SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
SciFi and Fantasy Book Challenge
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2021 TBR Cleanup Challenge
Mod
I will do exactly the same, Allison! I'm excited to see how far I will come.
Mod
1. Take a gamble
2. Red or black
3. Behind the eight ball
4. Charade
5. Agreeable alliteration
6. Jackpot
7. Pawns
8. An 8 or 21
9. Dealer's choice
10. X marks the spot
11. Murrderrrrr
12.
13. Features a game or puzzle
14. I have no gift for strategy
15. Features best friends
16. Queen of hearts
17. Role-play
18. Amazing race
19. Taboo
20. Critical hit
Allison wrote: "I think this year I'm going to try this the other way 'round,. I'm going to try to read off my TBR and then fit it in to my list..."Such is also my plan this year! (But I might make a superhuman effort in October if it looks like I can hit the bulls-eye.)
myself, I took the oldest books in my TBR or the ones I was less inclined to read and fit them to the prompts
Finally got all my selections set up. As usual, I may not finish, and I may change things throughout the year, but it's fun to select the books I want to use.1. Take a gamble - The Library at Mount Char
2. Red or black - Promise of Blood
3. Behind the eight ball - The Last Policeman
4. Charade - The Monster Baru Cormorant
5. Agreeable alliteration - The Serpent Sea
6. Jackpot - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
7. Pawns - Malice
8. An 8 or 21 - Sea of Rust
9. Dealer's choice - The Way of Kings
10. X marks the spot - Lexicon
11. Murrderrrrr - Fugitive Telemetry
12. Back from the dead - Raven Stratagem
13. Features a game or puzzle - Raising Allies
14. I have no gift for strategy - Valor's Choice
15. Features best friends - Vicious
16. Queen of hearts - TBD
17. Role-play - Nexus Uprising
18. Amazing race - Race the Sands
19. Taboo - Middlegame
20. Critical hit - LitRPG placeholder
Reasoning: (view spoiler)
Haha! I had fin with finding books and I’ll probably still try to fill the prompts with the books I’ve actually read come through end of the year!
Bobby wrote: "Finally got all my selections set up. As usual, I may not finish, and I may change things throughout the year, but it's fun to select the books I want to use.1. Take a gamble - [book:The Library..."
Some nice choices
The prompts are so enjoyable! Thanks Mods! I enjoyed them so much, in a separate list, i identified some non-fiction books (memoirs and popular science) that fit the prompts, and i'm challenging myself to read those as well. I'm probably stretching a few of these, but the goal is to read that TBR shelf, right? :) Update Dec 25: 15/20 or 17/305. Agreeable alliteration - A Closed and Common Orbit (Becky Chambers) - closed and common feels like a stretch but i’ll go with it.
6. Jackpot - Space Opera (Catherynne M. Valente) - competition for the Metagalactic Grand Prix; like a battle of the bands but if you lose, your species is exterminated. NBD.
17. Role-play - Here and Now and Then (Mike Chen) time traveler pretending to be originally from the era he lives in.
19. Taboo - Waking Gods (Sylvain Neuvel) - bothering gods is always a bad idea; or maybe Strange Magic (Syd Moore) - because... magic... i dunno.
20. Critical hit - Welcome to Night Vale (Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor) - the authors’ podcast was a huge hit which lead to the books
Nonfiction picks (in spoiler)
(view spoiler)
Mod
Kristin wrote: "The prompts are so enjoyable! Thanks Mods! I enjoyed them so much, in a separate list, i identified some non-fiction books (memoirs and popular science) that fit the prompts..."Great list Empress! There's so much to like in those choices.
I may try to create a separate list of non-fiction to fit the prompts as well. I have some that could use the focus that this challenge provides for me.
