An act of indiscretion from her immortal trickster companion sends Annie and her league of ladies-in-waiting on a time-defying adventure that becomes the inspiration for William Shakespeare.
Annie Without Crow
Understanding Horses: Caring for Wise Elders
A Horse lying down, attributed to Rembrandt, c.1626
Keeping the elder horse fed and healthy is as much an art as a science. Horses, like humans, change as they age, and every individual is different. Even the speed at which they age: breeding and genetics, time and miles, wear and tear, all have something to do with how well or how fast a horse grows old. One horse may be broken down in their mid-teens or even earlier; another may still be lively and vigorous well up in their twenties or even thirties—especially if they’re a pony. Ponies are famously long-lived.
Devi Pillai to Become President and Publisher, Tom Doherty Associates
A Message from Jon Yaged, President of Macmillan Trade Publishing:
Today I am announcing the appointment of Devi Pillai to the position of President and Publisher of Tom Doherty Associates, effective immediately.
Devi joined Macmillan in 2016 as Associate Publisher, Tor/Forge Books. She quickly made an impact. From her approach to author care and development of the editorial team, to the efficiencies and best practices that she helped build into TDA editorial processes, Devi has made TDA better. She was promoted to Publisher, VP, Tor/Forge Books in 2018, and assumed responsibility for the Tor Teen and Starscape imprints in 2020. In her time at TDA, she has edited a wide ranging list of authors including Brandon Sanderson, Christopher Paolini, Jenn Lyons, and Arkady Martine.
Netflix’s Animated Anthology Series Love, Death + Robots Returns May 14th
Back in 2019, Netflix released an intriguing animated project called Love, Death + Robots, an anthology series made up of 18 standalone shorts that adapted a number of short stories from some prominent science fiction authors.
After a long wait, Netflix has released a trailer for the next season, which is set to debut on the platform on May 14th. [Read more]
Read an Excerpt From Joan He’s The Ones We’re Meant to Find
The story of two sisters in a climate-ravaged future, separated by an ocean, desperately trying to find each other…
We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from The Ones We’re Meant to Find, a new YA science fiction novel from Joan He—publishing May 4th with Roaring Book Press.
Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Equinox, Part II”
Screenshot: CBS
“Equinox Part II”
Written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
Directed by David Livingston
Season 6, Episode 1
Production episode 221
Original air date: September 22, 1999
Stardate: unknown
Captain’s log. After a summary of Part I, we see Janeway being attacked by one of the aliens, but she dodges it thanks to Chakotay’s warning. Chakotay’s not so lucky—he’s wounded by a creature. Janeway manages to juryrig a shield strengthening, but it’s only temporary.
[We all make our own hell, Mr. Lessing—I hope you enjoy yours.]
Series: Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch
A Game of Stones: Five Novels Set in Asteroid Belts
Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab
A cursory glance at the genre makes it clear that Randall Garrett did not invent Belters, those stalwarts of the asteroid belt. Examples abound in older SF, in the works of Smith, Heinlein, and Leinster. But Randall Garrett’s Belter stories seem to have been the strongest influence on Larry Niven, who lifted the Belter culture wholesale for his Known Space series. After this, Niven’s Belters seem to have had the greatest influence on later authors.
But enough literary history! Let’s just note that the Belt and the riches it might hold are irresistible for authors looking for rugged frontiers in which to set their tales. Consider these five comparatively recent works.
First Trailer for Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Is Rife With Action
Marvel has dropped its first trailer for its upcoming superhero film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, showing off some incredible action and an intriguing new hero for the next phase of the cinematic universe.
The Year Nerd Culture Took Over the Mainstream
In the transcendental year of 1999, it became clear to me that I was extremely cool.
No, that’s a lie, please don’t take that declaration even remotely seriously. I was twelve and thirteen years old in 1999, and no new teenager understands coolness on a base level, much less feels that coolness in their still-growing bones. The effortlessness of cool is not something that any tween can hope to emulate, the style inherent in the word “cool” has not yet developed by that age. So I was not cool. But there are now two solid decades between me and that year, and on reflection, I’ve realized something momentous:
1999 was the year when I got a glimpse of my future. And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.
Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians Wins the Ray Bradbury Prize
The L.A. Times announced the winners of its annual book prizes in a virtual ceremony on April 16th, including the winner of the second Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction: Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians.
The novel was part of a stacked finalist lineup that included Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, Megan Giddings’ Lakewood, N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became, and Aoko Matsuda’s Where the Wild Ladies Are (translated by Polly Barton).
Magic and Crime Go Hand-in-Hand: Announcing Comeuppance Served Cold by Marion Deeds
Tordotcom Publishing is thrilled to announce that Emily Goldman has acquired World English Rights to Comeuppance Served Cold, a hard-boiled historical fantasy novella by Marion Deeds.
In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, Seattle’s powerful Commission of Magi is moving against the city’s most vulnerable magic users and merchants under the guise of protecting law-abiding citizens. Meanwhile, an unassuming young lady with hidden skills and a nebulous past named Dolly White enters the employ of the head commissioner’s family as a lady’s companion. Although she has her own agenda to fulfill, it may prove to be the perfect opportunity for one family who’s suffered tremendous loss at the hands of the Commission to get their overdue vengeance.
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory was originally given free to readers who pre-ordered Martha’s Murderbot novel, Network Effect. The story is set just after the 4th novella, Exit Strategy.
The latest Murderbot book, Fugitive Telemetry, is published next week (4/27/21). Pre-order it here.
The Calm Before the Storm in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s “Truth”
Screenshot: Marvel / Disney
When I saw that the title of the fifth episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was going to be “Truth,” I may have fist-pumped a bit. That was the title of the 2003 comic book miniseries by Robert Morales & Kyle Baker that introduced Isaiah Bradley, subtitled Red, White, and Black, and I was hoping that we’d see more of Carl Lumbly’s MCU version of Bradley. I was not disappointed, as the scene with him and Sam Wilson was one of several excellent scenes in this take-a-breath episode that paused from the fight scenes to remind us of some of the themes that were introduced in the first couple of episodes that had fallen a bit by the wayside.
Anika Noni Rose Joins Showtime’s Let the Right One In Adaptation
Screenshot: Netflix
Let the right remakes continue: Deadline reports that Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls) has joined Showtime’s Let the Right One In pilot. The show, which also stars Demián Bichir (Godzilla vs. Kong), is reportedly inspired by both John Ajvide Lindqvist’s 2004 vampire novel and the 2008 Swedish film adaptation of said novel—but not the American film adaptation, the unsatisfying Let Me In.
Carey Mulligan Joins Netflix’s Spaceman
Screenshot: Focus Features
Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman, pictured above), has reportedly landed a role in Adam Sandler’s upcoming adaptation of Jaroslav Kalfař’s Spaceman of Bohemia, which is set to debut on Netflix. Deadline notes that the film is now titled Spaceman, and it’ll be helmed by Chernobyl director Johan Reneck.
Five Perfectly Pulpy Modern Horror Novels
It’s no secret that horror is making a comeback. But what about the pulp? The sensational and fantastical imagery that gives us nightmares as kids and can make even the toughest of adults squirm? That’s exactly what my co-author Darren Wearmouth and I tried to harness in our latest thriller, Don’t Move. Set in the woods of West Virginia, the story follows a church group from the Bronx on their annual camping trip. But this year, the group has made a fatal navigational error that’s left them stranded in an uninhabited portion of canyon untouched by humans for centuries. The only thing that has survived there all this time? A giant, terrifying prehistoric arachnid that’s desperate for a meal. The novel itself draws on inspiration from the classic 80s and 90s slasher movies that captured my attention as a young teen, and as the thriller genre matures and leans more towards the cerebral, that doesn’t mean a good romp around in the pulp isn’t welcomed.
So if you’re looking for a gory, creepy page-turner that still offers the best of modern storytelling, here are five books that are pulpy in all the right ways…
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