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peppersjam · 1 year

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My Top 10 Albums of 2022

Like I hoped/hypothesized in my Top 10 last year, moving to Austin (and COVID at least temporarily easing up) brought me back to live music. I saw Snail Mail, Jose Gonzalez, Bon Iver, Andrew Bird with Iron and Wine, Bartees Strange, a smorgasbord of amazing acts on one hot Friday at Austin City Limits, and a handful of delightful local artists. The Bon Iver show affected me in a completely unexpected way, and triggered a year-long obsession with i,i and 22, a million, two albums that I had filed away as somehow lesser than For Emma and the self-titled. Googles "Bon Iver tour" again.

Kendrick finally released a new album and I completely bounced off of it after a few listens. I guess having the insta-cortisol-injection of "We Cry Together" on the tracklist is a problem for me. The new Arctic Monkeys album was also a bit of a disappointment. As it stands, it's my least favorite album of theirs. I'm sure I'll give both of these another shot, though. They'll probably pop up under the heading of "what was I thinking?" five years from now.

My pre-2022 albums that should've made their respective lists were heavily influenced by my reading Dan Ozzi's "Sellout." - Against Me! – "Transgender Dysphoria Blues" (2013) rocks SO HARD and checks so many boxes for me. Where can I get more folk-punk? - Jimmy Eat World – "Clarity" (1999) in some alternate universe where I started blogging at 10 rather than slightly older than that. - Cory Wong. I'm cheating here. I don't particularly care for his albums as a format, but his shockingly highly-produced YouTube show includes compelling, virtuosic funk/bluegrass/big-band/whatever performances, like this one with Sierra Hull which I have watched a silly number of times.

I had 8(!) runners up this year but that stretches the definition beyond the editorial standards of this fine publication, so I've narrowed it down to 3:

Angel Olsen – "Big Time" (may have cracked the list if I didn't miss the AO/SVE concert for a last-minute vacation)

Beach House – "Once Twice Melody" (Beach House doesn't excite me at all as a music listener – call it a hangover of an uninspiring show several years ago – but this album, like most of their music, is irresistible)

Delicate Steve – "After Hours" (do I love Delicate Steve only because of the name? Absolutely not.)

10. Sharon Van Etten – We've Been Going About This All Wrong

Finally! An SVE album released in the era of me being a massive SVE fan. I wrote about this earlier, but she was my go-to through the first two years of COVID. We've Been Going About This All Wrong doesn't quite reach the highs of Remind Me Tomorrow, but I still find myself getting lost in the album every time I listen to it.

9. Plains – I Walked with You a Ways

According to my driver's license and my voter registration, I'm a Texan. To follow up Saint Cloud, this time as Plains (with Jess Williamson as a partner in crime), Katie Crutchfield is pushing even further in the Americana/Country direction, giving me the gift of a comfortable nest to curl up into in my new environs. Yes, I have played this album, several times, loud, while driving through hill country west of Austin. It works.

8. PUP – The Unraveling of PUPTHEBAND

It feels good to like an emo band that is still making (good) albums. I'm not sure why I hadn't heard of PUP before this year, but they started popping up all over the place as I started poking around during my read of "Sellout." The first 5 tracks here are my favorite 5 song run of the year.

7. MUNA – MUNA

The most magical musical moment of the year for me was in March. We were at Mañana getting a coffee one Friday afternoon, and we saw a stage being set up on its courtyard. It was during SXSW, so that much wasn't unexpected. We Googled and realized that MUNA would be playing later that day. We walked back after work and saw a tiny, free, incredible MUNA show. They played a bunch of songs off of the yet-unreleased new album, and it was obvious that the album would be packed with exquisite pop morsels. June 2022: it was, and it was good.

6. Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

Big Thief are not doing anything flashy. They're not reinventing rock. They're not subverting the indie folk moniker. Like virtuosic short story authors, they're crafting small, isolated worlds within each song, giving the listener only as much as they need. Adrianne Lenker is not just a genius writer (as I've mentioned before) but a ruthless editor. I'm saying this about an album that has 20 tracks. Maybe I need a ruthless editor.

5. Carly Rae Jepsen – The Loneliest Time

The title track, a.k.a. "The Loneliest Time feat. Rufus Wainwright," a.k.a. the one song that I drove around the block for to hear the end of this year (apologies Earth, the Prius c was mostly in EV mode), a.k.a I guess I like disco now?

With each CRJ release I prepare myself to be underwhelmed. It just doesn't seem like she could continue to release crisp, zeitgeist-defying pop albums. While I was intrigued that she worked with Rostam for "Western Wind," I was left feeling "meh" when the single dropped, which further reduced my expectations. The album releasing on the same day as Taylor Swift's Midnights was trial by fire, and I listened to "The Loneliest Time" on repeat for a total of twice as many plays as Midnights. Take that for data!

4. Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There

The most significant musical discovery of 2022 for me is the UK Experimental Rock scene that is producing BCNR and Jockstrap. I don't think it's a cohesive "thing" to discover, but anytime I hear that some members of a band met at some artsy school in the UK (like the XX) and/or someone somehow shows up on multiple albums on this list in a single year (Georgia Ellery, how?), I take notice. More than any other album on this list, when I listen to this one, I want to talk or write about it. I wouldn't be surprised if I listen to and laud it 18 years from now the same way I listen to and laud Arcade Fire's Funeral today.

3. Bartees Strange – Farm to Table

If I write out a description of the styles of each song on this album, it doesn't sound like it would be cohesive or even compelling. Bartees pulls inspirations from bands like Bon Iver and The National so directly that it's practically pastiche. It's not though: Bartees injects so much of himself into the music that it's unmistakably him. The fact that he finds inspiration from so many places and is so excited to share them all with us is a feature, not a bug. I selfishly hope that his next album is more cohesive, but I can't argue with the results of his earnestness so far.

