Play Book Tag discussion
April 2020: Science Fiction
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Announcing the Tag for April
I'm not the best person to make recommendations in this genre as it is not one I've read very often, but I am super excited for this month because I really want to read a short story collection that received lots of accolades last year: Exhalation: Stories.
Anita wrote: "I'm not the best person to make recommendations in this genre as it is not one I've read very often, but I am super excited for this month because I really want to read a short story collection tha..."I really liked it. I’m going to read his earlier book Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. I got it from the library last month but I didn’t have time to read it. Thanks to Covid, it’s not due back until April 30.
I really liked:
This Is How You Lose the Time War- it’s weird, romantic, lyrical and delightful.
Station Eleven is great if you can handle a fictional epidemic.
I’m considering
The Humans by Matt Haig
Dark Matter
Octavia Butler - another series
Kate Atkinson - I think there is another time travel book
jack Finney Time and Again
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Definitely annoyed! Not only will I have to find something I’m interested in reading, but I have to find some thing that’s in this house! Do I for the first month ever of my life not do the challenge? I think I will have to read and research. I was also looking forward to my two sequels. Which I was sure would win! Sci-fi lovers, it’s time for your help. Pick something out for me please? Any chance Harry Potter or outlander might fit?
Amy wrote: "Definitely annoyed! Not only will I have to find something I’m interested in reading, but I have to find some thing that’s in this house! Do I for the first month ever of my life not do the challen..."The Outlander books all have sci -fi tags, due to the time travel. There are a lot of sci-fi fantasies that you might like.
You might like books by Ted Chiang, Marissa Meyer, Blake Crouch, Becky Chambers. How about ThE Humans by Matt Haig? The name of the wind is on the sci-fi list.
For those of you who don't have any science fiction at home, tor.com has free short fiction on their website. Click on fiction and then you can filter by genre (select science fiction). They are short stories, but are better than nothing if your library is closed.Some other options...
If you want to catch up on some classics try (some of which are in the public domain):
1984
Brave New World
Fahrenheit 451
Frankenstein
The Time Machine
The War of the Worlds
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Invisible Man
The Island of Doctor Moreau
A Wrinkle in Time
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
If you like mysteries:
Lock In
Six Wakes
The City & the City
The Caves of Steel
Most dystopian novels are tagged science fiction.
If you like historical fiction, try alternate history or steampunk. Both of these sub-genres are usually also tagged science fiction.
My other recommendations:
Jurassic Park
An Unkindness of Ghosts
All Systems Red
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Doomsday Book
OK - I went through the first 12 pages, before little has to use my computer for a brief Hebrew School Zoom, and discovered that I didn't need to go past page one. Maze Runner is on page one and I own it! Its here in the house! I bought it in hopes it might engage one of the illiterates! I am saved. I will read that for April, and it will help the tall pile of owned books. Perhaps I can get one of the illiterates interested as well.
Amy wrote: "OK - I went through the first 12 pages, before little has to use my computer for a brief Hebrew School Zoom, and discovered that I didn't need to go past page one. Maze Runner is on page one and I ..."LoL-Oh boy! Back to calling them illiterates-guessing home-schooling if not going well 😂
Looks like I am going to be reduced to searching my daughters room. I know she has some Bradbury on her shelves. Before doing that I will search the list one more time. I did have a few on my TBR shelf, which I noted, however I own none of them.Thank you Joy for reminding me of Tor.com, I will look there too
I purposely didn't vote for sci-fi because I already read lots of it but have no problem with the decision. I hope to finally get to the 4th Red Rising book, Iron Gold.You may want to consider the tag with a hyphen instead of the underscore between the words as it more common. It has mostly the same books, just much bigger ratings.
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
If anyone prefers audio books, I recommend Sleeping Giants and it's fairly short, less than 9 hours.
The Hobbit for sci-fi? People and their tags are weird sometimes...
Jen K wrote: "If anyone prefers audio books, I recommend Sleeping Giants and it's fairly short, less than 9 hours."Also on that list is J.D. Robb, Harry Potter Series, and Ursula K. Le Guin.
I have Le Guin's books here and been meaning to finish them..my work is done-no need to search the dark caves of my daughters room
Johanne wrote: "The Hobbit for sci-fi? People and their tags are weird sometimes..."If you would like to know how really weird they are, if you have not already, check the thread in Footnotes https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
oh well, the tag with the least books that fit other challenges won!
