Today I’m going to do us all a favour and skip[ the preamble. Let’s take a look at that TBR!

TBR

After two months built around themes, I think it’s high time I took a month off and just read some great books. Obviously, I don’t know if they’ll be great until I’ve read them, so I guess I’ll just have to read as many as I can and get back to you with the results.

If any books have priority this month, it’s shorter works. I’ve rounded up a nice array of mass market paperbacks to satisfy my nerdy needs, and there is plenty of variety in these compact little wonders. I have no predetermined schedule, but here are some that jump out at me.

After thoroughly enjoying A Talent for War last year, I was eager to dive back into Jack McDevitt’s work. He’s unfortunately hard to find in the UK, so I’ll have to skip ahead to the third book, Seeker, to see if my muted reaction to Chindi was a one-off.

Three more authors I’ll possibly be returning to this month are Greg Bear, Eric Brown, and Edmond Hamilton. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read of these folks so far, but I’m yet to tackle some of their most famous works. For Bear, that’s Eon, for Brown it’s Helix, and for Hamilton it’s The Star Wolf omnibus.

That omnibus leads me on to another ‘series’ of sorts. The venture SF range has given me some great reads so far, and now I’ve got more offerings from Hamilton, David Drake, Roger MacBride Allen, and Richard C. Meredith. The latter of which I am very excited to read. The Venture SF range is one of those collections I’m slowly working on acquiring, and at less than thirty books, it’s certainly an achievable goal.

A lot of my provisional TBR, however, is made up of authors who are completely new to me. I’m starting one of these today. I quote often get stuck in a rut of reading the same old authors again and again, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for something new and wonderful to jump out at me.

& BEYOND

Naturally, I’ll be reviewing a whole lot of books this month, but my main priority right now is catching up on lapsed obligations from last month. So some Best of British articles are still headed your way. Other than that I have no set plans. Wouldn’t want to burn out, after all. That said, I’ll hopefully be putting out some feelers for interviews further along the calendar. And who knows? Maybe this will be the month Empires of Science Fiction gets back underway.

RELEASE SCHEDULE

7 – The Doomed Earth #1: In Our Stars, by Jack Campbell – A new Jack Campbell novel is always a cause for celebration, and this one comes with the added excitement of being the first in a new universe. Military SF, of course, but this time involving time travel.

9 – A View from the Stars, by Cixin Liu – It’s been a long time since Liu’s last novel, but now we have another collection of short stories to enjoy. This one also contains several essays by Liu on topics related to science fiction. That’s of particular interest to a geek like me, but I’m sure the stories are worth it on their own.

10 – Phantoma, by Unleash the Archers – The latest album by Canada’s finest heavy metal band is a dive into the world of artificial intelligence, both in narrative and design. I may not like their every song, but Unleash the Archers are certainly one of the more interesting bands out there right now.

16 – Outer Range, Season 2 (Amazon Prime) – I’m still unsure if this show is brilliant or just pretentious, but either way I’m hooked. When you have actors with the pedigree of Josh Brolin and Will Patton, I’ll smile and nod along to just about anything. If I’m lucky, this second season might even provide some answers.

21 – Star Trek: The Next Generation: Pliable Truths, by Dayton Ward – I don’t keep up with modern Star Trek books, since I’m still neck-deep in the old Litverse. That said, Ward is an author who does very well with Picard and crew. Plus, this looks like a bridge between TNG and Deep Space Nine, which is surely ripe with storytelling opportunities.