SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

@Brenda & @Silvana, I was afraid it wouldn't get better until the end, but that does seem to be where everything is pointing (It's basically telegraphed that way).

@Gabii & @leticia My problem is that I think when I've read stories like The Way of Kings (say Lord of the Rings and Wheel of Time ((discounting the last 3)), for example), they were written by people that had served in the military. I think they perceived things more accurately in those settings, as far as character motivations and thoughts in a given situation. When people don't act or think the way they really would in a situation, it takes me out of the story.
I don't care if the character's evil, good, or somewhere in between (even apathetic is fine), but it has to make sense to me, so that I don't get dropped back into reality and disconnect from the story. I shouldn't have to be like "I know what the REAL motivation would be in this instance, let me just pretend THAT's what the author meant to say."
Don't get me wrong, I've read worse (Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, for example)...but I'm also an Idealist. I tend not to DNF books, because then I can't say I've actually read them...and you'd be surprised how much reading endurance you get from reading The Stand and War & Peace...so that's helpful as well...so I'll definitely get to the end of The Way of Kings. So far it's not a terrible read. Sanderson got MUCH better at story-telling after he finished those 3 Wheel of Time books.

@anna Thx :)

In going through Walton’s Informal History of the Hugos I decided to read Jack Vance’s novella “The Last Castle” on Scribd to see if it still holds up. It won the 1967 Nebula and Hugo.

https://yellowedandcreased.wordpress....
The main characters strikes one as Southern Gentleman or 19th century British gentlemen (pre Civil War) who would not work with their hands. A predicament occurs when the slave-Meks who do all the work and have all… See More
The Last Castle – Jack Vance
YELLOWEDANDCREASED.WORDPRESS.COM
The Last Castle – Jack Vance
Super-cultured human gentlemen face extermination at the hands of their insectoid servitor race, who are in full rebellion, sacking each human castle in turn. A fine tale.

Thanks to everyone who commented on Ready Player Two! I see reviews are extremely polarized - hate it or love it. I will probably defer for now until I am in the mood for it so as not to spoil my experience of Ready Player One. I agree that the novelty of that book is probably due to the nostalgia market.

Nostalgia market! I hadn't thought of that. Interesting concept. I agree.

Dj wrote: "The way I look at it is if I have unread books that I own then I won't be able to die."

...and thus we ensure our immortality. :D

Beth wrote: "Dj wrote: "The way I look at it is if I have unread books that I own then I won't be able to die."

...and thus we ensure our immortality. :D"

It seems to be working so far at any rate. LOL

I've started Ready Player Two and while a few of the pop culture references are a bit cringeworthy I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll finish it (and hopefully enjoy it).

I’m curious...how do pop culture references impact your reading? Does it add to the immersion, pull you out of the story, or make little difference?

I’m not a big follower of pop culture (no TV), so I don’t get the references, and I’m beginning to think that may be something I need to watch out for and avoid. I just found out Gideon the Ninth is full of pop culture references, and that was a book I was decidedly ‘meh’ about.

Depends on how they are used. In a broadly comic story -- where you don't really believe it anyway -- or one where the characters would get the references, it can work like any other joke.

Sparrow Knight wrote: "I’m curious...how do pop culture references impact your reading? Does it add to the immersion, pull you out of the story, or make little difference?"

Probably depends on when you read it. If you're reading a novel written in and about 1920s New York City you may well wonder what Eddie Cantor has to do with anything.

Pop culture references in past fiction may have helped immerse past generations, but may also work against later generations enjoying a given work.

On the other hand, writing about the past and including pop culture references from that time period suggests the references are well enough known (or easily enough looked up) that they add verisimilitude.

Like most such decisions by a writer, it's something of a risk.

I've been in such a reading slump the past couple weeks. I'm currently trying desperately to finish Vermilion: The Adventures of Lou Merriwether, Psychopomp for a book club. Which was even my own nomination, so I feel 100x more obligated to actually read and finish it. When I actually pick it up and read and it's good, but it's the picking it up that's the hard part.

Sparrow Knight wrote: "I just found out Gideon the Ninth is full of pop culture references, and that was a book I was decidedly ‘meh’ about.

reply | flag *
..."

I didn't notice any of those. What nerd found pop culture references in Gideon the Ninth?

Maybe that person is referring to the modern (slang) language that occasionally pops up in Gideon. I’m reading it right now and sometimes I find the juxtaposition of archaic vocabulary and modern slang a bit jarring. Fun, but it always throws me out of the story.

May I suggest that if people want to discuss Gideon the Ninth in depth, we have discussions for it going on right now! And anyone can start a new thread in the Members' Chat folder for any topic, for example pop culture references in books :) Let's keep this thread (mostly) on the topic of what non-group books we're reading at the moment.

