SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Elowen wrote: "@Allison: Pratchett is great comfort reading!
And thanks. Yes, Star Trek is my go-to to look after my mental health :-) Yesterday I watched a TNG episode, today I'm watching Voyager, and I'd like ..."

Are you watching the new one, Star Trek: Picard? It's definitely darker than any of the previous incarnations, but still good.

@Allison, I loved Way of Shadows! Why the nope?

Krystal wrote: "@Allison, I loved Way of Shadows! Why the nope?"

I have a thing about sexual violence and a separate thing about spiders...and 5% of the book has been largely about sexual violence and spiders. Not for a time when I'm seeking my calm :)

The other day I read Nevertheless She Persisted:Flash Fiction Project which had very short stories by Charlie Jane Anders, Amal El-Mohtar, Seanan McGuire, Kameron Hurley, Catherynne M Valente and a number of others. Some of the stories were brilliant and others...not. I did enjoy it overall and gave it a solid 3⭐️.

Star Trek was always my mental health go to as well. Still is when I’m at the Beach or the Farm. All of my DVDs are up at the Beach and I have Netflix at the Farm. Here in the Outback it’s usually some Hallmark cozy mystery or Agatha Raisin or Midsomer Murders because I have them all on my computer. Harry Potter books and movies make me feel better too.

Allison wrote: "Krystal wrote: "@Allison, I loved Way of Shadows! Why the nope?"

I have a thing about sexual violence and a separate thing about spiders...and 5% of the book has been largely about sexual violence..."

Ah interesting! Fair call! It's been many years since I read the series and I don't remember the spiders XD But fair reason to NOPE right there lol

Wonderland Diary
Dark Ranger Volume1Dark Ranger Volume2Dark Ranger Volume3

I like this series books

I’m reading Seanan McGuire’s Come Tumbling Down. I’m so excited to be returning to the Moors and don’t know how I’ll have the patience to wait for the next book in this series to be released. I love these characters so much!!

I finished The Blood Knight and have started the final book in the series, The Born Queen. This series is becoming a tad trying. It could be a script for video games and I'm not a gamer.

I read the story, “The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfall,” by Edgar Allan Poe. I didn’t realize he wrote one of the first sci fi space travel stories.

I saw Diane's review of The Way of Kings come through in my digests and was curious how many of you read it in audio, and if so, what did you think of the performances?

(Since I got the three ebooks in this series from amazon when they were on sale a while ago, I can buy the audios for $10 or less apiece. Quite a bargain considering how long they all are!)

ETA for current reading: I started Children of Time in audio and it's so good! The Sword of Kaigen is looking rather weak in comparison (and it was already going far too slowly for my liking), so off to the graveyard it goes for now, in favor of Ethan Frome.

Allison wrote: "RJ, did you like the previous books in Bobiverse? I thought you were lukewarm on them. I'm still unsure about whether I want to join in on them...."

I liked the first one, didn't like the second, the third is OK so far. No need to rush into them. They're not well written at all but they do have some interesting ideas. The sense of humor is annoying at times, not for everyone.

Soo wrote: "Dj, you should check out Planetside. Evan Currie is good but he has a problem with getting too excited with the world and not actually tying up the plot well. I know about the spin ..."

I will give it a look. Thx

Allison wrote: "I have a thing about sexual violence and a separate thing about spiders...and 5% of the book has been largely about sexual violence and spiders. "

I LOLed at this - what a totally weird combination of things XD

Pocketbook Writer: Confessions of a Commercial Hack. Not at all well-written (the manuscript desperately needed a good editor), but the content is interesting since I'm a geek for early SF writing and fandom.

I’ve been having trouble lately concentrating on reading anything other than the news and other forms of updates, but today I’ve been finally able to get back into The Mad Ship by one of my favorite authors, Robin Hobb.

I just read this dialogue, which doesn’t relate to a pandemic, but feels incredibly apt to our current global moment:

“Fate rushes down upon us! The time drags and the days plod past, lulling us into thinking that the doom we fear will always so delay. Then, abruptly, the dark days we have all predicted are upon us, and the time when we could have turned dire fate aside has passed. How old must I be before I learn? There is no time; there is never any time. Tomorrow may never come, but todays are linked inexorably in a chain, and now is always the only time we have to divert disaster.”

I hope everyone is well and safe. I’m grateful for this community of people.

Mad Ship is one of my favorites by Hobb, I hope you enjoy the rest of it.

Oo, Anthony what a poignant quote. I find it hopeful. Today we divert disaster! And most of the disaster diverting involves us just staying home and trying to buoy each other!

