#c: the great repression ( octavia )

[aproblematicpanda]

2, 3, 12!

Hi Tee! ♥ First let me just say: GREAT URL CHANGE. I FULLY SUPPORT IT AND I LIKE THE WAY YOU THINK.

2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP? To be quite honest I don’t really know what counts as “popular” so I’m just going to go ahead and name ships that I’ve seen people ship, whether they’re considered popular or not I’ll leave that up to you. Raven x Murphy is one that comes to mind. I don’t know if a lot of people still ship it, but I think it was gaining quite a bit of popularity in season 5 (I believe there even was a cut scene of Raven kissing his cheek but that could’ve been in season 4, honestly I’m such a terrible addition to this fandom, half the time I barely even know what I’m talking about). But I don’t see anything romantic there. If anything, I see Raven as sort of like Murphy’s big sister - she’ll tease him and call him names and he’ll give her a hard time but if it comes down to it, they have each other’s backs. So a sibling dynamic or just really great friends. There used to be a lot of bad blood between them and to be honest I’m still not entirely comfortable with Raven being best friends with the man who permanently wrecked her leg albeit not on purpose. But the show is terrible at addressing stuff like that so 99% of the time I just ignore it I guess? Anyway, I think they have an interesting dynamic and I always enjoy their scenes together, but never in a romantic way. Then, and Nicole is going to kill me for this but I’m going to say it anyway, there’s Octavia x Gabriel. Again, I don’t know if a *lot* of people ship it, but quite a few of them do and I don’t know, they just don’t do it for me I guess? I mean they’re both hot and they look amazing together, but in season 6 I feel like Gabriel only looked at her like she was a piece of a puzzle he was trying to solve, not a woman, and I just don’t get a shippy vibe when I look at them. That being said, I do think they make a good team and I could get on board with them having a great friendship. I just don’t see a romantic relationship blossoming there because honestly, this man will never look at any woman the way he looks at that damn anomaly. Also, I have not forgiven him for mentioning his friends in 7x07 and then only calling out “Echo! Hope! I’m sorry!” because Octavia should’ve gotten a mention there. Yeah, yeah, he spent five years with them but if I’m supposed to ship him with Octavia, then he should’ve said her name, too, and that’s that. And then obviously there’s BeIIamy x CIarke. At least I know for sure there’s a popular one LOL. I don’t ship them romantically, I never have. But I also don’t think they make a great BroTP, I’m just mentioning them in my reply so you’ll be absolutely positive that I don’t see any kind of TP whatsoever when I think about those two. Other than that I guess I’m pretty down with most canon romantic ships I guess? Wouldn’t have turned anyone into a BroTP instead, and I don’t think there are any (popular) ships left that I feel strongly about so here you go! 3. Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion? Oh my god, so many times. Usually it’s because they have a very, very *wrong* opinion about Octavia or because they ship B x C and reblog them far too often. In the past I would’ve replied to those wrong opinions or made anti-gif sets to prove my point about the ship I mentioned but then I grew up so nowadays I just unfollow (and when they tag their shit incorrectly I even block them when I feel like it - I also have two people who I blacklisted via XKit so their posts and edits won’t show up on my dash, I don’t want to block them because it’s not that they tag incorrectly and I do want to allow them to keep reblogging stuff I make because sometimes they do, it’s just that they have such terribly wrong views on Octavia and the gif sets they sometimes make make me want to throw my computer out the window so I figured it was best to just make sure I don’t see their stuff on my dash, *ever*). 12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? Ehh... This is a hard one, because I think sometimes fandom tends to disagree on what does or doesn’t count as an arc. But for the purpose of answering this question I’m going to go with Echo’s... I’m not going to call it “character development” because that makes it sound like she used to be a bad person and then she changed and that’s not what happened. She was never a bad person. Let’s call it Echo’s journey. She started off as an antagonist (which is why it bugs me so much when haters like to call her out on “trying to kill Octavia”: she was on the opposite side, of course she was going to do shit that the protagonists don’t like, that’s what happens when you’re on the opposing team, it’s called story-telling). There’s our group of “heroes” (god I hate it when the show calls them that) and then there was Echo, on the other side, siding with the people who wanted to harm “our heroes”. But then those people cast her out after she did everything she could think of to keep them safe (I’m not saying she did the right thing by cheating in the conclave but she did have noble intentions for doing what she did) and she had nobody anymore, until Spacekru took her in and her loyalties shifted from her former clan to Spacekru. We don’t have a lot of information about what went on on the Ark, but I like the little bits and pieces we did get. I like that it’s canon that she didn’t tell anyone much about herself, that she’s not an open book at all, that she’s closed off, distant, doesn’t let her true feelings surface because it makes her vulnerable and if there’s one thing she learned from life at a very young age, it’s that she can never appear vulnerable, ever. And I like that in season 6 and especially in season 7, she is forced to deal with what happens when she can no longer repress her feelings but instead has to let them out. Is she coping with them in a healthy way? No. Of course not. Not at all. But what did you expect from a woman who saw her parents die when she was just a little kid, who was forced to murder her best friend in self-defense and then use said friend’s name as her own and who was from then on trained and used as a (child) soldier to do someone else’s dirty work? Do you honestly expect someone who carries around that much trauma, who has this many wounds that she could never allow to heal, to deal with losing the man she loves in a healthy way? I think it’s fascination to see her wrestle with those feelings, feelings she can no longer repress or ignore, and I honest to god hope the show will allow her to work through that grief eventually without turning her back into the coldblooded woman she used to be or, god forbid, give her some kind of sacrificial death to "make up for all the bad shit she did”. Echo’s not a bad person, in fact, she’s a far better person than most of our “heroes”. Being able to do what needs to be done doesn’t make her evil, because most people on this show would be evil then. Echo is a severely traumatized young woman who hasn’t had a sense of home in decades and then, when she finally found it, when she finally learned to open up and let herself be soft and vulnerable again with her new found family, it was ripped away from her again. And I think that her journey is one of the most compelling ones of all characters because she goes through so much and yet here she is, ready to fuck shit up to get shit done. I can only hope she’ll get to soft epilogue she deserves, after a lifetime of being at war. Salty Ask List

