SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

That would be very interesting to watch... Eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches on pizza while singing karaoke and reading a fantasy novel? I'd say that takes a lot of talent.

Welcome to the group! :)

Welcome Kirasha and Tim!

Hey Tim, where in NZ do you live? I was there in March for a 3 week visit.

Hi Becky and Leslie,thanx for the welcome.
BTW I live in Orcland.
It rains a lot, so there's a few dark clouds,
though I havent travelled much around the countryside- they don't like Orclanders much.

Where did u stay Leslie?

Orcland? Uh oh!

Hello, all. I've been reading this group for a few weeks, so it's time for an introduction.

I am 43, mother of two (18 & 10), wife of one (11 years) with three dogs in Mesa, Arizona (Phoenix 'burb). I work for a large financial services company to support my hobbies, one of which is reading.

I've been reading fantasy as long as I can remember. I vividly recall finding the Pern series in my high school library and reading all three of the original trilogy in a weekend. I love finding new authors which has been the best result of this group :) Favorite authors (as of today) are: Anne Bishop, JR Ward, Jim Butcher.

This is great a friend of mine told me about the goodreads website. Its great to be able to interact with other people who love to read Sci Fi and Fantasy

Welcome Annette and Jeremy!

Tim, I started in Aukland, then drove south, stopping in Hamilton, Taupo, Napier, Wellington, then to the south island, where I stopped in Blenheim and Christchurch. Didn't have time to go any further south on the South island, but I plan on returning someday to see what I missed.

Elizbeath - I cannot believe there is a Fantasy Lit class.

I am younger than many of the people on this list. early 20's. lol I love science fiction and fantasy. I read David Weber, Elizabeth Bear, LE Modesitt, Catherine Asaro and many others

Wow Leslie, you've seen more of my country than I have. Though I plan to travel more in the next 2 years.

Tim, I've probably seen more of the rest of the world than I've seen of MY own country!

Hi, I'm Chessa and I'm newish here although I've been lurking for a week or so. I just turned 30 and I live in Seattle. I grew up in NH, went to college in OR and then was banished to the Detroit area for 4 years. We just escaped last summer, to our infinite joy! I've also lived briefly in MA and AZ.

Although I'm trained as a librarian, I'm staying home with my little dude, Silas, who is a very active 2 1/2 years old. Somewhere between all his shenanigans, I still manage to find time to read (mostly when he sleeps!)

I've always loved SF & Fantasy (with more emphasis on SF), even before I had a name for it. I used to watch the Dark Crystal obsessively when I was little, and my first real love of the genre was probably A Wrinkle in Time. Then in college (UofOregon) my interest really solidified when I took a Freshman Interest class in Science Fiction - it was awesome! I found one of my favorite authors, Sheri S. Tepper when we read The Gate to Women's Country, and I think we also read A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.. After that I devoured a lot of Tepper, and spun off into other directions with Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman, and of course, that's when the Harry Potter craze was just starting. :) I'm a big fan of both adult and YA SF/Fantasy - I think YA is often ignored or looked down on, but some of the most compelling books I've read have been in that genre. So much drama!

I'm also a big fan of paranormal/urban fantasy (although I'm decidedly not of a fan of Laurell K. Hamilton...I think I'm the only one). I'm a big fan of Kim Harrison, Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series, and Patricia Briggs's Mercy Thompson series. I just found Richelle Mead and I think I devoured everything she wrote in the space of 2 months.

Oh and cyberpunk. William Gibson totally rearranged my brain. The first I read was Pattern Recognition and then read most of his other full-length novels. And I like what I've read of Neal Stephenson.

I just finished reading The Inverted World: A novel by Christopher Priest and it made by brain hurt, in a good way! I read it for a book club, and I'm really glad because I'm pretty sure I never would have picked it up on my own.

Anyway, glad to be here, thanks for having me! I love gleaning new authors I might want to check out and generally geeking out about my favorite genre of all time.

Greetings! I am Nina from Seattle. I live in Queen Anne with Matt and our furry child, Bronson. I am a scientist by trade, who is going through her second layoff in the span of a year. My love for reading has been helping me through this difficult time. Well, the books, Matt, Bronson, Warcraft and Hot Pockets! (I'm kidding about the Hot Pockets...it's from a Southpark episode, "Make Love, Not Warcraft!"

