SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
SciFi and Fantasy Book Challenge
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SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Challenge 2015
Sandi wrote: "Oh yes, Dune is amazing and I haven't read it in so many years. So many of the power struggle, political scifi fantasy series out there right now really owe a nod more to Dune than LOTR. As for childhood's End, it always gets to me..."
Childhood's End is really exciting. I just started Part III. I can't wait to see what happens!
So, do you guys mind if I invite myself to the Dune party in June? I also have not yet read this and was thinking of knocking it out this year.
Scott wrote: "@Sandi - I would definitely suggest continuing on with dresden. The first book is by far the weakest and the series continually gets better and better!"That's good to know - I was just about to put down Storm Front after realizing I had only read 60 pages in three days.
Fee wrote: "Scott wrote: "@Sandi - I would definitely suggest continuing on with dresden. The first book is by far the weakest and the series continually gets better and better!"That's good to know - I was j..."
I disliked the second book even more. There are too many books out there to waste time on stuff I just don't like.
Update to my list resetting problem: My fault. As I was marking off books as I read them, I totally forgot to update my SciFI shelf as I went along at the same time. As far as the group shelf, the books are marked as read, but when I went and updated my new total to read, I had to use a shelf, so.....Now I just need to add my 2015 reads to that shelf and problem solved.
Chris
I feel ya, Trike. I also didn't much care for the second but I'm glad I stuck with them
As we transition from Winter to Spring, I took a look at my progress on this challenge.I am making excellent progress toward my goal of reading 30 group books this year! So far, I have read 10 of the group books.
1. Watchmen
2. The Killing Moon
3. To Say Nothing of the Dog
4. The Rook
5. Tigana
6. Altered Carbon
7. City of Stairs
8. Fahrenheit 451
9. The Martian Chronicles
10. The Warrior's Apprentice
My favorite so far has been The Warrior's Apprentice. I read Shards of Honour and Barrayar in preparation and blew through all three in a week.
In fact, if it weren't for the flood of library holds that finally arrived, I'd probably still be making my way through the whole Vorkosigan Saga.
Why is it that library holds always come in waves????
They do come in waves, don't they? I've got five waiting for me right now.What did you think of The Rook?
The Rook was just okay for me.On one hand, I really liked the world building and thought it had a lot of potential. But then, there were a lot of info dumps that took me out of the story.
If I remember right it seemed like it went on and on. Like if it had been 100 pages shorter it would have been a much better book. It was pretty fun for the most part. I can't decide if I'm going to read the sequel. I don't remember the info dumps.
What did people think of City of Stairs? It's on my list but so are plenty of other books? Worth promoting up the order?
Roland, I thought it was meh. There are much better fantasy novels.
It was very cool. Most of all it was pretty unique. I thought the writing could have been better but I really enjoyed it. It was also universally loved in my in person book group. So if you're looking for the best book ever. City off Stairs is not it. But if you're looking for fascinating entertainment it's perfect.
Valerie wrote:"I am making excellent progress toward my goal of reading 30 group books this year! So far, I have read 10 o..."
Doh! I only have 8 read.....not that this is a competition
The Rook
The Carpet Makers
Old Man's War
The Last Wish
City of Stairs
White Cat
Kushiel's Dart
The Golem and the Jinni
The Rook was my favorite of the lot but I think I read it at a perfect time, I can see how it isn't everyone's favorite.
Currently reading Leviathan Wakes
I am 22nd on the list for Station Eleven, 7th for Blood Song and first for Flowers for Algernon. Like Valerie, I bet I get them all at the same time.
I loved Leviathan Wakes! Station Eleven was among the plethora of library holds that just came in for me, so I am hoping to get to it next week.
I am 4th on the library list for Neuromancer, 21st on the list for American Gods, and I recently picked up Red Mars from Audible.
Leviathan Wakes was extremely entertaining; I need to jump back in to that series. Had a similar reaction to The Rook. Really loved the idea and the world/characters but felt it went on a lot. Could've been much shorter, tighter and I woulda enjoyed it more. The info dumps got tiresome and the repeating of information
I really liked both The Rook and City of Stairs....Leviathan Wakes was fun but I didnt like the protaganist.