2. Animal Collective – Time Skiffs

Animal Collective's 2004-2009 run of LPs (Sung Tongs, Feels, Strawberry Jam, and Merriweather Post Pavilion) were pivotal to (a) the indie scene as a whole and, more importantly, (b) me in 2009 once I decided that I shouldn't just listen to The Beatles for the entirety of college. I did not expect to ever love or get lost in an AnCo album again the way I did with those 4. But here we are: "Time Skiffs" is inching its way toward the top of my Animal Collective tier list. This record does what all good Animal Collective records do: it absorbs me. It pulls me in with soundscapes and timbral oddities, and then dunks me in a pool of melody. If you're imagining an art rock shampoo ad, then you're on the right track. Every single track on Time Skiffs does this with a shocking efficiency.

Or, to put it in their own words, from their Bandcamp page:

Time Skiffs’ nine songs are love letters, distress signals, en plein air observations, and relaxation hymns, the collected transmissions of four people who have grown into relationships and parenthood and adult worry. But they are rendered with Animal Collective’s singular sense of exploratory wonder. Harmonies so rich you want to skydive through their shared air, textures so fascinating you want to decode their sorcery, rhythms so intricate you want to untangle their sources. Here is Animal Collective's past two decades, still in search of what’s next.

Why do I bother?!

1. Jockstrap – I Love You Jennifer B

I already explained my general fascination with this thread of music (see my notes on Ants From Up There above). It's my favorite album of the year, over the near-perfect Animal Collective album for reasons that I will try to explain but don't completely make sense to me.

Hearing "Glasgow" for the first time flipped a switch in my brain that is un-flip-back-able. I need to listen to "Glasgow" as many times as possible.

If "Glasgow" wasn't that song, "Concrete Over Water" would've been. It's incidental that I heard "Glasgow" first.

I have neutral-to-negative feelings about violin in rock music. "That's dumb and unjustifiable," this album screams at me, politely.

The songs on this album sound simple, hiding their depth. The album forces me to alternate between close listening (specific production choices, structure, melodic riffs, lyrics, and on and on) and a total immersion.

Ok, fine. The shift at 1:15 of Glasgow.

#sharon van etten #plains #pup #muna #big thief #carly rae jepsen #black country new road #bartees strange #animal collective

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Top New Science Fiction Books in January 2021

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Looking for space opera or alternate Earths? Here are some of the science fiction books we’re most excited about and/or are currently consuming…

Join the Den of Geek Book Club!

Top New Science Fiction Books in January 2021

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

Type: Novel Publisher: Tordotcom Release date: Jan. 19, 2021 Den of Geek says: Award-winning Nnedi Okorafor brings a mix of science fiction and fantasy with this unique take on the Grim Reaper. Publisher’s Summary: The day Fatima forgot her name, Death paid a visit. From hereon in she would be known as Sankofa—a name that meant nothing to anyone but her, the only tie to her family and her past.

Her touch is death, and with a glance a town can fall. And she walks—alone, except for her fox companion—searching for the object that came from the sky and gave itself to her when the meteors fell and when she was yet unchanged; searching for answers.

But is there a greater purpose for Sankofa, now that Death is her constant companion?

Buy Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor.

Star Wars: Light of the Jedi

Type: Novel Publisher: Del Rey Release date: Jan. 5, 2021

Den of Geek says: One of the first books in the The High Republic series, it introduces the new era with the story of Jedi 200 years before the fall of the Republic. You’ll find no Skywalkers, Solos, or Palpatines here, but rather an ensemble of fun new galactic warrior-monks.

Publisher’s summary: Long before the First Order, before the Empire, before even The Phantom Menace . . . Jedi lit the way for the galaxy in The High Republic It is a golden age. Intrepid hyperspace scouts expand the reach of the Republic to the furthest stars, worlds flourish under the benevolent leadership of the Senate, and peace reigns, enforced by the wisdom and strength of the renowned order of Force users known as the Jedi. With the Jedi at the height of their power, the free citizens of the galaxy are confident in their ability to weather any storm But the even brightest light can cast a shadow, and some storms defy any preparation.

When a shocking catastrophe in hyperspace tears a ship to pieces, the flurry of shrapnel emerging from the disaster threatens an entire system. No sooner does the call for help go out than the Jedi race to the scene. The scope of the emergence, however, is enough to push even Jedi to their limit. As the sky breaks open and destruction rains down upon the peaceful alliance they helped to build, the Jedi must trust in the Force to see them through a day in which a single mistake could cost billions of lives.

Even as the Jedi battle valiantly against calamity, something truly deadly grows beyond the boundary of the Republic. The hyperspace disaster is far more sinister than the Jedi could ever suspect. A threat hides in the darkness, far from the light of the age, and harbors a secret that could strike fear into even a Jedi’s heart. Buy Star Wars: Light of the Jedi.

Persephone Station by Stina Leicht

Type: Novel Publisher: Gallery / Saga Press Release date: Jan. 5, 2021 Den of Geek says: Roguish space opera serves up escapism with a side of criminal glam. Publisher’s Summary: Hugo award–nominated author Stina Leicht has created a take on space opera for fans of The Mandalorian and Cowboy Bebop in this high-stakes adventure.

Persephone Station, a seemingly backwater planet that has largely been ignored by the United Republic of Worlds becomes the focus for the Serrao-Orlov Corporation as the planet has a few secrets the corporation tenaciously wants to exploit.

Rosie—owner of Monk’s Bar, in the corporate town of West Brynner, caters to wannabe criminals and rich Earther tourists, of a sort, at the front bar. However, exactly two types of people drank at Monk’s back bar: members of a rather exclusive criminal class and those who sought to employ them.

Angel—ex-marine and head of a semi-organized band of beneficent criminals, wayward assassins, and washed up mercenaries with a penchant for doing the honorable thing is asked to perform a job for Rosie. What this job reveals will effect Persephone and put Angel and her squad up against an army. Despite the odds, they are rearing for a fight with the Serrao-Orlov Corporation. For Angel, she knows that once honor is lost, there is no regaining it. That doesn’t mean she can’t damned well try.

