Sistah Samurai by Tatiana Obey

Afro Samurai meets The Sword of Kaigen in this anime-inspired novella This is no revenge story. I ain’t got time for that. I’ve got errands to run and things to do and barely enough time to make it home before sundown. I don’t care why folks are going around stealing ink. I don’t care why the monks are acting kinda strange. I don’t care that everybody is expecting me to save them. I might be a Sistah Samurai but those days playing hero were back when my knees didn’t ache, and I wasn’t the only one left. So leave me alone. All I want to do is get home, drink some green tea lemonade, and enjoy my peace. I’m not asking for much, so why are all these demons daring to get in my way? I am not the one. Not today. Sistah Samurai is an Action Fantasy novella that is an homage to the anime, Afro Samurai. Both works feature a feudal Japan-inspired setting that is rife with anachronisms. In the words of Samuel L. Jackson, “Is that a motherf—ing RPG?”

Jesus and John by Adam McOmber

Jesus and John is a Weird re-imagining of the New Testament as a novel of allegorical horror. John, a fisherman from a rural village on the shores of Galilee, is tasked with protecting the risen body of his lover who was crucified for disrupting Roman order in the city of Jerusalem. The body, having miraculously emerged from its cave-like tomb, refuses to speak and walks in a dream-like silence, disrupting the clear-cut message of the Apostle Peter and eventually leading John on a dangerous pilgrimage to a mysterious mansion in Rome known as the Gray Palace. There, the few inhabitants promise a celebration that may lead to a sacrifice John is unwilling to make. Incorporating Christian Gnosticism, Pagan dreams, and a contemporary will toward queer disruption, Adam McOmber's new novel tells a powerful story of devotion.