Norse gods and their roles

by Kameron Hurley
A woman named Zan wakes up in a sick bay minus most of her memories. She is greeted by a woman named Jayd, daughter to the lord of the Katazyrna, who says they are sisters, and that Zan is the only one who can help her people. From this intriguing beginning, Hurley throws us furiously into a universe where women fight and die for and aboard living worldships, organisms populated by maintained by their solely female populations, who give birth to everything needed to keep the ships healthy: children, monsters, even fleshy mechanical parts. But the Katazyrna is a dying world, and the coveted worldship Mokshi may hold the secret that will save it. Before Zan can get her bearings, Katazyrna is ambushed, and Zan and Jayd are thrust into dangerous new roles and a fight for their lives in a landscape that’s constantly shifting underneath them—and the reader. This is space opera like you’ve never seen it—angry, feminist, furiously inventive, and not a little frightening.

The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death, by Kim Harrison
Harrison thrills long-time readers of The Hollows with a prequel set 40 years before the start of Rachel Morgan’s adventures to depict the Turn: the moment when a genetically-altered tomato unleashed a plague that killed a billion humans and forced the magical Inderlander races out into the open. Geneticist Trisk Cambri, an elf, takes a job as an industrial spy, helping to develop the new vegetable that might change the world. Her rival Trent “Kal” Kalamack sabotages the project—and inadvertently unleashes the plague. The magical creatures are suddenly threatened with exposure, the only beings notably unaffected by the plagues. They’re left to try to save humanity without revealing their true nature. This page-turner is more than just backstory, though—it’s a compelling thriller and a welcome return to a beloved urban fantasy setting