SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Abii wrote: "Hello! My name is Abii, I currently reside in the U.S.

I've been a Goodreads member for a little bit over two months. I'm looking for a couple of groups to settle in that work for me. I've always ..."

Oh yes, we have tons of characters, and I'm not just talking about our group reads!

(Goodreads humor? yes/no? I feel it's very "niche")

Either way, welcome! We try to mix it up a bit in our genres, and I think we have some great stuff going on and coming down the pike! Looking forward to seeing you in chat, Abii!

Hello,

New to the group, my name is Erica.

SAHM, wife, and nursing school student. Starting to feel like I only do things for my loved ones so decided to join a book club for myself!

Excited to start reading with y’all.

Question, where can I find a history of books read in this group?

Thanks!

Erica wrote: "Question, where can I find a history of books read in this group?"

Yes, the bookshelf, or if you prefer, there's also a list.

Erica wrote: "Hello,

New to the group, my name is Erica.

SAHM, wife, and nursing school student. Starting to feel like I only do things for my loved ones so decided to join a book club for myself!

Excited to ..."

Thanks!

Thank you, Anna!

Greetings everyone!

Hiya Crimson! Hey there Erica! Welcome to both of you ^.^

Hi,

My name is Justin and I write under the pen name Jordan Halleck. I am a huge fantasy and sci-fi fan, so I am glad to have found a community willing to nerd out on the same topics that interest me. Not many co-workers have heard of Ian M. Banks or Frank Herbert, so it is a huge relief to find that both are alive and well in the discussions boards on this site.

Thanks for letting me be a part of this community. I look forward to gaining new insights from you all and contribute to your discussions.

Cheers,

Justin

Welcome, Justin! Hope you find many new favorites with us! Looking forward to seeing you in discussion.

Hi there, I'm Becky. New to the group. Been interested in joining a book club for a while but struggled to find one in my area that fitted my interests! Happy to have stumbled on this one.

Sci-fi and fantasy is one of my favourite genres. A couple of my favourites are the Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling and The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Currently reading Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Dames which I'm loving!

Excited to discover some amazing new books and have discussions!

Becky wrote: "A couple of my favourites are the Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling"

Have you read the Tamir Triad, starting with The Bone Doll's Twin? We're starting a buddy read on July 9th. Join us!

That sounds great Anna thank-you! I've not got around to reading the Tamir Triad yet so that's awesome.

Hi, my name is Lara Storm Hitchcock. I'm a reader, writer (working on a dystopian), and blogger currently living near Albany, NY. I write blogs about writing and books (with giveaways)... and I'm always looking for my next great read. I'm pretty much open to any speculative subgenre as long as it's not too heavy with language.

Howdy Lara! We're about to start a few re-reads with the group, select our August reads and are in the middle of oodles of buddy reads! I hope you find your next great read soon! :)

Good afternoon everyone, after a couple of years break from reading due to a new job, family life etc, I have finally got my head back in my books.

Looking to get involved in the groups reads and hanging about in the group as well :)

I love Reading, Photography, TV & Film.

Feel free to add me as a friend if you would like as I love to see what other people are reading/planning to read.

Hey Alan!! Glad to have you and welcome back to reading! We're doing a ton of things right no--2 group reads, 2 group re-reads and I've lost count of the number of buddy reads going on. I hope your return to genre is joyous!

Hello, I'm not new to Goodreads, but I'm not active at all on it, so it's kind of like I'm new! I'm an author of a Sci-Fi book, and that's generally what I enjoy reading along with Fantasy and Historical Fiction.

My current favorite is Patrick Rothfuss and the Kingkiller Chronicles. I'm dying to read the third book! Right now I need to pick up some more Brandon Sanderson books, I've read a few of his series and loved his creativity with characters and powers.

I'd love to hear recommendations for any fantasy or sci-fi. Thanks!

Hey Everyone!

I’m Arya Yang, or you may call me Huiran(my Chinese name), from China. I stumbled across this website while looking for reviews for The Life and Death of Julius Caesar. Saying that I'm glad I found this place would be an understatement.

I fell in love with fantasy at age 9 when my mother gave me the LOTR series for birthday presents, and Foundation inspired my love of sci-fi. However, in China, fantasy and sci-fi are relatively niche genres. So, you can imagine my excitement when I found this club.

I’ve been reading The Way of Kings over the past few days, and right now I believe it’s a lot better than his Mistborn. I plan to read some sci-fis after the finals, any good recommendations here?

Looking forward to chatting with everyone.

