SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Welcome, Ethan!

Welcome Sadie, Gina, and Ethan.

Sadie--London is one of my favorite cities, and I'd visit more often if only it wasn't so damned expensive! I read 'Deerskin' a few years ago and was blown away by it.

Gina--So far, the club has been reading one book per month, but that may change. Some folks do seem to read the selection ahead of time, while others don't.

Hello everyone...40-ish lady from Belleville, Michigan, re-discovering her love for Sci-Fi and Fantasy...This group is great. Have been a member for a few weeks now and love all the posts and ideas. Question...has anyone read Under the Moons of Mars??? Just can't seem to get into it and was wondering if there was hope and I should plow on, or nevermind...

Hi Deanna! I usually give a book 100 pages to grab me. If it hasn't by then, it's usually a tosser unless it's for a reading group or someone I trust has insisted it's a great book. Sometimes though, even trustworthy references disappoint me. I've never read "Under the Moons of Mars," so I can't tell you whether it's worth sticking with.

Hi Deanna, and welcome!

Is 'Under The Moons of Mars' one of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars novels? If so, it might be out of print, but you can almost certainly find it on E-bay or Amazon.com's Used Book finder.

I loved those novels as a kid, which is not usual for a girl, since they were aimed squarely at young men and boys. I think it would be great fun to re-read them now and discuss them in this group. What do other people think?

I join with everyone in welcoming all the new members. :)

Thank you for the warm welcome everyone. Yes, that is one of Edgar rice Burroughs' John Carter series, the first one...guess I will have to give it another try when I am done with Maximum Ride which I would recommend to anyone with teenagers who enjoy SciFi or Fantasy...

Greetings!
I think I might be the first and only fictitious Goodreads author and SciFi/Fantasy book club member. I am a professor at the Mythological Department of The University, Capital City, The Country, and have recently (April 2008) published the Norwegian fantasy novel “Tilfeldigvis – Arial Footlights forhistorie” together with my factual co-author Silje E. Fretheim – a Norwegian archaeologist who enjoys both SciFi and fantasy tremendously!

Steingard Vada

Welcome, Steingard! I think you may just be our first and only fictitious author!

I welcome and applaud your creativity, Steingard/Silje. Perhaps one of my characters should join Goodreads as well!

Hello,

Writer (w/ IT analyst day job) and reader here. Been reading sci/f/h since teen years, branched out more as an adult but always kept one in the to-be-read queue. Time is limited these days. Big fan of the writings of Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, Karl Edward Wagner.

To illustrate how out of touch I can get, I didn't realize Blade Runner was even based on a novel, though I've seen the movie a couple times and enjoyed it, mainly for the setting and scenery, really.

Welcome James and John!

Hello all. Born in 1968 and raised in Leominster, Massachusetts (Which still proudly announces itself as Pioneer Plastics City despite having become an upscale bedroom town for Boston :)

My first real exposure to fantasy was as for many people, through the LoTR series and the Chronicles of Narnia. Later on I read the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and was permanently hooked.

I was exposed to Graphic Novels in college and became a Neil Gaiman fan as a result.

Lately, I've been utterly addicted to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books (Can't say enough about how much fun those are!) and am currently running through the Harry Potter series which I've somehow managed to avoid reading until now.

When my nose isn't buried in a book I'm a Release Engineer with the Human Genome project at MIT.

Thankfully, my wife indulges my book buying / collecting habit (Within limits, our town house is only so big :) among other things, which I really appreciate.

Favorite scifi/fantasy books include (in no order):

LoTR
Chronicles of Narnia
The Dresden Files
Harry Potter
The first Pern Trilogy
The Crystal Line
The Grey Lensman series (They're fun in a historical kind of way)
Good Omens
Dirk Gently (all the books)
virtually everything Douglas Adams wrote
The Tripods series
Dar Tellum: Stranger From a Distant Planet (Give me a break, it was a Scholastic book I read in like 6th grade :)
A Wrinkle in Time (and the rest of the series)
The first few Thomas Covenant books (Though I like them less as time goes on)
Starship Troopers
Stranger in a Strange Land
Mists of Avalon
The Dispossessed
Lathe of Heaven
the entire Sandman series

That'll do for now I think :)

Hi Christopher and welcome!

Wow, how cool is that? You work on the Human Genome Project! I was a genetics major in college.

