SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
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What Else Are You Reading?
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What Else Are You Reading in 2018?
Justin wrote: "Allison wrote: "I've been thinking about re-reading Book of Three! Have you read it before? It's one of my beloved childhood reads that I hope stands up to time.Station Eleven was really pretty t..."
That's it hand over the crunchies and munchies
You guys are making me want to bust out my prydain box set. I haven't completely read the series since high school.
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::buddy read? buddy read??::
Who said that? Well, if you all wanted to try a buddy read, who am I to stop you?
Eric wrote: "I completed Michener's tome, Texas..."My favorite of his is The Drifters. It very nearly caused me and my friends all to drop out of college and go to Marrakech :)
Just read Robert Louis Stevenson's The Suicide Club last night - wow! Can't believe I never ran into this one before. Good stuff. Now into Our Lady of the Forest - odd but good so far. First book I've read by Guterson.
I liked PAPER AND FIRE (and INK AND BONE)...
Michele wrote: "My favorite of his is The Drifters. It very nearly caused me and my friends all to drop out of college and go to Marra..."I haven't tripped over
yet. I may put that on my list. Thanks!
MadProfessah wrote: "I liked PAPER AND FIRE (and INK AND BONE)..."I'm liking it well enough so far.
I was a bit... not sure what the word is... disheartened, I guess... to find it's a 5 book series and not a trilogy, though.
I'm a little over halfway through the audio for Medusa Uploaded, and so far I'm really in love with it. My only worry is that all the questions that have been thrown about in the book won't get wrapped up by the end. If they are though, this definitely has the potential to be a favorite.I'm also reading The Red Threads of Fortune. I read The Black Tides of Heaven earlier this year and was kind of meh about it because of all the jumping forward in time that disconnected me from the characters and plot. So far this one's stayed a lot more linear though, which I like much better.
And I'm now about halfway through Revenant Gun and it is amazing. I'm hoping to finish it either today or tomorrow. This is a series that's definitely going on my reread list.
I finished reading The Complete Chi's Sweet Home, Part 2, which is just absolutely adorable.
Justin wrote: "I've never read any of Lloyd Alexander's stuff, but I remember loving the Black Cauldron movie as a kid. It seems that his Prydain series is well regarded, so I felt like it is high time I pick it up."My sister and her friend and I read the Prydain books all in a row when we were jr. high age. It was the first fantasy series I completed.
We were in high school when the movie came out, and went to go see it as soon as we could after it came out... and we were appalled. I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it again since... and also haven't reread the books, come to think of it. I ought to do that sometime. :)
I'm restarting Iron Gold since I've put it aside for too long and well...details...On a whim I picked up After You; it hadn't been on my current TBR pile. I had enjoyed the first book a lot and wanted to know what goes on with Lou. Good summer reading.
Listening to The Laughing Corpse which makes those hot and humid 2 miles seem much shorter.
Last night I finished Manners & Mutiny, the fourth & final book in Gail Carriger's "Finishing School" series. It had slow but dramatic start, then accelerated towards a rousing finish. There was a warm happy ending that I wanted and needed. I enjoyed how this and last book planted seeds for the "Parasol Protectorate" books. And there were the exploding fake desserts. I plan to move on from that to the final book in a more serious series, probably starting next week.
I finished reading Head On (Lock In #2) by John Scalzi. I am reading The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time Book #1) by Robert Jordan. I plan to read Across the River and into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway next.
Beth wrote: "My sister and her friend and I read the Prydain books all in a row when we were jr. high age....We were in high school when the movie came out... and we were appalled. "Yeah, the movie... ugh. Read the books again, though, they're wonderful. Gwydion Prince of Don was my first fictional crush :)
I liked the Jurassic movies 1 and 3. I found the book, The Lost Continent, much more interesting than than movie #2. There was a lot more to the book than was included in the movie which made a big difference. Have to check out the first book.I read The Universe Maker by A. E, van Vogt. I had forgotten how much he liked to wrestle with conventional thought. The story never stopped flowing.
There’s a movie of the Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander? From when??I really wish I could join you all who are enjoying REVENANT GUN but I literally did a hard DNF on Book 1 if that series midway through chapter 1. I literally could not tell WTF was going on and didn’t care to “suffer” to find out.
Not everything is for everyone but I still have FOMO (fear of missing out). Similar thing happened with RED RISING.
