Welcome to Bite-size Reads, my 2022 challenge to read (some of) the amazing anthologies on my shelves. I’ll be chiming in every couple of weeks with thoughts on the stories I’ve recently enjoyed – starting today with tales from Sinopticon, a curated collection of Chinese SF translated and presented by Xueting Ni.
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If I’m brutally honest, there’s one book coming out this month that I’m more excited about than all the rest, but as usual there’s several intriguing titles heading our way. If there’s always room for one more, these are the ones I recommend you take a look at.
The day was due to be stressful enough when the only order of business was impressing a restaurant critic. One exploding space station later, winning a Nikkelin Orb will have to wait – assuming Captain Niko Larson and her crew can survive a petulant bioship, a vengeful pirate king and a side of imperial politics…
The world has changed, nation states swept away after global religious wars. Now a conspiracy threatens the utopian order that rose from the ashes – and the only person trusted to investigate is a murderer who already guards entirely too many of the world’s greatest secrets…
Any time a revered genre property gets an on-screen make-over, fans will line up to love or hate it – these days, long before it ever actually hits a screen. With its diverse casting choices, overtly queer and polyamorous characters and key plot changes, The Wheel of Time has been divisive since pre-production. But at the halfway mark, how is it actually shaping up?
I had an incredibly exclusive watchlist for December releases until last week, when it doubled in size – from one book to two. Rest assured there are more than 2 SFF releases this month, but I’m focusing on a very selective handful (although yes, I’ve got more than two now I’ve done my research). If there’s always room for one more, these are the ones I’m considering…
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.
It’s the last day of SciFiMonth (sniff), but before we call curtains I’ve got one last interview to end the month with a bang. Chris Farnell is the author of Fermi’s Progress, a series of linked novellas about Earth’s first – and last – FTL spaceship and its ongoing mission to try and stop blowing things up…
It’s the final week of the SciFiMonth read-along of Everina Maxwell’s space opera Winter’s Orbit – all the reveals, all the peril, and I think we might need some more cinnamon on that roll and a cuppa to go with it please. Spoilers inevitable.
Last month saw the release of Perhaps the Stars, the final volume of Ada Palmer’s highly-respected Terra Ignota series. I’ve been meaning to read these books for years, but somehow they kept sliding down Mount TBR. Then Mayri the BookForager suggested we buddy read Too Like The Lightning – and friends, I’m so glad I didn’t tackle this on my own.
Humanity left Earth behind and spread across the stars. For centuries, it has been in the grip of the Empire, ruled by the unchanging clones of Cleon I. When visionary mathematician Hari Seldon predicts its downfall, will Cleon II support his vision of a scientific Ark or dismiss his heretical notions of cultural apocalypse?
What’s this? A Mission Log on a Monday? You betcha (but don’t get used to it – next week’s log will be midweek so we can wrap the full month). It’s hard to believe we’re in the home stretch now, but we refuse to get mournful over it: there’s too many interesting things going on. Put your feet up and come see what the crew have been up to this past week…
Welcome back to the SciFiMonth read-along of Everina Maxwell’s space opera Winter’s Orbit. Last week it became clear that our cinnamon roll newlyweds were surrounded by deadly secrets but make a pretty good team when they work together. But will they be permitted to stay together? Let’s talk chapters sixteen through twenty-two!
Tuesday is the new Monday in some timeline or other: in this one, it’s time for a weekly SciFiMonth round-up! Grab a cuppa and settle in to catch up on what your our awesome crew have been talking about over the past seven(ish) days before we – gasp, already? – set a course for the second half of SciFiMonth…
We identified a stand-out shortlist of 2020 nominees. We have read – and discussed – and read some more. We have examined our hearts and torn out our hair to choose our winners. This has been the most closely-contested year yet, but it’s time to reveal our 2021 Subjective Chaos Kind of Award winners.
onemore.org 