It’s the final day of August, I’m pulling the woolly garments out of their drawers, and the online SFF celebration season in my part of the blogosphere is almost upon us. Let’s wrap this month up and get on with looking forward!

Adventures

August was quite a busy month, especially for this introvert! The highlight of it, of course, being spending five days in Dublin surrounded by fellow geeks for Worldcon 77. Coming home required a few days of blessed solitude and, for about a day or so, even more blessed silence. Fellow introverts, I’m sure you understand! But I eventually ventured back out into the world to spend an afternoon exploring Linlithgow Palace, indulging my inner history geek.

From the Shelves

Don’t worry, I didn’t get TOO swept up in Real Life – some quality reading got done as well!

• Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse #8) by James S. A. Corey – 5/5
• Once & Future (Once & Future #1) by Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy – 5/5
• Deacon (Gideon’s Riders #2) by Kit Rocha – 4/5

And, though it’s been delayed a bit since I began, I did get a review of the first part of Dreams of Gods and Monsters written, with the rest to follow now that things are settling down again (relatively speaking)!

Mount TBR

… But mostly I just added to the towering towers of bookish treasure taking up most of the floor space here at Chez Geek! (Worldcon and a couple of giveaways helped.)

• Ashael Rising/Petra McDonald and the Queen of the Fae by Shona Kinsella
• The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
• Astray by Emma Donoghue
• Snow White, Blood Red (anthology) edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling
• City of Lies by Sam Hawke
• The Resurrectionist of Caligo (ARC) by Wendy Trimboli & Alicia Zaloga
• The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip
• Darkspell/Dawnspell (Deverry #2/3) by Katharine Kerr
• Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone
• Monstrous Heart (ARC) by Claire McKenna
• The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
• Turning Darkness Into Light by Marie Brennan
• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
• Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton
• The House of Sundering Flames by Aliette de Bodard

… Whew.

20 Books of Summer

Sooooo, this goal is looking unlikely to be met. August seriously derailed me, and I didn’t get through any more of my list – but as a personal goal, I intend to stick to it and hopefully I’ll get through the rest of these books before the year’s over! Here’s what remains to be read:

• Coil by Ren Warom (ARC – currently reading)
• Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor (currently reading)
• Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
• Failure to Communicate by Kaia Sonderby
• Vicky Romeo + Joolz by Ely Percy
• The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton
• Other Words For Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin
• Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
• Borderline by Mishell Baker

Nine Hearths (D&D)

This month’s session saw the party really begin to go from squadmates to friends, when my baby paladin finally got to take her oath and properly set herself on the path to … whatever this means for her! She swore the Oath of the Ancients, and I am super excited for druid-flavoured fighter badassery. In other party news, our ranger, Serendipity, has a secret mentor? Who’s a war veteran hiding out in the local swamps? And she was the only one who knew until she told Peri, our own war veteran fighter? And everybody else thinks this guy went missing during a disastrous raid by invaders twenty years ago but now he’s following the party on their journey and she’s trying to convince him he can trust the rest of us?

No, he isn’t Yoda. I’m pretty sure.

Naivara still doesn’t know any of this yet but SHE WILL HAVE QUESTIONS.

Oh, and remember the mystery of the ghost tower on the mountain road from the last session? Well guess what Naivara’s noble family’s sigil resembles. Late realisation, but OH THE DRAMA. What does this mean?? She has to find out. Hopefully Libby, the party’s resident Bard librarian, can help!

But that has to wait because their last mission report resulted in a visit from a trio of Very Important master bards from the capital who promptly carted us all off to investigate the zombies in jars for themselves. Naivara didn’t get to fight anything on the way, which was pretty disappointing, but they did all meet a burrowbear (think owlbear, but with a tendency to… well, burrow) and SHE GOT TO PET IT and ITS NAME IS PUMPKIN and I think its handler likes her?

Drama.

The nerd beacons are lit…

Halloween is coming, and Spooktastic Reads is coming back! We’re giving Wyrd and Wonder’s little sister event a second outing this October, and I put the word out earlier this month along with a blog header THAT I PUT TOGETHER MYSELF (after much advice and fussing, but I am PROUD OF MYSELF). Check it out here!

Brave new worlds

Speaking of annual nerdfests, this year’s SciFi Month is also gearing up, and sign-ups are officially open – you can get some more info here, with updates to follow!

The Winnowing Flame Read-along

Before all of that, however, imyril and I are returning to Jen Williams’ latest epic fantasy trilogy! We’ll be reading the concluding volume, The Poison Song, in mid-September and the schedule is up over on Goodreads now. Join us for screaming, nail-biting and no doubt also tears – and hopefully some joy along the way. I can’t wait!