Hey!
First, welcome to all the new subscribers! I'm so happy you're here. Intergalactic Mixtape is a newsletter geared toward the SFF community, and I'm always looking to grow its reach. Sharing issues with your SFF pals or posting about it when you find things you like helps a lot. :)
This week we have some video game retrospectives, a slew of Murderbot news, and book recs from some of y’all!
“Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy”
Obviously I must start off this issue with a link to the new Murderbot Diaries story, this time featuring ART and its crew. It’s a novelette, not a short story, like I thought it would be, so I’m extra excited. I hope one day we get logical compilation collections of the Murderbot books along with their associated short fiction interstitials.
Murderbot Starring Alexander Skarsgård Gets Season 2 Renewal at Apple TV+
When I saw this article I screeched because this is what I’ve been waiting for. I was so nervous that there wouldn’t be enough interest in the series or that fans of the books wouldn’t like the changes well enough to keep on. Also, now that the finale is upon us, it’ll be a little easier to sell new fans on it as a bingeable experience. As an adaptation, I thought it was good and I fully expect the creators to be more comfortable with the character/world going forward. I don’t know what Season 2 looks like, but it’s gotta involve ART so now I have something new to be excited/anxious about. Anyway, dear Apple TV: Kevin R. Free is a member of SAG-AFTRA.
The Opening of ‘Final Fantasy IX’ Is a Love Letter to Fantasy Itself
It’s been years since I played Final Fantasy IX, but this essay about the opening and the introduction to some of the first-introduced main characters was really lovely. FFIX is a weird game; the tone and style is such a dramatic shift from the steampunk/techno style of VII and VIII that back when I played it and talked with people about it, there was a lot of bemusement about the change in tone and focus. It’s pulling at different chords of fantasy genre and is unapologetic about it. Reminders of Vivi’s story alone make me want to replay it.
Super Mario Bros 3: Lively and lovely
It feels like I’m reading a lot of great nostalgia pieces about games I love recently. When I think about Mario games I love a lot, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario RPG, and Super Mario Sunshine are on the top of my personal list. And though I think Super Mario World is my best beloved Mario, I agree with the essay wholeheartedly that SMB3 expanded the way I approached linear gameplay.
What's an SFF work written by a woman that you think deserves a screen adaptation?
The Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog asked this on Bluesky and the replies/quotes are full of opinions. I’m not alone in shouting into the void of Hollywood to figure out how to do The Broken Earth or Temeraire. Is The Locked Tomb adaptable? I haven’t read past Gideon the Ninth so I’m unsure. And I know it’s impossible because there are so many books and no one is going to invest in an urban fantasy soap opera, but I would love a creepy fairytale style animated adaptation of the October Daye. I know Don Bluth is like, 90, but Toby Daye fighting injustice in the style/tone of The Secrets of NIMH would rock.
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (Civilian Reader)
Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan (Alexandra Pierce @ Locus)
Bee Speaker by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Womble @ Runalong the Shelves)
The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien (Niall Harrison @ Locus)
Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin (Danika Ellis @ The Lesbrary)
Esperance by Adam Oyebanji (Adrienne Martini @ Locus)
FIYAH Issue #34 (Womble @ Runalong the Shelves)
Ironheart (Frantz Jerome @ Black Nerd Problems)
Jurassic World: Rebirth (Arturo Serrano @ Nerds of a Feather)
Kpop Demon Hunters (Ann Michelle Harris @ Nerds of a Feather)
The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso (Amanda Růžičková @ The Lesbrary)
The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J.R.Dawson (T.O. Munro @ The Fantasy Hive)
Lost in Starlight (Vance K @ Nerds of a Feather)
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
Rose House by Arkady Martine (Niko'sBookReviews)
The Secret Market of the Dead by Giovanni De Feo (Elias @ Bar Cart Bookshelf)
Superman (Jason Flatt @ But Why Tho?)
The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen (Cat Treadwell @ The Fantasy Hive)
The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica (Gabino Iglesias @ Locus)
Over at Reactor, Alex Brown's recap of the penultimate Murderbot episode is available to refresh your memory before the finale. They also compiled a list of Young Adult SFF/H for July & August 2025. Karin Tidbeck was at Five Books with recs for short science fiction. Book Riot collected some of their favorite SFF of the year so far. Paste has the Best New Fantasy Books of July 2025. Tori did a rapid fire Yes/No/Maybe on 2025 SFF books. I learn about loads of fantasy from Tori, so highly recommend her TikTok/Youtube. Bailey had a discussion about YA books and who they’re being marketed to. I’ve lived through multiple rounds of this discussion, but I found it interesting how expanding our experience and knowledge about gender has changed it over the years.