I think I've read at least half of the books on your list. The Sandman series was AWESOME!!! I'd love to see it done as an animated show. Have you read 'Black Orchid' by Gaiman?

We will be reading a Jim Butcher book as our Sept. selection--'Storm Front', I believe. Hope you'll join in the discussion.

Cheers!

Leslie Ann

Christopher, it sounds like you have a really cool job! It's science fiction becoming reality.

Welcome to the group!

Hi Everyone,

My name is Jeanne and I'm a lurker, mostly because I'm not a heavy sci fi reader, though I love several sci fi writers (Octavia Butler, James Tiptree come to mind off the top of my head).

Most recently I liked Spin (and thought it deserved its 2006 Hugo) and its sequel Axis (not as good, but an enjoyable read anyway). I'm currently reading Blasphemy (not quite sci fi) and Dune (for the first time, and its writing is a little bothersome to me as a writer). I also LOVE listening to Escape Pod short sci-fi podcast.

I live in south Minneapolis with my partner and a cat with a superhero diamond on her chest (and a hidden superpower of escape). I write (not yet sci fi) where I can find juice for my cell phone, iPod and laptop, though my muse usually finds me in places not appropriate to discuss in polite company.

I'm posting mostly because of Christopher's post about working with the Human Genome Project! I have been wanting to volunteer and can't wait for it to open up to other folks. My brother-in-law and his wife are funders, so I hear about what's going on from time-to-time.

:-) Jeanne
writeousness.com

Hi everyone. My name is Chrissy. I was born in '75 and grew up in Virginia. I now live in Oregon. I've read science fiction and fantasy for as long as I can remember. I'm a social worker and I deal with a lot of bad stuff and negative emotions daily at work, so I like my reading to be an escape.

Favorite sci-fi/fantasy authors, past and present, in no particular order:

David Eddings
Neil Gaiman
Mercedes Lackey
Guy Gavriel Kay
Kim Harrison
Kelly Armstrong
CS Lewis
Margaret Atwood
Tad Williams
Jim Butcher

there are more but I can't think of them now. I've never been in a book club before.

Welcome Jeanne and Chrissy!

Jeanne--If you like Escape Pod, check out Clonepod, the hot newcomer to sci-fi/fantasy podcasts. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I happen to be one of the Clones. We started our podcast a mere 7 months ago, and already, we've got 500 subscribers and are averaging anywhere from 400-2000 listeners per show. We've been releasing bi-monthly, but our goal is weekly. You can find us at www.clonepod.org.

Hi I'm Dannii and have just joined so thought i would introduce myself. I'm a big fan of Urban fantasy but also read quite a bit of standard fantasy and some sci-fi too, depending on my mood. I would say check out my bookshelf but i know it is not complete, but would still give an idea of what i like.

A bit more about me, I'm 28 and have just bought my first home, i was living in London (UK) and have moved up to Northampton which is about an hour away so get even more time to read as i have a long commute to work. My reading habits are a bit sporadic, i loved to read as a young child but read rarely as a teenager, but when i did it would always be something chunky. It wasn't until my early 20's that i discovered fantasy and i haven't looked back, although i do try to vary my genres so they don't become stale.

I can't really think of anything else at the moment but i hope to soon be able to join in on book club reads (although if it's not available at my local library i may have to sit out as money is a little tight at the moment)

Hi Jeanne,

I'm curious about this statement: "Dune (for the first time, and its writing is a little bothersome to me as a writer"


I haven't read it in a long time and don't remember much about the writing. Do you have an example?

Sue

Hi Jeanne,

I'm curious about this statement: "Dune (for the first time, and its writing is a little bothersome to me as a writer"


I haven't read it in a long time and don't remember much about the writing. Do you have an example?

Sue

Thanks Leslie! Black Orchid is on my shelf and on my list :)

I'll definitely chime in on the discussion. There's just something about the Dresden Files that really sates my fantasy reading sweet tooth :)

Looking over this topic I realized there were a couple in there that I hadn't mentioned that shouldn't be omitted:

Ender's Game
A Handmaid's (Handmaiden's?) Tale
Ringworld / Ringworld Engineers

And yeah, I love the job :) Thanks.

