SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Oh I forgot that I could do single poems! The others are all collections, anthologies or magazines dedicated to SpecPo.

Of course they are! :D I didn't even realize that, sorry!

short stories too or even children's books

Yes, well I really need to read all those collections, but it’ll be nice to sub an individual poem or 2 for the hard ones.

Oof some of these are tough. I've got what I think is a working list, most letters with multiple options because I'm impulsive and dare not commit to anything now. A number of those options are sequels to books I either haven't read yet or need to read again as a refresher, so there is...baggage.

Some of the numbers are being stubborn. I joked about just reading Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence because that's like numbers 1-5 right there, but it's looking less like a joke now. (The main issue is that the number giving me the most trouble is 4, and that's book FIVE of this series, so I have to read all five just to get that one counted.) I'll keep working on that one.

Anna said this in one of her posts:

"Yeah, I'm not telling anyone they're absolutely forbidden, but I did not mean book #8 in a series, or vol. 8, the number has to be a part of the title."

I only had problems with the Zero and i found a short story with Zero in the title

I'll read Zero World which sounds like a great page-turner!

But in anthologies the year or volume is often part of the title! Anyway, as long as Goodreads treats the number as part of the title, I'll use it, mostly because it's the first prompt I could find anywhere that actually allows me to finally read my short story anthologies that I've been meaning to read forever. Me when people explain why they don't count: 🙉🙈✋

I have Zero Sum Game on my TBR, maybe that might interest someone looking for a zero book? It also works for Z!

I also just finished updating my earlier post for easier reference for my 2021 self. I have a lot of choices because I am a such a mood reader.

I see we have several books in common, Stephanie. And like you I have a million books fir S but only one or 2 for other letters.

Stephanie, I like that you have so many options! People can use it for ideas if they're stuck on a letter :)

Fun fact: the Danish word for "four" is "fire", which opens up a whole world of possibilities if I REALLY want to cheat.

Haha, creative cheating absolutely allowed!

or Quatre in French

Fire is probably easier to find in an English title tho!

That's true, you can also go the Greek/Latin route:
0: null
Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman
1: uni/sol/mono
Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge
2: du-/bi-/di-/duo-/diplo/dyad (but not dia- or dino-!):
Diplomacy of Wolves by Holly Lisle
Digital Divide by K.B. Spangler
3: tri/ter-/terti-:
Triplanetary by E.E. "Doc" Smith
Count to a Trillion by John C. Wright
The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher
Trident's Forge by Patrick S. Tomlinson
Trinity by Conn Iggulden
4: quadri/quadru/quatern/quart/tetra/tessara:
Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris (also works for 5)
Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
Quarantine by Greg Egan (comes from "40 days")
5: quin-/penta-:
The Quincunx by Charles Palliser
6: sexta/sen/sext/hexa:
Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee
7: septem/septi/septim/hepta:
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Septimus Heap Box Set: Magyk and Flyte by Angie Sage
The Heptameron by Marguerite de Navarre
8: octo/octa:
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery
The Octagonal Raven by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
9: novem/noven/nona/ennea:
?

@Joon: The Craft Sequence can also be read in chronological order (i.e. in the order of the numbers in the titles), which would mean you'd only have to read 4 books.

Other alternatives for four: The Four Profound Weaves (novella) or Sing the Four Quarters (first novel in a series)

I'm also considering The Big Four and NOS4A2. The latter is super long but somehow I've never read a Joe Hill book (just a handful of short stories) and I feel like that needs to be addressed.

And hell, I may need that one for 2 because my current options are (again) a Craft Sequence book or Ready Player Two which I just can't seem to hear enough bad things about.

That said, it has been so long since I've read anything by Tanya Huff that Sing the Four has got me intrigued suddenly.

Don’t forget Four Ways to Forgiveness, by Le Guin:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...

It’s a short story collection.

My list is tentative, and very sci-fi-heavy because that's what I want to read NOW but who knows how I'll feel in six months. I do have multiple options for most letters/numbers so there are subs on the bench.

There's also a few items on here that require me to read earlier books in the series, so I may have made this that much more unreasonable for myself, but I gotta try. I've done 40 books in a year before, but not in a very long time.

Will for sure make substitutions as the year goes on. I've got a few options for most of these letters/numbers, but I have a feeling as the year progresses I'm going to want to swap out some of the longest books for some shorter ones.

