Justine’s Comments (group member since Jan 27, 2015)

Justine’s comments from the Beyond Reality group.

Random wrote: " I have to agree. I read some criticism of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires about the female characters. But I grew up in the 80s. It was very much like that. I witnessed it. Hell its still around, though not as pervasive as it used to be. To this day, there isn't much that will put me into a rage faster than being talked over instead of being talked to. Or others deciding how I should feel or what I should think.

Yes same! Another person who read this commented that she didn’t think this was really horror, and I do not understand that. It’s as if the situation of these girls and women in near past historical settings seems so made up that somehow they must be at fault? People now do not at all seem to understand what the usual and pervasive attitude actually was? While we were in it is bad enough but being told now that we should have just not put up with it then and so somehow it’s our own fault we were treated that way is just frankly gobsmacking.

Me too; I’ve read one currently leading (Planetfall) and it’s so excellent!

Random wrote: “I have that book on my wish list. I've enjoyed all of the books of his I have read so far. I am interested to see how Witchcraft for Wayward Girls turns out without the black humor…"

Ok just finished and it’s good. Sad and scary and no easy outs, but ultimately I liked the way it played out. I think Hendrix is an author who tries very hard to understand women and in this case, girls, and that understanding comes through in his work.

I’m currently reading Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, and it’s pretty good. I find Hendrix has a good knack for setting and of the three other books of his I’ve read, I’ve loved two of them: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires and How to Sell a Haunted House. This one doesn’t has the same black humour as those did, and I don’t like it quite as much as those two, but I’m still only at 40% so we’ll see how it turns out.

I’m also listening to the Andy Serkis audiobook version of The Fellowship of the Ring, which is excellent.

I tried looking to see if the Lady Astronaut series will conclude with The Martian Contingency and there’s nothing on Kowal’s site about her plans for the series (if any). There’s beena long break since the initial duology between the third and fourth books, so who knows?

I think that’s a fantasy series, isn’t it?

Oh! I didn’t see it on the posted list, Kathi. If you’re sure, great but if not I can pick something else…

I’m going to nominate the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons:

Hyperion
The Fall of Hyperion
Endymion
The Rise of Endymion

This is obviously classic and lots of people have read it, but not me. I have a few others in my back pocket but this has been on my TBR forever.

Random wrote: "I'm going to jump in with the Riftwar series, or at least a portion of it (the full thing is massive) by Raymond E. Feist.

First, the initial core books
The Riftwar Saga
This include..."

I didn’t even realize those two series were connected? I’ve never read either Feist or Wurts so that sounds really interesting :)

I thought for sure Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan had been done, but I guess not the series as a whole? I’ll nominate that for the next series read.

I’m sure everyone is familiar with it even if they have never read it (like me); the series is 14 books and complete. The last book was finished by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan passed away.

So glad you liked it Kathy! Definitely give Spinning Silver a go.

Only a bit late Kathy 😂

Welcome Dawn! There are several active members from BC here. I’m from Victoria :) Where are you?

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I haven't read those, but I do like The Great Library. It is a YA series though, in case that isn't your thing.

Happy New Year to everyone. I've been MIA from this group for quite awhile but I'm happy to be back.

This month I started my reread of The Expanse, starting with Leviathan Wakes. I only read up to book 6 previously, and since the series will finish this year I figured it was a good time. I'm also rereading/finally finishing The Great Library series by Rachel Caine, who sadly passed away last year. I just finished book 2, Paper and Fire. Both series are holding up on reread for me.

Also on the go I have the audiobook of Empire of Wild by Metis author Cherie Dimaline. It's very good, but a bit NSFW if, like me, your job includes driving your kids around in the car while you listen to audiobooks 🙄

Also working on The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 5: Volume Five. I usually like Clarke's anthologies. I just recently finished The Book of Dragons, which was probably one of my favourite anthologies ever.

I'm about halfway; I like it alot more than The Human Division. I jist looked at the spoiler thread for that one and I think I am pretty much alone in disliking it.

The first story, Life of Mind, I thought was exceptionally well done and engaging.

This was my second time reading this and I really enjoyed it. I liked the conversational writing style, and it was a book that I could enjoy without working too hard - which is a good thing because that was really something I needed right now.

I've read the next book before too, but nothing thereafter so I'm looking forward to seeing how the entire story plays out.

Looking forward to this!

My nominations are:

Fantasy
The Book of M by Peng Shepherd


SF
Warcross by Marie Lu