Hello, and welcome to my Monthly Roundup post for October 2023. It’s going to be a slightly shorter post than usual, as (for reasons I’ll touch on a little bit later) I posted much less in October than I normally do, and I just don’t have quite as much to talk about compared to previous months. Nevertheless, I’ll do the usual recap on everything I did post in October, then include a quick update on how things went this month (both generally, and in terms of reading specifically), before finishing off with a few thoughts on SFF-related goings on over the month. So read on, and please do let me know if you’ve got any questions or comments.
October’s Posts
This post you’re reading makes it five for the month, so that’s quite a lot less than the eight or nine I usually manage. That being said, quality over quantity is the key thing, right? And I’m pretty happy with how things went for the posts I did manage – including a blog article, a guest post, a review roundup and a single full book review.
Take A Break, Take It Easy – I’d been planning on writing something about burnout and ideas for avoiding it, and then I had a few weeks of illness that meant I needed to take my own advice and just slow down, and take a break from working on the site. At that point it just made sense to turn my plans for that article into this – part explanation of why I’d been quiet for a while, and part plea to other book bloggers (and anyone who commits a lot of time and energy to a hobby or non-paying ‘job’, really) to take breaks and avoid burning out.
Does ‘Low-Stakes’ Mean No Stakes? Keith W. Dickinson Guest Post – it really feels like ‘cosy’, low-stakes fantasy stories are having a resurgence right now, but it’s easy to forget that just because a story doesn’t have world-shattering implications, that doesn’t mean its stakes aren’t important to its characters. In this great guest post author Keith W. Dickinson explores this concept in relation to some of the most popular recent low-stakes fantasy books, and also his own cosy fantasy novella Glunda The Veg Witch.
Short And Sweet – October 2023 – without intending to, I ended up theming this month’s review roundup around spooky stories of various types, which is pretty appropriate given it’s October! The trio of books covered this time around include an Age of Sigmar novel about witch hunters from Black Library, and a pair of dark novellas – a Japanese-inspired ghost story full of creepy yokai and fairly unlikeable characters (and with a truly terrifying cover), and a strange, unsettling tale of survivors from a flooded world, trapped on an ark that’s slowly falling apart.
Creed: Ashes of Cadia by Jude Reid – another excellent addition to Black Library’s growing range of Cadian fiction, this novel (Reid’s BL debut) introduces a brand new character in the shape of Lord Castellan Ursula Creed, daughter of the legendary Ursarkar E. Creed. It has a real old-school 40k vibe, with a battered group of survivors desperately pushing on with their mission (in this case to retrieve a mystery weapon supposedly left behind in a fragment of destroyed Cadia) with little hope of success, driven only by grit, determination and the hope that maybe – maybe – if they see it through they’ll find a way to escape the hell they’re faced with.
My October
If you haven’t already read my Take A Break, Take It Easy article, in that I talk about what’s been happening this month in terms of feeling ill, and deliberately stepping back from working on the site, reading for review, and so on. I won’t go into lots of detail here and duplicate what I’ve already said, so do check that article out if you’re interested. Suffice it to say though, the fortnight I spent away from writing, reviewing etc. definitely helped, and is obviously why my output was considerably lower than usual in October. I can’t say this enough, either – taking a break is the right thing to do if you’re feeling burned out, you’re not well, or you’re generally just feeling too busy to work on things like blogging, or hobbies, or anything like that.
Illness aside, I’ve actually quite enjoyed taking some time this month to just kick back and relax, and in particular to read a good number of books purely for fun. I’ll talk more about reading in the next section, though. I can’t say yet whether I’m really feeling genuinely refreshed after taking a break – we’ll see how things go in November, I guess – but I’m hoping I’ll be able to get back into the swing of things, get plenty published next month, and also get things ready for the Advent Calendar series I’m planning for December. I’ve already got a few guests lined up to contribute interviews and articles, so watch this space! I do enjoy putting these Advent Calendars together…
Reading Update
It’s actually been a really great month for me in terms of reading – despite not feeling great for a large part of it (or perhaps because of that) I put a lot of time aside for reading, catching up on books I’d been meaning to read for ages, revisiting some old favourites, and generally just enjoying my reading. I mean, I always do enjoy it…but making a conscious decision to read just for fun has reminded me a little of what it’s like to not be a book blogger, and to just read solely for the joy of reading. I think maybe I needed that.
Given how few of October’s books I’ve reviewed, I’ll give you a very quick rundown of them here (excluding books I’ve talked about already this month). I’m not going to go into detail, but hopefully you’ll get the gist.
- The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett – I love the Discworld but hadn’t read this for years. Rereading it now I’m reminded how much I like it, even though I tend to think I’m not such a fan of the earliest books.
- The Gate of Bones by Andy Clark – I fancy (finally) catching up on the Dawn of Fire series, so this was a reread to remind myself what happened. Not a classic, but pretty good fun all told.
- The Dark City by Chris Wraight – the Vaults of Terra trilogy really is excellent, isn’t it? I didn’t think this quite lived up to the first and second books, but it was a great read even so.
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – so many people told me I’d love this…and they were all 100% correct. Warm, characterful, and deeply enjoyable despite not a lot really happening. So good!
- Shanghai Immortal by A.Y. Chao – I loved the world building here, but never fully clicked with the protagonist’s voice. Glad I read it, and loved exploring both Shanghais, but far from blown away.
