As we hurtle towards the half-way point of the year, it’s time to re-examine our TBR stacks and decide what to read in the month of June. I’m making good progress on my various reading goals, so this month I might shake things up a little. Let’s talk TBR.

TBR

Aw, look at the poor little diminished TBR. It’s only 21 books large now, which means I’m finally winning my epic struggle. That said, there are some pretty thick books in there. Books I plan to tackle this month.

There has been a Star Trek book on my TBR since December 2020, so my priority this month is reading all the Star Trek in this picture. These four Christie Golden Voyager novels fill in the gaps in my Litverse knowledge, and I’m probably going to read each pair back to back. They’re all on the short side, so I don’t expect them to take too long. I’ll probably have the first review up by the weekend.

Another series I plan to complete is Ben Bova’s Moonrise duology. Both of these books are fairly chunky, but Bova’s prose is easy reading, so they probably won’t take up as much time as you’d think. This also makes them perfect for long journeys, and I plan to read them on my middle of month train journey.

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Eyes of the Void and David Wellington’s The Last Astronaut were both on last month’s schedule, but got bumped down the list by the unexpected loaning of the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy. As such, both of them have found their way into this month’s TBR instead.

In order to keep my Warhammer 40,000 TBR under control, I plan to read the two short novels Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom and The Triumph of Saint Katherine. If I have time, I’ll read Catachan Devil too, but don’t count on it.

Depending on timing, I’m going to use June to clear out some of the odds and ends from my TBR. By which I of course mean Brian Daley’s Fall of the White Ship Avatar and H. Beam Piper’s The Fuzzy Papers.

That’s a lot of books, but a lot of them are pretty short. This gives me a June schedule that looks something like this:

• Homecoming, by Christie Golden
• The Farther Shore, by Christie Golden
• Eyes of the Void, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• The Last Astronaut, by David Wellington
• Old Wounds, by Christie Golden
• Enemy of My Enemy, by Christie Golden
• Moonrise, by Ben Bova
• Moonwar, by Ben Bova
• Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom, by Mike Brooks
• The Triumph of Saint Katherine, by Danie Ware
• Fall of the White Ship Avatar, by Brian Daley
• The Fuzzy Papers, by H. Beam Piper

AND BEYOND

I’m actually watching some science fiction television this month. Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi is off to a cracking start, and the remaining four episodes come out on Wednesdays (which is today). There’s also a fair bit of new SF heading my way this month, so let’s get straight to it.

13th – Cthonia’s Reckoning and Lupercal’s War. These two anthologies are sorely tempting me into the murky depths of the Horus Heresy. I’ve stayed away for a long time, but these look to be perfect introductions for newcomers.

22nd – Paramount+ launches in the UK at long last, meaning I can finally start watching Strange New Worlds. Which is nice, because I have heard only good things about it.

28th – The Lost Fleet: Outlands: Resolute, by Jack Campbell. John ‘Black Jack’ Geary’s interstellar adventures continue as the military SF series returns. This is a series that just goes from strength to strength, and I look forward to each new volume.

28th – Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith, by Adam Christopher. Luke and Lando is a combination that we haven’t seen nearly enough of, even in the old Expanded Universe. That alone has piqued my interest.

30th – Sands of Dune, by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson. The second Dune short story collection is a bit of a mystery to me, as I have no idea of its contents. Still, it’ll be interesting to see where the saga is headed next.

As always, I’m sure there’s something I’ve missed. Let me know what you’re looking forward to this month in the comments.