SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I've planned my challenge to dig into our bookshelf as much as possible. I didn't want any repeats so I should get a lot done this year. I haven't decided what to do with the title X yet. It's been a productive 1st quarter so far, though.

Title letters: The Bone Shard Daughter Fate of the Fallen Gardens of the Moon Hollow Kingdom Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell The Martian Snow Crash
Surname: Jurassic Park Bloody Rose The Last Wish
#: 2nd Gen Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

Anna wrote: "also no Sixth/Sixteen, etc.)

- Less important, but if someone has a novel/collection that starts with two"

Too bad for no "Sixth", or I'd say Sixth of the Dusk. But for "Two", how about Two Sought Adventure?

I've read Sixth of the Dust! My current Two is Two Truths and a Lie, and I love Pinsker's short fiction, so the novel length Two would have to be very tempting to replace it!

Brian wrote: "I've planned my challenge to dig into our bookshelf as much as possible."

This is always my approach as well, as many challenges with one book as possible!

I'm kind of thinking I'll do Author in light mode, using one of the many Chinese authors whose first name starts with an X. I've already read one this year and have several more on my TBR, and I don't have anything for a "perfect X". If I find it, then sure I'll go for it, but I'm not going to force it at this point. I'll probably panic in December and scour my library for something weird :D

Just finished Magician: Apprentice Volume 1 by Raymond E. Feist for the F for Author listing

so I'm at

Alpha Author: F, H, Q, U, & X
Alpha Title: G, H, X & Y
Numbers (0-9): 0, 7, 8 & 9

and working on Song in the Silence by Elizabeth Kerner for both S for Title and K for Author to be followed by the rest of the books in that trilogy The Lesser Kindred and Redeeming the Lost to add L & R for Title

Just finished Song in the Silence by Elizabeth Kerner for both S for Title and K for Author

so I'm at

Alpha Author: F, H, K, Q, U, & X
Alpha Title: G, H, S, X & Y
Numbers (0-9): 0, 7, 8 & 9

and working on the rest of the books in that trilogy The Lesser Kindred and Redeeming the Lost to add L & R for Title

and tonight I finished Trader by Charles de Lint for the T in the Title part of the challenge

Alpha Author: F, H, K, Q, U, & X
Alpha Title: G, H, S, T, X & Y
Numbers (0-9): 0, 7, 8 & 9

Anna, if you're still looking for something for 6, I was thinking about this one: Six Moon Dance by Sheri Tepper.

Not sure if you've already read this or maybe the topic isn't what you're looking for (the reviews seem generally good but apparently it has some dark content as well.)

For my challenge, I've done 7 letters so far: B, C, F, H, P, S, and W. Funnily enough my S was not even one of the many books I listed in my original list. So far I think all of them have counted for at least 2 of my challenges!

I also decided I would only count books I haven't read yet in my challenge, so I'm not including rereads.

I do love Tepper, but I have others by her higher in my priority queue, so I doubt I'll get to SMD this year. But it's a good idea, I should see if I can talk myself into switching ... yeah, I think I'll have to give it some serious thought. There's no reason why I couldn't make it my next Tepper!

I'm also not counting rereads, but it's not against the rules.

and tonight I finished Riot Baby for the O in the Author part of the challenge

Alpha Author: F, H, K, Q, U, & X = 6 out of 26
Alpha Title: G, H, O, S, T, X & Y = 7 out of 26
Numbers (0-9): 0, 7, 8 & 9 = 4 out of 10

Wow, I just noticed that the first 5 in the Alpha Title spell out GHOST....spooky, eh?

Ghost XY! 😄

So far, I have:

Medium Mode Authors - A, B, C, G, J, K, M, R, S, T

Medium Mode Titles - B, C, E, G, H, L, M, N, O, P, S, W

Numbers - 9

Bonus Number: 40 (can this count as a 4?)

You can count 40 if you want, strictness is up to you!

I went to look up Bonus Mode and realized I totally overlooked Scrabble mode!

