SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I also looked at the beginning of Gehenna and I'll be honest, I don't know if I'll ever start it :S

If Gehenna is anything like the other two Cherryh novels I’ve read, she does a weird thing of infodumping in the first chapter and then settles in. It can be off-putting but in the case of both novels, I wound up really loving them. Don’t be scared!

Elowen wrote: "@Allison: I'd say And I Darken isn't particularly YA in tone, especially as it recounts Lada and Radu's life from the day they are born. I've reached the part where there's some teen romance but it..."

I also don't get too many YA vibes from the Kiersten White books because her characters are so tortured and 'real'. I read The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by her and it seemed to bring up that atmosphere of medieval Germany quite well as the struggle of the female characters. I read also Mind Games and it was packing a punch with all the feels too.

Allison wrote: "I've been off warcrack for 10 years now haha"

I was playing this for while but couldn't really stick to it for long. Too much of a time sink, I guess.

Anna wrote: "I also looked at the beginning of Gehenna and I'll be honest, I don't know if I'll ever start it :S"

LOL! Feel you. My reaction with every single Cherryh book I've read so far: re-reading of the first chapters 2 to 3 times since I constantly phase out; up to around halftime I just let it flow cause her prose can't get me involved with the characters anyway, accompanied by the promise to myself to not read another Cherryh; from halftime I can concentrate better and start thinking that perhaps I should pick up one more book after this one just to be sure :D.

But wait, Gabi! Wasn't it your nom? :D

yup, cause I knew that a lot others like her.

Anthony wrote: "If Gehenna is anything like the other two Cherryh novels I’ve read, she does a weird thing of infodumping in the first chapter and then settles in. It can be off-putting but in the case of both nov..."

Yeah, Gehenna is pretty much this as well. You get a ton of everything thrown at you and then you settle down into the actual story. If you can make it past the first intro parts to where they actually get to the planet, things smooth out a lot in terms huge dumps of info and terms. If you've read some of the other books, it probably makes the beginning easier though, but it does get better either way!

Cherryh's definitely hit-or-miss for me. I liked, and came very close to loving Fortress in the Eye of Time and Downbelow Station, hated Hammerfall, and enjoyed almost everything about Foreigner except its main character, who drove me straight up a wall. (Eighteen books' worth of this guy? No way!) :D

On to a read book! A Curious Beginning (audio) was a nice, low-impact read. It's categorized as a mystery, though there isn't much mystery to it. The best part is the dialogue between its leads. There's a lot of bickering, and some amount of risque' repartee, but no sex or romance. A fun book! (review)

After listening to the first fifteen minutes of two or three books in my audio library, it looks like the next one will be Persuasion, the last of Austen's novels I have yet to read.

Almost done with "Comanche Moon" Almost gave it up when, as torture they cut away a man's eyelids. I walked away for a bit, then moved on with the book.

Why do some folk get worked up about "info dumping", if it's done with skill, I don't mind it.

Ah, but if it's done with skill, how can it be obtrusive enough that people will notice and call it info-dumping?

is "info dump" only the phrase when it is done badly?

Info dump is when it's like all at once in your face. I...have yet to see that done well, outside of Star Wars, I guess, where it's never done well, but it's iconic and we're all reading the scrolling script too fast to realize how bad this is for storytelling.

In a book? Miss me with that ish. I want the world meted out over time, only having exposition when I wouldn't understand something in context, and only in a way that the character would be thinking about it. But I'm super picky, I'm learning.

Already very happily immersed in Exhalation by Ted Chiang, and muuuuch happier reading Memory Called Empire via audiobook.

Don wrote: "is "info dump" only the phrase when it is done badly?"

It's generally exposition when done well.

TY

I was going to ask for a recommendation (in that group area) but I can't figure out how to phrase a question that fits into a genre.

Read the Following Books Recently:
- The Philosopher's Flight #1 by Tom Miller
- Children of God #2 by Mary Doria Russell
- The Watchmaker of Filigree Street & The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley

Genre-wise they're a mix of Alternative History, SF, & UF.

All of them have a great story, rich setting and complex characters that I enjoyed getting to know. I tried looking up books that were recommended in relation to the books and that was mostly a fail. The Binding by Bridget Collins looks interesting and I'll try that at some point.

Oh! Murderbot also fits the vibe of the books above.

