SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I am reading Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson but set it aside to finish Lavinia. Almost there! Speaking of KSR, I know there is a buddy read of 2312 going on but I don't have it and can't get the book from the library, so I will have to revisit it another time. I read it a few years ago and I'm sure I will want to come back to it. I am also interested in the Three Californias trilogy, but not sure when I will get around to it.

Elowen wrote: "Hope you 're enjoying The NIght Tiger, Sarah! I was pleasantly surprised by it."

I'm loving it so far.

I finished, The Fall of Hyperion. Five stars. Onto book three, Endymion.

I've recently finished Abaddon's Gate which I enjoyed even more than the first two installments despite the gap from when I read the previous installment. Forging Divinity was the book I finished last which was good but not great. I don't even remember why I picked it up but I will continue with the trilogy eventually. I'm now reading CTRL ALT Revolt! which is taking me a little bit to get into but a recent pov change has me slightly more invested so hopefully I'll finish it soon.

Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi

I haven’t posted in these threads lately, not at all this year’s thread I don’t think. I got out of the habit while I was reading the 31-book Raymond E. Feist series because nobody needs to see that many posts that will mean nothing to them if they haven’t read the series. I read other books inbetween each subseries, so that wasn’t the only thing I read, but I was being very “all or nothing” about posting here.

So, here’s what I’ve read since late March when I finished the last book in the Feist series:

* Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. This was my third Heinlein read, the last from our group shelf. I liked it ok, better than Stranger in a Strange Land but less than The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Mostly I got tired of the lectures, although they weren’t as extensive as the ones in Stranger and had a very different tone. There was some food for thought in there, but the author beat that food into his reader’s mouth and broke their teeth in the process. Or so it felt. :) Longer but less violent review.

* Bunnicula by Deborah & James Howe. Like any faithful SF&F group member, I read this book as part of the April 1 poll, sort of. This was a fun diversion, evoking some much-needed laughter. Parental supervision required if you have a dog, as the poor dog in this book gets fed chocolate left and right and I was worried kids who read it might think this was ok. Longer review.

* Catseye by Andre Norton. Another from our group shelf. Kind of middle-of-the-road for me -- not boring, but not engrossing. I liked the idea of the telepathic communication with animals, but thought the story itself lacked depth while at the same time having all this interesting-sounding world-building behind it that we barely scraped the surface of. Longer review.

* The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I try to read at least one classic each quarter, not counting the ones on our group shelf that I’d be reading anyway. This was one of my selections for the 2nd quarter. It’s like a soap opera set in the 1920’s, full of horrible, miserable, dishonest, thoughtless people. Yet it held my attention surprisingly well despite not at all being the type of story I would normally be interested in reading. Longer review.

* The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare. I also try to fit in two Shakespeare works per year, on top of the other four classics. This is a farce, completely implausible and very silly, but it made me laugh. I’d seen this as a college play during a high school field trip many years ago. It was hilarious and I still have fond memories of that, so I think that helped make the play more entertaining for me to read. Longer review.

* The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco, yet another from our group shelf. I had really mixed feelings about this one and had a hard time deciding whether to continue the series. I like some aspects of the premise, discovered that death magic apparently appeals to me (I haven’t encountered it much up until now, and least not in a way that wasn’t completely negative), got sick to death of descriptions of clothing, was annoyed by the ending, and had some other complaints about the writing. In the end I decided not to continue the series and will probably be better off for it, but it was a close call. WAY longer review.

* Sphere by Michael Crichton. Surprise, another book from our group shelf! This was actually my first time reading anything by Crichton. It had its issues, but it was tense and fast-paced and a really fast read that held my attention well. It’s a light read, but there’s a little food for thought in there too, and no teeth were so much as chipped in the process. It’s set underwater, which for some reason I always find to be a creepy setting (I almost passed out after watching the movie The Abyss as a teenager, despite having watched far scarier movies with no issues), so this book probably created more tension for me because of that. Longer review.

Today I started The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge, also on our shelf. If I like it, I’ll read the other 3 related books. I haven’t read much yet, but so far it seems interesting.

I also read Sphere (and other group books) this week, but I was left pretty cold. I don't tend to like thrillers, and the underwater aspect wasn't the type that gives me the good kind of shivers. Most memorable part, which I don't remember properly, was someone describing someplace: "It's like we're inside a vagina!" I think that was when I sped it up to 2x (listened from Scribd).

edit: Of course that quote is on GR *eyeroll*

I just finished Soulless by Gail Carriger and it was just the right kind of delightful, light-hearted read I needed right now, and the writing is great. Will go on to read the second book in the series, since I like something light and silly right now, with a bit of humor. It's a pity I couldn't get a hold of the audiobook, because I would have loved to listen to this read in a high voice with a very britsh accent.

