Cur8r

Curated intelligence briefings, aligned to your goals. Get the signal without the noise.

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

August, in review.

Forty adult science fiction novels came out in the US this month. Fourteen are worth your time, and every one comes with the reason it made the cut.

7 from the big houses, 7 from independent presses, 2 in translation. Every date and every claim traces back to a publisher's own page or a named review.

Free to read. Free to listen.
https://t.co/qF8A7NziAk

#SciFiBooks #ScienceFiction

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

@DjMolles @BlackstoneAudio Why it made the cut: snark-heavy first person, the fourth wall broken on a schedule, and real emotional arithmetic under the firefights. It moves faster than anything else in the edition.

Our original post: https://t.co/pFyKgREfDt

The briefing: https://t.co/T2oojj7jNx

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

4. THE PEACE CHILD, D. J. Molles

Five years after the invasion, half of Earth is dead and the rest is penned. Sol Winters runs a resistance cell that cannot win, until his team captures the alien Empress's daughter, sent as a peace hostage to broker a truce.

Everyone wants her dead. Rival alien factions. Collaborating humans. Old friends who should have stayed dead.

Snark-heavy first person, fourth wall broken regularly, and real emotional arithmetic under the firefights. The most straightforwardly fun book on the list.

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

Book 04 of Edition 02: The Peace Child, by @djmolles. Blackstone, August 11.

Five years after the invasion, half of Earth is dead, the rest penned. Sol Winters runs a resistance cell that cannot win, until his team captures the Empress's daughter.

Everyone wants her dead.

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

@DjMolles Molles wrote his way onto the NYT and USA Today bestseller lists while working full time as a police officer. He has since traded the badge for a keyboard and produced more than 20 titles.

Published by @blackstoneaudio. Reviewed by John M. Sauer: https://t.co/3QAah9c3Uw

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

Full disclosure, which is the whole point of the shelf: this is the one title in the edition with no substantial English-language review yet. We recommended it on premise and translator, and said so out loud.

Our original post on it: https://t.co/kdYlTVmwwi

The briefing: https://t.co/qF8A7NziAk

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

10. MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD, Akane Araki

An asteroid hits Earth in roughly two months. Haru, 23, a stargazer and chronic worrier, is still trying to pass her driving test, and then finds a body in the boot of her car. Her instructor turns out to be an ex-cop with a ferocious commitment to justice. They go after the killer anyway.

The best question of the month: what is justice for, if there is no future to protect?

Full disclosure: no substantial English-language review yet. We are recommending on premise and translator, and saying so.

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

Book 10 of Edition 02: Murder at the End of the World, by Akane Araki. Pushkin Vertigo, August 4.

An asteroid hits Earth in roughly two months. Haru, 23, is still trying to pass her driving test. Then she finds a body in the boot of her car.

Her instructor is an ex-cop. They go after the killer anyway.

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

Araki was born in 1998 in Fukuoka and graduated from Kyushu University. This is her first novel, and it won the Edogawa Rampo Prize.

Translated by Jesse Kirkwood (@jpkirkwood). Published by @pushkinpress as a Pushkin Vertigo title, out in the US via @penguinrandom.

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

@Richard_S_Swan @Grimdark_Mag It opened our August briefing, where all fourteen picks say out loud why they made the cut.

Our original thread: https://t.co/74pCjtoi6Y

The full briefing: https://t.co/T2oojj7jNx

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

1. THE INFINITE STATE, Richard Swan (Tor, Aug 4)

Katherine Fuller's husband dies and leaves her enough money to buy a virgin world. She intends to build a democracy on it. The fascist, galaxy-spanning empire he served does not let its daughters leave.

Why it made the cut: Swan cares about the machinery. Bureaucracy, population control, the unglamorous work of governing. Grimdark Magazine called it "a tour-de-force in science fiction storytelling."

The month's biggest swing.

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

Book 01 of Edition 02: The Infinite State, by @richard_s_swan. Tor, August 4.

A fascist empire spanning the galaxy. One widow with enough inherited money to buy an unclaimed world, who intends to build a democracy on it.

Swan's real subject is the machinery of governing.

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

@Richard_S_Swan Grimdark Magazine (@grimdark_mag) called it "a tour-de-force in science fiction storytelling."

The review: https://t.co/3tdGnArHKT

They also interviewed Swan about the Decurion Saga: https://t.co/nhqwry5osf

[Grimdark Magazine @Grimdark_Mag]

In this interview, @Richard_S_Swan discusses the impact on his stories of growing up in a military family, being a post-WW2 history buff, and how he finds enough hours in a day to produce all the work he does.

https://t.co/FbniNtoBW1

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

Two separate novels about companies selling time travel to the rich, published the same day in August by different houses. Nobody planned that.

Also in the month: a fascist galaxy-spanning empire against one widow's democracy, a murder investigation whose best witness is a digital copy of the victim, and four different ends of the world.

Fourteen books, each with the reason it made the cut. The full shelf is in this morning's thread.

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

August, in review.

Forty adult science fiction novels came out in the US this month. Fourteen are worth your time, and every one comes with the reason it made the cut.

7 from the big houses, 7 from independent presses, 2 in translation. Every date and every claim traces back to a publisher's own page or a named review.

Free to read. Free to listen.
https://t.co/qF8A7NziAk

#SciFiBooks #ScienceFiction

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

Edition 01, free to read or listen:
https://t.co/rrVWoMa8Eb

Also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or any app that takes an RSS feed.

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

This morning we posted a preview of 14 Sci-Fi books released in August. This is the episode that explains how they got there.

Edition 01 of Sci-Fi Books Weekly is the introduction: what the show is, what Cur8r is for, and how each briefing actually gets built.

No infinite feed. No clickbait. No black box. Every pick arrives with the reason it made the cut, and the criteria are published where you can read them.

Just over two minutes. Free, and there is no account to make.

#SciFiBooks #Podcast

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

That is the shelf. Fourteen books, every one with the reason it made the cut.

Read it or listen to it. Both are free, and there is no account to make.

Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or any app that takes an RSS feed.

A new briefing every week. Forty books in, fourteen out, and you always get to see why.

https://t.co/qF8A7NziAk

#SciFiBooks #BookRecommendations

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

August, in review.

Forty adult science fiction novels came out in the US this month. Fourteen are worth your time, and every one comes with the reason it made the cut.

7 from the big houses, 7 from independent presses, 2 in translation. Every date and every claim traces back to a publisher's own page or a named review.

Free to read. Free to listen.
https://t.co/qF8A7NziAk

#SciFiBooks #ScienceFiction

[Cur8r @Cur8rXYZ]

14. PREACHING TO THE CHOIR, Adrian Tchaikovsky

Elena Mendes knew her boyfriend's family was old money. She had not grasped how old. Ross is summoned to Enderby, a family seat built as a monastery centuries ago, for a gathering that happens once a generation. Partners are not invited. He asks her to come anyway.

Closer to Get Out than to Children of Time, trading race for class. Its real subject is what wealthy families will do to hold onto power.

Gothic horror more than SF. Included as the month's biggest name.