antiloquax

I took a small break from recs in order to reread the entire Murderbot Diaries series, so I could go into my ARC of Platform Decay PRIMED and EDUCATED. But yesterday was Thursday, and there's a new issue of Intergalactic Mixtape, and I'm claiming those recs for this project.

Today's Recs:

From IGMX:

• Anatomy of a Sex Scene: Heated Rivalry Edition by Jenny Hamilton
• everyone HATES a negative review by marines
• Hollywood is Dead. Long Live Hollywood. by Vance K.

The recs are in IMGX 32 if you want the details, but the essays/video don't really need extra commentary from me! They're great.

Bonus rec:

The WYRMHOLE: if you like short original fiction recs, storytelling, puns, and unhinged anecdotes, this newsletter is a fun time.

Today I spent a few hours organizing my Friends of the Library book storage room. The way we're organizing it will never last, but it'll be a nice place to start from. I have to figure out how to offload so much 80s/90s mass market romance after a woman left us her entire collection in her estate. Lower prices? Special bag sale? I'm stumped.

Today's rec:

In today's Intergalactic Mixtape, I recced two essays I enjoyed. I will copy myself in order to a) go to bed already and b) promote the latest issue, if you're into SFF news. Here are the links; full recs are at the link above!

#1: Ann Leckie and Arkady Martine: in conversation (space opera, empire, two very clever authors being thoughtful)
#2: The Year Of The Crone (a new old bombshell has (re)entered the villa)

Vaccines always hit me hard. I'm very jealous of people who can get them and then continue on their way with no issues. :P To make myself feel better, I bought some MTG cat tokens (this version) and some dice to use for 1/1 counters. I was also very tempted by a EDH precon for the Edge of Eternities release (ROBOTS), but I resisted (barely).

Today's Rec:

( cover )

Finder by Suzanne Palmer
First published in 2020, Finder is the first book in the Finder Chronicles, a space opera series about saving the world, but also learning to trust and care for people. The first book is a fetch quest set amidst a civil war in a rural system. Fergus Ferguson must reclaim a stolen ship with nothing but his charm, cleverness, and creativity while surviving acts of war and some weird ass aliens that regularly menance everyone for no discernable reason. This is one of my favorite space opera series and has everything I love. Emotionally stunted man on the first step of his healing journey? Check. Snarky teen sidekick? Check. Political intrigue and machinations? Check check. [redacted for spoilers] ship? Triple check. I love Fergus so much and I just want to grasp everyone's hands and plead with them to read this book (and all the other books). I want everyone to meet Fergus and see what I see about him: the collapsing singularity of his capacity to love, sealed behind trauma and self-recriminations and fear of being known, and how on this mission the people who come to value him introduce the first cracks in that shell. (The aliens help...in a weird way.)