SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Hi I'm new to the group just wondering if you all could rec a book to try?! I love apocolyptic & distopian novels-my main genre is horror! I have The Road on my to-read list & Neverwhere...Anyone know of a great thrilling one for me to try?

I recently read Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood which was really good. It was a futuristic sci-fi dystopian novel, so if you like those kinds, it should be right up your alley! :)

What a great suggestion, one that doesn't automatically come to mind when thinking about the typical dystopian novel. I read that this past summer, and it got a 5 from me, so I second Becky's suggeston.

gather the weeds Patrick Kilgallon

Highly recommend.

Margaret wrote: "gather the weeds Patrick Kilgallon

Highly recommended."

Wow. I just looked at that one and it certainly looks interesting. I just wonder about the stream of consciousness writing though. I can never really get into that type of writing. :(

It's a bit tricky at first but you get used to the characters voice. The SC adds to the stress.

The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner.

Why would you want to read something dystopian?? You can see that on CNN and in all the papers.

Civilization as we know it is changing ... for the worst!!

William wrote: "Why would you want to read something dystopian?? You can see that on CNN and in all the papers.

Civilization as we know it is changing ... for the worst!!"Don't we all know it! I much prefer the stuff that comes from the imagination of writers than the atrocities that spring from us mortals.

I've already got Oryx & Crake on my to-read list but it's just been nudged to the top!

This group recently read The Suicide Collectors, and it was pretty decent, though the ending was flat for me.

After reading it you could go through the thread where the author answered some questions.

Having the Authors availableto discuss their work is a definite plus. I like this feature of goodreads.

Exactly Em!

Imagine choosing your brain surgeon based on which ones looked the best on TV and told the best lies!

We are in deep caca and it is not going to go away by the same type of peopling 'fixing' it that got us into this!

biLL

Em, you have to move "The Stand" up! Oh, and apparently along those lines is Swan Song. I haven't read that one yet, but it's on my TBR. :)

Oh, and I forgot about "Children Of Men". I haven't read that one either, but the movie is great!

I bumped up the two previous relavant threads. That is not a genre that I typically seek out, so I don't have much to add, personally.

William wrote: "Why would you want to read something dystopian?? You can see that on CNN and in all the papers.

Civilization as we know it is changing ... for the worst!!"

I've got to agree with William here - its why I'm an avid Fantasy reader - escapism here I come!

However, I too would recommend The Children of Men simply because I love P.D. James. Haven't seen the movie but the book looks great.

Em wrote: "Hi I'm new to the group just wondering if you all could rec a book to try?! I love apocolyptic & distopian novels-my main genre is horror! I have The Road on my to-read list & Neverwhere...Anyone k..."

I have just finished Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. It definitely makes one view science and current technologies in a new light. Makes one want to ban some of the stem cell sciences and such- not a good read for a rainy depressing day.

Oryx and Crake was good. I listened to it on audio book & really liked it. Well done story & reader. I didn't find it any more worrisome than most other post-apocalyptic novels, though.

I am still all for stem-cell research, but I do think that genetically modifying food should be banned. Sorry, but when I eat an apple, I want the ingredients to be: Apple. If there's anything else, it worries me.

I'm totally with you on that Becky. I know there's no definitive research on it but it seems pretty clear-cut that the rise in cancer corresponds to the wide-spread use of chemicals on and in our food, and all the plastics we've absorbed.

The thing that interested me about Oryx and Crake (great book btw), is the connection it raises between art and the evolution of humans-as-destructors. Totally engrossing.

Haven't read Swan Song yet. Another dark post-apocalyptic novel I have but haven't read yet is Days of Rice and Salt - did I get the title right?

I'm not a big horror reader though so I can't really recommend anything there. Most of the post-apocalyptic and dystopian books I read are more fantasy or sci-fi than horror.

Becky wrote: "I am still all for stem-cell research, but I do think that genetically modifying food should be banned. Sorry, but when I eat an apple, I want the ingredients to be: Apple. If there's anything else..."

I can understand the feeling, but I wonder if that's what we really get any more? I was reading an article the other day about wheat that kind of blew me away.

Did you know that the current high price of corn has hurt funding for genetic research on wheat & in a short time, if we have a blight, we could have food crisis? It seems amazing to me, but apparently science has turned us into a monoculture society. There aren't many types of wheat grown because certain types give the best yield & are resistant to the current types of blight. Blights are evolving all the time, too. So it is a constant fight.

Wheat gluten seems to be one of the most pervasive things in food. Ask anyone who has to avoid it. I'm not sure how terrible the food crisis would be, but certainly a lot of extra costs would be involved.

The world has gotten SO complex...

Jim, it's really not. Now I get "Apple, with various insecticides and herbicides and other chemicals to protect the apple from herbicides". This subject scares me more than any horror novel I've ever read.

I know that the genetic research on food is defended as helping to produce greater yields and protect crops etc, but I don't really believe that. I think it's all about money. I'd rather have natural, organic food that might fail in a bad year, because the alternative is to eat chemical compounds that contain chemical toxins. I'm not perfect, and I don't have the perfect diet, but I'm getting better about thinking about what I'm really eating.