I'll have to see what I have there

I haven't given Scrabble mode any thought yet, my plan was to see if I happened to read lots of things that would rack up points, and then spend the last few months of the year filling in the rest.

after googling and playing around with the formula in a spreadsheet, I've found that this works

=LEN(B32)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(UPPER(B32),"A",""))

where B32 = the Title Cell
and A = the letter you're looking for
the Upper is necessary, but it finds both Upper and Lower case letters as this title One Land, One Duke (Night-Threads Book 3) yields a 4

I never noticed Scrabble mode either. I've got my Alphabet books locked in for the year, as well as a number of other books I just want to read, so there probably isn't room to really do too much with this, but I'll still take a look at some point.

At the risk of sounding like I'm taking it too seriously though, does it have to be the letter that appears the most in the title? The example of Master and Margarita is especially interesting because it scores more points for the two Ms than it does for the five A's.

Yep, I have my spreadsheet doing the work, but I'm not putting any effort into finding titles that have several of any letter. If I notice that I've accidentally read titles that are worth lots of points, then I'll consider finding options for other letters, too. But to be honest, I'm not really very into any challenges this year, so I might just forget about it. I'm already annoyed at myself for not sticking to just the basic title mode! Not that it's been hard work, I just kinda want to sulk in dark corners instead of reading or tracking what I'm reading :D

Joon wrote: "At the risk of sounding like I'm taking it too seriously though, does it have to be the letter that appears the most in the title?"

Nope, any letter!

At the end of the year we can all tally up how many points the books we read for title mode would give us, without having to hunt for maximum points!

Anna wrote: "I just kinda want to sulk in dark corners instead of reading or tracking what I'm reading :D"

🤗😘

Who knows, maybe later in the year you'll suddenly be totally crazy about challenges and readathons! (For me, it comes and goes.)

Yeah, this winter is killing me. I hope I'll perk up when I get to see the sun again, and possibly people!

sun doesn't help much as we're still under some pandemic controls. However, we do have our 2nd shots scheduled for April 4th & 7th. I imagine my reading rate will lessen then

Really putting in an effort for finish some of these challenges this year! Woot!

So far here's what I've got:

A - Aurora - Kim Stanley Robinson - Finished
B - Breach of Peach (The Lawful Times, #0.5) - Daniel B. Greene - Finished
C - Cauldron of Fire (Kirov Saga, #2) - Finished
D - The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2) - R.F. Kuang - Currently Reading
E - The Emperor's Soul - Brandon Sanderson - Purchased Not Yet Read
F - The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemisin - Not Yet Purchased Not Yet Read
G - The Girl in the Spider's Web - David Lagercrantz - Not Yet Purchased Not Yet Read
H - The hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - - Not Yet Purchased Not Yet Read
I - Isolate - Matt Rogers - Not Yet Purchased Not Yet Read
J - Jade City - Fonda Lee - Not Yet Purchased Not Yet Read
K - Kirov - John Schettler - Finished
L - The Last Emperox - John Scalzi - Finished
M - The Magicians - Lev Grossman - Purchased Not Yet Read
N - New Spring - Robert Jordan - Not Yet Purchased Not Yet Read
O - The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman - Not Yet Purchased Not Yet Read
P - The Poppy War - Kuang, R.F. - Finished
Q - The Quantum Thief - Hannu Rajaniemi - Not Yet Purchased Not Yet Read
R - Red Seas Under Red Skies - Finished
S - The Salvage Crew - Yudhanjaya Wijeratne - Not Yet Purchased Not Yet Read
T - The Torch that Ignites the Stars - Andrew Rowe - Finished
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Edit #1 (21JUN2021): Had to take about a month and a half off reading due to really needing to dump time into something else, but now that is finished, so back to this great hobby! Doubling down and setting goals for when I have certain books finished.

Great start!

just finished The Four Profound Weaves for the Number Challenge. It's a very odd book for me to read (it was part of the last Humble Bundle) as it definitely deals with different gender roles and a magical way of transforming into the sex one believes oneself to be.