I started reading fairly avidly after my mother passed away when I was around 10. My favorite book at that time had to be Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

After high school I worked several years dispatching 911 during the graveyard shift. Either all hell broke loose or I would end up with quite alot of time for reading. Stephen King was my favorite author during the 911 dispatching years.

My favorite author these days is Neil Gaiman. I enjoy listening to his books on audio. He reads them very well and in the case of Anansi Boys Lenny Henry was chosen to read the book and it was a stroke of genius! I would recommend the audio version of Anansi Boys for anyone who has considered listening to audiobooks. They are great when you are stuck in traffic and fun to enjoy with friends and family and quite conducive to opening conversation about books. I found Gaiman's books originally when I started enjoying the Sandman series while at university.

I found GoodReads by accident. I decided that I should make an Excel sheet of all the books I was listening to on my iPod and reading. Somehow I happened upon GoodReads. I just wish I could get more of my friends to sign up!

I have been listening to Vicious Circle by Mike Carey. My favorite book of the year and new author is Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow. It is a quick read and is very unique in the presentation of the text. I hope you will check it out and see what you think.

Howdy Folks, I'm Mosca I live in New Mexico(USA). I've been loving to read all my life. I read all types of books; but have a special weakness for science fiction. This past couple of months, I have read:

Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
Mother of Storms by John Barnes
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Bellwether by Connie Willis
Pacific Edge: Three Californias by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Wild Shore: Three Californias by Kim Stanley Robinson
Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Prodigal Summer: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Right now reading: Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

I joined because I value reccommendations for further reading.

Thanks.

Welcome to all you new folks!

Hi all.

I'm Paul. Born in Wales in 1953, lived in quite a few places during my life, starting of as an Army brat and wandering around a lot in my youth, doing this and that.

I've been in Malvern, mid-sized town in central England for about 25 years now. I think that these days I only tend to roam in my imagination - it's much easier than doing it physically!

During my life I've ben a student, a botanist, a shopkeeper, a Civil Servant, a landsacape gardener, window cleaner, analyst programmer, network manager, web developer, IT contractor and consultant. Currently, and probably for the remaining years till retirement, I work for Worcester College of Technology, a Further education establishment. I run a study centre for them, which is a combination of IT support, librarian, shopkeeper, crowd control and teaching assistant. I'm also taking a Certificate of Educatiun course which will qualify me to be a teacher of adult literacy (and anything else that I am able to teach by virtue of previous experience or qualifications).

I wrote my first short story when I was 5 - it was called the Ravens of Beacon Hill, and involved the revenge of a noble bunch of ravens on the nasty starlings that kept stealing their food. I think in America you might call starlings grackles.

When I was 12 or 13, at my request, my folks bought me a Smith Corona portable typewriter. I happily churned out dreadful pastiches of Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane for a few years before turning to science fiction and horror.

In the late 70s and early 80s, besides getting married and fathering 2 children, I went the semi-traditional route, being a gardener, window cleaner and barman to pay the bills, and hammering out stuf on my typewriter for three hours a day. Anyone remember the joys of creating carbon copies?

I gave up (money needed) and took to writing fiction in various computer language instead, and spent the next 25 years in IT. Recently (3 years ago) I formed Blind Samurai Films with another Goodreads member, Roger Cottrell. We produce generic film scripts - sci-fi, action thriller and horror, and also short stories and novels. I'm pleased to say that I am now back to writng happily. I've written three film scripts (one in each genre) and am curently working on one sci-fi novel and co-writing another. We also publish, via lulu.com, our own anthology of SF and horror called Dark Side of the Sun. As well as working for Worcester Tech for the rest of my working life, I expect to write for the rest of my life. I've always read, every day, no exceptions, ever, and I expect to carry on doing that as well until I shuffle off this mortal coil.

I've recently read
The Stand, It, Insomnia and the Dark Half by Stephen King,
Every Dead Thing by John Connolly,
Echo burning by Lee Child,
Mars by Ben Bova
Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven
Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall by Niven and Pournelle
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner

Curently reading Sherlock Holmes and Hannibal

Hi all --

I'm new to this group. I live in San Diego and am married with bunches of kids, all teens or above. My education is in math and statistics, and I work as the head of a quality department in a high tech company, which allows me quite a bit of business travel. I've been a sci-fi and fantasy addict since elementary school.