EDIT 1/1: Have already made a bunch of changes, will almost certainly make more.
Ancestral Night, Elizabeth Bear
A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy, Alex White
Caliban's War, James SA Corey
Daughter of the Forest, Juliet Marillier
Escaping Exodus, Nicky Drayden
Finder, Suzanne Palmer
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, Becky Chambers
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin
If It Bleeds, Stephen King
Just After Sunset, Stephen King
Killing Gravity, Corey J. White
The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling
Medusa in the Graveyard, Emily Devenport
Noumenon, Marina J. Lostetter
The Outside, Ada Hoffmann
Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower, Tamsyn Muir
The Queen's Gambit, Jessie Mihalik
Record of a Spaceborn Few, Becky Chambers
Starsight, Brandon Sanderson
To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Becky Chambers
Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey
Velocity Weapon, Megan E. O'Keefe
When We Were Magic, Sarah Gailey
Exit Strategy, Martha Wells
Yellow Jessamine, Caitlin Starling
Zoo City, Lauren Beukes
Zeroes, Chuck Wendig
The First Sister, Linden A. Lewis
A Second Chance, Jodi Taylor (note: may replace with The Second Rebel if I really like The First Sister.)
The Drawing of the Three, Stephen King
NOS4A2, Joe Hill
Take a Look at the Five and Ten, Connie Willis
Six-Gun Snow White, Catherynne M. Valente
Seven of Infinities, Aliette de Bodard
Octavia Gone, Jack McDevitt
Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

Joon, I like your list! Lots of great ones on there, and some that are on my TBR as well.

I just saw this challenge in the group and I was sad to miss out on it for most of the year. I thought I'd go through and see how I did anyway and it turns out I did pretty well. I only missed 8 letters. I might have done better but I did reread the entire Cosmere and Realm of the Elderlings. We'll see how next year goes.

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb
City of Dragons by Robin Hobb
The Dragon Keeper By Robin Hobb
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb
Golden Fool by Robin Hobb
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
Kings of the WyldKings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
The Lies of Locke LamoraThe Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgashig Rice
The Obelisk GateThe Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan
Van Halen Rising: How a Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal by Greg Renoff
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

I made if all the way to H with only 2 authors. I'm sure next year's list will be a bit more diverse. I will be trying to pick away at the group bookshelf so that should help.

Brian, I just posted this challenge three weeks ago, so you couldn't have known we're doing this! :) Since you did so well without even knowing about the challenge, I'm sure you'll ace it next year! ^_^

That’s an amazing list!! Now you make me want to go through my list of books read and see if I can get through the alphabet. You win, hands down for your 2 author straight flush.

I'll try Medium mode (26 books) + bonus letters of Polish alphabet. We have: ą,ć,ę,ł,ń,ó,ś,ź,ż (9). Most of them have to be in the middle of the word. There is no word with ą at the begining for example.
I'll try authors too.

Yay, our first international bonus challenge! :)

I still haven't decided on a TBR, I'm going to start by filling in what I'm reading anyway.

Anna wrote: "Yay, our first international bonus challenge! :)

I still haven't decided on a TBR, I'm going to start by filling in what I'm reading anyway."

That's my plan too. I'm going to fill the list up on the go.

I filled mine out trying to go with books that have languished on my Want to Read shelf for ages. The TBR challenge is filled with some of them especially Rats, Bats & Vats and The Replicant War

Filling out my list gave me an excuse to make a spreadsheet. That is all.

Excellent! :D Spreadsheets <3

Joon wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "OK, any ideas for an author with U?
or
A Nine other than Ninefox Gambit?

I've managed to find all the rest for the Hard Mode for Title, Author Mode and Number Mode except those..."

😂😂😂 I feel ya on the Updike! 😂😂😂

I want to try the challenge but on medium. I will try. It's title or author on medium? Medium light!

A. An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good
B. Dead of Night By Victor Banis
C. HighfireBy Eoin Colfer
D. The OBAMA LegacyBy Mike Duchiene
E. Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
F. Fast Ice
G. The Echo WifeBy Sarah Gailey
H.A Game of WitchesBy Kit Hallows
I. The Two: A Biography of the Original Siamese TwinsBy Irving Wallace
J. CriteriumBy Tyler Jones
K.Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative FictionBy Lisa Kroger
L. The Dead Beat, vol. 1By Erica Lindquist
M. AwakenedBy Steven C Manley
N.
O. Ocean Prey
P. The Scorpion's TailBy Douglas Preston
Q.
R.Rhett Bruno The Luna Missile Crisis
S. Dead to the WorldBy R.J. Sierra
T. Lady Justice and the Raven by Robert Thornhill
U.
V. Dead of Night by Victor Banis
W. Fugitive TelemetryBy Martha Wells
X.
Y.
Z.
1. One Day All This Will Be YoursBy Adrian Tchaikovsky
2. Queen Of The Two Lands: A Forgotten Gods Origin Story
3. Three curses of Trixie Moon by Eldritch Black
4. Forty four by Jools Sinclair
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Yes, you can make any combo/variation that you want!

Finished the X for Authors category with

Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse by Xia Jia which was a pretty good short story in The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Two

and started #8 which is Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott from Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott. I didn't have an 8 that was SF&F

I locked in Lock In for L! First book of the year.I read most of it “last year”. I didn’t realize there was a novella for most of the remaining 2.5 hours of the audiobook!

Great start both! I’ll be getting N today, but have a few chapters to go.

and I finished my other X for Title which was also a short story: Xingu by Edith Wharton which was pretty funny. I'm going to have to check out some more Edith Wharton books if that's the way she normally writes.

