Utopia

[close] This group is for exchanging thoughts about science fiction and fantasy stories that show humanity at our best and project healthy, inclusive, and diverse possibilities of forms of local and world community. For dystopia, just read the news. We want fiction that gives us a sense of hope, meaning, and purpose.

[close] The fence. It is the only thing standing between the modern, organized, peaceful City and the untamed Wasteland beyond. It is the only thing keeping the citizens, the humans, safe from them. They are creatures of the night, the supernatural Citizens can only dream exist. And sometimes they get in. That's where the Corps comes in. Specially selected Citizens are trained in the art of killing with one goal in mind: keep Them out and the City safe. A certain commander has other ideas, though. Why should the Corps wait for Them to come in? Why shouldn't the Corps send men to the Wastelands and eradicate the creatures before they get the chance to invade?

[close] This January 19, 6-8 p.m. (MST), I am hosting a discussion on why we read and write science fiction. Like many voracious readers, I loved this field as a teenager, and I am sure the genre helped shape my thinking about the world. But then I stopped reading science fiction for many decades. This seems a common pattern. Now my own debut eco sci-fi about panpsychism and a Paleoterrific future, Knocking on Heaven’s Door (Yucca/Skyhorse Publishing), is just out, and I have five of the best science fictions from 2015 on my kindle, waiting and whispering to me in the night. My favorite recent sci-fi are Station 11 and The Water Knife. I think the genre is about to have a renaissance! Feel free to post your thoughts before or after the discussion date, although I will likely wait for that Tuesday.

[close] 'Svetlana Alexievich was born in Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine. Her father was Belarusian and her mother Ukrainian. Alexievich grew up in Belarus, where both her parents were teachers. She studied to be a journalist at the University of Minsk and worked a teacher, journalist and editor. In Minsk she has worked at the newspaper Sel'skaja Gazeta, Alexievich's criticism of the political regimes in the Soviet Union and thereafter Belarus has periodically forced her to live abroad, for example in Italy, France, Germany and Sweden. Svetlana Alexievich depicts life during and after the Soviet Union through the experience of individuals. In her books she uses interviews to create a collage of a wide range of voices. With her "documentary novels", Svetlana Alexievich, who is a journalist, moves in the boundary between reporting and fiction. Her major works are her grand cycle Voices of Utopia, which consists of five parts. Svetlana Alexievich's books criticize political regimes in both the Soviet Union and later Belarus. In 2015 Ms Alexievich was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.' (From the data on her Goodreads Author page) Since I found no existing group I decided to create one because I think her books are the best I have ever read. They are bigger than life. I hope to find fellow fans who agree with me. Share what you like as long as it's on topic. Сардэчна запрашаем!