Monsanto doesn't really seem concerned with producing more food. If they were, they wouldn't modify their seeds to contain suicide genes so that seeds produced from the plant grown from their seed aren't viable. They are in it for profits, and that scares me.

By the way, have any of you heard of Codex Alimetarius? THAT is frightening too.

Sorry for ranting on... This kind of stuff scares me because it's happening under our noses.

The name Codex Alimetarius didn't ring any bells, so I looked it up. As I read the Wikipedia article, it certainly did. I've read or heard about a lot of the controversy there. My wife has been concerned about it too.

We used to eat a lot of natural foods in MD, mostly because Mom had a farm & I helped her out. She did the day to day work, so we'd all reap the benefits. Her steers, sheep, chickens & vegetables didn't have additives. Now we eat just store bought stuff & we do get them.

I've thought about raising more of my own food, but after doing it for years, I just don't have the energy. If my wife gets rid of a horse, we can get a steer to raise, but I don't know if we will. We likely won't get chickens - neither of us likes cleaning a chicken coop nor plucking a chicken. Worse, the cost of materials for a chicken coop, netting for the run & all make it an expensive proposition. Even a small vegetable garden can be tough to plant & keep up with in the hectic life style of today.

We do have some good local food around & are slowly figuring out where it is. That's the hardest part - finding it. A lot of people grow their own & even sell it, but they don't advertise. One local store gets most of its produce from the owner's garden. I found that out when I wanted to buy some eggplant last year. He told me where his house was & I drove down there & picked it myself. Guess where I get all my produce now?

That's great Jim. We have a weekly local farmer's market here in the summer and fall, and that's where I get my produce when I can.

I want to try my hand at a vegetable garden, but I have no room where I live now. Maybe one day!

We only have 15 acres, about 9 in pasture. The rest is house, shop, barns, ponds & woods. It will support 4 large animals, but no more. Summer time is too dry & while we could feed hay, that still beats on the grass more than is wise.

It's enough land that we could do more, if I had more energy & time to devote to it, too. I keep pretty busy with it & a full time job as it is though. We're coming up on 2 years there, but still there is much left to do to get it to my specifications. I did get in a raised vegetable garden this year, although I still haven't planted the pole beans...

There is a huge difference between genetically modified foods and pesticides. organically grown foods still use pesticides just naturally occuring ones.

As far as genetically modified food we do not have any foods that are not modified.

Prior to the science we currently have we would hybedize plants and produce new varieties. thats where things like seedless oranges come from.

Corn originally had a husk on each kernal and was hyberdized and selectively planted to produce the sweet corn we have today. The corn that is white and yellow kernaled is a natural mutation that has become the most eaten and produce corn.

Generitally engeniering food plants is realy the same as hybredizing but done artificually and more efficently to produce the wanted traits.
Instead of cross polinating 1000 plants to produce 10 with the traits you want and then taking that 10 to grow more we can get the traits we want in all 1000 plants.

All chemical tests of a hybred next to a geneticaly modified plant are identical.

while with any science we must exercise caution people are afraid of genetically modified food with very little cause.

Now pesticides, hormon injections and other methods used to increase yields can cross toxins into the foods we eat.

I would rather eat a genetically modified food that has been made resistant to molds than one treated with chemicals to prevent molds.

I do know that there is a difference between the two.
But, you'll have to forgive me Kevin, I don't exactly trust either one. I think there is a fine, fine line when companies like Monsanto do both. Who knows HOW they make foods resistant to mold? Maybe they use their own Mold-Away chemical compount in the cells of the plant instead of topically?

I'm not a scientist or an expert, but I think it's really fishy when the company that genetically modifies something then produces the only kind of fertilizer it will grow on. How does one do that if not chemically?

But back to GM Franken-foods. Did they make food more edible? No, just more convenient. Are they curing hunger? Obviously not. What real benefit is there? Foods still get moldy if they aren't consumed when they're fresh. They still go bad. I'd be concerned if they didn't.

Becky wrote: "Oh, and I forgot about "Children Of Men". I haven't read that one either, but the movie is great!"

They're both really good, I thought, but sooo different. It's like the movie took the basic idea and that was about it.

Bronwyn, I have the book on my TBR, and eventually I will get around to reading it. I have a long line in front of it though. I really loved the movie, so I'm also a bit nervous that this might be the first time I thought a movie was better than the book it's based on. Maybe subconciously I'm putting it off because of that?

Becky wrote: "Bronwyn, I have the book on my TBR, and eventually I will get around to reading it. I have a long line in front of it though. I really loved the movie, so I'm also a bit nervous that this might be ..."

Could be. I thought the movie was better, actually. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the book...

The Mote in God's Eye could be described as Post-Apocalyptic SF, although space opera is more accurate. Good either way.

Lucifer's Hammer, by Niven and Pournelle

"Lucifer's Hammer" is a classic. Wonderful book. Love the sundae!

I Am Legend is an interesting book. It's more interesting to read it & then watch the 3 movies based on it; "The Last Man on Earth", "The Omega Man" & "I Am Legend". Excellent actors in each; Vincent Price, Charelton Heston & Will Smith, respectively.

In all of them, man has created his own doom in one way or another by tinkering with the 'natural order' & wound up wiping himself out. The movies show a lot about our culture.