Buy Persephone Station by Stina Leicht.

Top New Science Fiction Books in December 2020

The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2020 Edition by Rich Horton

Type: Short story collection Publisher: Prime Books Release date: Dec. 22 (Kindle)

Den of Geek says: It’s that time of year. Year’s best anthologies are here. This one draws from stories previously published in the genre’s top magazines, like Analog, Asimov’s, and Clarkesworld.

Publisher’s summary: This eleventh volume of the year’s best science fiction and fantasy features twenty-six stories by some of the genre’s greatest authors, including Marie Brennan, Maurice Broaddus, John Crowley, Theodora Goss, Xia Jia, John Kessel, Kelly LInk, Sam J. Miller, Michael Swanwick, Fran Wilde, E. Lily Yu, and many others.

Buy The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2020 Edition by Rich Horton.

Gallowglass by S.J. Morden

Type: Novel Publisher: Gollancz Release date: Dec. 10 Den of Geek says: We’re taking a chance on this one. It’s one of those SF paperbacks that sometimes get lost in the churn and probably won’t end up with much marketing. But the author’s science background and the sense of a vivid understanding of just how big space is adds to the good vibes. Publisher’s summary: The year is 2069, and the earth is in flux. Whole nations are being wiped off the map by climate change. Desperate for new resources, the space race has exploded back into life.

Corporations seek ever greater profits off-world. They offer immense rewards to anyone who can claim space’s resources in their name. The bounty on a single asteroid rivals the GDP of entire countries, so every trick, legal or not, is used to win.

Jack, the scion of a shipping magnate, is desperate to escape earth and joins a team chasing down an asteroid. But the ship he’s on is full of desperate people – each one needing the riches claiming the asteroid will bring them, and they’re willing to do anything if it means getting there first.

Because in Space, there are no prizes for coming second.It’s all or nothing: riches beyond measure, or dying alone in the dark.

Buy Gallowglass by S.J. Morden.

Doctor Who: All Flesh is Grass by Una McCormack

Type: Novel Publisher: BBC Digital Release date: Dec. 10 Den of Geek says: We’re going out on another limb. Tie-in novels can be tricky recommendations. What if you don’t know the source material? What if you don’t know what happened in 154 other books? But Doctor Who’s episodic nature (the story about the last creature alive on a living world) and fan-pleasing fun (multiple doctors) mean this one might be a good balance for people who love Doctor Who or only vaguely know what a Dalek is and are curious. Publisher’s summary: A wasteland. A dead world… No, there is a biodome, rising from the ash. Here, life teems and flourishes, with strange and lush plants, and many-winged insects with bright carapaces – and one solitary sentient creature, who spends its days watering the plants, talking to the insects, and tending this lonely garden. This is Inyit, the Last of the Kotturuh. In All Flesh is Grass we are transported back to The Dark Times. The Tenth Doctor has sworn to stop the Kotturuh, ending Death and bringing Life to the universe. But his plan is unravelling – instead of bringing Life, nothing has changed and all around him people are dying. Death is everywhere. Now he must confront his former selves – one in league with their greatest nemesis and the other manning a ship of the undead…

Buy Doctor Who: All Flesh is Grass by Una McCormack.

Top New Science Fiction Books in November 2020

From A Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back

Type: Short story collection Publisher: Del Rey Release date: Nov. 10

Den of Geek says: A collection of 40 Star Wars stories spanning The Empire Strikes Back and beyond, this is a smorgasbord of different authors, styles, takes, and genres within the movie saga.

Publisher’s summary: On May 21, 1980, Star Wars became a true saga with the release of The Empire Strikes Back. In honor of the fortieth anniversary, forty storytellers re-create an iconic scene from The Empire Strikes Back through the eyes of a supporting character, from heroes and villains, to droids and creatures. From a Certain Point of View features contributions by bestselling authors and trendsetting artists.

Buy From A Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back.

Stillicide by Cynan Jones

Type: Short story collection Publisher: Catapult Release date: Nov. 17

Den of Geek says: Literary fiction publisher Catapult crosses over into science fiction with this print release of a highly acclaimed series of climate fables written for radio.

Publisher’s summary: Water is commodified. The Water Train that serves the city increasingly at risk of sabotage.

As news breaks that construction of a gigantic Ice Dock will displace more people than first thought, protestors take to the streets and the lives of several individuals begin to interlock. A nurse on the brink of an affair. A boy who follows a stray dog out of the city. A woman who lies dying. And her husband, a marksman: a man forged by his past and fearful of the future, who weighs in his hands the possibility of death against the possibility of life.

From one of the most celebrated writers of his generation, Stillicide is a moving story of love and loss and the will to survive, and a powerful glimpse of the tangible future.

Buy Stillicide by Cynan Jones.

Nucleation by Kimberly Unger

Type: Novel Publisher: Tachyon Publications Release date: Nov. 13

Den of Geek says: Virtual reality meets aliens in a space opera packed with ideas about wormhole travel and first contact.

Publisher’s summary: Helen Vectorvich just botched first contact. And she did it in both virtual reality and outer space.

Only the most elite Far Reaches deep-space pilots get to run waldos: robots controlled from thousands of lightyears away via neural integration and quantum entanglement. Helen and her navigator were heading the construction of a wormhole gate that would connect Earth to the stars . . . until a routine system check turned deadly.

As nasty rumors swarm around her, and overeager junior pilots jockey to take her place, Helen makes a startling discovery: microscopic alien life is devouring their corporate equipment. Is the Scale just mindless, extra-terrestrial bacteria? Or is it working―and killing―with a purpose?

While Helen struggles to get back into the pilot’s chair, and to communicate with the Scale, someone―or something―is trying to sabotage the Far Reaches project once and for all. They’ll have to get through Helen first.

Buy Nucleation by Kimberly Unger.