- Yellowface by R.F. Quang – what a ride! A very strange book, but oddly compelling given that it really doesn’t have any redeeming characters. I loved its ambiguity though, with terrible things happening to a terrible person, and the audiobook narrator was fantastic.
- The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty – took me a while to really get into this, and in the end I liked it rather than loved it. Lots of good stuff, loved the setting, just didn’t fully connect with the story itself.
- Night Theatre by Vikram Paralkar – be warned, this is pretty gruesome in places, as a disillusioned ex-surgeon works through the night to save a trio of already-dead people. Pretty dark, but beautiful in the end.
- The Night Raven by Sarah Painter – slightly daft investigative urban fantasy populated by magical families, ghosts and the threat of conflict on the streets of London. It’s a little hard to believe the poor choices the protagonist sometimes makes, but in the end I did quite enjoy this as a bit of light fun.
- The Words of Kings and Prophets by Shauna Lawless – the sequel to a book I absolutely loved, brilliantly living up to the standard of its predecessor. I don’t read a lot of historical fantasy, but these two books might be my books of the year so far.
- Exit Strategy by Martha Wells – I love Murderbot! This was my third time through novella number four (and second time through it in audio) and I loved it every bit as much as the first time. Total comfort reading – perfect.
- If Found, Return to Hell by Em X. Liu – second person is really tricky to pull off, and I just don’t see the point of it here. The premise is strong, but I didn’t get along with the execution.
To finish off this section, let’s take the usual look at the month’s reading in numbers:
- I’ve read 15 books in Ocober (the most books I’ve read in any month this year), taking me to 124 for the year in total.
- I read 150 books in 2022, and it’s looking like I might – just – be able to match that this year. 26 in two months is doable…we’ll see!
- The format breakdown this month was: 8 physical books, 4 audiobooks and 3 ebooks. I think the abundance of physical copies speaks to my decision to read lots of ‘just for fun’ books, and finally get around to things I’d had on the shelf for ages!
- Speaking of ‘just for fun’, that’s definitely what dominated this month’s reading. The only book I chose with a view to writing a full review was Jude Reid’s Creed: Ashes of Cadia – I did read a couple of novellas that I wrote about briefly in my Short and Sweet roundup, but otherwise the rest were all for fun. I might cover one or two of them in the next review roundup, but I’ll be happy enough if I don’t.
Cool SFF Book News
I didn’t think I’d been paying much attention to SFF news, but when it came to compiling this section I realised I’d still spotted quite a few cool tidbits, so actually I’ve got a decent amount to talk about. This time it’s mostly cover reveals and book announcements, so get ready to add to your TBR!
I’m a big fan of Marie Brennan’s Legend of the Five Rings novels for Aconyte Books, so I was delighted to see Aconyte reveal the cover for her third book, The Market of 100 Fortunes.
Tickets for 2024’s GollanczFest went on sale – it’s taking place at the Leonardo Royal St Paul’s hotel in London, on the 16th March 2024. I don’t think the full lineup of authors has been announced yet, but there are some pretty great names confirmed, and it promises to be a fun day. I’ve enjoyed previous GollanczFests I’ve been to, so I’m looking forward to this. Got my ticket sorted!
Aconyte Books revealed another cover, this time for Welcome to Arkham: An Illustrated Guide For Visitors, by AP Klosky and David Annandale. I love the idea of this, bringing Arkham to life visually to complement the excellent novels.
Warhammer Community announced the latest upcoming Age of Sigmar novel from Black Library, in the shape of Temple of Silence by Richard Strachan, the follow-up to 2022’s Hallowed Ground. I didn’t enjoy that one quite as much as I’d hoped, but I’ve got a lot of time for Richard’s writing so I’m still keen to pick this up.
Tordotcom published a new Judge Dee short story by Lavie Tidhar – The Locked Coffin. I think this is the sixth such story – I’ve read most of them, and they’re an absolute delight (think Golden Age mysteries with vampires), so it’s always great to see more released! You can pick this up on Amazon, or read it for free on the Tordotcom website.
Carrying on with the Tordotcom theme, they announcement not one but two new Adrian Tchaikovsky novels, starting with Service Model coming in June 2024, followed by a second as-yet-untitled volume coming in 2026. Tchaikovsky continues to be phenomenally prolific, but he’s consistently brilliant so I’m expecting big things as usual.
Next, Silvia Moreno-Garcia revealed the cover for her next novel, The Seventh Veil of Salome. I’m not actually sure if this cover is for both UK and US editions or just the US version – we’ll see if her UK publisher (Jo Fletcher Books) uses the same one, or goes for something different. I’ll read anything Moreno-Garcia writes, and this tale of 1950’s Hollywood sounds typically brilliant.
Lastly, a new Fantasy exhibition has just opened at the British Library, and while I haven’t yet had a chance to check that out, I did go to the first in a series of events happening alongside the exhibition. This first event was a talk with Rhianna Pratchett and Gabrielle Kent, authors of Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being A Witch, and it was so much fun! To a committed Discworld fan like me, any new book like this is an absolute godsend, and it was a joy to hear the authors talk about the creation of the book, their writing process, and the wonderful Paul Kidby art that runs throughout. I even got to buy an early copy, which made me very happy! Seriously – if you like Discworld you’ll want this book.
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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 November – happy reading!
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