It’s the most speculative time of the year – SciFiMonth lifts off today for a month exploring the realms of what if. The SciFiMonth crew will be adventuring across the multiverse to read, watch, play and celebrate tales of possible futures and alternate nows, survive first contact or enjoy being part of a thriving galactic community. Expect 30 days of chat and geekery – you’re welcome to join us!

Can you believe this is SciFiMonth’s tenth year? This will be my eighth year of participation (my sixth as a co-host), and it still finds new ways to delight me every year. The secret is the interdimensional infinite shelving in hold D our amazing crew – a cheery band of genre lovers who share their recommendations and insights across the month through reviews, lists, the SciFiMonth challenge and friendly chatter. If you’d like to join in, the kettle is always on in the galley and there’s infinite book shelving to accommodate the inevitable and exponential growth of your TBR. Lisa of Dear Geek Place and I will be on hand as usual to haphazardly boost your signals with a jury-rigged comms transmitter powered by tea and enthusiasm, because SciFiMonth is all about the sharing.

What’s to expect?

SciFiMonth is a casual blog-along that doesn’t care if you don’t have a blog or if you only make one post this month. Expect discussions focusing on our favourite books, tv shows, movies, games, podcasts, tropes – or whatever else takes our fancy – wherever crewmates can be found. This year, we’ve got crew with blogs as well as crew on Twitter (where you can also find us as @SciFiMonth), Youtube and Instagram that we know about, but we’re often joined mid month so who knows where we’ll end up? Join in from your platform of choice and/or follow along using the #SciFiMonth tag.

Lisa and I will also share weekly Mission Logs with a round-up of all your adventures – so when you post, please remember to add a link to the Master Schedule so we know to include you. Wherever you post, use the #SciFiMonth tag so the crew can come looking for you in between Mission Logs!

Our official read-along this year is The Galaxy, And The Ground Beneath by Becky Chambers, completing our many-year odyssey through the Wayfarers universe. Galaxy stands alone, so if you haven’t read the first three you should be safe to dive in to glimpse life and community in a future where humanity is in diaspora, welcomed into a Galactic Commons both strange and beautiful.

We’ve also got weekly Top Ten prompts starting with Previously, on SciFiMonth to celebrate your greatest hits from our first ten years (watch out for my post later this week because my life is chaos and I am already behind) and the SciFiMonth Challenge – a prompt a day to inspire. Post a pic on Instagram, make a tweet, or post a review, list of recs or other blog content as the mood takes you. You can dip in and out as you wish – this is not SciFiMonth Pokemon – so don’t feel you have to answer them all (although we’re here to cheer you on if you try!). Some of the prompts are deliberately ambiguous, but there are hints in the Master Schedule if you would like a steer.

Here at There’s Always Room For One More you can expect a few reviews, a couple of author fly-bys, the weekly Mission Log and Top Ten and of course my read-along discussion posts. I’m moving house mid-month so this is entirely aspirational but I’m going to pedal hard and try to achieve lift off! I’m also cheering on RunalongWomble’s #SmallPressBigStories initiative so expect a lot of focus on titles that aren’t from the big 5 publishers.

Who’s aboard?

A big shout out to returning SciFiMonth veterans Annemieke of A Dance with Books, Alexandra Wolfe, Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum, Tammy of Bones, Books & Buffy, Mayri the BookForager, Amanda of Classy X Book Reviews, Mackenzie of Colour Me Read, Lorraine of Geeky Galaxy, Rachael the Green Tea Librarian, Mallory of Into the Abyss Reviews, Jorie Loves a Story, Lex Lingua, Calypte of Little Frog Scribbles, Ariana of The Quaint Book Nook, Arina of Queen’s Book Asylum, Starr of Pages and Procrastination, Kal of Reader Voracious, John Folk-Williams of SciFiMind, Maddalena of Space and Sorcery, Susy of Susy’s Cozy World, Anouk of Time for Tales and Tea, Nicole of Thoughts Stained With Ink, 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 Heather of Based On A True Story, Sahi of My World Of Books and Athena of One Reading Nurse.

And please give a very warm welcome to our newest crew – Alex of At Boundary’s Edge, Final Girl Power, Geek Cliché, John Wilker, Marzi, Shazzie of Reader At Work, Sarah Damian, Katy of Saturday Spent Well and Anita of Series Book Lover.

The hatch is always open and the kettle is always on, so watch out for new faces and say hi when you see them (unless they’re reading, then say hi later). We usually meet up with friends in convoy and new crew jump aboard each time we dock, so watch out for more introductions in next week’s Mission Log.

Want to join us?

That’s it, you’re in! Sign up to let us know you’re along for the ride, and we’ll introduce you in the next mission log. SciFiMonth is a low-commitment event so joining the crew doesn’t mean you have to join the read-along or answer all the prompts – if you just want to read quietly on the back deck and pop by a chat in the comments every now and again, you’re just as welcome. The only rule is to respect everyone else’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, you never know where you’ll find a friendly face.

Launch Giveaways

Anyone who signs up and makes a SciFiMonth post before November 5th can enter our epic birthday launch giveaway in association with the lovely team at Rebellion Publishing! We’ve got a bundle of 4 recent releases for one lucky crewmate somewhere in the world (yes, this is international). 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.

Watch out for more giveaways as the month continues…

What will you be reading during SciFiMonth?

ARTWORK

This year’s SciFiMonth artwork is by the amazingly talented Simon Fetscher.

If you’re on the crew and would like to boost the SciFiMonth signal on your own channels, you’re welcome to use our banners and buttons. Please do not make any changes (except to resize) and always credit the artist.