After a mammoth fifth birthday extravaganza last year, this year’s Subjective Chaos Awards are back – a little older, a little wiser, and a little more focused. Once again, a chaotic panel of readers and reviewers have read, wrangled and agonised our way into an entirely subjective selection of the best works of speculative fiction published in the previous calendar year. Let’s take a look at this year’s nominees…
scifi
My new year’s reading is coming along (very) slowly, but I’m still chipping away at my review backlog. Today’s reviews are space operas read in 2022: Warlady by Jo Graham and Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings.
Nearly half my 2022 reading and two thirds of my review backlog were SF titles – time for some lightning reviews to capture my impressions before they fade away, starting with 3 SFnal thrillers: Plan For Chaos by John Wyndham, The Nox by Joe White & Catriona Ward and Pollen From A Future Harvest by Derek Künsken.
This tag (possibly created by Amanda from A Brighter Shade of Hope) is an excuse to celebrate the characters who stole our hearts. I had a ball taking it for Wyrd and Wonder and wanted to revisit it with a SF spin for SciFiMonth – but as I didn’t get to it, I’m dusting it off to start the year.
The old city was ruthlessly quarantined when an ancient virus was unleashed, but analyst Crash knows its secrets and walks its haunted streets. When the company dreadnought sends a secret message from the deepspace anomaly known as the Eye, the city is the only place Crash can pick it up. But what could push the Demiurge to call for help?
Here at There’s Always Room For One More I usually focus on books, but I’ve been meaning to wrap up my thoughts on some of the TV I’ve enjoyed this year too. With the end of 2022 at hand, I want to at least make time to yell from the rooftops about my show of the year – AppleTV’s unnerving, perfectly controlled Severance.
Our crew has crossed galaxies and navigated timelines, delved into what if and could be, but every SciFiMonth must come to an end. Better late than never, it’s time to look back across the final ten days of shenanigans and share the crew’s adventures.
With one week left to go, it’s time to take the wrappers off our final SciFiMonth Solaris Book Bundle! Our friends at Rebellion Publishing have been incredibly generous for our birthday, so our final bundle features some fabulous releases from the past couple of years.
Wait, how did we get to week three already? Right, I’ve been stuck in another timeline moving boxes. I fear there’s a few more of them in my future, but before I find out it’s time to sit back with a cuppa and survey the signals from our SciFiMonth crew to see what they’ve been up to these past seven (or so) days…
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…
You know the saying: no two people in the contacted world are more than six social connections apart. Inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite And Best, I apply this notion to books and challenge friends and authors to find interesting ways to hop from one book to another based on a shared author, theme, award win and so on. Today, I’m delighted to welcome Ren Hutchings, author of timeslip space opera Under Fortunate Stars, to take the Six Degrees challenge.
Hailing all channels: it’s our first weekly round-up of SciFiMonth shenanigans! If you’ve been trapped in a pocket universe or cut off from comms on a strange new world, Lisa and I are here to bring you the news of what your SciFiMonth crewmates have been getting up to. Grab a cuppa and batten down your TBR…
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!
I can’t believe it’s just nine days to our TENTH annual celebration of SciFiMonth – 30 days of wall to wall geekery exploring other worlds, parallel dimensions, alternate timelines and weird science through November. So what are we cooking up for the crew?
Smuggler and linguist Sean Wren is on a mission he couldn’t refuse: to retrieve a long-lost scientific secret from an ancient ship orbiting a dying star. At least, that was the plan. Instead, enemies must ally as hunters become hunted aboard the deadly spaceship – but when the prize is immortality, treachery is the only possible outcome…