Our reads in September 2025

Another month,another pile of books to read in a (futile) effort to reduce the tottering TBR. Hope you have some good stuff ahead in September,Spooky October and Halloween are already gaining our attention as always so lots of thought and planning ahead.

Dusty's TBR for September
Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland✔
Simon R Green - Into the Thinnest of Air✔
Simon R Green - Till Sudden Death Do Us Part ✔
Simon R Green - Night Train to Murder✔
Simon R Green - The House on Widow's Hill ✔
Daniel Galouye - Dark Universe
Eric Frank Russell - Three to Conquer
E Nesbit - Five Children and It✔

Not a lot of SF this month. I have decided to revisit Hugo nominees from the 50s,filling in gaps, ,Galouye and Eric Frank Russell and possibly James White's Second Ending if I have time. However I may have a cataract operation sometime this month and may find reading impossible. Very difficult even now. I can only read with one eye shut and zooming in online. Print books are out.

My first read for October will be the fourth of the five collections of Philip K. Dick short stories, Minority Report. I've read the title story, but none of the others in this volume.

In Progress
Chapterhouse: Dune by Frank Herbert

On Deck
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Vorrh by Brian Catling

Ordered/Slated for Borrowing
Excession by Iain M. Banks

>5 paradoxosalpha:

Excession thus far is my fav Banks SF novel, curious as always to get your reaction to it.

>6 elenchus:

Suburban libraries just couldn't get it for me. CPL has it in the catalog but currently circulated, and I'm first in line.

The SF&F books in my September reading plan are:

The Very Best of the Best edited by Gardner Dozois
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie
Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov

I'm rereading Out of the Silent Planet for the first time in many years, and much enjoying it. I'm partly doing it in preparation for another reread of That Hideous Strength, an absolute favorite which I've read much more often, though not for several years now. That one is a real classic. I'm going to pass on Perelandra with it's theological discussion which seems to take up most of the book. (Although it has good points, plus Kevin Braheney composed a wonderful synthesizer piece in tribute to it.)

>9 rshart3: Out of the Silent Planet was the novel I had to read for English class in second year at school, i.e. when I was twelve. I really enjoyed it.

I have in hand The Fourth Consort, Tsalmoth, Infinite Archive, The Circumference of the World, and Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame. Lafferty's novel is first up

Finished Humanity Prime. Now doing two books by Walter Tevis: the non-SF Queen's Gambit then the collection Far from Home.

Finished The Sea's Furthest End: an effective novel that starts out in a galactic empire but is much more than that, and all economically put in only 192 pages! Review attached.

Now started on Paul McAuley's Something Coming Through.

>9 rshart3: I need to reread Lewis’ Space Trilogy. It’s been years since I read it. I had the opposite response to the three. I loved Perelandra and found That Hideous Strength ok, and Out of the Silent Planet very interesting. But I read an abridged version of THS and this was back in my late teens. I’m interested to see if I respond the same way decades later.

I’m still working my way through The Wheel of Time series. I’m now on The Path of Daggers.

>14 Neil_Luvs_Books: When you read them, please post & let us know!

>3 dustydigger: Good luck with the cataract surgery. It will help! Do you have some audiobooks lined up for when you can't read?

>15 Neil_Luvs_Books: Agreed, let us know how your read of WoT is going.

>6 elenchus: At some point I'm going to have to conduct a great Iain Banks reread.

>18 Shrike58:

My version of a re-read is a publication-order read of the Culture novels, and I'm doing it at a relaxed pace. I had read perhaps 2-3 but out of sequence when I decided to do this, so my project involves some re-reads and some first-time reads. I've got all on my shelves waiting and I'm up to Book 6. Come to think of it, probably should get started on that one this year.

I'm not normally a book haul person, but I bought quite a few books over Labor Day weekend, several of which were SF. I won't finish it all this month, but my choices are:

2312
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
A Fire Upon the Deep
The Moonday Letters
Letter to the Luminous Deep (I think this was assumed to be fantasy, but it takes place 1000 years after an environmental disaster on what may or may not be Earth. Maybe science fantasy.)

>20 Watry: Looks like a nice mix! And certainly more than I'd be likely to finish in a single month.

>6 elenchus:. >18 Shrike58:. I am rereading Iain Banks Culture series. I have reread Consider Phlebas and Player of Games. Looking forward to Excession as that was my favorite.

I am currently rereading God Emperor of Dune. I have The Book of Skulls on deck.

>20 Watry: I bounced off Letter to the Luminous Deep a while ago, but it still looked interesting.

>18 Shrike58: >19 elenchus: >22 daxxh: I have almost completed my Culture reads, the only thing I have left is the short story collection, The State of the Art. I'd like to do a re-read someday.