Anyways, if anyone can recommend a good book that is like those above, let me know. =D

cue the Empires theme!

A US Navy warship has successfully tested a new high-energy laser weapon that can destroy aircraft mid-flight, the Navy's Pacific Fleet said in a statement Friday.

I still want flying cars though.

I like the way this author does unusual things like making book four in a series a prequel! It works too.
My review of In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

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

Phrynne, I guess a prequel in that order is unusual but if takes us to someplace worth going, why not.

Just picked or repicked up "Heart Shaped Box" by Joe Hill hyphen King.

Heart-Shaped Box is a good one Don!

I finished:


The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2019 Edition edited by Rich Horton
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


The Howling Man by Charles Beaumont

This collection was published in 1992 but most of the stories originally saw print in the 1950s and early 1960s, with a few published posthumously (Beaumont died in 1967). Beaumont was famous for his scripts for the original Twilight Zone series, and many of his stories were adapted as episodes of the series.

Last night I finished Song of the Beast by Carol Berg, which I enjoyed quite a lot even though it was my least favorite of the 8 books I’ve now read by her. It was a satisfying epic fantasy story told in less than 500 pages with a slightly different take on dragons than I’ve read before and a likeable (and much abused!) main character. It held my interest well, but I never quite reached that can’t-put-it-down state that all her other books have taken me to. My longer review.

Today I started Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler.

I finished a short one but a good one:


The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

RJ, I re-read Salem's Lot last year - I loved Stephen King books as a teen, but didn't read any for some years. It was an interesting experience, reading a book again with so many years in between. I'm curious to read your opinion on it. Are you reading it for the first time?

Salem's Lot was excellent but not before bedtime.

Just finished "Comache Moon" by Larry McMurtry. I survived !

Don wrote: "Salem's Lot was excellent but not before bedtime."

Agreed!

For years, I have been wanting to finish off series that I started, as well as go through the works of various authors who I loved to read growing up. So that is what I am doing currently.

I'm working on finishing the Thomas Covenant Series by Stephen R. Donaldson. I'm currently on "Power that Preserves" which is the 3rd book of the First Chronicles.

Another series that I wanted to read in its entirety was Dennis L. McKiernan's "Mithgar" series. I read his Iron Tower Trilogy and Silver Call Duology, back when it was contemporary, and now I wanted to read the rest of that series. So I am reading "The Dragonstone."

On top of all this I am reading the collected short stories of both Frank Herbert and Roger Zelazny.

So that's what I am reading on top of other things, currently, but those are my Sci-Fi/Fantasy books.

I read Salem's Lot for the first time recently and it was a lot of fun!

I'm currently still working through my LOTR re-read: I've actually finished the story itself but am determined to read right through the appendices at the end of The Return of the King. It's my third read of the series but I've only ever picked randomly at the appendices so it's interesting how much more I'm learning all of a sudden lol

When I was about 16 I read Salem's Lot and Amityville Horror back to back. We were camping in the caravan in my Aunts back yard near the beach at the time. It was after Christmas. Dad had gone home to work so there was just me and Mum and my best friend staying there during the week. Anyhoo I ended up in bed with Mum and my friend (who didn't read them) said she wasn't going to be left up the other end of the van by herself so we ended up with all three of us in a small double caravan bed. Yeahhhh it was the last time I read horror books before bed lol

I started listening to it in the car a couple of months ago but the audio on the copy I had sucked on the car stereo so I'll have to listen to it another time when I'm not driving over noisy roads.

Ines wrote: "RJ, I re-read Salem's Lot last year - I loved Stephen King books as a teen, but didn't read any for some years. It was an interesting experience, reading a book again with so many years in between...."

Wow! I didn't expect such a reaction to Salem's Lot. Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Yes this is my first time reading it. I've only read a couple of King's books, Carrie and The Gunslinger. From everyone's reaction it sounds like I picked a good one.

By the way, I also started reading (group read for a different group):


A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I love it, when a cosmic connection shows itself in my reading choices :D.

