Chris’s
Comments
(group member since Feb 25, 2011)
Chris’s
comments
from the Beyond Reality group.
Showing 241-260 of 934
This is just a lovely story. Dex's first attempt at serving tea is such a completely human failure. It's so identifiable -- no matter how much we think we know, book learning and observation aren't the same thing as practice and experience. I think that Chambers excels at crafting small, memorable moments. The comfort of a cup of tea; the companionship of sharing a meal; the satisfaction of helping someone else; the quietness that it takes to be a good listener.
June is here, and we've got a new month of books to read and discuss.Books of the Month - For June, you selected:
--Science Fiction: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
--Fantasy: Spear by Nicola Griffith
There are a couple of starter topics up for each book, but please feel free to start more.
We also have our schedule set for the next couple of months:
--July 2023 Science Fiction: The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
--July 2023 Fantasy: The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold
--August 2023 Science Fiction: Translation State by Ann Leckie
--August 2023 Fantasy: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
Series news - We are currently reading the second book in the the MaddAdam trilogy by Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood. Join in anytime!
Lastly - Don't forget to check out the Question of the Week (a new one posts each Sunday) and drop by the "What are you reading in June 2023?” topic to share your picks, pans, and progress for the month. All genres welcome in this topic!
Chris, for the mods
Jun 01, 2023 08:37AM
Post here if you are reading or planning to read A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. No spoilers please!
May 17, 2023 03:52PM
I'm going to suggest Translation State by Ann Leckie for SF. It's in the Imperial Radch universe, but supposed to be stand alone.For Fantasy, I'm going to suggest Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I met someone at a conference that just raved about this series, thought I might give it a try.
This is complicated! So many species, so much politics, so much action.As always, I love the Culture ships and their Minds. They have such great names and such snarky personalities.
I found the whole plot line around Vatueil just confusing. I guess he's important to the plot because he moves the conflict into the real world, but it mostly just left me bewildered.
I think the title is great, given that our main POV character is comprehensively tattooed.
Overall, I liked this ok, but it's not my favorite Culture book. I wasn't particularly fond of reading about the hells, and I thought Veppers was a pretty two-dimensional villain.
A beautifully written book! Complex characters in a detailed and unusual world. I read this when it first came out, loving the story but disappointed to see that the book finished before the story did. This time I was able to march right on the sequel, which is every bit as satisfying. I think that the way that the story is told is very compelling. The actual events from the night that the gods (and their children) were killed are revealed bit by bit. I think that Shel's word, "monstrous" is probably the best description, even if we understand more fully why they were driven to act as they did. But Taylor pulls the story beyond it, to the present, where each character must choose how to deal with that revealed past, and deal with each other. Kept me turning pages to the end!
May is here, and we've got a new month of books to read and discuss!Books of the Month - For May, you selected:
--Science Fiction: Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks
--Fantasy: Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
There are a couple of starter topics up for each book, but please feel free to start more.
We also have our schedule set for the next couple of months:
--June 2023 Science Fiction: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
--June 2023 Fantasy: Spear by Nicola Griffith
--July 2023 Science Fiction: The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
--July 2023 Fantasy: The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold
Series news - We are currently reading the first book in the the MaddAdam trilogy by Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake. Join in anytime!
Lastly - Don't forget to check out the Question of the Week (a new one posts each Sunday) and drop by the "What are you reading in May 2023?” topic to share your picks, pans, and progress for the month. All genres welcome in this topic!
Chris, for the mods
Post here if you are reading or planning to read Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks]. No spoilers, please!
Post here if you are reading or planning to read Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. No spoilers, please!
Stephen R Donaldson can write some VERY lengthly books. But I first encountered him in a much shorter duology called Mordant's Need, which includes The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through. It's a comfort read for me, and I find myself going back to it every once in a while.
Shel wrote: "You had me at intelligent octopi! Although here's a fun fact for you: "octopus" is from Greek roots, not Latin, so "octopi" isn't a proper plural. In Greek it would be "octopodes" but the correct E..."Not octopi!! I am gobsmacked, but stand corrected.
For SF, I nominate The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler. A Nebula nominee about intelligent octopi.For Fantasy, I nominate Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett.
Like Shel, I spent a lot of time confused. But there are a lot of big thoughts here that stayed with me...* Planetary terraforming is really, really hard. Life is a miracle. Earth-like life is precious and complex and even more of a miracle.
* Intersolar colonization involves a huge amount of faith .... and a lot of luck. It was devastating to think of the sleepers left on the ship, no matter how rational the decision might have been.
* The idea of the Seccers, used as a scapegoat for any problem or strife in the colony. Is that idea so universal that the simulation engine came up with it??
* The duality of the Corvids was marvelous (bringing to mind Odin's two ravens, Thought and Memory (Huginn and Muninn).
* What is sentience, really? If you appear to be sufficiently sentient, are you, or is it possible to just be a good fake? Is passing the Turing test an actual indicator? What if you can only know if you're sentient from "inside", so to speak? What if you can't know at all?
* Maybe we really all do live in the Matrix....
I love a coffee cafe when meeting a friend for a chat. My local Starbucks is my go-to place... they don't have a drive thru, so it's just locals coming by for a cup of coffee and a pastry. But my favorite coffee cafe memory was of Raven's Brew in Ketchikan, Alaska. We stumbled onto it while on holiday, and it was just the perfect place for a rest, a beverage, and some people watching.
