We’ve done it. We’ve made it to the final quarter of the year. That means the weather is unpredictable, the nights are growing longer, and there’s still plenty of reading to be done. So aside from the nights, it’s basically just another month of living in Britain and being a bookworm.

I dithered and dallied over a reading theme for the month, and have finally decided on not having one. Maybe I’ll try this whole mood reading thing I’ve heard so much about. To that end I’ve started the month with Radix by A. A. Attansio. It’s the first book on my TBR both alphabetically (by author, of course) and chronologically, so it seemed like a natural starting point.

There are three books I’m almost certain to read this month. The first is Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time. This is a reread as I fill in the gaps in my spreadsheets, and the tenth anniversary seems as good a time as any. This also serves as my buddy read for the month. I have to say, buddy reads are much more fun when there’s just two people and you’re not trying to corral a whole group to read on schedule.

The other two books are not science fiction. One is Evan Liekam’s Anji Kills a King. Since I’ll be at World FantasyCon at the end of the month, it’s probably best that I actually read a fantasy novel so I have something to talk about. And since October is also Spooky Season (or Halloween as we normies call it), I’ll be reading the last of my current allocation of Stephen King collections with the rather bulky four Past Midnight.

For the rest of my reading, I think I’m going to get on top of some existing series that I’m currently stuck in the middle of. So expect some Dune, some Jack McDevitt, and some Ann Leckie. And since I utterly failed last month’s plans, I’ll probably finish off that stack of big books. Other than that, it’s open season on the TBR.

Circling back to FantasyCon, I am happy to confirm that I’ll be at the convention for the whole event (give or take running into Brighton to eat food). While nothing’s confirmed just yet, I’m almost sure I’m appearing on a panel over the course of the event, which will be exciting and terrifying in equal measure. So once the schedule’s released, please do come and see me. I’m attending with a friend, but I can’t rely on personal contacts to fill an entire room, so an extra face or two would be greatly appreciated. If you’re going, let me know in the comments.

Dates for Your Diary

9th – Final Orbit, by Chris Hadfield – The next thriller from the astronaut-turned-author is another fact-based historical adventure for Kaz Zemeckis. When I get my hands on it, it’s going straight to the top of my TBR.

9th – All That We See or Seem, by Ken Liu -Having completed his recent epic fantasy series, Liu returns to science fiction with a technological thriller rooted in the real world problem of language learning models and ‘artificial intelligence.’ IT will be interesting top see what he does with this one.

17th – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Ring of Fire, by David Mack – If anything’s going to make me pick up an SNW novel (and I really should have by now) it’s David Mack writing one. This gap in my TrekLit collection cannot last for very much longer.

30th – Halcyon Years, by Alastair Reynolds – Yeah, I messed up the release date on this one, and included it last month by mistake. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to it.

As ever, if I’ve missed something out, or there’s something you’d like to see covered on the blog this month, let me know in the comments. Until then, I hope to see some of you at FantasyCon, and I’ll be back in the very near future with some fresh reviews.