SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Since the September fantasy theme is Chosen One, it is only right that by the time those nominations close on the 23rd, I will have Chosen One (or Five) scifi books recommended by you for the mod poll!

Give me as many recommendations as you want, no seconds necessary, although confirming something is excellent will make it more likely a book will be picked. There are very few rules, and some guidelines:

- has to have a scifi element
- has to be more scifi than fantasy
- author can't have been read in group in the last 24 months *
- book can't have been in poll in the last 24 months *
- has to be available internationally *
- has to be available in digital format (ebook or audio) *

* you don't have to check, just FYI

- new-to-shelf authors preferred
- diverse authors/characters are a plus
- non-US authors are a plus
- I'm highly unlikely to pick a white cishet man author, so if you rec one, add a sales pitch!

Most importantly, if you think the group would like it, or I would love it, tell me about it! It doesn't matter if I've already read it or not, or if it's already on my shelves or not, as long as it hasn't been in a group poll lately.

I reserve the right to not use any recommended books, but I would love to find all five from this thread!

I won't comment on any of the recs, you'll have to wait until the poll to see what I liked, but I will of course answer any questions you may have!

(view spoiler)[itsalsomybdayinseptsoconsiderthisagifttomekthxbye (hide spoiler)]

novella and story collection are no go, right?

Yes, normal nomination rules apply :/

I still want you to read Digital Divide, Anna.

Author is Ursula Vernon's editor, and creator of a webcomic featuring a sapient, talking koala, and a bunch of ghosts.

This book features an Asian American lesbian cyborg with a disability trying to figure out how to live without freaking out vanilla humans.

I know, and I still plan to read it! :D It's on my Kindle!

edit: Damn, I wasn't going to comment. Oh well, I'll try not to from now on :D

I really want to read Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi. If you count up the sci-fi dystopia and sci fi listings, then it gets roughly equal sci fi and fantasy shelving in goodreads.

Aniara: An Epic Science Fiction Poem by Harry Martinson would stretch the rules. (Can an epic in verse also be a "novel"?) But I've heard it's amazing.

And The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper.

All three are on my tbr list XD

Alice B. Sheldon wrote as James Tiptree Jr., and her work was mostly short fiction, but she does have a couple of novels. I haven’t read it yet, but Up the Walls of the World has been recommended to me. I’m unsure of how available it is, however... She was a genius, a very important feminist writer with amazing ideas in her work, so she definitely belongs on our shelf. Perhaps one day we could stretch our rules and do a short fiction collection poll...? (We’ve done graphic novels, after all...)

I know he’s on our shelf with one work that was selected 8 years ago, but Haruki Murakami has a large body of work and is a very special author. How about another of his novels?

Also, Severance by Ling Ma is highly acclaimed. I haven’t read it, and I stay away from blurbs to avoid spoilers, so I don’t know much about its content, but wanted to pass it along here.

Digital Divide (and everything recommended so far) sounds very good!

I'd also love to read more Murakami, especially Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

I'm also very excited about Finder by Suzanne Palmer.

And how about Edges by Linda Nagata, a Hawaiian author. The book as a fascinating premise and seems very well-written (judging by the first few pages).

Sounds very unique and fascinating: Amatka by Swedish author Karin Tidbeck, featuring a dystopian planet, a sapphic love story, and language that has the power to shape - or destroy - reality.

I'd also love to try Mirage, which is a space opera based on Morrocan history.

Some of the recs are ones I'd LOVE to have on the shelf, but they've been in polls recently :(

But! In general, without commenting on specific recs, excellent suggestions so far! ^_^

Anthony wrote: "Perhaps one day we could stretch our rules and do a short fiction collection poll...?"

One day we will, if not via themed nominations, then I'll use my bday poll powers on it next year!

Our rule isn't because we don't like or want to read shorter works...it's how hard it is to discuss without spoiler tags. We keep thinking it over and over and just cannot for the life of us figure out a way to have a coherent, easy-to-join-in-whenever way to discuss short stories. Buddy reads and the short fic challenge have been the closest we could get to making it work so far...but it sounds like Anna is gonna be brave next year :D

Well we have a whole year before that, by then we've solved covid and world peace and surely also short fic! :D

Also this thread will be deleted eventually, and no one will remember I promised that :P

How about Ball Lightning by Liu Cixin? A stand alone from an acclaimed author. For those who enjoyed Three Body Problem maybe you want more of him, or for those who did not enjoyed TBP (like myself) you might want to try again. Also available in Scribd if you're a subscriber.

Anna wrote: "Well we have a whole year before that, by then we've solved covid and world peace and surely also short fic! :D

Also this thread will be deleted eventually, and no one will remember I promised tha..."

that's what screencaps are for ;)

I'd like to recommend The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez - I read this last year and really loved it.

I do not know if it's available internationally though.

Dingdingding! I know I said I wasn't going to comment, but Vanished Birds is one of the books already on my list of five! (That I'm looking to shake up with this thread.)

lol, Silvana :D

Sarah wrote: "I'd like to recommend The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez - I read this last year and really loved it.

I do not know if it's available internationally though."

I wanted to nominate this one too! My first choice in fact.... but looking at the price....well ;p

I'd also like to recommend: The Moon and the Other by John Kessel - I think it would make a wonderful discussion book, the author touches on many relevant themes.

I will also add that this might be another one that is hard to find so I don't know if it's really great for the poll.

