SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I think it was just the books. City of Stairs and Shadow in Summer were both fine, but not great.

But Down Among the Sticks and Bones was truly magical, and Shadowshaper was positively delightful.

I did not care for To Be Taught, If Fortunate, but at least I know I'm capable of liking things right now, just not everything lol

I'm trying to keep my "books by men authors" and "books by women authors" within 5 books of each other, so that I'm not favoring either, but all these short novellas have put me at a handicap.

Reading The Rage of Dragons and Little, Big to try to even the score again.

@Allison: I'm really curious to see If "Little, Big" does anything for you.

Gabi wrote: "@Allison: I'm really curious to see If "Little, Big" does anything for you."

You're the one who inspired me to try it! I think it will be very fitting to listen to a book about the environment while I make a garden to attract bees and other pollinators :D

Allison wrote: "Gabi wrote: "@Allison: I'm really curious to see If "Little, Big" does anything for you."

You're the one who inspired me to try it! I think it will be very fitting to listen to a book about the en..."

^^' Well … be warned, it's extremely special and I totally understand readers who deem it to be a big waste of time.

I liked Little, Big but I liked Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr even better. I want to try John Crowley's Aegypt someday.

Just finished Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 2. Starting Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 3

Well! There's a rumor that the final volume of the Kingkiller trilogy is going to be available August of 2020. Does anyone care at this point ? I vaguely remember Name of the Wind being above average. I might grab a copy if it becomes available.

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Uh. I mean, I'm definitely interested myself hahaha who would be interested really? But I might have a, uh, friend, who's crazy enough to still have hope for this.

After I read somewhere that it's going to be a trilogy of trilogies, meaning this trilogy will just be the beginning of the story, I gave up hope of anyone alive today still being alive when the second trilogy is published by Pat's great-great-great-grandchildren's AI representative.

Guess how happy I am I never started it? :)

Yeah...I'm just looking for a hit, not a cure.

I mean...my friend is. But I mean I'm guessing really, because who would tie up so many emotions in the unpredicatability of authors?

Hm, I hope it's good. I loved Name of the Wind. Wise Man's Fear was okay.

Don wrote: "Well! There's a rumor that the final volume of the Kingkiller trilogy is going to be available August of 2020. Does anyone care at this point ? I vaguely remember Name of the Wind being above avera..."

I'm excited if that's true

Don wrote: "Well! There's a rumor that the final volume of the Kingkiller trilogy is going to be available August of 2020. Does anyone care at this point ? I vaguely remember Name of the Wind being above avera..."

I care 🙂

Up for the buddy read in August should this theoretical installment come out.

Two Dresden files novels this year and maybe even a rothfuss?


Uhh.... maybe the back half of 2020 could actually be ok? I mean, I would be very confused by that....

It's been a confusing year already.

Don wrote: "Well! There's a rumor that the final volume of the Kingkiller trilogy is going to be available August of 2020. Does anyone care at this point ? I vaguely remember Name of the Wind being above avera..."

:D "Wise Man's Fear" was the longest filler I've ever read. So this reader here stopped caring.

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

😱😱😱😱

Just finished Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 4 and begun Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 5

Just finished The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi. I gave it 4⭐️. I didn’t love it but I really liked it and this one made me actually give a damn about the characters where the first one didn’t. Now for The Last Emperox.

I made myself scarce on GR over the last days cause I had one of my 'down phases' - but not always looking what's going on on social media leads to more reading time, so it was still a win :D.

I read

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles because his short story from the amazon story Collection piqued my interest. And this story about a Russian aristocrat in house detention in the Metropolitan in Moscow was indeed a delightful read. Russian history from 1918 till the 80ies (or later) takes place around him while he can't leave the hotel. Written in a clever and self-deprecating style with a bunch of wonderfully sympathetic characters and a strong emphasis on friendship.

Even better was The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne. A bildungsroman about a gay boy who grows up in post war Ireland and has to deal with all kinds of double standards and calamities. Yet the prose never drifts off into doom-and-gloom - on the contrary, I haven't laughed that often and that heartily in quite a while. Superb prose and a story that managed to move me.