>24 Karlstar:

Obviously this from a person only halfway through, but I'd say you could leave The State Of The Art to your re-read. Not all stories in that collection are Culture, in any case, and one relates directly to a preceding novel so it could be good to have it fresh in mind.

>23 haydninvienna: I can certainly see why you bounced off; I spent most of the book being simultaneously charmed and mildly annoyed. I accidentally bought the second book first, so I'm going to read that as well later on.

I was right about the science fantasy thing.

Wrapped up Infinite Archive, which is a pretty good entry in what looks like Muir intends to be an open-ended series. If you've been reading these books you have no reason not to continue.

>27 Shrike58: Thanks for sharing.
I really like that you call out the fan-service in your review, since I’m generally not too fond of that kind of thing - see John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow and the entire Bobiverse as other examples.
It still sounds like a worthwhile series to dig into at some point:)

>28 amberwitch: I’m generally not too fond of that kind of thing

I agree, although I thought it worked in A Conventional Boy.

>29 paradoxosalpha: that actually sounds interesting. I’ve never really gotten into Charles Stross, depsite having read a few of his fantasy books. Can A conventional boy be read without the rest of the Laundry files?

>30 amberwitch:

It's a little hard for me to judge, having come at it after my own reading of more than a dozen Laundry books. But I think it would work okay as a standalone. The book also contains a couple of other pieces of Laundryverse short fiction that are more closely tied into the larger series than they are to the long eponymous novella "A Conventional Boy."

>27 Shrike58: How did I not know there was another Midsolar Murders book? Dang, need to order right away!

I have come to the end of the Dune series, for me. I might read a good article about the two "Conclusion" books, but I don't expect to read the books themselves. I've written my review of Chapterhouse, and the hold fairy has brought me Excession, so now I'll return to the Culture.

>27 Shrike58: >32 tardis: Right?! Adding it to the list

Currently reading The last murder at the end of the world by Stuart Turton, writer of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It's billed as a mystery, but it's post-apocalypse SF too. ETA: With maybe a tiny bit of Omelas, though I got that only from the advance materials: I'm not far enough into it yet.

I'll recommend it to my book group, as a side read if not a book to discuss. (I know some people will like it.)

I finished Something coming through and enjoyed it greatly. Review attached.

Now reading some urban fantasy from an old friend of mine, John Guy Collick's The Blocko Tower. Not my usual sort of thing, though John is not your usual kind of urban fantasy writer. So far, I'm impressed.

>20 Watry: That's a great haul! I loved 2312, The Moonday letters, and A fire upon the deep. I haven't read the other two but they are on my wishlist.

>27 Shrike58: I'm reading this now and enjoying it a lot.

>19 elenchus:

Partly nudged by this group, started my first read of the Culture novel, Inversions. Clever premise as to be expected from Banks, continuing his predilection for telling a story from an unexpected or genre-defying viewpoint. It's fun spotting the the Culture influence in a story that, on the surface, doesn't seem to be a Culture story at all.

>25 elenchus: Thanks, now I'm undecided. I read Hydrogen Sonata and Surface Detail recently so the Culture is fresh in my mind, but it has been a long time since I've read Consider Phlebas or Look to Windward.

>37 elenchus: There was a point, when I was reading Inversions, where I actually cried out "Oh, you naughty, NAUGHTY author, Mr. Banks!".

The madcap chapter 1.III of Excession made me wonder if I was reading Douglas Adams for a moment.

>38 Karlstar:
I loved Consider Phlebas and Look to Windward. The link between them intrigued me.

>39 RobertDay:
Unfortunately I knew enough about the premise that your impression at that point probably was never available to me. (Although I'm only just past the midway point, so perhaps I'm hasty in making that statement.)

But there are points which prompt similar reactions! While the clever twist in this premise is fairly tame by Banksian standards, he plays it out very carefully over the course of the novel. And while I wonder what the reading experience would be like to come to the novel with full naïveté, I also think it's unrealistic: it's branded a Culture novel, after all. There's a good measure of fun for the seasoned Culture reader to imagine all sorts of Contact discussions regarding events in the novel.

>40 paradoxosalpha:
I get that, and suspect Banks was at least aware of, if not deliberately striving for that effect.

>42 elenchus: I read it when it first came out, and it was not at that stage marketed as a Culture novel - and I hadn't read any reviews (or at least, none with spoilers). I began to suspect something fairly early on, though my first encounter ("...she certainly came from a different culture.") just made me chuckle and think that Iain was playing with us. My major reaction came much, much later.