My favorite authors are John Varley, Spider Robinson, Charles De Lint, Robert J. Sawyer, Sheri Tepper, Lois McMaster Bujold, Frederick Pohl, David Brin, Joe Haldeman, Kim Stanley Robinson, Guy Gavriel Kay, Mary Doria Russell, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Neal Stephenson, Orson Scott Card...

Right now I'm reading Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America", not sci-fi or fantasy, but a great alternate history.

If you stop by my page, you can see what I read in 2008.

I'm also hooked on Bookcrossing.

Hi all! I'm pretty new to this particular group, but not to goodreads.com. I thought I should come say hi here, officially, though. :)

I was born in 1978 in Phoeniz, AZ. 4th generation AZ native! I'm pretty sure I'm part reptile by now, as I get cold if it's 70 and breezy. :) I learned how to read when I was three and haven't stopped since. I read The Hobbit for the first time when I was eight, and my mom raised me on a steady diet of sci-fi and fantasy, especially Heinlein and Star Trek. I have a master's in medieval literature from ASU and just applied to the Ph.D. program. I decided almost 6 years out of school was enough and it was time to go back for the final step. O_O

Some of my favorite authors are Anne McCaffrey, Juliet Marillier, Kate Forsyth, Philippa Gregory, Francesca Lia Block, Tolkien, and Marion Zimmer Bradley.

If any of you are on Live Journal, my site is http://sidhe1.livejournal.com. C'mon over and say hi! :)

Hello all,

My name is Donnie, I am 28 years old as of yesterday, and I am ashame to say that I used to all most never read a fictional book, if I did read it was usaly a computer programming or how to book. Untill about a year ago when I went blind from diabetes. I am now reading like theres no tomarrow. I hardly watch any TV as it realy dose not intress me anymore, Now I have been given access to more audiobooks then anyone can read in a life time. Some of the books I have read withen the last year are:
The Golden Compess
Some JD Robb in Death books
All harry potter books
Some of the Landover books by terry Brooks

and just finshed with the Physics of Star Trek
Theres is more but if you want to know you will have to look at my bookshelf, theres not much there yet but it will grow. Well Bye for now and have fun reading.

Tim wrote: "Hi, I'm 27 years old, from Middle-earth (aka New Zealand), and I love singing Karaoke, eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches/pizza, and reading Fantasy books... though not all at the same tim..."

Tim New Zealand is on the very top of my "want to travel to" lists - followed closely by your neighbor Australia - Glad to have you here!

-- Wife of fantasy author Michael J. Sullivan: The Crown Conspiracy | Avempartha (04/09)

Welcome Annette and Jeremy - nice to have new members here!

Hiya. I'm Novia, from Indonesia, where when I say I love reading science fiction people think I read Star Trek and Star Wars novels. :) I love Star Trek, don't get me wrong (I adore Data and Luc Picard--that is, until I saw Patrick Stewart in the British series Extras), but I only read one ST novel in the almost seventeen years of acquaintance with SF.

I think I'm still catching up with SF masterpieces now, even after seventeen years. My favorite authors include Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Roger Zelazny, Kurt Vonnegut, Lois McMaster Bujold, Ursula LeGuin, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, and Connie Willis.

Illyria wrote: "I adore Data and Luc Picard--that is, until I saw Patrick Stewart in the British series Extras..."

LOL! That bad, huh? I haven't seen that show, I guess, but I have seen Patrick Stewart in some pretty abysmal films. If he's not playing Jean-Luc, then perhaps it would be best if he stuck to Shakespearean theatre? :)

Sidhe1 wrote: "Illyria wrote: "I adore Data and Luc Picard--that is, until I saw Patrick Stewart in the British series Extras..."

LOL! That bad, huh? I haven't seen that show, I guess, but I have seen Patrick ..."

