SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I’ve finished reading Watership Down. I enjoyed it, but wasn’t terribly enthralled by it. Here’s my review.

My next book will be The Fifth Elephant, the fifth book in the Watch subseries of Discworld.

I finished up Lock In, very quick read, and am part way through Passage.

I'm finally starting Pushing Ice! I'm really excited about it :)

I liked Pushing Ice. That and Century Rain are great standalones of his.

Hank wrote: "I liked Pushing Ice. That and Century Rain are great standalones of his."

Ooh, I'll have to snag Century Rain then. I've been eyeing that one, too.

I just finished and really liked Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel José Older. I have started Get in Trouble by Kelly Link and I am enjoying it.

Reading Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. Heartbreaking.

Listening to A Man Called Ove. What a fantastic story!

Kim wrote: "I finished up Lock In..."

Reading this one now...

Phrynne wrote: "My review of Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

Thanks for the review! I'm going to be reading this one soon, probably whenever I finish A Dance with Dragons.

And I just finished The Dying Earth. I gave it 3 stars - review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Trying to read 100 books this year (about 8 books/month). So far so good. This month I read: The Quantum Thief, A Darker Shade of Magic, Gardens of the Moon, I, Robot, Odd and the Frost Giants (short and sweet and lovely), Danse Macabre, and Wings of Fire - this one was tough, seemingly endless short stories - I basically made myself finally read it because I bought it and I wasn't going to let it molder in my kindle forever unread. I have a tough time getting going with short stories though. With a novel, its an investment up front and then the story carries you along... I'm also reading Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn but not in a hurry to finish that this month. I love this book, and its best in small digestible doses.

Finished Major Pettigrew's Last Stand which I thought was great fun.
Next I will be starting Neverwhere and Lock In

Michele wrote: "Kim wrote: "I recently finished...Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances.."

I really like Gaiman's short stories, and I thought this collection was pretty good. I really ..."

One of his best short stories was in Elric :Tales of the white wolf. Elric: Tales of the White Wolf

That book has a who's who of fantasy authors like Jody Lynn Nye, James Dorr, Nancy Holder, and many others including the cretor of Elric Michael Moorcock himself. This was back when Gaiman was only known for The Sandman. It's a book that Elric fans such as myself have mixed opinions on as most of the contributing writers were relatively new to the scene. But there is one thing that everyone who has read the book will agree on, Niel Gaiman's One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock stands well above the others. He was thrown head first into a pit of gladiators without any prior published novels and he exceeded all expectations. You should consider reading it.

Don wrote: "He was thrown head first into a pit of gladiators without any prior published novels and he exceeded all expectations. You should consider reading it. "

Nice, thanks Don!

Just finished Passage. A bit disappointed.

In January, I read Karen Memory (4), A Darker Shade of Magic (3), Gardens of the Moon (3), An Unwelcome Quest (3), I Am Legend (3), and Sabriel (4).



I am currently reading Lock In.

Wow, Chris. You're kind of kicking ass.

Chris wrote: "In January, I read Karen Memory (4), A Darker Shade of Magic (3), Gardens of the Moon (3), An Unwelcome Quest (3), [book:I Am Legend|140..."

What'd you think of Sabriel?

Allison wrote: "What'd you think of Sabriel?"

I really liked it, especially the visual descriptions. Miyazaki should come out of retirement to make the film version.

I'm reading (pretty slowly) DEATH'S END, the third book in the Cixin Liu trilogy that began with THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM.

Sarah Anne wrote: "Wow, Chris. You're kind of kicking ass."

Heh, thanks! I can pat myself on the back for finishing one series, but I started three this month.

I'm continuing the Comic Book series Fables right now. I think it's up there with The Sandman and Preacher as one of the all time best.

Chris wrote: "Allison wrote: "What'd you think of Sabriel?"

I really liked it, especially the visual descriptions. Miyazaki should come out of retirement to make the film version."

Oh, man. I would watch the %$&! out of that! Agreed, his world is so cool.

Wow, I'm impressed that people can finish anything else in the same month as Gardens of the Moon :)

I started Dark Matter a few days ago. It is really good so far.

AndrewP wrote: "Wow, I'm impressed that people can finish anything else in the same month as Gardens of the Moon :)"

This made me curious, and then sad. I looked back to when I read that and found I had read another 11 books that same month, and even wrote reviews for almost all of them. Now it's a stretch to do a couple books a month.

I'm currently reading Japan in the Muromachi Age, The Cuckoo's Calling and rereading The Goblin Emperor.

Finished Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. Heartbreaking. Then zipped through The Great Forgetting: A Novel -- what a freaking head rush lol!

Just joined and currently reading Station Eleven by Emily St.John Mandel.

I'll need to go through the massive list of club books to see how many i've read..at quick glance can see already 20 odd.

just finished the trilogy The Dread Empires Fall by Walter Jon Williams. GnashTag: Space Opera, Hard scifi. I very much enjoyed it, several great story lines. always looking for good scifi and this on fit the bill.

Finished Lock In. Listening to Sabriel and reading The Thirteenth Tale

I just finished the totally amazing Pushing Ice and started The Abyss Beyond Dreams. I also started Gardens of the Moon this morning. I'm not a fan of Epic Fantasy so this one will be difficult for me.

I love Pushing Ice. One of my fav Reynolds. The story goes waaaayyy beyond what you expect when you first start reading.