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 4/9/21: VOYAGERS, THUNDER FORCE, HELD, THE POWER

Well, things certainly picked up last week, didn’t they? We finally had a relatively big hit with Kong vs. Godzilla, and by that, I mean that it made more in its first five days than most of the other pandemic releases have made during their entire theatrical runs. Sure, it’s great start and a good sign for the recovering theatrical economy, but it’s just a mere start. It will be a long time before theaters can be safe for larger crowds of 50% or more and that’s probably going to be needed to counter-balance the cost of keeping these theaters open. L.A., which reopened after NYC, seems to be going that route, while Cuomo still seems to care more about other businesses and artforms. It’s been a month since NYC theaters opened at 25% capacity or 50 people tops, and other theaters and venues are opening with up to 150 people, so I’m not sure what Cuomo is waiting for. It’s fine, even if it’s the same old shit we’ve been dealing with for a year.

The widest release of the week is Neil Burger’s original sci-fi thriller VOYAGERS (Liongate), starring Colin Farrell, Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp and Fionn Whitehead (from Dunkirk), and this is an interesting high-concept movie that feels a bit like “Lord of the Flies” in space. Set in 2063, Farrell plays a counselor put in charge of a group of bioengineered teens shot into space in order to populate a new world hundreds of light years away, a trip that will take them 90 years. Things soon start to go wrong as the kids learn that the “blue” drink they’ve been taking is meant to repress their emotions and urges so that they don’t have so much sex that the cramped ship becomes overpopulated before they get to the new earth. Two of the teens, Sheridan’s Christopher and Whitehead’s Zack, discover this info about the “blue” and decide to stop taking it, and then other stuff happens.

Voyagers is definitely a fairly high concept space movie that you’re likely to appreciate more if you don’t know too much about what happens as it goes along. Colin Farrell has a decent role as the mentor and overseer of these bioengineered kids in space, but at times, it goes into fairly expected places once the kids start getting off the “blue,” creating a conflict between Christopher and Zac, especially since both have their eye on Depp’s Sela.

Of course, comparisons will be made to the fairly recent outer space movie Passengers, mainly due to the long space travel trip, but this is more about a lot of young people cramped into a spaceship and testing out their muscle as they start getting physical in more ways than one. The look and feel of the film is partially what makes the film so intriguing, as it seems to be influenced by films like George Lucas’ THX-1138 or of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey, but this is a far more primal film rather than one that necessarily tries to be cerebral.

Although the performances are a little flat, possibly as a deliberate decision, the film does build to a fairly satisfying climax and ending, and I quite enjoyed Neil Burger’s exploration of more literary science fiction and world building than other films of this ilk.

As far as box office, I wish I was a little more confident in the movie, although I don’t even know if this will get released into 2,000 theaters by Lionsgate, and there’s still that relatively huge Godzilla vs Kong, which is likely to drop 55% or more in its second weekend but that’s still a second weekend of $14.5 million, which isn’t attainable by Voyagers. I figure this will be shooting for second place with around $4 or 5 million just based on the genre and lack of much else for young people in theaters.

You can also read my interview with Neil Burger over at Below the Line

Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer star in Ben Falcone’s new superhero comedy, THUNDER FORCE, which will stream on Netflix starting Friday, and while I’m under embargo until then, there isn’t a ton that I can say as you read this. McCarthy and Spencer play Lydia Berman and Emily Stanton, two very different people we meet when they’re young girls living in a world where people who have powers are known as Miscreants, and they dream about having powers themselves but as teens, they have a falling out. Many decades later, they reconnect and Emily has a teen daughter Tracy (Taylor Mosby) and the two end up taking part in an experiment to get super powers themselves, sort of. Thunder Force hits Netflix on Friday and hopefully I’ll have a review to share just as it goes live.

MINI-REVIEW (Coming Soon!)

We have quite a bit of horror this week, including HELD (Magnet Releasing), the new thriller from the directors of The Gallows and its sequel, Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing. The movie stars Jill Awbrey, who also wrote the script, as Emma Barrett, a woman in a marriage that’s having problems but is really put to the test when she and her husband Henry (Bart Johnson) decide to spend a romantic weekend away and end up trapped in a luxury home by a malevolent voice commanding them to do whatever he tells them.

