ATBITS: March 2016 Pick: All The Birds In The Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

[Rob, Roberator]

I have it on good authority that our March pick will be All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

[Dara]

The title should be "Charlie Jane Anders" not "Andrews".

[Brendan]

I'm really looking forward to reading All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Julie Andrews.

[Dara]

Yeah, All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Julian Fellows has been on my list since I heard about it.

[Andy]

Sweet. Now I just need to buy a copy. The library waiting list is 37 deep, at that rate I would get the book sometime in June 2018 - could you all hold off discussing it until then?

[Rob, Roberator]

Dara wrote: "The title should be "Charlie Jane Anders" not "Andrews"."

I'll not sure what you mean.

[G. Derek]

Yes! I already have a copy in my TBR pile - for once!

[Art]

Awesome! I bought a copy of this last month. Now I get to read it without it sitting on my shelf for a year waiting for me to get round to it.

[terpkristin]

Hmm I've always thought that there was a love affair with io9 in this group but this seems to prove it! ;) :P (kidding)

I'm not sure what to make of the pick....it seems popular lately and has good reviews by people whose opinion I respect. But the description seems kind of sensationalized. And all I can think of when I read "two second time machine" is the One-Minute Time Machine video from the Sploid Short Film Festival. Which I guarantee you is a) PG-13 or maybe R-rated... and b) not related to this book at all.

[William]

This looks good and I'm looking forward to reading it.

Not complaining (too much of that recently) but just my humble thought: There has been a glut of "Fall of Civilisation" laser picks I feel (plus SoS I guess). Can't we have an old fasioned Lasers & Spaceships sometime please? Just to break things up a bit? I know Tom likes "The Expanse" so that shouldn't be too much of a trial for him I imagine.

[xGvJx]

Seriously!!! My library just got this, and since I'm subscribing to early-bird info about everything fantasy and sci-fi that they buy, I borrowed this one. It's sooo pretty! I have borrowed too many books after I started receiving almost-daily emails with lots of tempting titles, but this one has definitely been on top of my reading list. Yaaaay!!! (I have no idea what it's about, and I think I'll keep it that way until I've started reading)

[Joanna Chaplin]

William wrote: "This looks good and I'm looking forward to reading it.

Not complaining (too much of that recently) but just my humble thought: There has been a glut of "Fall of Civilisation" laser picks I feel (..."

I've been starting to crave optimistic near-future scifi. So not space opera, but something that posits that we will eventually get to the stars. Something between us and Star Trek, at it were.

But All the Birds is getting a lot of attention and I am interested.

[Colin]

Looks interesting - but is this a "laser" pick? Magic seems to feature prominently in the cover blurb!

Not available on Audible unfortunately (in the UK at least). I'll have to find a suitable stopping point in one of my other current reads to accommodate this. I skipped February's book, but have been missing the discussion ...

[Kristina]

I've never even heard of this.. but it sounds interesting!

[Rob, Roberator]

Colin wrote: "Looks interesting - but is this a "laser" pick? Magic seems to feature prominently in the cover blurb!

Not available on Audible unfortunately (in the UK at least). I'll have to find a suitable sto..."

That's too bad Collin. It is on the US audible. I'm considering trying it.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Perfect. I bought this one sight unseen but haven't started it yet! You can read chapter 1 on tor.com.

[Tamahome]

I too am looking forward to this pick by Charlie Jane Enders Game.

[Dara]

I've always liked Charlie Julia Child's work on io9.

[Tamahome]

Maybe at the end of the month they could have an interview with the author, Charlie June Cleaver.

[William]

I got my hands on a copy, flicked it open and just got sucked straight in. I've only read the first couple of chapters, but I am loving the writing style.

Joanna wrote: "I've been starting to crave optimistic near-future scifi. So not space opera, but something that posits that we will eventually get to the stars."

That's exactly what I was thinking.

[John (john)]

William wrote: "I got my hands on a copy, flicked it open and just got sucked straight in."

That happened to me when I downloaded the Kindle sample. I may have done a bit of eye-rolling and old-man-grumbling beforehand but 17% in am finding it quite entertaining.

[Misti]

Nice, yet another book that has been on my to-read list.

[Kevin]

This could have been both Science Fiction or Fantasy pick.

[Lindsay]

In fact it's exactly that Kevin, the storyline is basically Fantasy tropes vs Science Fiction tropes.

