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 2019?
Gabi wrote: "I loved this one as well. I just finished the last one in the trilogy The Winter of the Witch, it didn't grip me as much as the first book, but still the trilogy is worth a read."Interesting. I thought that the first was the weakest because of its slow parts - necessary for setup, but still.... The second was my favorite, and the third felt very good too.
I am reading third book in Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin. So far, it's been an awesome series. 
Finished A Voyage to Arcturus with a yawn. Very anachronistic and repetitive. It was my second attempt to finish it. Gave it 1 star, but it 's a big zero.
This one is going to be a heartbreaker...Small Country by Gael Faye, a coming of age story set against the backdrop of genocide in Rwanda and civil war in Burundi.
Lynne wrote: "I picked up a book the other day and have started reading it. It is from 2009, entitled The Law of Nines, by Terry Goodkind.I find it somewhat unusual, especially for a bestselling author.
If you ..."
I read it and did not find it that bad, but, then again I have read the Sword of Truth series by the same author. There are some time/dimension spanning references that probably make little sense if you have not read the authors main series.
Just finished The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville It was interesting if a bit confusing. Very typical of his style.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I am about to start reading A thousand nights by E.K Johnston.Has anyone read it?If so,is it any good?
Recently finished Dying of the Light by George R.R. Martin, which I really enjoyed. The star system he created is so complex with different cultures etc. Very rich world(s). (Of course he's focusing on a more barbarian patriarchal culture) Also finished Clade which I had high hopes for based on the summary. It's a book from an Australian writer, I thought end of the world dystopia, but it was more generational family drama with a backdrop of climate change and its effects.. I thought it was just a bit all over the place and lacking focus, but at least it was a quick read.
I finished the forever war and started starship troopers.
I can read whatever I want. My kids gave me vouchers worth $140 for Christmas for books 🥳 Party time. Wishing you all Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays etc and for those who believe in Santa I hope the Fat Man was good to you all. I’m a firm believer in Santa 🎅🏼 and he was definitely good to me 😂
Our 10 year old is ever hopeful regarding Santa, heard my mom saying she was going to wrap the present from Santa and put it under the tree! I tried to explain it to him.
when mine were around 5 yrs I already got the "don't talk bs, Mommy" look when I tried to say something about Santa (or the German equivalent thereof). But at least the non-Santa got them the Inkheart trilogy, the Percy Jackson quintology and the Graveyard book this year ... a lot of read-aloud fodder.
Just grabbed The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint from my shelf, where it’s been languishing unread for a few years!
I finished the series, "Gods of Blood and Powder,"
Blood of Empire and enjoyed it.Thought I'd pause from fantasy for a bit and will try Agatha Christie's
The Mysterious Affair at Styles.
I am on a sci fi/fantasy roll this week! Just picked up one with a horrible cover but a good story. Destiny Doll by Clifford D. Simakhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My idea is that if you stop believing in Santa you only get socks (and not the fun ones either...really boring ones). We got my husband fun ones for Christmas last year. Don’t think he’d wear them but he wears ones with flamingoes, planets, cherries and others with his suit every day when he goes to work. I told him if the Canadian PM can wear colourful socks so can he.
I have some socks that say "Don't interrupt, I'm reading" on the soles. I wear those a lot.
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I've been very tired lately (we hosted the holidays) so my eye-reading has gone down, but I got my dad to read This Alien Shore with me, and bought books as stocking stuffers (I WILL make them read with me, damn it!) so I'm trying to catch up on things for the New Year.
Plus side, Small Gods has been EXCELLENT for reading to fall back asleep when I wake up and go "make a note, we have to start the marinade by 10 am" except the person I'm directing is, of course, myself, and at 3 am neither the person giving orders nor the person receiving them is at the top of her game, so it's been a lengthy process.
When I still lived at home, Christmas Eve meant suffering through some kind of dinner, then getting to open a couple of parcels to find books, and go into my room to read them for the rest of the night. It was the best! Now it's otherwise the same, but I don't receive gifts because I've asked not to, and I have to go to my own home to read books I've acquired myself. But it's still good!
Already Dead
by Charlie HustonNew York, present day. Vampyres and zombies are real. Our hero, Joe Pitt, vampyre tough guy, is hired to find and return a runaway girl. OK, fine, except instead of using quotes to indicate dialogue Huston uses dashes. This didn't work for me when I was writing in junior high and it doesn't work here. Otherwise the book is OK.
Ha! I met a reading slump the last days of the year. I guess I should stop for the moment and concentrate on planning challenges (which, in fact, is half of the fun of challenges anyway, and for next year I dedicated myself to more than 10 of them - so my main task will be to find books that fit as many challenges as possible simultaneously XD).I read Prince of Thorns which did not much for me. The last 20% were interesting, but somehow it felt a bit not well elaborated (and I simply have no use for grimdark, as I realised this year).
I started Blue Mars where I loved the two first books in the series. But somehow I can't get into the third one. So I started the next BotM This Alien Shore - and again find myself not really concentrating on the text. - time for a time out.
But! I re-listened to The Mere Wife (cause I can't afford more audible credits for this month and needed something to listen to) and it fascinated me even more that the first time. This is the kind of book I need, stabs right into my heart. Not a second where I started to mentally drift off.
I've been tearing my way through Connie Willis's Doomsday Book since the 24th - it's addictive.