Top New Science Fiction Books in October 2020

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

Type: Novel Publisher: Orbit Release date: Oct. 6

Den of Geek says: Robinson’s intricate eco-thriller-flavored SF novels have proved prescient in a world of droughts and fires. His latest novel leans in to make a statement about both humanity and science in the face of climate change.

Publisher’s summary: The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us — and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.

It is a novel both immediate and impactful, desperate and hopeful in equal measure, and it is one of the most powerful and original books on climate change ever written.

Buy The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.

To Hold Up The Sky by Cixin Liu

Type: Short story collection Publisher: Tor Books Release date: Oct. 20

Den of Geek says: Cixin Liu engages with both hard science and the human heart in a short story collection from a master novelist.

Publisher’s summary: In To Hold Up the Sky, Cixin Liu takes us across time and space, from a rural mountain community where elementary students must use physicas to prevent an alien invasion; to coal mines in northern China where new technology will either save lives of unleash a fire that will burn for centuries; to a time very much like our own, when superstring computers predict our every move; to 10,000 years in the future, when humanity is finally able to begin anew; to the very collapse of the universe itself.

Written between 1999 and 2017 and never before published in English, these stories came into being during decades of major change in China and will take you across time and space through the eyes of one of science fiction’s most visionary writers.

Buy To Hold Up The Sky by Cixin Liu.

Seven of Infinities by Aliette de Bodard

Type: Novella Publisher: Subterranean Release date: Oct. 31

Den of Geek says: Aliette de Bodard’s Xuyan series is a creative blend of hard science fiction and space opera based on a network of space stations. A story from the point of view of a living starship who is also a trickster sounds like it’ll fit right in.

Publisher’s summary: Vân is a scholar from a poor background, eking out a living in the orbitals of the Scattered Pearls Belt as a tutor to a rich family, while hiding the illegal artificial mem-implant she manufactured as a student. Sunless Woods is a mindship and not just any mindship, but a notorious thief and a master of disguise. She’s come to the Belt to retire, but is drawn to Vân’s resolute integrity. When a mysterious corpse is found in the quarters of Vân’s student, Vân and Sunless Woods find themselves following a trail of greed and murder that will lead them from teahouses and ascetic havens to the wreck of a mindship and to the devastating secrets they’ve kept from each other.

Buy Seven of Infinities by Aliette de Bodard.

Top New Science Fiction Books September 2020

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

Type: Novel Publisher: William Morrow Release date: Sept. 22

Den of Geek says: This next-level meta take on superheroes looks witty and biting. But what really makes it stand out is the character’s predicament: she’s a laid-off henchman going from bad job to worse, struggling with her own moral code along the way.

Publisher’s summary: Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the surface of the world isn’t glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy?

As a temp, she’s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called “hero” leaves her badly injured. And, to her horror, compared to the other bodies strewn about, she’s the lucky one.

So, of course, then she gets laid off.

With no money and no mobility, with only her anger and internet research acumen, she discovers her suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks.

Because the key to everything is data: knowing how to collate it, how to manipulate it, and how to weaponize it. By tallying up the human cost these caped forces of nature wreak upon the world, she discovers that the line between good and evil is mostly marketing. And with social media and viral videos, she can control that appearance.

It’s not too long before she’s employed once more, this time by one of the worst villains on earth. As she becomes an increasingly valuable lieutenant, she might just save the world.

A sharp, witty, modern debut, Hench explores the individual cost of justice through a fascinating mix of Millennial office politics, heroism measured through data science, body horror, and a profound misunderstanding of quantum mechanics.

Buy Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots on Amazon.

Divergence (The Foreigner Universe) by C.J. Cherryh

Type: Novel Publisher: DAW Release date: Sept. 8

Den of Geek says: Why, you might rightly ask, would we recommend #21 in a series? This is because C.J. Cherryh is a master at what she does: slow, meticulous space opera with engaging characters and a transporting sense of completeness to its world of diplomatic clashes between humans and aliens. Really, we recommend you start at #1, Foreigner, if you haven’t read the series before. And if you have, this September is a real occasion. Publisher’s summary: The overthrow of the atevi head of state, Tabini-aiji, and the several moves of enemies even since his restoration, have prompted major changes in the Assassins’ Guild, which has since worked to root out its seditious elements—a clandestine group they call the Shadow Guild. With the Assassins now rid of internal corruption, with the birth of Tabini’s second child, and with the appointment of an heir, stability seems to have returned to the atevi world. Humans and atevi share the space station in peaceful cooperation, humans and atevi share the planet as they have for centuries, and the humans’ island enclave is preparing to welcome 5000 human refugees from a remote station now dismantled, and to do that in unprecedented cooperation with the atevi mainland.

In general Bren Cameron, Tabini-aiji’s personal representative, returning home to the atevi capital after securing that critical agreement, was ready to take a well-earned rest—until Tabini’s grandmother claimed his services on a train trip to the smallest, most remote and least significant of the provinces, snowy Hasjuran—a move concerning which Tabini-aiji gave Bren a private instruction: protect her. Advise her.

Advise her—perhaps. As for protection, she has a trainload of high-level Guild. But since the aiji-dowager has also invited a dangerously independent young warlord, Machigi, and a young man who may be the heir to Ajuri, a key northern province—the natural question is why the dowager is taking this ill-assorted pair to Hasjuran and what on this earth she may be up to.

With a Shadow Guild attack on the train station, it has become clear that others have questions, too. Hasjuran, on its mountain height, overlooks the Marid, a district that is part of the atevi nation only in name—a district in which Machigi is one major player, and where the Shadow Guild retains a major stronghold.

Protect her? Ilisidi is hellbent on settling scores with the Shadow Guild, and her reasons for this trip and this company now become clear. One human diplomat and his own bodyguard suddenly seem a very small force to defend her from what she is setting in motion.

Buy Divergence by C.J. Cherryh on Amazon.

