Hello and welcome to August 2023’s Monthly Roundup post here on Track of Words. We’re two thirds of the way through the year – isn’t that crazy?! I had a relatively quiet August, much like last month, although it’s been a little different to usual as I’ve focused a lot of my reading on the nominations for the Best Newcomer Award at the British Fantasy Awards, for which I’m a member of the jury. That’s been an interesting experience in its own right, and later on I’ll talk a little bit (in general terms – I can’t be too specific) about what it’s been like, after my usual recap of the month’s posts. So read on to see if there’s anything you’ve missed over the last few weeks.
August’s Posts
I’ve definitely settled into a rhythm recently, with a consistent two posts per week, and this post you’re reading makes it a nice even eight for August. I think there’s a nice mix of different types of posts, so hopefully there’s something here for everyone!
TEASER INTERVIEW: Matthew Ward Introduces The Darkness Before Them – rather than my usual Author Interview this is (as the title suggests) a bit more of a teaser, giving a brief sense of what to expect from Matthew’s upcoming new novel. Due out in November 2023, this sounds like it’s going to be a brilliant read, so check out the interview to whet your appetite for the start of a great new fantasy series!
The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub – a gloriously enjoyable retelling of Pride and Prejudice from the viewpoint of Lydia, the youngest Bennet sister. This was everything I hoped it would be and more, full of wonderfully English magic and offering a delightfully clever alternate perspective on the events of Austen’s classic novel…but also a compelling, fascinating fantasy story in its own right.
QUICK REVIEW: Compulsory by Martha Wells – I might have mentioned before that I bloomin’ love Murderbot, so I jump at any chance to read further stories. This one is a very short story, more a vignette really, but I loved it anyway, and if you’re a fan of this series then it’s well worth a quick read to get a little glimpse of Murderbot before the events of All Systems Red.
RAPID FIRE: Rob Young Talks Longshot – for my second interview of the month I chatted to Rob about his debut novel, which is out now from Black Library. It’s always good to see a new Imperial Guard book come out, as the possibilities are endless – check this interview out to find out more about this tale of Cadian snipers.
Where to Start With Black Library: Necrons – it’s been a while since I last put together one of these guides, but I had fun with this. If you’ve ever fancied reading about the Necrons but haven’t known where to begin, this guide has got you covered. I’ve broken it down into stories featuring Necrons as both protagonists and antagonists, and also by older stories and newer releases.
A Few Thoughts On: Ahsoka by EK Johnston – I’ve been a Star Wars fan as long as I can remember, but I never got along with the Clone Wars series. I did like the character of Ahsoka Tano though, so I jumped at the chance to read about her in this novel, which sees her alone and lying low, but forced to make a difficult decision by the inevitable appearance of the burgeoning Empire. I thought it was excellent – exactly my kind of IP fiction, which doesn’t require loads of prior knowledge and stands on its own as a great story.
Short and Sweet – August 2023 – this month’s quick review roundup features the usual trio of books that I’ve read recently and wanted to talk about, but for one reason or another couldn’t write full reviews for. This time I looked at a Warhammer Age of Sigmar novel (Godeater’s Son by Noah Van Nguyen), the first book in a Southeast Asia-inspired fantasy trilogy (The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart) and a heartwarming novel about a woman coming to terms with grief…and an octopus named Marcellus (Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt).
My August
As you’ll have seen earlier I maintained my usual output of new posts this month, and I’ve generally kept myself busy, but overall I’d say it’s been another quiet month – on the surface at least. What’s kept me busy has been working through my British Fantasy Awards reading list (more on this in the next section) and planning ahead for future interviews and articles. I don’t want to say too much about future posts and spoil the fun, but I’m looking ahead to December and my traditional Advent Calendar series in particular, and starting to get things organised. It still feels a long way off, but I just know that the time is going to fly by. If you have any requests or ideas for things you’d like to say, do let me know!
I’ve never been particularly active on social media, but even I have had to accept that the future of Twitter (my preferred SM space) is looking increasingly shaky. As such, I’ve set up a BlueSky account which I’m very slowly starting to use. If you’re around on that platform, please feel free to look me up – I’m over there as @trackofwords.bsky.social. I’m still using Twitter, but it’s good to know that there’s an alternative available if things really do start to break down over there.
