#Annalee Newitz

[ericnyquist]

I'm excited to reveal my latest cover art for Automatic Noodle by: Annalee Newitz, published by Tor.com. Thanks again to Christine Foltzer for the art direction and type design. I included the original sketch! From the publisher, Tor.com We are delighted to reveal the cover of Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz, a cozy near-future novella about a crew of abandoned food service bots opening their very own restaurant!🍜🤖⁣ ⁣ While San Francisco rebuilds from the chaos of war, a group of food service bots in an abandoned ghost kitchen take over their own delivery app account. They rebrand as a neighborhood lunch spot and start producing some of the tastiest hand-pulled noodles in the city. But there’s just one problem. Someone—or something—is review bombing the restaurant’s feedback page with fake “bad service” reports. Can the bots find the culprit before their ratings plummet and destroy everything they created?⁣ ⁣ Coming 8.5.25!⁣

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250357465/automaticnoodle

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 1

Book summaries below:

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers series) by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

Science fiction, adventure, series, adult

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

1992: After a confrontation at a riot grrl concert, seventeen-year-old Beth finds herself in a car with her friend's abusive boyfriend dead in the backseat, agreeing to help her friends hide the body. This murder sets Beth and her friends on a path of escalating violence and vengeance as they realize many other young women in the world need protecting too.

2022: Determined to use time travel to create a safer future, Tess has dedicated her life to visiting key moments in history and fighting for change. But rewriting the timeline isn’t as simple as editing one person or event. And just when Tess believes she's found a way to make an edit that actually sticks, she encounters a group of dangerous travelers bent on stopping her at any cost.

Tess and Beth’s lives intertwine as war breaks out across the timeline--a war that threatens to destroy time travel and leave only a small group of elites with the power to shape the past, present, and future. Against the vast and intricate forces of history and humanity, is it possible for a single person’s actions to echo throughout the timeline?

Science fiction, time travel, alternate history, science fantasy, adult

[charliejaneanders]

Writers With Drinks is BACK this Tuesday at 7 PM at Strut (470 Castro St) for #bannedbooksweek.

Readings by Maia Kobabe, Jaime Cortez, Susan Stryker, Kemi Ashing-Giwa, Tara Sim and Annalee Newitz. FREE, donations to Strut encouraged. Masks required. Book sales by Fabulosa Books 😍

SEE YOU TUESDAY!

[libraryspectre]

I was kind of wary about posting these when I first read this book but it's so funny I can't help myself. Robot gets called a slur and does extensive objective research on the slur. Please read Autonomous by Annalee Newitz.

[augustinajosefina]

A request

Please suggest books to me! Preferably in the glove kink/lesbian space atrocities, urban fantasy or dark academia genres but I'll happily try any SF/fantasy at least once.

So far I've read and loved:

Before 2023

The Imperial Radch (Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy) - Ann Leckie

Jean le Flambeur (The Quantum Thief/The Fractal Prince/The Causal Angel) - Hannu Rajaniemi

The Windup Girl/The Water Knife - Paolo Bagicalupi

Memory of Water/The City of Woven Streets - Emmi Itäranta

2023

The Locked Tomb (Gideon/Harrow/Nona the Ninth) - Tamsyn Muir

The Masquerade (Traitor/Monster/Tyrant Baru Cormorant) - Seth Dickinson

Teixcalaan series (A Memory Called Empire/A Desolation Called Peace) - Arkady Martine

Machineries of Empire (Ninefox Gambit/Raven Stratagem/Revenant Gun/Hexarchate Stories) - Yoon Ha Lee

The Murderbot Diaries (All Systems Red to System Collapse) - Martha Wells

The Broken Earth (The Fifth Season/The Obelisk Gate/The Stone Sky) - N. K. Jemisin

Klara And The Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

Xuya universe (The Citadel of Weeping Pearls/The Tea Master and the Detective/Seven of Infinities plus short stories) - Aliette de Bodard

This is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

The Goblin Emperor/The Witness for the Dead/Grief of Stones - Katherine Addison

Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh

2024

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V. E. Schwab

The Craft Sequence (Three Parts Dead/Two Serpents Rise/Full Fathom Five/Last First Snow/Four Roads Cross/Ruin of Angels) - Max Gladstone

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution - R. F. Kuang

Dead Country - Max Gladstone

Hands of the Emperor - Victoria Goddard

Read and liked:

