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first contact

Bitesize Books: These Lifeless Things

Book cover: These Lifeless Things - Premee Mohamed99.5% of humanity were wiped out in 3 short years after They arrived. 50 years later, a team of researchers sift through the ruins of a siege city to better understand the catastrophe. When Emerson finds a survivor’s journal, it feels like the jackpot. But can Eva’s account be taken at face value?

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April 10, 2021 all systems read, Bite-size Books, Reviews

SciFiMonth 2020: engage!

#SciFiMonth: 1-30 November 2020
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It’s that time! SciFiMonth, when we set off on our 30-day mission to explore strange new worlds and alternate dimensions; to seek out new books and unfamiliar media; to boldly geek out like… well, like we do every year, joyfully and without restraint. BRING IT.

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November 1, 2020 Giveaways, SciFiMonth, SciFiMonth 2020

The Sparrow Read-along: week four

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Better late than never, I’m tackling the final week of The Sparrow read-along. When the wheels come off on Rakhat, they take everyone out. At last we know exactly what happened – but how do we feel about it?

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December 11, 2019 Read-Alongs, SciFiMonth 2019

The Sparrow Read-along: week three

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On Rakhat, Emilio dances God, transported by the beauty of the alien world and the challenge of learning to communicate with the Runa. On Earth, Vincenzo Giuliani is determined to save the priest who fell from grace.

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November 22, 2019 Read-Alongs, SciFiMonth 2019

The Sparrow Read-along: week two

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Blessed with impressive funding and free from the concerns of global politics or corporate profit, a mission to another planet becomes far more feasible. But the Jesuits believe they have another advantage in their corner: Deus vult.

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November 13, 2019 Read-Alongs, SciFiMonth 2019

The Sparrow Read-along: week one

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30 years ago, the Society of Jesus sent a ship to Alpha Centauri to make first contact with alien singers. Only one man survived, rescued and returned to Earth a physical and emotional wreck amidst rumours of murder and sin. But what really happened to Father Emilio Sandoz on Rakhat?

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November 6, 2019 Read-Alongs, SciFiMonth 2019

SciFiMonth Classic Read-along: The Sparrow

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When SETI decode a mysterious signal to hear gorgeous singing, the world’s governments bicker over how to respond. The Jesuits don’t hesitate. They have the means and the will to build a spacecraft and send a team to make contact. After all, surely only children of God could make such beautiful music… right?

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October 29, 2019 Read-Alongs, SciFiMonth 2019

Semiosis: alien cultivation

Book cover: Semiosis - Sue BurkeThey fled Earth to make a fresh start. They called their new home Pax to reflect their hopes for the future they planned to build. But they are not alone. And their new neighbours do not see the world the same way…

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June 22, 2019 2019, Reviews

The City in the Middle of the Night

Book cover: The City in the Middle of the Night - Charlie Jane Anders (embossed title on a monochrome background, with 4-pointed stars)A tide-locked world of endless day and night. A young woman banished into the freezing dark to die. A slim chance to forge an unlikely alliance. As the planet of January slides into a climate apocalypse, is it possible to turn away from the past and embrace a new future?

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February 23, 2019 Reviews

Mini Reviews: Water into Wine, Rosewater, The Prey of Gods

This year saw lots of travelling and some intense deadlines that got in the way of me writing reviews in a timely fashion for everything I read. Still, it’s never too late for a quick look back at the ones that got away!

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November 16, 2018 2019, 2020, Reviews

Confessions of a bad SF fan: Up the Walls of the World

Book cover: Up the Walls of the World - James Tiptree, Jr (silhouette of a human face in profile on a field of blue)Daniel Dann doesn’t believe in ESP, but he’s monitoring telepaths on a top secret Navy project. The Navy wants to talk securely to submarines, but across the galaxy a desperate race on a dying planet latch on to the little group’s signals as their last best hope to save their children. Whatever the cost.

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March 22, 2017 Confessions of a Bad SF Fan, Reviews

SciFi Month Movie Special: Arrival

Movie poster: Arrival (Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forrest Whitaker)I always intended to occasionally blog about movies in between the books, but my cinema-going has taken a battering from insane London ticket prices and an avalanche of lazy and uninspiring Hollywood movie (re-)making. But Arrival tempted me to invest my pennies on a rainy day to celebrate cerebral scifi for SciFi Month.

Plot details; minor spoilers
November 16, 2016 Reviews, SciFiMonth 2016

Fluency: in space, we all speak the same language

Book cover: Fluency - Jennifer Foehner Wells - a spaceship in violet cloud)NASA has known about the alien ship in the asteroid belt since Roswell. But now they’re ready to send a small team to investigate it, including linguist Jane Holloway. When they find an empty ship, the military assume command: but someone – or something – still lives in the empty corridors. And it wants to talk.

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November 12, 2016 Reviews, SciFiMonth 2016

Top Ten Tuesday: books about first contact

Top Ten Tuesday bannerTop Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, in which we all talk about a bookish topic and have fun making lists. This week we’re looking at Book Club themes, and I’ve chosen first contact.

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November 1, 2016 SciFiMonth 2016, Top Ten Tuesday

Lagoon – Nnedi Okorafor

lagoonWhen an alien spacecraft lands in the lagoon off Lagos, the world changes. As the panic-stricken city tears itself apart, three people are chosen to make first contact. They will have to confront their deepest secrets, if they – and the rest of Lagos – are to survive.

I joined Claire and Nikki of Bitches with Books for this month’s Bitches Book Club read.

Warning: spoilers and too many parentheses
January 28, 2016 Read-Alongs, Reviews

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