SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I think you all begin to realize why Anna and I have done fewer polls about named subgenres and instead run polls about themes or tropes. Because every time anyone says a genre, we start trying to contain the morass that is SFF and we never actually get any closer to getting all the juicy content into anything like a pretty package.

Thanks all for the effort, it's a great idea and we'll make sure to get it on the list in one or more forms!

What about a theme for books that have won awards that are NOT the Hugo/Nebula/Locus awards? (You could exclude the World Fantasy Awards too, if you wanted.)

Oh, yes! Tiptree Award! Tiptree Award!

Or maybe for something really different SFF Poetry? (Diane goes to hide now)

Diane wrote: "Oh, yes! Tiptree Award! Tiptree Award!

Or maybe for something really different SFF Poetry? (Diane goes to hide now)"

Agreed on the Tiptree Award. And I'd love a SFF Poetry theme! But I guess that might be too narrow?

I'd love If there were awards that take a more international representation into account. Are there? (I have the feeling that 90 % of your usual awards go to us-authors).

There are regional awards but I don't think I know of like a Eurovision for books type deal... but the small awards would count if we went with Kaa's suggestion!

There are regional awards but I don't think I know of like a Eurovision for books type deal... but the small awards would count if we went with Kaa's suggestion!

The Arthur C. Clarke Award is given by a UK organization, so they sometimes seem to include more British/European authors than the Hugos and Nebulas do.

There is also a Japanese award that I’ve seen mentioned, I believe they have awards for Japanese texts as well as texts that were translated into Japanese.

For fantasy awards there’s the Gemmel, which is no longer given out.

Australia has an award called the Aurelius or something like that.

I love this idea!

Finlandia Prize is possibly the most widely regarded literary award around these parts. Atorox is specifically for scifi.

Atorox is for short fiction, so it wouldn't be eligible.

Please continue listing all the different awards here.

Mareike, speculative poetry is extremely broad and includes all genres under that same blanket term as fiction: SF, Fantasy and Horror and all the sub-genres. It might be hard for someone not in the know to choose books to read but the winners and placing collections from the annual Elgin Award (in place since 2012 for collections and chapbooks) or the Rhysling Anthology (for the Award for individual poems) are very good places to start.

There’s also the British Science Fiction Association Award.

I would like to suggest fear as a theme. Not necessarily horror but the type of fear everyday people are faced with: fear of flying, fear of falling, fear of enclosed places, etc. The book should place the main characters in a situation that the reader would dread to be in themselves.

Karin wrote: "I would like to suggest fear as a theme. Not necessarily horror but the type of fear everyday people are faced with: fear of flying, fear of falling, fear of enclosed places, etc. The book should p..."

When this showed up in my feed I wondered what I had posted here, but of course, it's not me! I am not used to seeing other Karins online although I have had IRL friends with this same spelling and name.

(I assumed it was you, too, until I saw the avatar and it just didn't seem like it would be you. :)

Anyway, nice to see new suggestions here.

Cheryl wrote: "(I assumed it was you, too, until I saw the avatar and it just didn't seem like it would be you. :)

Anyway, nice to see new suggestions here."

Yes it is nice to see new suggestions :). And you are right, I am not likely to suggest fear as a theme at this point in my life .

Ach, sorry, I was away this weekend and fell behind in some of my updates. Yes, thanks so much for these ideas! They're interesting and have gone on our master list :) Keep 'em comin'!

I thought of suggesting "doorstops" for a theme: books that are over 500 (or some higher number) pages. Or, borrowing from the TBR challenge, "Books that intimidate you," which could go beyond just the book's ability to break a toe if you drop it on your foot.

haha! yes to both! I love books that might injure me

Meredith wrote: "I thought of suggesting "doorstops" for a theme: books that are over 500 (or some higher number) pages. Or, borrowing from the TBR challenge, "Books that intimidate you," which could go beyond just..."

I'd suggest limiting it to single books as The Complete Wheel of Time is 11,095 pages. And The Dresden Files Collection 1-6 is 1900 pages.

We seem to get plenty of doorstops on the group bookshelf without any special effort.

Chris wrote: "We seem to get plenty of doorstops on the group bookshelf without any special effort."

What I am hearing is "think how much chonkier they could be if we did make an effort!"

Lol.

The flip side could be a book that is about as slim as we allow.

I thought that would be a good monthly pairing. A lot of Golden Age sci-fi is barely 200 pp, combined with some mega-epic fantasy.

We kind of did exactly that in August:
Elysium 199 pages vs. WoK 1007 pages

Not that I'm against the theme! I have a lot of books that just sit on my TBR forever because they're so long I never feel like starting them. It would be great to have a good excuse to finally get to some of them.

Did we ever have humour as a theme? As in similar to Terry Pratchett (but excluding him and his books obviously). Can be a fantasy or sci-fi book told in light/humorous manner.

Or a non-earth Urban theme. Set in a city not of earth.

