And suddenly it’s December, which means that SciFiMonth is over and we must all return to Earth (or other planet, universe or reality of choice). Before we do, there’s time for our final round-up of the crew’s adventures from the final week and a bit.
Each week, Lisa and I split the logs between us to bring you a full update of everything that’s been going on. This week, you can head on over to Dear Geek Place for the final reviews, recommendations, read-along thoughts and other discussions – or stay with me for interviews, tags, giveaways, a deep dive into the second half of the SciFiMonth challenge and – sniff – wrap posts.
Book / Blog Tags
Tags are a blogger’s best friend and one of my great SciFiMonth delights – creative excuses for talking about some of our favourite books (and being prompted into talking about ones we don’t mention often enough). This week featured
- The Intergalactic Book Tag | Book Forager | Always Me
- Six Degrees of SFnal Separation | Book Forager
- Five Star SF Books In Five Words | The Captain’s Quarters
- One Last Star Trek Book Tag | Zezee With Books
Features
The week always starts with Music Monday – and it’s a double helping this time around as we waited a few days for our final SciFiMonth round-up. Lauren at Always Me brought us subgenre-inspired themes for the second half of SciFiMonth. First up, some cyberpunk-inspired synthwave sounds – then playing us out with some steampunk themes by Brandon Fiechter and Luis Humaiode.
Wednesdays focus on upcoming releases: Tammy’s Future Fiction picks at Books, Bones & Buffy included titles Rich Larson (SFnal Beowulf, no less), Christopher Rowe and Paul Cornell. The Bibliosanctum featured Rob Hart’s The Paradox Hotel – a time travelling murder mystery. Probably.
The Friday Face-Off hosted at Lynn’s Books was focused on black holes last week – at the Bibliosanctum, Mogsy featured the stellar covers of Broken Stars (a collection of Chinese SF translated and edited by Ken Liu). Lauren focused on Dauntless by Jack Campbell and Outpost by W Michael Gear for the Friday 56 (with Book Beginnings) at Always Me.
But not all features are moored in time. Alex handed over the keyboard at Dreadnought Press to Vincent H O’Neil for a guest post on what he’s learned about writing military SF. I interviewed British author Chris Farnell and invited him to talk about his inspirations and aspirations for novella series Fermi’s Progress.
Last up, a couple of last minute posts I couldn’t let slip past unmentioned: Lauren shared a Top Ten Tuesday of hidden gems at Always Me, while over at A Dance With Books, Annemieke has some recommendations for books to read if you loved Star Trek: Picard. And it is that time of year – make way for the first round-up of Best SF of 2021 at The Bibliosanctum.
Giveaways
- Last chance: those taking part in the SciFiMonth Book Bingo have until end of day today (Dec 1) to report their bingo cards for a chance to win a book of their choice up to £20 (incl. delivery); full terms and conditions. Open internationally.
- Tammy is offering 2 international winners a choice of 1 SF book of their choice – entry via the Rafflecopter at Books, Bones & Buffy before Dec 7
- Lauren has a US giveaway to win one of her SF hidden gems – entry via the Rafflecopter at Always Me before December 8
The SciFiMonth Challenge
Each year we generate a list of prompts to keep you busy through the month – for tweets, pictures, recommendations, discussions or whatever else the crew choose to do with them. Time to enjoy (some of? the cursed bird app makes retrospectives really hard) the second half of the challenge entries!
Day 7: Fun and games
A late entry from The Bibliosanctum for what proved to be one of the tougher prompts this year – Mogsy to the rescue with a Sci-5 of gaming and virtual worlds in SF.
Day 15: Current read
Day 16: I can kill you with my mind #TropeTuesday (psychic powers)
Day 17: Remote moon reads
Our SFnal spin on Desert Island Discs Books asked our crew to nominate 8 books, 1 tv show or movie and a luxury item to see them through the dark days until rescue after a solar flare knocked out their comms and other systems on a remote moon base (oops). Of course they rose to the challenge! I’m still not over the adorable reversible stuffed octopus…
Day 18: #ThrowbackThursday – well-matured (at least 30 years old)
Day 19: SF in translation
Day 20: Too old for this shit
Day 21: Spine poetry
Always one of the toughest prompts, and one of the most rewarding – I love seeing what our crew can craft from what’s on the shelf!
Day 22: Can’t wait to read
Day 23: Artificially yours #TropeTuesday (digital consciousness)
- The Bibliosanctum gave us a Sci-5 Tuesday of sentient starships
- Alex focused on the Brain ships of Anne McCaffrey at Dreadnought Press
Day 24: We’ve come a long way baby
Day 25: #ThrowbackThursday – turn back time (at least 50 years old)
Day 26: Judge a book by its cover artist
Day 27: I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe (dramatisations)
Day 28: #ShelfieSunday
Day 29: Let’s do that again
Wrapping up
Sadly this is the end of our adventures for this year – some of the crew have been looking back on their journeys before we go:
- Amanda at Classy X Book Reviews finished an impressive number of reads
- It’s all about the SciFiMonth Book Bingo results for Book Forager
- Will at A Refuge From Life is pleased with his first full SciFiMonth experience
- Godzilla and other monsters are recapped by Louise at Monstrumology
- Tammy has a massive end of month round-up (and an international giveaway!)
- Ariane at The Book Nook wraps with some mini-reviews
- James has nothing against TikTok at Alligators and Aneurysms
- Lauren recapped the last week’s reads and watches at Always Me – and is offering a US giveaway
- Ollie gave us mini-reviews of his month’s reading at Infinite Speculation
Signing out
Sure I read scifi all year round as the mood takes me, but I take huge pleasure in spending a month each autumn revelling in one of my favourite genres with a bunch of like-minded geeks. A big thank you to all of our crew for your enthusiasm, insightful comments, TBR-devastating recommendations and playful posts.
Next year will be the TENTH SciFiMonth (AAAAAAAH) – so we’ll be making plans on how best to celebrate! Got some ideas? Want to plot something with us? Drop us a line, we’re all ears.