So, I'm going over to Japan in a few days. Now whilst I've been busy preparing for my holiday it was always my intention to have my February reviews up before I left. However, there has been a death in the family that has sapped both my time, and my will to be productive, so …
Category: Somewhat Offtopic
Can’t Stop Buying Magazines
For the past nine years, I have had a subscription to a little magazine called Analog Science Fiction and Fact. This year I wanted to read short fiction from a lot of different places. More Uncanny, more Asimov’s, more from Tor.com. I also backed two other magazines on Kickstarter: horror magazine The Dark, and the return of …
Keeping Busy
So, there is an embroidery machine in my house at the moment. My partner borrowed it from a friend to make Monster Hunter-related patches. The monster designs are still a work in progress, but whilst he was working out how to work the machine he asked me if there were any designs I would like …
My 2017 in Books
The End of Year Novella Rush At the start of the year, I set myself a reading challenge on Goodreads. 50 books in one year seemed doable in January, but towards the start of December, less so. Which meant I turned my attention to all those novellas I’d been putting aside in favour of full-length …
The 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel Nominees, as Pokémon
Voting for the 2017 Hugo Awards is now closed. I have reviewed all the short fiction and talked about all the novels at some point on this blog, but I think it’s time to have a talk about all six nominees in the same place. And we’re going to look at these novels in what …
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My Bookcase is Under Attack!
My house has been all cold and damp lately, which has led to some fungal invaders setting up camp. At first I thought they were just confined to the bathroom, but the last few days I've noticed it cropping up in other places too. One of those areas was my bookcase, so tonight I bit …
Review – The Source
The Source By Ayreon Released 28th April 2017 (Mascot Label Group) Starring: James LaBrie, Simone Simons, Floor Jansen, Hansi Kürsch, Tobias Sammet, Tommy Karevik, Michael Mills, Russel Allen, Tommy Rogers and Zaher Zorgati Score: 9/10 I’m not going to make a habit of reviewing music. After all, just because readers are interested in the same books as me, doesn’t mean you’ll like …
Book Delivery
I Got a Book in the Mail! I get most of my books through the amazon kindle store. As much as I like physical books, I have limited space. Besides, moving house four times in recent years has made ebooks seem very appealing; I don’t have any problems carrying them. But now that I can …
Lauren’s Super Speculative Fiction Book Bingo Card
This year I have made my own book bingo card, with some challenges I want to complete. I’m going to put more effort into finishing these challenges than I did for last year’s one; not that there was anything wrong with the challenges last time, I’m just more motivated to set reading goals this year. …
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Humble Book Bundle
Science Fiction by Real Scientists Well, my kindle is now looking like my bookcase; full of interesting books on my ‘to read’ list. I recently bought a package of sixteen science and science fiction books for $15. Well, $20.78 when converted from US dollars. Since cheap books seems to be one thing everyone loves, I …
Jayde Holmes 