SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Monthly short fic reads of 2019 was mentioned :)

And Pet by Akwaeke Emezi.

I forgot to jot down the book Sarah mentioned?

Reality Ahead of Schedule: How Science Fiction Inspires Science Fact

Thanks Allison!

June's rereads are The Dispossessed and The City & the City, let us know which you'd rather discuss.

It was lots of fun talking to you all, I promise, I'm working on figuring out why the floop my connection sucks so bad and what to do about it...I am a bit hindered by present conditions, but I'm trying!

Nice chat! I joined late and also missed the goodbyes, but it was nice to see some of the faces of the group. Thanks for putting this together.

I just finished The City & the City so that'd be my vote. Also we just discussed The Left Hand of Darkness so could be good to diversify authors.

That was good. Or is good in the case of Allison and her delayed connection.

I read The Dispossessed for the first time last week and am happy to discuss it next month. We touched on a couple of the things that it made me think about in today's VBC so I'm happy to officially discuss tCatC instead.

But we touched *

Also @ Ryan the short story collection I mentioned enjoying recently is Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang and my favorite story in the collection was The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate.

The story I started to describe about getting a new brain was from The Best of Greg Egan and is titled Learning to be me.

Also, this is the NYT article about Ken Liu, the translator for the Three Body Problem and the start of it describes what I was saying about how the translation changed up the order of the narrative.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/ma...

...one day again I will remember *ha*

Ryan you mentioned you were looking for something different- this is not Alt-History, but I read The Book of Koli by MR Carey a month or two and flew through it.It felt very different to almost other far-future stories I’ve read, if you want to check it out. I’m really excited for book two in the fall.

Greg Egan makes my brain hurt. Audible had a sale on his older books and I bought 3-4 of them. I like them but am suspecting I am not smart enough for them.

1 vote for The City and the City

Rats, I had already read both books and wanted to come to this one but I forgot and ended up sleeping through it :| Maybe next time!

I was going to remind you, @Jemina, but I reminded @Mareike instead and then realized we weren’t friends yet!!

Ah! That's what that was! (I was surprised we weren't friends yet!) <:D

Thank you for the thought, though ^^' (how do I only see the post notifications to this topic right after the fact *ha*)


I feel you, David.

Allison wrote: "Hi friends!

I know some folks have been home for quite some time now. Would there be any interest in a virtual chat? Perhaps one on a European time and one on a US time? You wouldn't need a camer..."

I just saw this on here and I think it would be really odd to see people I've been reading with for five years for the first time. I mean, at this point I know what you all look like without having a clue what you look like. "THAT'S HANK?!?!"

Aside from that, are you planning on doing this again next month?

We are! I don't think we have a date yet? Friends? Sometime mid-June work? We've been doing Sundays, that still work?

It's been really nice, Sarah. We only talk books, no uh...prevailing conditions in the world, and book related things, and sometimes Hank shows us dogs and people whose strides are like three of mine.

Haha! Really my tennis ball head avatar is way better than the live version. The fun part is when I point the camera out the window and everyone can see all the people attempting to enjoy the outdoors AND social distance, not quite pulling it off yet close enough that you can't blame them.

I might join next time depending on which time it will be because I'm in Germany and I will probably only hear you all because of not being able to be sitting long without being interrupted by kids.

It is a pretty chill "meeting", U.K. Ryan's neighbors join in, we get some off screen and on screen visits by small humans and Allison's cat(s) make appearances every now and then. We have enough people to carry the conversation so jumping in when you want and listening for the rest totally works.

I promise Allison doesn't call on anyone directly. My plug for our very non-threatening, low responsibility, wow-that-is-what-everyone-looks-like, zoom meeting.

Sundays work for me, maybe the 14th? (the 21st is Father's Day, not sure if that matters, but maybe good to schedule around)

Also I guess which book we'll discuss is still TBD?

The more the merrier! I think I've almost worn Jon down on letting me use his laptop, which has an ethernet port so I can suck the internet straight from the tap, which I think will help?

Mid-June sounds good to me!

14th works for me! Yep, I guess technically our options are American Gods (since that's before the start of the next re-reads officially), Dispossessed or City and the City

I think so far we have 1 vote for TC&tC as we just discussed a Le Guin

I would like to discuss the City and the City. I’ll have to work hard to get it read before the date, but mid-June sounds good. 14th or 21st?

I will also throw in for the City and the City.

Which was a better meeting time: 9 AM or 11 AM (Eastern)?

The City & the City is one of my favorite books so I would love to read it again. Sorry, I somehow missed the comments here.

+1 to 14th. I'd prefer Dispossessed because I've wanted to read it for longer, but City and the City also sounds good!

11am EST is better for me (because I'm central time, so 9am is a bit early for me: 8am for me; if there's West coasters, then that's 6am for them)

I also vote 11 am. Perhaps we can alternate--1 month 9 am EST, next month 11 am EST?

I'm seeing 4 votes Mieville, 1 vote Le Guin.

14th it is!

I'm going to reread The City and the City even though I could practically quote it. I love that book!

Wow The city and the city is a really confusing book. I am just starting but how can you unsee something? Without spoiling the book can someone clear up the confusion a little bit?

Sandy, they will explain it in great detail. For now, picture it like you're walking through a beautiful park, enjoying the day, and then you see some dog doo, but you sort of mentally edit it out of your mind's picture of your experience except for how you avoid it.

Ack! I completely forgot that we were going to discuss the City and the City! I haven't even started it yet. Arrgh.

Thanks Allison - that makes if more clear. And to actually "see" and comment on the dog doo - is taboo and can get you in trouble?

That part I'm going to leave for the book to explain. It sounds like you have the basics down though :)

Diane, it's okay! If you don't get to it, just come like 20 minutes late and we should have the big stuf discussed :)

Sandy, if you want to talk more about tC&tC, maybe the book threads are a better place! :)

First impressions (no spoilers)
Final thoughts (spoilers)

Are you using Zoom or Discord? It could happen that your meeting happens at the same time as my cousin's virtual birthday, let's see, if not I'll join.

Zoom. We'll post a link about an hour before we start (to help keep trolls out).

I'll post this in the first post, but it looks like:

June 14
11 am EDT (GMT-4)
On Zoom
Discussing The City and the City

Anna wrote: "Sandy, if you want to talk more about tC&tC, maybe the book threads are a better place! :)

First impressions (no spoilers)
Final thoughts (spoilers)"

Wow I completely forgot I joined those discussions. I guess that's enough capital for me to join/listen in 😜

Haha Silvana, yes you should join!

I do plan to take an extra cup of coffee. For Mieville!

Anna wrote: "Sandy, if you want to talk more about tC&tC, maybe the book threads are a better place! :)

First impressions (no spoilers)
Final thoughts (spoilers)"

thank you - I will take it over there...

Reminder that this is happening on Sunday!

Check your local time here.

haha thanks Hank!

Alarm!

Reminder!

58 minutes!

I accidentally rebooted my micro microcell tower this morning and it's not up yet. Hopefully wifi will be enough.

I joined but am cooking so only listening to the audio.

Great meeting all - nice to hear so many thoughts - much of which I didn't consider. Thanks!