Hello, my little electric goo! In today’s round-up of recent sci-fi and fantasy links, I have stuff to share with you about lady knights, space music, science-y stuff, a correction from Augustus Gloop, and more!
7 Books About Lady Knights Recommended by Caitlin Starling
Caitlin Starling is the author of many great SFF books, including The Luminous Dead, The Death of Jane Lawrence, and her upcoming second release of 2025, The Graceview Patient. She recently told People about her first release of 2025, The Starving Saints, and six other books she loves that feature lady knights. That includes the upcoming Alix E. Harrow, The Everlasting, which hits shelves at the end of October.
From Starling’s introduction: “Ah, the lady knight: physically imposing, harshly beautiful, possessed of an intoxicating blend of dedication, stubbornness, loyalty and (often) sadness. Joan of Arc, Brienne of Tarth, Chappell Roan at the VMAs—clearly, lady knights are having a moment.
My own obsession started with Ser Cauthrien from the Dragon Age: Origins video game. Big sword and big armor? Check. Backstory of rising from poverty to the right hand of power? Check. Grief and shame from being complicit in some minor war crimes? Oh, honey.
Broadly speaking, there are two styles of lady knight stories: In one, we see our protagonist become a knight. Those of us who grew up reading Tamora Pierce will be very familiar. In the other, we encounter our lady knight already trained and world-weary, perhaps broken, maybe a little haunted.”
The Starving Saints is about three women who have been trapped in Aymar Castle for six months as an army tries to gain entry. They’re almost out of food when saints mysteriously arrive, replenish their food supplies, and heal their sick and injured. The arrival of the saints is a blessing, to be sure, but the cost of their divine intervention turns out to be a very steep price to pay.
From the publisher’s description: “As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself.”
The Finalists for the 2025 Locus Awards Have Been Announced
It’s that time of year again when a ton of amazing works are nominated for the Locus Awards, and I am glad that I don’t have to choose the winners. It’s too hard to pick! The ten finalists for 2025 were recently announced for each category, and I thought I would mention a few of my favorites, in case you need more recommendations for your summer TBR.
For science fiction novel, Space Oddity by Catherynne M. Valente and The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older.
For fantasy novel, The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark, and The City in Glass by Nghi Vo.
For horror novel, The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones and Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle.
For first novel, of course I have to pick The Book of Love by Kelly Link, because she is the queen. But the other finalists are all pretty amazing, too, like Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell and Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto. And other nominees that I have loved include The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar, Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire, Kindling by Kathleen Jennings, The West Passage by Jared Pechaček, The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, and Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan.
(I am a little disappointed not to see Moonbound by Robin Sloan on the list. I think it’s eligible this year? It’s one of my favorite books of 2024.)
What are your favorite finalists this year? The Locus Awards winners will be announced June 21, 2025.
Read the Short Story “Where are They Now?” by Meg Elison
Author Meg Elison has a new short story in Lightspeed Magazine. It’s called “Where Are They Now?” and in it, Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl shares some thoughts about what went down in the Wonka Factory. These include what happened on his infamous trip down the chocolate river and how he feels about the winner of the competition, Charlie Bucket.
“Anyway, I was surprised to find that everyone on the internet thinks I died. Listen, there would have been a lawsuit. The waiver our parents signed said they would have had to go to arbitration rather than a trial, but there would have been an even bigger settlement. I might be fat, but I was my mother’s favorite child. It’s incredible, the things you read about yourself, the shit people project on to you. I apparently ate my father, I’m currently dead, and my body was cut up and made into taffy. It’s like Sinclair’s Jungle for Disney adults.”
Meg Elison is the author of several books, including the Road to Nowhere trilogy, which starts with The Book of the Unnamed Midwife.
The Blue Danube Waltz Heads To Space For Reals
If you’ve seen the 1968 Stanley Kubrick adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, you probably remember that it famously uses Johann Strauss II’s “By the Beautiful Blue Danube” waltz in the scene where the spaceship docks with the space station. Now the orchestral piece of music has gone to space, for real.
The European Space Agency hired the Vienna Symphony Orchestra to play the piece live on a broadcast sent out into space via a radio antenna in Spain.
The “Blue Danube” broadcast is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ESA’s creation, as well as 200 years since Strauss’s birth.
The waltz was notably absent when NASA launched 27 pieces of music, as well as other sounds and images, on matching “Golden Records” on the Voyager 1 and 2 missions in 1977. The Voyager 1 probe is the first human-made object to leave the solar system. Both probes are still flying out into deep space today.
The ESA says it aims to rectify that historical oversight.
“The absence of the most famous of all waltzes from the 1977 Voyager Golden Record is a cosmic mistake,” Norbert Kettner, the director of the Vienna Tourist Board, said in a statement.”
Related: I have never seen this Cheech & Chong / 2001: A Space Odyssey mashup, so I did it myself. (Sorry, not sorry.)
(Knocking.)
HAL 9000: Who is it?
Dave: It’s Dave, man. Will you open up, I got the stuff with me.
HAL 9000: Who?
Dave: Dave, man. Open up.
HAL 9000: Dave?
Dave: Yeah, Dave. C’mon, man, open up, I think the cops saw me.
HAL 9000: I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.
And, To End, Your Reminder That You Are a Lizard Person
I am excited to share this article with you, because this is something I just learned myself a few years ago, and it makes people go “WHOA” when they learn it too. If you have ever taken a shower or bath, or gone swimming, or submerged your hands in liquid for more than a few minutes, you have most likely experienced wrinkly fingers. For many years, it was assumed that humans get prune fingers because our skin is absorbing water. But two decades ago, scientists realized that it happens because of blood vessel constriction. And here is my favorite part: Humans get wrinkly fingers as part of evolution, because puckered fingers serve to help us hold on to things better under the water.
We’re basically amphibians! Okay, not really, but we have a specific thing our body does for use underwater. So cool, right?? (It will definitely help when I start my underwater juggling act.) This recent article from Science News also explains how scientists have figured out that our fingers wrinkle the same way every time and how it happens. But really, us having salamander digits is the coolest part of the story.
Okay, star bits, now take the knowledge you have learned here today and use it for good, not evil. If you want to know more about books, I talk about books pretty much nonstop (when I’m not reading them), and you can hear me say lots of adjectives about them on the BR podcast All the Books! and on Bluesky and Instagram.
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