What a hectic month this has been! From starting out at World FantasyCon in Brighton to racing through one last book to finish out the month, November has come at me non-stop.

Technically, I started my self-imposed book buying ban this month (which will see me through until at least the end of the year). In reality, I bought and was given a massive amount of books over the course of the first weekend, so my TBR has blossomed. Though I do take some small satisfaction in never quite letting it tip over into triple figures.

As I started the month with a backlog of reviews to write, I read back-to-back fantasy novels for the first time in forever. It was a nice little detox, and left me fresh for the month’s science fiction reading.

As many of you will know, I have the Boundy Awards coming up next month, so I spent a lot of time in November reading through all the recent releases I’ve picked up over the course of the year. There has been the odd dud, as there always must be, but overall I can say that 2025 has been a bumper year for science fiction. with the way my reading habits skew, this also means I’ve spent a lot of time in the grim darkness of the far future courtesy of Black Library. And there’s more of that to come as the year heads into its final month. You can expect a flurry of reviews over the next two weeks.

This has been the first month in a while that I’ve really felt on top of things. I actually had a brief moment in which I had no books left to review. Granted, I have some ideas about articles that I’d like to get to sooner rather than later, but that’s always going to be the way.

My personal fiction writing has taken a bit of a backslide in November. Partly due to work getting a bit more intense, but also because I’ve taken a step back to analyse my own writing. I’ve been tempted by an upcoming submission window and will be spending the next month furiously beavering away at a story for that.

Continuing to look forward, I’m in discussion with a friend (and frequent buddy read collaborator) about some form of community outreach, which might well see results in the new year.

More immediately, I hope to be back tomorrow with my final TBR of the year, and all of the exciting news for what I’ll be up to in December. Hope to see you all there.

UPDATE: Just after I initially posted this, I noticed that I’ve racked up over 10,000 views this month. A monthly total I’ve only reached four times in the seven years I’ve been blogging. Thank you to all who read my witterings.