Hey. Well, "some SciFi" is definitely good start, if a little wide in scope :-)
A very challenging start would be the terra ignota series by Ada Palmer.
A little easier and slightly action prone would be anything by Iain M Banks, eg Consider Phlebas or the Player of Games.
A classic imho is The Dispossesed by Ursula K LeGuin.
Anything by Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov, some by Robert Heinlein (the "big Three"). Asimov especially the Foundation Series.
Modern stuff I would highly recommend the MArs Series by Kim STanley Robbinson.

But as I write this, I realize this is such an open field, I guess we have to finde out if you are more techie, social, space opera, etc .

If you want, give me a PM and we can chat some.

Best Erik

Hey everyone, my name is Nathan Darby I’m 28 and live in the U.K. I always have been a fan of the fantasy genre both on screen and on paper. I will admit for most of my life so far I’ve not been a big reader but I’ve started picking up more and more books recently.

Brand new to goodreads and hope the sense of community and group will push me to keep reading more and more.

I love fantasy because it brings us out of our own reality and sometimes mundane life cycle to live that epic adventure with might and magic.

Thanks all :-)

Welcome Arya and Nathan! As you can see, we have Too Many Good Books!

Hope you'll check out some of the group or buddy reads with us, and if nothing's catching your mood, there's always the "Recommendations and Lost Books" folder where we will help you hone in on the exact thing you feel like reading next :)

John wrote: "Arya wrote: "Hey Everyone!

I’m Arya Yang, or you may call me Huiran(my Chinese name), from China. I stumbled across this website while looking for reviews for The Life and Death of Julius Caesar...."
Hey John. Thank you for your good advice! The books you've mentioned did give me some fresh ideas about what to read next :)

Indeed, sometimes it's inconvenient to visit foreign sites, but as long as my VPN still works, it's not a big deal. Well, those sites are terrific and are just what I am looking for. Thanks again!

Hi!

I'm Tizzy. I joined the group a few days back but hadn't posted here, so thought I'd come introduce myself :P

I've been a fan of fantasy and sci-fi all my life (more fantasy than scifi, but still,) and thought joining a couple book clubs could help me expand my horizons. I'm currently reading one of the books for this month, and I'm very interested in one of the next month books (sea of rust,) but as it is I'll likely only get it if it goes on sale on Kindle as I'm trying to minimize my spending (which I'm very bad at, because I can't resist books on sale... duh!) Still, I hope I can find more interesting recommendations of books or authors I otherwise would likely not give a try :D

This year I've finally started reading some hard sci-fi, specifically the Expanse series (Read the first two books, will likely get to book 3 soon,) although in all honesty I tend to prefer standalones over series.

I'm a writer also, though my turf is more funny fantasy/satire. Which in turn means I love reading that, so any recommendations of the kind (of any kind!) are well received.

Hi,

I'm Wilfried, I'm from Belgium though I've been residing in Spain for the past 15 years, and I joined this group a few days ago. Although I've been on Goodreads for almost three years, I have only been using it to keep track of my reading activities and for the recomendations based on my bookshelves. Sci-Fi and Fantasy have been my favourite genres for many years, though I like to branch out to other genres from time to time, coming back to my favourites is then always so much nicer!

I've joined this group to see recomendations and discover new authors, until now I've been mostly reading Asimov, Herbert, Clarke, Feist, Brooks, Tolkien...I know this group's bookshelf will be a great source of inspiration, but would love to get some recommendations based on those authors I've been reading so far.

I've just recently started reading pulp SF, a genre I had never touched before, and jumped into E. Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series, reading #2 Gods of Mars at this time. For now, I'm not certain this could become a favourite in the SF field, but it is fun and light reading, ideal to disconnect from work and every day's chores...

Got a lot TBR at this time, among them the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, but will try to read some of the month's books from this group as well during this year.

Thanks all!

Welcome Tizzy and Wilfried!!

I hope you'll find lots of new great books with us!

Wilfried, may I recommend starting a thread in the "Recommendations and Lost Books" folder? More people check that and can better tailor their recommendations for you :)

Glad to have you both!!

I just joined the group, so I'll introduce myself. I was born in New Hampshire, then moved to Florida when I was three and have lived in the Sunshine State ever since. I grew up on the Space Coast, where I could see the space shuttle (RIP) blast into the sky. I currently make my home in Pembroke Pines, which is near Fort Lauderdale.

I'm a reporter at the South Florida Business Journal and have won over 25 journalism awards.