Quite a surprise was Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis, a story in the beginning similar to H.G. Well's First Men on the Moon, but later it dives more into philosophical musings and thus lets the reader forget the cute naivité of 'scientific' spaceflight from the early 20th century. I came out liking it a lot and will continue with the series.

The next book in the Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold, The Warrior's Apprentice was okay, but still couldn't trigger the same enthusiasm I felt about her two Chalion books.

With my boys I finished The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, which was fun. I loved the crazy premise and how Gaiman took advantage of the setting.

And my oldest read Momo by Michael Ende to me, which was lovely. I've never read it myself as a child and I was glad when his teacher picked it as homeschooling read. The topic of leading a quality life vs leading a productive and time-saving life is as up-to-date as ever. One doesn't feel that this book is already nearly 50 years old. We both loved it.

Since I was so excited about this month's group read I read books 2 and 3 The Philosopher Kings and Necessity by Jo Walton. All three make for a fantastic series which I loved nearly every page of (in the second book was a bit dragging after half time). The way she brought Plato's ideas and Sokrates in person to life is just so cool. The series became a very dear favourite of mine.

Last one I finished was 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson, which was both great (worldbuilding, society, characters) and disappointing (plot), so that it ended up in the middle rating. But I'm already eager to read his next book. No other author gives me the feeling to have learned so many new things after closing the book.

And now I hopefully will finish some of the books I've started reading but got distracted by everything else along the way … ^^'

Lavinia, This Is How You Lose the Time War, Fool's Errand and The Master and Margarita

I loved Momo when I read it about 25 years ago. I liked it even more than the Neverending Story. I keep trying to get my son to let me read it to him, but I’m afraid he’s forgotten too much German for such a complex book. 😒

I just read This is how you win the Time War and loved it. And I just started Lavinia, so hopefully we can have some good conversation about those 2!

@Diane: there seems to be an English translation for Momo.

@Elowen: I've heard that John Boyne's holocaust children books also are very flawed. So it seems a good idea to give his YA a wide berth.

I'm re-reading The Stand for probably the 5th time in the past 10 years. Just finished Invisible Monsters. That was one heck of a book!

Just finished Orion Shall Rise by Poul Anderson. It started out very slow and I was afraid I wouldn't like it. But it quickly turned very interesting. It's a post nuclear war story dealing with a lot of remnant populations. He really got me into the heads of both the villains and the heroes and those in between.

@Gabi, yes, but we have a copy in German already! I’m hoping he’s going to go to a secondary school where they offer German and that it will come back. He was fluent before we came here!

I forgot to mention that I really enjoyed Out of the Silent Planet when I read it 20 or so years ago. I also read Perelandra, which I liked even better, but I still haven’t read the 3rd book in the series. If you let me know well in advance I could try and finish it around the same time as you! 🤣

I have completed Dan Simmons, Endymion. A solid three, if not 3.5 stars. Takes place in the same "universe/worlds" of Hyperion, but truly is the beginning of a new tale of two books. I believe it is not necessary to have read the Hyperion books, but it helps.

Onto the final book, The Rise of Endymion.

Elowen wrote: "Yes, I read a few articles about it recently, by Jewish scholars and Auschwitz survivors. They mentioned the thing that made me wonder when I saw the film. Why does the boy talk about the "Fury"? I..."

I assumed it was because he was a child and it was his interpretation of Fuhrer.

Gods of Pangaea by John C. Wright

Anna wrote: "After I read somewhere that it's going to be a trilogy of trilogies, meaning this trilogy will just be the beginning of the story, I gave up hope of anyone alive today still being alive when the se..."

I bounced off the first book.

I finished 2312, another profoundly interesting work by the deeply intelligent, wonderfully humane Kim Stanley Robinson. It’s quite jam packed with tons of ideas, at times perhaps too many ideas, but it confirms his status as a masterful writer of credible future histories.

After spending time in an SF milieu, I was in the mood to read something dealing with magic, and picked up The Ten Thousand Doors of January, but I could tell that its narrator’s voice — a first person account by a young girl — was a voice that would be unfavorably overshadowed by my recent enjoyment of the impeccably written Among Others. I’ll return to that book after I’ve had more distance from Among Others.