I was really hoping to like this one because I was hoping for it to be an original take on the home terror genre, but it opens with a fairly ugly date rape sequence that doesn’t seem to do much for the story when it’s introduced. At first, I thought that maybe that’s an important set-up for what’s to happen later, but it’s actually a bit of a skeevy red herring. This story really begins when Awbrey’s Emma arrives at a luxurious house and waits for her husband to arrive. The first night they’re there, a mysterious man in a leather mask visits them and actually changes Emma into a different night gown. Once the couple realizes that they were drugged and something happened to them while they slept, a voice over an intercom starts to make demands on them, giving them massive shocks when they disobey.

There’s so much potential in this premise but the fact is that neither Awbrey nor Johnson are particularly good actors, and while I’ve never actually seen The Gallows, I wasn’t particularly impressed by Cluff nor Lofing as directors either. They do a fine job with creating the proper mood and environment but there’s aspects to the movie that feel so skeevy that it was really hard to get into much of this.

While Held isn’t violent enough to be considered “torture porn” perse, there’s something quite voyeuristic about it that I found disturbing and not in a good way that a thriller might make you feel uncomfortable. The situation gets worse and worse, almost painful to watch at times, leading to a pretty awful Stepford Wives rip-off of a twist that really seems to come out of nowhere.

While Held might start off like it another one of those #MeToo revenge thrillers, by the end, it becomes far clearer that this was not a particularly well-thought premise that just goes downhill as the filmmakers try to prove themselves to be far more clever than they actually are. The whole thing just feels kind of ugly and unpleasant.

While we’re into the horror section of this week’s Weekend Warrior, streaming on Shudder starting Thursday is Corrina Faith’s THE POWER, a period horror film starring Rose Williams as Val, the newest matron at a big scary hospital during wartime in London when power is being shut off at night to conserve energy.

This very eerie horror film already has a pretty daunting setting by being set in one of those old hospitals during wartime, where there isn’t a ton of things going on but when the power goes out, things start getting crazy as Val starts seeing and experiencing things in the dark, only really having a gas lantern to light her way.

I wasn’t really familiar with Rose Williams, but she gives an amazing performance as a seemingly innocent matron who is particularly scared of the dark and who gets thrown into so many horrifying incidents that she goes through this remarkable transformation from the introduction until the end. There’s also a great group of characters around her, including the evil blonde Babs (Emma Rigby), a bully from Val’s past (a real c-word) and a number of creepy male characters with seemingly lecherous intentions. Another level is brought to the mix by the young girl named Saba (Shakira Rahman) who Val bonds with and tries to protect from whatever malevolent spirit is haunting the hospital.

Faith’s debut feature is quite an achievement, and it certainly feels like she and Williams are two women to watch, because they’re destined to do interesting projects in the future. In the meantime, this is another great offering by the horror streamer that’s really been delivering the goods the past two years. (I also point out how much I loved the score by Gazelle Twin, who also scored the Blumhouse/Amazon horror film Nocturne.)

I haven’t had a chance to see Oliver Hermanus’ BAFTA-nominated MOFFIE (IFC Films) yet, but it’s definitely on my radar as a film set in 1981 South Africa as the white minority government is in a conflict on the southern Angolan border. Nicholas Van der Swart, like all white boys over 16, has to spend two years of compulsory military service to defend the Apartheid regime from “die swart gevaar” (the so-called black danger) is at its height but Nicholas must face the brutality of the army as he makes a connection with his fellow recruit. Definitely gonna try to watch this when time permits, although this coming weekend, there are four awards shows I’m covering for Below the Line.

On Sunday, I watched this amazing independent coming-of-age film called GIANTS BEING LONELY (Gravitas Ventures), written and directed by Grear Patterson, which played at the Metrograph as part of its Live Screening series, plus it will also be released via digital download this week. It stars brothers Jack Irving and Ben Irving as small-town football heroes Bobby and Adam, both of whom have caught the eye of Lily Gavin’s Caroline, but both boys have family issues, Adam whose father (Gabe Fazio) is the coach, and Bobby who is sleeping with the coach’s wife. It’s a pretty amazing movie that reminded me of early Richard Linklater, because it’s so raw and honest in dealing with young people in a small town that goes into some really dark places as it goes along. It’s now available via DVD, Blu-ray and On Demand.

Also, fans of Leos Carax’s Holy Motors will get to see the movie as part of the Metrograph’s Live Screenings program from now through next Tuesday. ($5 a month for a digital membership!) Also playing at the Metrograph until Monday is Michael and Christian Blackwood’s doc Monk (1968) about Thelonious Monk, which is running until Monday and then followed by Monk in Europe starting next Tuesday. Orson Welles’ The Stranger will start streaming Monday for a week On Demand as part of the Metrograph’s “Welles Monday.”

