We’ve made it to the halfway point of the year. Congratulations, and don’t forget to take a break and read some books. Of course, I’ve been reading books all through the year, and June was no exception. It was also a somewhat remarkable month in that I managed to stick to my planned TBR. Let’s dive deeper into this miraculous month.

BOOK HAUL

This month sees a mega book haul from me, which is due in no small part to some kind soul donating a rather sizable Star Trek collection to the charity shop, which I promptly swooped down on.

• Deep Space Nine: Unity, by S. D. Perry
• Deep Space Nine: The Long Mirage, by David R. George III
• Deep Space Nine: Enigma Tales, by Una McCormack
• Deep Space Nine: Gamma: Original Sin, by David R. George III
• Terok Nor: Night of the Wolves, bu S. D. Perry & Britta Dennison
• Terok Nor: Dawn of the Eagles, by S. D. Perry & Britta Dennison
• Prey: Hell’s Heart, by John Jackson Miller
• Prometheus: Fire with Fire, by Bernd Perplies (translated by Christian Humberg)
• Prometheus: The Root of All Rage, by Bernd Perplies (translated by Christian Humberg)
• Prometheus: In the Heart of Chaos by Bernd Perplies (translated by Christian Humberg)
• The Next Generation: Hearts and Minds, by Dayton Ward
• The Next Generation: Headlong Flight, by Dayton Ward

Then we come to my Warhammer 40,000 buying, where thanks to the combined effort of store managers from Carmarthen, Swansea, and Portsmouth, I was able to complete some missing gaps in my collection.

• Blood Rite, by Rachel Harrison
• Ciaphas Cain: Defender of the Imperium, by Sandy Mitchell
• Ciaphas Cain: Saviour of the Imperium, by Sandy Mitchell
• Ghost Dossier: The Vincula Insurgency, by Dan Abnett
• The Helwinter Gate, by Chris Wraight
• Silent Hunters, by Edoardo Albert
• Deathwatch: The Omnibus, by various authors

Finally, I snagged a copy of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s latest Solaris novella, Ogres, the SFness of which I am yet to determine.

IN TRANSIT

After that onslaught of TBR boosters, it’s nice to not have anything waiting for me in the post.

READING

June was a fairly solid month of reading, albeit with a break in the middle. I knocked out my initial reading plan, with an alteration or two around the edges. I have, however, fallen behind on the reviewing side of things this past week, so consider this a teaser of reviews you can expect at the start of July.

• Homecoming, The Farther Shore, Old Wounds, and Enemy of my Enemy, all Star Trek Voyager novels by Christie Golden
• The Triumph of Saint Katherine, by Danie Ware
• Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom, by Mike Brooks
• Eyes of the Void, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Blood Rite, by Rachel Harrison
• Moonrise and Moonwar, by Ben Bova
• The Last Astronaut, by David Wellington
• Fall of the White Ship Avatar, by Brian Daley

And one non-SF book, The Blood Crows, by Simon Scarrow

AUDIO

I’ve had a lot of SF in my ears this month, both musical and dramatic. I haven’t had time to review all of it, but I’ll be getting around to it in the next week or so. I have reviewed Psyche Corporation’s brilliant new musical Refugees from the Otherworld, and the audiobook of Justin D Hill’s Terminal Overkill, but coming up I have reviews of:

• Dinosaur Warfare Pt 2: The Great Ninja War, by Victorius
• The War Master: Self-Defence
• Rogue Squadron: Wedge’s Gamble

TV

No reviews from me yet, but Obi-Wan Kenobi is probably my favourite Star Wars TV show to date. I’m also re-watching the first two seasons of The Orville in preparation for the third, and it is just as entertaining the second time around.

ARTICLES

I’ve been working on a couple of lengthier articles, but the only one I actually managed to finish this month was my retrospective on the Voyager novels.

SPSFC

My work for the SPSFC is essentially at an end. All the finalists have been reviewed by either myself or one of my teammates, and our scores are public. I plan a wrap up post in a week or so, but the necessary work is done. Here are the finalists reviewed this month:

Monster in the Dark

Steel Guardian

In the Orbit of Sirens

Iron Truth

Captain Wu

WRITING

After almost a full year of false starts and blank pages, I’m finally back at work on a manuscript. I’m only managing a few hundred words a day at present, but it’s nice to see something starting to come together.

SITE UPDATES

Not much to add this month. Views are good even if my posting has slipped through the cracks here and there. I’m racking up quite a backlog of posts I want to make, but next month will likely be slow as well do to limited PC access. Nevertheless, At Boundary’s Edge is still going strong, and I’m happy with how its faring in the grand scheme of things.