SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Elowen, are those very YA-in-tone? I'm interested to try Kiersten White but also a bit put off by the marketing around her.

Also, I would absolutely read a book called Tram Hunting, even though I knew what you meant and didn't even note it at the time haha!

I'd heard mixed things about Cyteen, really hoping 40k in Gehenna wins so I have a decision made about which Cherryh book to read first!

@Allison I believe that Cherryh is a tough one for some to like, but from what I can tell, when people love her work (as I do and as Jo Walton does) we really love it. With both of her novels, I was totally captivated, but some people bounce off of them, hard. You never know... At any rate, she’s a major writer with a massive, influential body of work, and in my mind deserves to be better represented on our shelf.

As for me, my recent string of 5-star reads came crashing to earth with The Ten Thousand Doors of January, which many folks around here loved, but which increasingly drove me nuts with its twee pretentiousness. I’m frankly amazed it’s nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula this year, but on the other hand, many people love it, so it’s clearly a kind of allergic reaction on my part.

Anthony wrote: "@Allison I believe that Cherryh is a tough one for some to like, but from what I can tell, when people love her work (as I do and as Jo Walton does) we really love it. With both of her novels, I wa..."

I'm really fond of her fantasy books as well as her scifi

The Chanur series is excellent scifi
The Morgaine series is excellent fantasy
The Faded Sun Trilogy is excellent scifi

Allison wrote: "Elowen, are those very YA-in-tone? I'm interested to try Kiersten White but also a bit put off by the marketing around her.

Also, I would absolutely read a book called Tram Hunting, even though I ..."

I did like the two books I read by Kiersten White but other people's reviews are quite divided usually.

I overall enjoyed Downbelow Station. I read it years ago so my memory of it is a bit hazy, but as I recall my primary complaint about it was the depiction of the aliens. Somehow that felt off to me, but it was awhile ago so I don't remember details, just the impression.

So I finished two books just recently and One was great and one was a dud as far as I was concerned. The Great Book was a recommendation and I am finding that the individual that recommended it can keep on doing so. That book was:
Aftershocks

Here is the review:
An amazing book that seems to start in the middle of the story. Because of that, there is a lot of back and forth in what came before with what is going on now. The book follows a number of main characters from different backgrounds with different goals and agendas. It is well written and the characters and the worlds in which they conduct themselves are very well presented.

If there is anyone problem with the book it is that it isn't written as a stand-alone. This is part of a series and there is no doubt about it. Looking forward to the next book and hope it keeps the flow going.

The second book was a recommendation from Kindle Unlimited based on other books I have read. I understand the why of the recommendation but it fell short of expectations.

Captain Hawkins
Here is the review:
At the beginning, I expected good things from this book and ended up disappointed. The Main Character, in fact, the only real character in the book isn't developed to a great extent and is a Wunderkin. There is really pretty much nothing he can't do, and even when he is set back he always comes out of every situation better off than when he went into it. It reads more like a tedious list of a braggart than a space action-adventure, I was saddened by the book more than excited by it.

I am rereading The Lonesome Dove Series BUTT I am reading them in order....very excited as Lonesome Dove is one of my Desert Island Dooks .

well read the whole J R Ward brotherhood series in the last few weeks, i get so depressed when i finish a series

so to cheer me up i have started Janet Evanovitch Stephanie plum series again. read it years ago and started it a few months ago, one book between each SCi fi/ fantasy series seems balanced

i laugh all the way through her books

next i think i will be enticed to read a Cherryh series. i ahve all the books but so focused on kindle for the past 5 years . it must be many years since i read her stuff, back in the 80's.

I just finished listening to The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley. It follows on from The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. I thought both books were really good - hard to specify their genre, sort of fantasy with a measure of steampunk - fun anyway!

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

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street books are a bit like alternative history fiction with a pinch of magic. I need to read #2. =)

Soo wrote: "The Watchmaker of Filigree Street books are a bit like alternative history fiction with a pinch of magic. I need to read #2. =)"

That's a good description Soo:)

Despite all of my reading plans, challenges, and lists for the year, I find myself re-reading

I first read this book (twice) when I was a teen, and I'm finding a lot more to appreciate twenty-odd years later. I remembered it being dense and hard to get through but now I'm finding that I'm really fascinated by all of the geographic details and the history of the world.

I finished:


Head On by John Scalzi
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Allison asked for my opinion on 'Upright Women Wanted' and I finally got around to writing a review (Murderbot got in the way):
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I just finished 'Network Effect' and will be reading Luna: New Moon next, because I want to do some research for our upcoming sci-fi larp.