Alpha Author: F, H, K, Q, U, & X = 6 out of 26
Alpha Title: G, H, O, S, T, X & Y = 7 out of 26
Numbers (0-9): 0, 4, 7, 8 & 9 = 5 out of 10

I'm working on Redeeming the Lost by Elizabeth Kerner to finish the series and add an R to break up the GHOST

Finished Redeeming the Lost by Elizabeth Kerner to finish the series

Alpha Author: F, H, K, Q, U, & X = 6 out of 26
Alpha Title: G, H, O, R, S, T, X & Y = 8 out of 26
Numbers (0-9): 0, 4, 7, 8 & 9 = 5 out of 10

I'm starting on the Night Threads series starting with The Calling of the Three by Ru Emerson for 3 and the next two books in the series will take care of 2 and 3 for the numbers and E for author

Finished The Calling of the Three by Ru Emerson to add E for Author and 3 for number and it's also my long series

Alpha Author: E, F, H, K, Q, U, & X = 7 out of 26
Alpha Title: G, H, O, R, S, T, X & Y = 8 out of 26
Numbers (0-9): 0, 3, 4, 7, 8 & 9 = 6 out of 10

I'm started the second book in the Night Threads series The Two In Hiding for 2 and the next book in the series will take care of 1 for the numbers

I finished a few more to add:

Binti, Nnedi Okorafor
Shelter in Place, Catherine Kyle

Books: BCDHILO
Authors: ADKLOS
Poetry: S

See my original post for the running tally and all my plans: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Finished the second book in the Night Threads series The Two In Hiding for 2 and the next book in the series will take care of 1 for the numbers

Alpha Author: E, F, H, K, Q, U, & X = 7 out of 26
Alpha Title: G, H, O, R, S, T, X & Y = 8 out of 26
Numbers (0-9): 0, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 & 9 = 7 out of 10

I'm started the third book in the Night Threads series One Land, One Duke which will give me 1 for the numbers

Finished the third book in the Night Threads series One Land, One Duke for 1 and Six from Atlantis by Gene Wolfe from The Sword & Sorcery Anthology for 6

Alpha Author: E, F, H, K, Q, U, & X = 7 out of 26
Alpha Title: G, H, O, R, S, T, X & Y = 8 out of 26
Numbers (0-9): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 & 9 = 9 out of 10

I'm working on Night Train to Rigel by Timothy Zahn for Z in Authors

Finished Night Train to Rigel by Timothy Zahn for Z in Authors

Alpha Author: E, F, H, K, Q, U, & X, Z = 8 out of 26
Alpha Title: G, H, O, R, S, T, X & Y = 8 out of 26
Numbers (0-9): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 & 9 = 9 out of 10

I'm working on Nightwings by Robert Silverberg for N in Titles and S in authors

!!! Completed the Numbers Section of the Challenge !!!

Finished Five Children and It by E. Nesbitfor 5 in Numbers

Alpha Author: E, F, H, K, Q, U, & X, Z = 8 out of 26
Alpha Title: G, H, O, R, S, T, X & Y = 8 out of 26
Numbers (0-9): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 = 10 out of 10

I'm working on Nightwings by Robert Silverberg for N in Titles and S in authors

CBRetriever wrote: "!!! Completed the Numbers Section of the Challenge !!!"

Woohoo! Congrats! :)

Finished Nightwings by Robert Silverberg for N in Titles and S in Authors

Alpha Author: E, F, H, K, Q, S, U, & X, Z = 9 out of 26
Alpha Title: G, H, N, O, R, S, T, X & Y = 9 out of 26
Numbers (0-9): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 = 10 out of 10

I'm working on The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro for I in Authors

Finished The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro for I in Authors

Alpha Author: E, F, H, I, K, O, Q, S, U, X, & Z = 11 out of 26
Alpha Title: G, H, N, O, R, S, T, X & Y = 9 out of 26
Numbers (0-9): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 = 10 out of 10

I'm working on Andre Norton's Darkness and Dawn which includes Daybreak 2250 A.D. (Star Man's Son) and No Night Without Stars which will fulfill N for Authors and #19 Taboo for the TBR Challenge

edit to change Alpha Author to add O for Tochi Onyebuchi

so, I need 15 + 17 books to finish this challenge

I read Everfair, which I'm going to count for E (because I haven't read any of the E books I put on my original list!).