Instead, I decided to join in the group’s official reread of The Golem and the Jinni, and I’m enjoying it a lot in the early going.

Overall, I’m happy to be in a good reading rhythm again. For the first couple of weeks of the upheaval of our new normal, I had a hard time concentrating on reading, but that phase has thankfully given way to a fertile period.

Just finished "The Stars my Destination" by Alfred Bester. It was written in 1956 and is a forerunner to much of the best modern Science fiction.

Currently reading "A little hatred" by Joe Abercrombie.

Brick Marlin, Have you ever read "Swans Song" by Robert Mccammon ?

Anthony, yes, Among Others then Ten Thousand Doors would be too hard. I'm glad you're enjoying Golem and the Jinni! I thought that was beautiful.

Don, how is A Little Hatred? I keep thinking of adding it to a poll but then idk it doesn't grab me and I keep going back and forth.

Anthony wrote: "Instead, I decided to join in the group’s official reread of The Golem and the Jinni, and I’m enjoying it a lot in the early going."

Wait, there's an official re-read of this?! I've got it sitting on my shelf!

Finished The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi a couple of days ago. Gave it 4⭐️. I like this one better than The Collapsing Empire. I liked the characters better in this one. I know they’re the same ones from the first book but I didn’t feel anything for them in the first one but in this one I gave a damn about them. I’ve sourced The Last Emperox and will start it when I feel like reading from my iPad again.

I would like to join the Golem and the Jinni read but I left it at the Beach I think so it will be a while before I can get it.

I did pick up Stephen King’s newie, If It Bleeds, yesterday. One of them has the bird out of The Outsider in it so I might read that first.

Friendses, I would like some advice, please.

I'm reading The Rage of Dragons. I'm about 20% in and I'm finding it tedious af. Is there about to be something that blows my mind or do I basically know what happens from here and shouldn't expect any large shifts in writing style or plot?

Don wrote: "Well! There's a rumor that the final volume of the Kingkiller trilogy is going to be available August of 2020. Does anyone care at this point ? I vaguely remember Name of the Wind being above avera..."

Should this give me hope for a firm release date for The Winds of Winter?

Don wrote: "Just finished "The Stars my Destination" by Alfred Bester. It was written in 1956 and is a forerunner to much of the best modern Science fiction."

One of my all-time favorites.

RJ from the LBC wrote: "Don wrote: "Well! There's a rumor that the final volume of the Kingkiller trilogy is going to be available August of 2020. Does anyone care at this point ? I vaguely remember Name of the Wind being..."

The 12th......of Never hahaha

I saw somewhere that Patrick R had finished the 3rd one ages ago but it was only a 3 star read in his opinion so he wasn't taking it to the publisher until he'd made it better.

@ RJ from the LBC, GRRM has given me 1.77 million words of pure pleasure and pain, if the man never wrote another word, I am grateful. The Story of Fire and Ice is vast enough that IT could be weaving its own pattern through GRRM so... it drops when it drops.
When it come to wrapping IT up, sometimes even Great writers struggle my best example:
The Stand, this great character driven epic goes out with a whimper/ Deus ex Machina.

Jacqueline, the problem I have with the Kingkiller story is, the story took me at top speed to a cliffhanger and left me there for
forever or a decade or so. Don't even know at this point.

If The Winds of Winter never gets printed, Tyrion and Brienne of Tarth get to live forever!

Things I've finished recently:

Wow, No Thank You.. A great humorous break. There were one or two sections were it was just okay, but mostly this was hilarious. The author narrates the audiobook, so bonus points for that. I always feel like that works well with humor since they know what they were going for.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. I really liked the immortality Groundhog Day, and I would have loved to have seen more of the whole kalachakra society. Harry himself was kind of boring and not really convincing in a few parts.

The Left Hand of Darkness. So glad I reread this. I picked up on a ton of things this second time around that I must have just glossed over the first time. Particularly the whole discussion of love for one's country.

Finna: Poems. Poetry! That I actually liked!

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. 100% recommend. This is the perfect blend of quirky, fun, and creepy. I am now on a mission to read more by this author. Also, I listened to the audiobook version and I highly recommend it, the narrator does such a fantastic job.



