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 2020?
Ines wrote: "I kind of wish I had left Foundation in my teenage years and not picket it up again..."Thanks for that caution. I have a mental shelf holding books that I liked as a teen and suspect that I wouldn't enjoy now. This series is on it along with some of the other foundational works in the field.
I'm also reading Abaddon's Gate. I usually like space opera and the Expanse series has many enthusiastic fans. The series overall just hasn't been exciting me though and this entry is no exception. The level of casual violence I'm seeing doesn't really work for me.
I did not read Foundation as a teen. My husband did, in Italian though. But we chose Foundation as my read aloud book a few years ago. It took forever, was pretty much a slog and we abandoned it in the middle of the third book, Foundation and Empire (i forget). I have not loved it. And my husband wondered aloud every once in a while while reading it why he loved it so so much when he was younger.
Diane wrote: "I did not read Foundation as a teen. My husband did, in Italian though. But we chose Foundation as my read aloud book a few years ago. It took forever, was pretty much a slog and we abandoned it in..."I found Foundation heavy going even when I was younger but there wasn't must else out there.
Then I came on GR and people kept on recommending new scifi writers I had never heard of.
When I tried out a few the difference was breath-taking.
I read all the Foundation books when I was younger and loved them, but also had a bit of a letdown when I went to reread the first one several years ago. The primary thing that I liked back in the day were the ideas -- both the premise itself and the structure of a story told over generations. I hadn't encountered anything like it at the time. Without that novelty to hold it up I found the writing to not be great and feel dated.
Mod
That's exactly my feeling, Christopher. It's a classic because it was a novelty back when it was written. But the prose is kind of mediocre and Asimov had a serious problem with women - you would think they don't exist in his world, rarely ever are women even mentioned (I'm at 80% and there were 3 mentions and one named character who was present for 2 pages as the bickering wife). Also, this one time, the obviously evil guy and his son had 'dark eyes and hooked noses' and ... yeah, teenage me was so blissfully ignorant of things like that.
Re: Foundation - yes, I agree with everyone here. Anyway, I've just finished Shadowshaper, which is one of our group reads for the month. I'll leave my review out of this thread in order not to spoil any of the experience for others.
Still continuing Gideon the Ninth and The Shadow of What Was Lost, which I don't have on audio book so it's taking me longer to read them (need sit-down time). But I'm really loving them so far.
@Raucous: I haven't read the Expanse series, but agree that casual, unnecessary violence by the protagonists can be a big obstacle to relating to them and sympathizing with them strongly.
I recently finished Radicalized by Cory Doctorow. I usually have short stories/short fiction in the back pocket just to mix things up if i need a break from the current actual novel in the shelf. My thoughts on Radicalized: I’m realizing more I prefer the length and format of a novella vs short stories as there’s enough text to build up characters, plot and a satisfying conclusion without being a full blown novel. Radicalized was published in 2019 but the themes of the 4 novellas were way too relevant for it to be for escapism reading. 1) social mobility, immigrants, with a mix of new technology and capitalism, 2) superman trying to save a man from systemic racism, 3) healthcare and terrorism 4) the end of the world for the rich.
Mixed reviews on here but I really enjoyed reading it. Like full episodes of Black Mirror. I didn’t plan to read this and don’t actually know Cory Doctorow. But I have a habit of reading kindle samples and not being able to stop. :)
I haven't read any of Cory Doctorow's longer work, but I thought his article in last month's Locus was a decent read and it had me thinking I should really try to read something of his.
Mod
Allison wrote: "I really enjoyed Walkaway by Doctorow, and I enjoy his op eds/blogs and so on. Is Radicalized scary and gross like early Black Mirror? Or more just focused on deep social issues?"It's more social issues. None of the early seasons of Black Mirror scary and gross stuff.
Adding Walkaway to my reading list then!
Christopher wrote: "I haven't read any of Cory Doctorow's longer work, but I thought his article in last month's Locus was a decent read and it had me thinking I should really try to read something of his."I'm surprised actually I haven't seen more buzz around his stuff. I enjoyed Radicalized. All the 4 novellas hit the 2020 social issues, including a pandemic mind you, so I can't tell if I was just distracted from these issues last year and just paying more attention now because of the lockdowns.
Christopher wrote: "I haven't read any of Cory Doctorow's longer work, but I thought his article in last month's Locus was a decent read and it had me thinking I should really try to read something of his."Thanks for the article link btw!
Mod
..."
Cool, thanks, then I'll have to check out Radicalized :)
I finally got round to writing a review of this short story collection.Ken Liu is as great as everyone says he is and I enjoyed the stories.
I was less enthusiastic about the way the collection was organised.
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
@Esther, I agree on your comment about the organisation of Ken Liu's collection. Especially the AI stories felt a bit all over the place and in summary too many for a well balanced collection. In internal chronological order they would have been material for a collection of their own.
Raucous wrote: "I usually like space opera and the Expanse series has many enthusiastic fans. The series overall just hasn't been exciting me though and this entry is no exception...."I gave up after the first installment. It's hard to believe people get so excited about "vomit zombies."
