It’s the last day of January. AKA that day we collectively ask ‘Where is this year going?’ After all, it’s a month that always seems to fly by, and 2023 has been no exception. It seems like only yesterday that we were building up to Christmas, but now we’re staring into February. But let’s take a step back, and talk about January for a little bit longer.

Reading Stats

• Books Read: 10
• Pages Read: 2519
• Pages per Day: 81.26
• Average Star Rating: 2.8/5
• Book of the Month: Proxima, by Stephen Baxter

I stuck precisely to my planned TBR this month, which is something of a surprise. Having raced through the first half of the month, the second half only saw me read three books, thanks to a combination of increased workload and books that were tricky to get into anyway. I’m hoping (though admittedly not expecting) that next month will go a little smoother.

Book Haul

I have been magnificently restrained this month, and only purchased three books. Part of this is having a large TBR already in place, but there’s also a conscious effort on my part to make fewer impulse purchases when it comes to books. My book haul for January is:

• Wrath of the Lost, by Chris Forrester
• Ashes of Man, by Christopher Ruocchio
• Blindness, by Jose Saramago

Reviews

• Books: Isaac’s Universe 1,2,3, edited by Martin H. Greenberg
• Book: The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, by Robert A. Heinlein
• Book: Captain Proton! Defender of the Earth, by Dean Wesley Smith
• Book: Sidewise in Time, by Murray Leinster
• Book: Quantum Leap: Prelude, by Ashley McConnell
• Book: A Talent for War, by Jack McDevitt
• Book: Unity, by S. D. Perry
• Audiobook: Cadia Stands, by Justin D Hill
• Audiobook: The Krytos Trap, by Michael A. Stackpole
• Audiobook: The War of the Worlds, by HG Wells

Articles

• The National Science Day Book Tag

SPSFC

Phase One came to a close with a flurry of reviews and announcements. We should be getting the details on Phase Two soon, but for now here’s what you might have missed.

• Review: Inquisitor, by Mitchell Hogan
• Review: The Diamond Device, by MH Thaung
• Review: Earthship, by John Triptych
• Review: Empire Reborn, by A.K. DuBoff
• Review: The Empyrean, by Katherine Franklin
• Announcement: Meet the Semifinalists

Vintage Science Fiction Month

All but a few of my reviews this month were for books written before I was born, in a happy marriage of my desire to clean up my TBR stack, and January being #VintageSciFiMonth over on Twitter. I still have an unfinished article hanging around that I hope to get up sooner rather than later, but otherwise I am up to date (no pun intended) with my vintage reading. I have to say, even though I didn’t enjoy all of the books I read this month, I did enjoy exploring the history of the genre in a little more detail.

Updates

I had planned to get my new Discord server up and running this month, but real life rather got in the way. The server is currently complete, and only needs minimal tweaking, and with any luck I’ll be able to launch it in February. A few people have said they’re interested, and I intend to launch it with some fanfare.

I’ve also been changing the format of my reviews a little, hopefully making them more manageable for readers. The big change here is a Deeper Dive on some random element of the book, or a related topic, at the foot of each review. So far these have been fun to write, and forced me to actually think about the books in more detail.

As always, if there’s anything science fiction related you’d like to chat about, or just see me cover here At Boundary’s Edge, just let me know in the comments.