SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

A reminder here that we're voting on books and authors to find the best of the 21st century! Nominations are closing soon, so if you have ideas, check out the rules and make your nominations here by the end of this weekend!

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

Jordan wrote: "I am STILL reading To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. I love the narration, but it's just so long and even though I'm something like halfway through I somehow feel like the main character ..."

Does Norwegian Wood have a Female Character with an apartment with no chairs and someone sleeping in the bathtub?
Just wondering.

MadProfessah wrote: "@stephan have you read the other VS Schwab books? Especially the 4 London fantasy series (A Conjuring of Ghosts?)"

Nope. It was my first one. It wasn't too bad. Would you say the others are the same, better, or worse?

This past week finished Mr. X Interviews by Luke Gromen and Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. Now starting The Size of Everything by Erin Cole. Mr. X Interviews is a really good book for people interested in economics and the geopolitical narrative driving the US and Global economy.

Greenlights is just a comical autobiography with some meaningful life lessons. Really enjoyable.

Just getting into Erin Cole. Really good memoir to put life in perspective if your feeling down and out.

The Four London trilogy by VS Schwab is pretty good, especially if you like epic fantasy.

I know other people like her other books as well

MadProfessah wrote: "The Four London trilogy by VS Schwab is pretty good, especially if you like epic fantasy.

I know other people like her other books as well"

I just started Ninth House. There's a part in chapter 1 that seems kinda dumb, but I'm going to keep reading to see how it goes lol.... I'll circle back around to The Four London Trilogy. Thanks for the recommendation.

I think Ninth House was written by Leigh Bardugo, not V. E. Schwab. Schwab’s most recent book was The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

Xavaqenia wrote: "I think Ninth House was written by Leigh Bardugo, not V. E. Schwab. Schwab’s most recent book was The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue."

Yup.

Stephan wrote: "Xavaqenia wrote: "I think Ninth House was written by Leigh Bardugo, not V. E. Schwab. Schwab’s most recent book was The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue."

Yup."
I’m sorry if I misunderstood where you were coming from. It seemed to me like you put the Shades of Magic Trilogy (the one with the four londons) and Ninth House with the same author, but I see now that I was wrong. Sorry about that!

Since I last posted in this thread I've read more of the Chrestomanci series which I find cute and now I only have one more full installment and the short stories book to finish it out.
I also read Horrorstör which was just kind of average but I love the fact that the physical copy is designed to look like an IKEA catalog.
After that I finished Forty Thousand in Gehenna which was a slow starter for me but by the time you get to the later generations became way more engrossing.
And the latest book I've finished is Vicious. It was a little dark but I really enjoyed it.

I love Chrestomanci! I still get mad when I think about how I learned as an adult that there were more books in the series! I only read the first one over and over as a kid :D

I can understand that. I'm just a bit sad I didn't know about them when I was younger and only came to them as an adult. This and The Worst Witch series I would have loved even more when I was the target age.

The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy? I'm going to see if I can find them for bedtime reading :)

Yeah that's the one. I saw the show on netflix and then bought the box set when I found out it was based on books! They're so cute and made me very angry I didn't read them when I was little. For an adult they're very short quick reads.

HeyT wrote: "Yeah that's the one. I saw the show on netflix and then bought the box set when I found out it was based on books! They're so cute and made me very angry I didn't read them when I was little. For a..."

Coulda been worse. You coulda been like me, going to Disney World for the first time in my 30s lol

Xavaqenia wrote: I’m sorry if I misunderstood where you were coming from. It seemed to me like you put the Shades of Magic Trilogy (the one with the four londons) and Ninth House with the same author, but I see now that I was wrong. Sorry about that!

---No worries. Not even a problem. You were just trying to be helpful. I was lazy. I didn't feel like writing out the authors names lol

doing some dual reading of some complex books:

The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan - this is a weird one set in a school for "handicapped" or whatever the current word is now children. it's a bit Clockwork Orange/Lord of the Flies -ish and is classified sometimes as fantasy or magical realism. It's truly weird and bounces back and forth in time
and
A Fire Upon the Deep - which has a lot of disjointed plot lines as well. I read the two very, very short threads on it in the old look Club reads, but it looks like it didn't get a lot of interest.

these are tough reds, so I threw in a light fantasy book as well: The Hero and the Crown

About a quarter of the way into Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson. It's her usual mix of African/Caribbean-inspired gods and ghosts in the mundane world and so far I'm finding it a little flat.