Everyone take your vitamins, drink lots of water, get 8 hours of sleep and outside for some part of the day! Bring an audiobook! ;-)

Oh wow, very powerful, Anthony. It could have been straight out of Ursula Le Guin’s mouth too, amazing.

I suspect Le Guin wouldn't have taken so long. 😅 Still a good, timely quote.

Haha, true 😄

Somewhat recent

1636 Mission to Mughals
=3
The Grantville Gazette
=4
A Ripple in Time by Victor Zugg
=3.5
Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz
= 5
The Quiet Game by Greg Iles
(Grishamy)
=4
ReRead of Great North Road
by Peter F Hamilton
=5

Lots of Portal up there

Anthony wrote: "I’ve been having trouble lately concentrating on reading anything other than the news and other forms of updates, but today I’ve been finally able to get back into The Mad Ship by one ..."

That is indeed befitting a quote. And shows nicely too, how the timing can affect a read a lot as well. I read the book fairly recently, and obviously this precise timeliness was completely lost. So, thank you for sharing it, Anthony.

I'm hoping everyone is staying safe as well. And am truly thankful of this community, too; not a lonely moment with you fellows <3

I finally read IT, which I had to drag myself through by the end. Then breezed through Planet of the Apes and now I am on Hyperion. Which is incredible! I can't believe no one recommended it to me before now.

I just finished Exhalation: Stories which I thought was great and rated it 5 stars. I liked certain stories more than others which got me to thinking, should I do some sort of weighted average of the stories by page length for the overall rating, but then decided that if a collection has multiple 5 star stories then the collection itself is worth rating 5 stars. The ones I enjoyed best were: The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate and "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom".

I'm about halfway through A Song for a New Day which I'm also enjoying although it's bizarrely prescient in many ways to what our society's going through right now.

Also starting to slowly work through The Best of Greg Egan. Only read the first story so far, "Learning to Be Me", but I thought it was pretty cool and thought provoking.

No more prescience! Let us know what you think at the end of Song for a New Day, though, because it's the only one on the award list thus far I haven't read, and I'd like to!

But not if it's about any of this nonsense, I'm full up at the mo'

Nice Blast Christopher, I loved "The Merchants and the Alchemist's Gate" also.

Was going to read "The Last Tribe" but no plague apocalypses for a while. went with "The Hydrogen Sonata" by Iain Banks. And the next installment of "Cast Under an Alien Sun" drops on the 20th, looking forward to that.

The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China by Mark Elliott

Thank you, Anthony, for that quote. So true. And I’ll add my voice to the calls of gratefulness for this community.

I read

Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner in my quest of reading all the Hugo/nebula/etc. Award winners. This book is from 1968 and with the exception of sexism concerning the jobs, you don't feel the age. The story itself is not exactly noteworthy, but I'm really impressed by the outer structure that gives a palpable feeling of the overpopulation and anxiety of this near future (2010) society. He alternates chapters consisting of glimpes and flashes of bits of news, adds, conversations which emphasize the hecticness and fast-pacing nature of humankind in this era, chapters about minor characters where he elaborates on one or the other piece of information given in the flash chapters to create a vivid background and chapters that follow the two main characters and their story.

It is my first Brunner and I'm awed by this intelligent author. I definitely have to read more by him. More often than not I don't see why the award winners were given the awards, but here it is justified.

I listened to it on audio and at first I felt completely lost due to the structure, but in hindsight I'd say audio is the even better way to approach it, because Erik Bergmann does a great job.

The other book where I'm enthusiastic about the audio version was Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann. I've listened to the original German version read by Ulrich Noethen, and he is wonderfully nuanced in his reading.
I can not speak for the translation (though I guess usually those are pretty decend nowadays), but the original is a feast of beauty and melancholy. Kehlmann takes the famous German juggler Till Eulenspiegel, originally said to have lived somewhen in the 14th century, and places him into the time of the Thirty Year's War (around 1615). He tells the story of this era by means of several single fates that are somehow connected with the juggler, jumping around in time (my favourite narration structure). He brings the mythical believes and superstitions of that time to life and blurs the boundaries between reality and ghost world.

This book is the perfect combination of learning a lot (I was constantly looking up on all the events and historical figures mentioned therein) and getting swept away by poetic prose.
This was a clear 5 star if I ever saw one.

I recently started The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood and it's actually so much better than I expected!! It's gritty and unusual and our heroine is a total badass. So far there's been magic, sacrifice, torture, necromancy, gods and sssssnakesssssss and I AM IN LOVE.