I thought it was pretty good and I'd definitely read more novels from her, but I think her background as a short fiction author is very evident in her first novel first novel in 10 years? :).

Looking forward to see what you all think of it.

[Kevin]

http://www.tor.com/2016/02/26/rocket-...

[Lee]

Always been a bit of a fan of Charlie Jane Anders writing on io9, didn't realise she'd written a few books.

Sorry I mean Charlie Jerry Anderson, she wrote the book by acting it out with supermarionettes. No that not right either.

[Melinda]

Just picked this up and can't put it down.

[Leesa]

I went ahead and spent my monthly credit on this new book by Charlie Jane Austen!

[Tamahome]

I hear Charlie Jade Anders gives good writing tips.

[Michele]

Charlie Joss Whedon is my favorite writer on io9 - she writes a hell of a good space cowboy memory-snatching vampire slayer story. I snatched this one up as soon as it came out, so I'm glad it's the pick for March.

[Tamahome]

Charlie Jane Anders ‏@charliejane 4h4 hours ago
@tamahome02000 ha that is hilarious. I hope ppl aren't too put off by the "apocalypse" thing. It's more of a "save the world" sorta thing

[Tom, Supreme Laser]

Michele wrote: "Charlie Joss Whedon is my favorite writer on io9 - she writes a hell of a good space cowboy memory-snatching vampire slayer story. I snatched this one up as soon as it came out, so I'm glad it's th..."

I am literally laughing out loud.

[Rob]

Is the audiobook worth picking up? I wasn't impressed by the sample, but I may not have time for this otherwise.

[Tom, Supreme Laser]

Rob Secundus wrote: "Is the audiobook worth picking up? I wasn't impressed by the sample, but I may not have time for this otherwise."

I'm reading it print. Like with paper and everything.

[Rob]

Goodness gracious, like the pulpy stuff made from trees and/or cotton garments?! They still make that?

[Tamahome]

The prestigious Coode St. podcast just had a roundtable on Charlie Julie Newmar's novel: http://jonathanstrahan.podbean.com/e/...

[Tom, Supreme Laser]

Rob Secundus wrote: "Goodness gracious, like the pulpy stuff made from trees and/or cotton garments?! They still make that?"

Yeah it's odd. The display resolution is good but sucks in low light. Battery life is great but apparently it's easily burned? Don't know if I like that for reliability.

[Tamahome]

And how do you make the font bigger for us old fogeys?

[Tom, Supreme Laser]

Tamahome wrote: "And how do you make the font bigger for us old fogeys?"

You can't!
Yeah accessibility is an issue.

[Leesa]

Rob Secundus wrote: "Is the audiobook worth picking up? I wasn't impressed by the sample, but I may not have time for this otherwise."

I'm listening to it in audiobook and I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

[Ian]

Hi all, excellent work sussing out the next pick. I forgot for a moment it was a leap year and was dismayed that the March pick wasn't available on the website.

I'm not familiar with the work of Charlie You Jane Me Tarzan, since I don't follow io9, but I'm eager to jump on the meme bandwagon and to read the book as well.

[Serendi]

I'm also liking the audiobook.

[Stephen]

I too like the audio, I know because I am pissed when I reach my destination.

[T. Scott]

I'm in! This has been on my list since I saw it compared to Lev Grossman's The Magicians. I am listening to the audiobook.

[Leesa]

Stephen wrote: "I too like the audio, I know because I am pissed when I reach my destination."

:D This is one of my measures too. Also: "oh! I have errands to run... yeah... that's the ticket. Errands to run!"

[Trike]

I thought it was interesting how Charlie John Edwards titled chapters things like, "I'm seeing a character whose name starts with an L..."

From the locked February What Are You Reading thread:

Phil wrote: "Given this and Radiance and a few other laser picks over the last year or two I'm beginning to wonder when science fiction went from being the literature of science geeks to being the literature of artsy hipsters."

1967. See: The New Wave.

[Rob]

[Insert puppy joke about the gold days of scifi]

[Malaraa]

Tom wrote: "Tamahome wrote: "And how do you make the font bigger for us old fogeys?"

You can't!
Yeah accessibility is an issue."

Well, you can... it's just "sold separately".
The add-ons are where they get ya! ;)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U...

[Tamahome]

Ever notice that you can't buy 0.25, 0.50, or 0.75 zoom reading glasses in stores? #conspiracy

[Sean]

Got the audio version, but I'm going to finish The Three-Body Problem first. I should be done with that by the end of the week.