We’re a third of the way through the year. Yes, we could stop and ask ourselves how that happened so quickly, but we could also continue looking forwards. I know what I’m going to do. May is a brand new month, and I have a good feeling about it. Not least because I have some big plans for the blog. Let’s dive straight in.

TBR

Two months ago, I fully intended to run WarhamMarch, a March dedicated to celebrating Warhammer 40,000. That ended up not happening as I spent most of the month crawling around bookshops with my significant other. Now, I’m a big Warhammer fan, but I would make that trade any day of the year. Happily, my significant other is also a book blogger of some skill, and she asked ‘Why not WarhamMay?’ As usual, she made a good point. So here we are. Welcome to WarhamMay!

I have five meaty Black Library books in my TBR right now. I’m kicking off the month with the mammoth Sons of Sanguinius, a collection of Blood Angel fiction. My other two omnibuses are Renegades of the Long War and Josh Reynolds’ Fabius Bile. The latter is one I’ve often seen celebrated as some of the best Warhammer fiction, so that should be a fun one. I’ve also got two lone novels in the form of Mike Brooks’ Warboss and George Mann’s Awakenings. They look to be at polar opposites of the grimdark spectrum, giving me a full sampling of the grim dark future.

Obviosuly I’m going to include any more Warhammer fiction I acquire during the month, but I’m also going to be reading non-Warhammer stories to pace myself. It’s been on my TBR for a while now, so the Star Trek: Prey trilogy is my priority in this regard. I’m also planning to get through a bit more of my Halo tower as well. When I inevitably dip into my non-IP TBR, I’ll be choosing books through my (patent pending) random dice selection system, as that really helped me get into books last month.

& BEYOND

As well as reviewing a bunch of Warhammer books, I’m also going to be putting out a couple of articles. The first is going to be a run down of all the Black library books I consider “essential” reading for any would-be Warhammer 40,000 fans. The second will be a little look at what a Warhammer+ subscription gets you, and whether or not I think it’s worth getting. There’s a good chance I make a post about the modelling side of the hobby too, but I’m not going to promise anything concrete in that regard.

Looking to less grim dark offerings, I’ve still got my SPSFC commitments to think of. The finalists haven’t been announced just yet, but I’m hoping to get through them all this month, rather than leaving it to the last minute like I did in the semifinals. Once everything is finished and a winner is announced, I’ll also have an overall wrap-up post on things I’ve discovered after two years of judging the contest. But that won’t be this month.

RELEASE SCHEDULE

5th – Silo (AppleTV) – Based on Hugh Howey’s Wool series of books, this post-apocayptic story of people living in a bunker sounds intriguing, even if the twist seems easy enough to guess from the premise alone. It looks good though, so I’ll likely watch it when I have a gap in my viewing time.

6th – Warhammer 40,000: Pilgrims of Fire, by Justin D Hill – I don’t know what’s more exciting to me. The fact that this book is being written by one of my favourite Warhammer authors, or the fact that it’s apparently the first of a six-part series. I’ve been asking for multi-author series from Black Library for a long time. happy to see those prayers being answered.

14th – Fractal Noise, by Christopher Paolini – This one has drawn a lot of controversy online for its AI ‘drawn’ cover, but setting that debate aside it looks promising. It’s a pseudo-prequel to To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, but with a smaller page count I’m thinking it might be much more focused.

Once again, all of these plans are best intentions at best, and I’m sure I’ve missed something that’s heading my way. I must say though, May is looking good.