Well, no... Not bad bad. Precisely because he's so good there, now I can't help but snicker when I see Luc Picard solemnly intoning, "Make is so." :)

The Extras basically features big name actors making a fool of themselves, and Luc Pi... I mean... Stewart, was hilarious.

Hey. I'm Shelly, born, raise and living in Canada. I'm a 30ish stay at home mom of three very rambuncious boys. I used to only read fantasy/light sci-fi and horror novels, but in the last few years I've been stretching my reading 'wings' so to speak and have found many different books/authors that I enjoyed reading.

I have a /huge/ pile of books on my desk that need to be read... unfortunately it keeps getting bigger instead of small as I am also a book buyer addict (if a store has books in it you can bet I'm walking out with at least one if not more). I've been trying to curb that by using my local library to get books... saves the pocketbook but my 'to read' pile doesn't get any smaller either.

Looking forward to joining the reading/discussion in Feb.

Illyria wrote: "Well, no... Not bad bad. Precisely because he's so good there, now I can't help but snicker when I see Luc Picard solemnly intoning, "Make is so." :) ..."


Ah, got it. Yeah, there is always a little cognitive dissonance for me when I see him in something not TNG, and I get the giggles, too. :) Maybe it's a good thing I missed his performance of Lear at the Globe, eh? I'd hate to be the annoying one who was snickering through the whole thing, waiting for King Lear to say "make it so." *polishes halo*

Hello, I just joined for ideas on more sf/fantasy books. I read mostly all genres so I'll probably work my way from group to group getting ideas for more books to read. :) I re-read my favorites over and over but I love finding new authors.

I'm in my 30's and I've been married for 13 years. My husband and I are Financial Advisors and we live in Southern Indiana with our mutt, Barney.

Welcome Shelly, Ang, and Illyria.

Shelly, you do have my condolences. I have three older brothers and no sisters and I know what we put our mom through. I think that we all turned out all right, but I might be a bit biased.

Ang, I'm the same way with books and that is why I joined. I needed to broaden my horizons a bit and it is good to talk about books with people of similar interest.

Illyria, I can't read Star Trek books either. I've never seen Extras and I have hard time thinking of Picard as anything else.

Wow lots of new people....

Howdy Novia, Ang and Shelly - I'm sure you will enjoy it here.

Hi --
I'm Sarah. I usually lurk a while before posting to a group, but I'm in a chatty mood today.
I've been a fan of sci fi and fantasy since before I can remember, though I don't really go for high fantasy or hard sci fi these days; I like the in between bits. My father has been a subscriber to Fantasy & Science Fiction since 1959, and I think I had read every issue in the house by the time I left for college. I grew up on all the masters. He is also a big comic collector, so we grew up around great comics as well, some of which we probably read a little too young.

I now live in Baltimore, MD. I used to be a full time singer songwriter, crisscrossing the country in the name of rock and roll, but times being what they are, I now have a day job. I've got three CDs out - two on my own, one with my band, the Stalking Horses. I write fiction too - I'm working on the second draft of my first novel, and I have stories published here and there.

Current favorite authors of sci fi or fantasy:
Neil Gaiman (everything from the Sandman to the Graveyard Book - but I particularly love his short fiction)
Kate Wilhelm (particularly Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, but I just read her great memoir on Clarion and teaching writing)
Jonathan Carroll (his first six or seven books in particular)
Connie Willis (To Say Nothing of the Dogand Passage)
Jonathan Lethem (The Fortress of Solitude)
Michael Chabon (Summerlandand The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay)
Bill Willingham(for Fables)
Brian K. Vaughan (for Runaways, Ex Machina, & Y: The Last Man)
Tim Powers (particularly The Anubis Gates).

Oh, and that episode of Extras with Patrick Stewart that was mentioned above? Funny stuff. They take the public image of each actor and turn it on its ear. So they have Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) smoking and drinking and macking on the female lead; Orlando Bloom desperately chasing a woman who says he isn't her type; and Patrick Stewart... well...you definitely won't see him in the same light again.

Hey, my name is Cameron. I'm 19, from Wisconsin, and I love to read fantasy and sci-fi (mostly fantasy). When it comes to sci-fi I like to read apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic type stuff. Fantasy-wise I like to read mostly high fantasy. I'm just starting the first book of the Dragonlance Chronicles. If anybody has any recommendations I'd appreciate that. Thanks.