My tally thus far:

Books: BCDEHILO
Authors: ADKLOS
Poetry: S

Next up: Parable of the Sower for Books P and Authors B

See my original post for the running tally and all my plans: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I just updated my list and I'm at 21/26 for both titles and authors, and 2/11 (0-10) for numbers. I'm not sure I want to do numbers, but there are at least a couple more on my numbers-TBR I'm happy to read, so maybe I'll get to the rest later in the year.

wow Anna, congrats - you're doing just fine.

Indeed, that is inspiring! I would like to do the numbers challenge but I think it will be difficult to find titles for all numbers. I could not find anything for zero, six, nine and eleven. For 12 I would have a book.

This is my first attempt at it:

************************************************

Numbers until 11
(view spoiler)[

0
✔️1 One Day All This Will Be Yours
2 Two Penniless Princesses
3 Three Parts Dead
4 The Four Profound Weaves
5 The Fifth Season
6
7 The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
8 8 Novels of Utopia: Boxed Set
9
10 Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything
11
12 Twelve Kings in Sharakhai
(hide spoiler)]

Leticia wrote: "Indeed, that is inspiring! I would like to do the numbers challenge but I think it will be difficult to find titles for all numbers. I could not find anything for zero, six, nine and eleven. For 12..."

it's only for 0-9 and I completed it with

0 = Zero Gee is a short story in The Best of Bova: Volume 1 by Ben Bova
1 = One Land, One Duke by Ru Emerson
2 = The Two In Hiding by Ru Emerson
3 = The Calling of the Three (Night-Threads Book 1) by Ru Emerson
4 = The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg
5 = Five Children and It from Complete Novels of E. Nesbit by E. Nesbit
6 = Six from Atlantis in The Sword & Sorcery Anthology
7 = Seven in the Unfettered III: New Tales By Masters of Fantasy Anthology
8 = Eight Cousins in Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott
9 = Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

"Novels, short fiction, graphic novels, children's books, all allowed, especially for that pesky letter X! You can only use a book once in one mode, but it's OK to use the same book in two or more modes. (Example: Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee for N in Medium, L in Author and 9 in Number.)"

Update for me:

Medium Mode Authors - A, B, C, G, J, K, M, P, R, S, T

Medium Mode Titles - A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, L, M, N, O, P, S, W

Numbers - 9
Bonus Number: 40

Was Zero Gee a good story, CB?

Ok, time to update (for the first time since I've joined the challenge XD). Here are my lists:

Titles:
A- "The Alchemist" H.P. Lovecraft
B- "The Beast in the Cave" H.P Lovecraft
F- "The Fate of the Fallen"
H- "The House in the Cerurelan Sea"
K- "Katedra" Jacek Dukaj
L- "The Lies of Locke Lamora"
M- "The Man in the High Castle"
O- "The Obelisk Gate"
P- "The Poppy War"
S- "The Stone Sky"
W- "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)"

Authors:
D- Jacek Dukaj
J - N.K. Jemisin
K - Kel Kade
L - H.P. Lovecraft
T - Dennis E. Taylor

One book in Polish ("Katedra" by Dukaj) and of course not a single unique Polish letter for my bonus challenge ;)

Yeah I'm not even going to attempt the bonus letters in Finnish XD

Eva wrote: "Was Zero Gee a good story, CB?"

Very 60s sex-orientated from a male point of view. However, the women seem to have won in the end.

CBRetriever wrote: "Leticia wrote: "Indeed, that is inspiring! I would like to do the numbers challenge but I think it will be difficult to find titles for all numbers. I could not find anything for zero, six, nine an..."

Gideon the Ninth is a good option for nine.

Finished the first book in Andre Norton's Darkness and Dawn which includes Daybreak 2250 A.D. (Star Man's Son) and No Night Without Stars which will fulfill N for Authors

Alpha Author: E, F, H, I, K, N, O, Q, S, U, X, & Z = 12 out of 26
Alpha Title: G, H, N, O, R, S, T, X & Y = 9 out of 26
Numbers (0-9): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 = 10 out of 10

not sure what I'll tackle next for this challenge.