Our reads in July 2025

Another month,another pile of books added to the tottering TBR. What will you read this month?

Dusty's TBR for July
Arkady Martine - A Desolation Called Peace✔
Anne McCaffrey - Damia✔
Anne McCaffrey - Damia's Children✔
Anne McCaffrey - Lyon's Pride✔
Anne McCaffrey - Tower and the Hive✔
Patricia Briggs - Winter Lost ✔
Simon R Green - Dark Side of the Road✔

A short list this month, because I have a lot of non-sf reading ambitions.

Currently Reading
The Cosmic Rape by Theodore Sturgeon

On Deck
Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

The books I have lined up for this month are This World is Not Yours, The Ministry of Time, An Inheritance of Magic, The Ten Percent Thief, and Barbary Station.

I am still working on Shadows of Self between my last couple Hugo finalists; right now that's A Sorceress Comes to Call.

My plans for July are a little light on SF&F:

Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov
The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay
Swan Song by Robert McCammon (marginally in the category)

Finished off Paul McAuley's Evening's Empires, the last in the four-book sequence that began with The Quiet War. Lots of posthuman shenanigans, and you may not need an intimate knowledge of the previous three books to enjoy this one. My review:

About to start The Glamour.

Having finished my detailed Dream Archipelago read (the article is about ready to go off to Bruce Gillespie for SF Commentary), I found that I'd got the urge to re-read some of Chris Priest's early novels. The Glamour wasn't amongst them. But then I saw a review here on LT where the reviewer said that they were disappointed that this wasn't a Dream Archipelago novel, as suggested in the LT series entry.

When I looked, it had been added to the DA listing on LT; but I could see no reason why it should have been. So I edited the series entry to remove it; but by then I found that I had to re-read the novel to see if there was any possible reason anyone might have thought it was a DA novel. I dropped the reviewer a line, and they said that someone had said somewhere that it was a DA novel "because it had some characters in common". Not that I could see any; but of course, by now I had to re-read it to convince myself.

And even if it does have a secondary character from, say, The Affirmation in it, that still wouldn't make The Glamour a DA novel. Anyway, it's probably forty years since I last read it, so it's overdue a re-read anyway.

My last Hugo read... Service Model!

Finally finished Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the 20th Century. Overall I thought the story quality was good, but I do question if a couple are really 'the best'.

'Tourists' by Lisa Goldstein - the ultimate 'bad American tourist' story (note, just one tourist) but it isn't scifi and it isn't that good.

'A Clean Escape' by John Kessel - I couldn't tell you what this one was about two days after I read it and after checking the book again, there's nothing memorable about it.

Of the rest, I thought some stood out:

"Call me Joe" by Pohl Anderson
"Tunesmith" by Lloyd Biggle Jr.
"A Saucer of Loneliness" by Theodore Sturgeon
"A Work of Art" by James Blish
'"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman'
"Eurema's Dam" by R. A. Lafferty - took me too long to figure out the significance of the title and now the entire story makes more sense.

Any nominations for stories that should have been included?

Just finished Jemisin's The City We Became, a romp of HPL, NYC mythology, and avatar-fueled superheroes. A fun read and I'll probably pick up the concluding volume eventually, but initial reaction is that the Marvel-esque battles were disappointing after the initial conflicts being so much more imaginative and not merely fisticuffs between larger-than-life combatants.

Finished up Barbary Station, a sub-"Expanse" space opera which is not as cool as the high concept sounds (Lesbian Pirates in SPAAAACE!), and which probably needed another round of editing to tighten it up. To put it another way, Charlie Stross or John Scalzi would have done more with 20% fewer pages. Stearns' main issue might have been to either focus on the caper or focus on character building. Still not a bad first novel.

>10 Karlstar: I think that Frederik Pohl’s short story The Tunnel Under the World is one of the best SF stories from the 20th C I have ever read.

I started out reading The Glamour as something of a chore, to see if something I had been told about it were true; I finished up being gripped by the premise and trying to figure out just what was going on. My review:

Although it is the second under the cover of the omnibus from which I read it, The Cosmic Rape was the third of the three novels that I read, finishing the book The Dreaming Jewels / The Cosmic Rape / Venus Plus X over the course of about twenty years (and starting before I owned it).