And in between all that, I read Parasol Protectorate 2-4.

I can understand that Krystal. I probably would too if I’d brought any Harry Potter with me. It’s my goto for confusing times or whenever I’m feeling down. I have a lot of sorting to do this week and I do have the HP audiobook on my computer so I might listen to that. I wouldn’t want to listen to something I haven’t read before since I might miss stuff. I listened to Hitchhikers Guide while packing to move 8 years ago. Same thing. If I missed any it didn’t matter.

I’ve settled on Network Effect to eye read on the iPad. I gave up on The Outsider by Stephen King. I’ve been going along slowly (just haven’t felt like reading really even though I’ve been trying) and put it down this week. Well I didn’t give up exactly. I’m going to be by myself this week and I don’t want to read any horror stuff. Network Effect, Aurora Burning and The Girl and the Stars ( I have also read a little of this one too but I was only reading at night and then dreaming about things like the things that happened in the first bit) have been sitting there and calling to me all week so I brought Aurora and TGATS and my iPad which has Murderbot on it and that’s it. If I finish them the iPad does have around 2000 books on it but I’m not going there unless I have to.

Actually I do have other books here thinking about it. I have a few Cherryh and the rest of Mums books and all of my books from 3 moves ago and before. Have to pack them not read them though. No use getting distracted. Oh and I bought The No1 Ladies Detective Agency yesterday along with the first 3 Sookie Stackhouse books in an omnibus. That one was only $2. The three separate would have been at least $6 each. I love the $2 bin at that second hand bookshop. I’ve picked up some crackers.

Just finished "Network Effect" by Martha Wells and enjoyed it. Currently reading "Deadmans Walk" by Larry McMurtry which ranges from laughter to terror.
It deals a good bit with the settlement of Texas and points west and The Comache (North American version of The Spartans) doing a lot of Unsettling.

I re-read all of the Murderbot novellas while waiting for the novel to be available from my library, and now am re-reading KJ Charles historical paranormals. Yay, comfort reading. Oh, and I just downloaded the audiobook of Soulless - I've read it twice, but never listened to it. Anna, I blame you for making me want to read that again instead of anything new!

I have been working on Three Body Problem, though, with hopes of finishing it in the next 12 hours.

I feel like you can never go wrong with Parasol Protectorate. It's a comfort read - like the mac'n'cheese of books.

lol Kaa, I hope you like the audio! The first book has a wrong pronunciation of Lord Akeldama's name, so it changes in the second book. And of course many of the names are pronounced differently in the other series, read by other narrators.

I read a couple that didn't work so well for me:

The Bard's Blade. I was looking for a cozy fantasy read, which is how I saw some folks describing this one. But the characters felt flat, and the plot seemed to me like it was stitched awkwardly together.

Tyll. I can fully understand why many admire this novel, but for me it read like an author peacocking his own cleverness, which made the humor seem more annoying than funny.

Also two really fantastic non-SFF novels:

Shiner. Set in the rural Appalichain mountains, with an amazing heroine and telling a story that felt huge and intimate at the same time.

The Prettiest Star. About a gay man dying of AIDS in 1984 who returns home to rural Ohio -- as difficult as it was to read I totally fell in love with the nuanced, fully realized characters.

I loved Tyll! Perhaps it is the translation? I didn't get the feeling of show off writing.

I'm back at work since a week now, so my eye read time is again limited. Here are the last stayhome mass readings I did:

The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf with my classics group. An early Swiss horror novel. It was quite good and creepy, brought back fond childhood memories (my best friend was from Switzerland and I stayed as often as possible with her) and had me giggling, cause in my edition there was a Swiss word explained in brackets with the German word. Looked funny.

Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn also was a group read. A rather strong Hawai'ian coming of age story about estrangement, cultural identity and struggling for one's place in the family. It is told from 4 POVs (3 sibblings and the mother) and instantly sucked me in with its authentic vernacular prose.

Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm I read in my neverending quest of reading all the novel award winners (since I list more and more awards there is no end in sight) and it was a positive surprise. Kate Wilhelm has a psychological take on her character development which made this postapocalyptic story better than I was expecting.

The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold was my next Vorkosigan book where I couldn't connect. I will be skipping some books now and have a look if later installments in this series are more to my liking.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead was rather a quirk of the moment as I read that he won the Pulitzer Prize a second time. Like his Underground Railroad this book is based on facts and told in his matter-of-factly voice that makes the depiction of the cruelties that much more poignant.