The Moonday Letters - Emmi Itäranta

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

Great Cities (The City We Became/The World We Make) - N. K. Jemisin

Autonomous - Annalee Newitz

Dead Djinn universe (A Master of Djinn/The Haunting of Tram Car 015/A Dead Djinn in Cairo/The Angel of Khan el-Khalili) - P. Djèlí Clark

Even Though I Knew the End - C. L. Polk

Station Eternity - Mur Lafferty

The Mythic Dream - Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe

Shades of Magic (A Darker Shade of Magic/A Gathering of Shadows/A Conjuring of Light/Fragile Threads of Power) - V. E. Schwab

The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling

Last Exit - Max Gladstone

The Stars Are Legion - Kameron Hurley

Ninth House/Hell Bent - Leigh Bardugo

Machine - Elizabeth Bear

Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield

She Is A Haunting - Trang Thanh Tran

Sisters of the Revolution - Jeff & Ann Vandermeer

Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel

Nettle & Bone - T. Kingfisher

Monstrilio - Gerardo Samano Córdova

Was uncertain about:

Light From Uncommon Stars - Ryka Aoki

The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi

Paladin's Grace - T. Kingfisher

The House in the Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune

In the Vanishers Palace - Aliette de Bodard

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

What Moves The Dead - T. Kingfisher

All The Birds In The Sky - Charlie Jane Anders

And read and disliked:

To Be Taught, if Fortunate - Becky Chambers

A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon

The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinette Kowal

The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson

How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu

Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo

The Passage - Justin Cronin

In Ascension - Martin MacInnes

(My pride insists I add that I have, in fact, read other books as well. Just to be clear.)

[abookishidentity]

Books I recently checked out of the library

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman- I love books about libraries and the goings on in them. Well, the library in this book is a "shadow organization" but that still counts in my book. I have wanted to read this book for a while but it wasn't always at the local library.

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz- I found this book while browsing the local library's catalogue. It seemed right up my alley.

The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown- A family member told me about this book and it seemed like I would enjoy it. I hope it's not too similar to other books I have read.

Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O'Keefe- This book seemed like I would enjoy it. I think I found it by browsing the library catalogue.

[torpublishinggroup]

Who are you but in book form? That’s what this is about. It’s not complicated. You’re a human, but also a book, so get your main character on and let’s figure this out!

[thoughtportal]

The Planet of the Apes franchise spans decades and formats: it started as a French novel in 1963, and then jumped the Atlantic to become a long-running series of movies, TV shows, a cartoon, and even videogames. We talk about the politics of the story, and why some versions succeed while others fail. Then we're joined by Josh Friedman, who wrote Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and get some interesting backstory on the latest film in the franchise.

[bangbangwhoa]

books I’ve read in 2023 📖 no. 095

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz

“As long as we tell our urban ancestors' stories, no city is ever lost. They live on, in our imaginations and on our public lands, as a promise that no matter how terrible things get, humans always try again.”

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Autonomous | Author: Annalee Newitz | Publisher: Tor (2018)

[aliteratepenguin]

Her jaw aching with everything she couldn't say, Destry glared at the hologram. She thought about the concession the Spider City Council had agreed on and allowed herself to imagine what Sasky would be like if it really became a public planet. A place where every person could vote, and access to the watershed wasn't just for rich clients. She doubted she would live to see it, but maybe another generation could make it happen.

-The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Preliminary Round

Book summaries below:

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

1992: After a confrontation at a riot grrl concert, seventeen-year-old Beth finds herself in a car with her friend's abusive boyfriend dead in the backseat, agreeing to help her friends hide the body. This murder sets Beth and her friends on a path of escalating violence and vengeance as they realize many other young women in the world need protecting too.

2022: Determined to use time travel to create a safer future, Tess has dedicated her life to visiting key moments in history and fighting for change. But rewriting the timeline isn’t as simple as editing one person or event. And just when Tess believes she's found a way to make an edit that actually sticks, she encounters a group of dangerous travelers bent on stopping her at any cost.

Tess and Beth’s lives intertwine as war breaks out across the timeline--a war that threatens to destroy time travel and leave only a small group of elites with the power to shape the past, present, and future. Against the vast and intricate forces of history and humanity, is it possible for a single person’s actions to echo throughout the timeline?