Currently reading:

The Library of Legends. Book of the Month book. I'm about a quarter of the way in and enjoying the historical with a touch of magical.

Stand Up, Yumi Chung!. Some middle grade fiction that I'm nominally reading for my job. It's about a young Korean-American girl who wants to be a comedian. Great so far.

Bird Cottage. Picked this up for free on Netgalley. It's based around a real person, so that's fascinating. Also makes me wish I knew more about birds.

Network Effect. Still reading on this! I'm about halfway though and it is utterly amazing, but somehow it got pushed away to make time for books with "deadlines". Hoping to get back to serious reading on this soon.

Deathless Divide. This was has definitely been backburnered in favor of other books. Although I'm over halfway through so I should just finish it and stop letting it linger.


...
With all this time to look at books and talk about books and read books I find myself starting or trying to start way too many books! I also have several other books that I've started and just read the first few chapters of. I have zero reading discipline.

Diane wrote: "forgot to mention that I really enjoyed Out of the Silent Planet when I read it 20 or so years ago. I also read Perelandra, which I liked even better, but I still haven’t read the 3rd book in the series. If you let me know well in advance I could try and finish it around the same time as you! 🤣 ..."

LOL! I am able to read slowly when I'm reading with somebody else ;). "Watchmen" nearly worked, didn't it? ;)
I'll let you know when I get to the third book, Diane.

My plan for finishing one of my started-and-abandonned reads already got crushed ^^'. While scrolling through my kindle looking for those books I stumbled over the next Jo Walton ... well ...

I just realized I haven't been following this thread.... *doh* There's no way I'll be able to catch-up. So I apologize if anyone has already posted about this:

I just wanted to drop by and let everyone know that Steven Erikson (author of the Malazan series) is writing a novella at the rate of one page a day, and posts each handwritten page on his facebook, so fans can read it in real time. I'm enjoying it a lot and it gives me something to look forward to every day.

Allison wrote: "Friendses, I would like some advice, please.

I'm reading The Rage of Dragons. I'm about 20% in and I'm finding it tedious af. Is there about to be something that blows my mind or d..."

I don't think you'll find that book worth your time. The MC is a bit dim. There are a couple of cool things for setting & magic but most of the story is reactionary. The book blurb talks more about where the story takes place than is really discussed within the story. I thought the story was okay but I'm super over stories being emphasized as great because they are _____ ethnicity or used ______ influences in their writing. Please write a great story that holds up without the person's race/sex/age/etc being talked about first. I want the story to be awesome. It would be cool if the writer is also awesome but that's not one of my requirements.

Jordan, can you go more into why you enjoyed The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires? I loved the intro, immediately went to recommend it to a friend because of the writing & humor and then I had to run & tell her not to read it because it turned into the kind of story she would have hated. lol

I grew up in the area this story is suppose to take place in and the story could take place in any small town, southern area. Sure, it named a few streets and well known objects but anyone can get that from a map.

The story went from a solid 4 star to 2 stars for story for me.

Blindsight #1 was great! I loved the weird tech world and quirky main character. Ending was predictable but the journey was a fun ride! Lots of thought provoking threads & definitely strange interactions with aliens that are actually strange. I'm looking forward to reading Echopraxia #2.

Shorefall #2 was one of the best middle books I've read in a while. I had mixed feelings about Foundryside #1 and I wasn't sure how I would react to this one. A lot of the elements that were established in book 1 were taken, expanded and then shot out into a crazy series of events that made the whole book exciting. I think you have to enjoy the world & characters established in the first book to really get into this one. I don't have a favorite character but I do enjoy the way magic/tech is used. I enjoyed the way details & scenes were linked together into multi-layered themes & plot lines. I am worried that the plot has become too large to be concluded well in the next book.

Zoe's Tale #4 turned out to be a wonderful coming of age story within the Old Man's War world. It's hard to appreciate without the previous books leading up to this one. I teared up two times! I loved it and it's the kind of feel good story I loved reading as a kid.

Those are the ones worth mentioning out of the batch I read recently. Otherwise, I am taking my time reading & listening to The Circle of Ceridwen and planning on starting the Sleeping Giants later today.