As mentioned last week, New York’s Film Forum is also reopened, and I watched Fellini’s La Strada this past Sunday, which has been extended until April 15. Hitchcock’s Rear Window will also play for a week starting Friday, while Pedro Almodovar’s The Human Voice and A Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and the doc The Truffle Hunters will continue in the theater, as well as the Film Forum’s terrific Virtual Cinema programming, which has added Eric Rohmer’s A Tale of Springtime.

Also, now available via digital is Michael Carnick’s THE FORBIDDEN WISH (Conduit Now), a two-hander drama that follows a young man named Isaac (John Berchtold) who visits an Ethiopian born rabbi named Nate (Sammy Rotibi) on the eve of Yom Kippur, Isaac wanting Nate to read him the Mourner’s Kaddish. I have to say that part of me really hated this movie because Berchtold just isn’t as strong an actor as Rotibi, but the writing itself is quite wearisome and not great, although it did grow on me as the scene between the two gets more dramatic and emotional. Still, it’s hard not to imagine this more as a filmed stage play then an actual movie, and maybe I just didn't understand what Carnick was trying to say with this meeting of two men from different backgrounds.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video this Friday is the new horror anthology series, THEM, which I haven’t watched yet but hearing mixed things. Hope to write more about this once I get a chance to watch.

Other films out this week include Charlene Favier’s #MeToo drama Slalom (Kino Lorber), which will play at the Quad Cinema in New York, and Khyentse Norbu’s Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache (Abramorama), which will be available digitally.

That’s it for this week. Next week was supposed to be the release of Warner Bros’ new Mortal Kombat movie, but that was delayed a week, which means the only wide-ish release is Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth (NEON), which premiered at Sundance earlier this year.

[aion-rsa]

Best New Science Fiction Books in August 2018

https://ift.tt/2KDQk9J

Looking for a good science fiction read? Check out these new science fiction books released in August 2018.

facebook

twitter

google+

tumblr

The Lists Kayti Burt

Science Fiction Books

Aug 8, 2018

Books, books, books! Summer is a great time to dive into science fiction and explore other worlds. Here are some of the science fiction books coming out in August that we are most looking forward to here at Den of Geek.

Join the Den of Geek Book Club!

Best New Science Fiction Books in August 2018

Before She Sleeps by Bina Shah

Type: Standalone Publisher: Delphinium Books Release date: August 7th

In modern, beautiful Green City, the capital of Southwest Asia, gender selection, war, and disease have brought the ratio of men to women to alarmingly low levels. The government uses terror and technology to control its people, and now females must take multiple husbands to have children as quickly as possible.   Yet there are some who resist, women who live in an underground collective and refuse to be part of the system. Secretly protected by the highest echelons of power, they emerge only at night to provide the rich and elite of Green City a type of commodity no one can buy: intimacy without sex. As it turns out, not even the most influential men can shield them from discovery and the dangers of ruthless punishment.   This dystopian novel from one of Pakistan’s most talented writers is a modern-day parable, The Handmaid’s Tale for repressed women in Muslim countries everywhere. Before She Sleepstakes the patriarchal practices of female seclusion and veiling, gender selection, and control over women’s bodies, amplifying and distorting them in a truly terrifying way to imagine a world of post-religious authoritarianism.

Read Before She Sleeps by Bina Shah

Rogue Protocol: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Type: Third book in The Murderbot Diaries series Publisher: Tor.com Release date: August 7th

Martha Wells' Rogue Protocol is the third in the Murderbot Diaries series, starring a human-like android who keeps getting sucked back into adventure after adventure, though it just wants to be left alone, away from humanity and small talk.

Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas?

Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah's SecUnit is.

And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

Read Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

Ball Lightning by Cixin Liu (translated by Joel Martinsen)

Type: Standalone Publisher: Tor Books Release date: August 14th

A new science fiction adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of the Three-Body Trilogy, Cixin Lu's Ball Lightning is a fast-paced story of what happens when the beauty of scientific inquiry runs up against the drive to harness new discoveries with no consideration of their possible consequences.

When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of this mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station.

The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just the tip of an entirely new frontier. While Chen’s quest for answers gives purpose to his lonely life, it also pits him against soldiers and scientists with motives of their own: a beautiful army major with an obsession with dangerous weaponry, and a physicist who has no place for ethical considerations in his single-minded pursuit of knowledge.

Read Ball Lightning by Cixin Liu

Stars Uncharted by S.K. Dunstall

Type: Standalone Publisher: Ace Release date: August 14th

In this rip-roaring space opera, a ragtag band of explorers are out to make the biggest score in the galaxy.

On this space jump, no one is who they seem . . .

Captain Hammond Roystan is a simple cargo runner who has stumbled across the find of a lifetime: the Hassim, a disabled exploration ship--and its valuable record of unexplored worlds.

His junior engineer, Josune Arriola, said her last assignment was in the uncharted rim. But she is decked out in high-level bioware that belies her humble backstory.

A renowned body-modification artist, Nika Rik Terri has run afoul of clients who will not take no for an answer. She has to flee off-world, and she is dragging along a rookie modder, who seems all too experienced in weapons and war . . .

