi, is a Junior Library Guild selection and a nominee for YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults. She has also penned a variety of short fiction and comics, including the critically acclaimed graphic novel Shadow of the Batgirl for DC Comics and the Star Wars audiobook original Doctor Aphra. Additionally, she was a finalist for both the CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) New Writers Award and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. A third generation Japanese American, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and an overflowing closet of vintage treasures.

The post HAUNTED HEROINE: SARAH KUHN ON INSPIRATIONS AND INFLUENCES appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

We are speechless. After multiple nominations and losses, starting back in 2014–we were like, the Leo Dicaprios of the Hugo Awards–THE BOOK SMUGGLERS WON A HUGO AWARD FOR BEST FANZINE LAST NIGHT!

WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT! WHAT A DELIGHT! (Yes, we know that rhymes.)

We are overwhelmed, incredibly touched, and hugely thankful to everybody who voted for us. This means a lot to the both of us.

However we must say it has also been a bittersweet win in many aspects. We are far away from each other, our celebratory hugs and high fives were granted virtually–which is awesome, and necessary, given the global pandemic. Above all, in spite of our personal happiness and being thrilled for all the amazing winners, we are deeply unsettled with many aspects of the awards ceremony. (We do appreciate all of the effort that went into making a completely virtual awards show happen, which is a thankless and doomed-at-the-outset endeavor.) Technology issues aside, many parts of the show were uncomfortable, and downright enraging, to watch.

George R.R. Martin was the host this year and in between his pre-recorded messages and his live performance, he sadly managed to somehow be simultaneously boring, infuriatingly oblivious (we are going with this perhaps too-gracious reading), yet often offensive. Even if we were to overlook the mispronunciations of several nominee names (all finalists were required to provide a phonetic pronunciation guide that got lost, we guess?), our major source of frustration was Martin’s blithe praise of several known fascist, racist, and sexist authors in what can only be described as this overlong, bloated, egotistical white-dude fest that glorified a past that should no longer be glorified when we have right here, RIGHT NOW such an amazing, forward-thinking, diverse SFF community who should be the ones being glorified and celebrated. (We mean, just listen to the winners’ speeches, especially the powerful words from R.F. Kuang, Chimedum Ohaegbu, Jeannette Ng, and S.L. Huang–but seriously, virtually every winner had something important and, yes, political to say.)

…. and breathe!

Back to our celebration! The full list of winners can be found here and if you want to check out the ceremony and hear the amazing speeches given by the winners, Chelsea of TheReadingOutlaw did the amazing work of editing the ceremony to remove the toastmaster’s bits and you can watch it all here. Our bit starts at 17 minutes and you can watch Thea delivering our speech.

But for easy and accessible reference, here is our written speech:

We are being wholly, utterly honest when we say HOLY GUACAMOLE, we did not see this coming. Thank you, fellow fans, readers, writers, and creators so much.

We know that it can be frowned upon to be Political at the Hugos, but we also know that everything is political, so f that. We have been running The Book Smugglers for over ten years, as two loud, opinionated women on the internet–one of us Filipino-American and the other Brazilian. We have been giving space for diverse voices to be heard, read, and seen, and we know now that is even more important now than it has ever been, in the fight for social justice in the face of fascism, systemic oppression, and racism around the world. Black lives matter.

So thank you so much for this award–our very first Hugo. Thank you for seeing us, for hearing us, for believing that our work matters.

Thank you to all of our fellow nominees, and to our regular contributors–especially Charles Payseur and A.C. Wise.

Thank you to all of the readers and friends who have supported us throughout the years. To everyone who keeps coming back to read The Book Smugglers–we are nothing without you. Special shoutout to Sparkle Rocket and to the Filipino contingent at the Hugos.

It’s also worth mentioning that Ana is now the first Brazilian to ever win a Hugo. (Valeu Brasil!)

Finally, a huge thank you to the television show Lost–without which The Book Smugglers would never have happened.

Thank you again, from the bottom of our SFF-loving hearts, and remember to stay safe, wash your hands, and wear a mask.

Thank you.

The post Holy Guacamole: WE WON A HUGO AWARD?! appeared first on The Book Smugglers.

Every year, the Hugo Awards are administered and voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). The Hugos are typically presented at the end of Worldcon weekend in late August–though this year, of course, things are a little different. The 2020 Worldcon, CoNZealand, scheduled for 29 July – 2 August 2020 in Wellington, New Zealand, has announced that they will be a “virtual online convention” without a physical convention this year due to the global COVID-19 pandemic (and we Smugglers respect and understand the decision from the CoNZealand committee–stay home, stay safe, wash your hands, and wear a mask, people!) 

We are thrilled to be included in the roundup for this year’s finalists for Semiprozine–which includes Galactic Journey, Journey Planet, Quick Sip Reviews, the Rec Center, and Nerds of a Feather Flock Together. It’s tradition for Hugo Finalists to provide sample work in the year’s Voter Packet–this year, we’ve selected some of our favorite reviews. Whether or not you’re a voting member of Worldcon, we hope you’ll enjoy the selection of content we’ve put together below.

Download the PDF

Thanks for your consideration–and we hope to see you on the live webcast!

The post Hugo Award Packet 2020 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.