Oops! Sorry, I somehow didn't notice that it wasn't the Gideon thread!

It's all good! :)

Gabi wrote: "After mostly dnf'ing Fantasy books at the moment, or slogging through them being horribly bored, I found a jewel and am so happy about that.

Migrations by [author:Charlotte McConag..."

This book intrigued me, I've added it to my to-read.

I'm reading Fortune's Pawn. In the beginning I was bothered by the protagonist (she felt to me like a stereotypical representation of 'strength' as defined by toxic masculinity, and quite flat as well), and aliens who are no different from people in anything but appearance (they speak human languages, read books and pilot ships) made me roll my eyes a bit, but later I just relaxed into it. It's an entertaining read with some action, space travel and fighting, a mystery and seemingly (at least at the moment, about 25% in) not too much depth, the plot is interesting.

easy, Stephan, there's sarcastic and then there's acerbic ;) This nerd did. Glad to talk about the memes and cultural touchstones many don't seem to have caught in the spoiler thread!

I'm halfway through The Rage of Dragons it's taken me awhile to read this one. It's one that I've been putting down and reading a few more books then going back to it. I'm hoping before the years end to have it finished. I'm also reading White Night.

Tenth Day of the Tenth Month in the Year I travelled all corners of my apartment - is the day I started reading Piranesi.

Ha! I’m also reading Piranesi - day 5 million of the year my children are being homeschooled

Allison wrote: "easy, Stephan, there's sarcastic and then there's acerbic ;) This nerd did. Glad to talk about the memes and cultural touchstones many don't seem to have caught in the spoiler thread!"

Ok

Alina wrote: "This book intrigued me, I've added it to my to-read...."

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

I’d love to hear what others have to say about FORTUNE’S PAWN. It’s been on my TBR list forever!

Forged by Benedict Jacka This is building to a massive finale! Love it:)

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

True, Soo, the calculator doesn’t count rereads. I don’t normally reread books either, but this year I’ve reread 8! Most were books I first read in elementary school at age 9 or 10 because I read them with/to my son, but not all. I just found I had more success with easy/short books I new I liked. But if you want to find out how long it will take to read your unread books, then you shouldn’t count those books when you say how many books you read this year. I’ve read 80+ books this year, but sadly only 33 were off my Read Your Books shelf and not rereads, library books or books less than a month or so old (basically bought and read in short order). I blame 2020.

Not quite SF&F, but I've just got a copy of Natalie Haynes' Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths, which re-interprets the women central to many of the Greek myths - Pandora, Helen, the Amazons, Medea and more.

MadProfessah wrote: "I’d love to hear what others have to say about FORTUNE’S PAWN. It’s been on my TBR list forever!"

A bit over a half now, I'm really into it! I mean, the characters are not fleshed out, the world-building is minimal, and it would normally bother me a lot, but this book somehow has it going. There are more mysteries and adventures now, a lot of things and characters turned out to be not what they initially seemed. This book might be for you if you are looking for an easy and entertaining read with a crew of diverse people and alien creatures on a space adventure, frequent (but not too much ) action and alien combat scenes with shooting and slashing, some humor, archetypical and often stereotypical characters and unexpected turns of events that reveal things you didn't suspect, creating more questions in the process. As far as I can tell, there is no underlying message or serious issues explored, it's pure entertainment, and maybe that's exactly what I needed after the Broken Earth Trilogy :)

Gabi wrote: "I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!"

Thanks Gabi! I've checked your profile and added 'The Healer's War' to my to-read as well. Not what I'm looking for at the moment, but I can see the time for this novel will come :). One question though: are you reading 32 books at the same time!?

Rachel wrote: "Ha! I’m also reading Piranesi - day 5 million of the year my children are being homeschooled"

LOL sounds like a fair assessment of how long this year has been!

Alina wrote: "... One question though: are you reading 32 books at the same time!?..."

^^' Looks quite disorganized, I know. A third of the books are short story collections/anthologies, where I read 1 or 2 stories between novels, so they stay long in my read list. I think 5 or 6 are books I dnf'd or at least stopped reading, cause I couldn't bring myself to pick them up again. But I haven't decided yet how to shelf them. 2 are actually already finished, yet I forgot to set them to finish ^^'.

All in all I'm usually reading 3 books at the same time: an audiobook (currently The Algebraist, which is boooooring), an eye-book (currently The Healer's War, just started, can't say anything yet), and one read-aloud with my boys during breakfast time (currently The Return of the King)

I've finished both Among Others and Phoenix Extravagant. I quite liked both of them, but also can see how they might not have universal appeal. I might start A Brightness Long Ago next, or skip to something else first.

