The mercury is dropping. The clocks are going back (that counts as time travel, right?). And aboard the good ship SciFiMonth, the engines are roaring for lift off. Winter starts here: time for your favourite month-long geek-out over all things science fictional!

We’ve had to get a bigger ship this year: we’ve got nearly 4 dozen crew aboard already as we head out into the space/time strands in search of adventure. Who knows what other friends we’ll find on our travels, but I look forward to hearing all the away teams reporting back in…

As usual, Lisa and I will be manning comms on Twitter to boost your signals – hail us at any time on the #SciFiMonth hashtag channel (yes okay, I mean the hashtag, can’t a body stretch a metaphor to bursting), plus we’ll be sharing weekly mission status updates here and at Dear Geek Place.

Who’s aboard?

Grab a cuppa, take a seat and get ready to meet our amazing crew!

We’re expecting SciFiMonth veterans Annemieke of A Dance with Books, Alexandra Wolfe, Lauren of Always Me, Mogsy of The Bibliosanctum, the Bookforager, Tammy of Bones, Books & Buffy, Avada the Bookish Muggle, Louise of Exploring by Starlight, Hannah of I Have Thoughts On Books, Jessticulates, Jorie Loves a Story, the Nashville Bookworm, Kal the Reader Voracious, Lynn’s Books, Avery of Red Rocket Panda, Maddalena of Space and Sorcery, Susy’s Cosy World, Anouk of Time for Tales and Tea, and of course my co-host Lisa of Dear Geek Place.

(pause for breath)

New crew this year (although we’ve tempted a few across from the fantastical strands of our sister event Wyrd and Wonder) includes: Lucille of A Dragon in Space, Neil of Al-Alhambra, Jen of the Book Den, Amber of Books of Amber, Amy Brennan, Lauren of Astra Reads, The Captain’s Quarters (ARRR), Cupcakes and Machetes, E M Harding, David S of FanFiAddict, Gareth L Powell, Istoria Lit, Jordyn Roesler, Lisa’s Books, Gems and Tarot, Lydia Schoch, Marita, Maxine’s Obsessions, Mervi’s Book Reviews, Kate Sheeran Swed, Kathy of Pages Below the Vaulted Sky, Brittany of Perfectly Tolerable, Caitlin of Realms of My Mind, the Soupdragoness, and James Kemp Themself.

But there’s always room for one more! (see, it says so right above the hatch)

Come fly with us

Just sign up on the crew list so that we know you’re along for the ride – and if you’re on Twitter follow @SciFiMonth for all the latest updates!

Giveaway

It’s not to late to sign up, but it is now too late to get in on the sign-up giveaway (unless you have some sort of time travel device, in which case we’d all like to talk to you). If you are already signed up, don’t forget you need to make a post of some sort somewhere somewhen to get your name in the hat.

Watch this space for details of the next giveaway coming along!

What will we be getting up to?

Whatever we damn well please! Ahem, sorry, my inner space pirate sometimes gets the better of me. The truth is we each chart our own course – but in general we’ll be celebrating books, films, music, games and anything else that strikes our fancies as we enjoy all things SF.

Time travel? We’ll get in your police box. First contact? Let’s hope they’re friendly. Space opera? Ambition and extravagance no object. Military SF? We’ll try to behave. Science-driven thrillers? We all love a bit of dinosaur cloning and mayhem. Dystopias? There are worse things than 2019. Speculative exploration of what if? You bet.

Expect plenty of blog posts, photos on Instagram and Litsy, and all the Twitter chat. Who knows what else may happen? There are so many strands we may choose to explore…

So grab a book, chuck on a movie, and tell us what you thought about them. We’ve got the SciFiMonth Challenge if you fancy tackling our annual photo / blog tag and some cheeky Top Ten Prompts if you need some more inspiration (we all love a good list!)

Whatever you do, tag us on #SciFiMonth so we can boost your signal, and add a link in the SciFiMonth master schedule so we can include you in our weekly mission status updates.

Read-alongs

Last but not least, we’ve got two SciFiMonth read-alongs:

I’m celebrating Mary Doria Russell’s modern classic The Sparrow over four weeks starting November 6th. Full details can be found here at There’s Always Room For One More – weekly questions will be posted on Goodreads each Sunday, and on Twitter on Wednesday at #TheSparrow.

Lisa and Jorie will be leading a group read for the latest instalment in Becky Chambers’s Hugo award-winning Wayfarers series, Record of a Spaceborn Few starting November 8th and running for three weeks. Full details at Dear Geek Place – weekly Q&A will be posted on Goodreads midweek, and on Twitter on Fridays at #SpacebornFew.

Have fun

A bit overwhelmed? Don’t be – we’re just here to have fun. There’s no targets and no obligations during SciFiMonth, just a heap of shared enthusiasm for one of our favourite genres. So if you want to post every day, we’re here and ready to flail right alongside you. If you fancy a quiet cruise across the galaxy, we’ll keep you company and feed you links to enjoy SFnal chatter as you fly.

Welcome, traveller. Let’s go see the stars.

What will you be reading during SciFi Month?