SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

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

Tell me about it! :D

(I will never ever put a book by Benjanun S. in a poll. You can read the short reason why here, or really dig into it if it's something you want to do.)

@Anna LOL. Well I hope the reviews are helpful anyway. I’ll comb back through and double check. Maybe I’m being overly picky about what I want to recommend.

Sarah wrote: "Maybe I’m being overly picky about what I want to recommend."

This is why I often choose books I haven't read yet! None of the "well I hated it, but what if everyone else loves it?!" or vice versa.

Oops!! Oh dear! Well, it was ineligible anyway due to being too short. I hope some of my other ideas were better.

I just joined the group, so I'm sure I'll recommend some that are on the shelf or in recent polls, but for things that are a bit diverse:
-Vita Nostra by Sergey and Marina Dyachenko
-Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
-Anything by Karen Lord, but I particularly like The Best of All Possible Worlds and The Galaxy Game
-The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
-Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
-An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Nicole, you can't know, but I've been trying to get Karen Lord on the shelf for YEARS! :D This bunch will not do what I want :P

One of these years, we will finally read her, and find she has been on the poll something like 999,999 times.

The millionth time is the charm?

Yes, and then she gets her second fox tail, if I'm remembering the tradition correctly.

My new mod goal: Get Karen Lord to nine tails!

Wow! I don't think even UKLG is at 9 tails!

I dream big!

It's your book ambitions (and spreadsheet wizardry) I admire most!

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling - SF horror about a solo cave diving mission on an alien planet, with a female protagonist and a f/f relationship.

Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler - Historical SF set in the 19th century American West, featuring a diverse group of characters including a Chinese railroad worker, a suffragette, and an escapee from a mental asylum. May not be unambiguously SF enough? (view spoiler)[But I think the best interpretation of the character Sarah Canary is that she's an alien and this is a first contact novel. (hide spoiler)]

The Stories of Ibis by Hiroshi Yamamoto. A story made up of short stories. The only way I know to get a short story collection on to the shelf.

Usurper of the Sun by Housuke Nojiri.
The Next Continent by Issui Ogawa or his other book The Lord of the Sands of Time, which I didn't enjoy as much but may work for others.
I've not read Japan Sinks: A Novel about Earthquakes by Sakyo Komatsu or Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yōko Tawada
yet, but they're on my tbr and the extra encouragement to read them would be appreciated.

I will never not recommend The Quantum Magician by Canadian author Derek Künsken. One of the most enjoyable books I've read in years. It doesn't demand much thought to read and enjoy but if you give it some there's a whole lot to dwell on. I'm planning on reading his new book, The House of Styx
, before the years out despite it only being available digitally until next year.

Shadow Over Avalon by C.N. Lesley was billed as a scifi retelling of King Arthur, which I guess it is but I chose not to see that connection when I read it.

The Overstory by Richard Powers was praised highly by Gabi, which I read and loved too. It makes the (a?) case for plant intelligence without going to the lengths that Sue Burke's Semiosis did.

Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber should be on the shelf so those that couldn't read Children of Time can maybe get a taste of its greatness without triggering their phobia.

They're written by cis white American men and so are unlikely to be selected but I'm putting David Brin's The Postman and One Second After by William R. Forstchen out there as possibilities in the distant future.

Unfortunately two of my favourite sci-fi authors, Claire North and Emma Newman, are not only on the bookshelf already but have been read in the last two years.

Oh my god, so many amazing books I'd never heard about before, Ryan! Thank you for the great suggestions.

Is Overstory SF? I didn't know.

I mean, the Overstory is a work of fiction and there's science in it... Don't imagine many would consider it SF but it meets the criteria for me having read it.

I'm reading the Overstory for another club for October so I'd be up for it.

(I'm not commenting, just casually mentioning something!)

Ryan, I've had Issui Ogawa on my TBR for quite a while, and I've thought about using Next Continent in a poll several times, as well as other Haikasoru books, but I always end up thinking they're too expensive and probably not in all libraries. We try to make sure mod poll books are as accessible as possible, with the occasional more obscure addition. But I'm happy to hear it's good, I have to try to get to it sometime soon. Ibis and Polar Bear are also on my TBR, I'm sensing a theme here! I guess I love Japanese books, especially ones with cats, which is not relevant here, but any excuse to mention cats in books :D

Emma Newman! <3

I read Memoirs of a Polar Bear a few years ago (I won the arc as a prize at my library) and it's definitely discussable! I'm not nominating it, though.

The only Authors/Books I can think of off the top of my head who aren't already on the group shelf are...

Valor's Choice by Tanya Huff. The lead is a female who commands respect

Titan by John Varley The main protagonist is female and a lesbian

in both cases theres nonhuman characters with their own cultures some of course get explored more deeply then others

Divine Endurance by Gwyneth Jones? There’s an awesome cat of same name......

It’s also on a list : Lesbians and Cats 🐈

Wish I could Push Rider at the Gate by Cherryh

Has anyone read anything by Lindsay Buroker that they'd recommend? Is Star Nomad worth mentioning?

Divine Endurance in on my TBR, but there is no digital edition :( I really hope to get to it someday! (Note to self: Check out Lesbians and Cats list!)

I have tons of free Lindsey Buroker on my Kindle, but still haven't read any of it. Someone raved about one of the scifi series, I wonder if it was that one or something else. Must investigate.

My no commenting isn't going very well.

Last chance to rec something!

Thank you to all who’ve already done so 😊

I've thought of a few more books in translation that might be worthy of consideration:

The History of Bees by Norwegian author Maja Lunde - in my own country, this book and its sequel have been on the top ten bestselling lists all year and I've only heard people gushing about it, so it's probably really good.

Qualityland is aptly described as "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets 1984" because it brings Douglas Adams/Terry Pratchett style humor into the technological dystopia (or utopia which is actually a dystopia) - and a chillingly realistic one, too! This author has also filled my local bestselling lists for years now and everyone in Germany is hyping his books. He finds it very ironically amusing how much money you can make by writing books that criticize capitalism (his urban fantasy series is about a man whose room mate is a communist kangaroo).

Rebecca Roanhorse's Trail of Lightning would also be a wonderful choice (but it's probably been on polls recently? I hope not so that it's eligible).

I apologize of they've already been on various polls, I can never remember such things. I'm pretty sure Central Station by Israeli author Lavie Tidhar has already been on a poll, but if not: I'd like to add it to the list for your kind consideration.

And last but not least, we could continue one of the many series we've started, e.g.: Jade War (just released today), Interference, After Atlas, The Rosewater Insurrection, The Fated Sky, The Dragon Republic, Raven Stratagem, The Dark Forest, and Record of a Spaceborn Few.

So- I thought QualityLand was hysterical and loved it, but I think it’s main draw is the humor, so I hesitated to recommend it because I wasn’t sure it was everyone’s cup of tea.

That being said - @Eva, are his other books available in English? Because I would definitely read them.

Eva wrote: "The History of Bees by Norwegian author Maja Lunde - in my own country, this book and its sequel have been on the top ten bestselling lists all year and I've only heard people gushing about it, so it's probably really good...."

It is fantastic (as are the sequels) - but it already was in the last poll.

Thank you everyone, I'll be going through the recs today! I can already say that at least two will be in the poll :)

You can still comment, especially if there's a book someone's recced that you'd very much like to see in the poll!

I'll leave this thread up if anyone wants to add some of these to their own TBR.