Some of my favorite scifi books:

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Safehold series - David Weber
Manifold Space - Stephen Baxter
The Tommyknockers - Stephen King
The Host - Stephenie Meyer
Seize the Night - Dean Koontz
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula Le Guin
Event - David Lynn Golemon
Dune series - Frank Herbert
Venus - Ben Bova
Hominids - Robert J. Sawyer
Polaris - Jack McDevitt
Rendevous with Rama - Arthur C. Clark
The occasional Star Wars book, if it has a good angle

I'm also an author with indie press Silver Leaf Books. My novels "Mute" and "Science the Living", plus my short story "Medical Martial Arts" are scifi.

I'm happy to discuss reading, writing, or speculative science.

I've been a member of Goodreads for a while but I haven't learned the ropes. So here I go swinging...

Welcome, Brian! Hard to go wrong with favorites like that :-)

Hope you find lots of great conversations and books. We're a chatty bunch and pretty helpful, so just ask around and see what looks cool. We're starting to vote tomorrow on August's books--I hope you'll join in!

I realized I had been posting in some discussions but hadn’t yet introduced myself in this thread.

I’m Anthony, and I’m an actor and (occasional) writer.

I’ve been a voracious reader since I was a kid, but had slowed down a little in the last few years. Now I’m on a tear again, devouring books that had long been on my list. Ursula K. le Gunn’s death prompted me to finally tackle the original Earthsea Trilogy and The Left Hand of Darkness, all of which I totally adored, and I’ve just begun the first of McCaffrey’s Pern books.

A longtime favorite SF/Fantasy author of mine is Connie Willis, whose Doomsday Book remains one of my all-time most powerful reading experiences. I also love Vonnegut’s work, and have enjoyed a lot of Kim Stanley Robinson’s work.

I have gone on a recent binge of loading up my (virtual) shelves with a wide range of classic and more recent stuff, and I look forward to joining in on this community’s discussions about those works when applicable.

Happy summer reading to you all!

Hi everyone!
I’m Bree, coming at you from Perth in Western Australia.
Been reading fantasy since I first devoured Anne McCaffrey (not literally of course) as a teenager. Fire lizards? Can I have one please?
Been reading sci fi since I picked up a 2 volume collection of short stories from Robert Heinlein - The Past Through Tomorrow - a very, very long time ago :-).
I am also a writer in the historical romance genre, however my muse has very firmly decided that there are a few fantasy tales that I must tell. A chronic illness means that I write very slowly, so you may be assured I won’t be touting them at you for quite a while :-)
I’m excited to interact with you all - looking forward to the buddy read of The Bone Doll’s Twin, sounds like a great series.
So, as a counterpoint to Anthony’s introduction (the guy directly above me in the thread):
Happy winter reading to you all!
(Because it’s winter here in Australia)
Cheers!
Bree

Hi everybody. Goodreads is a cool place to be.

My name is Leo and I write fantasy and poetry. I am 50 years of age and live in Bristol, UK with my partner Linda Jane and our cat Archimedes.

I also write poetry, sometimes of an esoteric nature and often put a poem up in the comments for book reviews.

Presently I am struggling with mental health problems and self promotion is extremely daunting. I will welcome any advice and help on offer.

I really enjoy this Goodreads interaction.

Kind regards,

Leo.

I struggle with depression and find that promoting my artwork and photography gets harder and harder to do. Even the act of updating my website is a chore and I am not a lazy person. I hate it when people say, just do it. Could Linda take up some of the load of self-promoting?

Hi Gbraden.

Yes it sucks depression.

Linda Jane works full time. She is the sole bread winner currently, has been for some time actually. I would not want to burden her as her state of mind suffers too. It must be difficult to hold down a full time job and care for a loved one with extreme emotional distress disorder and rapid cycling bipolar. I saw my psychiatrist this morning and the dreaded 'Paranoid Schizophrenia' was mentioned.

I know I am not mad, I am stuck in a rut and desperate to be successful, not stinking rich, just content and pay back my Linda Jane. I really want her to retire before she is 50.

I also have a huge family, all on Facebook but, not a glimmer of support there. One cannot bark on about ones own book, it seems unethical yet, a Corporation can bombard the public with subliminal advertising and in your face promotion, that is where family and friends come in to help. I admit that it is my own making; I am a recluse and shut myself away for many years.

I have a sequel almost finished and a picture poetry book too. Need to sell some books to raise the funds to publish the other two. It is a dog eat dog world, this literary one. Only the cream of the crop seem to make it. I guess that is the price of profit, it only goes up not down. Anyhow, I wish to thank you for your feedback. Much appreciated.