CBRetriever wrote: "doing some dual reading of some complex books:

The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan - this is a weird one set in a school for "handicapped" or whatever the current w..."

Gray House is worth it, hope you hang in there! A Fire Upon the Deep looks interesting - put it on my to read list. Thx

I'm about 11% through it and I am finding it quite interesting

Hello! Today we are starting Priest of Bones by Peter McLean, which is a gritty, almost-but-not-quite-grimdark gangster fantasy, for a buddy read here. Let me know if you are interested, and hop along for the ride. We’ll be going for a few weeks, so don’t worry if you can’t join right away.

I just went on a reading binge and read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, The Book Thief, The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper, and Witchmark all in like 10 days or something. It was a great binge.

(Editing to link the books)

hot damn. that IS a good binge!

I’m still here and alive!

Just finished Cage of Souls Adrian Tchaikovsky

Great read if I compare to some of my older post apocalyptic reads. Takes a different path, not pretending to know all the answers to a far future prediction. I like the acknowledgement that that far into the future, it’s not likely going to be humans who will inherit a dying a earth. That while remaining humans will surely continue with ‘tribal’ behavior, politics and hierarchical power structures, there will be a whole other sentient wild world evolving.

Sort of reminds of HG Wells The Time Machine, and there was a mention of the Morlocks although not sure if as referenced/related.

That said - I struggled with the slower pace in parts of the book, it’s long and tedious in some parts but got better and finally made sense of the full arc towards the second half.

Whew! 4th Adrain Tchaikovsky this year.

I just finished Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig. That was really something else. It probably helps if you enjoy weird stuff. Luckily I do.

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

I read a few Trade Paperbacks that I enjoyed, Middlewest, Book One and 2 as well as Outer Darkness, Vol. 1: Each Other's Throats. The former is a bit tough to describe, but seems like a metaphor for dealing with an abusive parent set in a world that resembles the Midwest of the early 1900's, but also with magic. Sounds weird, but the art is great. The latter is a combination of Star Trek and horror, with ships powered by demons and crews that include exorcists and mathematicians who can create wards. Been fun to read some comics in any case.

Also, to those who celebrate it, happy Thanksgiving!

Today is a national day of thanks in my country, and I like to take that time to recognize things and people I'm grateful for.

One of those things for the past few years has been this group, but even more so this year. In what has been the most challenging year in my life, you all have been a spot of brightness. I've loved seeing you share how you're getting through, the positivity, support, and humor you've infused into our conversations.

Books are often seen as being a solitary, introverted thing, but this year has seen the advent of our first ever virtual meetings, and in a time when we could rely less on our local support networks, I think we've shown that we are a true community.

Thank you for including me and us in your book journeys. I'm excited for better things to come in all your lives, and for us as a group. Be safe, and know you are quite literally the reason at least one person gets out of bed in the morning.

🤗🤗🤗

I am definitely thankful for this group, the friendly members, the great reads, and our wonderful mods! 🥰

Happy Thanksgiving! Currently I’m reading Outriders by Jay Posey, and it’s really good! If you’re into a fun, high-tech romp in space, it’s wonderful and really quite well written, but it’s nothing revolutionary.

I’m In the sci fi short story group on Facebook. I just read some old ones: “The Ugly Chickens” by Harold Waldrop which can be found at https://www.lexal.net/scifi/scifictio.... It won a Nebula in 1980 and also a World Fantasy Award for short Fiction in 1981.

I also read “Helen O’Loy” by Lester Del Rey which can be found at https://my.fit.edu/~rosiene/delrey.pdf.

Allison wrote: "Today is a national day of thanks in my country, and I like to take that time to recognize things and people I'm grateful for.

One of those things for the past few years has been this group, but e..."

Merry Thanksgiving

Allison wrote: "Today is a national day of thanks in my country, and I like to take that time to recognize things and people I'm grateful for.

One of those things for the past few years has been this group, but e..."

How lovely Allison!!
Meeting my bookfriends online gives me great pleasure.

I finally posted my review for Lakes of Mars 3 stars
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Somehow I managed to forget I had reviewed this interesting book
Dalí 3.5 stars
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Picked up a copy of Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline yesterday. Wasn’t going to start it yet but couldn’t help myself. It’s not too bad so far.

Phrynne, what is it about Wendig? He's like getting onions on your sandwich at lunch then forget to brush after, when you check at 3pm... yep onions alright.