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester was another Hugo award reason reading. As with "The Stars my Destination" I loved it. Bester is much more to my liking than most of his more talked of fellow contemporary SF writers.

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips was a GR sidebar recommendation that really worked. I was recommended it because I loved "The Overstory" (still the best book I've read this year) and it was spot on. The story structure is experimental, a mosaic story with a new POV in each chapter, none of them twice. The chapters work as open end short stories subtly connected by a crime that occurs in the first chapter. I was absolutely fascinated and couldn't lay it down.

For the TBR clean up challenge I read The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume XI: The Nail and the Oracle, from the years where his life was in turmoil and his writing output sparse and not very mentionable. Only 3 of the short stories herein reminded me of the Sturgeon I love. But the long foreword by Harlan Ellison is already worth it. He was the one who also brought Sturgeon into the Star Trek writing team.

Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin was rather average for me. There was too much retelling of the Aeneid and even though her take on Lavinia remembered me in parts of her Tenar from the Earthsea books I found the topic of female emancipation there better realised. (Or I'm just no type for re-tellings? I was bored by the Achilles book as well)

Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky was a solid end time scenario novella set in Western Africa with a cool trio of characters. But for the author more on the average side.

Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb then was the book where Hobb's and my way finally part. ^^' I'm simply no fan of her style of too many explanations and too drawn out plots. The plot in this book i.e. started around page 220 (no kidding).

Eden by Tim Lebbon started promising with a strong "Annihilation" vibe as a group of extreme athletes enter a forbidden natural reserve zone. Yet at half time it turns into splatter horror with little subtlety which was a dissappoinment. (Not fair perhaps, since it is meant as a horror novel, but I preferred the creepy beginning much more).

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was Murakami-tastic! Surrealism, weird dialogues, crazy side characters (of course every woman is beautiful as always ;)), some ugly gory scenes (Manchuria crisis) and your average MC who stumbles through the story without any chance of self determination. Simply glorious.

And with Penric's Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold I started the novella series of Penric who is possessed by a twelvefold demon (10 women, a lioness and a mare). Funny, cute and with the LMB typical great characterisation and witty dialogue.

Gabi wrote: "I loved Tyll! Perhaps it is the translation? I didn't get the feeling of show oft writing."

Uhhh, that's a lot of reading!!! :)

And it is entirely possible it was the translation. Or at least equal parts the translation and me.

@Gabi

I loved three of the books in your recent reading! The Wilhelm, the Murakami, and the Bujold (Penric's Demon).

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in particular is one of my favorites. I love how the chapter after the gory scenes you mention the title is something to the effect of "Nothing good happens in this chapter either".

Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang really captured my interest. I got a similar feeling reading Semiosis (another book on our shelf) as they both featured small groups of people trying to survive and form new social structures in a harsh setting.

As for my reading, I'm chugging along on Network Effect which is fine, but feels a lot less zippy than the novellas and I feel like I'm forcing myself to continue rather than enjoying the ride. I'm over 50% so I'll probably tough it out before starting The Ghost Bride.

Also trying to read some shorter stuff so I read "A Solitary Crane Circles Cold Mountain" by Gregor Hartman from the March/April issue of the Magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy. It was a solid story about trying to find the perfect social structure for a colony ship that also explored the technology of memory erasure. Nothing to seek out, but was interesting enough.

My review of The Down Days by Ilze Hugo

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

The last few books I finished were all part of the Snow Queen Cycle: The Snow Queen, World's End, and The Summer Queen. I enjoyed all of them, but struggled a bit with The Summer Queen which took me almost three weeks to read! Most of that was due to non-stop work, but some of it was due to the book as there were slow spots that I had trouble getting through without more time and energy to just focus and push through them.

I was drawn into the first book by the science fiction setting with a fantasy-ish feel. That fantasy feel fades away the further one reads, but I only grew more interested in the world-building. I liked some of the characters, enjoyed the story, and was especially interested in the sibyl concept. Explaining what a sibyl is isn’t a huge spoiler, but some elements aren’t revealed until quite a bit later in the first book, although they’re easily predicted from the very beginning. I’m going to spoiler tag the explanation to be safe: (view spoiler)[A sibyl is a person who’s been judged to have the correct mentality to be injected with a virus that allows them to tap into a computer system spanning worlds. People can ask a sibyl questions, and they use this computer system to provide answers. (hide spoiler)]

There was a lot to like, but there were some spots that I struggled through, as I mentioned earlier, and there was one character I particularly hated, not in the “love to hate” sort of way but in the “I don’t want to read about him” sort of way. I probably would have done better with the third book if I’d had more time to focus properly and didn’t keep getting interrupted by work whenever I picked up my Kindle. There’s a fourth book in the cycle, but it’s set during the first book. I decided I was ready to move on to new things, so I didn’t read that one.