I finished up Service Model the other day, so I'm done with my Hugo reading, but haven't yet gotten around to writing it up. My Hugo watching though... I'm a bit worried about getting it all in on time, but we'll see!

>15 paradoxosalpha:

Fascinating, the possible source of Clarke's iconic line. Whether or not it was an actual influence, certainly it resonates.

>17 elenchus:

I realize my suggestion sounds a little tendentious on its own, but my observations of esoteric content in Clarke's Odyssey Sequence give it a context. Also, I'm not the only one to notice a connection to Clarke in The Cosmic Rape. Some readers have speculated (with I don't know what additional support) that Sturgeon's book was in some sense a reply to Clarke's earlier Childhood's End. If so, that would make 2001 a continuation of the conversation.

I spent most of today sitting around waiting for my car to be worked on, so I had plenty of time to burn through another Chris Priest re-read; his first novel, Indoctrinaire, which dates from 1970. My review:

>13 Neil_Luvs_Books: 'The Tunnel Under the World' is in the collection! I thought it was good but I enjoyed the ones I listed more.

>20 Karlstar: I’m glad Pohl’s Tunnel was included among the best. I’ll have to find a copy of this anthology and see how the others rank. You have piqued my interest!

I'm reading through James White's Sector General books and just finished Ambulance Ship, the first book in Alien Emergencies which is the second Sector General omnibus volume.
The chapters in the book are each separate stories that could essentially stand alone, with a connecting framework story. The medical crew would be familiar if you read previous works in the series, while the crew of the Rhabwar are new. I think there's more cohesion in this installment than prior entries in the series. I enjoyed it and am happily working my way through the next volume now, titled Sector General.

I had a lazy day and finished Sector General today, too! Another volume of essentially stand alone stories with the framework story of Sector General medical staff on the ambulance ship Rhabwar, the framework stands up a little bit better with Conway's friendly friction with the captain.
The first story is more of an origin story of Sector General that ties back to White's early short story Tableau found in The Aliens Among Us.

Knocked off This World is Not Yours, which at the half-way point I seriously considered setting aside. It did turn out to be worth the effort though. I'm reminded of a lot of social commentary science fiction stories from the "New Wave" of the 1960s-1970s that were notable for their unflinching outlook on humanity at its worst.

Finished off Alien Emergencies with the final installment Star Healer. In my opinion, the first full length Sector General novel. Building on elements from previous stories, but rather than standalone stories with a framework story, an actual complex plot and coherent path through the book.
Senior Physician Conway is removed from ambulance ship duties to prepare for a promotion to Diagnostician in training. As such he is faced with more complicated and far reaching cases than just one patient at a time.

The 2025 Best of British SFF Bundle - Curated by Lavie Tidhar

This is, if you can believe it, the fourth Best of British Science Fiction and Fantasy bundle I have the pleasure of curating for StoryBundle! We've had some turbulence over here in recent years, not to mention rain, rain and more rain, but SF/F in Britain is livelier than ever, as I hope this selection shows! From cutting-edge horror to award-winning science fiction and classic fantasy, there is, I think, a terrific variety in the fiction that comes out of the British isles. So, without further ado, here they all are – and I hope you enjoy them as much as I have! – Lavie Tidhar

* * *

For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you're feeling generous), you'll get the basic bundle of three books in .epub format—WORLDWIDE.

Best of British Science Fiction 2023 edited by Donna Scott
Mothtown by Caroline Hardaker
The Midas Rain by Adam Roberts

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $25, you get all three of the regular books, plus SEVEN more books, for a total of 10!

All the Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma
Moon's Artifice by Tom Lloyd
Neom by Lavie Tidhar
Terrible Worlds Revolutions by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Morpho by Philip Palmer
The Creator by Aliya Whiteley
Him by Geoff Ryman

This bundle is available only for a limited time via http://www.storybundle.com. It allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get a DRM-free .epub for all books!

Read more.

– Jason

>26 humouress:
Thank you for posting this.

>27 pgmcc: You're welcome.

>28 humouress:
Chalk up a multi-warhead book bullet.
Ordered for the ten book option.
I reviewed one of Donna Scott’s edited collections before. I think it was published by Newcon Press.

>29 pgmcc: woo woo!

>29 pgmcc: Yes, I have a few of the Donna Scott 'Best of British SF' collections on the TBR pile, too.

