We are well and truly into the autumn months now. For some people, October means spooky season and the build-up to Halloween. For me, it means nothing of the sort. I don’t care for Halloween, and I’m not trendy enough to do an entire month of horror. But that doesn’t mean I have no plans for the month. As it happens, I have plenty.
The big news is that I’ll be attending FantasyCon in Glasgow next week. Somehow I have managed to blag my way onto two panels, both taking place on the Saturday of the convention. The first is about The Art of the Review, where I will be joined by people vastly more knowledgeable than myself to discuss what makes a review work. Shortly after I’ll be joining a panel on how the rise of social media has changed the dynamics between readers, writers, and reviewers. For the rest of the weekend I’ll be roaming the halls and dealer’s room, taking in as much as I can. If you spot me there, I’m always happy to have a chat. Especially if it’s about science fiction.
Outside of FantasyCon, I’ll be doing plenty of reading. As you all know by now, I love a themed reading month. Having just mopped up all the tie-in fiction on my shelves, I’m now turning my attention to the older books on my TBR. I’ve been staying on top of things lately (despite buying seventeen books last month) so the oldest books on my schedule are only from the nineteen-seventies. Still, fifty years old is old, isn’t it?
The bulk of this early reading is the remainders of my Venture SF collection that I didn’t et to last month. So expect some Richard C. Meredith, David Drake, and Timothy Zahn on the blog over the next few weeks. Those bring me into the nineteen-eighties and my first proper experience with the legendary Octavia E. Butler thanks to her Xenosgenesis trilogy. I’ve also got some more C. J. Cherryh and a book called Catchworld by Christopher Boyce, which I know absolutely nothing about. Should be fun.
The other golden oldie I’ll be reading is Cordwainer Smith’s Nortsrilia. This will be our Boundary’s Edge Book Club read for the month, and I’ll be hopping aboard as soon as my copy arrives in the post.
Assuming that all goes to pan, I’ll probably get into the nineties by the end of the month. That means I’ll finally get around to my reread of Scott G. Gier’s Genellan books. There’s also some Jack McDevitt and Gregory Benford, but I might hold those back for future buddy reads. And given that Peter F. Hamilton will be a guest of Honour at FantasyCon, there’s every chance I end up reading some of his earlier work.
Obviously I’ll be reviewing what I read, and there’ll be a full recap of FantasyCon once I’m settled back at home. I don’t have any blogging plans beyond that, but I’m sure something will come along sooner or later.
Dates for your Diary
6/10 – Star Wars: Galactic Racer – It’s nice to see Star Wars games doing something different this year. This time around, it’s a racing game. Odds are that it will be a long time before I play it, but if it has a split-screen mode for PlayStation , I’m in.
10/10 – Space 1993: Wrath of Kor Virliath, by Gloryhammer – It’s going to be brainless. It’s going to be stupid. But I also have a feeling it’s going to be catchy. I’m sure I’ll give it at least one listen to see if anything sticks in my head or stands out
15/10 – The Cruel Stars #3: The Forever Dead, by John Birmingham – After far too many delays, the grand finale of Birmingham’s space opera trilogy is finally here. Honestly, I’ve forgotten a lot of the first two, but I do remember it wasn’t particularly nuanced, so I’m sure I’ll be able to catch up.
27/10 – Star Trek: The Original Series: Echoes of Eternity, by David Mack – A capstone to the franchise’s sixtieth anniversary year, this feels like a suitably small-scale affair for Kirk and the Enterprise to end the year on. Mack is always a reliable author, so as usual I’m going to pick this one up at some undetermined point in the future.
27/10 – Nether Station #2: Nether Vortex, by Kevin J. Anderson – The modern master of pulp science fiction returns with a sequel that asks the question we’ve all asked ourselves: What if Cthulhu, but in outer space??? The first book was gloriously pulpy fun, and I expect this will be more of the same.
As always, if you think I’ve overlooked or forgotten something, let me know about it in the comments. And if you’re headed to FantasyCon, be sure to stop by my panels and say hi.
