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?
Oppinions do seem to vary a lot on Uprooted and Bear. I liked both but can't say I really loved them. I also just finished The Last Wish and despite so many great reviews I didn't like it much. Felt like something was missing. Could it be because of a faulty translation? I thought at first because it's short stories but I'm also reading Elric: The Stealer of Souls right now and I find that one pretty good as short stories go.
I also love fairy tales. Of Beast and Beauty being among my favourites. Could you guys please recommend me a few more lovely ones? I'd really appreciate it.
Chris, that explains why it would feel new and different, and also why people recommend the few options to everyone who liked one of them. Funnily enough the all the other ones you list are the same here. I'd somehow thought Native/Latin American would be more common there.
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Re: the Slavic mainstream books and fairytale retellings...Hi. My name is Allison. I L-O-V-E dark retellings of fairytales. Love love love. Some don't quite work for me for various reasons, but I'm still glad to have read them. So that's probably why I loved Deathless. The idea of exploring the Prince of Life in the context of tremendous human casualty was such a powerful reminder for me of why humans have their fairy tales. We need stories to explain why bad things happen, to caution and to provide hope. So many of our stories are so similar the world over because we all needed those same things (and cultural drift, sure, but clearly they resonated).
New myths (Yoruba mythology is taking a glorious turn in the spotlight!! That's really been enjoyable), ones that the rest of the world hasn't heard yet (as a generality) are so riveting because we can see a bit of the shared humanity that causes people to propagate stories. Fairy tales were never really for children. We just fed those stories to children so that when the real Baba Yaga or hydra or Fenris or Nalusa Chito or brownies showed up, we had a language we could sort of use to communicate about the experience, one that the whole culture could get. I love stories that remind me of that.
Anyways, that's my TED talk, thanks for listening.
Laura, did you want to start a thread in the Recommendations folder? As you can see, conversation moves fast here, so you might get more and more targeted-to-your-preference suggestions that way :)
Allison wrote: "I L-O-V-E dark retellings of fairytales."I'm completely off topic here, sorry, but this reminds me of how almost all the stories I grew up hearing/reading are so depressing and dark. Children get eaten, killed, beaten, abandoned, kidnapped, etc. The happiest possible ending is that they're found alive. Maybe that's why I'm happier having a light romance retelling than an even darker and twistier one.
I do still like the darker stories, too, but I guess if it's a retelling of a very familiar story, then I want it to be something different, have something new. A good example is The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon, which is a LGBT retelling of The Snow Queen. It was great, and I really should read more of her retellings!
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I'm completely off topic here, sorry, but this reminds me of how almost all the stories I grew up hearing/reading are so depressing and da..."
Yeah and see it's all Disney here. I guess not that I want kidnappings and beatings, but maybe a happy? grim? middle ground between the two. Raven and the Reindeer sounds great, going on the list!
Jade City, not too bad. A huge success for the Urban Fantasy subgenre one of my new favorites of that ilk. gangsters, drugs, hookers and magic Jade.
Anna wrote: "A good example is The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon, which is a LGBT retelling of The Snow Queen. It was great, and I really should read more of her retellings! "Ursula is great, I keep telling how her short stories are fantastic. Her book The Seventh Bride is next on my list to read, it’s also sort of dark fairy tale.
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yes, yesss, moooreeee :D
So I've been slacking off on my reviews (I write them mostly for myself anyways, so whatever) for like 2, maybe 3 weeks? This is a lot of books for me (albeit mostly audio) but I don't generally go through books that quickly. All but one of these was audio.The Sum of All Fears - ★★½☆☆ - (My Review)
Circe - ★★½☆☆ - (My Review)
Out of Spite, Out of Mind - ★★★☆☆ - (My Review)
Revenant Gun - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
All Systems Red - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
Soulsmith - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)
Age of War - ★★★★★ - (My Review)
Allison wrote: "Aleksandra wrote: "Anna wrote: "A good example is The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon, which is a LGBT retelling of The Snow Queen. It was great, and I really should read more..."Ooh, I’ve been wanting to read Ursula Vernon. (I follow her on Twitter, she’s a lot of fun.) Is Raven and the Reindeer a good place to start? What are your faves?
I’ve read too little to recommend, but I really liked The Tomato Thief, which is a sequel to Jackalope Wives. Both are available online for free (see links in reviews) and also in Jackalope Wives And Other Stories. Of the retellings, I’d probably start with one that you already like. I used to love Snow Queen, and hadn’t seen any retellings, so when I heard it was also LGBT, it was an easy choice to start there.