Together this mismatched crew will end up on one ship, hurtling through the lawless reaches of deep space with Roystan at the helm. Trailed by nefarious company men, they will race to find the most famous lost world of all--and riches beyond their wildest dreams . . .

Read Stars Uncharted by S.K. Dunstall

Noumenon Infinity by Marina J. Lostetter

Type: Second in Noumenon series Publisher: Harper Voyager Release date: August 14th

Travel to the remotest reaches of deep space in this wondrous follow-up to the acclaimed Noumenon—a tale of exploration, adventure, science, and humanity with the sweep and intelligence of the works of Arthur C. Clarke, Neal Stephenson, and Octavia Butler.

Generations ago, Convoy Seven and I.C.C. left Earth on a mission that would take them far beyond the solar system. Launched by the Planet United Consortium, a global group formed to pursue cooperative Earth-wide interests in deep space, nine ships headed into the unknown to explore a distant star called LQ Pyx.

Eons later, the convoy has returned to LQ Pyx to begin work on the Web, the alien megastructure that covers the star. Is it a Dyson Sphere, designed to power a civilization as everyone believes—or something far more sinister?

Meanwhile, Planet United’s littlest convoy, long thought to be lost, reemerges in a different sector of deep space. What they discover holds the answers to unlocking the Web’s greater purpose.

Each convoy possesses a piece of the Web’s puzzle . . . but they may not be able to bring those pieces together and uncover the structure’s true nature before it’s too late.

Read Noumenon Infinity by Marina J. Lostetter

The Stars Now Unclaimed by Drew Williams

Type: Standalone Publisher: Tor Books Release date: August 21st

Jane Kamali is an agent for the Justified. Her mission: to recruit children with miraculous gifts in the hope that they might prevent the Pulse from once again sending countless worlds back to the dark ages.

Hot on her trail is the Pax--a collection of fascist zealots who believe they are the rightful rulers of the galaxy and who remain untouched by the Pulse.

Now Jane, a handful of comrades from her past, and a telekinetic girl called Esa must fight their way through a galaxy full of dangerous conflicts, remnants of ancient technology, and other hidden dangers.

And that's just the beginning . . .

Read The Stars Now Unclaimed by Drew Williams

The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal

Type: Second book in The Lady Astronaut series Publisher: Tor Books Release date: August 21st

Listen to our interview with Mary Robinette Kowal.

Mary Robinette Kowal continues the grand sweep of alternate history begun in The Calculating Stars, The Fated Sky looks forward to 1961, when mankind is well-established on the moon and looking forward to its next step: journeying to, and eventually colonizing, Mars.

Of course the noted Lady Astronaut Elma York would like to go, but there’s a lot riding on whoever the International Aerospace Coalition decides to send on this historic—but potentially very dangerous—mission? Could Elma really leave behind her husband and the chance to start a family to spend several years traveling to Mars? And with the Civil Rights movement taking hold all over Earth, will the astronaut pool ever be allowed to catch up, and will these brave men and women of all races be treated equitably when they get there? This gripping look at the real conflicts behind a fantastical space race will put a new spin on our visions of what might have been.

Read The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal

Terra Incognita: Three Novellas by Connie Willis

Type: Standalone Publisher: Del Rey Release date: August 21st

In Terra Incognita, Connie Willis explores themes of love and mortality while brilliantly illuminating the human condition through biting satire. 

Uncharted TerritoryFindriddy and Carson are explorers, dispatched to a distant planet to survey its canyons, ridges, and scrub-covered hills. Teamed with a profit-hungry indigenous guide of indeterminate gender and an enthusiastic newcomer whose specialty is mating customs, the group battles hostile terrain as they set out for unexplored regions. Along the way, they face dangers, discover treasures, and soon find themselves in an alien territory of another kind: exploring the paths and precipices of sex—and love.

RemakeIn the Hollywood of the future, live-action movies are a thing of the past. Old films are computerized and ruthlessly dissected, actors digitally ripped from one film and thrust into another. Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe in A Star Is Born? No problem. Hate the ending? Change it with the stroke of a key. Technology makes anything possible. But a starry-eyed young woman wants only one thing: to dance on the big screen. With a little magic and a lot of luck, she just may get her happy ending.

D.A. Theodora Baumgarten is baffled and furious: Why was she selected to be part of a highly competitive interstellar cadet program? After all, she never even applied. But that hasn’t stopped the powers that be from whisking her onto a spaceship bound for the prestigious Academy. With her protests ignored, Theodora takes matters into her own hands, aided by her hacker best friend, to escape the Academy and return to Earth—only to uncover a conspiracy that runs deeper than she could have imagined.

Read Terra Incognita: Three Novellas by Connie Willis

Vox by Christina Dalcher

Type: Standalone Publisher: Berkley Release date: August 21st

Set in a United States in which half the population has been silenced, Vox is the harrowing, unforgettable story of what one woman will do to protect herself and her daughter.

On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than one hundred words per day, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial. This can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her. 

This is just the beginning...

Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are not taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words each day, but now women have only one hundred to make themselves heard. 

...not the end. 

