SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Russell Brown, I have a couple suggestions.

"Destiny's Crucible" an entertaining portal fantasy series by Olan Thorensen.

"Mistborn" series volumes 1-3 by Brandon Sanderson.

Jacqueline, You hang in there! Your challenges just seem to keep coming, I hope you get some relief soon.

Jacqueline, The USA doesn't do free medical because if we did some other thing would have become the #1 reason for personal bankruptcy.

Allison, Predator and Princess Bride double feature... everybody wins.

Really Colleen? Oh I’m so glad someone read it on my recommendation and liked it too :) Books are so hard to recommend. One persons trash is another persons treasure. I am in awe of the brilliant creative minds of a lot of young people today. So many books I read nowadays, when I look at who the author is after I’ve read it, I find that they’re young women. Brilliant young women. I’m not one who has to read a book because it’s by a POC or a woman or someone who is LGBQT or whatever. I just read what pulls me hardest and lately it seems to be books by women. Mostly young but a few older ones as well. Not so many men but there are a few who I love.

Yeah they reckon there’s no rest for the wicked. I’m wondering what I’ve done that’s so bad. Seven and a half years I’ve been doing this. The last three have been a long way away from home. The last year in particular has been long and I’ve hardly left. My trials and tribulations are not as bad as many others though. So many people are worse off. And for better or worse I believe that I won’t be here for much longer. God only knows when, or even if, he will get out of hospital. He may surprise me but he is 92 and not at all well.

I was, at least, looking forwards to a relaxing, quiet weekend with just the dogs on the farm. A comfy chair, a shady tree and a book or three. And a comfy bed. The mattress here was bought very cheaply to go on the spare bed at my daughters house 5 years ago to be used for maybe a week at a time. It’s really uncomfortable and is doing horrible things to my back. After 3 years stuck on it I am broken in more places than I was before and that’s saying something. I was already broken in most places. Or at least it feels like it.

I was also going to take my daughter a bag of books. The other day I got a text asking me if I had half a dozen books that she’d seen in an article that were being made into movies. The Woman in the Window, Little Fires Everywhere and HG Wells The Invisible Man were on her list. I have all of them but she bought The Woman in the Window before I could reply along with another one on her list and a Nicholas Sparks she hasn’t read yet. She’s decided she wanted to expand her mind and learn stuff. She’s nearly 26. She works for an organisation that looks after foster kids in motels when they can’t find families for them. She has many free hours after the kids go to sleep or when the kids are playing XBOX. She’s decided that she probably should find something else to do other than binge watch Greys Anatomy. And when the kid is on the Xbox she can’t even do that. I then started sifting through my bookshelves to find books that might suit her. I’m glad she’s decided that reading could be good. She’s an on again, off again kind of reader. She used to read a bit and then got busy. She owns a lot of books but hasn’t read any lately.

And that is my TED talk for this morning. Please stick around for another one at some later hour.

That would be funny if it wasn’t so sad Don. Everyone has the right to affordable health care no matter what. A Taxi driver in LA was going on about how bad it would be and he changed his tune when we explained what it really was. Someone who free healthcare would benefit was brainwashed into thinking it’s a bad thing. I don’t care who you are or what your political persuasion is.....free healthcare and free education should be available to all no matter where you are.

so what other things are folks reading? ;)

Oh and cheaper books. Books should be accessible for all as well. Honestly $32 for a new release paperback is disgusting. $23 for a paperback released 12 months after the original and half the size is just as bad or worse. Hardcovers are getting close to $50. Who can afford that? Less than half of the new releases can be bought in BigW, Target and KMart for half of the price in the bookstores but you can’t find any adult sci-fi and fantasy in there. They are pretty good with the YA stuff though. There’s a lot of YA Fantasy and sci-fi on their shelves. Australia gets its new releases as paperbacks now not hardcovers. You can still get some in hardcover but mostly if you want one you have to order from overseas.

Allison wrote: "so what other things are folks reading? ;)"

Hee hee. :D Low-impact reading seems best for me right now, for reasons, so I'm reading/rereading some translated manga.

aren't paper copies cheaper on Amazon, especially with deals? They were in France

as far as what I'm reading, I'm through the full Jane Austen novels, through The Watsons and in the middle of Sandition.

For my Steven Brust binge, I finished Jhegaala and am going to start Iorich today

and going like gangbusters on the short story contest (The Watsons and Sandition qualify as will, I think, the Juvenilia by Austen)

CBRetriever wrote: "aren't paper copies cheaper on Amazon, especially with deals? They were in France"

Even though I have a Kindle, I often buy used books on line that are cheaper than Kindle or Amazon.

https://www.abebooks.com For example.

Abebooks are owned by Amazon...

I'm on a Brandon Sanderson Binge right now, having read all of the Mistborn series last year I'm going through the rest of his cosmere, just finished The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, and will follow that up with Elantris, Warbreaker and Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection and will finish up with Oathbringer

that's a fun project, Ben!