Anna wrote: " Are Russian/Slavic inspired fairytale retellings very uncommon in the US? ..."I don’t know about “uncommon”. It seemed like for years you couldn’t swing a dead babushka without hitting a Baba Yaga retelling. Rusalka, etc. And Sapkowski’s The Witcher series is popular, and it borrows from Slavic folktales.Firebird by Lackey, and there’s another Firebird book whose exact title I forget.
Anna wrote: "I’ve read too little to recommend, but I really liked The Tomato Thief, which is a sequel to Jackalope Wives. Both are available online for free (see links in review..."I’d also add stories: Pocosin, Razorback and Dark Birds (all are free and available online).
She won Hugo and Nebula awards for these two stories that Anna mentioned.
MadProfessah wrote: "Has anyone else read THE PASSAGE trilogy by Justin Cronin ??"I read the first one. It was good but uneven in pacing and didn't interest me enough to read the rest.
Jordan wrote: "I read The Sword of Rhiannon yesterday. Typically I'm not a huge fan of the older planetary romance type books, but I had a lot of fun with this one."That's one of the first SF books I remember reading, way back in the dark ages. Mars books of that era were terrific fun, back when so little was known of the planet -- they make an amusing contrast with modern ones like The Martian.
Shana wrote: "
IT"Ooh, one of his best :)
Jacqueline wrote: "I’ve been like a short fat Tigger bouncing between genres and authors all year."LOL! Love the analogy :)
Anna wrote: " I first encountered Koschei in Alas taikavirtaa, which is a Russian children's book. Unfortunately there's no English translation, but it's an adventure story where you meet pretty much all the traditional Russian fairytale characters..."That sounds so great! I wonder why there's no English translation. i would totally buy that and read it.
I really enjoyed both Deathless and Uprooted. I rated both 4-stars. But I agree with Anna that I wouldn't really think to compare the two, and I wouldn't think to recommend one based on the other.I haven't read The Bear and the Nightingale yet, but it's on my to-read list.
I really like fairy tale retellings, so I'm grateful for this discussion and the several recs I've gotten out of it. ^_^
I haven’t read any of them yet. Uprooted and Bear and the Nightingale are on my TBR and I actually have them on my iPad waiting. But I don’t like reading on my iPad too much so I ordered Bear and the Nightingale from a bookshop and it’s waiting for me next time I visit the farm. So is Furiously Happy actually because I really wanted that funny dead raccoon sitting on display on my bookcase. He makes me smile....but I digress...I’m currently listening to Cinder. Not a Slavic or Russian fairytale adaptation but an adaptation nonetheless. Apparently Cinderella is French.
I don’t mind retellings of old fairy tales/stories when they’re done right.
I decided to start my reread of Harry Potter again yesterday. I was up to Order if the Phoenix when I stopped a little over 12 months ago. We had a bit of a shock yesterday and I just wanted to slip into something comfortable. The Mother of my eldests sons girlfriend of 10 years dropped dead yesterday morning. She was 63. So basically my son and my sort of daughter in law are extremely upset and I am stuck 1200km away feeling useless.
Wow, Jacqueline, that’s very sad. I wish you and your son and his girlfriend all the very best. I totally identify with wanting some comfortable reading at such a moment! Take good care.
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Randy wrote: "I'm reading: - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
- Uprooted by Naomi Novik
- Altered Carbon by [author:Richa..."
How do you like Dragonflight? It's one of my favourites.
I love this thread. I got so many good books to add to my TBR from here.@Alison - thank you. I went and made a thread under recommendations. Didn't know I could do that being still fairly new here and just now starting to get properly involved. This group is awesome.
Anna wrote: "Allison wrote: "Not liking Uprooted is an unpopular opinion, but there it is. I think it was hurt by the fact I'd read two other popular Russian folk tale retellings in a short time, so I couldn't ..."I must admit I pass on most of these books because I just don't like Fairytales (though I love Nursery Rhymes).
I tried The Snow Child because so many people were raving about it but it just didn't do anything for me.
Thomas wrote: "I've just finished Blood of Aenarion by William King, I know this is a Warhammer novel, but still I found it a very enjoyable fantasy novel and it was also shortliste..."I was introduced to Warhammer through Dan Abnett. I like his writing but also want to try someone else writing in the universe. It's also nice that my son's friends think a Warhammer 40K reading mum is cool.
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@Alison - thank you. I went and made a thread under recommendations. Didn't know I could do that being still fairly new her..."
