October has been a good month here At Boundary’s Edge. Twenty posts in total, which is around the number I seem to have settled on this year. That number is largely book review, of course, which continue to be the bread and butter of my blogging. But I’ve also been diversifying a little bit. Still science fiction, because branding is important, but more than just books. Let’s take a deeper look at the month just gone.

Book Haul

Book purchasing has slowed down substantially this month. A good thing, as it allows me to keep burning through my TBR. This is also around the time that family members start asking me what I’d like for Christmas. Like all good bookworms, I hand them several pages of my wishlist and forbid myself from buying any of those myself. nevertheless, I did pick up a handful of books in October.

Moments Asunder is Dayton Ward’s entry in the Coda series that will wrap up the Star trek Litverse. It looks like the next two volumes in this trilogy have been delayed by ongoing paper shortages, so I’ve held of on starting it just yet.

The Twice-Dead King: Ruin is Nate Crowley’s debut Black Library novel, and one I’m very much looking forward to. I love a good bit of xenos, and hopefully this one will deliver.

The Apollo Murders marks former astronaut Chris Hadfield’s adult fiction debut, and a quick look at the book promises a lot of first-hand experience in the writing of the book. I picked up the Waterstone’s signed edition, and I have to say Hadfield’s signature is one of the most unique I’ve seen.

Of Ants and Dinosaurs is a departure from the other Cixin Liu books I’ve enjoyed, but this bizarre alternate history novel is one I’ve been meaning to buy for a while.

The Lesser Devil & Other Stories is my big purchase for the month, a lovely special edition from Anderida Books. The quality of the printing reflects the stories inside, and hopefully bodes well for more special editions down the line for both author Christopher Ruocchio and Anderida Books.

Reading Progress

The Lesser Devil & Other Stories was the only new purchase I read this month. You can find my review of it here.

I had some major internet issues this month, so rather than allowing a backlog of reviews to build up, I took a break with a pair of fantasy books. Joe Abercrombie’s The Wisdom of Crowds gave a brilliant ending to his Age of Madness trilogy, and cemented his place as one of my favourite modern authors. On a more disappointing note, Susan Dennard’s Witchshadow was a shaky fourth offering in the Witchlands saga, and solidifies my belief that I have outgrown the Young Adult genre. That said, I’ll likely read the final book when it releases.

Back on my home turf of science fiction, I spent the rest of the month trying to catch up with numerous series. Most of this was Star Trek, as I read the entire The Fall series back to back. You can find my reviews of Revelation and Dust, The Crimson Shadow, A Ceremony of Losses, The Poisoned Chalice, and Peaceable Kingdoms by clicking on the relevant links. After that it was a return to the Titan story line with Takedown and Sight Unseen. I also read the final Titan novel, Fortune of War, and you can expect a review of that very shortly. All of this brought me up to date and ready for Coda, while also taking a massive reading commitment out of my TBR.

I also wrapped up my Dune reread that’s been ongoing since the start of the year. Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune might not be the best books in the saga, but they do provide a conclusive ending. I didn’t get a chance to see the film adaptation this month, but should do early in November.

The final series I caught up with is Red Rising. You can find my review of Iron Gold by clicking the link, and the review of Dark Age should be up next week. I’ll go into more detail as to why in the latter review, but this is one series I won’t be continuing with.

Audio Frequencies

I’m still dabbling with audiobooks, and most of this month was spent on Tom Holland’s Rubicon, chronicling the end of the Roman Republic. I find nonfiction so much easier to handle on audio than fiction, even if I do have to put it at double speed.

My fictional listening is largely limited to Star Wars. I listened to and review thee latest Star Wars audio drama Tempest Runner, and have just started the audiobook of Ronin, which is much more engaging than I expected.

On Screen

Internet issues meant I finally had time for a boxset. There’ll be a full review on the way soon, but Space: Above and Beyond is the absolute pinnacle of military SF television, and it’s such a shame it never got a second season. I’ve also started SyFy’s Definace, which I half-watched the first time around. It has good moments, but it’s far from the best TV the network produced.

Once the internet came back, October was the month of The Walking Dead, which continues to defy the odds and have a strong final season, and Fear the Walking Dead, which is pretty much the opposite. On the science fiction side, I’ve caught up with the second season of Lower Decks, and will be reviewing that shortly.

Articles

Though beset by technical difficulties, I was able to start two new series of articles, both about Star Trek. The Crew Builder series are my attempt to create the ideal crew from an in universe perspective. So far I’ve tackled Medical Professionals and Engineers. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the reaction to these, and there are plenty more still to come.

I also wrote my first Ethics of Trek article, this one focusing on the controversial events of ‘Tuvix.’ I intended to get a second post on ‘Cogenitor’ up, but didn’t have the time for it. Look out for that one in the near future.

The final article I posted this month was a list of books I’d like to reread. I’m not much of a rereader, but having reread Foundation and Dune in the past two months, I’ve been thinking about other books to do deeper dives into.

SPSFC

October saw a lot of activity in the Self Published Science Fiction Contest, both here and elsewhere. At Boundary’s Edge have revealed our second, third, and fourth batches of books to cut this month, and the fifth is in the works. We’ve just started our 100% reading, and I expect November will be quite busy as a result.

In addition to reading and reviewing the books themselves, I have a few plans for additional content. One of which should reach you early next month.

Writing

October has been a dry spell so far as writing goes. Stuck between projects and after a number of false starts, I wrote the opening chapters of a fantasy novel that I’ve had in my head for a few weeks. It didn’t really go anywhere, but it was a nice break, and hopefully I can come back to science fiction refreshed.

Wrap-Up

At Boundary’s Edge is still a very small blog, but this has been my best month ever. Thanks in no small part to the SPSFC, I’ve passed 1700 reviews for the first time. I still make posts that get single figure hits or even no views at all, but things are definitely looking up. Both here and on social media I’ve been getting a lot of comments on my articles, and some great conversation as a result. If you’ve been part of this, then you have my thanks. I still feel like an outsider at times, but I’m slowly getting more involved in the blogging community.

That’s everything for now. I’ll see you next time.