Yeah they are cheaper online but in the spirit of not adding to Jeff Bezo’s billions and supporting the little guy in a shop in country Australia I buy all my stuff in actual shops.

There’s a push over here at the moment to “Buy from the Bush” and to buy local. I live in the bush so it’s a win on both fronts.

Eric wrote: "Even though I have a Kindle, I often buy used books on line that are cheaper than Kindle or Amazon.
https://www.abebooks.com For example"

ABE sells through Amazon and you'll find them under the Other New/Used options for HC books

I'm currently reading Fool Moon, as one of my other groups is doing a series read of The Dresden Files. I'm finding it fun and more action-packed than the first book in the series.

Recently finished Rock Manning Goes for Broke,which was a zippy read and very screwball. The MC's voice is very different feeling from characters in Charlie Jane Anders' other books, but the future dystopia and scrappy band of misfits themes are similar. I enjoyed it.

I also finished Record of a Spaceborn Few, which I liked though it was different in approach than the other two Wayfarers books. Becky Chambers definitely writes "space futures" that I would like to live in.

@beth @soo I am loving Nevernight! Kristoff’s use of footnotes is absolutely hysterical and the Red Church feels a bit like a REALLY dark f’d up Hogwarts for assassins. I’m so frustrated because I’ve been working so late I don’t have the focus to read as much as I’d like to every evening. About 1/2 way through and looking forward to the weekend when I can curl up on the couch and finish this fabulous book!

@Meredith, I’m a huge Dresden Files fan and can’t wait until the next book in the series is FINALLY released. Feels like I’ve been waiting forever!! Should probably do some skimming of previous books so I can remember the backstory as it’s been quite a few years since his last book in this series.

I'm listening to Becoming. Michelle Obama won the spoken word Grammy earlier this week for her narration of it. It is indeed a compelling audiobook and it's hard to imagine some else narrating it.

I'm also reading T. Kingfisher's Toad Words and Other Stories as part of the short fiction challenge.

Raucous, In my experience the Author narrating their own material is a good idea roughly 25% of the time.

Neil Gaiman is quite good at narrating his own work but Lenny Henry was brilliant narrating The Anansi Boys. Carrie Fisher won a Grammy after she died for The Princess Diarist.

Some of the people they get to narrate books are just as bad or worse than the authors would be.

Just Finished "The Quiet" by Greg Iles, a court room, thriller, mystery.
Rated R for adult situations, violence, racially charged language, regular salty language and kudzu.

Currently reading "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco.

Currently reading wayward by Blake crouch.

Jacqueline, I have learned to listen to the sample provided by Audible and to read the reviews if I'm unsure about the narrator. if I have less then 50 titles DNF'D in my audio collection because of incompatibly with narrators voice or style I'd be very surprised.

Don, excellent point!

Yeah I listen to the sample on my library app before I borrow it. I don’t buy audiobooks. I refuse to get Audible. And Kindle. And I don’t use Amazon. Goodreads is probably the only Amazon thing I use.

Russell wrote: "I've decided to read as many fantasy series as I can this year. Started with The Long War series by A J Smith (currently on book 4), then moving onto A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (a..."

You should start a thread in the Recommendations folder.

You’d probably like the Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett. First one is The Warded Man.

I just started listening to Martian Time-slip by Philip K. Dick. It’s been a while since I read any PKD so I’m looking forward to it.

I have just as many bad examples of good narration by the authors as I have bad examples of other people reading them, so I can’t say I prefer one over the other.

Carolyn wrote: "@beth @soo I am loving Nevernight! Kristoff’s use of footnotes is absolutely hysterical and the Red Church feels a bit like a REALLY dark f’d up Hogwarts for assassins."

Cool, glad you're enjoying it. I got a paperback copy of the first one at the used bookstore for a couple bucks a little while ago--I recognized Kristoff's name from the Illuminae files and took a chance!

I've (barely) started Uprooted and it's in first person, huh? Here's hoping the couple of Marilliers I've read don't affect my reading of Novik's book too much.

@jacqueline - a lot of people don’t like Jeff besos it whatever his name is.

@trike I also have the warded man on my want to read shelf, literally.

CBRetriever wrote: "ABE sells through Amazon and you'll find them under the Other New/Used options for HC books"

I think I did know ABE was associated with Amazon, though have always accessed the site directly. After all, Amazon owns Goodreads, as well.

Carolyn wrote: "@beth @soo I am loving Nevernight! Kristoff’s use of footnotes is absolutely hysterical and the Red Church feels a bit like a REALLY dark f’d up Hogwarts for assassins. I’m so frustrated because I’..."

Yay for fun books!

It’s not that I don’t like Jeff Bezos. I don’t have a problem with the man. Don’t know him. I just don’t want to make him richer. There are a lot of complaints about the billionaires in this world and how they should give their money away because nobody needs that much money. And then the complainers so their shopping online on Amazon and give the billionaire more money. More people should shop locally.