Chris wrote: "Allison wrote: "What'd you think of Sabriel?"

I really liked it, especially the visual descriptions. Miyazaki should come out of retirement to make the film version."

I don't know, Chris. Studio Ghibli pretty much wrecked Earthsea in their strange mish-mash of a film. They took so many liberties they may as well have made the whole thing up. I'd hate to see that happen to the wonderfully imagined Old Kingdom.

Ashamed to say I'm a big Hamilton fan but not got round to the Abyss Beyond Dreams. I loved the Malazan series, you've set yourself up a hefty read there.
I've just finished Station Eleven and started I am Number Four, which isn't a genre I usually read but have done lately so we'll see.

Finished ... But I'm NOT Racist!: Tools for Well-Meaning Whites and started Spin

The first wasn't very good, to be honest. I got two really useful tools out of it and the rest was a really strange hand-wringing, hair-tearing journey into the supposed guilt of the author. But I got it for free, and I got 2 tools, so, I guess I came out on top.

Spin is really good so far! I don't know what's happening, and I've had to re-read a few things to visualize them, but I am enjoying trying to piece everything together. I really relate to the sensation of knowing something wrong has happened, and still continuing to live life like it intends to continue as it has always done.

I wonder why that is.

Just finished I, Robot last night. Doing a read/listen of Gardens of the Moon but seem to be a little lost so I may have to just read it to keep the characters straight. I'm debating if I should start Ancillary Mercy so I can have at least one series completed this year or read The Infinite Sea since I got sucked back into the world of The 5th Wave after watching the movie last night. Decisions, decisions.

Simon wrote: Ashamed to say I'm a big Hamilton fan...

It took me awhile to realize you were not referring to the Lin Manuel Miranda play/ musical, or the Ron Chernow history, or something else about Alexander Hamilton. I'm a Hamilton: The Revolution fan, too.

Just started Gravity's Rainbow. An oldie but a goldie, or so I hear. Wish me luck.

I think you mean an oddie but goodie although Pynchon's desire/belief that he is smarter than anyone else is in full force in this book.

In the middle of The Silkworm and almost finished with both The Lions of Al-Rassan and Crooked Kingdom. All three are solid 4 stars so far.

Sarah: I am glad you liked Pushing Ice, it took seems like a book that could hit or miss just as easily for most people. I loved it.

Hank wrote: "I think you mean an oddie but goodie although Pynchon's desire/belief that he is smarter than anyone else is in full force in this book.

Well I'm only a few dozen pages in and he's already convinced me. Unfortunately I prefer entertaining authors to smart ones, though this actually seems pretty good.

This past Monday I finished the audiobook for Revelation, the second book in Carol Berg's Rai-Kirah trilogy. I read the series in print several years ago and really enjoyed it, and I'm enjoying it again in audio. This is a rarity for me since I'm not normally a good audiobook listener, but the narrator (Kevin Stillwell) is working really well for me. My full review is here.

On Friday I finished The Fifth Elephant, the fifth book in the Watch subseries of Discworld. I found that one to be fairly average. My full review is here.

I'm also still slowly working my way through The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales. I've read about 33%. I'm glad I decided not to try reading it all at once, because there are a lot of repetitive stories and many of them are just sooo silly. (I know, I know, they're fairy tales, they're supposed to be silly.) They're fun to read here and there, but they would have driven me crazy if I'd read them all at once.

Today I started The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin.

The Amber Spyglass - ★★★☆☆ - (My Review)

The Pagan Lord - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)

I just finished The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley which was really interesting. Now I'm reading The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi. It's almost unfair how good he is. His books are compulsively readable!

Tad wrote: "Now I'm reading The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi. It's almost unfair how good he is. His books are compulsively readable!"

You got an ARC? I'm seething with jealousy!

Tad wrote: "Yeah, I was really looking forward to this one and it didn't disappoint. Hurley is definitely a unique voice in SF. "

Hah! I was referring to the Scalzi. I'll check out The Stars are Legion though!

David wrote: "Tad wrote: "Now I'm reading The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi. It's almost unfair how good he is. His books are compulsively readable!"

You got an ARC? I'm seething with jealousy!"

Yeah, going from Hurley to Scalzi is a big switch. Hurley is definitely a unique voice and Scalzi is just compulsively readable. Probably the book I've been looking forward to most all year.

Randomly picked up Daughters Unto Devils. Compulsively readable!

I ended up bailing on The Abyss Beyond Dreams. All of the women in it were hysterical and sobbing, despite being 400 year old scientists. And the guy stayed perfectly rational and helped save one woman's life while he was being absorbed into an alien. Next time the dude should sob and the chick should remain rational.

It was horrible anyway but I had just been enthusiastically pondering how brilliant Alastair Reynolds writes women so it was even more obnoxious.

So now I need another audiobook. What shall I listen to? Cibola Burn will probably win out.

Christopher Moore's book : "Lamb - The gospel according to Biff, Christ's childhood pal". Absolutely in love with it, especially Biff's sarcasm which struck a chord with me right away. This book has got me totally hooked to it and i am wondering what would i do once the book finishes (i am done 50% already) :(

Bhavana wrote: "This book has got me totally hooked to it and i am wondering what would i do once the book finishes (i am done 50% already) ..."

Don't you love it when that happens?