A little foreword: I read this last July (2022) and only put my review up on Goodreads at the time. Now, The Last Gifts of the Universe is through to the SPSFC2 finals I thought it best to have a copy here too! It is hard to write a review that is more than just “CAT IN SPAAAAAAAAAACE” for this book. Pumpkin (the cat) is clearly MVP of the story but, as a cat-lover, I might be biased. It’s also…
Over the past few months, team Wayward Stars have been working our way through the books allocated to us at the start of SPSFC. Now we’re at the end of Phase Two where we can announce our Top 3 books – our semi-finalists! Below is each of the books with their blurbs to expand a little on what they’re about. Tropical Punch (Bubbles in Space, #1) by S.C. Jensen Strippers, Drugs, and Headless Corpses… All in a day’s work for…
I have tagged myself after reading The Shaggy Shepherd’s answers. It’s only a quick little tag of 6 questions/prompts but it will be interesting to revisit come the end of the year to see how things panned out! How many books are you planning on reading in 2023? 40. This is slightly out of sequence for me as I’ve been adding 6 each year since 2017 and last year’s aim was 36 so I’ve only added 4 this time. I…
In 2022, I read (and finished) a total of 37 books, which was one more than my GR Challenge target. These totalled 10,257 pages, with an average page count of 277, which felt a bit low to me but I did blast through a few novellas and novelettes towards the start of the year that has clearly brought that average down. This was less than in 2021 and 2020, but I’m not too concerned about that because both of those…
As we’re reaching the end of 2022, many of us are looking forward into 2023 to see what goodies and delights await us. In this case: new books. I made myself a shelf on GoodReads specifically for books releasing in 2023 that I’m interested in and it’s already over 30-strong(!) so I have attempted to condense that list into my most, or top, anticipated titles here. These aren’t in a strict preference order so instead of numbering them, I’ve ranked…
A Cup of Tea at the Mouth of Hell: by Luke Tarzian My rating: 4 of 5 stars ‘A Cup of Tea…’ is a clever, at times surreal, hard-hitting exploration of grief. If you have ever experienced loss, you may see yourself reflected in Lucifer as he deteriorates over a missing kettle. A kettle given to him by his mother. It is often small, surprising things, that drag us back into our grief: a Christmas card, a certain drink, the…
This was written as part of a weekly writing challenge on The Midnight Faith discord, which focusses on dark, spooky, creepy fiction. The prompt was: mountains. {274 words} I sleep in the lap of the mountain. Turned on her side, she protects me. She provides food, shelter and affection. She loves me. No one can walk over the mountain except me; she won’t allow it. Before I came to the mountain, I was abandoned. I ate scraps and survived…
Within each judging team for SPSFC there are roughly thirty (30) books assigned as their ‘slush pile’ and teams with multiple members then split the pile between them to begin reading. In Wayward Stars we have split things so that every book is read by at least two people. We aim to read 20% of each book and decide whether it’s one to continue as a full group or not. Below are my ten (10) from the slush pile. Sunborn…
As I mentioned in my last post, I have joined up with some fellow book bloggers as a judging team for SPSFC 2! What is it though?
I feel like every year I have to make one of these entries where I explain my absence and the quietness of the blog. This time I think I have a valid excuse or two. Earlier in the year I joined Grimdark Magazine‘s online reviewer team and BookNest.eu‘s and agreed to do reviews for Black Dragon Books too. In an effort not to cross-post and detract from those sites, I haven’t been putting any of those review on here. I’ve…