>35 RobertDay: I've now finished John Guy Collick's The Blocko Tower. It's not identikit urban fantasy, and I'm well impressed - partly because the author is from a similar generation and background to me, so his reminiscences that the novel is based around chime with me, too. Review follows:

>44 RobertDay:
Heh, Professor Backenforth!

>44 RobertDay: That sounds fascinating. I'm going to look out for a copy.

>44 RobertDay:
Very interesting.

>33 paradoxosalpha: enough put-downs have been written about Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's inability to grasp the spirit of Frank Herbert's series and their bizarre obsession with graphic violence that I don't have to add to it. I only want to congratulate you on your foresight in avoiding them, I had to learn the hard way.

I spent most of the time while reading their take on the 7th and 8th books just daydreaming about how I thought it ought to have played out instead. Whereas I'm sure Frank could have convinced me of the veracity of wherever he chose to go.

For Professor Backenforth has powers over time and space

Doctor...?

I finished reading The Path of Daggers. It was ok. Not such a slog as some have suggested in their reviews. But not as compelling as the previous volumes in the WoT.

I’ve started Winter’s Heart and 150 pages in I am finding it rather compelling. So we will see if it becomes a slog later as others have suggested in their reviews. But at page 154, I do not find it a slog at all.

I have been binge reading Lewis Carroll - so far read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ,Through the Looking Glass and The Hunting of the Snark.
This year is the 160th anniversary of Wonderland,. I vividly remember the Centenary celebration of Alice way back in 1965.In particular I remember Jonathan Miller's innovative live action TV play where he showed the odd creatures like the Caterpillar or the Dormouse as just victorian gentleman. Miller must have used black magic to persuade the insane cast list to work with him for absolute peanuts and being on the screen for about 2 minutes at most.
John Gielgud,Michael Redgrave,Peter Sellars,Peter Cook acted with a massive cast of some of the finest stage and TV actors of the time. Absolutely insane .
It was one on a shoestring buget with little rehearsal.in black and white with a 9mm camera. lol. Good stuff.
I have a week to complete any Sept reads since on 18th I have a cataract removal operation. I will have no near sight for probably a month to 6 weeks.On the whole I HATE audio books :0)But since its s#Spooky October I will probably manage some Horrorbabble short stories..
But this week I hope to finish an E Nesbit bok and possibly Galouye's Dark Universe

>51 dustydigger:
That TV play sounds a hoot. Great cast.

All the best for the cataract procedure and a rapid recovery to enable your return to reading.

Finished Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flames. I don't usually seek out court-romance fantasies to read, but I suppose it indicates when it comes to Neon Yang that, if they get something published, I'm going to read it. Still not quite sure that Yang totally succeeded in transcending the cliches of this sort of story.

>52 pgmcc: Its available free on YouTube in UK in full glorious black and white.
Not sure about USA.
Miller also did a fantastic job bringing M R James O Whistle and I'll Come to You,My Lad to TV in 1968. Also on YouTube.

>54 dustydigger:
I found it on youtube, thank you. Quite weird. As you say, it is amazing he had all those big name actors participate.

I'm reading Blackfish City which has been sitting on my TBR for far too long in part due to its mixed reviews.

>54 dustydigger: Ah, yes, that's a good one: Quis est iste qyi venit.

I'm dipping in and out of Dangerous Visions in between other books now; I've also started the sixth Temeraire novel, Tongues of Serpents.

>50 Neil_Luvs_Books: I think that's a fair description of The Path of Daggers.

>51 dustydigger: Dusty -- if you don't know it already, you might like the book _Speak Roughly to Your Little Boy_ edited by Myra Cohn Livingston. It's a collection of parody poems each paired with the original it was mocking. I didn't realize until reading it that most of the poems in the Alice books are parodies of serious poems (often too serious, as in Victorian sentimentality).
Good luck with the cataract procedure! - Rick

>60 rshart3: Hi Rick thanks for the info.I did know about the parodies,though the only one that I ever recognized was "Twinkle Twinkle little Bat" being a parody of "Twinkle Twinkle little Star"
Nonsense verse was hugely popular back then. I think most of Carroll's such poetry was merely workmanlike but you can't say that about "Jaberwocky". That's a masterpiece!

I just posted my reviews of the four Heinlein juveniles I read last month.

I've made a start on Damian Broderick's Transcension. So far, so good, but I have a few problems, probably because I'm reading an uncorrected proof copy, complete with publisher's trade publicity blurbs, and I get the feeling they slightly overblow the book. We'll see.

Completed The Circumference of the World, and my overall thought is that if I was in the mood for Tidhar's writing I would have been better off reading Central Station. A comment by Tidhar in his afterword suggests this work was in gestation for over a decade, and I suspect that the author just got tired of writing it, declared victory, and moved on.

