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Top Ten Tuesday: fantastical pasts Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish, and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It's all about books, lists and sharing the love we have of both with our bookish friends. This week is a genre freebie, and I’m dwelling on the delights of archaeology and antiquities in science fiction and fantasy.

It’s a #TopTenTuesday genre freebie so I’m indulging my love of archaeology and ancient architecture in science fiction and fantasy. Come for the worldbuilding, never leave because it’s just so interesting.

Ancillary Mercy: week four The journey we began during ScifiMonth has ended: our little crew has completed our read-along of the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie. The inevitable confrontation with Anaander Mianaai is at hand. Can Breq and her allies defeat the ruthless manipulator who has ruled the Radch for thousands of years?

The journey we began during ScifiMonth has ended: our little crew has completed our read-along of the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie. The inevitable confrontation with Anaander Mianaai is at hand. It’s our last read-along discussion …for now.

Happy Sunday Womble! Very tired after a long week, but need to work today, boooo. Would much rather continue reading The Witch In The Well (Camilla Bruce) and All The Water In The World (Eiren Caffall) and enjoying the cheeky thrill of reading books I only bought very recently

So I feel (both as a reader & author) like discoverability of new books is down lately, especially for the midlist. Please tell me some recently published (past year-ish) SFF books you loved that are midlist/overlooked/deserve more hype! (And please share your recs/this list!)

My recs in reply!

Redux: fleeting February Wait, where did February go. Hey, you there, bring that month back before it gets away! I often find time disappears on me when I travel as if days away from home aren’t real …and I spent a third of this month in London (for my birthday) and Zagreb (for work). I squeezed in a long hike and wrecked my knees (oops) and more reading than you might expect…

February has (almost) disappeared on me - I’m looking back at the month before it’s gone as I won’t finish or buy any more books before Sunday!

Book of the month: Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

New obsession: The Captive’s War by James SA Corey

I am now taken by the idea of us all having different hills and being able to light the beacons to show our joint love of the genre

I enjoyed it but I prefer other hills for my last stand. Happily there’s plenty to go round :D

AAAAAAAAAAAH

Take my money now.

INventry - NE England by way of SW England and overseas

They’re so good - having finished, they feel bigger than the sum of their parts. It’s fascinating how Leckie builds epic story out of a very small scale / focused narrative

Ancillary Mercy: week three It’s time to inflict as much damage as possible - but with Breq badly injured, she’ll have to rely on her lieutenants to lead the charge against Anaander Mianaai. Has Breq won enough local influence to garner the support they will need to succeed in Tisarwat’s desperate plan?

It’s the penultimate week of our Radch read-along (for now: we’ll be back for the sequels over the summer) and there are desperate plans afoot to defeat Anaander Mianaai.

Happy Sunday Womble. I have to work today, but will be reading Fleet of Knives by Gareth L Powell later on to prepare me for Light Of Impossible Stars ✨

Still a favourite. Still never seen it on a big screen, sadly.

In the end, don’t we all want the same thing?
A haunted cottage of our own on the edge of the mossy forest which is filled to bursting with books that you lend out to ancient creatures and other wild folk of the wood?

Wild Seed was already a tough read and I think I’d need to go back to the beginning now to re-engage. I have book two on audio though, so I am set up to carry on with this one!

Great Series Read 2026 The Great Series Read Project is an acknowledgement that many of us are better at starting series than we are at finishing them. When I signed up, I was in denial - historically, I was very focused on finishing series! - and I’ve slowly admitted that I’ve become terrible at it. Six years in, I’m considering which of the series I’ve started I actually…

I joined the Great Series Read Project 6 years ago - today I’m looking back at how I’ve got on, what series I’m continuing with, and trying to shake the feeling that this list is missing a HEAP of series that I forgot to add along the way…

Happy Sunday Womble! Off for a birthday lunch today, then back to finish up the final acts of Ancillary Mercy (Ann Leckie), The Ivory Tomb (Melissa Caruso), and The Mercy of Gods (James SA Corey) this week 🚀

Ancillary Mercy: week two If Breq has learned anything over her long life, it’s shoot first - especially when you own a gun your enemies can’t see that fires ammunition they can’t shrug off. If those who love Breq have learned anything during their association with her, it’s that she cares about their safety a good deal more than her own. As we head towards the end of the trilogy, who will be left to fight Anaander Mianaai?

At the halfway point, I have cooked up a new wild theory about how Ann Leckie can tie all the narrative strands together before book’s end and not talked nearly enough about oysters or shells or how this week is Feelings all the way down. Oh Breq, you idiot.

Ancillary Mercy: week one We’re not pausing for breath before we find out what lies beyond the Ghost Gate. Our read-along barrels straight into Ancillary Mercy this week as Breq returns to Athoek Station. Justice is complicated, propriety is teaching your guests to distinguish fish you eat and fish you look at, and everyone is looking for some benefits…

Ancillary Mercy: week one

We’re not pausing for breath before we find out what lies beyond the Ghost Gate. Our read-along barrels straight into Ancillary Mercy this week as Breq returns to Athoek Station. Justice is complicated, propriety is teaching your guests to distinguish fish you eat and…

Cover art of Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker

4.5/5 stars
It hits home for East & Southeast Asians (anyone Chinese-passing basically), even for us who don't live in the West due to all the violent news we saw there on social media during c*vid. The true horror isn't the ghosts or gore; it's the white supremacy & racial discrimination.
#BookSky

Not interested in sport, but I do enjoy all the owls 🦉

Definitely a thing I do (a *lot* the last couple years), although I may have picked up the phrase from someone else along the way

Happy Sunday Womble! Very tired and stiff after an excellent High Route hike on the Great Glen Way yesterday. Halfway through The Ivory Tomb (Melissa Caruso) and tried thirds on The Mercy of Gods (James SA Corey) both of which are all the fun I anticipated …might stay on the sofa and read today 😉

Ancillary Sword: week four The final week of our read-along so it’s showdowns and consequences time at Athoek, where we find out where everyone’s loyalties really lie. To a point - this is a second book, so there’s plenty of mysteries for us to dive into next week when we start Ancillary Mercy.

The final week of our read-along, so it’s showdowns and consequences time at Athoek, where we find out where everyone’s loyalties really lie. Let’s talk Ancillary Sword…

Happy Sunday Womble! Spent my morning being a pretzel (yoga), will get back to reading this afternoon: either starting Ancillary Mercy (Ann Leckie) or The Ivory Tomb (Melissa Caruso) as I plan to finish both these epic trilogies this month. Audio read remains The Mercy of Gods (James SA Corey) 🚀

There’s a fourth book?! I am so behind on this series. Adding to my list, thank you

Redux: hello 2026 I’ve enjoyed the snowy start to the year, in spite because of wading through knee deep snow and skidding over ice on our adventures. A read-along has kept me flexing my out of shape blogging muscles (a little at least), and I’ve set what’s sure to be my maddest goal for the year… Reading Round-up I finished the final chapters of…

I blinked, and February crept up on me. January reading has been entirely SFnal, with the Imperial Radch, sexy fungus, soulful mecha and revolutionary nuns in the spotlight… Bonus: glorious winter walking.

Ancillary Sword: week three Week three of our Ancillary Sword read-along takes us from Athoek Station to the planet below, as Breq embarks on a formal period of mourning in an attempt to stave off alien reprisal. As you would expect during a quiet retreat, there’s so much going on this week there won’t be room to talk about it all!

Week three of our Ancillary Sword read-along takes us from Athoek Station to the planet below, and delivers a lot of plot escalation for a notionally quiet mourning retreat…