June has raced by like a freight train. As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been a lot more relaxed on the blogging front this month. I’ve written about half as many posts as usual, and honestly feeling pretty good about it. I know I’m going to be busier in the future (can’t get rid of me that easily), but it’s been nice to take a break. That break extends to a lot of my online presence, where I’ve cut back a lot this month. I’d like to say I’ve used the extra free time productively, but that would be a lie. I’ve mostly been wasting time. Wasting, but enjoying. So that’s something.

Reading

This has been a really good month of reading. I’ve had three books I’ll happily be awarding full marks to. You might have seen my review of Mack Reynold’s Galactic Medal of Honor, but there was also S. D. Perry’s Star Trek novel Cloak, and my final read of the month, the new Cixin Liu collection A View from the Stars. The latter is really scratching my itch for science fiction academia, containing as it does numerous essays.

I spent a lot of time with Star Trek. As well as Cloak, I continued with The Next Generation‘s A Time To… series, with a series review likely coming next month. I’m also enjoying the original series’ audiobooks. Having a single narrator for the entire range is a great choice, especially when that narrator is Robert Petkoff. These trek audios are a ice counterpoint to the somewhat grimmer Warhammer 40,000 audiobooks I’ve also been listening to. Losing my headphones has led to a slowdown on the audio front, but I’m still slowly pushing through the backlog.

I’ve also made good progress on a series of well-known authors. Pandora’s Star and Speaker for the Dead mark the ending of my journey with Peter F. Hamilton and Orson Scott Card respectively. There are enjoyable elements to both authors’ works, but I’ve decided neither one is for me. Similarly, I’m almost at the end of the Uplift saga, which will almost certainly be the last of David Brin’s books to occupy my bookshelves.

Unfortunate though it is to have has such a rough run with well-known authors, cutting down on my reading commitments does free me up to enjoy less familiar names, who I will be getting into next month.

Blogging

Something I’ve experimented with this month is grouping books together for reviews. So far I’ve only done this for my Warhammer audio reviews, but I’m going to continue the experiment for original works too. The downside of this is that discussion of spoilers becomes more difficult to avoid. The upside is that I don’t have to struggle through my thoughts on a book that little impact on me in order to make a review-length post. It’s too early to tell yet how this will affect engagement, but if I was all that worried about engagement, I would be running this blog very differently.

One post that did get some notice was my article on special editions of books, which was largely me venting my frustrations with the market for them. The feedback has been largely supportive, even if I do seem to be in the minority in my views on the topic. Some commenters noted the difference between collectors and readers, and that’s giving me some ideas for another post further down the line.

In the News

Retro Hugos – Every year, the Hugo Awards are handed out at Worldcon. There is also an opportunity to give out Retro Hugos for years that were missed out in the early twentieth century. This option is rarely used, and doesn’t attract much interest, which is why a motion has been put forward to abolish the retro Hugos altogether. My personal take on this is that the Retro Hugos should remain in place. They’re an optional addition to a Worldcon, and don’t do any harm. The fact that the winning authors may no longer be around to collect awards is besides the point. Posthumous awards have always existed, and if we don’t recognise greatness in a person’s lifetime, it seems to me that the least we can do is acknowledge it after their passing.

Worldcon – It’s unlikely that I’ll be going to Worldcon this year, but I keep checking in to see if anyone tempts me to attend. I must confess, I find the entire convention entirely impenetrable. Special guests aside, I couldn’t tell you a single author attending, or any event that’s going on. This is, apparently, a perfectly acceptable standard, but it’s hardly incentivising me to buy a ticket. Thankfully, this allows me to save funds for rather more important things. Namely a transatlantic flight to see my girlfriend. Worldcon’s loss is shaping up to be my gain.

Updates

I’ve already covered the major updates, which is my experiment with new book review styles. Beyond that, things are going well. A slower schedule doesn’t appear to have had too much of an impact on views and engagement. If I do remain at this slower rate of posting, I will hopefully become better at managing my newfound free time. Less Tetris, perhaps, and undertaking more productive endeavours instead. Only time will tell for sure.