Like I said, I’m not all that active on social media, but this month something I have been doing quite a lot of is posting pictures of great new books that have been sent my way. I’m always incredibly grateful to authors and publishers for sending me review copies, and August has given me a lot to be grateful for! Here are some photos of this month’s book post, which included books from Gollancz (Storming Heaven by Miles Cameron), Jo Fletcher Books (a pair of wonderfully-titled paperbacks by Kimberly Lemming, and A Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden), Winged Hussar Publishing (IP novels by Mark Barber and Craig Gallant) and Aconyte Books (Three Oaths by Josh Reynolds), as well as Rob Young’s debut Black Library novel Longshot (thanks Rob!).
Reading Update
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been keeping pretty busy reading through the shortlist for the Best Newcomer award at the British Fantasy Awards, for which I’m part of the jury. This has been an interesting experience, as my first ever involvement as an awards juror – something I’m pleased to be able to say I’ve now done. With six authors on the shortlist, the five of us on the jury had quite a mixture of things to read – four novels, a short story anthology and a set of four short stories (differentiated from an anthology by virtue of having been published in various places).
I’m not going to say anything about individual books/stories, as at the time of writing this the winner of the award is yet to be announced. What I can say is that it’s been a slightly strange experience reading things that I haven’t chosen to read, if you know what I mean. I guess I’m normally at least somewhat of a mood reader, and while I tend to have at least a few books ready and waiting to be read soon I usually end up choosing whatever I’m in the mood for at that time. Which is fine, although it does mean I often end up waiting to read something (which I know I want to read) for ‘the perfect moment’, and when does that ever arrive?
So knowing that I had a list of books and stories that I’d committed to reading in a given time period was…a little different. Even when I was reading something that I was thoroughly enjoying (which happened plenty, thankfully) it felt like I couldn’t quite settle into my reading in the way I usually do, and I spent a fair amount of the month feeling like I was reading very slowly. To help maintain momentum and enthusiasm, I made sure to intersperse my awards reading with a couple of books I wanted to read purely for fun – in this case a non-fiction book about octopuses (Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus) and a Star Wars novel (Ahsoka by EK Johnston) – which definitely helped, and after finishing the last nominated book I threw myself into some fun, easy reads as palate cleansers.
I’ve got my eye on quite a few books for September, including Josh Reynolds’ Three Oaths (another Legend of the Five Rings novel from Aconyte Books), Rob Young’s Longshot (Black Library) and Miles Cameron’s Storming Heaven, so I’m really looking forward to jumping into those. There will undoubtedly be a few spur of the moment choices too, when I know I want to read something fun but don’t quite feel in the right mood for the books on my list. Interestingly though, I also have the first (ish) draft of a friend’s book to read and provide feedback on, so that’s going to be another new reading experience for me! I can’t wait to get stuck into that.
To finish off this section, let’s take the usual look at the month’s reading in numbers:
- At the time of writing (with a day and a half left of the month) I’ve read 12 books in August, which takes me to 94 for the year in total
- Of those 12 books, two were audiobooks (A Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland – excellent – and Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood – not so good, in my opinion), two were ebooks, and the remaining eight were all physical books. That’s an unusually large number of physical copies for me – I normally read more ebooks and audiobooks than that
- I chose seven of the 12 books to read purely for enjoyment, while the other five are books I’ve either reviewed or read for my British Fantasy Award jury duty
- With Steve Parker’s Deathwatch: Shadowbreaker (entertaining, but not as good as the first one) I carried on my trend of reading a single Black Library book each month. I’ve a feeling I might read more than that in September, though
- My reading gender split is currently 58% female, 39% male, 2% various authors, and 1% non-binary
Cool SFF Book News etc.
There were lots of interesting SFF-related book announcements, cover reveals etc. this month, so I’ve got plenty to talk about here. Once again I didn’t make it to any book events, so I’ll just jump straight into the news – I’m sure there was lots more than this, but I’ve picked out the things I was personally interested in.
I don’t know how I hadn’t come across this before, but Gollancz has just published Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi, which sounds brilliant! The Nigerian god of nightmares attempting a heist in the British Museum? Count me in – I definitely need to get hold of this book. Looks like it’s out in ebook now, with the hardback edition coming next year.
In the first of three bits of Black Library-related news, Warhammer Community finally confirmed that The End and the Death will be a three-volume affair, officially announcing volume 3 and then a week later revealing the cover art (from Neil Roberts, as always). On the one hand, more Dan Abnett is always a good thing as far as I’m concerned, so I’m pleased to know there’s a further Siege of Terra novel (or third of a novel, depending how you want to look at it) still to come from Dan. I don’t know why BL felt like they had to keep that a secret though, so on the other hand I’m still a bit irritated that they didn’t just tell us up-front that The End and the Death was going to be a three-parter. Ah well, at least we know now. All that remains is to find out when they’re actually going to publish the last two books!