Earlier this year I finished Stars Beyond by S.K. Dunstall and now I'm sad there are only two book in this series, since it quickly became one of my favourite Scifi series. But then, series tend to not get better with each book, so I applaud the authors for stopping when they feel they have told their story. I will definitely read both books again.

Anna wrote: "Most memorable part, which I don't remember properly, was someone describing someplace: "It's like we're inside a vagina!" I think that was when I sped it up to 2x (listened from Scribd)."

LOL, yeah, that was definitely one of the eyeroll moments. I think it was in reference to the padded walls in their habitat and the comparison didn’t even make that much sense to me.

I tend to do better with books that aren’t similar to anything I’ve read recently, so I think that probably helped me there. It had also been a while since I’d had a really fast-paced, action-filled read. I get bored if I read too many of them because they start to feel too samey and tend to follow the same patterns.

Soulless (and the rest of the series) is great on audiobook, I can't imagine ever eye-reading it after listening to it. My only gripe with the Carriger audios is that the different narrators pronounce some things differently, and it's a bit jarring if you listen to the whole universe back to back, as I have done multiple times :D

I have Stars Beyond on my TBR, great to hear it's good!

YouKneeK, yeah it came out of nowhere, and really made me wonder what the hell he meant by that. I must admit I've been hate-listening to a lot of books lately, just because they're on the group shelf and available as audiobook on Scribd. Going into something you're not at all interested in isn't likely to make you enjoy it, but I feel like I have to listen to them, since I can do so for free at the moment. I have plenty more hate-listens waiting for me :/

I hope you find a pleasant surprise in there soon, Anna!

I seriously doubt it, but thanks and I'll try to keep my hopes up :D

Ines wrote: "I just finished Soulless by Gail Carriger and it was just the right kind of delightful, light-hearted read I needed right now, and the writing is great. Will go on t..."

The Parasol Protectorate audiobooks are fantastic...well her books in general! If you enjoy YA books, try Carriger's Finishing School series on audio. Probably one of my all time favorite book/narrator combos.

Sarah wrote: "I've just finished Passage by Connie Willis which is about the study of near death experiences. She really is an author that never disappoints. "

That one kinda blew my mind. The very very ending though I felt let down -- I wanted to know what happened next!

Anna wrote: "Most memorable part, which I don't remember properly, was someone describing someplace: "It's like we're inside a vagina!" "

That's... peculiar.

Michele wrote: "The very very ending though I felt let down -- I wanted to know what happened next!"

To (view spoiler)[ Joanna or everyone else (hide spoiler)] ?

Anna wrote: "To [spoilers removed] ?"

Both, I guess, but mostly the former.

I thought that was kind of the interesting part, not knowing! Or everyone deciding how they want to interpret it. But then I'm always the one who loves ambiguous endings other people find frustrating :D

Anthony wrote: "I also had a lovely encounter with a comforting book, one which I had loved as a kid: The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander. (I’m in the intermittent process of making my way through a reread of the entire Chronicles of Prydain.) In these stressful times, it was meaningful to spend time with the wisdom, warmth, and good humor of Alexander’s world."

I love those books. I still go back and re-read them, even after more years than I care to admit :)

Anna wrote: "Soulless (and the rest of the series) is great on audiobook, I can't imagine ever eye-reading it after listening to it. My only gripe with the Carriger audios is that the different narrators pronou..."
For some reason, the english audiobooks are not available in Germany (I searched up and down for them), but I hope I will manage to get a hold of them some time in the future.

Karen wrote: "The Parasol Protectorate audiobooks are fantastic...well her books in general! If you enjoy YA books, try Carriger's Finishing School series on audio. Probably one of my all time favorite book/narrator combos."
Thank you for the tip, unfortunately, I'm not really into YA. But I will be reading the rest of the Parasol Protectorate books and then there is another series set in the same world (Custard Protocol I think?), I will probably check that out.

Ines, even if you don't like YA, if you skip Finishing School you'll miss some connections when you read Custard Protocol (which is kind of YAish, too, but older than Finishing School). And of course you have to read all the short fiction in the correct slots! :D It's not a small undertaking, I reread the entire universe in chronological order recently, it was glorious!

All right, you have convinced me to at least give it a try! :D If the writing style is similar, I might even enjoy a YA story.

So what is the correct order? Parasol Protectorate, Finishing School, Custard Protocol? And then I read the short stories of each series after I read the books of this series?

There are different opinions on reading order, but they are all listed on Carriger's website.