So I went with 25, but I'm going to up that to 50 as I'm smashing my target currently. Just finished the black magician trilogy. Wow. Just wow.
so far, I have only read 2...I need to crack on this! got a few I am in on coming up though...
I think I'm at 8. But I have to finish Ready Player One and I'm supposed to read 6 next month.
I finished third book for this challenge and it was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The book itself is good, but I think I was in a bit of a wrong mood to read it, so I didn't quite enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I give it 3½ stars rounded down to 3 stars.I also think I will raise my challenge goal up a bit, maybe up to twelve books, since I will get five books read as soon as I finish Good Omens and Mistborn (both are over halfway) and my current goal of six books seems to be a bit too small compared to my reading intrest (at the beginning of the year I thought I won't have that much time to read, hence the lower goal of six books).
Good Omens is so fantastic! Are you enjoying it so far?
Sarah: Yes, I think Good Omens has been a funny book so far :). I think I might finish it this weekend, so I will have more of an opinion after that.
I'm at 10!Flowers for Algernon
Ready Player One
The Native Star
City of Stairs
Station Eleven
Fuzzy Nation (re-read)
The Handmaid's Tale (re-read)
The Rook
The Suicide Collectors
The Carpet Makers
I read 6 so far (with a goal of 15) : Charmed Life (re-read), The Word for world is forest (it was amazing, I'm even impressed she begins so strongly even if we are supposed to hate the first POV character), His majesty's dragon (nice reading, but I was a little disappointed it was more a story about friendship learning things than going through really thrilling and dangerous things, I was expecting something more epic), The Carpet Makers, the Lathe of heaven and The Summer tree.I really disliked the last one (seems quite dated with a generic story, a generic world, some shallow characters), and forced myself to finish. The last third was better though.
I'm trying to get to His Majesty's Dragon this year. I admit that I thought it would be adventure. It's good to know these things before you start. At least it's that way for me.
I really disliked the summer tree too!i was surprised as so many people love it.
And fourth book is now finished. I really liked Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman. The way they told us about apocalypse (or accurately its coming) was so hilarious and funny. I really liked the fact that nothing was saved from humor and also the characters were good. I ended up giving it four stars.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I loved that book because it's so funny. Some bumbling angels and demons.
I've finished 22 of the 30 to which I thought I'd get! Whoop! (Update) Up to 25! (Update again) 26!!1. The Hobbit (*****)
2. The Fellowship of the Ring (*****)
3. The Carpet Makers (*****)
4. Alif the Unseen (***)
5. Warbreaker (****)
6. Weaveworld (****)
7. The Last Unicorn (*****)
8. The Yiddish Policemen's Union (***)
9. Night Watch (****)
10. Red Mars (***)
11. Slaughterhouse-Five (*****)
12. The Accidental Time Machine (***)
13. Storm Front (***)
14. Gun, With Occasional Music (***)
15. The Martian Chronicles (*****)
16. Blade Runner (*****)
17. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (****)
18. Childhood's End (*****)
19. Rendezvous with Rama (****)
20. Hounded (**)
21. Flowers for Algernon (****)
22. Gardens of the Moon (***)
23. Neuromancer (****)
24. Fahrenheit 451 (*****)
25. Blood Song (****)
26. Zodiac (****)
I am going to read a couple of my series books (Scalzi, Butcher, Ben K Green) before the start of May, when I will start again with bookclub books.
Wow Sandi that's great! The last one I read on my list was Childhood's End. It left me so shell-shocked I had to read nonfiction for 2 days. What a book, what a vision! With last month's 2 group reads I'm up to 7.
It was almost the same for me, except I went and read Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series for young adults almost a week later. And reading both Childhood's End and Rendezvous with Rama probably has unfairly skewed my expectations in regards to writing style. When an author can say so much in 200 pages, it makes me a little less tolerant of the pointless wordiness of almost 700 page tomes.