I read Lucy Holland’s Sistersong back in 2021 and loved it, so I was delighted to see the official cover reveals for her next novel – Song of the Huntress. The US cover was revealed first, followed by the UK cover a couple of weeks later. I’m often not a big fan of US covers, but I have to say this time I really like both of them! Both editions are due out in March 2024.
Next up was a cover reveal from Aconyte Books for Do Or Die, Josh Reynolds’ third Zombicide novel. It looks like this is essentially closing off a trilogy which began with 2021’s Last Resort before continuing with 2022’s All Or Nothing. I haven’t read the second book yet, but I had a blast with Last Resort, so I’d say that if you’re into zombie fiction this is definitely a series to keep an eye on. Do Or Die is due out in ebook and US paperback editions in December 2023, followed by the UK paperback at the end of February 2024.
Another interesting cover reveal was for Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro, a dark fantasy novel featuring Aztec vampires (!) coming in April 2024 from Del Rey. I’ve been meaning to check out some of Castro’s books for a while, and this might just be the one that starts me off! Looks super cool.
If you’ve been looking forward to Jude Reid’s debut Black Library novel – Creed: Ashes of Cadia – then this interview that Warhammer Community ran with Jude will be of interest. We don’t have a confirmed release date yet (other than ‘some point in September’), but from what Jude talks about in this interview it sounds like this is going to be great!
Back in 2022 I read and loved Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings, a fun science fiction adventure which takes an unusual approach to time travel. I’ve been hoping for more from Hutchings ever since, so imagine my delight when not one but two more books were announced, further exploring the same setting! The first one, An Unbreakable World, is due out in Spring 2025 from Solaris, with another coming at some point later on. That feels like a long way off, but I’m sure it’s going to be worth the wait.
Earlier in the month I tweeted that Warhammer Community’s Black Library ‘Coming Soon’ page hadn’t been updated in some time, with books still on there from May! I’m not saying that WarCom paid any attention to my tweet, but a few days later the Coming Soon page did finally receive a rare update, including no fewer than 12 releases confirmed for September (14 if you include SE and regular HB editions of two of them). Looks like next month is going to be busy for a lot of BL fans! I really don’t understand why this page is so often left to stagnate so badly – either keep it up to date or get rid of it! – but hey, at least it’s up to date now…for a while at least.
The final cover reveal I’ve picked out is a bit of a stunner – for Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan, coming in February 2024 from Orbit. I read one of Eliza’s short stories a few years ago and was very impressed, so I’ve been hoping for a novel ever since. I know you shouldn’t judge books by covers, but this does look spectacular – and thankfully the novel itself sounds pretty great too! Definitely one for the list.
This last one isn’t exactly a cover reveal, but still something visual that I’m personally excited about, for family reasons. Super swanky hardback proofs have started going out for my sister’s upcoming novel, The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands, which is coming out in summer 2024 from W&N in the UK, and Flatiron in the US. Obviously I’m entirely biassed with this one, although I haven’t read it myself (yet) so I’m looking forward to experiencing it along with everyone else! I don’t know who those proofs are going to (no idea if I’ll get one – I’m happy to wait my turn) but aren’t they absolutely beautiful?
Other Recommendations
To finish off, here are a few quick recommendations for bits and pieces that have caught my interest recently.
Fiction: I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m really enjoying John French’s ongoing short story explorations, which are gradually building up a picture of a fascinating new world he’s created. Check out John’s website to read all of the stories he’s written so far, and sign up to his mailing list to keep up with new stories as they’re released.
Non-fiction: I recently listened to A Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland, which was a fascinating look at the life of a village GP in rural England. If, like me, you’ve never known anything other than the NHS, it’s really quite eye-opening, and it’s generally just a brilliantly compelling story of both an amazing individual and the realities of personal healthcare.
Music: I’ve spent a large part of this month listening to Psychic Warfare by Clutch on repeat, which has reminded me just how great this band is. If heavy blues-rock is your thing, and in particular if you like your music to be packed full of wildly inventive lyrics and storytelling, then definitely check this out.
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If you’re still reading this, thanks for sticking with me! I think that’s a good point at which to end this – hopefully there’s been something interesting in there for you. If you’ve got any comments or questions, please let me know in the comments below or on social media.
In the meantime, I hope you have a great September – happy reading!
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