Hi Dannii from a fellow Northamptonian! :-)

Hi Dannii,
Your photo looks very elven. Are you at some sort of a convention or fantasy re-enactment event? Elves happen to be my favorite imaginary race of people, followed closely by centaurs and vampires. It's why I wrote three books centering on them!(Elves, that is)

Thank you for the welcomes, and how cool that i meet a fellow Numpton on an online book club Samsara :)

Yes Leslie that is a picture of me dressed up as an Elf at a Live Roleplay Event. Unfortunately that elf died by stupidly being in love and following said person on foraging trip where he picked some flowers for her and then were promptly attacked and eaten alive. Not a pretty story really (oh and the only picture of me that i had on my pc at the time i started this account )

What are the books that you have written, i would love to read them if i can get hold of them, i am always interested in finding new authors and anything slightly Fae-ish intrigues me greatly.

Hi, I'm Matt. I joined this group after receiving an invitation from Sandi Kallas.

Previously, I was not an avid reader of SciFi. I enjoyed a lot of Science Fiction type television and movies as a child (most specifically Star Wars and old school Star Trek), but I missed out on the literature. As a child, I wasn't too enthusiastic about reading, mainly because that was considered something that my Mom made me do out of a textbook everyday after school. Heck, there were action figures that needed to be played with, and it looked like I was the only one in my family who would step up to the task.

A few years ago, I got heavily into Cyberpunk, and have always had a penchant for the "off-kilter" stuff. My three favorite writers would probably be William Gibson, William S. Burroughs, and J.G. Ballard. I am trying to broaden my horizons and take a look at different writers of various styles and time periods. I'm looking forward to this group allowing me to become more well rounded in the SciFi/Fantasy genre.

I work in IT (mainly hardware and user support). My wife and I live in Cape Girardeau, MO. If you google Cape Girardeau, please keep in mind that I proudly have nothing in common with "our most famous resident". My wife is a teacher, and right now she is on a massive Edith Wharton kick.

Tadpole316 said: I work in IT (mainly hardware and user support). My wife and I live in Cape Girardeau, MO. If you google Cape Girardeau

Hi Matt ... Welcome to the group :)

I have been to the Cape a few times to visit family; very nice small town ... my biggest complaint was that they didn't open the pool early enough (I was there just before Memorial Day and it was wicked hot) and the river was too dangerous to swim in. Instead I stayed indoors in the AC and played a linked up game of 'Age of Empires' with a bunch of IT guys ... that was pretty fun (it was quite awhile back though).

Glad to see you made it over, Matt!

Welcome Matt!

I also work in IT and I work in Missouri (but I live in Kansas).

Glad to have you with us and I look forward to your insights.

Jon

Hi,
My name is John. I've been lurking here for a month or so but have yet to post.

I'm a teacher by day and a singer/songwriter/composer by night. I did not start reading for pleasure until after college. The first fantasy series that captured my imagination was Elizabeth Haydon's Rhapsody trilogy. It's still one of my favorites. I also love George R.R. Martin, Neal Stephenson, Timothy Zahn, Gregory Frost, and Tad Williams.

I have really been enjoying the intelligent and heartfelt conversation that has been occurring on this forum. I hope to be able to contribute. The monthly picks have been great. I just finished reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep last week.

I write songs based on the fantasy and sci-fi novels that I read. I just wrote and recorded a song inspired by Brandon Sanderson's Elantris. It's posted at my blog http://scifisongs.blogspot.com/

Anyway, I'm about halfway through Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. He introduces some intriguing concepts. I'm glad that I discovered this group. I probably would not have read this book otherwise.

Sincerely,
John Anealio

My name is Jill. I just began coming to this site from LinkedIn.

I work in special education administration and live in the Kansas City, MO area.

I never liked SciFi growing up but am now an avid reader. Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Tad Williams are a few of my favorite authors.

I look forward to discovering books I haven't come across yet.

Jill

Welcome to the group, Jill. I work on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, but actually live on the Kansas side near Leavenworth. Great to have nearly a neighbor online here. :)

Hi everyone!

My name is Sini. I'm originally from Finland, but at the moment I live in Sweden and work in Denmark. I was born in 1978, so turned 30 this year!

I've read fantasy and science fiction since I was a teenager. I read lots of other stuff too, and always enjoy good reading tips.

I came to this site originally because I was a bit confused about Ender's game. Wondered what's all the fuss? Maybe someone wiser could explain this to me?