I'm reading Phoenix right now :)

I just finished After Atlas and holy moly was it good. It was a shot of adrenaline right to my heart--yes, even my very covered-in-prickles heart! Completely different from Planetfall, but I liked how it toyed with my impressions of things that happened in Planetfall. I think it could be a standalone, too.

I agree with all of that Allison, but I also think that reading Planetfall first makes reading this one so much better!

Planetfall >> First impressions | Final thoughts

Planetfall series buddy read

Gabi wrote: "^^' Looks quite disorganized, I know. A third of the books are short story collections/anthologies, where I r..."

Oh, not disorganized, just curious :). I suspected you weren't actually reading 32, but I needed to know in case it was true because I'm a one book at a time person, and I got really intrigued by this thought :D. I can read several non-fiction books simultaneously, switching between them, or one fiction and one non-fiction, treating the former as entertainment and the latter as learning something, but when it comes to fiction it's only one at a time.

A Fashionable Indulgence (reread): a nice romance with some nice fellas. I liked the historical details about "Peterloo" that were crucial to the story. It felt a lil' dude-heavy, but where else are the main characters of the rest of the series gonna come from? :D

I finished reading Justice League of America Archives Volume 1

Is there a place to discuss KickStarters? Because I am being so seriously tempted by Matthew Meyer’s “The Fox’s Wedding”. Such beautiful artwork, and Japanese yokai lore!

I’ve picked up some very nice books from KS, most recently Recognize Fascism: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Anthology. I just finished the earlier anthology Resist Fascism, and really enjoyed the collection.

Currently reading:

Walking to Aldebaran, Anxious People, and Sawbones. I love the humor that keeps sneaking its way into the first two.

Listening to The Last Wish. I was expecting it to be a quest type book, not a variety of short stories with a common theme. Regardless, I'm enjoying the different stories with the fairy tale elements in them.

A Kickstarter thread would be awesome! When I back a project it’s most often in publishing. I’d love a place to talk about it here!

Thanks to Alina's comment I sorted a bit through my read shelf, which got quite clattered.

I've now dnf'd
Ring Shout
The First Sister
The Unspoken Name
Lonesome Dove

They all gave me more and more a kind of anxiety feeling when I tried to pick them up.

In the limbo is The Space Between Worlds, which started strong, but went down a path that lost my interest. Perhaps it's a mood thing, so I leave it on the currently-reading shelf for now to pick it up again later.

I finished our Lord of the Rings breakfast read-aloud, and I have to say both the boys and I are quite happy that it's over. The writing didn't age well. The boys are harrassing me to switch to Narnia now (which we've already read once, but they were a lot younger than and can't remember much), but I hope, I can squeeze in George's Secret Key to the Universe. Since Sophie's World was such a success with them concerning philosophy I hope for a similar effect with this one and astronomy.

I've read the first Green Man book, The Green Man's Heir, which had a lovely first half, a crime thriller with British rural myths, but the second half felt like another story and I wasn't so thrilled by the overall structural impression this made. Nevertheless, I like the rural mythical Fantasy approach and will definitely continue the series.

Then I tried my luck with The Algebraist, which didn't work at all. I had to call it a day at 75%, because the mediocre character writing and the general style and structure killed it for me. I'd like to say that Ian Banks is the next author on my won't-pick-anything-up-by-them list, but two of his culture series books are on our groupshelf and my partner owns them, so I will give him another chance (I've read that the Culture series is a lot better).

The Quest for Cosmic Justice by Thomas Sowell

Finally got back to The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow. I started it around the time it came out but life got in the way and I didn’t get very far into it. Bought a physical copy and it’s been going everywhere with me waiting for the day I’m in the mood to read it again. I have so much to do but all I want to do is curl up in front of a heater and read. Yes it’s summer here but geez it’s got cold this week. Even I’m feeling it and I don’t usually feel cold being an old menopausal woman.

I recently finished the Chrestomanci series by reading Mixed Magics: Four Tales of Chrestomanci as well as The Suicide Collectors which wasn't as much of a downer as i had anticipated. Next up for me is Planetfall and The Terror.

@gabi I agree with you THE ALGEBRAIST is *awful* but I quite like his Culture books. The only one I have bounced off is “Excession” but “The Player of Games” and “Surface Detail” and “Matter” are fantastic! They don’t need to be read in order

Jacqueline wrote: "Finally got back to The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow. I started it around the time it came out but life got in the way and I didn’t get very far into it. Bought a physical copy and it’s..."

I just picked that up from the library and hope to start it soon