SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
What Else Are You Reading?
>
What Else Are You Reading in 2018?
It depends on which narrator you pick! I'm not saying there's a wrong choice, but there's most definitely only one correct choice :D
Anna wrote: "It depends on which narrator you pick! I'm not saying there's a wrong choice, but there's most definitely only one correct choice :D"I've only heard of Jim (or is it Jeff) Dale. Who else? Who's better?
Jim Dale reads the US edition, Stephen Fry reads the UK edition. The better one will be the one you listen to first.
*sighs* Stephen Fry??? That sounds wonderful.
Mod
I just finished The Thief Taker which was a not bad book. I'll try the second one to see where the mystery leads to.I'm finishing up the Iron Druid series with Scourged. It's good but I like some of the earlier books much better.
Reading my first ever Nora Roberts book with Year One. I'm only about 65 pages in and it has all been character introduction and general story set up. But it's interesting so far.
Michael wrote: "Neuromancer It's supposed to be an important Sci-fi work from 1994 so I knew I had to read it. So far it's a tough one to process, but I do get the basic structure - jacking in and ou..."1984! It's been close to 30 years ago that I read it.
Allison wrote: "Or a HP reread. If those two don't speak to me, Hogwarts always cheers me up. Until ~book 4, and then it's a bit sadder. ""Harry Potter cheers me up... right until it gets to the parts where it tears my heart out."
Mod
"Harry Potter cheers me up... right until it gets to the ..."
Yeah, exactly! haha
Mod
I've recently finished Adrian Tchaikovsky's The Expert System's Brother, which was a bit underwhelming, but I still enjoy his optimistic views on change and coexistence which is a running theme in his scifi.I also read Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed, one of the best, most intriguing, fascinating and moving books I've ever read. I didn't think I could love her more than I did but here I am. I recommend this to anyone into speculative science fiction.
And then I thought it was time to revisit a book from my childhood, The Brothers Lionheart. I don't know how familiar people outside Scandinavia is with Astrid Lindgren but here we're all brought up with her. The Brothers Lionheart is one of her best children's fantasy books enjoyed by all ages and deals with rather heavy topics. It's a story about the human condition, death, fear, oppression, told in an unsentimental, sober way and puts a lot of weight on courage, platonic love and pacifism. It's famous for quotes like this one:
"But I can't kill anyone," said Jonathan. "You know that, Orvar."
"Not even if it's a question of your own life?" said Orvar.
"No, not even then," said Jonathan.
Orvar couldn't understand that, and neither could Mathias.
"If everyone were like you," said Orvar, "then evil would reign forever."
But then I said that if everyone were like Jonathan, there wouldn't be any evil.
And now I've started on The Fifth Season and the third Murderbot book :)
Mod
Haha, thank you, yes, I’m getting around, literarily! (I almost wrote literally and that’s definitely not true 😄)
@Melanie: yeah, mine, too! Just started Going Postal with my boys and the polite, mocking execution scene at the beginning is just sooo Terry Pratchett. You always sway between laughing out loud and what-did-he-just-write? Love it!@Dawn: Astrid Lindgren is pretty well known in Germany as well. Yet I have to admit that as a child I refused to read any of her books, because the adults always told me that was a must-read (I was an extremely stubborn child) I'm only now re-discovering her books through my boys.
Personally I like Dale best for 1-4, and Fry best for 5-7, although I've next mixed and matched. I typically alternate the two every time I reread.
Dawn wrote: "And then I thought it was time to revisit a book from my childhood, The Brothers Lionheart."I reread it this spring for the first time as an adult. Still five stars all the way! The part with Katla wasn't as scary, but I still cried at the end.
You're starting Murderbot3? Pop by the buddy read thread!
Dawn wrote: "And then I thought it was time to revisit a book from my childhood, The Brothers Lionheart.Anna wrote: "I reread it this spring for the first time as an adult. Still five stars all the way! The part with Katla wasn't as scary, but I still cried at the end."
Agree with the 5 stars and while it's not scary, it's deeply emotional. I cried both at the beginning and the end.
Anna wrote: "You're starting Murderbot3? Pop by the buddy read thread!"
Thanks, was going to see if there was a thread when I was home again at a laptop! :D
Gabi wrote: "Astrid Lindgren is pretty well known in Germany as well. Yet I have to admit that as a child I refused to read any of her books, because the adults always told me that was a must-read (I was an extremely stubborn child) I'm only now re-discovering her books through my boys."I'm honestly enjoying her writing far more as a grown up than a child. I understand all the nuances much better now.
