imyril @ There's Always Room For One More Giveaways, SciFiMonth, SciFiMonth 2018

Mission Status Update: what awaits us out there?

Photo by Greg Rakozy - night sky

OH MY WORD – one day into SciFiMonth and my mentions were pinging away like a winning slot machine as the excitement exploded. They haven’t stopped since (you’re all AMAZING!). So I couldn’t resist an early round-up of the first three days so we can admire the TBRs and all watch our wishlists balloon out of all control (sorry, not sorry).

Well over a dozen posts on day 1, plus photo challenge pics across Twitter, Litsy and Instagram  and plenty of chat – what a way to start the month! I’ve actually been away on holiday (I know, I know, TERRIBLE planning) so have been catching up in stolen wifi moments and enjoying every minute. Thank the stars for my co-pilot Lisa (love you lots).

Crew update

We’ve gained some new crew since setting off – some on the crew roll, some stowaways and fellow travellers – so a warm welcome to Norrie at Reading under the Blankie, Avery at Red Rocket Panda, S J Higbee and In Libris Veritas! Much love also to Avalinah and Maraia, who aren’t aboard (allegedly), just cheerfully beaming messages in our direction.

The Twitter fleet is also expanding – say hello to Paul Harrap, Carol Goodwin, Serena, Julie Cornewell, and Jason Aycock.

Giveaways

  • Lisa is giving away a copy of Ursula Le Guin’s classic The Left Hand of Darkness – get over to Dear Geek Place and leave a comment before midnight GMT on November 7th to be in with a chance
  • Deanna will send one lucky winner a book of their choice (up to $30) from the Book Depository. To enter (and have some fun!) pop across to Deanna Reads and complete her Guess the SF Book quiz before 1st December
  • Now we’re in flight, it’s too late to register for the Sign Up Giveaway; but the winner will be announced in next Sunday’s Mission Status – I’ve got a copy of Lauren C Teffeau’s Implanted ready to go
  • …and watch out for a new giveaway being announced next week here at There’s Always Room for One More!

TBRs

Between our intro posts and the photo challenge there’ve been amazing TBRs everywhere. If we built a book fort of all these books, I think we’d all fit inside with room for enough sofas to stay comfortable while we read our way through the walls. Can your TBR bear the strain temptation of seeing what everyone else is reading?

Bookporn Photo Challenge

I love that the photo challenge has already popped up on at least 3 social media channels plus in some blog posts! I’m not going to even try to link to them all (or each Mission Status will be an Encyclopaedia SciFiMonthica). This week I’ve tried to highlight all the TBR posts I could find – next week I’ll pick a day or a selection of some favourites along the way. Go fishing for #RRSciFiMonth on Twitter, Instagram, or Litsy to enjoy the rest!

Posting somewhere else? Sing out in the comments so we can boost the signal and come find your photos.

Reviews and features

It’s early days, but blogs posts are already coming in thick and fast! There were welcome messages from Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum, Shannon at Absolute Shannonigans (shout out for my favourite blog name wordplay), Louise at Exploring by Starlight, and – ahem – me.

Reviews have started too: Annemieke sang the praises (spoiler-free) of Becky Chambers’s Record of a Spaceborn Few over at A Dance with Books; the Red Headed Reviewer  rhapsodised (and agonised) over the searing Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee (implicit spoilers for Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem). Deanna took a look at Doctor Aphra in her comics spotlight but was underwhelmed by Mass Effect: Andromeda Nexus Uprising; Mogsy had a listen to Terry Brooks’s new YA novel Street Freaks at the Bibliosanctum; and Avalinah (who definitely isn’t aboard, honestly, but I think she might be hidden away in the hold if we look carefully) has 5 reasons we should be reading Battlestar Suburbia.

Even if you’re not entering the giveaway, you should try your hand at guessing the SF books over at Deanna Reads (always such fun).

Last but not least, there’s some tags to check out too! Annemieke trialled the Try a Chapter tag to find her next SF read; Lauren had fun with the Friday 56 and 50/50 Friday challenges at Always Me; and Michelle had a go at the terrifying Burn, Rewrite or Reread tag at In Libris Veritas (I might need to come up with an alternate to fire if I take this one!)

Read-along

Lisa and Jorie will be hosting our SciFiMonth read-along of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet with Twitter chats each Sunday afternoon (US) / evening (Europe) / Monday morning (Asia & Australasia). In case you missed it, the plan is as follows:

Book cover: A Long Way to a Small Angry PlanetWeek 1 / Sunday 11th: Beginning, up to the end of “Port Coriol”

Week 2 / Sunday 18th: “The Wane”, up to the end of “Hatch, Feather, House”

Week 3 / Sunday 25th: “October 25” to the end

Watch out for further details on Twitter from Lisa or Jorie about specific times, and tune in to #smallangryplanet.

Anyone chipping in who has read the book / series – please, no spoilers!

One last thing

Zooming through 4 countries in 2 days plus reading for the stars is enough to make anyone a bit scatty – if I’ve missed you in this round-up, I’m so so sorry, it’s on me. Please do remember to add your links to the schedule spreadsheet to make sure we see them, and if you are cross-posting a link to Twitter always include the #RRSciFiMonth tag! (ahem, just like we almost always remember to 🙂

All this and it’s only been 3 days, folks. Greg might be right – keep burning this hard and it will be the biggest and best SciFiMonth yet!