I've got a choice of:
The long way to a small, angry planet
Station Eleven
The Passage
Northern lights
I've got a choice of:
The long way to a small, angry planet
Station Eleven
The Passage
Northern lights
Yes, Joanne I have laughed at all those :)
I'm not sure I can suggest anything that hasn't been suggested, but I quite enjoyed The End of the World Running Club and All the Little Children.The Sparrow and Children of God are a good duo to read for Science fiction.
If you can stand reading about a plague, I found The Book of M a worthy read.
I have been looking forward to reading The Vanished Birds since January but held back until it received a space tag, which it has now, so I am looking forward to reading this.
I also haveA Boy and His Dog at the End of the World and will use this time to read it.
Ugh. I will find something. Thank you Cora for all your suggestions! On the classics if you google for a free [insert title], it will pop up the free sources that you read in pdf - I found and read Malevil by Robert Merle by doing that. Which is a dystopian and fits this tag. Ibfoegot where that was - open book maybe?- but there are several resources besides Gutenburg.
On the brilliant Station Eleven, you really have to be up for reading about something that is all too reminiscent initially of today.
Well, I have been saying forever that I want to read Dune. I wish I had it in paperback because it is long and I like reading long books in that format, but I have no way to get it in that format at the moment.So, I think I will go with audiobook over ebook. It looks like an ensemble narration and includes a few of my favorites, Scott Brick and Simon Vance. I am taking long walks every day, so the 21 hours of listening should get me through.
I will probably also get to the next In Death book, Origin in Death, for a little sci-fi lite!
I am not a huge sci-fi reader, so that will likely get me through the month, but if I feel the urge for one more, then I will probably go with something by Isaac Asimov. Likely The Gods Themselves per a recommendation from Anna!
I know I have a few science fiction titles in my many owned books. Time to search the stacks on my shelves in the basement. Now if I can finish my journalism book it would be great. The book is good just finding it hard to concentrate with everything going on in the world right now.
Yay, I was rooting for sci-fi! So Anita, will the tag sci-fi be allowed too or only the fully spelled out science fiction?
annapi wrote: "Yay, I was rooting for sci-fi! So Anita, will the tag sci-fi be allowed too or only the fully spelled out science fiction?"For the monthly tag, any iteration goes! Our standard rule is that so long as you think it fits the genre of "science fiction" -- regardless of spelling or shorthand or even if it is tagged as such -- then it works for us!
We are only more stringent about exact tags when it is related to a game.
Oh! And I totally forgot that I chose the Audible original The Science of Sci-Fi: From Warp Speed to Interstellar Travel recently! It is only 4 hours and may be interesting to fit in as well.
LOL I've been so obsessed with Poll Ballot Tally that I forgot the monthly tag rules are more lax. I will finally be forced to read Station Eleven - been avoiding it because dystopia can be such a mood bummer.
annapi wrote: "LOL I've been so obsessed with Poll Ballot Tally that I forgot the monthly tag rules are more lax. I will finally be forced to read Station Eleven - been avoiding it because dystopia can be such a ..."It was a nice reminder for everyone that the monthly tag is lax. lol.
annapi wrote: "Yay, I was rooting for sci-fi! So Anita, will the tag sci-fi be allowed too or only the fully spelled out science fiction?"For the monthly tag, absolutely. For any game play (Poll Ballot Tally), no.
I'm reading Recursion in April anyway and I think it's scifi.Ya'll reading Station Eleven are brave.
Here are some suggestions, I love sci-fi!Time travelers:
The Time Traveler's Wife
Outlander
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus
Recursion
11/22/63
Classics
Dune
Foundation
I, Robot
Contemporary
The Sparrow
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Blindness
The House of the Scorpion
Strange the Dreamer
And post-apocalyptic if you can manage it these days
The Stand
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife
A Canticle for Leibowitz
The Windup Girl
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Oh, my gosh, I am so very happy and I've read so very many scifi books, most of which are NOT on my shelves here or aren't shelved under any of my scifi shelves. I'm not yet sure what I'll recommend because there is HUGE variation, from literary scifi (think of the author of The Crimson Petal and the White writing a scifi novel--he has), from epic to hard core to space saga to, well it's a very long list of types. I bit my teeth on adult scifi at the tender age of 10 when a friend of mine (and at ten, my friends were basically girls since boys still had fleas or cooties, depending on if I was in Canada or briefly in the States).Youtube video (part one of a documentary) about women in scifi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEbrx... BUT, why do they have to have large chests??? I trow not!
