The new year got off to a great start. If not for the world at large, then at least for At Boundary’s Edge. Probably my most successful month of blogging to date, and with the promise of even more still to come.

BOOK HAUL

I tried to cut back on my book buying this month, but between a lot of December’s orders finally arriving and a hefty January release slate from Black Library, that plan didn’t last for long.

• The Eagle’s Conquest, When the Eagle Hunts, The Eagle and the Wolves, The Eagle in the Sand, Praetorian, all by Simon Scarrow and part of his Eagles of the Empire series.
• Sinopticon, edited by Xueting Christine Ni
• Urdesh: The Magister and the Martyr by Matthew Farrer
• The Twice-Dead King: Reign, by Nate Crowley
• Da Gobbo’s Revenge, by Mike Brooks
• Vaults of Obsidian, a Blackstone Fortress anthology
• The Bookkeeper’s Skull, by Justin D Hill
• Day of Ascension, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Things then took a turn for the worse (or better, depending on your perspective) as I made my first trip in two years to Hay-on-Wye, the second hand book capital of the world. It wasn’t as costly as it could have been, but I did end up flooding my TBR. Some were books I’d been seeking for a while, but many more were impulse purchases, and there were some authors I’d never even heard of before that made their way into my possession.

• Precipice and Moonwar, both by Ben Bova
• The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov, by (you guessed it) Isaac Asimov
• The Fuzzy Papers, by H. Beam Piper
• The Gryb, by A.E. van Vogt
• Jupiter Laughed, by Edmund Cooper
• The Fall of the White Ship Avaltar, by Brian Daley
• Earth, by David Brin
• The Enemy of my Enemy, by Christie Golden
• Servants of the Wankh, by Jack Vance
• Embedded, by Dan Abnett
• Last and First Men, by Olaf Stapledon
• The Bridge, by Janine Ellen Young

READING

I made good progress through my ever-volatile TBR this month, managing to stick to most of my plans, and slide in a few extra books too. I read but didn’t review the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th books of SImon Scarrow’s Eagle’s of the Empire series, and Robert Jordan’s Warrior of the Altaii, which broke up my SF reading nicely. On the SF front, I read and reviewed:

• Mars, Return to Mars, and Venus, all by Ben Bova, who is one of my new favourite authors
• The Shattered Skies, by John Birmingham
• The Last Watch and The Exiled Fleet, both by J.S. Dewes
• The Gryb, by A.E. van Vogt
• Resistance, by J.M. Dillard and Force and Motion by Jeffrey Lang, both Star Trek novels
• Da Gobbo’s Revenge by Mike Brooks, the Vaults of Obsidian anthology, Avenging Son, by Guy Haley, and Steel Tread by Andy Clarke, all of which are Warhammer 40,000 books.

AUDIO

Not only did I manage to finish Ronin, but I also devoured the new audio rerelease of Rogue Squadron. The latter has ensured that Star Wars audiobooks become a regular feature here. I’ve also taken the plunge back into Big Finish thanks to their continuation of Blake’s 7 in audio form. I’m only a little way in, but I am loving it.

TV

Most of my speculative viewing in January came courtesy of season 3 of Titans, which continues to be a glorious mess that should not on any level work, but somehow still does. Any show with Krypto the Superdog is surely worth a look. Finally, I have started watching the last series of The Expanse, which is proving to be everything I hoped it would be.

ARTICLES

Other than outlining some of my plans for the year, I only posted one proper article, which was my contribution to Vintage Science Fiction Month. A lot of the time we talk about classics of the genre, so I wrote about some books that often get overlooked.

SPSFC

In case you missed it yesterday, the team and I have announced our picks for the semi-finals. On a personal note, I also posted my general thoughts on how the contest is going so far, which seems to have struck a chord with many. I’m a great believer in transparency, and you can expect another post in a similar vein towards the end of the contest.

SITE UPDATES

For the first time ever, I crossed 3000 views in a single month. This will be my fourth year of blogging, and I see no reason I can’t continue to grow. Thanks for being here with me as I explore the myriad worlds of science fiction.