Thank You for the suggestion Gabi, Tyll sounds interesting and is on my To Read list now.

Don wrote: "Thank You for the suggestion Gabi, Tyll sounds interesting and is on my To Read list now."

I hope you'll like it, Don. It was just perfect for me.

Just finished the 3rd part of the Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis, “That Hideous Strength”. It wasn’t as good as the first two but still a good novel. I loved the series overall and thought it was a refreshing take on a genre with many generic entries. His prose and dialogue are top notch.

Currently reading:

“Eragon” by Christopher Paolini - About 60% done, enjoyable and easy read so far. I came into it prepared in knowing he was young when he wrote it and not to expect too much as a result and it’s helped.

“The Way of Kings” by Brandon Sanderson - Just started it and already a fan. This is my first entry into his novels and I’m excited for what’s ahead. I like the slower pacing in a very detailed world building. Stark contrast to Eragon which makes it perfect to read at the same time.

The last three books I've finished have been The Left Hand of Darkness, Kings of the Wyld, and Chilling Effect. I liked the rock band/fantasy mashup of Kings of the Wyld. Chilling Effect was nice to see a space opera with a diverse cast (and not just because there are aliens).

I just finished Natasha Pulley’s The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, the follow-up to her Watchmaker of Filigree Street, and her third book. Now I’m gently weeping over this delicate, beautiful, melancholy book and don’t know what to do with myself. My review is here.

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. I think this is the third time I've read this and I enjoyed this just as much as I did before.

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch. This is the eighth book in the Peter Grant series and sort of starts a new chapter after the Faceless Man arc with Peter going undercover into a tech company. A good book, though it felt like the climax lacked a little oomph.

The Sea Watch by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Another good book in the Shadows of the Apt series, though perhaps a little longer than it needed to be.

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu. I'm a big fan of Liu and absolutely adored his previous collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. This one wasn't quite as good. Felt like a lot of the stories lacked the emotional resonance you usually get from his work. In the foreward, Liu admits that he picked these stories more because they pleased him rather than the reader. Still a good collection though.

Animal Farm by George Orwell. I read 1984 a few years ago and been meaning to read this one too. Then I realized that it felt familiar and turns out I had already read it at some point. I certainly remember the ending. Good, but depressing.

Krystal wrote: "I recently started The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood and it's actually so much better than I expected!! It's gritty and unusual and our heroine is a total badass...."

Yes! It was so good!

Seconding Tyll. Fantastic book

Aisling wrote: "...breezed through Planet of the Apes..."

Isn't that a fun read? (Blows my mind that it's the same author who wrote The Bridge Over the River Kwai!)

One Word Kill
The Talisman

What did you think of One Word Kill, Joel?

Elowen wrote: "Started Fly By Night by Frances Hardinge...."

I read that a few years ago - picked it up totally at random, had never heard of it or the author, was delighted :)

Giants of Pangaea by John C. Wright

I opened A Lush and Seething Hell: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror just to look at the first few pages and now 48 hours later I'm done with it. What a wild ride!!

Speaking of Robin Hobb, I’m still reading The Mad Ship and came across this wonderful exchange that I wanted to share:

“Half the evil in this world occurs while decent people stand by and do nothing wrong. It’s not enough to refrain from evil, Trell. People have to attempt to do right, even if they believe they cannot succeed.”
“Even when it’s stupid to try?” he asked with savage sarcasm.
“Especially then,” she replied sweetly. “That’s how it’s done, Trell. You break your heart against this stony world. You fling yourself at it, on the side of good, and you do not ask the cost. That’s how you do it.”

Anthony wrote: "...“Even when it’s stupid to try?” he asked with savage sarcasm. “Especially then,"...

This! What a wonderful quote, again. Thank you for highlighting it, Anthony.

Very apropos quite, Anthony.

Just finished "If Chins could Kill" by Bruce Campbell. I enjoyed the Evil Dead series so I gave it a try and found it very good and sometimes funny. Making it in Hollywood wood the old fashioned way, Building a network, hard work and a little luck.

Anthony wrote: "Speaking of Robin Hobb, I’m still reading The Mad Ship and came across this wonderful exchange that I wanted to share:

“Half the evil in this world occurs while decent people stand by..."

Such a fantastic quote. Thank you!

Anthony wrote: "Speaking of Robin Hobb, I’m still reading The Mad Ship and came across this wonderful exchange that I wanted to share:

“Half the evil in this world occurs while decent people stand by..."

Makes me think of the well-known (source unknown) quote: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.”