Mareike wrote: "I've been tearing my way through Connie Willis's Doomsday Book since the 24th - it's addictive."This was my first of her books and the begin of a love affair.
I will never again read the Oxford Time Travel series for the first time, but I wish I could! I'm kind of bummed that I waited a year to read A Lot Like Christmas (I noticed it was on Storytel in January 2019), and then it ended up being the worst Connie Willis thing I've read. I guess I'm not a Christmas person.I've got horrible Christmas songs stuck in my head, but I've been trying to make it better by changing the lyrics, like "All I want for Christmas is Uhoo!"
Reading DOOMSDAY BOOK as one of the most intense experiences I have had with a book in my life. I literally could not put the book down after about page 100 or so and finished at around 3am the following day. Incredible. The other books in the series are also quite good but didn’t grab me as viscerally as the first one. TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG
is hysterically funny in places.
Doomsday Book was really incredibly well done! I now totally understand why it has been recommended to me so much. (A friend of mine, who wrote her PhD about German time travel narratives featuring the Middle Ages even said it's one of the best of the genre. She was not promising too much.) And I'm glad I planned it in for the Christmas break, when I had a few free days that I could use to just read. I want to see if there's a German translation so I can give it to my Mom. Cause I think she'd love it, too.
I'll definitely read more of Willis's work in the future!
Cast in Secret: the third book in the Chronicles of Elantra. There are things about this series that bring them very, very close to becoming personal favorites; and also things that drive me absolutely bonkers and make me wish there were more editorial intervention. The first book isn't 100% representative of the series--Sagara was finding her feet with the characters, I think--but if you finish the second book, and are on still on board with it, you're probably in it for the long haul (like I am?). (review)
I've read all of them except for the most recent one. They're not 4-5 star books, but they're quite entertaining
Atl wrote: "I finished the forever war and started starship troopers."Interesting follow up. Enjoyed both of them.
After Starship Troopers are you going to move on to Armor?
I finished The Emperor's Edge by Lindsay Buroker
. I gave it three stars but will continue the series and see how it goes.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mareike wrote: "Doomsday Book was really incredibly well done! I now totally understand why it has been recommended to me so much. (A friend of mine, who wrote her PhD about German time travel narratives featuring the Middle Ages even said it's one of the best of the genre..."I just want to take a moment to acknowledge that there is a specific subgenre for German Middle Ages Time Travel.
Trike wrote: "Mareike wrote: "Doomsday Book was really incredibly well done! I now totally understand why it has been recommended to me so much. (A friend of mine, who wrote her PhD about German tim..."If you put it like that, it is pretty hilarious. So, let me just mention that things are even more specific, cause my friend focused mainly on YA narratives.
After finishing Doomsday Book I went back to Ursula K. Le Guin's The Unreal and the Real Volume 1: Where on Earth and the stories I read last night and this morning have reminded me why I love her writing so much. "Hand, Cup, Shell" is extraordinary. (And, thinking about it a bit more now, it reminds me a little of To the Lighthouse, which was the first Virginia Woolf I ever read and which made me fall in love with her writing.)
I started The City in the Middle of the Night yesterday and I'm already falling back in love with how Anders writes her characters. It's like I'm right there in the room with them.
Replay
by Ken GrimwoodA man and a woman die and are reborn many times. Sci-fi love story. I was hoping for something more.
Jen wrote: "LOVED Doomsday Book. Awesome"I wish I loved this book liked everyone else. Time travel and The Plague: two of my favourite subjects.
Unfortunately it was barely a 3 stars for me.
Ok, so I just read the graphic novel of Snow, Glass, Apples.It's a cool, dark, thoroughly Gaiman-esque take on Snow White and the art is amazeballs. Just, I am stunned.
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colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "Ok, so I just read the graphic novel of Snow, Glass, Apples."Thanks for reminding me! I've been wanting to read that, but my library didn't have it. I just checked again and they've finally ordered it, and I'm second in the holds queue ^_^
Bruce wrote: "I finished Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins."How was this book or series? I've read the Hunger Games and didn't realize she wrote anything else.
Anna wrote: "colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "Ok, so I just read the graphic novel of Snow, Glass, Apples."Thanks for reminding me! I've been wanting to read that, but my library didn'..."
Cool. I'm glad your library finally got it for you. I got my copy for Xmas. ^_^
Allison wrote: "Oh, my, Colleen!! That is GORGEOUS!! I'd loved the short story in prose form, but gotdamn!"Right?
Marie G, I really enjoy the series. It’s a bit dark, but more escapist and entertaining than the Hunger Games. It has some similar themes, but not kids getting killed in a blood sport. This is actually a fantasy series, whereas Hunger Games is sci fi.
Yesterday I finished the second installment of the Nevernight Chronicles, Godsgrave by Jay KristoffIt took me a minute to get back into this world but once there it was brutal, bloody fun. I like that this author holds nothing back - FINALLY a book about assassins that is dark and chaotic and messy.
Full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I'm hoping to finish C.J. Cherryh's Chanur Saga this year. I've finished:The Pride of Chanur
Chanur's Venture
The Kif Strike Back
and am 70% through Chanur's Homecoming
and hope to start Chanur's Legacy right after that
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SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
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So far so good, pretty good.
Hyperion
Dan Simmons