@Esther - Please share if Ready Player Two is at least a 3? 3.5? I remember enjoying Ready Player One but that’s like 5 years ago... On the fence. Maybe will wait for a book sale before I pick up.

Grace wrote: "@Esther - Please share if Ready Player Two is at least a 3? 3.5? I remember enjoying Ready Player One but that’s like 5 years ago... On the fence. Maybe will wait for a book sale before I pick up."

Hi Grace , I'm not the person reading Ready Player Two.

I misread lol! @Jaqueline then. Or anyone who’s currently reading it!

I have Ready Player Two on hold at the library, will post my thoughts here once I've gotten to it (probably not for another week or two).

Grace wrote: "@Esther - Please share if Ready Player Two is at least a 3? 3.5? I remember enjoying Ready Player One but that’s like 5 years ago... On the fence. Maybe will wait for a book sale before I pick up."

There's a sequel? I never read the first, but I can't imagine the sequel would be good.

That's an interesting place from which to form an opinion, Stephan! Are you saying that based on the movie?

I gave 5 stars to Ready Player One, but found Armada to be so bad that I discarded it halfway through. Not sure if it was actually worse or that the magic trick of bombarding me with nostalgia hits only worked the first time I saw it. Guess this next one will be interesting in that regard!

Yeah Stephen I hope you’re not using the movie as a starting point here. The only real similarity between the movie and the book was the characters were the same name and they were going for the same prize. A lot was changed because what worked in the book wouldn’t have worked on the big screen. The book was soooooo much better. I gave it 5⭐️. From some reviews it seems that Two could be as good as if not better than One. I’m not far enough into it to say yay or nay.

Hoping to get more read today but only after I watch the all singing, all dancing me (a guy with my name whose emails always end up coming to me who is in West End Musicals and who has become my friend) on Youtube in An American in Paris. They’re putting West End Musicals on Youtube every weekend. It’s on a thing called The Shows Must Go On. Anyhoo that’s my day planned. An American in Paris followed by a comfy chair under a tree reading.

I suggest that people need to read the book in question before declaring it to be not good.

I didn’t enjoy Armada as much Chris (I gave it 3⭐️) but what enjoyment I did get was from Wesley Crusher reading it to me.

@Allison: Nope. I never saw the movie either. The movie didn't look appealing. The premise of the story is a little lackluster. In terms of movies, the new Ryan Reynold's movie seems better (marginally).

Statistically, most written sequels are terrible and should have remained a one-of. Usually, the idea has petered out by then, though naturally there are exceptions (and it probably matters if the first was any good as well).

I hate sequels too. Just ask my younger brother.

Ryan wrote: "I hate sequels too. Just ask my younger brother."

:D That's mean! :D

Ready Player Two was good. I would say that RPO was better because it was a fresh take of using a bunch of pop culture & gaming as a basis. The last half of RPT was better than the first half. I enjoyed the search for the Shards more than the drawn out setup for the search.

I did a re-read of RPO and then read RPT. In both books, Cline goes into a couple of preachy rants on a handful of topics but they're around the beginning of each book.

Overall, I enjoyed the way Cline used pop culture as a bedrock for the stories and how it revealed different aspects of the characters. I thought the plot was simple, and the thought experiments raised were much more interesting.

Ready Player One movie was a fun, family friendly adventure story. It kept the core ideas of the book but did not stay true to the story.

@Ryan - lol Your poor brother! haha

Grace wrote: "I misread lol! @Jaqueline then. Or anyone who’s currently reading it!"

I'm mostly done with in audio. I think I have maybe 20% left. It's OK. I'd summarize it as "more of the same" or "More of Ernie Cline's favorite things" without knowing exactly how it's going to end.

It suffers from a lot of the same issues of the first one only I'm less forgiving of it this go around.

I loved the first one, it's one of my favorites despite it's flaws. This second one is OK. I'll probably give it a 3.5 stars unless something crazy happens in the last few hours.

I'd say it's better than Armada which I did finish/liked alright. It's been awhile since I read it, but I apparently gave that 3.5 stars which is probably very generous.

The guy isn't a great author and basically has one note. I say this as someone who considers Ready Player One on my favorite books and I've read it 3 times.

Also for what it's worth, I liked the movie. It was very different from the book, but I thought most of the changes were good or acceptable ones.

I'd say if you loved the first one, you'll probably like the second one. If you thought the first one was just OK, you may want to give it a pass.

Ryan wrote: "I hate sequels too. Just ask my younger brother."

*haha* < :D