Didn't want to interrupt the above, but I just want to mention my last two here in this thread:
- Asimov's Robot Visions - interesting to hear all the stories back-to-back
- Litchfield's Long Day for Ray - starts with a time travel premise, but doesn't spend a lot of time on it: mind from future inhabits guy in 1980s. More an action novel but there is a sliver of science fiction, but not very science-y.

Finished The Saints of Salvation, about to start Well of Shiuan.

>33 ChrisRiesbeck: What did you think of it?

Just read the three last books on the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman; The Butchers Masquerade, Eye of the Bedlam Bride, and This inevitable ruin.
Now I’ll have to wait for the next one to get published...

>34 Karlstar: Eh. Years ago, I was very impressed with the Night's Dawn Trilogy when it came out, and followed up with others from Hamilton. At some point, I lost interest in yet another space battle where mega amounts of energy and destruction occur in a few seconds but are detailed for several pages. I liked the first volume, which was more planet-bound (multiple planets, multiple time periods) and human-scale. But the battles came back to dominate volumes two and three. He set himself a tricky challenge with threads in separated by a gazillion light years and tens of thousands of years. I think plotwise he mostly made it work but at the cost of my engagement with the characters. I don't regret reading it but I'm probably done with Hamilton.

>36 ChrisRiesbeck: I was a bit underwhelmed by the last book, but the trilogy as a whole wasn't bad. I have one more of his to read, Fallen Dragon. I really enjoyed the Dreaming Void series and the related books.

Just realized I never posted my rankings of the Best Novel, Best Related Work, and Best Young Adult Book categories: https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2025/07/hugo-awards-2025-best-novel... I attach my last review of one.

Just finished Murder by memory by Olivia Waite. A quick read, a murder mystery set on a generation ship a few hundred years into its journey. They also have the tech to save memories and create new bodies, so it's effective immortality. First in a series, so there's more to look forward to.

>39 karenb: Sounds something like the plot of Six Wakes?

>40 vwinsloe: Murder by Memory is a lot more of a cozy than Six Wakes. It seems more like what The spare man wanted to be.

>41 amberwitch: Thanks

>39 karenb:, >41 amberwitch: Thanks, this sounds fun.

>38 Stevil2001: If I have an issue with Tchaikovsky it does tend to be the bloat of some of his novels.

Wrapped up The Ministry of Time, which I had gone from looking at as a chore to read, to hoping that it was something I'd genuinely find interesting, and such was the case. It didn't hurt that most of the novels I've read in the past 30-or-so days under-performed in one way or another, so I was primed to be impressed!

>40 vwinsloe:
I enjoyed Six Wakes.

I finished General Practice by James White this week. It's the third omnibus volume of Sector General and the first two novels not from Conway's POV. I found the MC of Code Blue: Emergency engaging and I could identify with someone who gets into trouble unintentionally all the time. I didn't like the MC of The Genocidal Healer even once he began his redemption storyline. But I did enjoy the book regardless. Comparative religion at Sector General!
I didn't make sure these books were properly in my LT catalogue this week so my reviews aren't attached yet but I am fixing that this weekend I hope.

>40 vwinsloe: What >41 amberwitch: said.
>46 pgmcc: I did too, though I never finished it.

>38 Stevil2001: Thanks for that, good writeup.

An enforced period of absence from home meant that I went through three books in pretty short order. First, I did a re-read of Chris Priest's Inverted World. I was struck by how much of this novel would appear in later Priest works, but without the attempt he makes in this book to provide a science fictional explanation.

Then I burned through the first two novels in Sylvain Neuvels Themis Files sequence, Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods. I enjoyed both of these; the interview transcript format that these novels adopt for most of their content gave me a good sense of character. The only thing that spoilt Waking Gods in particular is Neuvel's attempt to write scenes set in the UK, which he almost gets right - but not quite. Still, kudos for a good try.

Now on another Priest re-read: A Dream of Wessex.

>50 RobertDay: nice write up. I still have my original SFBC copy from the 70s. Liked it a lot back then and have thought I should revisit it one day.

Now finished reading Inverted World. Review attached.

And I'm now reading a Chris Priest book that probably won't have come onto many people's radar: Seize the Moment, the bio he ghost-wrote of Helen Sharman, the first Briton to go into space.

