The New Books Roundup, January 3: Difficult Women and Star Wars
For the very first new books roundup of the year, we have a collection of short fiction from Roxane Gay as well as a collection of Star Wars comics.
It’s only the third day of January. So we still feel perfectly justified in wishing you a happy new year and a happy new reading year as well. Should you be a Goodreads member, the site has almost certainly prompted you to set a reading challenge for this year. What better way to start that off than with some newly-released books?
Title links take you to Amazon, and we also link to Goodreads to remove several steps from the “adding a book to your to-read list” equation.
Difficult Women
Our woman of the week, Roxane Gay, has followed up previous books like Bad Feminist and An Untamed State with this set of short stories. Each features a woman who might have some difficult circumstances or just generally be difficult, which isn’t always a bad thing. Goodreads reviews are quite effusive with praise, particularly for stories like “I Will Follow You,” which opens up the entire work. There are also quite a few exclamations about Gay’s prose. Not only is this a good pickup based on its author, it’d also be a good way to start reading more short story collections. Grove Press; hardcover, 272 pages; list price: $25.00.
Star Wars: Han Solo
Featuring work from Marjorie Liu and Mark Brooks on the story and illustrations, respectively, this trade paperback collects the first five issues of Marvel’s Han Solo comic. Now working for the Rebel Alliance, Han has a covert mission to help out some spies. Naturally, he has to have a cover, right? Right. In this case, he’s sent to participate in the Dragon Void, which despite having a more Game of Thrones-type name is actually a race. Which would be worse: losing the race, or upsetting Princess Leia? (We all know the answer is “upsetting Leia”). If you’re a bit intimidated by the bevy of Star Wars comics, this might be a good place to start. Goodreads reviews are light on the ground as of this writing. Marvel; paperback, 120 pages; list price: $16.99.
The X-Files Origins: Agent of Chaos and Devil’s Advocate
Time for a two-for-one special. These two separate books are exactly what they say they are. Agent of Chaos features a teenage Fox Mulder as he tries to settle in to a new life in Virginia. Of course, even though he hasn’t quite become the agent we all know and love, he can’t quite keep himself from getting involved in a serial killer case on the quest to find his sister. Devil’s Advocate, meanwhile, shifts the focus to a 15-year-old Dana Scully in the same year. Her story revolves around her dreamlike visions and her choice to move into the realm of skepticism and set up shop. Agent of Chaos has a slightly higher Goodreads rating, but Devil’s Advocate isn’t far behind. Imprint; hardcover, 320 (Agent of Chaos) and 368 (Devil’s Advocate) pages; list price: $18.99 each.
Next: 12 SF&F Books We Want to Read in 2017
Also out today is the movie tie-in edition of Fifty Shades Darker, probably corresponding with that new trailer that came out last night. It does not look much different than many other novels of its kind, but it does have Jamie Dornan on the cover.
Which books are first on your reading list?