RJ from the LBC wrote: "I gave up after the first installment. It's hard to believe people get so excited about "vomit zombies.""I gave up a..."
Sounds perfect for me.
LOL. J/k. Sort of. Not really.
RJ from the LBC wrote: "It's hard to believe people get so excited about "vomit zombies.""Who is? I am a series fan. That particular element came and went. It was OK, but things moved on a long time ago.
Don wrote: "Micah, You've just explained the reason for Pen Names. One of them anyway."Yeah, but Reynolds is big name so the publishers aren't going to let him adopt a penname now. There would go sales.
But he's written in several styles in the past so I'm not sure why anyone would be surprised when he did a science-lite space adventure fantasy YA space opera book.
I try not to have expectations from authors. I mean, look at someone like Greg Bear, who has written hard SF, military SF, fantasy, serialized novels (in the Halo universe), all the way out to posthuman weirdness. Many of the authors I've read don't stick strictly to one formula.
I just wish people could drop expectations of authors pigeonholing their books into one limited style and let the books speak for themselves.
Micah wrote: "I just wish people could drop expectations of authors pigeonholing their books into one limited style and let the books speak for themselves. "It's not just the readers, it's the publishers as well. I had a friend who was a romance writer (she died in 1998) who started out writing romances set in Scotland and her publisher/editors didn't want anything but romances set in Scotland from her. She really wanted to branch out from both the setting and the time period.
artists of all sorts are always getting pigeon-holed. I am told that there were nearly riots when Dylan went electric. Bob Dylan is the best American songwriter in human history, he should be able to do whatever he damn well pleases. My favorite Dylan song "of all time", this year is: "Nobody 'cept you" Written by Dylan but performed by "The Waterboys".
I found Foundation heavy going even when I was younger but there wasn't must else out there.Then I came on GR and people kept on recommending new scifi writers I had never heard of.
When I tried out a few the difference was breath-taking.
It took me a while to read Foundation because the synopsis sounded boring. But I absolutely loved them. I rank them (as a series) above Lord of the Rings and Dune. Just my opinion.
Currently I am reading "Recursion" by Blake Crouch and it dropped a bit of the BOOM ! on me.
Don wrote: "artists of all sorts are always getting pigeon-holed. I am told that there were nearly riots when Dylan went electric..."He was hard enough to hear/understand when he was playing acoustic... (An attempt at gentle ribbing for the home town boy.)
Back on subject I'm also currently reading Artificial Condition. I wish that I could make not caring an art form like Murderbot does.
Starting my hopepunk month since I am reading one winner and two losers. A bit disappointed with The Sol Majestic despite the cool premise. Currently enjoying Dreamsnake.
Don wrote: "artists of all sorts are always getting pigeon-holed. I am told that there were nearly riots when Dylan went electric. Bob Dylan is the best American songwriter in human history, he should be able ..."he was accused of being a sell out. The same thing happened with Country artists who went electric. The Ken Burns series Country went into that
Back on topic, I finished all 4 of Adrian Tchaikovsky's short story collections set in his Tales of the Apt Universe. They wee quite good.
Your loss! The Expanse is about WAAAAY more than “vomit zombies.” That’s like saying ASOIAF is about incest, dragons and swords.
Mod
What led you to read it at this moment?
Mod
I had it on my Kindle, and it's been well received so I thought now was as good as any time! But ah mah gah it's stressful! Gonna glue my spouse to me next time we travel.
Ohhhh. It’s a tough time to be reading stressful things. Hope it doesn’t wear you out too much!
I am lately reading the Gemma Doyle series by Libba Bray. I like the style so much that the vol.3 hardcover book I'm currently reading has 819 pages and I'm quite happy with it, only today I read 100 pages. It says something when the style of an author is so good that a mammoth long book is relaxing and enjoyable.
I just finished the strange but fascinating but dense but impressive novel about Thomas Cromwell, Thomas More, Henry VIII, and Anne Boleyn, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, and now I need to read some much more accessible works for a bit. It felt like no small amount of work to parse many of its pages, but it was, for the most part, involving work, and at times, certain scenes and moments were quite powerful. Still, it seems to be a novel that’s a bit over praised.Now onto Shadowshaper.
Mod
I gave Wolf Hall 1 star so it is possible I agree with all of your less complementary comments.
Anthony wrote: "I just finished the strange but fascinating but dense but impressive novel about Thomas Cromwell, Thomas More, Henry VIII, and Anne Boleyn, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel,..."I've read one the other books in the series and loved it (Bring Up the Bodies) and am waiting for The Mirror & the Light to go down in price. The Shardlake Series by C.J. Sansom is a bit more accessible and more of a mystery series. It's set during the same time period.
I finished
Contact. Three stars. I thought the ending anticlimactic and Sagan tends to wax philosophical. Have started
The Lions of Al-Rassan. I did like G. G. Kay's
Tigana, so we'll see how Lions works out.