I guess I should just plod on.

:-)

Welcome Anthony, Bree, and Leo! (And Gbraden! Don't think you can fool me, I see you :D)

I think you'll find lots of great books and folks here, no matter the season you're in haha!

Leo, there are groups on GR dedicated to helping authors get their names out there. We are a lot less equipped to help in that sense--this is a group for readers enjoying books, which I always find helps me when my mental health starts failing! Maybe you'll find the same!

Please see our rules on self-promotion and let me know if you have any questions :)

Hello everyone, my name is Ryan, I’m a college student currently studying physics and hope to be moving on to grad school next year. I really enjoy sci-fi book and this group seemed welcoming from the need to read section.

I was motivated to get back into reading last summer and picked up John Scalzi’s Collapsing Empire and Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One and absolutely fell in love and found my genre. I have now read all of the Old Man’s war series and I have made a number of my friends read it as well as other books such as Jurassic Park, Armada, Starship Trooper, The Time Machine.

I am hoping this group will help me find new books to read to grow my ever expanding “want to read” bookshelf on GoodReads and motivate me to read more books each year.

Hope to see you all on a chat.

Ryan wrote: "Hello everyone, my name is Ryan, I’m a college student currently studying physics and hope to be moving on to grad school next year. I really enjoy sci-fi book and this group seemed welcoming from ..."

You should check out The Three-Body Problem. It's extra fun if you have a physics background.

Welcome, Ryan! Collapsing Empire was one of my favorite reads of last year. We're discussing our re-read of Old Man's War as we speak--just in case you're not tired of talking about it :)

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

And I agree with Ariana, 3BP might be a fun pick for you!

Thank you Ariana and Allison and I will be adding the book to my want to read list thank you for the recommendation.

Im glad to hear others have enjoyed The Collapsing Empire and I was ecstatic to find out the sequel is coming out in October. I will venture over to the discussion of Old Man’s War might even reread it after I finish starship trooper. I haven’t checked to see if the sequel ghost brigades has been on the recommended readings but I found it to be my favorite in the series along with The Sagan Diaries.

Hello everyone,

I’m an avid fiction and sf reader, my favourite author is Ursula K Le Guin. I am also a social researcher at Newcastle University, in the UK, and I'm currently doing a research project on science fiction readers.

I am really interested your reading group, and hope that you would like to participate in this project! I’ve discussed it briefly with Allison and Anna. The project I'm working on is called 'Prospecting Futures Online' part of a wider inter-institutional project, 'Unsettling Scientific Stories'. All the information is on this webpage, which links to a consent form, and more in-depth information sheet: http://unsettlingscientificstories.co...

But in brief: the aim of the project is to explore online discussion (social media, blogs, fan sites) and work with reading groups to analyse how science fiction readers engage with the different kinds of futures that emerge from scientific innovations and their social implications. Practically speaking, this project would involve observing the everyday interactions and discussions in SFFBC, focusing on the book discussion threads, from July to December 2018.

If you are happy, I will read and participate in the discussions, and then as the threads wind down I will select a few to focus on in more depth and then email individuals for informed consent to discuss specific comments and threads. With your consent, I would use anonymised and contextualised quotes from your discussion to understand how reading groups think and talk together about books. We take the knowledge and enthusiasm of readers very seriously, and hope to develop a better understanding of how fictional narratives enable readers to think creatively and critically about social and science futures.

SFFBC is such a rich site for exploring these ideas, as it is so active, with many interesting discussion taking place around specific science fiction texts, and I would love to be able to explore the different threads that emerge! I'm particularly interested in the re-read of Annihilation coming up in July, and the upcoming climate fiction sci fi discussion in August.

I am happy to address any worries or concerns, and unless as a group you would prefer me not to, I will enthusiastically join in over the next few months as a fellow reader.

Thanks for your time!
Miranda Iossifidis [email protected]

Welcome, Miranda! I do think this could be neat. A lot of great perspectives here. We'll see what folks think!

Hey Miranda, your research sounds very interesting and I wish you the best of luck! Please do get involved in discussion and diving into the books read here. If you do end up writing a paper on your findings from our group you should post a link so we can read it. BEST OF LUCK!