Finished The Ten Percent Thief, which turned out not to be the novel I was expecting; which is a good thing. Yes, it's about future social conflict in a society with a huge gap between haves and have-nots, but it's much more an evisceration of the "tech bro" vision of utopia, and enjoyable on that basis.

Finished Well of Shiuan, off SF for U is for Undertow.

>52 RobertDay: And now finished. Some flashes of Chris Priest, especially in the early story of Ms. Sharman's life and career. Review attached:

>53 Shrike58: well this sounds like a timely and worthwhile read!

Took quite a while to get through Arkady Martine's A Desolation Called Peace.Dense complicated,often a bit too obscure but interesting. Its been a couple of years since I read A Memory Called Empireand really I should have reread it since the settings are so complex,and the names need attention . I kept having to go to the glossary to sort out who was who :0)
But all in all I think I enjoyed this second outing in the iTeixcalaan universe more than the first. Certainly gives the brain a work out. I would have rated it a little higher but some of the prose was a bit too clunky and awkward,diverting my attention when I needed all my faculties to grasp what was happening lol.
Print was dense and rather small too didnt help either. It was a major reason why the book has lingered for almost 2 years on my shelf unread.
Rest of the time I was comfort reading an old Anne McCaffrey series,The Tower and the Hive, and a Mercy Thompson novel.Winter Lost.It seemed a bit different from earlier books in the series,very complicated plot with a large cast. A bit darker than the rest of the series.
Hadnt realized till part way through I had missed a book in the series,so now I have obtained it and there are a host of spoilers for Soul Takenwhich will be annoying.Oh well,I'll read it next month and get up to date with this series,a favourite of mine.
After the heavy Desolation Called Peace my brain needed a rest. Also the world news is so depressing and awful I needed something light and fun,. Was delighted to find my public library has added the whole of Simon R Green's Ishmael Jones series in ebooks,so I have had a great couple of days reading The Dark Side of the Road, And Then There Were None sort of book but with an alien who crash landed on earth in 1963 and works for a super secret security agency instead of Hercule Poirot and a vampire as the murderer. Any one else a Simon R Clark fan? Just pure fun.Think I'll read a couple more next month

>57 dustydigger: I like Simon R. Green, but his (more lighthearted) fantasy; I have the Forest Kingdom books and have recently acquired The Man with the Golden Torc.

Every year, after I vote in the Hugos, I read the oldest Hugo-winning novel I haven't previously read. This year, that is Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I am finding it interesting but what started out fun is starting to feel like wish fulfillment. It seems pretty clear to me that The Dispossessed must have been a response to it.

Finished An Inheritance of Magic. The experience was somewhat undermined for me by the sense that Jacka was looking to pander to what he thought urban-fantasy fans wanted to read. I liked it just well enough that I'll at least read the next book. To be fair, I'm probably not in the target audience.

>60 Shrike58:

Is there a credit for the cover art or design of An Inheritance of Magic? It looks very much like the covers that John Coulthart has been creating for Arkham Horror novels like Litany of Dreams, Herald of Ruin, and The Devourer Below. But it's a little inferior, so I wonder if Coulthart was phoning it in, or if he was being aped by a machine, or even a human.

I am currently reading Goldilocks by Laura Lam. A group of women stealing a spaceship and going to a goldilock planet before the official mission can get under way.
Interesting story, clean and sparse language. A believable future Earth.

And I really want to tell the author of The Stars too fondly, that overwritten piece of performative fanfiction, that this is how you do it.

I read Doris Piserchia's Earth in twilight, quite fun. Humans had abandoned Earth for space, and new intelligent species have evolved in unexpected niches.

Why isn't she talked about more?

>61 paradoxosalpha: According to the back cover: Design by Judith Lagerman. Illustration copyright of Marisa Ware.

https://www.marisaware.com/about

>63 LolaWalser: Interesting. I read and liked A Billion Days of Earth which is also set far in the future, but there doesn't seem to be any direct connection story-wise. Piserchia seems very much sui generis.

>65 ChrisRiesbeck:

That does sound very similar, except there is no despair in Earth in twilight. Actually, it's deliberately humourous.

I read one other book of hers and that too seemed very likeable. I guess she's not getting reprinted and thus sank into oblivion...

Reading On Basilisk Station after receiving a recommendation from a friend.