Anyway, nice to get to change some opinions about the books, the universe, and everything ;)

Jon: Thanks for the welcome! Jill

Hi Sini and welcome! I've been to both Copehagen and Stockholm. I've never felt so poor in all my life in both those cities! My dollars didn't go very far at all!! Even so, I loved both places.

Thanks for the welcome Leslie! Copenhagen really is expensive, that's why I live in Malmö in Sweden. It's a bit cheaper. Lovely cities though, I agree.

Hi, I'm Kay.

I was an early reader and writer, and I was scifi/fantasy-centric right from the start. Which is to say that more than half the books I read and all the stories I wrote included some element of potential future technology or magic.

Nowadays I like a bit of everything else with my speculative fiction. And...then there's all the stuff that's not book-related. :)

Welcome Kay,
Nice to have another fellow writer join our group. If you have any of your work available for public consumption, you should register as a Goodreads author and provide links. It's a good way to let people know about your work.

Regards,
Leslie Ann
author of 'Griffin's Daughter'
www.leslieannmoore.com

Thanks!

Alas, I am as yet unpublished though I've been writing for over two decades. Until a few years ago I wrote mainly to amuse myself and my friends, but then I began posting short stories on LiveJournal and discovered how rewarding it can be to have an expanded audience... For copyright purposes most of those stories have to remain non-public, but new friends are ALWAYS welcome to find me there and be added to my list of readers. http://sandykidd.livejournal.com

Most recently I've been writing short stories for submission; to test those waters at last. My first novel is a few thousand words from The End (and a good, hard edit away from being in shape for submission). This makes me feel so adventurous!

Here's the long version of my bio:

I am both an author and a graphic artist, though my three cats would tell you a different story. They're of the opinion that my only reason for existence is to feed them, pet them and let them in or out of the house! They're good kitties though, and make wonderful companions.

I started writing in my Junior year of high school. At the time, I'd read everything the school library had that interested me, so it just seemed natural to write what I wanted to read, since no one else was. A small group of us would get together and talk stories, developing characters, plot lines and just in general having fun. My universe, and ultimately the books I have in print, developed out of that.

Being a writer is a lot like living on a wild roller coaster. Sometimes all you can do is hang on for the ride while the story pours out of your fingers, and sometimes you have to fight tooth and nail for every letter! It's a lot of fun, and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. It would be nice though if inspiration didn't insist on hitting me after the lights were out and I was half-asleep so often!

Along with fiction, I also write poetry. I don't write free verse often, it's just not something that matches with my inner self. I stick more with specific rhyme and meter. While some people might consider that restrictive, I am very pattern oriented. The words generate in stanza's, and I usually don't have much control over that.

As an example, here's a poem I wrote just a couple nights ago. It's called The Poet's Lament:

The lights are off,
The house is still,
I'm headed off to bed.

The blanket's soft,
The pillow's deep,
Soon dreams will fill my head.

But first there comes
A tip-toeing
A teasing little rhyme.

A single word
Resolves itself
With meter and with time.

Oh Pox! I snarl,
Oh go away!
Why is it every night,

That just as soon
As I settle down
I get the urge to write?

I get back up,
Turn on the lights
And sit down at my desk.

The words which filled
My thoughts and mind,
Now laugh at me in jest.

My mind's gone blank!
I've lost it all!
I stare off into space.

There's nothing there,
The ink has gone,
Just silence in it's place.

I'm too awake
For sleep or dreams.
I'm too asleep to think.

This curse which lurks
With in the dark
Has driven me to drink!

Currently, I am working on a sci-fi fantasy series called The Sojourn Chronicles. There are six books in the series, with the first four in print. Those are :
Book 1 - Wizard's Bane
Book 2 - Villenspell: City of Wizards
Book 3 - Wizards and Wanderers
Book 4 - Army of Misfits

Book 5 and 6 are written, but I have all the art and covers to do yet, so it'll be a while before they are in print.

The story follows an unlikely group of misfits as they journey to unknown lands in a desperate attempt to save the world. Unfortunately, the world doesn't seem to want that salvation and mishaps befall them at just about every step.

All of my books are available on Amazon.com or other online stores. For more information on them, as well as reviews and illustrations, see my web site at:
http://sojourn.omnitech.net.