Okay, okay, the only one I found had this look and not a "kick butt and then take names" or "super explorer", but I get miffed that they are virtually all drawn with D cups--not that I have anything against women who where those, but how about AA on up???? Or, like one of my friends in high school was, very feminine but completely flat?
Wait, did I say that in public???
(yes, I am being humorous here).
I'm so excited that sci fi won. I threw all my extra points at it but still expected sequels to win. I'll have to check my Leaning Tower of TBR.
For ideas, the Listopia list is sorted by reatings from 27K readers: Best Science Fiction and Fantasy
Categories of sci fi to think of in exploring your choices include space opera, aliens, artificial intelligence, parallel worlds, cyberpunk, steampunk, alternate history, apocalypse, and dystopia. And various mixtures thereof, including blends with fantasy and magical realism. In this time of world crisis, I think a more important dimension is whether you need to escape or get lifted by the more positive, wonder inspiring, and adventurous brand of sci fi or to experience and empathize with the struggle over even worse challenges to human survival and construction of meaning than we are now in.
I break my recommendations along such lines, ordered by recency of publication (with * marking ones with links to my own reviews):
Sense of wonder, optimism, fun factor
Recent
*Frankissstein: A Love Story--Jeanette Winterson
Recursion—Blake Crouch
Stories of Your Life and Others—Ted Chiang
*Station Eleven—Emily St. John Mandel
*Dark Matter—Blake Crouch
* Lock-in—John Scalzi
*The Android’s Dream—John Scalzi
Older—over 15 yrs
*Cloud Atlas—David Mitchell
Pushing Ice--Alistair Reynolds
*Ringworld’s Children—Larry Niven
Bellwether—Connie Willis
Ilium—Dan Simmons
*Memory--Lois McMaster Bujold
To Say Nothing of the Dog—Connie Willis
*Player of Games--Iain Banks
*Enemy Mine—Barry Longyear
Wetware—Rudy Rucker
The Mote in God's Eye--Larry Niven
Disturbing visions, dark apocalypse and dystopia
Recent
Dead Astronauts—Jeff VanderMeer
*The Peripheral—William Gibson
Agency—William Gibson
*Shadowbahn—Steve Erickson
*Ancillary Justice—Ann Leckie
*The Three-Body Problem—Cixin Liu
*Ironclads—Adrian Tchaikovsky
*MaddAddam—Margaret Atwood
*Embassytown—China Mieville
*The Dervish House—Ian MacDonald
*The Windup Girl--Paolo Bacigalupi
Older
Ender's Game—Orson Scott Card
*Altered Carbon--Richard Morgan
*Dawn--Octavia Butler
*Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World—Haruki Murakami
Watchmen—Alan Moore
The Forever War--Joe Haldeman
*Ubik—P.K. Dick
For my own reading, I have a few Netgalley books to complete:
The Last Human--Zack Jordan
Firewalkers--Adrian Tchaikovsky
Glorious--Gregory Benford/Larry Niven
I have so many that fit this prompt. I'm thinking I'll finally read one of the following:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Ender's Game
Divergent
I have a lot on my real life stacks and my local used bookstore is offering curbside pickup.
A few science fiction recommendations:The Humans by Matt Haig
The History of Bees by Maja Lunde
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin (can be read as a standalone)
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
Contact by Carl Sagan
If you're looking for a "lighter" read, the Hunger Games series are all tagged SciFi, as are the The Great Library series by Rachael Caine (this is a series featuring a group of young people similar to Harry Potter crew but based on a different premise). I've read the first and enjoyed the first book in the series:
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
I am considering a SciFi classic that I haven't read:
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
As a reminder, the ebook libraries are still working just fine.
Charlotte wrote: "I have so many that fit this prompt. I'm thinking I'll finally read one of the following:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Ender's Game
Divergent
..."
FYI Ender's Game has some good sequels, but Divergent goes downhill by the third book, but if you already have it, read it. I really enjoy Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Michael wrote: "For ideas, the Listopia list is sorted by readings from 27K readers: Best Science Fiction and Fantasy
Categories of sci fi to think of in exploring your choices include space opera, aliens, artif..."
The definitive list, Michael. Thank you!
I voted for this one because I can easily read from what I have on shelf and kindle.
I've been planning a reread of Dune since last November when I was given a gorgeous Folio Society edition.
I've also got a copy of This Is How You Lose the Time War.