Hello, I just joined this group yesterday while trying to find some people to discuss the Temeraire series. I won't call myself an avid fantasy reader since there aren't many fantasy books included in my read-list.

However, I did love the usual stuffs like Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter series, Inheritance cycle, Bartimaeus Trilogy and classics such as Jules Verne's masterpieces. If Anne Rice's novels can be counted here, well, I did read many of them.

I don't read much sci-fi books also, but I'm interested to read the sequels of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and recently mooched Dune.

I'm from Indonesia, lived there too and worked as a researcher. And researching about good books (or should I say, goodreads, haha) is one of my fave things ;)

Sarah Pi wrote: "...Orlando Bloom desperately chasing a woman who says he isn't her type..."

Orlando Bloom was in it, too? LOL! Yeah, that dude is screwed. I will never really be able to see him as anything other than Legolas. :) Even in the Pirate of the Caribbean films, I kept looking for the pointy ears and bow and arrows.

Cameron wrote: "When it comes to sci-fi I like to read apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic type stuff. ... If anybody has any recommendations I'd appreciate that."

Cameron, if you don't mind reading young adult, there are several rather good ones. I thought Shade's Children by Garth Nix was really interesting. That's a sort of post-apocalyptic/ dystopic future world setting. I've also seen a book called Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer that looks interesting, but I haven't read it. I plan to pick up a copy, though. Also, for a good sort of historical fantasy, I would recommend Hood by Stephen Lawhead. This is the first in a series that is essentially a retelling of the Robin Hood myth. Lawhead takes the more familiar setting of Sherwood and moves it to medieval Wales. Robin turns into Bran, a displaced Welsh prince whose dad the king was overthrown and killed by Norman invaders.

Cameron - there is a thread in this group about recommendations for apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic novels. Quite a few books mentioned on there. Welcome!

Oh, Silvana...stay in this group long enough and we will suck you in hardcore...Welcome!

Jenny

Greetings everyone. My name is David Oppegaard and I'm a 29 yr. old writer living in St. Paul, MN. My first novel, THE SUICIDE COLLECTORS, came out on Dec. 9th from St. Martin's Press. It is a blend of speculative, horror, and literary fiction. Set in the near future, it explores a post-apocalyptic version of North America five years into a plague of ennui called the Despair. A Floridian man named Norman, a member of the Last Ten Percent, sets off across America in search for a cure for the Despair.

For more information on THE SUICIDE COLLECTORS, feel free to check out my website www.davidoppegaard.com

I'm a big fan of all kinds of fiction and some of my favorite books are The Dark Tower series by S. King, Crime & Punishment, Don Quixote, Pastoralia by George Saunders, and VALIS by Phillip K. Dick.

I've been writing and reading for as long as I can remember, and don't plan on stopping anytime soon.

Cheers!

Hello everyone! I joined a little while ago but finally got around to contributing.

I've been reading and writing since I was young, and my parents early introduced me to books such as C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia and Michael Tod's Woodstock Saga, which instantly turned me toward worlds with a dash (or a huge dollop) of the fantastic. If I were to narrow down my first introduction to contemporary genre fantasy, I'd have to say it was a book by Mercedes Lackey, and my bookshelves have branched out from there.

I don't tend to pick up scifi, but unlike fantasy, I've had the opportunity to study some good literary classics of scifi at university, which has been very enjoyable. With luck, I'll be able to grab a whole semester of it this summer (they never offer the fantasy survey... *sigh*)

So obviously I'm a university student, in my fourth year of Honours English literature. In between essays and course readings, every spare minute of my day goes toward working on my novel, and once I graduate this fall I'll finally be able to return to fulltime writing.

Sarah Pi wrote: "Hi --
I'm Sarah. I usually lurk a while before posting to a group, but I'm in a chatty mood today.
I've been a fan of sci fi and fantasy since before I can remember, though I don't really go for h..."

Welcome Sarah - I'm in Northern VA just the otherside of DC from you - nice to have you in the group.