I saw it!! I'm also probably gonna mine it for new ideas! Glad to see you're already getting some good results! :D
Esther, that makes sense to me! Also, I tend to agree, a 40k reading parent is pretty badass
I finished up Angels' Blood while commuting back and forth to a fan convention over the long weekend. It's nice to find a new author in a genre that's perfect for vacation reading right around vacation time. (PNR, for the record.) This book's good fun, mostly, with some caveats. It has a fair number of murder scenes, and, since the main character suffers from PTSD, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who has trouble with that kind of content. (Or with explicit sex, for that matter.) I'm interested in seeing where the series goes from here, always a good sign after finishing a first volume.
Review here.
I finally convinced someone in real life to read Ninefox Gambit, so now I am re-reading so that I can answer questions about what's going on. Plus I have <2 weeks til vacation (yay!) so I'm going to need to reread Raven Stratagem in preparation for Revenant Gun. Only a month late for the buddy read :-/
Ariana, your rl friend is the best! I've been trying to force Ninefox on everyone, no one will read it :( Possibly because no one I know irl reads any SFF anyway :/
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All of the words you just said made me so excited for you!! I'm hoping to start Revenant Gun soon, too, so you won't be alone!
What a great thread with lots of recs, my tbr list is exploding!Right now I’m reading two books, one is Sea of Rust. I saw there was a separate thread for that so I may pop over there.
The other is Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Dogs of War. I loooooved his Children of Time and got tired of waiting for the audio version of Dogs of War so I just bought it as an ebook yesterday and am reading it on my phone. I’m completely captivated from the beginning. It deals with some of the same topics as Children of Time, the creation of life and intelligence and our responsibility for it. In Dogs of War we follow a genetically enginered war dog and how he is force to learn to think for himself. It’s very intense on many levels and I expect to be done tomorrow or so.
Anna wrote: "Ariana, your rl friend is the best! I've been trying to force Ninefox on everyone, no one will read it :( Possibly because no one I know irl reads any SFF anyway :/"(It's my mom, she is totally the best.)
Allison wrote: "I'm hoping to start Revenant Gun soon, too, so you won't be alone!"
Excellent!
@Jacqueline - I’m very sorry for the loss in your family. My own mother passed away quite suddenly last August, she was also 63. All my sympathy to your son’s girlfriend.
I just finished and loved All the Birds in the Sky and posted my brief review. I was trying to find some group discussions on it but I gather the search function is not working well?I’ll be diving into The Obelisk Gate next.
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...
Enjoy Obelisk Gate!
Anthony wrote: "I just finished and loved All the Birds in the Sky and posted my brief review. I was trying to find some group discussions on it but I gather the search function is not working well..."All the Birds in the Sky Full Discussion
I found it by scrolling down through the discussions, but I'm not on the app, so...
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I bet this is how it was during the Industrial Revolution. Just utter chaos. ;-)
Allison wrote: "I WANT MY SEARCH FUNCTION BACK, DAMMIT!I bet this is how it was during the Industrial Revolution. Just utter chaos. ;-)"
Thank you!
Wow, it was a really disliked book in that discussion. Not sure I’d want to reopen it a year later...lots of venom there...
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Oh really? I didn't read it or participate in that discussion. You don't have to! You can say your impressions here, too :)
Well I found it consistently delightful, touching, and hilarious. I loved its dream logic and propulsive, crystalline prose. Her writing has such bracing confidence and wit and humanity. The folks in that discussion seemed to be getting bogged down in parsing things in a way that, for me, missed the spirit of the novel. It’s certainly interesting to encounter such disparate responses to the same texts.
Anthony wrote: "Well I found it consistently delightful, touching, and hilarious. I loved its dream logic and propulsive, crystalline prose. Her writing has such bracing confidence and wit and humanity. The folks ..."I also quite liked it (and wasn't in the group at the time if that discussion). Some things about it have really stuck with me, especially the beginning when the main character was little. It did seem like a first novel to me: lots of great ideas, but not super polished especially when it came to the plot at the end. I'm definitely excited to she what she comes up with next.
I loved the lack of polish. It was wonderfully messy. I keep thinking about how self-assured Anders’ writing feels. Fully committed to her unique and always intelligent viewpoint.
I just read Second Contact, a pulp sci fi novel I picked up at Arisia 2018. I wanted a light book between Sea of Rust and Artemis. I wish I had just skipped it.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
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Yes, they are uncommon in the US. Western European folk tales, Arthurian, Greek, and Norse are common. People can buy or borrow anything, of course, but the ones I mentioned are read in school, appear in films, etc. Eastern European, African, Asian, Latin American, and Native North American are mostly unfamiliar to varying degrees.