When I'm not writing, I'm creating art in other ways, mostly digital, though I do have a camera which comes out of it's case once in a while. I'd probably take more photos, but I'm sadly lacking a dark room at the moment, and as nice as digital photos are, they just aren't the same as film. I do a lot of computer graphics, including the covers of my own books, the covers of other people's books, posters, illustrations, email signatures and various other pieces. A lot of my art is created for private individuals, and I don't have it on display any where, but I do have a nice gallery online. If you'd like to take a look, you can visit me at:
http://artwanted.com/crystalwizard.

What little time is left between writing and creating art I use fixing computers for people or pursuing chocolate ;) Seriously, you can't give a free-range chocolate bar a chance to escape!

Greetings, Kelli,and welcome!

I looked at your gallery--very nice, indeed!
I know exactly what you mean about chocolate. I swear, the stuff is like crack--I can never take just one hit, oh no!!

Thanks, Leslie :) and thanks for the compliment on my gallery.

Hello,
My name is Bronwen Johnson and I am a 23 year old undergrad at Wichita State University (Go Shockers!) majoring in French and minoring in German and English. I do live and work at a Library in Wichita, KS and I love reading and discussing works of fiction.

Why am I here? Sci Fi and Fantasy is the last genre of fiction I have yet to fully emerse myself into. I destroy a lot of fiction, generally reading three to four books at a time and finishing five to six in a week if classes aren't in session. I've always, always been a voracious reader and bibliophile from the time that I was young.

My first foray into Sci Fi was Phillip K. Dick this year actually, Man in the High Castle. I loved it, and branched out into Alternate History which I wasn't very into. But fear not, I always give books a second try, or fifth try, whatever! I read my first Epic Fantasy just last week, Robert Jordan's Eye of the World, and am reading the second in the series, along with Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule. I'm actually enjoying Sci Fi in ways that I never thought I would and I can't wait to join this groups' book discussions.

Books I read this year include:
Man in the High Castle
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The Colour of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Equal Rites
Mort
The Last Templar
Merchant's Partner
Crime and Punishment
Mrs. Dalloway
Beloved
Pride and Prejudice
Slaughter House Five
Moll Flanders
Catcher in the Rye
Lord of the Flies
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle* However, I re-read this book atleast once a year

Welcome Bronwen! And hello from a fellow Kansan and a Shocker (from the mid-80s). :)

Thanks! I love WSU and I enjoy Kansas. Thanks so much for the friend request!

Welcome Bronwen, since you've just read the Colour of Magic and the Light Fantastic, please jump into our discussion of the month. We still have a couple of days left in August!

Welcome Bronwen and Simon!

Bronwen, one of my favorite fantasy authors is Kate Elliot. Her writing style has been the biggest influence on me as a fantasy writer. Her Crown of Stars series is masterful and among the best books I've ever read. The first book in the series is called King's Dragon.

Hello to everyone!

I'm Jim Brown, owner of LL-Publications www.ll-publications.com

As a result I'm a reader of all sorts of books, from romance to horror! I like sci-fi, fan of Star Trek and other major sci-fi productions, although I wouldn't describe myself as a Trekkie (wife does though!).

We do have one book that might interest the group. It's on my bookshelf and can be seen at http://www.ll-publications.com/bark.html

BARK! is by award winning author Darrell Bain and is a rather hilarious tale of a little weenie dog who can save the Earth from alien invasion. We loved this book so much when we received it!

Other sci-fi I like: Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010, and a few of the movie blockbusters, including Chronicles of Riddick, Alien (oh yes, Alien .. so damn creepy!)

Anyway enough for now. Look forward to hearing from you all, and whether you're a reader or writer, please do check out our sites. We have wonderful books.

Jim Brown
Owner
LL-Publications www.ll-publications.com
Logical-Lust Publications www.logical-lust.com

Welcome Jim!

ROFL!!! A one-testicled weenie dog!! This strikes a particularly resonant chord with me because for my "day job", I'm a small animal vet. I see lots of one-testicled animals in the course of a year's practice. The correct medical term for this condition is " unilateral cryptorchidism".

Yeah lol. I'll have to let Darrell know that condition! Darrell's a dachshund lover and has written a couple of doggie related books, although Bark! is his first with us. He's also an accomplished sci-fi author too.

My wife and I actually met little one-testicled Tonto (the dog who inspired the story) last year when we visited Texas. He's absolutely as strangely behaved as Darrell describes!