An Unnatural Life by Erin K. Wagner

Type: Novella Publisher: Tor Release date: Sept. 15

Den of Geek says: Putting a robot on trial is an old concept in science fiction: just look at Star Trek. This novella looks like an entry in the contemporary conversation with this pleasingly retro concept. Publisher’s summary: The cybernetic organism known as 812-3 is in prison, convicted of murdering a human worker but he claims that he did not do it. With the evidence stacked against him, his lawyer, Aiya Ritsehrer, must determine grounds for an appeal and uncover the true facts of the case.

But with artificial life-forms having only recently been awarded legal rights on Earth, the military complex on Europa is resistant to the implementation of these same rights on the Jovian moon.

Aiya must battle against her own prejudices and that of her new paymasters, to secure a fair trial for her charge, while navigating her own interpersonal drama, before it’s too late.

Buy An Unnatural Life by Erin K. Wagner on Amazon.

Top New Science Fiction Books August 2020

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Type: Novel Publisher: Tor Release date: Aug. 4

Den of Geek says: Muir’s necromancers in space have gained an enthusiastic following for their irreverent tone and wild gothic magic.

Publisher’s summary: She answered the Emperor’s call.

She arrived with her arts, her wits, and her only friend.

In victory, her world has turned to ash.

After rocking the cosmos with her deathly debut, Tamsyn Muir continues the story of the penumbral Ninth House in Harrow the Ninth, a mind-twisting puzzle box of mystery, murder, magic, and mayhem. Nothing is as it seems in the halls of the Emperor, and the fate of the galaxy rests on one woman’s shoulders.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House, has been drafted by her Emperor to fight an unwinnable war. Side-by-side with a detested rival, Harrow must perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath ― but her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her.

Sealed in the gothic gloom of the Emperor’s Mithraeum with three unfriendly teachers, hunted by the mad ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must confront two unwelcome questions: is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe be better off?

Buy Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir on Amazon.

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Type: Novel Publisher: Orbit Release date: Aug. 18

Den of Geek says: Portal fantasy of a sort, backed by hard science fiction from the author of the award-winning Children of Time, this novel looks inventive, rigorous, and adventurous.

Publisher’s summary: They thought we were safe. They were wrong.

Four years ago, two girls went looking for monsters on Bodmin Moor. Only one came back.

Lee thought she’d lost Mal, but now she’s miraculously returned. But what happened that day on the moors? And where has she been all this time? Mal’s reappearance hasn’t gone unnoticed by MI5 officers either, and Lee isn’t the only one with questions.

Julian Sabreur is investigating an attack on top physicist Kay Amal Khan. This leads Julian to clash with agents of an unknown power – and they may or may not be human. His only clue is grainy footage, showing a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor.

Dr Khan’s research was theoretical; then she found cracks between our world and parallel Earths. Now these cracks are widening, revealing extraordinary creatures. And as the doors crash open, anything could come through.

Buy The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky on Amazon.

Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

Type: Novel Publisher: DAW Release date: Aug. 4

Den of Geek says: This ensemble cast space opera fits nicely into the “Expanse” model of adventure stories with enough political detail and blood to make you feel like you could walk into the far-future world. An early review calls it “epic, if occasionally bumpy.”

Publisher’s summary: When Eris faked her death, she thought she had left her old life as the heir to the galaxy’s most ruthless empire behind. But her recruitment by the Novantaen Resistance, an organization opposed to the empire’s voracious expansion, throws her right back into the fray.

Eris has been assigned a new mission: to infiltrate a spaceship ferrying deadly cargo and return the intelligence gathered to the Resistance. But her partner for the mission, mechanic and hotshot pilot Cloelia, bears an old grudge against Eris, making an already difficult infiltration even more complicated.

When they find the ship, they discover more than they bargained for: three fugitives with firsthand knowledge of the corrupt empire’s inner workings.

Together, these women possess the knowledge and capabilities to bring the empire to its knees. But the clock is ticking: the new heir to the empire plans to disrupt a peace summit with the only remaining alien empire, ensuring the empire’s continued expansion. If they can find a way to stop him, they will save the galaxy. If they can’t, millions may die.

Buy Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May on Amazon.

Top New Science Fiction Books July 2020

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The Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott

Type: Novel Publisher: Tor Books Release date: July 7

Den of Geek says: Kate Elliott’s long career in fantasy has proven her a master of world-building. It has a heck of a tagline: “female Alexander the Great in space.” This series promises strong science fiction action.

Publisher’s summary: Princess Sun has finally come of age.

Growing up in the shadow of her mother, Eirene, has been no easy task. The legendary queen-marshal did what everyone thought impossible: expel the invaders and build Chaonia into a magnificent republic, one to be respected―and feared.

But the cutthroat ambassador corps and conniving noble houses have never ceased to scheme―and they have plans that need Sun to be removed as heir, or better yet, dead.

To survive, the princess must rely on her wits and companions: her biggest rival, her secret lover, and a dangerous prisoner of war.

Take the brilliance and cunning courage of Princess Leia―add in a dazzling futuristic setting where pop culture and propaganda are one and the same―and hold on tight:

Buy The Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott on Amazon.

Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis

Type: Novel Publisher: St Martin’s Press Release date: July 21

Den of Geek says: Lindsay Ellis is known primarily as a YouTube pop culture critic. She excels at explaining why pop culture works or doesn’t work, as well as adding context to day’s top headlines. Her first book sounds like a mix between Arrival and The X-Files, set in the early 2000s.

Publisher’s summary: The alternate history first contact adventure Axiom’s End is an extraordinary debut from Hugo finalist and video essayist Lindsay Ellis.

Truth is a human right.

It’s fall 2007. A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father. Even though Cora hasn’t spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government―and with him in hiding, that attention is on her. She neither knows nor cares whether her father’s leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him―until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades.