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Argh! Y'all are making Prydain hard to pass up!! Oh, nostalgia! I think the movie was from the mid-80s? It was very much in the vein of that Hobbit movie that's "for children" but only the kind whose parents want to scar them for life.
For Ninefox, I started treating all the math stuff like magic and didn't try to spend much time thinking how it was supposed to work and I liked the story a lot more as a result I think.
Just got the last book by John Conroe and after all of these books in a few years there is still that level of excitement.maybe I will have to re read.
Decided today to go through book lists of new books to see if some of my fav authors have come out with anything . I just love series
MadProfessah wrote: "I really wish I could join you all who are enjoying REVENANT GUN but I literally did a hard DNF on Book 1 if that series midway through chapter 1. I literally could not tell WTF was going on and didn’t care to “suffer” to find out. Not everything is for everyone but I still have FOMO (fear of missing out). Similar thing happened with RED RISING. "
I don’t think you’re missing out. I did not like the first one at all.
I don’t suffer from FOMO because there’s just too much going on to ever be part of the in crowd. All of life feels like trying to sip from a fire hose, and it’s only gotten worse over the years. There’s no point in trying to make oneself crazy chasing something that can’t be caught.
I even know people who fight to stay awake for fear of missing something. That’s borderline pathological. I think anything that’s really interesting will be repeated later, so why hurt yourself?
To quote The Big Chill:
Michael: Oh, hey, did I miss Karen and Richard?
Sarah: No, just Richard; Karen's staying for the weekend.
Michael: But not Richard?
Sarah: Went back to be with the kids.
Michael: Oohhhh, interesting. What did Richard have to say about that?
Sarah: Michael, if you're going to sleep this late, you're going to miss a few minidramas.
Michael: I just hope you'll wake me for anything really ugly.
Whats the difference between a hard DNF and a soft one? In the hard version do you burn the book or hurl it across the room lol?
Just started Rumer Godden's In This House of Brede. Nuns in 1940s [?] England, truly an alien world ;)
Since my last post, I’ve read:* Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson. I liked this quite a bit although, like many other readers, it was the setting I enjoyed the most. I never got very attached to the characters. My review.
* Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. This is another book where I enjoyed the setup and the world-building most. I didn’t like the characters very much and the story wasn’t bad, but it didn’t consistently hold my interest. My review.
* The Divine Cities trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett, starting with City of Stairs. This was a solid fantasy series with a unique (in my experience) setting and I enjoyed it quite a bit. After the previous two books, it was nice to read some books where I felt more attached to the characters. My reviews:
Book 1 – City of Stairs
Book 2 – City of Blades
Book 3 – City of Miracles
Next up, I plan to start 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. This is one of the group’s re-read selections for July, so I’m starting way too early, but it’s a long book (1300+ pages) and I want to read the other July selection also, so I decided to just go ahead and start.
I read the Hugo and Nebula nominated River of Teeth. I was really excited by the premise of an alternate history Western with hippos. Unfortunately, I do not think the execution lived up to the premise.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Latest reviews in an unusual turn for me 2 books I read with my eyes with 0 books I read with my ears (usually it's the other way around)Brief Cases - Jim Butcher continues to be my favorite author for really fun fantasy stories, and this collection was a decent hold-over until Peace Talks finally comes out. Not to mention I got to meet him on the book tour! - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
Unsouled- This one was short and I tore through it quickly. A buddy of mine has been recommending Will Wight for a while and I finally got around to checking him out. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
Jamesboggie wrote: "I read the Hugo and Nebula nominated River of Teeth. I was really excited by the premise of an alternate history Western with hippos. Unfortunately, I do not think the execution liv..."I totally agree about River of Teeth! Great premise, some fun parts, but pretty ragged, especially in the plot. On the fence about reading the follow up, Taste of Marrow.
I just finished A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir, the third installment in An Ember in the Ashes series! It was as thrilling as the second book!!My review
@Michelle I think the difference between a hard DNF (e.g RED RISING, NINEFOX GAMBIT, etc) and a soft DNF (DOWNBELOW STATION) is how one feels about the decision. A hard DNF leaves one with no regret, only relief one is no longer wasting time reading that dreck. A soft DNF one feels like that maybe the problem was with you and you sorta feel apologetic to the author and people who recommended the book to you or who liked it. With a hard DNF you feel like “You guys who liked this book must be crazy!! Or at least have a very different taste in books from mine!”
