Hard as it is to believe, there are only two months left of the year 2022. This means two things. First, that the festive season is almost upon us. Second, that I really need to get a move on and clear out some of my TBR stack. The good news, as I mentioned in my October roundup, is that renovations are complete and I am finally set up with my library in its rightful place. Those lovely new shelves are crying out to be filled with science fiction, so let’s take a look at what’s heading their way.

TBR

As you can tell from this photo, some of the books bulking out my TBR are somewhat on the thick side. I am going to partially remedy this situation by kicking of the month with the Seven Novels omnibus of Jules Verne’s more famous works. In a rare deviation from the norm, I won’t be reading the stories wholly in order, as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea will be one of my rare buddy-reads. I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to write up my reviews of this massive tome, but I think it’ll be something a little different. After all, Verne is one of the forerunners of science fiction, and surely deserves special treatment.

Seven Novels is likely going to take me a while to finish, so I’m purposefully keeping the rest of my reading schedule light. Having failed to get around to it last month, I am again planning to read the Star Trek: Prometheus trilogy, if for no other reason than to keep that Star Trek half of the TBR under control. Hopefully it’s a little less dense than the Terok Nor trilogy, and if I get time I’m also going to tackle Shadows on the Sun from the Trek side of things. The latter is, I admit, not very likely.

Turning my attention to another franchise weighing down my TBR tower. Warhammer 40,000. Last month’s interview with Marc Collins has made me rather excited about Helbrecht, even if another space marine story isn’t what I’d usually go for. Reading The Vorbis Conspiracy will bring me up to date with Warhammer Crime, so that’s a high priority too. The novel I’m most excited about here though is Kasrkin. I was blown away by Edoardo’s Silent Hunters, and am generally a fan of all things Cadian, so this one has a lot going for it.

In terms of non-franchise fiction, I’m going to keep plugging away at the last few standalones on my TBR. That puts Samuel R. Delany’s Babel-17 squarely in my sights, alongside Roderick by John Sladek, and Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley. If I do find time to start a new series, it’ll likely be David Brin’s Sundiver, which stars his Uplift saga.

This gives me a very provisional reading schedule that looks like this:

• Seven Novels, by Jules Verne
• Fire with Fire, by Christian Humberg & Berndt Perplies
• The Root of All Rage, by Christian Humberg & Berndt Perplies
• In the Heart of the Chaos, by Christian Humberg & Berndt Perplies
• Helbrecht: Knight of the Throne, by Marc Collins
• The Vorbis Conspiracy, by various authors
• Kasrkin, by Edoardo Albert
• Ape and Essence, by Aldous Huxley
• Babel-17, by Samuel R. Delany
• Roderick, by John Sladek
• Shadows on the Sun, by Michael Jan Freidman (?)
• Sun Diver, by David Brin (?)

AND BEYOND

November tends to be the month that sees the last few big book releases for me, as I tend to avoid buying books around Christmas in case a kind family member leads to me having two copies. This November is no exception, with a couple of major releases alongside some I didn’t see coming.

• 12/11 – Inferno! Presents: The Emperor’s Finest, by various authors – The first Inferno! Presents anthology was a surprisingly strong collection of new and old names, and I’m hoping to pick up a few new favourites from this one.
• 12/11 – Only War: Tales from the 41st Millennium, by various authors – Another Warhammer anthology, this one is a bit of a mammoth and looks like it will be including stories from all across the setting.
• 22/11 – Caladan #3: The Heir of Caladan, by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson – Bringing the Dune saga full circle, this one is sure to wrap up a lot of dangling threads. It also leaves the question of what Herbert and Anderson will do next, which is a question I hope to see answered quite soon.
• 24/11 – Children of Time #3: Children of Memory, by Adrian Tchaikovsky – Linked more by common theme than anything else, Tchaikovsky’s epic tale of theoretical evolution looks set to go further than ever before with this third book.
• ?/11 – Witchfinder, by Stephen B. Fischer – More Cadians, you say? I say, yes please. The role of psykers in the astra militarum is one I haven’t seen tackled very often, so I’m looking forward to what this one holds.
• Star Wars: Andor will conclude its first season this month. Judging by the strength of the series so far, we should be in for a great finale. With season 2 already confirmed, however, I fear we may be bound for a cliffhanger ending.

Well, that’s your lot. As always, if I’ve missed anything, feel free to let me know in the comments or on social media. And if you happen to be attending Sci-Fi Weekender 13 this month, maybe I’ll see you there.