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Fantasy and Science Fiction April 2021
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| The Conductors by Nicole GloverIntroducing: Henrietta "Hetty" Rhodes and her husband, Benjy, who use magic to investigate crimes against Black people in 1870s Philadelphia.
Read it for: Well-drawn protagonists, their lovingly depicted Seventh Ward community, and a magic system based on the constellations.
For fans of: The alternate history of P. Djèli Clark's The Black God's Drums; the unique magic of Alaya Dawn Johnson's Trouble the Saints. |
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| A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady MartineWhat it is: The sequel to the Hugo Award-winning novel A Memory Called Empire.
What happens: Shortly after returning to Lsel Station, ambassador Mahit Dzmare reunites with asekreta Three Seagrass when both are dispatched by yaotlek Nine Hibiscus to negotiate with a hostile alien armada at the edges of Teixcalaanli space.
Read it for: Extensive and detailed world-building, and an intricately layered plot rife with political intrigue. |
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| Machinehood by S.B. DivyaEarth, 2095: Humans rely on pills and body modifications to compete with weak artificial intelligence (WAI) in a cutthroat gig economy.
Starring: Welga Ramirez, a Shield for a private security firm who's determined to track down the terrorist group that killed her client; and Welga's sister-in-law, researcher Nithya, who aids Welga's investigation.
About the author: S.B. Divya is the author of Runtime as well as co-editor of the Escape Pod podcast magazine. |
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| Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters by Aimee OgdenThe premise: Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," but make it space opera.
Starring: Atuale, the Greatclan Lord's daughter who left her undersea realm to wed Saareval of the land-dwelling Vo; and her former lover, the World-Witch Yanja, whose gene-editing expertise made Atuale's transformation possible.
Why you might like it: Atuale and Yanja's bond is deep, complex, and moving, while their interplanetary quest to stop a plague is rendered in lush and poetic style. |
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Focus on: Late Capitalism |
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| Severance by Ling MaWhat it is: A mixture of apocalyptic world-building (a plague has ravaged New York and the rest of the world), anti-capitalist satire, and... the coming-of-age of a millennial blogger?
What happens: When a strange virus turns people into routine-driven automatons, professionally unfulfilled Candace initially doesn't notice. However, once she's one of a handful of survivors, she joins an odd little band headed west.
Read if for: An engaging and entertaining story that illuminates the hypocrisy and flaws of capitalism. |
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| Docile by K.M. SzparaWhat it's about: To get his family out of debt, Elisha Wilder becomes a Docile, an indentured servant contractually bound to a Patron — in Elisha's case, Alexander Bishop III, a wealthy CEO whose company manufactures the drug used to render Dociles compliant.
Is it for you? The power imbalance in Elisha and Alex's (primarily sexual) relationship permeates every aspect of this often disturbing debut novel, which graphically demonstrates the limits of consent in a hyper-capitalist society characterized by extreme inequality. |
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| QualityLand by Marc-Uwe Kling; translated by Jamie Lee SearleWelcome to... QualityLand, the greatest country in the world, where proprietary algorithms dictate every single aspect of human life.
Where you'll meet: Peter Jobless, dumped by his girlfriend, unfriended by everyone else, and determined to return (against seemingly insurmountable odds) an item that he didn't order to the all-seeing e-commerce behemoth that delivered it to him.
For fans of: The darkly humorous explorations of surveillance capitalism found in Rob Hart's The Warehouse. |
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