My reviews:
Book 1 – The Snow Queen
Book 2 – World’s End
Book 3 – The Summer Queen

Now I’ve started Song of the Beast by Carol Berg. Judging by the 7 books I’ve read by her previously, I would rank her as one of my favorite authors. It’s too soon to say if this book will be as enjoyable to me as her others, but so far I’m enjoying it.

Just Finished "Dead Man's Walk".
It is a solid Rated R, no one under 17 allowed. Some scenes may cause seizures in tender hearted folk.
The humble and often terrified beginning's of Call and Augustus.
Strange footnote, in the book, when the Comanche Raiders captured someone and wanted to give them the Extra, extra torture death, they turned them over to the women of the tribe.

Onward to "Comanche Moon".

Don wrote: "Just Finished "Dead Man's Walk".
It is a solid Rated R, no one under 17 allowed. Some scenes may cause seizures in tender hearted folk.
The humble and often terrified beginning's of Call and Augus..."

There was a TV miniseries made in 1996 for that book.

The Philosopher's Flight #1 by Tom Miller was great! I picked up the audio a while back and finally got around to it. Great alternative history with a world that has alchemy in everyday use in hauling goods, rescue, healing and warfare. Women are the heroes and have more potential to become philosophers. Robert grew up learning & using philosophy since he was a kid. It's no surprise that he wants to be like his Mom and join the military's Rescue Corps as a philosopher. The narration was just right. The themes felt like a natural part of the story vs loudly proclaimed statements. I enjoyed getting to know Robert, his family and friends as he struggles to make his dream a reality. It was really good! Highly recommend.

Gabi wrote: "I loved Tyll! Perhaps it is the translation? I didn't get the feeling of show off writing.

I'm back at work since a week now, so my eye read time is again limited. Here are the las..."

I just started listening to the audio version of Penric's Demon. I'm right at the beginning, where he's in the hospice after having been infected with the personalities. There's not enough yet to go on to know if I like it. Do you feel really positive about it/involved, or is it just an interesting story?

@Tamara: it is not so much about the story but about the characters and their interactions. Especially the first novella has a wonderfully light tune that was like a refreshing breath after the more doom-and-gloom fantasy I've read before.

I read the first book in the 'St Mary's Chronicles' recently (time-travelling historians +). It was interesting, weird, entertaining, scary, violent in parts, with heartfelt elements, and had some unexpected romance-novel bits. I'm going to try the next couple and see what they're like (hopefully less of the latter). Is anyone else familiar with them, and how do you feel about them?

Gabi wrote: "@Tamara: it is not so much about the story but about the characters and their interactions. Especially the first novella has a wonderfully light tune that was like a refreshing breath after the mor..."

Okay; good to know. 'Light' is how I'd describe it so far. I do like the sardonic/dry, down-to-earth and genuine perspective of Penric. I need to listen to a lot more to really get a feel for it. I'm just not a huge fan of audiobooks, and less-motivated to listen to them, and for very long at a time. But it's nicely read.

We have a thread for the Penric series here! :)

And we also have a thread for the St. Mary's series here.

Tamara wrote: "I read the first book in the 'St Mary's Chronicles' recently (time-travelling historians +). It was interesting, weird, entertaining, scary, violent in parts, with heartfelt elements, and had some ..."

Yeah I gave the first one 3 stars. Years went so fast I didn't know where we were. I might read the second one someday just to see if they get any better. Maybe.

My review of Jack by Connie Willis


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

Jacqueline wrote: "Tamara wrote: "I read the first book in the 'St Mary's Chronicles' recently (time-travelling historians +). It was interesting, weird, entertaining, scary, violent in parts, with heartfelt elements..."

That weird "it's been 5 years" sudden jump in the middle of a page was annoying! Didn't make sense at all - apparently all this time has passed, and yet the characters are exactly where they were with each other before. She didn't show anything happening in those apparent 5 years, either. I eventually decided to act like it had never happened - it was actually all in a couple of years!

I borrowed the 2nd one today (first actual physical book for a while I've been able to get from a library!), so if I remember, I'll share how it went.

Yeah it was definitely weird. Hopefully the second one isn’t as annoying. One thing like that can drop a star for me.

I just came here to complain that I keep seeing Naomi Novik's Scholomance series on my feed about a magic school that kills you and it appears not to be related to World of Warcraft??