Finished Transcension. As with The Sea's Furthest End, a fairly straightforward-looking story conceals something much more substantial. My review:

>65 RobertDay:

An intriguing review.

I'm trying The Moonday Letters, but it isn't going well. I think it's me rather than the book, but I still may need to pause it for a bit.

I've wrapped my read of Excession. Since I already own a copy of Inversions, I won't be at the mercy of public library availability for that one. But I am pivoting to Snow Crash next.

>68 paradoxosalpha: I may have said this before (a long way up-thread and most likely a few years ago), but the Affront are based on the somewhat larger-than -life British actor Brian Blessed (perhaps best known internationally as Prince Vultan in the Dino de Laurentiis Flash Gordon ). Over the years, Blessed developed his public persona to more and more match the roles he was playing, and IMB definitely had him in mind when writing the Affront. (Confirmed in conversation.)

>6 elenchus:

You and I are the only thingamabrarians to offer reader recommendations on the Excession work page!

>70 paradoxosalpha:

I noted the Delaney in your review, and have several titles on my wishlist but that might be my first to act upon!

>71 elenchus:

And I have an unread copy of Anathem, but Snow Crash is queued up ahead of it.

I have started my next Vorkosigan adventure, Mirror Dance.

Finished Far from Home, started The House of the Scorpion.

Apropos of the lattter, being a fan of The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, I was looking at the Nancy Farmer entry on the online Science Fiction Encyclopedia,

https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/farmer_nancy

found a bad link, sent a note, and got a reply from David Langford in 15 minutes or so. I can still be impressed when the Intertubes work.

I finished Winter’s Heart tonight. I’m not sure why it is maligned as part of the so-called “slog” in The Wheel of Time. I found it thoroughly enjoyable. Granted there is the repeated descriptions of lace, bosoms, and neck lines. But when Jordan gets to moving the narrative along, it is gripping. I could not put down the book for the last 6 chapters or so. On to Crossroads of Twilight.

EDIT: Weird… my links aren’t showing up in my post.

EDIT: I figured it out. I was using the wrong style of bracket. 🤦‍♂️

While checking out a new bookstore last weekend, and a familiar one, I found a cheap copy of Battlestar Galactica! I currently have a couple (ok, 4) of books going but had to dive in. I've read this before but it has been a long time. I can see in my mind the images of the characters from the original TV pilot and series - Adama, Apollo, Athena, Boomer, Jolly, etc. I had a model Galactica for years.

>75 Neil_Luvs_Books: I'm not sure how or why books 7-9 got that reputation. I've never thought so. Glad you enjoyed it.

Wrapped up The Fourth Consort; not bad at all, but Ashton has done better.

I'm continuing C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner series with Destroyer.

With this read I'm now totally caught up with Brust's "Vlad Taltos" novels, and it's now just a matter of time of waiting for the denouement.

I ended up abandoning The Moonday Letters (I suspect a cultural disconnect), and I started A Fire Upon the Deep yesterday. I'm up to chapter 4. I'd appreciate it if someone could spoil something for me, though:

At least one of these parents is gonna die. Is it one (and which one) or both, and when?

Hi people. Still alive and kicking. Had my cataract removed on 21st,slow improvement,the haze is lifting.But the fixed lenses work for far sight,near sight is just a blur. A phone is impossible to use too small to see and make a million mistakes. But zooming in and typing by guess and by god I am able to type in and open a new thread for Spooky October.
Its 3 weeks till they inspect the operated eye,then I can get reading glasses. Cant wait to being able to see again. For now I cant see what I;ve typed here,hope its comprehensible. lol.
I hope you all have good things lined up for Spooky October and Halloween. Happy reading

Normally I'd post this in the Fantasyland forum, but since SF Fans is where the Spooky discussion is happening, I'll announce that I just started a long-delayed (I mean decades long) re-read of the Gormenghast books, having just finished Titus Groan. It's not exactly horror, but has horror & spooky elements: very Gothic at times. In fact, it's not exactly anything easy to define. It's in a unique category of its own. I'm enjoying it as much as the other times years ago. The bizarre characters, plot, and setting somehow form a consistent & compelling whole. It's one of those masterpieces that most readers either love or hate, and I'm in the love column.

>82 dustydigger: Good to hear, and all my sympathy, if only because this is probably my future too!

>80 Shrike58: Have you read Lyorn?

>82 dustydigger: I hope your sight improves soon! Your post was fine.

>85 Karlstar: This is long term future...but it's in the future...

Yes...I've read Lyorn. Totally caught up now; the question is whether "Creotha" or "The Last Contract" will wrap up Vlad's story.

>86 Shrike58: Hopefully we'll know soon.