For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

Read Vox by Christina Dalcher

Best New Science Fiction Books in July 2018

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

Type: First book in The Lady Astronaut series Publisher: Tor Books Release date: July 3

On a coldspring night in 1952, a meteorite falls to earth and destroys much of theeastern seaboard of the United States, including Washington D.C. The Meteor, asit is popularly known, decimates the U.S. government and paves the way for aclimate cataclysm that will eventually render the earth inhospitable to humanity.This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated timeline in the earth’s effortsto colonize space, and allows a much larger share of humanity to take part inthe process.

One of thesenew entrants in the space race is Elma York, whose experience as a WASP pilotand mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’sattempts to put man on the moon. But with so many skilled and experienced womenpilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elmabegins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too―aside from some peskybarriers like thousands of years of history and a host of expectations aboutthe proper place of the fairer sex. And yet, Elma’s drive to become the firstLady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions may notstand a chance against her.

Buy The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

Black Chamber by S.M. Stirling

Type: Standalone (so far) Publisher: Ace  Release date: July 3

1916. The Great War rages overseas, and the whole of Europe, Africa, and western Asia is falling to the Central Powers. To win a war that must be won, Teddy Roosevelt, once again the American president, turns to his top secret Black Chamber organization--and its cunning and deadly spy, Luz O'Malley Aróstegui. 

On a transatlantic airship voyage, Luz poses as an anti-American Mexican revolutionary to get close--very close--to a German agent code-named Imperial Sword. She'll need every skill at her disposal to get him to trust her and lead her deep into enemy territory. In the mountains of Saxony, concealed from allied eyes, the German Reich's plans for keeping the U.S. from entering the conflict are revealed: the deployment of a new diabolical weapon upon the shores of America...

Read Black Chamber by S.M. Stirling

Space Unicorn Blues by T.J. Berry

Type: Standalone (for now) Publisher: Angry Robot Release date: July 3

Having magical powers makes you less than human, a resource to be exploited. Half-unicorn Gary Cobalt is sick of slavery, captivity, and his horn being ground down to power faster-than-light travel. When he's finally free, all he wants is to run away in his ancestors' stone ship. Instead, Captain Jenny Perata steals the ship out from under him, so she can make an urgent delivery. But Jenny held him captive for a decade, and then Gary murdered her best friend... who was also the wife of her co-pilot, Cowboy Jim. What could possibly go right?

Read Space Unicorn Blues by TJ Berry 

Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio

Type: First in the Sun Eater series Publisher: DAW Release date: July 3

It was not his war.

The galaxy remembers him as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives—even the Emperor himself—against Imperial orders.

But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier.

On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe starts down a path that can only end in fire. He flees his father and a future as a torturer only to be left stranded on a strange, backwater world.

Forced to fight as a gladiator and navigate the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, Hadrian must fight a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.

Read Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio

I Only Killed Him Once by Adam Christopher

Type: Third in the Ray Electromatic series Publisher: Tor Books Release date: July 10

Another Hollywood night, another job for electric-detective-turned-robotic-hitman Raymond Electromatic. The target is a tall man in a black hat, and while Ray completes his mission successfully, he makes a startling discovery―one he soon forgets when his 24-hour memory tape loops to the end and is replaced with a fresh reel…

When a tall man in a black hat arrives in the offices of the Electromatic Detective Agency the next day, Ray has a suspicion he has met this stranger before, although Ray’s computerized boss, Ada, is not saying a thing. But their visitor isn’t here to hire Ray for a job―he’s here to deliver a stark warning.

Because time is running out and if Ray and Ada want to survive, they need to do exactly what the man in the black hat says.

A man that Raymond Electromatic has already killed.

Read I Only Killed Him Once by Adam Christopher

Latchkey by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Type: Second book in the Archivist Wasp series Publisher: Mythic Delirium Books Release date: July 10

Read our review of Latchkey by Nicole Kornher-Stace.

Isabel, once known as Wasp, has become leader of the fearsome upstarts, the teen girl acolytes who are adjusting to a new way of life after the overthrow of the sadistic Catchkeep-priest. They live in an uneasy alliance with the town of Sweetwater—an alliance that will be tested to its limits by the dual threats of ruthless raiders from the Waste and a deadly force from the Before-time that awaits in long-hidden tunnels.

Years ago Isabel befriended a nameless ghost, a supersoldier from the Before-time with incredible powers even after death, and their adventure together in the underworld gave her the strength and knowledge to change the brutal existence of the Catchkeep acolytes for the better. To save Sweetwater, Isabel will have to unlock the secrets of the twisted experimental program from centuries gone by that created the supersoldier and killed his friends: the Latchkey Project.

Latchkey continues the story begun in Kornher-Stace’s widely acclaimed Archivist Wasp, an Andre Norton Award finalist that was selected by Kirkus Reviews as one of the Best Teen Books of 2015.

Read Latchkey by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Infinity's End, Edited by Jonathan Strahan

Type: Final anthology in The Infinity Project series Publisher: Solaris Release date: July 10

Humanity has made the universe home. On the outskirts of the solar system, beyond the asteroid fields, deep in space, under the surface of planets, in the ruins of fallen civilisations, in the flush of new creation: life finds a way.