Science fiction, time travel, alternate history, science fantasy, adult

Dreadnought by Gretchen Felker-Martin

At the end of the world, three broken girls entrusted with the piloting of biomechanical monstrosities known as Dreadnoughts are all that stand between humanity and annihilation at the hands of the Lilim, a race of monstrous giant women from another world. As sanity and civilization teeter in the balance, Leah, El, and Kelly struggle to reconcile their hated minds and bodies with the perfect engines of destruction with which they must bond to survive.

Science fiction, horror, dystopia, mecha, novella, adult

[charliejaneanders]

Just a reminder: I'm helping to organize TWO free events:

TOMORROW is the bookstore and chocolate crawl, starting at Noe Valley Bookstore (3957 24th street) at 1 PM, heading down 24th to Et Al., Adobe, Medicine For Nightmares

TUESDAY is Writers With Drinks x Banned Books Week, 7 PM at Strut (470 Castro St), featuring Susan Stryker, Kemi Ashing-Giwa, Annalee Newitz, Maia Kobabe, Jaime Cortez and Tara Sim

[libraryspectre]

I'd recommend Autonomous by Annalee Newitz for fans of The Murderbot Diaries who were particularly interested in the themes of ownership, personhood and identity, and corporate exploitation. The major difference is that it contains a bot/human romance but imo it's explored in a very interesting way, questioning the deliniation between genuine and programmed desire and if the distinction even matters.

The plot follows two main protagonists. The first is a rogue scientist named Jack who's a bit of a pharmaceutical Robin Hood and accidentally distributes a dangerous drug that causes addiction to work. The second is our robot friend Paladin, who's just been activated, paired with a human partner, and sent after Jack. There's a lot of fun, creative, and bleak cyberpunk and biopunk elements, and I found the characters and story really engaging.

Also, heads up that the romance is complicated and dubiously healthy, but please do not try to cancel this nonbinary author for depicting a taboo relationship further complicated by internalized homophobia and transphobia. Depiction is not endorsement and the (again) NONBINARY author is not trying to endorse transphobia.

Final note, you have some common triggers, you may want to look up a list for this book. I'd also be happy to tell you if any specific trigger warnings apply.

[my-words-are-light]

I am reading 'The Terraformers' by Annalee Newitz.

So I've been reading this fascinating book lately: The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz. It's set far far far into the future where private corporations can even terraform planets very specifically into anything anyone wants. The specific planet this book is set on is Sask-E (or Sasky), which is marketed by Verdance as a "genuine pre-Pleistocene experience". Which heavily restricts the bodies people are allowed to "wear" there because bodies are extremely customisable and people can even live remotely through perfectly humanoid drones.

That bit about bodies is especially noteworthy because the book also has a lot of different ideas of "personhood". Lifeforms are literally made through a bio-mechanical process and decanted with intelligence. There's something corporations use called the "Intelligence Assessment" rating to determine what constitutes a "person" but everyone agrees it's nonsense and calls them InAss ratings. The main character, Destry, has a partner named Whisper that's a moose who is determined to be a Mount; their decanting process made Whisper only able to say monosyllabic words, which Destry agonises over. There are also "Blessed" who can only speak about their role (like shopkeepers). There are naked mole rats, moose, cows, robots, and more designated to be People because of how they were made to be intelligent. One cow person in the cast is traumatised—and genuinely so; it's not played for laughs in the slightest—by coming across a dairy farm full of cows with all the intelligence of livestock. The characters figure this is part of the "genuine pre-Pleistocene experience" and believe this is morally repugnant to the highest degree to make cows like this.

There's a bit later on where workers are pressured to figure out a train system for the main continent of Sask-E. Given that the world is still being terraformed and the characters are against so much as lighting a campfire in the name of carbon neutrality lest the world be tipped off its delicate balance, they determine that train tracks are unfeasible because the terraforming process means the tracks won't even be consistent let alone finished before the terraforming is done and the tracks will be useless. They come up with an alternative: flying trains that use a gravity mesh to fly.

At the council meeting where this is proposed, one character is against using a gravity mesh on anything that isn't a person. A moose in the meeting is against making anything that isn't a person at all. They decide that only people can truly serve the needs of other people by optimising the routes between cities. Plus, the flying train people can choose to do whatever they like; like the Boring Fleet responsible for carving out chambers for the volcano, they'll find it satisfying to do jobs their bodies excel at. Other characters aren't concerned that the Flying Train Fleet will be averse to designing optimal routes and travelling to hundreds of cities across the globe. Unanswered questions like "How will every city weigh in on their transit needs?", "How will we know when new trains, routes, or stations are needed?", and more can be answered by the train people themselves.