I think that's unfair. I'm weak in these times of pandemic and don't want nostalgia forced on me by something that WON'T EVEN HELP ME RECOVER.

Did you ban yourself from WoW? I decided to cut myself off from most gaming a while back in order to make time for other things. lol I mean, I still play some games but only things I can put down and pick up when I want.

I've been off warcrack for 10 years now haha

I only played WoW seriously on 2 runs that lasted several months each. I got up pretty high and quit to do other things. lol

Hm, probably around 10+ years now too! =D Since I've played.

Didn’t get involved with it. FarmVille is bad enough lol

Allison wrote: "I just came here to complain that I keep seeing Naomi Novik's Scholomance series on my feed about a magic school that kills you and it appears not to be related to World of Warcraft?? ..."

That took me way back. It's only been a few years since I stopped playing WoW but probably at least a decade since I last set foot in that dungeon. I'm not sure that I needed the reminder either.

Your post did prompt me to look into the origin of the name. I know that Blizzard lifted entire cultures out of our world and put them into WoW so I probably shouldn't have been surprised to see that Scholomance was taken wholesale from old Transylvanian folklore. Now I know. Thanks?

What I'm not getting is why so much of the other fiction that I see set in Scholomance is horror erotica. Weird.

I just started Luna: New Moon and it started off strong. The world seems intriguing, I'm really excited to learn more.

I've read two more novellas in the Penric and Desdemona series: Penric and the Shaman and Penric's Fox. The tone was not as light and fun as in the first one, but I liked the Shamans as new addition to the World of the Five Gods a lot. And now I'm waiting for folks in the BR thread to catch up before I dive into the next novella, cause it is always more fun to talk with somebody about the books.

Since "Shards of Honor" didn't make it in the last poll I had the feeling I should give the Vorkosigan saga another chance and read even more LMB. I jumped some volumes ahead and read Brothers in Arms, and fortunately I enjoyed it indeed more than the first Miles books. I still don't like this world as much as I like her Chalion world, but story and characters seemed more structured and tight here. So I will go on.

Another book that had no chance in the last poll was The Dazzle of Day. This was one of those books that catch my eye as I-need-to-read-them-now. To my luck this feeling worked so far in over 90% of the cases. Here as well. It is a quiet, poetic, yet simultaneously undetached narration in form of mosaic POVs. Everything one would expect front and center in an SF novel takes place in the background or off-screen. The novel concerns itself with the daily tasks and musings of a quaker community on board of a generation ship as it reaches their destined new home 150 years after them leaving Earth.

The Undefeated I read because I thought it would fit the "by a journalist or about a journalist" prompt of the popsugar challenge, but although it has some really good premises it somehow shows a quite unbalanced pace and left me wanting.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World was another good Murakami, yet not as great as other novels I read by him.

Since it won the BSFA award for shorter fiction I finally finished This Is How You Lose the Time War (plus this way it fits the "a book you wanted to read in 2019" prompt for the popsugar challenge). The first time last year I got stuck at 17% and gave up. This time I showed a better concentration and quite enjoyed the ride - until the last 10% where the narration changed its structure and I somehow got cranky, because I wanted another ending ^^'

Finally finished Deathless Divide. It was a four star read, compared to the five star first book. It was everything I loved from the first, just with some pacing issues. It also didn't help that for various reasons I ended up reading it over about four months.

I'm about a third of the way through Forty Thousand in Gehenna, which is Cherryh, so I'm of course enjoying it immensely. It's a bit different because it's so much more planet based than her other Alliance-Union books that I've read.

I also just started on the audio for Middlegame last night. I just need it and The City in the Middle of the Night to finish off the Hugo nominees. I only listened to the first fifteen minutes or so, but it's definitely an intriguing start.

Ines wrote: "I just started Luna: New Moon and it started off strong. The world seems intriguing, I'm really excited to learn more."

Check out the BR thread for the Luna series! It started when people were getting ready to read the final book, but it's OK to talk about any of the books in the series :)

@Jordan I started Forty Thousand in Gehenna and there was a fair amount of jargon right off the bat. Would I be expected to know many of these terms already if I had read other books in the series? Trying to decide whether I should do some research before going ahead or just continue on and try to absorb it as I go. I've read Downbelow Station, but it was long enough ago that I've forgotten many of the specifics.

I'd planned to read all the Hugo nominees, but I bounced off the first two I started: Gideon the Ninth and The Ten Thousand Doors of January so now I'm not sure whether I should bother.