It’s the end of May, which means summer is just around the corner. Before we head into those long sunny days, there’s just enough time to reflect on the month just gone. Let’s have a gander.

Reading

My plan to tackle my weighty TBR has been a resounding success. Focusing on shorter books, I’ve finished thirteen of them, which has led to some very varied reading. I also refrained from buying any new (or old) books this month, meaning my TBR now stands at 38 books. That’s still a lot, but it’s managable.

I’ve made some good progress when it comes to long-running series. David Brin’s Brightness Reef has brought Uplift back into my life. I’ll be reviewing the last trilogy as a single unit, but for now I’ll just say that the ideas outweigh the execution. Seeker saw me finally return to Jack McDevitt’s Alex Benedict saga, but there’s no telling just yet when I’ll find another book in the series. I climbed back onto the Star Trek bandwagon with the first book in the A Time To series, and I continue plugging away at the Venture SF range thanks to Edmond Hamilton’s Starwolf trilogy and David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers.

I also started a couple of new series. The biggest name there is Orson Scott Card with Ender’s Game. It was a bit of a mixed bag, but I’m definitely going to read the sequel Speaker for the Dead in June. This might end up being a series I abandon after a few books, however, as I’m not a huge fan of Card’s writing style. I also started two more modern series. S. L. Viehl’s StarDoc and R. M. Meluch’s Tour of the Merrimack. As well as adding some new female names to my shelves, these both proved interesting starts to series. I know I’m going to continue with StarDoc for some episodic fun, but Tour of the Merrimack is a series I’m less certain about pursuing.

I slotted in a few standalones between these reads, but there’s not a whole lot to talk about in that regard I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for a brilliant new-to-me author to pass my way, but it hasn’t happened yet.

I’ve also been doing a lot of audiobooks lately. A lot of Warhammer, a lot of true crime, and a few science fiction books, the best of which was Pierre Boulle’s Planet of the Apes, and the least of which was John Varley’s Armor.

Blogging

I started this month in an absolute frenzy. Nineteen days of posting in a row – twenty-one if you count the end of April as well. That’s a whole lot of reviews. By the middle of the month I was completely up to date. That was about the point where exhaustion hit. There comes a point where blogging starts to feel like an obligation and you need to step back for a bit.

‘A bit’ for me was only a few days, but I can understand why some people might want a longer break. To keep myself keen I’ll be experimenting with different formats for a bit. You can see some of that in my recent double review of some Martian novels.

Outside of the book reviewing sphere, I finally got my article of British Science Fiction together, and then took a detour into heavy metal for a look at the Unleash the Archers album Phantoma.

In the News

Star Trek Discovery – After five seasons (and with a release schedule that technically renders it the longest running Trek show in history) Discovery finally bowed out this week. I haven’t watched the final season yet, but I’m looking forward to one last ride. This of course means that the flagship Trek show has ended. Alongside the cancellation of Lower Decks after its upcoming fifth season, that leaves only Strange New Worlds and Prodigy from the current crop of shows. A Starfleet Academy show is in the works, and the Section 31 film has apparently wrapped filming, but it will be interesting to see what Trek brings us next.

Updates

As I said earlier, I might be a little less furious when it comes to my blogging schedule in future. Or I might be even more crazy, who can tell? What matters is that I want to shake things up a bit and see if I can find a system that works even better than the one I’ve already got going.

As always, if there’s something you think I should take a look at, just give me a shout. I’m all ears.