July through December 2014 Reading List

[Gremlin]

July 10 - Among Others by Jo Walton
August 14 - Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
September 11 - 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (this is a big book, so get your copy early!)
October 9 - The City and the City by China Mieville
November 13 - Rupetta by Nike Sulway (this book can be a little hard to get a copy of, but you can buy ebooks/hard copies directly from the publisher. We put it later in the year so that folks can track it down).
December 11 - Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction edited by Brit Mandelo *This will also be when we pick another 6 books for the following year*
January 8 - A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K LeGuin

[John]

One thing I didn't notice when we picked books: “Hell Is The Absence of God” from Stories Of Your Life And Others was already a pick for October 2009, along with a story by Guillermo Lavin. We could maybe include an online Ted Chiang store as well? What do people think?

[Gremlin]

Sounds fine to me!

Also, I know we'd all talked about the Wizard of Earthsee as a book for this year, and it got shuffled off. But I was thinking maybe we tack it on as our January 2015 book, but still pick our new books in December (thus giving us all plenty of lead time to track down copies of things as needed). What do folks think? I'll be bringing this up in person at our next meeting, too.

[John]

Sounds good to me.

[Jake]

Sounds good to me too.

For "Among Others", which pulls a lot of its texture and potency from the books its protagonist loves, I found this list (alphabetized, no less) from Walton's LJ:

http://papersky.livejournal.com/50927...

Not at all required to enjoy the book, but might be worth dusting off your brain-files on any of these if you have feelings about them.

[Jake]

"Stories of Your Life and Others" is next month, I'd suggest the following stories to focus on:

"Story of Your Life". See also: Tralfamadorians, Dr. Manhattan's chapter, and the (strong) Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.
"Seventy-Two Letters". A delightful foray into rabbinic golem theory & early naturalists.
"Liking What You See: A Documentary". Consult your inner Harrison Bergeron and the manufacture of capitalist desire.

We can talk about more (there's some theological whatsits going on elsewhere in this collection) but those are a fun three.

[John]

Blog updated with the selections.

I may also read "The Lifecycle of Software Objects:"
http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine...

and if I get time, "The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling:"
http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine...

[Wealhtheow]

Even though the writing in "Lifecycle of Software Objects" is straightforward, even a bit amateurish, I really liked it. It's a particularly good exploration of the ethics of AIs and raising other beings whose capabilities are still unknown.

I read "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" when it was nominated for the 2014 Hugos and I loved it. The interweaving tales actually work really well to demonstrate the theme of the story without belaboring it, and I loved the way the framing essay changed over time. Chiang works in lots of little hints and references to future tech, but the sf never overwhelms the story--it's clear that the sf is used to talk about records, memory, and the tales we tell ourselves&others, rather than the futuristic world being the point of the story.

Reading these just made me more excited to read more of his work!

[Gremlin]

I'm sad I missed the discussion of Stories of Your Life and Others but some games will not be played by themselves (meaning, I was out of town at Gencon).

I'll be there for KSR! Hopefully with a completed book, even! :)

[Gremlin]

FYI - The movie that's currently playing called "The Arrival" is based off Ted's short story, The Story of Your Life. The movie was very well done and is worth seeing! And now I've got to get the short story collection out from the library again to revisit! :)