It took me a while but I can finally say it: I have had a great month of reading. Definitely feeling like I’ve put the madness of the past few months behind me, and dived headlong into the usual sort of madness that I enjoy.

I started May with a massive TBR consisting largely of mass market paperbacks. This gave me the idea of Mass Market May to clear out some of that backlog. I can happily report that I read a whopping sixteen mass market paperbacks this month. Yes, short page counts do wonders for TBR control. I did, however, run into a slight issue with the TBR. On a trip to the opticians’ I blindly stumbled into several used bookshops. A few days later, a friend sent me a pair of books in the post. As a result, I now have a larger TBR than I started the month with. I regret nothing.

Even if there has been an influx of new books, I have tidied things up quite a bit. I made a massive dent on my Star Trek reading by whizzing through no fewer than four Original Series novels. These were, as ever, a mixed bag, but it’s always nice to have extra Star Trek stories. I’ve still got three Lost Era novels to read, but there’s a very good chance I’ll soon have no Star Trek in my TBR for the first time in years.

I also got on top of my Stephen Baxter reading. Exultant was a real headscratcher, but together with the first two books of the Manifold sequence furthers my argument that Baxter is one of the unsung greats of modern science fiction. Baxter wasn’t the only hard SF author I read this month. I also returned to Ben ova as I endeavour to clear out the last few US purchases from my TBR, and stumbled into an absolute diamond of a book from Gregory Benford in the form of Eater.

Outside of reviewing, I also had some fun with articles this month, which goes to show just how much fun I’m having with science fiction right now. There was my updated rankings for the Best of British Science Fiction, and an update on all the series I’m currently in the middle of. More excitingly, I looked into the history of the genre to find people’s thoughts on modern classics of SF, the older classics that we’ve forgotten, and a quick look at the so-called Grand Masters of SF. The main takeaway is that I still have a whole lot of reading to do before I’m fully versed in science fiction.

On a more sombre note, this month saw the passing of two legends of science fiction. Peter David, who I knew best as a Star Trek author, will forever be remembered for his New Frontier series, and has seen an outpouring of tributes from the Trek community and beyond. I was also saddened to read of the death of Enemy Mine author Barry B. Longyear earlier in the month. I hope to continue reading works from both authors for many years to come, and encourage you to do the same.

To end on a more upbeat note, I’m now looking at my summer reading plans. There will be more details on that tomorrow, but suffice to say I’ll be returning to my tried and true practice of organising monthly theme-based TBRs.