I listened to The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, because I'm going through the books that are available to me on storytel.
Not only was it a perfect, melancholic, soul touching and deeply relatable tale about childhood hardships and friendship (and my favourite of this author so far), but in his acknowledgements the author thanked among others Cornelia Funke whose absolutely fantastic Inkspell I'm reading aloud at the moment and whom I am so grateful to have discovered this way, and he thanked Maria Dahvana Headley an author whom I discovered through this group and whose prose is outstanding to me. I always wanted to read another one of her books so I took this acknowledgement as a wink of fate and went for the one that is available on storytel. Magonia is a YA novel with the typical YA ingredients but with the bold take of Headley who turns it into a sparkling firework with surrealistic layers in her raw and poetic prose. I was mesmerized.

So, an acknowledgement wove together three 5star books for me. I love cosmic harmony :D.

@Elowen: no, I don't know the film. All I heard about it was that Cornelia Funke apparently wrote Meggie's father with Brendan Fraser in mind. But that could be an urban myth:D

Elowen wrote: "@Gabi: Have you seen the Inkheart film? I wonder how similar the storyline is to the book. I can't remember much of it, except that it didn't make me want to read the book, but I've come across qui..."

I liked the film but it didn't fulfil its potential. The book had some wonderful ideas but I found the writing style very heavy going so didn't continue.

Esther wrote: "liked the film but it didn't fulfil its potential. The book had some wonderful ideas but I found the writing style very heavy going so didn't continue.."

The writing style is what has me in awe actually. I've seldom read a book for younger readers written in such a beautiful prose and well thought structure. The contrast was especially stark since I came from the "his dark materials" trilogy.
But apparently the translation isn't done so well. I read some reviewers complaining about the curse words and there isn't a single one in the original.

The Brendan Fraser thing is true as far as I know and I very much hated the movie, mostly because of Brendan Fraser 😐

I finished:


Arm of the Sphinx by Josiah Bancroft
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


Death's Master by Tanith Lee

I am reading "Gideon the Ninth. i started it because I'm trying to get through the Nebula nominees, and for some reason it's was the first book I choose.
No Spoilers.
This is a strange mix of SF and Fantasy, and I'm really liking it. I'm not thrilled it's the first book of a trilogy, but I think worth the trouble.

Dana, check out our Gideon buddy read thread! :)

Recent reads in May that I highly recommend:

Crown of Feathers
Frankissstein: A Love Story
The Last Mortal Bond - recommend this trilogy as a whole!
The House in the Cerulean Sea

Jemppu has pointed out a "callused hands" motif in a number of updates, and now I can't unsee it. It's everywhere!

Beth wrote: "Jemppu has pointed out a "callused hands" motif in a number of their updates, and now I can't unsee it. It's everywhere!"

I'm interested, but I don't understand whose updates refer to callused hands. Jemppu's? A third party's?

Jemppu's updates point out callouses haha

I agree, Beth, I also can't unsee it. You're always in our thoughts, Jemina!

Sorry, I guess that wasn't clear. Jemppu's updates.

My own current example is from Uprooted: "...the long graceful lines of his fingers closed around my hand, the warm callused tips brushing my wrist."

And two or three others recently, from completely unrelated books. It must be an easy default for an author to use when a character is touching somebody else's hand.

I've always assumed it's supposed to stress that the character is a man or woman of action, combat or manual labor.

I'm reading Fools and Mortals at the moment, which is entertaining so far - told from the perspective of Shakespeare's younger brother, who's stuck in playing girl parts due to his pretty face. It's turning into a thriller/mystery at the moment, in which young Shakespeare will probably need all his acting and fencing abilities. Seems well-researched, and very untypical for Bernard Cornwell, who usually writes such gruff, manly books about manly men fighting wars, not about androgynous actors and their gay friends playing fairies (they're rehearsing Midsummer Night's Dream). Warning: the humor is very baudy and crude (but historically accurate about this group of people).

I am currently reading Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ. In a chapter on gut bacteria and the nutrients they produce was this passage:

One character who probably had problems producing haem was Count Dracula. A genetic defect has been identified in his home country, Romania, that results in symptoms that include a lack of tolerance to garlic, sensitivity to sunlight, and the production of red urine. This urine discoloration is caused by a defect in blood production that means sufferers excrete the unfinished precursors of blood production. Nowadays, those affected by the condition--called porphyria--are given medical treatment rather than the starring role in a horror story.

🧛‍♂️

Huh! Today I learned

Among Others was a recent DNF for me but I might give it another chance in the future. I started rereading The Fifth Season last week. Bad timing with the upcoming reread but I will follow the discussion anyway, once it starts!