Mod
Dawn wrote: "I cried both at the beginning and the end."I probably cried several times on every page :D
@Allison Coooool! I have glanced in an English translation and thought it was quite well done. Hope you like it :)
Melanie wrote: "Terry Pratchett is my go to, cheer-me-up read."My go-to's lately for cheer-me-up reading are tawdry* romances, particularly of the overblown, gothic melodrama variety. ;)
* ETA: For a given value of tawdry, since most of them are YA. ^_^
I've overused my best comfort rereads so much that they no longer do their job properly. I need to find new ones.Right now I'm re-listening to the Split Worlds series by Emma Newman (starting with Between Two Thorns). I didn't like it enough to do a real reread, but I love her voice, so it works as a comfort listen.
Just finished Words of Radiance for the first time and loved it. Great ending, though it lulled a lot in the middle. Moving straight on into Oathbringer!
Mod
Yess!
We had an epic thread about Oathbringer (well, all three, actually) if you want to discuss things as you go!
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Allison wrote: "WreckEm711 wrote: "Just finished Words of Radiance for the first time and loved it. Great ending, though it lulled a lot in the middle. Moving straight on into [book:Oathbringer|340..."Excellent! Thank you for the heads up!
Gabi wrote: "@Anthony: I concur with Allison. The first books and especially the ones with Rincewind are a bit … flat.A year or two ago I decided to do a (very slow) read-through of the Discworld books, and almost gave up after the first two. Early Rincewind just doesn't have the spark of later books. I skipped Sourcery and have my doubts I'll go back to it after amazing entries like Small Gods and Hogfather. Alas my 100%!
Beth wrote: "Gabi wrote: "@Anthony: I concur with Allison. The first books and especially the ones with Rincewind are a bit … flat.A year or two ago I decided to do a (very slow) read-through of the Discworld..."
One of these days I will have to read Terry Pratchett!
I'm part of a by-invitation group here at GR. We intend to start discussion of
on August 15; and I am, as the British say, "chuffed."
I loved that book, Allen! I was so surprised by it. I was totally enthralled by the first part, less so by the remainder.
Kirsten wrote: "I loved that book, Allen! I was so surprised by it. I was totally enthralled by the first part, less so by the remainder."Other people have told me that, too, Kristen, and I kind of feel that way myself. I was first exposed to the book because one of my father's colleagues recommended it to him. They taught at a United Methodist-affiliated liberal-arts college in the South, and enjoyed reading out the analogies. For me (no spoiler here, we're not discussing the book), it was the first time I was confronted with the idea that history (even if one views it solely as Western Civ. or even "Christendom") may be more cyclical than linear. That seems to me, even today, to be a stance which regular Roman Catholics can understand more easily than most of us more empirical Protestants -- because we weren't exposed to it as children or youth.
Currently reading Pratchett as well: I thought Equal Rites will fit nicely in after The Handmaid's Tale and Parable of the Sower. However, I can't have too much Pratchett all at once and I'm taking it rather slowly.
Finished Vicious, a book VE Schwab wrote before the immensely popular Darker Shades of Magic series. Enjoyable, without quite living up to the post-DSoM hype. Will still want to give Vengeful (#2 in the series) a try.
Finished A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan and started The Farthest Shore. I have to admit that it took me a bit to appreciate LeGuin's writing. This may very well be cause I'm no big fan of medival fantasy or cause I had to get used to the rather distanced style. But I loved the end of the first book and then enjoyed the second one.If I can keep up that pace I would have time to join the BR for Ammonite before my own starts.
Finished
Blackbeard: The Birth of America. The author was too opinionated, in my opinion. ;)Started
The Tomorrow Gene. Not sure if this is fantasy or Sci-Fi or both.
I finished The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders and remain thoroughly impressed by her ambitious, richly imagined work. Here’s my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Now I am going to read some short stories as my between-novels activity, and then either Parable of the Sower for the monthly book discussion or The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress for the reread discussion. (I’ll be reading both for sure, just not sure which one I want to read first.)
Anthony wrote: "I finished The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders and remain thoroughly impressed by her ambitious, richly imagined work. Here’s my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."All the Birds in the Sky fell a little flat for me - mostly because nothing managed to feel really climactic. Was she able to bring the narrative threads together more satisfyingly this time?
