Welcome back to another episode of Weekly Roundup! I’m your host, Kristina, coming to you live from the Land of the Rising Sun on the ancient island of Kyushu. What sort of speculative adventures can you expect this week? We’ve got reviews, recommendations, special guests, and more to appeal to your every genre taste and love. So without further ado, let’s get this party started!
Monday
Our guest for this week’s My Favorite Things is Danielle Ackley-McPhai, and we’re celebrating her newest novel cowritten with Day Al-Mohamed, Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, coming out April 28th! What can you look forward to this time? How about witty sci fi spoofs, stop-motion fantasy epics, tasteful intrigues, tried-and-true series, and the epicenter of food nirvana? Sounds delicious, no? Satisfy your appetite here!
Tuesday
Nicole‘s serving up a review of Crystal Cestari‘s The Fairest Kind of Love, the third and final offering in the Windy City Magic series (and check out Nicole’s take on Book 1 and 2!). This YA fantasy romance series set in the mystical wilds of Chicago, where a matchmaker’s magic powers are on the fritz and the powers of love and fate are sure to be tested. Does this final offering in the series satisfy? Only one way to find out…
Wednesday
Kendra gives you a crash course in Starbound, a vast “extraterrestrial sandbox adventure game” where the world you’ve known has been destroyed, and you’re adrift in space on your ship and you need to explore to survive. In this open-world adventure, the sky’s the limit with what you can do — colonize or take revenge, search and recover or drift at your own pace? — and if you don’t know where to begin, we’ve got you covered here!
Thursday
Michelle continues her deep exploration into the darker elements of romantic vampire fiction with her series “With This Ring, You’ll Be Dead.” For better or worse, violence against women is an element in the genre, and Michelle analyzes its role and utilization in each level of “courtship…” or is that just another word for “hunt?” Be forewarned, this series doesn’t shy away from the shadows –brave the dark here.
Friday
The moment we’ve been building towards all month is here! Kendra leads the March Book Club Discussion of Cate Glass‘s An Illusion of Thieves, a fantasy novel featuring a ragtag team, daring heists, forbidden magic, a shadow lord, and the threat of civil war! The discussion’s only just started — you’re the most important part of it! Add your voice here.
Book Club
After you’ve joined in our March Book Club Discussion, it’s time to get ready for our April offering. Nancy has chosen Paul Kreuger‘s Steel Crow Saga, a fantasy novel where”four destinies collide in a unique fantasy world of war and wonders, where empire is won with enchanted steel and magical animal companions fight alongside their masters in battle.” Intrigued? Excited? We certainly are! Crack this tome open and get ready for the next book chat on April 24!
Rounding out the rest of the spring months are our other picks:
- May — The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso, hosted by Lane Robins
- June — Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber, hosted by Kelly McCarty
If you want to know more about the book choices above, read here and here, and we’ll see you next week for our discussion!
So what are you doing to pass the time? How are you coping, and how are you feeling? Here in Japan, life isn’t so different from before, and it’s baffled the rest of the world. I go to to work everyday, and come home, and conk out. The only time I have for streaming or catching up on anything is on the weekends. A lot of people right now are revisiting old classics or streaming their longtime favorites in order to pass the time…as I type this I’m rewatching Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining just before watching Doctor Sleep, which finally popped up as available for streaming on Amazon Prime in Japan! We already had an awesome discussion of the movie on Speculative Chic (courtesy of Gemma Files) which took aaaaalll my willpower not to read (but I will after I watch the movie tonight!). Granted I read Doctor Sleep when it came out, so I know the plot, but I’m looking forward to seeing how director Mike Flanagan weds King and Kubrick’s visions together, and I’ve avoided all news about the film so I can experience it with a full sense of wonder. I hope that no matter what you’re doing in these trying times, you’re all finding a way to feel some wonder, too. See you next week!
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