Hello Everybody,
My Introduction:

Name: Varun Sayal
Favorite Books: The day of the jackal, Dr. Who novels, Issac Asimov Books
Favorite Genres: Science Fiction
Favorite TV shows: Altered Carbon, Stargate SG1, Battlestar Galactica
Favorite Movies: Inception, Minority Report
Favorite Food: Pizza
Day Job: Manager, Data Science
Hobbies: Writing
Other: Huge fan of all of sci-fi. Very recently I gave birth to a book, so now I am a new author too.

Ryan wrote: "Hey Miranda, your research sounds very interesting and I wish you the best of luck! Please do get involved in discussion and diving into the books read here. If you do end up writing a paper on you..."

Thanks, Ryan! I'll definitely do that. If you have a spare minute to read this, the consent page is here: http://unsettlingscientificstories.co...

Welcome Varun! Hope to see you in discussions!

Allison wrote: "Welcome Varun! Hope to see you in discussions!"

Absolutely Allison, looking forward to contributing. I am fairly new to Goodreads, any tips, and suggestions on how can I get started?

Varun wrote: "Allison wrote: "Welcome Varun! Hope to see you in discussions!"

Absolutely Allison, looking forward to contributing. I am fairly new to Goodreads, any tips, and suggestions on how can I get started?"

Hmm! If you're on the mobile desktop or a computer, poking around and finding threads that seem interesting is how I started :)

As far as where I think I'd start in this group here's our link on "Everything you need to know" which gives a break down of how we structure things, what each of the folders is for etc.

Another popular starting post is to tell us what you're reading now. We have fun seeing what people are getting up to (doesn't have to be genre!) If you're looking for something new to read, there's always the buddy read recruitment list--really great discussion groups for buddy read books!

And/or if you're so inclined, you can go vote on what we'll read next month!

Allison wrote: "Varun wrote: "Allison wrote: "Welcome Varun! Hope to see you in discussions!"

Absolutely Allison, looking forward to contributing. I am fairly new to Goodreads, any tips, and suggestions on how ca..."

Awesome, this is very helpful. Thanks a lot.

Uhm, hi, hello!

My name's Dawn, I'm from Denmark, and was recommended this group, which is my first GR group, even though I've been active here a few years.

I've read science fiction since I was a child, my dad in particular was an avid fan and taught me to appreciate the tech heavy, philosophical scifi.

I also read magical realism, historical fiction, especially mixed with mystery or detective stories, cyberpunk and horror. I love cross genre stories you can't quite categorize.

I'm not big on fantasy (don't hate me!), but I've adored ElfQuest my whole life, it's my favorite all-time comic. I have four different collections of the whole body of work, because one edition is not enough, obviously. ElfQuest, beyond being beautiful and emotive, reflects some of the same things I find in Star Trek and in Ursula Le Guin's work, the search and hope for a world of coexistence and peace, which really speaks to me on a personal level.

In my spare time I play computer games, watch other people play computer games, watch a million tv shows, old and ongoing, and go to the theater, especially in London which is a short flight from Copenhagen.

Nice to be here and thanks for having me!

Welcome, Dawn! It sounds like you like enough fantasy to me! It's so much more than epic fantasy. I too love that hopeful/insightful sci fi! I hope you find many good books (and shows!) in group! Glad to have you!

Hello everybody,

my name is Gabi and I'm from Germany (so please bear with some strange grammar I may use).
I used to be an avid SF reader in my teens. Literally all of my pocket money went into SF- and Fantasy-novels, often from the rummage table of one of the stores.

I loved the likes of Joan Vinge, Elizabeth A. Lynn and Joy Chant, but what really changed my life was the first Theodore Sturgeon short story I read.
Later on I fell in love with the work of Terry Pratchett, which I nowadays introduce to my boys. Each morning before school I'm reading from one of his books to them.

I haven't been up to date for the last 2 decades, somehow career and family took up all the spare time. Yet a very convincing person over on Twitter infected me with his binge reading of SF novels during the last weeks and so I decided to start again.
Yesterday I joined GR and this group and I'm hoping for new worlds and new horizons along the way.

I started my second SF-novel-life with the "Broken Earth" trilogy by N.K. Jemisin and I'm looking forward to interacting with this group.

Love, Gabi

Allison wrote: "Welcome, Dawn! It sounds like you like enough fantasy to me! It's so much more than epic fantasy. I too love that hopeful/insightful sci fi! I hope you find many good books (and shows!) in group! G..."

Thank you! And yes, herphaps I should add I do like fantasy *elements*, especially folklore and mythology, Nordic, Greek, Roman, Japenese, etc. And by god, I watch Doctor Who, that's like 50% scifi and 50% fantasy haha.