I don’t share your feeling of All the Birds... falling flat, so it’s difficult for me to assess what you’re asking about, but I do feel like the narrative threads did coalesce in this novel in a satisfying manner.
Lowell wrote: "All the Birds in the Sky fell a little flat for me - mostly because nothing managed to feel really climactic. Was she able to bring the narrative threads together more satisfyingly this time? "I felt the same way about that book. She doesn’t stick the landing because none of the promise pays off.
Finished The Cloud Roads Friday. The world-building/scenery is so good--trees, ruins, and floating islands!--and the main cast is super appealing. I want to hug them all and am looking forward to reading more about them. Shame about the story/plot, though. Review here.I've started group read Parable of the Sower and also Life on the Mississippi. So far Life has been a series of sketches rather than an ongoing narrative, and to say the least the tone is lighter than Parable's, so it looks like it'll be a good pairing.
I finished listening to Scourged which, I believe, is the final book in the Iron Druid Chronicles. Left me feeling...empty. Love that series and will be one I revisit for a fun read.I also tore through Year One, my first ever Nora Roberts. I really enjoyed it although it was pretty formulaic for a post apocalyptic read. I will continue with the series when book 2 is released in December.
I've picked Ink and Bone back up and hope to give it the attention it deserves.
Now that I've seen the trailer for A Discovery of Witches I'm bumping that series to the front of the line. Must read before watching!
I have just finished One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Night Circus very different books but they brought up similar frustrations for me in that I liked some aspects about them but hated others. They are therefore both 3 star books for me. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Two books at a time seems to have become the norm for me so I have just started reading two historical fiction books.
The Book Thief and Margaret the First
Mod
Oh! I'm also reading Book Thief! Can't wait to hear your thoughts.
This is history/race relations, not sci-fi, but my order of Zora Neale Hurston's BARRACOON showed up at the local Wally World the other day, and my partner was kind enough to go pick it up for me. Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
Some background on the book:
http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/zora-n...
I'm reading an ARC of Shadow of The Fox by Julie Kagawa. It's YA historical fantasy which takes place in Japan. The protagonist is an orphaned half-human kitsune who is being brought up in a temple. It's early in the book yet, but right now my opinion is leaning toward positive.
Read a fantasy series by R A MacAvoy which I really enjoyed:Lens of the World - reviewed https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2478479405.
King of the Dead - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1649453745
Winter of the Wolf - known in the USA as Belly of the Wolf - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1649453745.
Then started reading some Mercedes Lackey -
By the Sword - reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1423356426.
and an earlier book set in the same country/set up with two of the characters in their much younger days - The Oathbound - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2489520199
Finished The Golem and the Jinni, felt almost like a hybrid between book one and part one but it was still alright.Autonomous by Annalee Newitz Liked it a lot, I feel more at home in sci-fi, loved the explicit man-robot romance, I mean if you're going to be weird at least show me, would have felt cheated with it left out. I didn't particularly like how the plot all came together.
Tiger and Del Sword-Dancer it probably warrants 2-3 stars, but I got very fed up with all the talk of swords. I don't think I will be continuing the series unless I get pretty desperate. At least the relationship got a bit more interesting after the not so good opening.
Medicus Investigation Series. I Read book 1-6, things got better after book one, the girl is not recognizable but more fun. The romance is a bit odd, its clear that they like eachother and are willing to compromise, only they sort of fail to do so. It takes more then a few books for them to figure things out. Two more books to go.
Dragon Bones by Patricia Briggs I won't be reading the second book, I can tell this is going to be one of those books were the only lovestory I actually like will not happen.
Nelson Chereta The (sort of) Dark Mage Waldo Rabbit. I liked the mother, unfortunately the book is about the son. I didn't have a miserable time with it but I won't be following this up.
The Silver Ships by S.H. Jucha I gave up around 2/3s into the book, I probably will finish it some day. It started alright but kept slipping.
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Working for the Devil (other topics)Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (other topics)
Fool's Assassin (other topics)
Exo (other topics)
2018 on Goodreads (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Samuel R. Delany (other topics)Samuel R. Delany (other topics)
Samuel R. Delany (other topics)
Aliette de Bodard (other topics)
George Mazurek (other topics)
More...
Anna - I need to listen to the audiobooks one of these days. I hear the narrator is excellent.