Finished Circe, but it was a near thing. I almost gave up. Put me firmly in team "Song of Achilles is better".

Now listening to The Martian for the impending buddy read. Such a relief! Funny, interesting, harrowing. Loving it.

I have Circe but haven’t read it yet. I loved Song of Achilles.

I watched The Martian and I don’t think I want to go back there. I do have it though. I picked it up at a motel in the take one leave one little library. I actually picked it up for Hubby to read.

Carolyn wrote: "@Meredith, I’m a huge Dresden Files fan and can’t wait until the next book in the series is FINALLY released. Feels like I’ve been waiting forever!! Should probably do some skimming of previous boo..."

The group doing the series read is planning to read the whole series this year with the newest book at the end. I don't know if I'll keep up the pace (1 book every three weeks). I want to read other things too.

Just finished Elantris. By no means perfect. And definitely bloated. Yet it could have been twice as long and I still would have loved every minute.

I bought Storm Front last week after seeing people raving about it on here. Don’t know about doing a buddy read but it’s on the top shelf of my TBR trolley ready to go at some point in the nearish future.

Jacqueline I’ve tried with storm front several times, I’m a good ways into it.

Come vote for Storm Front on the Bookshelf Reread voting:

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

Jacqueline wrote: "I have Circe but haven’t read it yet. I loved Song of Achilles.

I watched The Martian and I don’t think I want to go back there. I do have it though. I picked it up at a motel in the take one lea..."

I liked Circe better, probably because I’m more familiar with Achilles, so her story felt fresher to me.

Allison wrote: "Finished Circe, but it was a near thing. I almost gave up. Put me firmly in team "Song of Achilles is better".

Now listening to The Martian for the impending buddy ..."

I'm the other way round with the Miller books. I skimmed Achilles half way through to not DNF it, cause neither story nor characters could move me. Her style is too distanced for me to work for an emotional story. That's why Circe worked better (and perhaps cause I listened to it and the narrator helped). But as I said in one of your updates, Circe was one of the first books I read in my SFF renaissance, so I was much easier impressed than now after having read some 400 books more and have a way better comparison what's out there and which kind of style I like.
So perhaps I also would like Circe less nowadays.

I wonder if Miller's style is the sort that whichever you read first is easier to enjoy? I think I'm also just in a bit of a reading mood where I'm frustrated by certain choices that I keep seeing repeated. I tend to get my hackles up if I read too many books with rape in them in a row.

Knowing this about myself, I am doing the reader's equivalent of an animal with a tummy-ache eating grass--I am grazing books to see what makes me feel better.

I'm about to start Theory of Bastards for a buddy read, How Long 'til Black Future Month? for IRL book club/Black History Month and am listening alternately to The Martian which is very good but too technical for trying to fall asleep and Lords and Ladies because Pratchett is often the antidote I need.

I used the few free days end of January between read-all-scheduled-books-for-January and start-with-the-group-reads-for-February to go a few steps along the path less taken.

As so often I found some gems there.

They Will Drown in Their Mothers' Tears by Johannes Anyuru is translated from Swedish and is an intense and powerful story about terrorism, immigration fears, faith and fascism. It may or may not be a time travel story. Poetic prose for an all-too-realistic dystopian setting. I was awed.

The Little Animals by Sarah Tolmie was … I don't even know what it was … Enchanting it was without fail - another one where the author excels with a refined prose and moments of pure beauty. I picked it up because it is a nominée for this year's Philip K. Dick award, but I'm not sure how it got there, because it is a historical novel set around the draper Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, who discovered protozoa with his homemade lenses, and the painter Johannes Vermeer. Their story is interwoven with the encounter of a young goose girl who can hear protozoa and bacteria (I guess that is the fantastical element in question). Nothing much happens in terms of action or adventure, no intrigue, no backstabbing. Some era typical misuse of family and staff, but an overwhelming cast of decent people doing decent things.
I was enthralled.
(this book has 14 ratings on GR)

All Worlds are Real: Short Fictions by Susan Palwick is the second book I picked up because of the Philip K. Dick nomination. A story collection of unusual high quality. I'm about half way through and there wasn't a single bummer, quite the contrary. Some on the verge of horror, some outright weird, all above average.

(and this book has 6 ratings on GR - go figure …)

They Will Drown is on my TBR and I've been sad I can't use it in polls, because it wasn't available worldwide. I thought it wasn't even translated into English yet! I'll have to check availability again!

Anna wrote: "They Will Drown is on my TBR and I've been sad I can't use it in polls, because it wasn't available worldwide. I thought it wasn't even translated into English yet! I'll have to check availability ..."

The English translation was published last November.

Yeah I just checked, it's now on the mod shelf, so it might show up in a future poll :) Thanks for letting me know it's finally been translated!