Spring is in the air. Lambs are in the fields. My nose is in a book. Yes, nature is slowly healing. Of course, healthy nature makes for busy farmers. I’m fully expecting to be busy with lambing for most of the month, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be blogging about books. Far from it.

I’ve ben reading Black Library’s Warhammer 40,000 books for a long time now, and this year will be the fifth in which I celebrate them throughout WarhamMarch. Naturally, my TBR is mostly Warhammer. I’ve got the much-anticipated Interceptor City by Dan Abnett, Leontus: The Lord Solar by Rob Young, and more Orky goodness in the form of Mike Brooks’ Da Big Dakka. I’ve also got the first Peter Fehervari omnibus The Dark Coil Damnation, and Noah van Nguyen’s sci-fi debut Elemental Council. I’m looking forward to all of these, but the biggest book of the month for me will be Hell’s Last, by Justin D Hill. My copy is still somewhere in the postal service, but I am positively salivating at the thought of returning to the saga of Minka Lesk.

After five years, I am slightly running out of related articles to write. There is a deep dive on Cadians I want to write, but I honestly don’t think I’ll have the time to do it justice. Instead I’m going to take the time to go Beyond the Black Library. The idea here is to take an author writing for Black Library and see what work they’ve done outside of Warhammer fiction. There might also be a space for non-Warhammer works of grimdark science fiction, but we’ll have to wait and see if those materialise.

If I have time for any reading beyond those plans, I’ll probably read something a little more upbeat to balance out all the grimdark. As always, there’s a stack of Star Trek by my bedside, which is always good for a lighter read. I’ve also got a pair of Ben Bova books I picked up last year that I keep meaning to read. As long as the New Morality doesn’t factor into those too heavily, Bova is usually an optimistic experience too.

In terms of audiobooks, I continue to blaze my way through Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet novels. I might do a retrospective on the saga as a whole, but I’m not going to make a firm commitment on that front. I feel like I’ve used up most of the Audible Plus catalogue at this point, so my listening time will probably drop off a cliff, but I do intend to keep up with audiobooks going ahead. They’ve been particularly useful while I sit around in dark sheds waiting for sheep to lamb.

That’s about it from me. I’ll leave you with the only upcoming book I’m aware of for March. Until next time, keep reading.

Dates For Your Diary

13th – Release of Rose/House, by Arkady Martine. This has been published before as a limited edition, but Martine’s SF crime novella will finally become available to us mere mortals.