Realizing the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can, and finds that the best way for her to uncover the truth is not as a whistleblower, but as an intermediary. The alien presence has been completely uncommunicative until she convinces one of them that she can act as their interpreter, becoming the first and only human vessel of communication. Their otherworldly connection will change everything she thought she knew about being human―and could unleash a force more sinister than she ever imagined.

Buy Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis on Amazon.

The Relentless Moon (Lady Astronauts) by Mary Robinette Kowal

Type: Novel Publisher: Tor Books Release date: July 14

Den of Geek says: The Lady Astronaut series tackles sexism (lots and lots of sexism) in an alternate world where the space race is hurried along by the arrival of a meteor strike. It has gained a lot of fans for its determined characters and convincing alternate history.

Publisher’s summary: The Earth is coming to the boiling point as the climate disaster of the Meteor strike becomes more and more clear, but the political situation is already overheated. Riots and sabotage plague the space program. The IAC’s goal of getting as many people as possible off Earth before it becomes uninhabitable is being threatened.

Elma York is on her way to Mars, but the Moon colony is still being established. Her friend and fellow Lady Astronaut Nicole Wargin is thrilled to be one of those pioneer settlers, using her considerable flight and political skills to keep the program on track. But she is less happy that her husband, the Governor of Kansas, is considering a run for President.

Buy The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal on Amazon.

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apsbicepstraining · 7 years

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15 incredible last-minute tech knacks for anyone on your shopping list

Christmas is just days away. If you havent already completed your Christmas shopping functions, then you are officially almost out of time. Of course, the Internet is ever a terrific rich for last-minute offering ideas.

Rather than pillage a nearby convenience store for lame knick-knacks to get your loved ones, weve rounded up a inventory of cool tech circumstances you can get all the members of your family online. If you ordering them now, you can probably opt for expedited ship so they have something to unwrap on the 25 th. Or not, but it’s the had considered that weighs!

For your significant other

Microsoft Band 2

If your beau isnt an Apple fanboy, then an Apple Watch is possibly out of the question. If a smartwatch is something you think your beloved would absolutely experience, consider going the updated band by Microsoft.

Microsoft

It tracks various fitness statistics like a Fitbit, with the added bonus of guided exercisings in accordance with the arrangements of utilization causes extradited right to the wrist. It can be used to constantly track heart rate as well as keep records of their controls. They can also persist has become a multitasking machine through useful docket, announce, email, social, and text updates as well as memoranda and remembers that you can prescribe expending your own voice through Cortana. It comes in three wrist sizings and handily beats most wearables when it comes to looks, acquiring it a pretty snazzy Christmas gift. Price : $249.99 on sale for $199

Perfect Drink App-Controlled Smart Bartending

For the cocktail admirer in their own lives! This smart scale( that comes with a stainless steel shaker) helps invent new liquor recipes as well as improve their favourites thanks to the free smartphone companion app. They can use their own design selecting a glas from the thousands of recipes and follow real-time pouring instructions; for advice, a virtual glass will fill up on the screen as they run.

Brookstone

In suit they become heavy-handed with particular parts, the app will automatically re-adjust the recipe, ensuring that they end up with a well-balanced drink.

If they dont have a particular drink in knowledge, they can plug in the contents of their liquor locker and the app will come up with recipe recommendations.

The perk? If you enjoy booze and live with your S.O ., this endowment assistances you as well. And its on sale!

Price : $69.99 $49.99

We-Vibe 4 Plus

Theres good-for-nothing like a fornication toy to come duos from nice to naughty this vacation season. This particular vibrator is arcked in such a way that gives it rest comfortably when furnished, adequately paying attention to all of a woman’s most sensitive characters. When used during copulation, it also provides subtle and effective male foreplay as well.

We-Vibe

What shapes the We-Vibe 4 Plus unique is the channel it can be controlled through a smartphone app, so ladies, in case youre apart from your sweetheart during the course of its coldnes, wintertime nights, the kinky contraption can stay with you while your collaborator steers your arousal through the many available vibration motifs on the app.

Price: $179

For an older sibling

Casetify Apple Watch belt

Make an Apple Watch even cuter with a fasten customized according to your motif sensibilities! Casetify offers a slew of ready-made intends in its list, including a brand-new Looney Motif row boasting beloved caricature characters from your loved ones childhood.

Casetify

If you want to go a step further, you can even customize your own blueprint by uploading a photograph from your computer or your social media accounts. Price : $70

Beyond Ink Pen

Who replies writes are a lame endow? If they come forearmed with peculiarities like a built-in micro-USB or iPhone cable store, a 16 GB memory drive, and a built-in battery, theyre actually a pretty cool gift for your techy bro or sis. It also has a stylus pen connect thats easily interchangeable with the ballpoint pen tip, preparing it the perfect writing tool for both article and screen.

Beyond Ink

The smartpen is made from high quality brass and to come down either a stylish pitch-black or grey finish.

Price: $70

Gorilla Gears Complete Selfie Kit

Lets face it, teens even off the majority of members of the Internets selfie-loving population. The sooner you accept that as truism, the easier your last-minute shopping becomes.

While there are tons of selfie lodge options that are more cheap, lightweight, and is very easy to connect to your smartphone via the headphone jack, you get a lot more bangs for your buck with this gear. The selfie stick included in the package is Bluetooth-enabled and well-designed. It has a padded administer and a nifty twist-lock function that sees it easy to use on longer photo shoots.

Gorilla Gear

Other goodies include a mini tripod( for taking photographs of sceneries and photos of bigger groups) and a rubberized cellphone clamp, ensuring that your design persists securely attached to your monopod during utilize. It also comes in a stylish walk case-a great endowment for the selfie pro in your family. Price : $45.00 $24.99 through Amazon Prime

For a younger sibling

Hello Barbie

Barbara Millicent Roberts may be 56 years old, but she doesnt look a era over 20. The recent battery-operated version of the highly popular doll is now equipped with Wi-Fi compatibility and speech acknowledgment engineering, facilitating her to converse, tell storeys, and play games with your teenager sister( or brother !).