I myself read Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School first, then some of the shorts and then Custard Protocol with the latest shorts between books 2&3. Easiest way I'd say is to read in publishing order after PP and FS, to avoid spoilers.

The style is similar but it is for a younger audience, so it's a different focus. There are some familiar characters from PP to keep you interested :)

Thank you so much, Anna! Will get on to it.
Actually, my partner recommended this book to me years ago, but I never got around to reading it, partly because I was hoping the audiobook would be available again in English at some point.

I hope you love it! :)

Finished The Just City by Jo Walton this morning. Really enjoyed it. Gave it 4 stars. Haven't quite wrapped my head around everything it covered. Even though I did love it I'm not going to go out of my way to find books 2 and 3. If they drop in my lap then I might but otherwise I'm not.

Now to see what I'm going to read next.

The Double Human by James O'Neal

This is actually a sequel to The Human Disguise, recommend they be read in order. This one is a sci-fi police procedural about the hunt for a serial killer in a future post-apocalyptic Florida. Not written at a particularly high level, 2 stars .

If you don't usually check the Book Sales thread, you totally should right now! Free Murderbot! Go get it!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Anna wrote: "If you don't usually check the Book Sales thread, you totally should right now! Free Murderbot! Go get it!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..."
I second this! Murderbot deserves much more love. <3

Also, I just started Upright Women Wanted. I didn't know what I wanted to read until my next Parasol Protectorate books arrive, so I let a friend chose something from my TBR and she chose this, because she wants to know if it's good.

I just finished another classic non-SFF book that knocked me out: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré. It’s compact, tough-minded, intricate, and very powerful, and I highly recommend it.

Ines, please tell us about Upright Women, too! I'm very curious.

Anthony, you've been on a pretty good roll of fascinating classics! I'll have to investigate this one more :)

@Allison, I should say that it’s quite bleak, so bear that in mind in terms of mood reading, for what it’s worth. But it’s really masterful and affecting. I can’t stop thinking about it.

Anthony wrote: "@Allison, I should say that it’s quite bleak, so bear that in mind in terms of mood reading, for what it’s worth. But it’s really masterful and affecting. I can’t stop thinking about it."

Haha I tend to think most classics are a bit bleak, but I appreciate the heads up ^^

I will second The Spy Who Came In from the Cold! An excellent book.

Started on The Consuming Fire last night. It’s an easy read so far. Just what I need.

I read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold in the 70s sometime. I loved it. I was going through a spy stage in my teens. Also WWII books with Force 10 from Naverone, The Eagle Has Landed etc. I still have a lot of the old ones sitting at Mums.

I must be a classic too. I was born around the same time TSWCIFTC was written hahaha

Jacqueline wrote: "... I must be a classic too. I was born around the same time TSWCIFTC was written hahaha ..."

I remember seeing this when it first came out and reading at least part of it. Mumble...

Although I'll admit that I didn't get much out of it then.

Ines wrote: "Anna wrote: "If you don't usually check the Book Sales thread, you totally should right now! Free Murderbot! Go get it!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..."
I se..."

And I read all the Murderbots over Easter.... love Murderbot.

I murder Lovebot! <3

Never Die was fun! Wuxia style story. It turned out to be a cool story with all the Asian story elements I wanted in Sword of Kaigen. Nice mix of spooky folktale atmosphere, quirky cast of characters & subtle layers. Bonus for it being available on audio so I could read it sooner vs later.

Impostor Syndrome is the last book in the Arcadia Project series by Mishell Baker. I dragged my feet in listening to this one because I have to be in a particular mood (accepting) to stay within the story world. In the series, I love the way the Fae are presented and the weird situations that cause. The reason why the series didn't quite work for me is that I did not think the author portrayed Millie in a consistent/believable manner.

Maisie Dobbs had great character, period setting & atmosphere. I really liked Maisie's background & drive to be a PI. Story flow was disjointed by flashbacks. This was one of those books that I enjoyed all the parts but wished it was reformatted to be enjoyed as a whole vs in portions.

Destiny's Crucible Series Books 1-4: A story about a man who is given another chance at life on an alien world. The first two books were a bit like Gulliver's Travels. Then the story grew to resemble a civilization strategy game. Interesting ideas & use of science/psychology/religion/etc but the author tried to do much. There's a mix of character experiences/monologues, info dumps, in depth application/learning/implementation of science, poorly described fighting and snippets of alien POV. Structure wise, the series would have been more enjoyable if the author stayed with the MC's POV for 90% vs the gradually diminishing percentage in each book. Joe/Joseph/Yosef ended up being a Gary Stu. The series was entertaining but not very thought provoking.

