The name of this website was inspired by the Beyond Reality discussion group, which has been around for almost two decades in various forms and which I’ve been managing for more than half of that time. Because this site’s name took its inspiration from the group, I try to post monthly updates about the group here, including our Books of the Month, our series discussions, and any other special events like giveaways or author visits.

Please consider this an invitation to join us, if you’re interested in SF&F book discussion. And if book discussions aren’t your thing, maybe you’ll find some additional book recommendations in this monthly feature!

Beyond Reality’s Books of the Month for October are:

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie for fantasy. Well, here goes the final shred of credibility I possibly had left as a review of fantasy and science fiction: I’m probably the last fantasy reader on Earth who has never read a single novel by Joe Abercrombie. I know. I KNOW. One day. His novels really do look like the kind of material I’d enjoy, and one of these days when my TBR stack is a little less intimidating I plan to catch up. One of my problems is that I like to start from the beginning, even if some of the books are technically standalones but still set in the same world as previous ones. So by that logic I need to start with The Blade Itself and sequels. So, yeah. I’ll get to it.

How to Live in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu for SF. My thoughts: I’ve seen a ton of positive feedback about this book from people whose taste I usually trust. I’m frequently on the hunt for SF or fantasy with a touch of humor to it. This one seems like it’d be right up my alley. So, second verse, same as the first: I’ll get to it, one of these days.

And that’s about it for our current lineup of books at Beyond Reality. Short version: I’m a bad group moderator and I won’t be reading either of the books this month. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to working on these two articles that were due last week!