Hey Everyone, I'm 22 and currently living in Phoenix, Az. Only recently got into fantasy but I grew up on Star Trek: TNG. Grew up reading history but switched to fantasy in 2006. Have read to date in the genre:

R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden Novels:
Dark Elf Trilogy
Icewind Dale
Legacy of the Drow

Harry Potter 1-7 several times
The Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy(1-5) by Douglas Adams
Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Several novels by Derek Lambert
Buy Jupiter! and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov

Currently reading the Psi Corps trilogy in the Babylon 5 universe by J Gregory Keyes.

If you have any suggestions for good fantasy or scifi novels, please let me know! Also I am in the Scifi Book Club which is an insanely useful resource for getting new books and finding out about new authors.

Take a look at my collection on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/ays?view=_c...

Sadly haven't read half the books in my collection, but it's a good start!

Cameron wrote: "If anybody has any recommendations I'd appreciate that...."

Hey Cameron,
I did a quick compare on our shelves and on your TBR file here are some of my comments for what they are worth.

Recommends:
Harry Potter
Mistborn
Name of the Wind
The Crown Conspiracy - of course ;-)

Not recommended:
Twilight Series - I think it is not very well written, nor an original story. I read 2 of them (2nd one was really slow and made it so I'm not interested in continuing). I'm not sorry I read book 1 (after MUCH prodding - read it like a month ago) but don't think it is worth spending the time with so many other good things.

The Road - Many people love this story but I must say it is my least favorite book of all time. Tastes obviously vary greatly on this book you either love it or hate it.

Hope this helps.

Silvana wrote: "Bartimaeus Trilogy"

Welcome to the group Silvana - I just recently book 1 of this and enjoyed it quite a bit. Glad to have you with us.

Welcome Haley and David - My husband is a writer as well so I know much about what you guys go through - I have a trendous respect for those that write it is a passion and not an easy field to till. I wish you great sucess.

-- Wife of fantasy author Michael J. Sullivan: The Crown Conspiracy | Avempartha (04/09)

Hello all,

I'm a new GoodReads author, Daniel Logan, and I've always enjoyed science fiction, beginning with Elijah and ole Daneel Olivaw in The Naked Sun and my introduction to orbital spaceflight with Island in the Sky. Though perhaps not books, I loved The Forbidden Planet, 2001 - A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

I've been impressed with the dialogue on this site. People are both civil and insightful in their comments - at least up until now!



I have been fortunate to have my novel, The First Migration, published. A time-travel story, it is about NASA constructing a huge 30-mile-diameter research project in the White Sands area of New Mexico, going back in time and encountering our Missing Link. Contains a good love story, too.
You can get added information at: www.thefirstmigration.com

One high point of a vacation trip to do location research for the novel was to visit the Very Large Array (VLA) of radio telescopes featured in the movie, Contact. Another was a subsequent visit to the Science Fiction museum in Seattle. I highly recommend both for those who find themselves nearby someday.

Looking forward to the discussions.

Dan Logan

Hi everyone,

I'm 26, living in the south of Germany, and - who would've thought it - one of my major hobbies is reading, mostly fantasy.

I honestly can't remember all the books I've read in 2008, but it were lots. ;) I'm looking forward to the books discussed here, it's a great idea. And I'm hoping I'll get a lot of recommendations for new books and authors here.

My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett (do I have to say Sir now? O.o), Neil Gaiman, David Gemmell, Patricia Briggs and a few others. Otherwise... just have a look through my books for what I liked and disliked.

I hope meeting you in the discussions :)

Wow, I have to say I'm really impressed at how many people love the Drizzt Duo'orden Dark Elf books!

R. A. Salvatore is originally from Fitchburg, MA which is one town over from Leominster where I grew up so i was reading his books pretty early on.

I have to admit that I don't enjoy his later stuff nearly so muchh though, I guess writers and readers can grow apart and that's just the way of things.

Wassail!

As the prevailing trend seems to be to document your history with reading Sci-Fi and Fantasy I shall strive to do the same. Thinking back, I am not certain what my first encounter with either of these genre’s might be, but I do recall having The Hobbit read to my class when I was in the third grade. My first deliberate choice was when I selected A Wrinkle in Time, and proceeded to devour it and its sequel before discovering Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein captured my imagination and I devoured whatever I could find. Heinlein led me to Harry Harrison, Frank Herbert and many more than I can truly name at this time. That was almost 30 years ago…and the books just vanished into the mists of time.

