Today is 1 November and the start of #SciFiMonth26!

I have joined the crew of #SciFiMonth26 to boldly go . . . into the depths of all things SciFi.

Want to know more about #SciFiMonth? Check out my Warp Speed post.

Computer, Identify #SciFiMonth TBR

In my intro post, I shared a photo of some of my fave SciFi Books, including the novel that started the genre, Frankenstein. (Find these 7 SciFi books and more faves on my To Boldly Go list.)

But what’s most important today is what is on my TBR for the month.

Without further ado, and in the order I intend to tackle this stack, my #SciFiMonth TBR:

Platform Decay by Martha Wells

Platform Decay is book 8 in the fantastically awesome Murderbot series.

I have to make myself do things I don’t want to do. Like talk to humans.

I know! I know! It came out 6 months ago (I had it 6 months ago) and I haven’t read it yet. <sigh>

In fairness, I had planned to reread the entire series before I started Platform Decay. Alice said it best: I give myself very good advice but I very seldom follow it.

Since signing up for SciFiMonth, I have completed my reread of books 1-7 + the two short stories and will be diving into this one today.

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

Book 1 in The Interdependency Trilogy, The Collapsing Empire starts this space opera based around ‘The Flow’–stable wormholes that have allowed humanity to establish a galactic empire through faster than light travel.

Scalzi is one of my favorite modern authors. I’ve read the first three books of The Old Man’s War series and several other of his books are on my faves list.

I regularly tell people to read Scalzi, especially his lighter hearted SciFi, like Agent to the Stars or my fave Starter Villain for those who haven’t delved into the SciFi genre.

Dune by Frank Herbert

All readers have at least 1 classic that they haven’t read. Well, Dune is my SciFi classic that I have never read. (And I haven’t even seen the recent-ish adaptation, which I heard was pretty decent.)

This epic science fiction novel was originally published the three-part serial Dune World in the monthly Analog from December 1963 to February 1964. Published as a novel in 1965, it did not sell well, the editor who convinced the publisher to print it was fired, and the book was poorly received by critics as being atypical of science fiction at the time.

But in 1966, Dune tied with Roger Zelazny’s This Immortal for the Hugo Award for Best Novel and won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1966. Today, the novel has been translated into dozens of languages, has sold almost 20 million copies and is regularly cited as one of the world’s best-selling science fiction novels.

Now, here 60 years later, I’m finally getting around to cracking this classic open.

A Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

I’m really sharing all my SciFi faux-pas today with yet another SciFi classic I haven’t read.

(Hey, in fairness, I have Way Station by Clifford D Simak and Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper on my faves list. My classic SciFi reading isn’t all bad.)

A Stranger in a Strange Land won the 1962 Hugo Award for Best Novel and became the first science fiction novel to enter The New York Times Book Review’s best-seller list. In 2012, the Library of Congress named it one of 88 “Books that Shaped America” (which will be a challenge for 2027).

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

As a long-time fan of Pratchett, I have had this book sitting on shelf for, well sadly, longer than I can remember. SciFiMonth seems the perfect time to read it.

Book 1 in a 5 book series, The Long Earth explores the concept of the multiverse, each with a parallel world to Earth. Set in 2030, these alt-Earths can be reached by using a “Stepper”—designs for which were posted online suddenly in 2015 allowing humanity to explore worlds “East” and “West” of “Datum Earth”.

Pratchett sadly died before book 4 was published in 2015. But all 5 intended books were published.

To Boldly Go

Several of my choices are a part of, or the start of a series. My thought is if I finished book 1, I’ll add book 2 to the TBR and then see what I can get through in 30 days.

Of course, both A Stranger in a Strange Land and Dune are chunksters clocking in at 528 and 704 pages respectively. So, while I will add the book twos to my TBR, it’s 50-50 whether I’ll get to another book beyond this list this month.

Engage Warp Speed

(I am loving all the sound effects from 101Soundboards!)

Luckily today is Sunday, and I probably have already dove in with both feet (most likely since I wrote this post back in September). I plan to read all day and it’s going to be glorious!

Stay tuned for more SciFi fun! Upcoming posts include reviews, SciFi book + puzzle, and Friday Top Fives. In the meantime, check out my Top 7 SciFi Must Reads from 2023.

SciFiMonth Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (STScI) 
Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Use of this image does not imply affiliation with or endorsement by NASA.

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