I'm starting in on another ARC this week: The Quantum Magician. After that, I think I'm going to work on Revenant Gun
Anna wrote: "I have severe post Revenant Gun depression"This is still true, so much so that I accidentally found myself rereading it. I'm finding it hard to decide what to read next, and combined with the poll results for July, I decided it's the perfect time for an Earthsea reread. I've been wanting to reread The Other Wind, since I've only read it once. I don't really need to reread any of the other books, but now that one of them is the group read, why not reread all.
If anyone else is going to be (re)reading A Wizard of Earthsea or The Tombs of Atuan, let me or Allison know, and we'll make sure there are threads for those in this folder.
Finished Paper and Fire, and gave it a 3, like the first in the series. I enjoy the series and the characters well enough, but it doesn't blow me away or anything. I'll be continuing with it, though.Moved on to The Belles, which I might not finish. I'm 75 pages in and it's a slow and repetitive set-up so far. Plus, I just read in some reviews that there's a (view spoiler)
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Tammie wrote: "i am reading 
"Let me know how it goes. I have that on my TBR list.
MadProfessah wrote: "There’s a movie of the Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander? From when??"The Black Cauldron (1985). Really really bad, IMO.
A couple of years ago there were rumblings that Disney was going to try again but I haven't heard anything recently.
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Hoping that thinking about Jedao trying to explain watches to people will make me happier. Raven Stratagem is definitely going to be what I use for my bed/wed/behead entry in the TBR challenge. Probably marrying a ~360 year old psychotic ghost currently inhabiting a woman's body will present some challenges for us, but marriage is about compromise.
Allison wrote: "Probably marrying a ~360 year old psychotic ghost currently inhabiting a woman's body will present some challenges for us, but marriage is about compromise. "I wish you all the happiness! <3
I just finished a very weird book. Telepathic aliens on a mission to find brides visit Seelie court, ride elephants, and express love by biting necks and touching fingertips.
Anna wrote: "Allison wrote: "Probably marrying a ~360 year old psychotic ghost currently inhabiting a woman's body will present some challenges for us, but marriage is about compromise. "I wish you all the ha..."
They included all that in a single book?!
The cover of Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson could possibly make you happy again Allison. It makes me laugh every time I look at it. Have a quick look for it on here 🤪
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Rory the raccoon is an AMAZING stress reliever haha! Thanks, Jacqueline :)
I have a screen shot of him and when I feel down I look at it and he always makes me happy. Well chosen for a book called Furiously Happy if you ask me. People are using it for “a book with an ugly cover” on Popsugar but he’s not ugly. Yeah sure he’s a dead raccoon but he’s brilliant.
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Rude!! Rory is an inspiration. He's out living his best dead life, a little confused (coonfused??) maybe but genuinely happy to be here!
(That was a great book, too. I laughed out loud at several sections)
I haven’t read it yet. Still looking for it. I have her other one here on my iPad (and haven’t read it either). I only “discovered” them the other day when I read the thread on the ugly book prompt. Then I looked through the thousands of books on my computer and the other one was there but this one wasn’t. I’m going to my father in laws later. I’ll see if I can find it online when I’m there. I don’t have internet here at the beach but I recently got my FIL to upgrade his phone deal and he got internet with his phone for the same price he had been paying just for his phone before. He’s 90 and doesn’t have a computer or a tablet or anything so it’s really only there for me. It’s only 25gb but it gets me out of trouble when I’m here. This is the first visit I’ve been able to use it.
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Woohoo some amount of internet!! I liked Furiously Happy better than Let's Pretend This Never Happened, but I've also been a fan of hers for years and had seen most of the stories in that book before from her blog. Furiously Happy I think worked better as its own book.
Yeah its a lot of data eh lol Actually it’s more than my first broadband connection in 2010. The internet we have at the farm is unlimited but we do watch a lot of Netflix when we’re there.
Jacqueline wrote: "The cover of Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson could possibly make you happy again Allison. It makes me laugh every time I look at it. Have a quick look for it on here 🤪"I LOVED Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir! Did not know she had a new one out, what fun :)
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SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
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It was good. Rapey, and I just never understand characters so overcome by lust that they can't even move the dead body first (un..."
Haha! I can see that, too. I think the narrators are what saved it for me. It had issues, but I thought it was not a waste of my time to read.