SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

How about something about a strong female character mixed with time travel? If you are interested, I have a series of ebooks on Goodreads.com for free and I could use some extra reviews. Check out CODENAME: ATHENA and its sequels, by Michel Poulin. I know that advertising our own books is frowned upon normally, but I believe that you may like them and, at 400-700 pages on average, they will last you a while. I must advise you though that the English in the first 2-3 books is not perfect, as French is my first language.

Brandon Sanderson would probably be a pretty safe bet. Possibly the Mistborn series given you have already read his conclusion of the Wheel of Time Series.

You seem to love epic fantasy so you might also enjoy Tad Williams' Memory Sorrow and Thorn Series or something like Game of Thrones.

How about some Bradbury? It might not be as long as something by Eddings or Sanderson, but The Illustrated Man has a wide range of stories, all of which are good. It's Bradbury at his finest (and Bradbury at his finest is very good indeed). There's a story to suit every mood.

Fantasy:

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (3 books now so a great time to read it).

It also doesn't look like you've read any Dresden books, I would suggest starting from the beginning but this 4th book Summer Knight was my 'first favorite' out of the 14 written, not including novella's, after this book I loved every book thereafter in its own unique way


Sci-Fi:

The Warrior's Apprentice by Bujold is a great start for the character of Miles Vorkosigan, there are a couple earlier books focusing on his parents.

The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell is a great series that's easy & an enjoyable read.

My tip is to not take anything that is about Peru or Incas. Have something totally different. I went with a family group to China, and my sister-in-law brought THE JOY LUCK CLUB. Too much Chinese! She was unable to finish it. Instead we all passed around IN THIN AIR, which is about explorers freezing to death on Mt. Everest. Since it was summer in Beijing and brutally hot this was a delicious contrast.
Also, if you have an e-reader, load it up. Do not carry heavy paper books!

As Brenda said, get something like a Kindle. Will last the whole time and you can put as many books as you want on there.

Oh, and DO NOT fail to bring your charger! Also you can get adapters that allow you to use international electrical sockets -- find out if you will need them.

Rebekah, there are a whole whack of lightweight chargers, etc, available for hikers. Here are a couple that popped up.

http://m.rei.com/mt/www.rei.com/searc...

And a review:

http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/Solar-C...

Exactly. You do NOT want to haul along three fat books. A nice small device, with a solar charger (AND the proper plugs, so you can plug in the moment you get back to civilization) is what you need.
However, if you do pack books? PBs, definitely. And do not bring a treasured volume. Buy a used pb or two, one that you will not be unhappy about if you accidentally drop it into a puddle. Once read (unless someone else in your party wants it), toss it. Use the space thus liberated for a souvenir of your trip.

How about Sean Russell's World Without End and Sea without a Shore? They involve a voyage of discovery, but there's plenty of fantasy in the mix. I've packed these as travel books before -- long enough to provide plenty of reading & interesting but not so fast-paced I'd finish them in a day or two.

For a hefty single volume, I recently read and was very impressed with Sharps by K.J. Parker (a reluctantly-recruited fencing team takes a "goodwill tour" through a neighboring nation during rocky peace negotiations).

I see Anne McCaffrey and Naomi Novik on your shelves but didn't notice any Melanie Rawn: her Dragon Prince series has, of course, dragons, along with plenty of magic and politics. The first trilogy especially I enjoyed a lot.

Yeah, make sure you don't bring any really precious books with you. On a trek things are going to get wet or dirty or crushed. That's why, in the past, I've always made sure that if I bring a book, it's a pretty much disposable paperback.

Yeah, and luggage can be stolen or lost.

Nothing like reading pulpy Trek novels while on a trek!

Bill Bryson "A Walk In The Woods"

It may be a more a priori or a posteriori trek book but its easy reading and sure to make you feel better if your trek is, shall I say, challenging.

I'd suggest Hyperion. Nothing like being on a trek and reading about 7 wayfarers on a trek of their own.

Kurt Vonnegut's Galapagos is a good read while trekking through that part of the world.

Gordon wrote: "Fantasy:

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (3 books now so a great time to read it).

It also doesn't look like you've read any Dresden books, I would suggest starting from the..."

so much agree with this post, lies of locke lamora and the 2 followup books are great reads, and summer knight is the point in the series where the dresden files turns the corner and starts to become epic