April passed me by faster than expected, partly because of a bank holiday, but also because of my return to LARP after two and a half years of coronavirus-inflicted absence. It was good to see people again (and better to dress up as a fish person for a weekend without receiving any odd looks) but the blogging did take a hit. Between that and books taking longer than expected to finish, April At Boundary’s Edge started off crazy, had a long period of silence, then got crazy again these past few days. Let’s walk through it, shall we?

BOOK HAUL

Yes, I bought a few books in April, but I’m still on track to read more than I purchase. The TBR slowly dwindles. Here are the new additions

• The Deacon of Wounds, by David Annandale
• Assassinorum: Kingmaker, by Robert Rath
• Skyward Flight, by Brandon Sanderson & Janci Patterson
• Eyes of the Void, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Catachan Devil, by Justin Woolley

And in non-SF:

• Dawnshard, by Brandon Sanderson

IN TRANSIT

This morning saw a last minute purchase from Black Library, which should arrive in the coming fortnight.

• Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom, by Mike Brooks
• The Imperial Infantryman’s Handbook, by Graham McNeill

READING

I didn’t manage to read everything on my schedule for April, but I didn’t fall too far behind either.

• The Kaiju Preservation Society, by John Scalzi
• Embedded, by Dan Abnett
• Star Trek Coda #1: Moments Asunder, by Dayton Ward
• Star Trek Coda #2: The Ashes of Tomorrow, by James Swallow
• Star Trek Coda #3: Oblivion’s Gate, by David Mack
• Kingdoms of Death, by Christopher Ruocchio
• Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Light Chaser, by Peter F. Hamilton & Gareth L. Powell
• Memory’s Legion, by James S. A. Corey

And in non-SF

• Gladiator, by Simon Scarrow

AUDIO

My audiobook for April is Gene Kranz’ autobiographical account of the space race, Failure is Not an Option. I don’t think I’ll be reviewing this, but it is a great listen for anyone interested in space travel, and full of insights into the tragedies and triumphs that too the United States into space. I also listened to a pair of SF-adjacent albums, in the form of Grailknights’ Muscle Bound For Glory and Poison Garden’s Army of Dreamers. At the start of the month, I also uploaded my long-delayed reviews of some Blake’s 7 audio dramas, which you can find here and here, as well as the first (hopefully of many) Star Trek audio drama, No Man’s Land.

TV

Star Trek; Picard continued its very rocky second season, and there’ll be a review of that coming once the final episode airs at the start of May. I also tried to get into Orphan Black, but found it to be better as an acting exercise for Tatiani Maslany than as a piece of science fiction, with the SF aspects often overshadowed by the domestic lives of its protagonists. In retrospective news, I also published my thoughts on Season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery and Season 1 of The Book of Boba Fett.

ARTICLES

I only published one article this month, but it’s one I’m quite proud of. For once, that pride was matched by audience reaction. Grimdark: What is it, and who does it belong to? won’t be my last deep dive, and I’m already planning more.

SPSFC

Phase 2 of the SPSFC is nearing its conclusion. While I’m still comparing scores with my fellow judges and haven’t written the full reviews yet, I did have time for gut reactions on the six books I was handed for this part of the competition. You can find reactions to the first three HERE, and the second three HERE.

SITE UPDATES

Views were up on last month, and I also had some lovely comments (both on the blog and elsewhere). This months posts have done reasonably well, but I’m noticing that a lot of older posts are starting to gain traction. My two-year old Foundation reread is finally picking up the views, and WarhamMarch proves to be the gift that keep son giving. It just goes to show, it’s not all about creating new content, but writing material that people will come back to in the future.