From intelligent velociraptors to digital ghosts; from a crèche on an asteroid to an artist using a star system as a canvas, this is a future where Earth’s children have adapted to every nook and cranny of existence.

This is life on the edge of the possible. 

Featuring astonishing tales from Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, Naomi Kritzer, Paul McAuley, Seanan McGuire, Linda Nagata, Hannu Rajaniemi, Justina Robson, Kelly Robson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lavie Tidhar, Peter Watts, Fran Wilde and Nick Wolven.

Read Infinity's End

Condomnauts by Yoss (translated by David Frye)

Type: Standalone Publisher: Restless Books Release date: July 17

In the 24th century, Josué Valdés’ rise from an orphan in the slums of Rubble City, Cuba to one of the galaxy’s most accomplished explorers was nothing short of meteoric. Josué used to race cockroaches for cash on the streets until he discovered his true-calling: as a sexual ambassador for humanity and the Nu Barsa colony.

Every so-called “condomnaut” knows that trade deals in the galactic community depend on sexual pacts, which makes every encounter a close encounter. While some condomnauts have been trained and genetically enhanced to meet the needs of any tentacled insectoid in the galaxy, Josué is a natural whose ego could eclipse the big dipper. Josué and his fellow intrepid condomnauts travel light years across the galaxy and discover that old rivalries—and prejudices—are never far behind. When the first extragalactic beings arrive in the Milky Way, and with them the potential to negotiate for extraordinary new technologies, Josué must call upon every ounce of his talent to seal the deal for his colony and all of humanity.

Indirectly investigating current sexual mores, Cuban science fiction rock star Yoss plays upon stereotypes while making it clear that in Communist Cuba what is daring is not always funny and vice versa. Following the success of Super Extra Grande and A Planet for Rent, Yoss brings us another uproarious space adventure with Condomnauts, a wildly inventive and unapologetic tale that would make even Barbarella blush.

Read Condomnauts by Yoss

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

Type: Third book in the Wayfarers series Publisher: Harper Voyager Release date: July 24

Return to the sprawling universe of the Galactic Commons, as humans, artificial intelligence, aliens, and some beings yet undiscovered explore what it means to be a community in this exciting third adventure in the acclaimed and multi-award-nominated science fiction Wayfarers series, brimming with heartwarming characters and dazzling space adventure.

Hundreds of years ago, the last humans on Earth boarded the Exodus Fleet in search of a new home among the stars. After centuries spent wandering empty space, their descendants were eventually accepted by the well-established species that govern the Milky Way.

But that was long ago. Today, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, the birthplace of many, yet a place few outsiders have ever visited. While the Exodans take great pride in their original community and traditions, their culture has been influenced by others beyond their bulkheads. As many Exodans leave for alien cities or terrestrial colonies, those who remain are left to ponder their own lives and futures: What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination? Why remain in space when there are habitable worlds available to live? What is the price of sustaining their carefully balanced way of life—and is it worth saving at all?

A young apprentice, a lifelong spacer with young children, a planet-raised traveler, an alien academic, a caretaker for the dead, and an Archivist whose mission is to ensure no one’s story is forgotten, wrestle with these profound universal questions. The answers may seem small on the galactic scale, but to these individuals, it could mean everything.

Read Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

A Study in Honor by Claire O'Dell

Type: Standalone (for now... but let's be serious) Publisher: Harper Voyager Release date: July 31

Set in a near future Washington, D.C., a clever, incisive, and fresh feminist twist on a classic literary icon—Sherlock Holmes—in which Dr. Janet Watson and covert agent Sara Holmes will use espionage, advanced technology, and the power of deduction to unmask a murderer targeting Civil War veterans.

Dr. Janet Watson knows firsthand the horrifying cost of a divided nation. While treating broken soldiers on the battlefields of the New Civil War, a sniper’s bullet shattered her arm and ended her career. Honorably discharged and struggling with the semi-functional mechanical arm that replaced the limb she lost, she returns to the nation’s capital, a bleak, edgy city in the throes of a fraught presidential election. Homeless and jobless, Watson is uncertain of the future when she meets another black and queer woman, Sara Holmes, a mysterious yet playfully challenging covert agent who offers the doctor a place to stay.

Watson’s readjustment to civilian life is complicated by the infuriating antics of her strange new roommate. But the tensions between them dissolve when Watson discovers that soldiers from the New Civil War have begun dying one by one—and that the deaths may be the tip of something far more dangerous, involving the pharmaceutical industry and even the looming election. Joining forces, Watson and Holmes embark on a thrilling investigation to solve the mystery—and secure justice for these fallen soldiers.

Read A Study in Honor by Claire O'Dell

Best New Science Fiction Books in June 2018

Free Chocolate by Amber Royer

Type: First book in The Chocoverse series Publisher: Angry Robot Release date: June 1

Latina culinary arts student, Bo Benitez, becomes a fugitive when she's caught stealing a cacao pod from the heavily-defended plantations that keep chocolate, Earth's sole valuable export, safe from a hungry galaxy. Forces arraying against her including her alien boyfriend and a reptilian cop. But when she escapes onto an unmarked starship things go from bad to worse: it belongs to the race famed throughout the galaxy for eating stowaways. Surrounded by dangerous yet hunky aliens, Bo starts to uncover clues that the threat to Earth may be bigger than she first thought.

