November was SciFiMonth, a reading/media challenge run by Imyril of x+1 and Lisa of Dear Geek Place. The idea is to use the occasion as an excuse to consume all the science fiction you’ve been meaning to get to. Since I did so well with the RIP XIII reading challenge over September and October, I thought I’d keep the ball rolling with SciFiMonth.
Except it didn’t work out that way at all. It turns out that while my reading on any given month varies wildly from year to year, November is the one month I consistently read less. I’m still not entirely sure why that is; NaNoWriMo isn’t something I engage in regularly (and didn’t do this year). At a guess, I would say it had to do with Christmas preparations and the headlong race to the end of the year.
Whatever the case, I didn’t end up reading much for the month of November and only a small portion of it was science fiction:
Knight Errant by KD Sarge. Really a m/m romance in a sci-fi setting. Taro is a former con artist trying to go the straight and narrow to make his adopted sister proud. Unfortunately, Rafe, his sister’s new passenger and old flame, is making that difficult. When Taro tries to get rid of Rafe, the two end up getting captured, then crash land on a deserted planet where everything is trying to kill them. Of course, shenanigans ensue. A decent enough read, but I don’t think it successfully managed to straddle the line between genres.
Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space) edited by Catherine Lundoff. An anthology of pirate stories. A lot of these were fantasy, but there were definitely some space pirates. Review forthcoming.
Peace Force by Simon Haynes. A YA sci-fi. Harriet Walsh is a terrible candidate for the Peace Force, but she’s broke and about to be evicted. When she answers a recruitment letter, she discovers the Peace Force need her help more than she thought. Read for the Aurealis Awards, so I won’t be giving any further thoughts.
I also reviewed Icefall by Stephanie Gunn, a story about mountineering in space that I highly recommend.
All in all, not the most inspired of efforts. I think that in the future I’ll avoid reading challenges for the month of November.
I have to get my hands on a copy of Icefall, it sounds great! scourge of the Seas of Time is a wonderful title. Im looking forward to your review. Xx
Both books are well worth a look. 🙂