MadProfessah wrote: "Your loss! The Expanse is about WAAAAY more than “vomit zombies.” ...."Of course, if you like vomit zombies, Illuminae should be right for you. It also has a really neat lying, manipulative computer.
My copy of Harrow the Ninth arrived this morning, so I got to start reading it on my lunch break. It has a lot to live up to in my mind since I absolutely loved GtN. I'm hoping to get through a good chunk of it today.I finally got back to Catfishing on CatNet, which I am enjoying immensely. I remember liking it when I started it originally. I think it just got put aside because I had too much going on.
Also started Terminal Uprising on audio for some light fun on my commute. I loved the first one and I'm definitely excited to see how the trip to Earth goes with this one.
And I'm planning on finishing The Cybernetic Tea Shop during my slow hours at the desk today. Which has been very cute so far.
MadProfessah wrote: "Your loss! The Expanse is about WAAAAY more than “vomit zombies.” That’s like saying ASOIAF is about incest, dragons and swords."Oh, darn it, I guess I'll have to find some other way of reading a story about an alcoholic cop who's obsessed with the dead woman at the center of his latest case. Do you suppose that's ever been written about before?
Ed wrote: "Of course, if you like vomit zombies, Illuminae should be right for you. It also has a really neat lying, manipulative computer."On that note, if you have an android phone, it's amusing to ask Google to "open the pod bay doors."
Allison wrote: "So I just started Senlin Ascends and this is legit terrifying to me! 3 chapters in and this is absolutely the most scared I've been while reading a book in a long time! Is this supp..."I really liked Senlin, Allison. It's such a terrific idea and world. The second installment isn't quite as good unfortunately.
Mod
ETA: just saw your response, Anthony! I'll try to take it easy. Anna gifted me a book about a dapper capybara pirate that I have queued up in case I'm too spooked!
when I think about gentle ribbing, I see a hand model French manicure gently working in a dry rub to a rack of baby back ribs easy by The Commodores playing in the background
Allison, don't be lulled into a false sense of comfort, that capybara gets up to some hair-raising adventures!!1 :o
I've read two 2020 releases:The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey is definitely my favourite 2020 release so far. This is wonderfully solid writing: great pacing, interesting worldbuilding, suspenseful plot, good character development and a kind of "Bildungsroman". And the best thing: book two will be released in September and the last one of the trilogy is scheduled for next March. This is how a series should be written and published.
Dark River by Rym Kechacha also was a good read, but it often felt like the debut novel that it is. With its structure of two similar fates in two different timelines (Neolithic Age and future England) against the backdrop of climate change it reminded me a lot of Maja Lunde's "Klimakvartetten" without ever reaching this author's genius.
But I felt with the characters, two mothers who want to protect their loved ones gainst overwhelming odds, and I found the prose quite immersive. If Rym Kechacha releases another book I will certainly read it.
And since it is available on storytel I finally read one of our last months' books The Many-Colored Land by Julian May. :) I would love to get behind the reasoning for some Jury decisions, since it was nominated for Hugo, Nebula and Locus award. Let's say, the good thing about the book was the frequent mentions of Kaiserstuhl, Feldberg and the source of the Danube, cause these are the areas where I often went hiking with my best friend in my teenage time and where I have the fondest of memories of.
ETA: I've finally tackled Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton. Since the physical copy I own just was too terrifying for me to start I switched to the audio version. After 17 hours of listening I'm halfway through the first book and I have to admit that it really is as good as I was told. I'm absolutely no space opera fan, this much I figured after 2 years of reading through the subgenres, so I expected another too many POVs too many characters me spacing out experience. Yet, even though it has way too many characters and starts with 9 different POVs I found myself listening intently and enjoying myself (even if I still couldn't exactly tell which name belongs to whom).
Reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind with my mom -- we read a bit then do a "book chat". Also reading The Gameshouse, which WOW.
Jo Walton in her review of the 1982 Hugo's wrote this:"Julian May’s The Many Coloured Land is what I’d have voted for in 1982, and now I think it’s the weakest book on the list. It was so exactly to my taste then and so little to my taste now that you could use it to graph precisely how my tastes have changed. It’s about people in a multi-planet future with psi powers who have a one-way gate to the Pliocene of Earth, through which people can go into Exile, and when they get there they discover to their astonishment a society of Celtic aliens. There are sequels, which I kept reading for far longer than I should have. It’s not in print and it’s not in the library, but if anybody’s interested I remember exactly how all the magic-enhancing torcs worked and the names of the different kinds of psi."
Thomas wrote: "I'm on the home stretch now with my Harry Potter reread. The Half Blood Prince was very entertaining and I'm very much looking forward to the final book in the series..."Thomas, I really envy you coming at the series for the first time!
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The New Moon's Arms (other topics)Artificial Condition (other topics)
Kuunpäivän kirjeet (other topics)
Memory of Water (other topics)
The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Emmi Itäranta (other topics)Drew Hayes (other topics)
Genevieve Cogman (other topics)
Naomi Novik (other topics)
V.E. Schwab (other topics)
More...
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading:
Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre