November is here, which means the good ship SciFiMonth is blasting off with a crew full of SFnal-loving geeks to spend 30 days celebrating the joys and horrors of but what if? We’ll be reading, watching, listening, playing and above all chattering our way through all forms of science fiction all month long.

Lisa of Dear Geek Place and I are manning the comms to pick up the crews’ signals from across the multiverse and boost them back to your timelines. The galley is well-stocked with tea, the ship’s library has infinite shelving, and we’re working on a time travel device that will let us squeeze in more reading than is horologically feasible – because you just know it’s going to be wall to wall recommendations…

What’s to expect?

SciFiMonth is an informal blog-along that doesn’t care if you don’t have a blog. The crew will be discussing our favourite science fiction books, movies, games, podcasts, merch and whatever else takes our fancy in blog posts, Booktubes, Bookstagrams, Litsy posts, Booktoks, Twitch streams and on Twitter (where you can find us as @SciFiMonth) – join in or follow along via the #SciFiMonth tag.

Our official read-along this year is Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell (first discussion next weekend) and there’s a full complement of daily prompts if you’re looking for inspiration for topics to talk about. Need help picking what to read? Have a gander at the Book Bingo card.

Whatever you choose to do, file a mission update by adding a link to the master schedule in GoogleDocs. Co-captains Lisa and I use this to compile the weekly mission logs published here and at Dear Geek Place to share your adventures. Wherever you’re posting, don’t forget to use the #SciFiMonth tag so the crew can come looking for you in the meantime!

Who’s aboard?

A big shout out to returning SciFiMonth veterans Annemieke of A Dance with Books, Lauren of Always Me, Lauren of Astra Reads, Evelina of Avalinah’s Books, Nicky the Bibliophibian, The Bibliosanctum, Tammy of Bones, Books & Buffy, Alex Wolfe of Book Blurb, Mayri the BookForager, Arina of The Bookwyrm’s Guide to the Galaxy, Calmgrove, The Captain’s Quarters (ARRR), Amanda of Classy X Book Reviews, Crini, the Curious SFF Reader, the Cyborg Book Club, Lorraine of Geeky Galaxy, Essa Hansen, Jessticulates, Jorie Loves a Story, Laura Tisdall, Lisa’s Books, Gems & Tarot, Calypte of Little Frog Scribbles, Mervi’s Book Reviews, Louise of Monstrumology, Jonny of Parchments and Parsecs, Caitlin of Realms of My Mind, Maddalena of Space and Sorcery, John Folk-Williams of SciFiMind, Nicole of Thoughts Stained With Ink, Anouk of Time for Tales and Tea, Kirsten of Video Games as Lit, and of course my co-host Lisa of Dear Geek Place.

Joining us from fantasy sister event Wyrd and Wonder are Rachael the Green Tea Librarian, Ariana of The Quaint Book Nook and Andreas of Reiszwolf.

And please give a very warm welcome to our newest crew – the Caribbean Science Fiction Network, Will of A Refuge From Life, Joyce Reynolds-Ward, Talia’s Brain On Books, Jonathan of Thesaurus Inventus, and Thomas Read III. Make yourself at home, folks!

The hatch is always open and the kettle is always on, so there’s likely a few more of us stashed away on one of the reading decks by now. There are usually friends in convoy and fresh faces jump aboard each time we dock, so watch out for more introductions in next week’s Mission Log.

Join the crew

It’s as easy as signing up on the crew list to let us know you’re along for the ride, and we’ll give you a shout out to introduce you in the next mission log. Being crew doesn’t oblige you to generate lots of content! If you do want to post every day, we’re here to cheer you on. If you just want to read quietly on the back deck and pop by for tea and a chat in the comments every now and again, you’ll be warmly welcomed. All we ask is that you respect everyone’s enthusiasm – we don’t always love the same things, but we’re not here to dunk on other peoples’ favourites.

If you’re on Twitter, follow @SciFiMonth for all the latest updates – but watch out for #SciFiMonth wherever you go – crew can be found on Instagram, Twitter and other channels as well as across the blogosphere, so you never know where you’ll find a friendly face.

Launch Giveaways

Anyone who signs up and makes a SciFiMonth post before November 7th can enter our launch giveaways! Posts can be on your social media channel of choice (if you choose Twitter, a single tweet does not qualify, but a thread does) – once live, remember to add your post to the master schedule to complete your giveaway entry. Full terms and conditions on the sign-up form.

But what are we giving away?

I’m all about novellas this SciFiMonth and also all about introducing as many people as possible to Premee Mohamed (who has knocked it out of the park with amazing novellas this year), so I will be offering one international winner e-book editions of:

• The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed plus 
• either a digital season pass for the 2021 Solaris Satellites (These Lifeless Things by Premee Mohamed; The Difficult Loves of Maria Makiling by Wayne Santos; Pollen From a Future Harvest by Derek Kunsken) 
• or Neon Hemlock’s 2021 SF novellas (And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed; The Necessity of Stars by E Catherine Tobler)

…or any one* of these titles in paperback, if e-books are not your jam (*I’ll go up to ca. £20 including shipping – if that covers 2 for your location, bonus!)

Lisa is offering a UK-only giveaway of a £20 gift voucher to spend at The Portal Bookshop (don’t worry international folks; Lisa also has an international giveaway running all month).

Watch out for more giveaways as the month continues…

What will you be reading during SciFiMonth?