Admission: I love the way Edith Wharton writes. She really gets the level of pathos I can handle and makes it available to us semi-humans.

Joon wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "OK, any ideas for an author with U?
or
A Nine other than Ninefox Gambit?

I've managed to find all the rest for the Hard Mode for Title, Author Mode and Number Mode except those..."

I found a group of short stories by John Updike that's only 370 pages called Licks of Love: Short Stories and a Sequel, "Rabbit Remembered"

Leon Uris has some interesting books too like Exodus and Ireland: A Terrible Beauty. The last one is short and lavishly illustrated but it appears to be very, very expensive on Amazon, so maybe a library?

so, I made a list, although at I am sure I will deviate enormously, but at least I will have something to start with

a. Age of Myth
b. The Blinding Knife
c. Children of Ruin
d. Dzur
e.Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask
f. First Among Sequels
g.The Grass Dancer
h Have Space Suit—Will Travel
i. Indigo Springs
j.The Jaguar Hunter
k. The Kingdom of Copper
l. Lies Sleeping
m. Mona Lisa Overdrive
n. The Naked Sun
o. One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
p. The Poppy War
q.The Quiet Invasion
r. The Riddle-Master of Hed
s. The Song of Achilles
t.Tripoint
u. Up the Walls of the World
v. Virtual Light
w. When Fox is a Thousand
x. Xanadu
y. Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
z.The Zenith

Crosstalk is one I really wanted to get onto my list this year but I needed Caliban's War. Making progress in the Expanse is probably my #1 priority for the year, and even that's doomed to fail because I also really don't want to swap out my "A" book either to make room for the third Expanse book.

I can already tell the Alphabet Game will be a one-and-done challenge lol.

I like your list, Maggie! You already have a start on numbers, too :)

I plan to do medium mode, so a nice even 26 books. For now at least I'm just going to add books as I go, then as I get later in the year I'll go for some of the harder letters that I'll have to search for. I already have B and will soon have W done.

In addition to the X for both Author and Title Medium Mode, I have also completed #8 with Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott from Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott. I'll likely next start on the Q for author (Arthur Quiller-Couch and title Quantum by Patricia Cornwell. I've been putting off the lasst one for a while because I absolutely detest reading a book with a jagged right edge.

Interesting, are you working the lists in pairs? :) Author and title for each letter back to back?

2021 SFF ABC Challenge
Book Title Mode (Easy Mode)

Progress: 26/26 ⭐️

✔️ A) Allegedly -- 1/11/21
✔️ B) Between the World and Me -- 11/24/21
✔️ C) Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents -- 3/3/21
✔️ D) The Devil's Grin -- 3/17/21
✔️ E) The Ecstatic -- 7/18/21
✔️ F) Fearless Jones -- 7/11/21
✔️ G) Ghosts of Tsavo -- 8/10/21
✔️ H) Hollywood Homicide -- 9/28/21
✔️ I) In an Absent Dream -- 1/16/21
✔️ J) Jurassic Park -- 9/26/21
✔️ K) Transcendent Kingdom -- 5/2/21
✔️ L) Legendborn -- 1/28/21
✔️ M) The Man -- 6/30/21
✔️ N) Neverwhere -- 1/25/21
✔️ O) Orleans -- 3/20/21
✔️ P) The Deep -- 3/12/21
✔️ Q) Red Queen -- 5/30/21
✔️ R) The Red Pyramid -- 3/10/21
✔️ S) The Sisterhood -- 6/24/21
✔️ T) Tuesday's Child -- 1/29/21
✔️ U) Uncle and Ants -- 9/3/21
✔️ V) My Dark Vanessa -- 7/22/21
✔️ W) When We Were One -- 2/1/21
✔️ X) Exit West -- 7/15/21
✔️ Y) The Year of the Witching -- 8/22/21
✔️ Z) Zoo City -- 9/20/21

more like two short stories and one novel. Plus I'm also doing the Elaki series for the series context. The Quiller-Couch & Perrault will go towards the short stories challenge,so I just decided to do that one next.

The K for author (Elizabeth Kerner will go along with the L, R & S books and the 6 by her will go for the long series on the series contest.

X for author came first as I wanted to finish reading The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Two which I had halted last year after realizing the elusive X for an author's name was in it.

OK, that makes sense. I thought you were adding new levels to the challenge! :D

that would be way too complex to make out of my TBR pile. I'm trying to get the most bang for my authors factoring in the other challenges and contests. My book with the most bang for the buck is Gideon the Ninth with #9 from the Alpha Challenge, Book Club Books and Alpha Title.

I'll be honest, I'm starting to wonder if I did this wrong; can one book count for two entries? For instance, could Harrow the Ninth count for BOTH "H" and "9"? (I know strictly speaking the answer could be "whatever" but is this how most people interpreted it?)

EDIT: I just read the rules, and it pretty explicitly says just that lol.

I'll have to rethink my list. I may just decide to keep it this way anyway.

Haha yes! Each subchallenge is its own thing so feel free to reuse!