The World Fantasy Award finalists were announced. Public voting for the Ignyte Awards is open through Augist 15. The ConCurrent schedule is out, and registration is open. The Seattle Worlcon panels are out (I will not be touching the new drama with a ten foot pole). The deadline to vote in the 2025 Hugo Awards approaches on July 23. Over at SFF Book Reviews, Dina discusses her experience with the Best Series Hugo finalists. I have also reached Peak Hugo Reading Fatigue. As of writing, the Strange Horizons fund drive has three days left. They’ve reached their base goal but they’re so close to the special fungi issue stretch goal. I want the mushroom issue!!!
Tar Valon or Bust Presents covers The Crystal Cave, Book 2: The Falcon in Mary Stewart's Arthurian Saga. Episode #13 of Critical Friends is a conversation with Rachel Cordasco and Will McMahon about SFF in translation. The Narrated Podcast discussed the Best Series Hugo finalists. The Hugos There Podcast did a roundtable discussion about the Best Short Story finalists.
I don’t know if authors are more active or if my new Sources of News are showing me more things. The Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee has a sale on the audiobook for a limited time. You can read an excerpt from A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna (incredibly excited about this book!). Beth Cato shared photos of the finished copies of her next book, A House Between Sea and Sky. Ursula Whitcher reads from her book North Continent Ribbon, which is a finalist for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. Vajra Chandrasekera has a new story in The Sunday Morning Transport, “Death and Liquidity Under the New Moon”. This is part of their initiative to share free stories in July. A Netgalley drop that caught my eye was The King Must Die by Kemi Ashing-Giwa, which is out in November. Sara Omer, author of The Gryphon King, has a Big Idea essay to read. She also has an interview over at The Fantasy Hive. H.M. Long, author of The Winter Sea series, has an interview at Nerd Daily about the final book in the trilogy, Red Tempest Brother. Nerd Daily also has interviews with C.B. Lee and H.G. Parry. The cover and an excerpt from The Iron Garden Sutra by A. D. Sui is over at Reactor. I just finished The Dragonfly Gambit by Sui and it was great. At Paste, there’s a cover reveal and excerpt for The Legend of the Nine-Tailed Fox by Katrina Kwan.
Rainbow quilt! by Pat. Silly rainbow pigeons by Adam. Very cool raven by Coreyartus. Wiggle from its grasp!! by secondlina // Lord of Crows. Miles Edgeworth by ellielotus (calling this a doodle feels like negative self-talk to me, as a non-artist). Wind chime time by Mali. Summer Ivy by Mike Maihack.
This week’s rec list is a collection of SFF titles released in 2025. Thanks very much to everyone below who sent in a rec. I appreciate you! 💜
Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha
Summary: A collection of 12 meditative, subtly uncanny sci-fi and horror stories.
Rec: The atmosphere is impeccable in every single story. There are a few with gut-punch endings, a few that make you think, and a few that do both.
From: Tarvolon
But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo
Summary: Dália is installed as the new Keeper of the Keys for the Lady of the Capricious House, a humanoid spider named Anathema, after said Lady eats her mentor. Anathema has a taste for laudanum and human brides, and Dália must unravel the crime her predecessor committed if she wants to survive and maintain her position.
Rec: Giant lesbian spider woman: what's not to like? The worldbuilding is fantastic, and the character development for both Dália and Anathema is really solid. I don't normally read horror, but this book just sucked me in!
From: Kit Stubbs, Ph.D.
Mending Bodies by Hon Lai Chu
Summary: A grad student explores a growing trend in her society for couples to surgically attach their bodies together.
Rec: My favorite type of speculative fiction! The author drops you into this world with this very strange premise, and you're puzzling out the whys of the world while the main character is figuring out her own drive and motivations. This is a translated piece from Hong Kong and I think the non-US centric perspective brings a lot of interesting layers into the premise.
From: Vegetableink (Meagan)
On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle
Summary: Tara Selter, a French rare bookseller, finds herself stuck in a time loop experiencing the 18th November again and again. We follow her through many such 18th Novembers, in this part 1 of supposedly 7 parts, as she struggle with how to live in this fixed moment.
Rec: Rather than treat the time loop as strictly a puzzle to be solved or a source of hijinks, On the Calculation of Volume dives deep into the experience and texture of living through countless days where you move on but nobody else does. It takes it's SF concept seriously alongside brilliant interiority and a deliberate pacing that echoes the predicament of the protagonist.
From: Ed Morland
This has been issue #10 already! Thanks to everyone who has been reading along since the beginning and to the new subscribers for giving my nerdy newsletter a chance. 🥰
Going forward, every time I have at least four recs in the book rec hopper, I’ll run them as a grab bag rec list. Feel free to drop a rec any time you read an SFF title you want to shout about. You can always find the rec submission form in the email footer.
See y’all next week!