I'll recommend:

The Chronoliths

Literary Awards: Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (2002), Locus Award Nominee for Best SF Novel (2002), Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis Nominee for Bestes ausländisches Werk (Best Foreign Work) (2006), Sunburst Award Nominee for Canadian Novel (2002), John W. Campbell Memorial Award (2002)
Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire Nominee for Roman étranger (2004), Premio Ignotus Nominee for Mejor novela extranjera (Best Foreign Novel) (2003), Prix Aurora Award Nominee for Best Long-Form Work in English (2002) .

Sarah wrote: "I'd like to recommend The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez - I read this last year and really loved it.

I do not know if it's available internationally though."

I can confirm it's available in Germany and the ebook costs under 7 EUR, so that's very possible. Sounds cool!

Oh! Thanks Eva, that inspired me to check the UK store, it is 8.81 USD woohoo

:D Thanks go to Eva, the other German ;D

I recommend "Chameleon Moon" by RoAnne Sylver. I still have only access to this basic app till next week, so I can't link it.

It's queer as can be with lots of great characters.

Chameleon Moon for the link.

lol @ The Other German XD

Oh I’m so happy to see the positive response to The Vanished Birds. It was such a wonderful book- whether it makes it to the poll or not, if you haven’t read it, it’s definitely worth picking up.

I really want to read both Digital Divide and Riot Baby, and I enjoyed Chameleon Moon a lot.

A couple others I would like to suggest:
-Nigerians in Space
-Do You Dream of Terra-Two?

Kaa, have you read Temi Oh? I keep thinking about putting it in a poll, but (having read it) I'm worried it reads too YA?

I haven't read it, Anna, so I defer to your judgment!

Damn, I was hoping you'd say it didn't feel so YA to you! I expected it to be an adult book when I read it, so of course it felt extra YA.

If anyone would like to go more down the near future SF thriller path, we could also try:

Change Agent by Daniel Suarez, or
Nexus by Ramez Naam, or

Both of them sound like heart-pounding excitement.

Nexus is on the shelf!

gotta make my mind up here: either Quantum or Amatka....

Valor's Choice by Tanya Huff.

Light military sci fi written by a Canadian woman who served in the military. (I think also this book is based on a historical battle.) This is the first in a series but can be read as a stand-alone.

I recently read Terminal Alliance, by Jim C. Hines which is a very funny space opera, with excellent and distinctly different aliens, and a found family theme too.

Severence is on my TBR too.

Gabi wrote: ":D Thanks go to Eva, the other German ;D
."

Apologies, Eva!

Riot Baby is a novella but definitely could be a BR someday.

I would also like to suggest Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor.

if we can recommend two, then I'll go with

Quantum by Patricia Cornwell about a female NASA pilot, quantum physicist, and cybercrime investigator that is a mystery/thriller. The author writes the Kay Scarpetta mystery series

and

Amatka by Karin Tidbeck which is a surreal debut novel set in a world shaped by language. Female main character with a female love interest and it's set in a dystopian world with multiple colonies.

Rec as many as you want! ^_^

I had no idea the Scarpetta author has written scifi! My mom used to read the Scarpetta books, and since I read all books that entered the house, I also read many of them. I'm not 100% sure how far in the series I got, but I remember loving the niece (? Lucy maybe) who worked for FBI (?) and was a computer whiz. Nostalgia!

Oh, I can propose more than one? Then Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang deserves to be considered too. I know it's a hard book, maybe, but it's worth it, really.

Vagabonds was just in the last poll tho! :D

Anna wrote: "Vagabonds was just in the last poll tho! :D"

*smacks head*

Completely forgot about it. But hey, I got to promote the book again LOL

*back to my corner*

Haha, it's OK, I remember the polls because I set them up, etc. I don't expect everyone to remember all these details, which is why I added them as a FYI, not a requirement! Just so you know that even though I would very, very much love to force Amatka onto the shelf, it's been in so many polls that there is no way I could use it in a mod poll, unless the mod poll theme was recycling :)

So, many of the recs are ones I'd love to use, but can't because they've been in recent polls. That's OK, I don't expect you to check, but if you're wondering why Amatka, Vagabonds or Severance won't be in a poll, it's because I've used them in a previous mod poll in the past year. And some others have been in themed polls.

Again, I don't need you to check! Just know that I'm not dismissing them because I hate them, but because I can't reuse books in mod polls.

The good news is that everyone's taste is amazing, since you're reccing books I've already loved and/or used in polls!

I sometimes think that my taste evolves along the group.....like, the more I read books here or do BRs or even just nominate stuff, I feel the Force influence getting stronger....

XD

I'm realizing as I'm searching for other recs for this thread that most of my TBR comes from this group and thus I have very little to add.

Sarah, I know you read lots of things not on the group shelf! Almost every time when I look at reviews for a book I'm considering for mod poll, there's one from you :D

It's so tricky to find something a bit diverse that this group hasn't put in a poll yet!

How about something that was finalist for a few SFF awards when it came out:
In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker, which is a far future / Elizabethan England time travel story with cyborgs, humor, a love story, and it seems to be really unique.

This one is too short to be eligible, but I thought people may be interested anyway:

And Shall Machines Surrender by a female Thai science fiction writer with an LGBT couple solving a mystery about cyborgs.

But this one would be eligible, I think:
Stars Uncharted by S.K. Dunstall (who are two female writers working as a team) - this is a space adventure that is supposed to be similar to Becky Chamber's work.

I hope we've suggested some options you like. :-)