Over the years my tastes changed, sometimes wandering into Cyberpunk, sometimes military oriented, sometimes social commentary, but this genre had me firmly in its grasp. For a time I focused more on fantasy than science fiction as I was tired of the prevailing trend to just put out military pulp fiction with a science fiction flavor, but over time that trend faded and quality material started to come to my attention.

These days I find myself reading Julie Czerneda, David Weber, S.M. Stirling, L.E. Modesitt Jr. and Neal Stephenson along with others. I joined Goodreads a few months back just so that I could actually keep track of everything that I read. I joined this group hoping to encounter conversations with other lovers of the genres and to discover new reading material. Somehow I don’t think that will be a problem around here.

Jeffrey Jelmeland
Forest Grove, OR, USA

Illyria wrote: "Hiya. I'm Novia, from Indonesia, ..."

Hi all,

I am Novia's friend from Indonesia. I just join Goodreads today.

I am 33 years old. one of my major hobbies is reading Humor, Wuxia, SF, or Fantasy stories.

For SF and Fantasy, I ust regularly read them in my colleague years. I try to read as many sub genres as possible for starter. Recently, I read more fantasy than SF.

So far, I found that I prefer fiction in shorter length (short stories, novellas) than the longer fictions (novels with > 50,000 words; or series that longer than trilogy). But of course, there are exceptions.

I love the works of Arthur C. Clarke, Iain M. Banks, Tim Powers, Sir Terry Pratchett, Joe Haldeman, Robert E. Howard, Ted Chiang, Keith Laumer, David Brin, and Vernor Vinge, and others.

looking forward to enlightening and fun discussions; and new friends.

Welcome Charlene, Jokoloyo, Jayden, and Daniel.

Daniel,
I really enjoyed a very short stay at the Seattle SF museum (under 30 minutes.) I am sure there was plenty to see that I didn't. What sort of research did you do there?

Hi! I am 24 (almost 25) and a Graduate Student (hoping to get a PhD) in Biology at Auburn University (Auburn, AL). I'm happily attached and living with the love of my life (we plan on marrying once school is not too crazy he is a 30 year old undergrad in Mechanical Engineering and going back is just as crazy as grad school).

I love to read and have been thoroughly disenchanted with the other scientists I meet in this regard. They just don't read. When I first started I found myself defining words like plethora and until finding goodreads and the ability to email book discussions I felt like I was dealing with aliens (I mean who doesn't read?!?).

I love the classics (Heinlein, Asimov, Wells, Verne) but am getting more interested in the more horror tinged SF (Bradbury, Barker) recently. I was introduced to SF by my dad with Star Wars when I was small. I never knew a time when Darth Vader wasn't Luke's father and if I have kids I will try to remedy that for them.

Thomas, my location research involved the trip to Chaco Canyon and Canyon de Chelly in the Southwest for the novel I'm currently writing, The Lost Portal.

The trip to Seattle the year before, however, was pure vacation and the Science Fiction Museum was an opportunity to wander through exhibits from sci-fi books, movies and TV series that I've enjoyed. You should return sometime, because 30 minutes isn't enough.

There were some things notable in their absence, though -- like GORT, a monolith from 2001 (it would take a big booth!), nor do I remember anything from Independence Day.

Wow - lots of new people - I just wanted to do a group hug and say hello to each and everyone of you.

Hello Fantasy/SciFi Lovers: I am a fantasy author and have just published (Summer 2008) the first of my planned nine book series "The Persephane Pendrake Chronicles". The first is "Persephane Pendrake and the Cimaruta".

Details can be found at my site Lady Ellen

I have been working on the series for over a decade, as we homeschooled our kids. Persy's story perked away in my head until she demanded to be written in January, 2007 on a snowy Saturday afternoon. Three chapters went down that day and the rest just flowed into my laptop until completion of book one in November.

A class in Little Rock read Persy last spring and you can read their comments here: Little Rock Kids' Comments

I'm delighted to have found this group..most of the books listed by others are favourites of mine, too.

Cheers,
Lady Ellen