We've talked a lot about humor/feel good as a theme! I don't think we've done it (at least not in several years) because something else shiny keeps happening.

But I definitely like the idea! And secondary world urban!

Having failed to get my RL bookclub interested in the theme of doubles - a pair of linked books, Ill try here.
Possibles:
• a fairytale and a modern retake. eg Rumplestltskin and Spinning Silver
• two takes on the same theme. eg The Disposessed and The Door into Ocean ( theme: two neighbouring planets with very different socio-political set-ups)
I guess it would involve a 2 monthly read plan.

Allison wrote: "But I definitely like the idea! And secondary world urban!"

Secondary world urban is a favorite genre offshoot of mine! I even started a thread for recommendations for more. Some of them are on the group shelf already: Jade City, Three Parts Dead, The City & the City, City of Stairs...

Recommendation thread is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Glynis, you're not alone with that idea here! We kiiind of try it from time to time, like this month, where I posted a link to Beowulf and our fantasy pick is a retelling.

We've been trying to work more critique, primary source, and other illuminating things to our reading and I would definitely welcome more of that!

I Think Having An LGBTQ+ Protagonist Would Be Great One Of My Favorite Authors Is Becky Albertalli She Wrote A Book Called The Upside Of Unrequited And I Loved It.

Demetrius wrote: "I Think Having An LGBTQ+ Protagonist Would Be Great One Of My Favorite Authors Is Becky Albertalli She Wrote A Book Called The Upside Of Unrequited And I Loved It."

We agree! So much we had this as a theme earlier this year!

Allison wrote: "Demetrius wrote: "I Think Having An LGBTQ+ Protagonist Would Be Great One Of My Favorite Authors Is Becky Albertalli She Wrote A Book Called The Upside Of Unrequited And I Loved It."

We agree! So ..."
Thats Cool I'm New So I Didn't Know It Was Already Done

No problem, we're obviously on the same page though, welcome!

Trash wrote: "Did we ever have humour as a theme? As in similar to Terry Pratchett (but excluding him and his books obviously). Can be a fantasy or sci-fi book told in light/humorous manner.

Or a non-earth Urb..."


Yes, humour is a great idea, but of course it tends to be somewhat subjective.

Demetrius wrote: "I Think Having An LGBTQ+ Protagonist Would Be Great One Of My Favorite Authors Is Becky Albertalli She Wrote A Book Called The Upside Of Unrequited And I Loved It."

And we've read some in the past even if it wasn't the theme, like The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (at least this is how I remember it--it's been a while, so correct me if I'm wrong).

well other than that I Love To read Historical Fiction right now I'm reading Anne Of Green Gables I've also read The Scarlet Letter

strong (non-military) female protagonist

Saeed wrote: "strong (non-military) female protagonist"

Yes, good one--I like the non-military part as well. I do know of some y/a scifi like this, but have read less of adult scifi like this.

A Theme Called " Unknowns" where you could require all books in the category have less than a certain amount of ratings on goodreads.

We did that a few years ago, but it might be time again soon!

Books, libraries, bookstores, book sellers, people who like reading books... Maybe this is too "meta" but boy howdy, there's a lot of books about books.

Non-human earthlings? I'd like to read a book that focuses on one or more of the creatures that we share this planet with. Three great books come to mind and I'm hoping that other such books can be brought to my/our attention.

Celtic fantasy... my favourite authors on this theme are Stephen Lawhead and Juliet Marillier.

Love Juliet!

- Oh yes, Celtic and also pre-Medieval or very early Medieval fantasy would be great: set during Roman times or slightly after, ancient Germanic tribes (as a teenager, I really loved Donna Gillespie, e.g. The Light Bearer), the Viking age, First Nations fantasy set before Columbus, The Eagle and the Raven, Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle, Lion of Ireland, etc.

- Epic fantasy. I love it, lots of other people love it but it often loses to short standalone books in polls due to requiring some commitment. Why not make it a theme-of-the-month some time?

- Gothic 19th centura-era stuff with supernatural elements, e.g.
, , , , , , , ,
and so on. Would be especially good for an October read.

- Exploring alien worlds - love it and have read far too little of it

My theme would be Subterranean fiction, which according to wikipedia is "is a subgenre of adventure fiction, science fiction, or fantasy which focuses on fictional underground settings, sometimes at the center of the Earth or otherwise deep below the surface."

I can't recommend any specific book yet since I started reading on it recently but I'm sure people in the group would find something.

From the discussion in the poll this week, I think it would be fun to have a theme for ugly covers. A theme for bad or weird titles might be good too.

Ooh, you mean in a "cover doesn't do it justice" way?

Bobby wrote: "From the discussion in the poll this week, I think it would be fun to have a theme for ugly covers. A theme for bad or weird titles might be good too."

good sources here:

https://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/
https://wtfbadsciencefictioncovers.tu...

Anna wrote: "Ooh, you mean in a "cover doesn't do it justice" way?"

Exactly. Like a cover that might turn you off, but the book is actually really good. A don't judge a book by its cover theme.