Hello, my little elderly ambers! In today’s round-up of recent sci-fi and fantasy links, I have updates to share about a tabletop game being made of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time, a peek at Demons and Diplomacy by Megan Frampton, and the opening of a new sci-fi and horror bookstore in Alexandria, Virginia.
My SFF reads for this week are Cloud Six by Amy Fusselman and The Imagitorium by Sarah Beth Durst. Also, check out the cover reveals for all the books in M.H. Foster’s upcoming Gentle Apocolypse trilogy!
Hey, gamers, Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is going to be an RPG!
Somehow I missed this news when it was announced in March: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is going to be a role-playing game! The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning novel is set in a future where the Earth is dying, and humans are trying to survive on a new planet that they thought was hospitable. (Spoiler: It’s not.) Indie tabletop studio Rowan, Rook and Decard will be creating and distributing the game based on the novel.
“In Children of Time: The Roleplaying Game, you become the authors of this grand tale. Construct an ark ship of your own and embark on an uncharted exodus towards a planet of your own making, where you uplift and nurture species of your own choosing. Or retell the epic saga of the ark ship Gilgamesh and the evolution of the Portid spiders on Kern’s world. The choice is yours.
Build the legacy of twinned societies across millenia, switching focus from your ailing ark ship to your evolving planet and back again as you face existential crises that forever alter the course of history. All to answer the greatest question imaginable: when your beaten ark ship limps into orbit around your history-rich planet, what will these two civilisations do when they finally meet?
Time and fate are in your hands.”
I haven’t read this series yet but I did recently read Tchaikovsky’s new release, Green City Wars, and loved it, so I plan to pick up the series soon!
Read an Excerpt from Demons and Diplomacy by Megan Frampton!
A new supernatural series is hitting shelves at the end of August! Demons and Diplomacy by Megan Frampton is the first book in the Ministry of Supernatural Affairs series.
This is a historical fantasy set in 19th-century England, where both humans and supernatural creatures exist, like Queen Victoria, who is actually a vampire. Cora Hastings works for the government trying to keep the peace between humans and creatures, but her job gets a lot harder when the Devil decides he wants to live in this world.
From the publisher’s description:
“Cora Hastings is the British government’s Species Ombudsman, a human tasked with keeping the peace between supernatural creatures. It’s run-of-the-mill work: enforcing the newly created shifting parameters, negotiating contracts between species, and generally making certain all Londoners are treated equally.
That is, until the Devil himself decides he wants to leave his hellish home and see the results of Prince Albert’s greatest accomplishment, the Great Exhibition. His arrival could upset the uneasy peace between creatures, and worse—he’s brought his son.”
Demons and Diplomacy by Megan Frampton is out August 25, 2026, from Berkley, but Reactor shared an excerpt from the novel. Here’s a peek:
“Miss Hastings,” the marquis said, “come with me. It is not safe.”
I glared at him, then at this hand still on my arm. “No, it is not. But how do I know it is safer with you?” After all, I had no clue how the creatures had gained access to this world from wherever they had originated. I shook his arm off.
His eyes narrowed, and then he huffed out a breath before bending down to wrap his arms around my waist and hoist my body over his shoulders.
I whacked him with my cane, right on his ass, but that did little to stop him. He carried me toward the entrance, then to the right, then plopped me down with little consideration for how I landed.
“Just what—?” I began, then saw the harpy, the Devil, some of his entourage, the vicar—who seemed visibly inebriated—and a few frightened bazaar customers all gathered together.
“How did it get opened?” the Devil thundered, plumes of smoke emerging from his mouth. I gathered that was what happened when he was truly angry.
So perhaps this wasn’t his work? I’d assumed it had some connection, but he looked as perturbed as any of the other beings in the corner. Unless he was pretending to be outraged.
That seemed above my pay grade, to be honest.
“We’ll have to find out,” the marquis said grimly. “In the meantime, you stay here,” he commanded. He met my gaze. “Stay here,” he repeated in a stern tone. “Stay safe.”
He whirled away before I could answer and headed back toward where the beings were streaming out from. I shrugged at the other people—and one devil—waiting there and took a deep breath before following him, wishing I had thought to ask our landlady if she had any potions that could disperse crowds of hellish creatures.
Alexandria is getting a Black-owned horror and sci-fi bookstore!
The horror and sci-fi bookstore Long Dark House in is set to open this fall in Old Town Alexandria in Virginia, and it sounds awesome.
“Once open, Long Dark House plans to launch several book clubs, including a Coastal Horror Book Club, a Black Horror Book Club, a Final Girl Book Club, a Strange Futures Book Club, and a Teen Horror Society, along with author readings, writing workshops, and tabletop gaming nights.”
The store isn’t due to open for another couple of months but they are hosting pop-up events over the summer. I wish I lived closer so I could attend the Widow’s Bay-inspired Patricia’s Sunset Cocktails!
Okay, star bits, now take the knowledge you have learned here today and use it for good, not evil. If you want to know more about books, I talk about books pretty much nonstop (when I’m not reading them), and you can hear me say lots of adjectives about them on the BR podcast All the Books! and on Instagram.
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