February is, as you’re no doubt aware, the shortest month of the year. That doesn’t mean it’s not busy. By my calculations I’ve got about two weeks to go until I’m up to my eyeballs in baby lambs. Lots of early mornings and sleepless nights ahead of me. The upside of this is that in between checks of the lambing shed, I’ll have plenty of time to read.

My February TBR is another themed month. For the shortest month, I’m going to read some short fiction Even though science fiction arguably does short stories better than any other genre, I don’t have many anthologies on my shelves. I’ve picked up a couple of new ones over the past few months, and I’m also going to pick a few dusty books from the older parts of my library to re-evaluate them after all these years.

I’m kicking off the month with one short story collection I’ve really been looking forward too. Endurance is the second collection of Xeelee short fiction from Stephen Baxter, so my hopes are sky high. I’m also planning to read the novels Vengeance and Redemption, and finish off the main Xeelee series this month.

In anthology rereads, I’ve got The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF, edited by Mike Ashley, which I have no memory of reading the first time around, and Ken Liu’s first translated anthology Invisible Planets, which collects a lot of Chinese SF in one place. If I get the time, I’ll also read Liu’s original collection The Paper Menagerie, which is a mix of SF and other genres.

Looking at some other single-author collections, my eyes are drawn to Gold, the posthumous Isaac Asimov collection. This is the last book to read before I have rated all of Asimov’s SF books, so it’s a big milestone. I remember enjoying the essays in the book more than the stories, so it will be interesting to see how they all hold up. I’ve also got George Mann’s The Casebook of Newbury & Hobbes for some steampunk shenanigans. Not only do I have good memories of this one, it’s also the perfect teaser for the main series, which I’ll be taking another look at later in the year.

The final short story collection on the docket is Alexis Levitin’s The Last Ruy Lopez. Only one of the stories in here has an SF element, but I’m a big chess nerd, so a chess-centric collection is a safe bet for a good time. When I need to detox from SF, this is the book I’ll be reaching for.

I don’t have any set plans for what to read beyond these selections, but since most of them are gathering fiction of at least a decade old, I’ll probably try and balance it out with some of the more recent releases I’ve missed out on. That means James S. A. Corey’s The Mercy of Gods and Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson’s Princess of Dune are likely candidates.

In terms of articles, I have nothing in particular planned. I want to take a deeper look at the Golden Age of SF soon, but I should probably read more books by people who are not Isaac Asimov. On a similar note, I plan on tracking down some more non-fiction about the history of SF before I get to work on anything too elaborate. If inspiration does strike me, you’ll be the first to know.

Dates for your Diary

Most of February looks set to be a quite month on the bookish front. Somewhen, we will see the annual Black Library Celebration, which suually brings some big releases alongside a few teasers of books further down the line. I am incredibly excited to see the release of Justin D Hill’s Hell’s Last, the latest Minka Lesk novel. Also releasing around the Celebration is Jude Reid’s Fulgrim: Perfect Son. I tend to be wary of Space Marine novels, but if anyone can get my attention with Fulgrim, it’s Reid. I’m also hoping for an update on the last Dawn of Fire novel, Guy Haley’s The Silent King. I’ve fallen behind on the series, but seeing it nearing completion has put it squarely in my grimdark crosshairs. There’s also a long list of books I’m keeping my fingers crossed for news on, starting with Dan Abnett’s Pandaemonium and ending with Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s third Black Legion novel.

The last week of the month is where things get really interesting. The 25th has a rare double release day. Not only do we have the concluding part of Jack Campbell’s The Doomed Earth series, Destiny’s Way, but we also see the return of Gareth L. Powell with the standalone space opera Future’s Edge. Then, a mere two days later on the 27th, we have the first 2025 release from Adrian Tchaikovsky. I’m deliberately not reading up on Shroud, but a standalone science fiction novel from Tchaikovsky is always going to interest me. Three releases from three of my favourite living authors might be a hit to the wallet, but it’s a good week for science fiction readers everywhere.