Control to SciFiMonth fleet: it’s time to grab a cuppa, put your feet up and tune in to what your crewmates have been up to during the second week of SciFiMonth! Whether you’ve been hip deep in clones or navigating the unexpected quirks of an alternate timeline, Lisa and I are here with a round-up of reviews, discussions and recommendations…

Each week, Lisa and I publish our mission logs 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 a round-up of the crew’s reviews, memes and the read-along, or keeping reading for some introductions and a look at the SciFiMonth challenge!

Crew update

We always welcome new crew aboard when we make port, so first up: a big hello to Jackson Allen and a warm welcome back to the Nashville Bookworm.

The SciFiMonth Challenge

We’re loving the way the crew are interpreting the prompts – there’s always room for a creative reinterpretation and it’s a delight to see them come to life. Let’s take a scout through this week’s submissions…

• Day 3 | Even better together – Mervi picked two favourite shared universe / tie-in novels
• Day 4 | Space opera – Heather confirms space opera is more than space battles
• Day 7 | Spacecraft – cover art featuring space craft is one of my favourite things, so this prompt has been pure delight! Contributions from: Mervi | Azrah | Ariana | Annemieke
• Day 8 | Turn back time – looking for books about time travel? The crew have a wealth of recommendations to share (and I don’t think there’s any overlap!)
  • Annemieke has some suggestions at A Dance With Books and Anouk has three more at Time For Tales And Tea (including a personal favourite). Heather admits time travel is kinda stressful at Based On A True Story. Azrah features recent time travel reads at Quintessentially Bookish. Ariana has a Subjective Chaos Award winning recommendation to add to the list!
  • Jorie took a tour through her extensive archives of time travel, with a treasure trove of recommendations
  • Mervi considered time travel in movies, comics and tv shows
  • I loved Alex’s time travel reinterpretation celebrating much-loved books that pre-date At Boundary’s Edge
• Day 10 | Not as we know it
  • Mervi enthuses about the twists and turns of the Marvel multiverses
  • Azrah dives a recent reimagined history (yes it’s The Stars Undying 😍)
  • Annemieke has a multiverse favourite by Sir PTerry & Stephen Baxter
  • Mayri is all about reimagining the history of the space race
• Day 11 | Gone but not forgotten
  • Calypte honoured the memory of SF icon Iain M Banks
  • Celeste looked back at some much-loved shows and movies whose stars have left us
• Day 12 | Afrofuturism – Heather has some recommendations for books to get you hooked on Afrofuturist stories

Lists and recommendations

There’s plenty of content beyond the Challenge of course – we’re living for the big fat lists of recommendations of current and future releases to get excited about (note to self: install more shelving. We don’t need a spare shuttle bay).

• Amanda takes a look at upcoming releases to get excited about at Classy X Book Reviews
• Lauren considers some series she’d really like to catch up on at Always Me
• Tammy is here with 2023 YA SF releases to add to your TBR at Books, Bones & Buffy
• Dystopian fiction is a favourite of Amanda’s – she shares 10 she’d like to sink her teeth into

Giveaways

As we come to the half way point in our journey, it must be time to give away MOAR BOOKS? Yeah, you betcha.

• This week I’ll be celebrating small press and independently owned publishers here at There’s Always Room For One More – and what better way to do so than by giving away some books? Watch out for details of how to get your hands on a super early ARC of The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
• We also have a second super Solaris birthday book bundle in honour of SciFiMonth turning ten! This giveaway is open internationally to anybody who signs up as crew and makes a SciFiMonth Challenge post before the end of the month. Watch out for a post this week featuring the amazing titles in the bundle…
• Lisa will be giving away a £20 voucher for The Portal Bookshop at the end of the month – sign up for SciFiMonth and make a post before the end of the month! (UK only)
• Tammy will be hosting her traditional end of SciFiMonth giveaway – watch out for details in her wrap post at the end of the month at Books, Bones & Buffy

Made a post we haven’t mentioned? Don’t forget to add a link to your posts to the master schedule to be included in the Mission Logs. The cut-off for adding to the schedule is an arbitrary time on Sunday, depending on what life has thrown at us. Don’t worry – if you miss the cutoff, we include your link in the next Mission Log.

Right – time to set our course for another week and see what delights SciFiMonth has in store…