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Alex Acks is a writer, geologist, and sharp-dressed sir. They’ve written for Six to Start and been published in Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, Shimmer, Daily Science Fiction, and more. Alex lives in Denver with their two furry little bastards, where they twirl their mustache, watch movies, and bike. Twitter: @katsudonburi Website: katsudon.net
Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’m coming at you with new releases. The number of new releases this week can only be fairly characterized as something between flabbergasting and downright upsetting. So many tough choices on what books to highlight. May you have lots of reading time this month to deal with the oncoming tide of pages.
Let’s make the world a better place together. Here are two places to start: Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, which provides medical and humanitarian relief to children in the Middle East regardless of nationality, religion, or political affiliation; and Ernesto’s Sanctuary, a cat sanctuary and animal rescue in Syria that is near and dear to my heart.
Bookish Goods
TBR Scratch Off Bookmarks by HeyHelloBookish
I have a lot of love for little TBR prompts because my TBR is so ridiculously massive, and I tend to suffer from decision paralysis when I stare at it. Scratch-off cards are such a cute idea! $6
New Releases
All This & More by Peng Shepherd
What if you had a chance to change it all? Marsh, who just turned 45, meek and dissatisfied with her career, relationships, and family, gets that chance when she’s invited to participate in All This and More, a TV show that lets its contestants review their pasts and change their presents using quantum technology. Yet even as Marsh is redoing her life so it’ll be perfect this life, she’s plagued more and more by the realization that something is terribly wrong.
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Toward Eternity by Anton Hur
Medicine has been revolutionized by a true cure for cancer: nanites, which not only eradicate cancer cells but replace all of the body’s cells entirely, making their owner immortal. With the world coming to terms with this, a literary researcher named Yonghun teaches AI to understand poetry and become a truly thinking machine. Society must grapple with the rapid changes regarding what is human and what is life when the AI is given an independent body and recipients of nanotherapy begin disappearing and reappearing at will.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Here are two more new books out this week for you to check out!
Unraveling by Karen Lord
Forensic therapist Dr. Miranda Ecuovo has helped many victims of violent crime recover their memories so they can testify in court, most famously leading to the conviction of a serial killer called the “Butcher of the City.” But when she is taken by the Undying spirit Chance to a dreamlike world, she discovers that the Butcher’s case is not as clear cut as it seemed. The murders were masterminded by a rogue Undying, and Miranda and Chance must work together to capture that culprit.
Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
Misha has been struggling for success in Hollywood for years, and he might have finally reached it. An Oscar nomination is within his grasp. But not everything is going well; the executives in charge of his long-running streaming series have concluded the best way to juice the algorithm is by killing off all the gay characters in the season finale. Misha’s refusal to cooperate isn’t the only target that gets put on his back. Suddenly, the monsters he remembers from his days in horror movies are also after him and his friends.
See you, space pirates. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.