Mattel

Hello Barbie is programmed with more than 8,000 recorded threads and is designed to remember what she is told and to adapt to her customers advantages. A companion app lets elders set up a Hello Barbie account that unlocks the dolls conversational features.

Price: $74.99

Osmo Gaming System for iPad

Is your child siblings attention incessantly glued to a design screen? You might as well get them something that diverts a tablet into the ultimate educational toy. Osmo is an iPad camera clip-on that passes the room in front of the design into an interactive activity opening where users can play all sorts of games.

This is, without a doubt, one of the hottest toy this season, so you better grab one while you still can.

Price: $149.95

For a baby( and mothers !)

MamaRoo Infant Seat

A baby wants constant motion and stimulant, which prepares this awesome chair the perfect offering for the baby in your household. Its movements imitative yours when you are carrying the baby yourself. If you need to gradation away for a bit to do other real life circumstances, you can set the child down on the MamaRoo and control its gestures and sounds( it can play MP3s !) through your smartphone using Bluetooth connectivity.

4moms

The price tag on this contraption might be a little steep for a newborn endow, but if you think about it, its a combo gift for “their childrens” as well as the mommy and father, so its totally worth it.

Price: $269.99

Kinsa Smart Thermometer

When your baby is find under the weather, its tantalizing to let terror and stress reign; formerly you do , nothing gets done. This is why its almost necessary to have easy-to-use tools at hand when you are caring for a sick child.

Kinsa

One such implement is a smart thermometer that plugs into your smartphone through the headphone jack and tells you take advantage of your machines treating supremacy, which is far and away better than that of a digital thermometer.

It comes with an app that attains the accomplishments of temp-taking easier on the mother and much more merriment for the child. If you’re looking to give a practical and inexpensive child gift, this is your best bet.

Price: $14.99

Mimo Smart Onesie

As an adult, tone nap is hard to come by. The offering of good sleep is something almost anyone will appreciate and is beneficial for, specially a newborn. This smart onesie is equipped with a sensor that would allow us to keep track of highly important baby stats such as mas standing, sleeping temperature, gesture, breathing, and of course, sleep.

Mimo

This is something that makes a great endow to new mothers because it gives them retain attached to the newborn at all hours of the nighttime; the onesie regularly moves reports to a smartphone, standing moms and pops a restful night as well.

Price: $199.99( includes 3 kimonos sizing 0-3 months)

For your pet

Petzi Treat Cam

If youre going to be away for the holiday season, you better make sure your furry friend is accompanied by a loving replace. While a human pup sitter is of course required, having a contraption helpful that let you keep in touch with your domesticated has its perks.

Through your smartphone, you can see live footage of your baby, thanks to the Petzi Treat Cam. It likewise allows you to speak to your pet as well as take still pictures when they come and respond to the chime of your singer. What shapes it breathtaking is it also makes you dispense plows remotely, so even though youre not there to feed or reinforce your puppy or “cat-o-nine-tail” in person, you are able to be involved in their daily routine.

Price: $169.99

Pet Bed Warmer

Elevate your swine digs with a lil somethin somethin to keep them heated at night( or daywinter is coming ). This bottom warmer might be a so-so concept to you whos already comfy in your sweaters and fleece PJs and cushy comforters, but for your hound or cat, this could be heaven.

K& H Manufacturing

This is the warmer part, though, so make sure you likewise purchase a cover. Price : $15.99( small ), $19:45( medium ), $19.59( big ), and $36.44( extra large) through Amazon Prime

Bark Box subscription

Dogs are very easy to please. Just give them an smorgasbord of dolls and plows and theyre golden. Just like a toddler, however, the best interest is very easy to walk, so what they adore now they may not open a damn about later.

BarkBox

Rather than regularly going to a domesticated supermarket to purchase a variety of new domesticated playthings, Bark Box sends you brand-new knick-knacks your furry pal will surely experience. And they do it on a monthly basis! Price depends on the kind of subscription you avail, and makes are dependent on the size of your dog.

Price: $29/ container for a few months, $24/ casket for 3 months, $21/ carton for 6 months, and $19/ container for a year

Illustration by Max Fleishman

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tune-collective · 7 years

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Tigers Jaw's Charming New LP & Atlantic's Latest Cred-Carrying Imprint Are Alt-Rock's New Major Label Hopes

The beloved indie-punk band follows 2014’s ‘Charmer’ — released on scene staple Run For Cover Records — with the debut for new label Black Cement.

Tigers Jaw vocalist-guitarist Ben Walsh calls Saves the Day’s In Reverie his favorite record. The seminal New Jersey punk band’s 2003 release is best known today not for its intricate melodies — as Walsh would probably prefer — but as the prototypical punk band-screwed-over-by-major label cautionary tale. Saves the Day’s three previous albums — released through respected indies Equal Vision and Vagrant — upped the grassroots ante to the point where they seemed likely to follow like-minded bands like Jimmy Eat World and New Found Glory to major label success. The opposite happened.

“They got dropped from [Dreamworks Records] the day the record came out,” Walsh remembers. The press archives technically place it a few weeks later, but the point remains — when majors court punk bands, there’s a boom-or-bust history with a lot more Dear Yous than Dookies in its wake. It’s especially jarring to hear this from Walsh because the Scranton, Penn. band’s latest album is coming out this spring on the brand new imprint of a major record label. It’s called spin and it’s arriving May 19 on a new Atlantic Records venture dubbed Black Cement.