Read Free Chocolate by Amber Royer

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee

Type: Third book in the Machineries of Empire trilogy Publisher: Solaris Release date: June 12

When Shuos Jedao wakes up for the first time, several things go wrong. His few memories tell him that he's a seventeen-year-old cadet--but his body belongs to a man decades older.  Hexarch Nirai Kujen orders Jedao to reconquer the fractured hexarchate on his behalf even though Jedao has no memory of ever being a soldier, let alone a general.  Surely a knack for video games doesn't qualify you to take charge of an army?

Soon Jedao learns the situation is even worse.  The Kel soldiers under his command may be compelled to obey him, but they hate him thanks to a massacre he can't remember committing.  Kujen's friendliness can't hide the fact that he's a tyrant.  And what's worse, Jedao and Kujen are being hunted by an enemy who knows more about Jedao and his crimes than he does himself...

Read Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee

The Robots of Gotham by Todd McAulty

Type: Standalone (for now) Publisher: John Joseph Adams Release date: June 19

After long years of war, the United States has sued for peace, yielding to a brutal coalition of nations ruled by fascist machines. One quarter of the country is under foreign occupation. Manhattan has been annexed by a weird robot monarchy, and in Tennessee, a permanent peace is being delicately negotiated between the battered remnants of the U.S. government and an envoy of implacable machines.       Canadian businessman Barry Simcoe arrives in occupied Chicago days before his hotel is attacked by a rogue war machine. In the aftermath, he meets a dedicated Russian medic with the occupying army, and 19 Black Winter, a badly damaged robot. Together they stumble on a machine conspiracy to unleash a horrific plague—and learn that the fabled American resistance is not as extinct as everyone believes. Simcoe races against time to prevent the extermination of all life on the continent . . . and uncover a secret that America’s machine conquerors are desperate to keep hidden.

Read The Robots of Gotham by Todd McAulty

Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn

Type: Second book in Star Wars: Thrawn series Publisher: Del Rey Release date: June 24

“I have sensed a disturbance in the Force.” 

Ominous words under any circumstances, but all the more so when uttered by Emperor Palpatine. On Batuu, at the edges of the Unknown Regions, a threat to the Empire is taking root—its existence little more than a glimmer, its consequences as yet unknowable. But it is troubling enough to the Imperial leader to warrant investigation by his most powerful agents: ruthless enforcer Lord Darth Vader and brilliant strategist Grand Admiral Thrawn. Fierce rivals for the emperor’s favor, and outspoken adversaries on Imperial affairs—including the Death Star project—the formidable pair seem unlikely partners for such a crucial mission. But the Emperor knows it’s not the first time Vader and Thrawn have joined forces. And there’s more behind his royal command than either man suspects.

In what seems like a lifetime ago, General Anakin Skywalker of the Galactic Republic, and Commander Mitth’raw’nuruodo, officer of the Chiss Ascendancy, crossed paths for the first time. One on a desperate personal quest, the other with motives unknown . . . and undisclosed. But facing a gauntlet of dangers on a far-flung world, they forged an uneasy alliance—neither remotely aware of what their futures held in store.

Now, thrust together once more, they find themselves bound again for the planet where they once fought side by side. There they will be doubly challenged—by a test of their allegiance to the Empire . . . and an enemy that threatens even their combined might.

Read Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn

Apocalypse Nyx by Kameron Hurley

Type: Book 1.5/1.7 in the Bel Dame Apocrypha series Publisher: Tachyon Publication Release date: June 26

Ex-government assassin turned bounty-hunter, Nyx, is good at solving other people’s problems. Her favorite problem-solving solution is punching people in the face. Then maybe chopping off some heads. Hey—it’s a living.

Nyx's disreputable reputation has been well earned. After all, she’s trying to navigate an apocalyptic world full of giant bugs, contaminated deserts, scheming magicians, and a centuries-long war that’s consuming her future. Managing her ragtag squad of misfits has required a lot of morally-gray choices. Every new job is another day alive. Every new mission is another step toward changing a hellish future—but only if she can survive.

Read Apocalypse Nyx by Kameron Hurley

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White

Type: First book in Salvagers series Publisher: Orbit Release date: June 26

Boots Elsworth was a famous treasure hunter in another life, but now she's washed up. She makes her meager living faking salvage legends and selling them to the highest bidder, but this time she got something real--the story of the Harrow, a famous warship, capable of untold destruction.

Nilah Brio is the top driver in the Pan Galactic Racing Federation and the darling of the racing world--until she witnesses Mother murder a fellow racer. Framed for the murder and on the hunt to clear her name, Nilah has only one lead: the killer also hunts Boots.

On the wrong side of the law, the two women board a smuggler's ship that will take them on a quest for fame, for riches, and for justice.

Read A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White

What science fiction books are you most looking forward to checking out in July? Let us know in the comments below or in our Den of Geek Book Club on Goodreads.

from Books https://ift.tt/2OXBnCW