ScribD's Trial
Trying out the other audio membership. Thus far, I don't like the interface on either browser or app. It looks like ScribD audiobook selection is limited, genre labels are weird and the sound quality of the recordings are not as good as they should be.

Upside, I am happy to listen to the following books with my trial membership.

Street Cultivation was a popcorn Wuxia/Cultivation story with solid characters & action. I definitely rooted for Rick as he tried to figure out how to make a living & take care of his ailing sister.

Currently Reading:

Blindsight #1 by Peter Watts. I had forgotten about this book. It was already in my TBR. I've become a bit more picky about what books I add to my TBR but I take it as a good sign when I look a book up and it's already in the pile. =)

What a weird story! I'm about 17% into the book and can't wait to find out what a vampire is in this series.

Current topics:
- Unusual Main Character (I am still figuring him out.)
- Technical/Medical Enhancements
- Virtual Realty Culture
- Aliens: First Contact
- Vampires (What are they?!?!)
- Space _____

@ Soo, I very much enjoyed "destiny's crucible" series also.
books 1-4 were very good. Tales of anyar and Passages not quite as good. I'm hoping Passages is going somewhere good and will deliver in the next installment.

PreOrdered "Network Effect" and I can't wait except that I must.

Currently reading "Royal Assassin" by Robin Hobb and I'm finding it a bit irritating, we've known that Regal is a scheming, grasping
a$$ for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages yet there's no defense against him...

Also into "Mornings on horseback" a biography on Teddy Roosevelt.

Don, I thought the author of Destiny's Crucible has potential but he needs to work on structuring his writing to make better flow for handling multiple plot lines & POVs. He has lots of cool ideas and there were several great character based segments but the overall series arc was a mess of ideas that did not come to any sort of resolution by the end of book 4. Was there an ending? Sure. Did it resolve any of the main points created by the author? Not really.

Blindsight was great. It was written in a disjointed fashion but the way the story was structured made sense to me. Most of the concepts & events that were presented were combined into a whole at the end of the story.

While I didn't care for the ending of either Destiny's Crucible (Joe's Arc) or Blindsight, I thought the writing was much better & more to the point in Blindsight. It was evocative & thought provoking without telling me to think that way about the story. Blindsight was a treat to read and I look forward to reading the sequel.

Ines wrote: "Thank you for the tip, unfortunately, I'm not really into YA. But I will be reading the rest of the Parasol Protectorate books and then there is another series set in the same world (Custard Protocol I think?), I will probably check that out."

I don't really like YA either but ended up reading the Finish School books. They were really good without the angst and romance issues that some YA really annoy me with. I avoid YA usually but loved the Parasol series and then wanted to try out FS after reading reviews. Usually I have to be pushed to read YA. I thought FS was really quite smart.

So I'm in
, I hope these have a conclusion of the main lines in the 2nd (I just started) or 3rd, as I won't go on if it will be a constant serial. I like a satisfying ending and that was the one issue with the first book. I loved it other than the continuing plot lines. My pet peeve.

@ Soo, I agree, in Destiny's Crucible, it is a new writer finding his legs. "Tales of Anyar"
gives more detail but is "less" than 1-4 and "Passages" gives the possible scope the author is going for, likely several more books, as "Passages" was the introduction and bridging of a new character.

@ Soo, I will admit that I thought book 5 "Passages" was going to wrap things up not go all "Wheel of Time" on me and stuff !

Well, I read reviews and hoped it wouldn't go in the endlessly drawn out route but figured that would be the case after reading #2 & 3.

The author looks like he took a break to write a different novel and I didn't see news of what else is coming out from him.

He does have potential and it's pretty obvious where he pulls inspiration. Lots of fun science stuff. The cultural aspects were flat & uninspiring. The regional war scope was cool but the actual "explaining" was boring. The parts I enjoyed the most were character driven. Even the long internal monologues were better than some of the in depth discussion about war prep. The small tangents about the aliens were neat but they went nowhere by the end of book #4.

I have to really enjoy the writing to read short stories. So, I did not plan to read #5 or pick up the new arc with #6. Seeing as how each book is more like a fragment vs a complete novel within a series, I would have been annoyed. lol

Thanks for reminding me to preorder Network Effect. More Murderbot. What more could you ask for!

Phrynne, A Murderbot novel with about a 150 extra pages. Make it So Martha !

Soo, I agree with you about the series, it has has some of the flaws one might expect from budget publishing. My guess is that the Author will continue polish this one up for a bit. "Tales from Anyar" suggests the possible scope the author is considering and gives some background information along with a story that was repeated in "Passages".

Soo, The author did introduce a character not yet introduced to the series , A Doctor who's story I will follow if She ends up in the series.