Don't forget that HG Wells and Jules Verne have scifi books that are CLASSICS. There are also the hard core ones starting in the 1950s--but I don't care for those now.Also, there are women scifi novelists, such as Lois McMaster Bujold and Octavia E. Butler as well as Nnedi Okorafor and Elizabeth Moon as well as Janet Edwards and Mary Robinette Kowal plus Amie Kaufman plus Beth Revis
PLUS Mary Doria Russell has written at least two.
I was remembering a time travel tag sometime in the PBT past. But maybe that was for a game or... I have a poor memory.We did have space opera fairly recently and the shelf is a good way to check out the opinions of all the best people (us)
https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...
Thanks, Michael, Joy D. and JGrace, I have The Windup Girl, The History of Bees and This Is How You Lose the Time War on my TBR . So that makes at least 5 Science Fiction, I could read next month. I also found Altar of Eden on my TBR.
so many vast options, don't let the tag throw you off ... I didn't even vote this month because I could do well with any of the choices.Alas, Babylon - good time to read this one (or not)
The Book of Strange New Things
11/22/63
Never Let Me Go
The Dog Stars
American War
On the Beach
Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy (wish this was available on audio, I'd do a re-read. May re-read anyway.)
(I tend to really like books where the world ended ... turns out in real life, not so much)
any Douglas Adams
any Anne McCaffrey
The Connie Willis books (all clear, blackout, to say nothing of the dog ... historical fiction with time travel ... I'm remembering more fondly than I enjoyed them at the time for sure)
Jgrace wrote: "I was remembering a time travel tag sometime in the PBT past. But maybe that was for a game or... I have a poor memory.It was back at Shelfari (sniff) my 2nd or 3rd tag after I joined.
Booknblues wrote: "Thanks, Michael, Joy D. and JGrace, I have The Windup Girl, The History of Bees and This Is How You Lose the Time War on my TBR . So that makes at lea..."I found history of bees on scribd. I loved the audio version of This is how you lose the Time War.
Nicole D. wrote: "so many vast options, don't let the tag throw you off ... I didn't even vote this month because I could do well with any of the choices.(o..."Yes to The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber, who also wrote the historical fiction The Crimson Petal and the White--those are the only two I've read by him.
I haven't looked for anything additional yet, but there is at least one I'll be reading for another challenge that fits "science fiction":American War by Omar El Akkad
Joy D wrote: "I am considering a SciFi classic that I haven't read:A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr."
I read this one a few years ago and I enjoyed it! But, I did a lot of googling while/after reading it for context and I would totally recommend the same.
A snippet from my review:
"But, I was not smart enough for this Hugo Award winner so I took to Google to learn more. And I am glad I did. There were a spate of articles a few years ago commemorating the 50th anniversary of this book that analyzed the science, political, and religious themes of the book. I found many of them extremely interesting and it helped provide some context to the story. They also provided interesting background on Miller himself, who fought in WWII and witnessed the bombing of a monastery outside of Rome; an act that greatly shaped his life and this book, and ultimately led to his suicide after a lifelong battle with post-traumatic stress."
Nicole D. wrote: "(I tend to really like books where the world ended ... turns out in real life, not so much)"Real life apocalyptic fiction is even more stressful than books.
While this is not a genre I delve in to frequently I have read and enjoyed the following:Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
I am a highly tactile reader so have limited options to choose from and will be going with Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Myer
Many years ago when I was in my twenties, science-fiction was my go to favorite genre. I read many Arthur Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick and Orson Scott Card novels during those early years.From these books I have a few recommendations:
-Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur Clarke
-Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
-Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner) by Philip K. Dick
-Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
All are great books by the early masters of science-fiction.
I plan on reading Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi and an oldie but goody The Martian Way by Isaac Asimov.
Oh hey, turns out I do have an unread sci-fi book on my shelves at home! So it'll be The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor for me!
Play Book Tag
Books mentioned in this topic
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus (other topics)Dragonflight (other topics)
The Unseen World (other topics)
This Is How You Lose the Time War (other topics)
Bannerless (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Marlen Haushofer (other topics)Leigh Bardugo (other topics)
William Gibson (other topics)
Gail Carriger (other topics)
Eoin Colfer (other topics)
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science fiction
Please share your reading plans and recommendations below.
Remember, for the regular monthly reads, the book can be shelved as science fiction on Goodreads, or be a book that is not yet shelved that way but you feel should be.
One way to find books to read for this tag is to please visit:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
We encourage people to link to additional lists below if they find them.
Happy reading!