The shock has nothing to do with Tigers Jaw’s credentials (Charmer was actually filled with cozy harmonies) and everything to do with punk’s almost non-existent relationship with the current major-label ecosystem and its especially volatile past. “We came from a generation of bands that formed shortly after the collapse of the seedy industry, big label, big 360-deal era,” Walsh says, thinking back to Tigers Jaw’s 2005 formation. “A lot of bands did get screwed over by major labels. [Tigers Jaw] was formed with this pre-conceived caution.” Brianna Collins, Walsh’s songwriting counterpart, likens that caution to “the image you have in your mind of a major-label person wearing a suit, buying steak dinners.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG3E0SAw4uA

The duo — Walsh alongside keyboardist-vocalist Brianna Collins — was wooed by a decidedly less destructive vision of strip clubs and A-list restaurant tabs, courtesy of chief ambassador and A&R rep for Black Cement, Will Yip. For the better part of the last decade, the Philadelphia-based producer built a reputation as the amicable, accommodating guiding light behind some of the alt-rock underground’s most influential albums — Title Fight’s Hyperview, La Dispute’s Rooms of the House, Balance and Composure’s The Things We Think We’re Missing and naturally, Tigers Jaw’s previous LP, crafted after three-fifths of the band (including founding songwriter Adam McIlwee) announced plans to go their separate ways. “Charmer for us was a transitional period, but [Yip] was so consistent and so creative and helpful,” Walsh says. “So it was completely a natural thing — ‘No matter who’s putting out our next record, we want to work with Will.’”

The feeling’s mutual. “There’s a Mount Rushmore of bands that are kind of the OGs in this world,” says Yip. His etched-in-stone core four includes Tigers Jaw, plus the trio mentioned above. “When Black Cement formed, Atlantic approached me [saying] we wanna do a label with these bands… [I said] ‘You can’t do this label without some of the OGs.’” Dave Rath, head of A&R at Roadrunner Records for the past decade, had long been fascinated by Yip’s corner of the rock world and spent over two years planning Black Cement with Yip. “Other labels are running away from rock while we’re running at it,” Rath asserts. Case-in-point: Atlantic now houses what figures to be the most punk and indie rock-oriented imprint of any major label alongside the hard rock-heavy Roadrunner and the pop-rock smorgasbord Fueled By Ramen.

So Yip’s world has a Mont Rushmore, but does it even have a name? These groups are all adjacent to those commonly placed within the so-called “emo revival,” but sound nothing akin to bands like My Chemical Romance and mascara-era Fall Out Boy that the three-letter word commonly evokes. (Neither do the core “emo revival” bands, for that matter, but that’s a discussion for another day). Punk or alt-rock? Those qualifiers are less incorrect, but no more compelling. Perhaps it’s most accurate to define Tigers Jaw’s world by what it isn’t. “It’s not like Mumford & Sons, that folky alternative stuff,” Yip says. “Mainstream rock radio really isn’t true rock music to me… I love a lot of stuff that’s on the radio. I love fun. — they’re my buddies — but I don’t think of them as a rock band.”

Rock or not, the fact Yip names a band that hasn’t been active in two years is telling of the genre’s place in Top 40 in 2017. And the dearth of non-folksy guitar extends even to alternative radio. Once the playground of established bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Linkin Park, this week’s Alternative Songs tally features only two electric guitar-driven songs in its top 10 and a guitar-less Linkin Park song at No. 22. “Guardian,” the yearning, Walsh-fronted first single shared from spin, sounds a little like pre-major label Death Cab For Cutie (one of the few traditional alt-rock bands left on radio these days) and virtually nothing else heard on the format these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxat0Y-l59g

But the label is trying. Rath confirms Tigers Jaw will be worked to alternative radio and with the band’s blessing, radio mixes have been made for “Guardian” and “June,” a sunlit guitar-pop nugget that’s yet to be released, but an even better bet to catch on. It features Collins on lead vocals; though a longtime member, the keyboardist didn’t get her shine as a vocalist until she ran away with the opening verse on “Hum,” Charmer‘s most popular track. This time around, she’s writing her own songs for the first time. “I just never thought I’d be capable of that role in the band,” she says. “The experience with ‘Hum’ was what started myself thinking that maybe I could really try to do this. [spin] was the first record Ben and I did completely on our own. Tigers Jaw had always been two primary songwriters and I thought I might as well give it a go.”

Collins, like Walsh, is aware of her scene’s brushes with the mainstream and that yes, it’s sometimes clicked. Fall Out Boy and MCR were among her early influences, and she happily remembers cheering on New Found Glory on TRL. But the playing field has changed a lot since the early 2000s. Aside from guitar rock’s struggles on radio, it lags mightily behind just about every beat-driven genre in the streaming game.

These will be uphill battles, but the live stage presents particular opportunity for Tigers Jaw. The festival circuit has long been a boon for underappreciated alt acts, and last year, Lollapalooza’s lineup even featured Modern Baseball and Pinegrove, the exact sort of indie-punk bands you’d expect Tigers Jaw to share bills with. Being part of the Atlantic family opens doors, too; both Walsh and Rath float the idea of Tigers Jaw playing with Paramore, longtime Fueled By Ramen members who’d figure to be on the road soon to promote the new album they’ve been teasing.

Major label life will be a unique challenge for Tigers Jaw, but their numerous successful muses prove the scene can indeed hang in a god damn arms race. Around the same time Dreamworks obliterated Walsh’s beloved Saves the Day, it vaulted a once-failed major label band called Jimmy Eat World to stardom. But at the end of the day, Yip assures, “Tigers Jaw does not need a record label in 2017, period,” just as Walsh stresses this wasn’t “some sort of Hail Mary move to blow up the band.” Tigers Jaw has spent over a decade nurturing a grassroots fanbase; now Black Cement gets to nurture one quarter of Yip’s Mount Rushmore.

“The coolest part about this record,” says Walsh, “is that it was totally finished before we signed any deal, before we committed to any label. The record is exactly how we envisioned.”

This article originally appeared on: Billboard

http://tunecollective.com/2017/03/25/tigers-jaws-charming-new-lp-atlantics-latest-cred-carrying-imprint-alt-rocks-new-major-label-hopes/

#altrocks #amp #atlantics #charming #credcarrying #hopes #imprint #jaws #label #latest #LP #major #tigers

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