Flash Beagle wrote: "The last one I read on my list was Childhood's End. It left me so shell-shocked I had to read nonfiction for 2 days ..."Well, when you put it like that... I grabbed it from the library :)
Does anybody remember what book we read where the king loved to swear but the only word he knew was s**t and nobody was willing to teach him any others? I thought it was Promise of Blood but I can't find it with a Kindle search.
Sandi, you said ,"And reading both Childhood's End and Rendezvous with Rama probably has unfairly skewed my expectations in regards to writing style." Why does reading well-written literature unfairly influence your reactions to other writing? I agree, Childhood's End is among the best literature of any genre, and Rama is pretty great, too. A writer should at least attempt to grab me, make me delay putting the book down, keep me up at night thinking about the characters or issues introduced, be sad when I'm reaching the end, and make me look at the world a little differently after reading this work than before. Why should I accept anything less? We shouldn't feel that we're being unfair by having high expectations, unless we're living in the world of Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron.
You are absolutely right. Fantastic writing that does the job the author sets out to do - tell a story, paint a picture, make us feel - is what we should expect. It just seems that after reading some of the books lately from the book list that so many others seem so excited about, I feel a little out of touch. The writing seems so pedestrian and I am disappointed and left wondering what's the big deal? Many of the books I have been reading have an intriguing premise or world or magic/technology but leave me pondering what the book would have been like in the hands of a skilled writer. Or worse, what would the story be like if I got my hands on the text and begin editing and rewriting it myself. I know that many people have differing expectations about combinations of writing skills, literacy, grammar, story telling, world building, characterization, spelling, punctuation but I didn't think I was in that much of a minority. And again, you're correct. I should not apologize for expecting a paid professional to get it right - after all, I plunked down my money and my valuable time to immerse myself into that person's story. Unfortunately, when I wrote that blurb above, I had just finished reading a few of those disappointing novels for which I had had such high hopes. (And to clarify, I do NOT mean Terry Pratchett's books - he had a fantastically fun authorial voice that I enjoy immensely.)
I finished my fifth book for this challenge, which was Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn: The Final Empire. Liked it and will consider reading the remaining books of the series (only the first trilogy, though), which I rarely do these days.I also raised my challenge book count up to 12 from the original six books, which seemed too small of a number considering my current progress (5 books read so far). I'm confident I will hit 12 books in the end of this year. And I started to read Martian Chronicles, which will become my sixht book read IF I survive to the end (me and Bradbury have a difficult histroy, considering how much I hated Fahrenheit 451 which I never finished.)
I AM IN WITH EIGHT BOOKS! :DOkay, for me that's a lot...
This year, I've read 'Good Omens', so I'm 1 down, 7 to go.
I failed last year so bad so going to try again this year for 12. Trying to find books I haven't read a million times already is proving hard, but I will try.
Erin wrote: "Trying to find books I haven't read a million times already is proving hard, but I will try."There is lots of outstanding previous stuff to consider on the club bookshelf which would still count for your reading challenge.
13 down and a mere 47 to go. 48 actually if I want to hit 100 total this year. Piece of cake, right guys?
Great Sarah! Actually, its more like an ice cream sundae - it all melts away at the end!
Sarah wrote: "13 down and a mere 47 to go. 48 actually if I want to hit 100 total this year. Piece of cake, right guys?"Go Sarah! Go Sarah!
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Armada (other topics)The Three-Body Problem (other topics)
Ready Player One (other topics)
The Lathe of Heaven (other topics)
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Emily St. John Mandel (other topics)Sarah Wiley (other topics)
Jane Green (other topics)
John Scalzi (other topics)
Rhett C. Bruno (other topics)
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I haven't seen that exact problem, but when I first started the challenge I added the shelf name to the group page 1st and then added to my own shelf and nothing showed up on the group home. Finally started over, deleted both and then reversed it - added the shelf first to my own page, and then to the group page and it showed up on the group page.
There's a Help link and GR replies pretty quickly if you send them a message. Glad you mentioned it! It would be good to know if there is a fix.