Finished my first one for this contest:8. An 8 or 21 = Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets: An Anthology of Holmesian Tales Across Time and Space by David Thomas Moore
the only 21 in my TBR pile and I don't plan on tackling the only series I have that runs to an 8th book plus it will help my Short Story totals
How was it? Only for Sherlock enthusiasts? I’m still not sure if I should try it. (Emma Newman is why I’m considering it.)
no, it's not just for Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts. The only parts in common between Doyle's stories is someone named Sherlock and someone named Holmes with perhaps Mrs Hudson (main character in the Emma Newman story). Sherlock was a ghost in one story, a demon in another, a teenage girl in another, etc. The Adrian Tchaikovsky story was interesting. I enjoyed it as a break.
Kristin wrote: "The prompts are so enjoyable! Thanks Mods! I enjoyed them so much, in a separate list, i identified some non-fiction books (memoirs and popular science) that fit the prompts, and i'm challenging my..."Some nice choices three
finished the second book in this challenge18.
Race to get to a new waypoint
I was not overly impressed by this book though it did get better towards the end. Also, it ended on a "you have to read the rest of the books in this series" not which I don't appreciate.
I am 3 books in.Free Live Free is apparently considered minor Gene Wolfe but I really enjoyed it. Entertaining characters, situations, and dialogue, and a cute sf explanation for the goings on.
Gateway is interesting and clever sf with a real ‘70s flavour. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Wolfe but I could see why it won its awards.
Master and Commander - Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin books are in a class of their own as sophisticated historical adventure stories.
3 down, 17 to go.
Stephen wrote: "I am 3 books in.Free Live Free is apparently considered minor Gene Wolfe but I really enjoyed it. Entertaining characters, situations, and dialogue, and a cute sf explanation for th..."
which challenges were those for?
—————————1. Take a gamble
Gateway- Premise seems to involve characters taking huge gambles
———————————-
10. X marks the spot
Free Live Free - apparently involves some sort of “treasure hunt”
—————————————-
15. Features best friends
Master and Commander - I have no excuse for this nongenre choice. I want to start an Aubrey/Maturin reread.
thanks - I've just read the first book in the series and that was just because when I lived in France and went to the vide greniers (empty attic) and brocantes (street sales), I'd pick up any book in English I could find. I loved the way it started out, but it was a bit too much seafaring for me.
There is certainly a great deal of nautical detail in the Patrick O’Brian books. I am not a sailor and I have to take a lot of the discussions of adjustments to how the sails are set and accompanying technical language, etc., on faith. However I find this adds to the verisimilitude of the stories. I read C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower books when I was young and a few other stories of the Royal Navy of that period and I guess I’m comfortable with the genre.
Hornblower might have been interesting to me - I remember watching the Hornblower TV series and enjoying it along with the Sharpe series.
CBRetriever wrote: "Hornblower might have been interesting to me - I remember watching the Hornblower TV series and enjoying it along with the Sharpe series."Hornblower in books, I really liked. Your could feel a 50s/60s-leaning-toward-classics sense in the writing style, whereas the O'Brian felt about a generation later.
Sorry I cannot compare to the TV version, as I have yet to watch it!
both Sharpe and Hornblower are worth watching. Hornblower stars Ioan Gruffudd as Hornblower and it won an Emmy for outstanding miniseries in 1999
CBRetriever wrote: "both Sharpe and Hornblower are worth watching. Hornblower stars Ioan Gruffudd as Hornblower and it won an Emmy for outstanding miniseries in 1999"+1 for Hornblower both on the page and on the screen. Both amongst my favourites in those formats, as are the Aubrey/Maturin books and the Master and Commander movie.
Forester and O'Brian are very different but they both represent the best in the genre IMHO.
Raucous wrote: "I may try to create a separate list of non-fiction to fit the prompts as well. I have some that could use the focus that this challenge provides for me."Just added my non-fiction picks in a spoiler! There are a lot that can fit with the prompts. Hope you find some too!
Mod
1. Take a gamble
2. Red or black
3. Behind the eight ball
4. Charade
5. Agreeable alliteration
6. Jackpot
7. Pawns
8. An 8 or 21
9. Dealer's choice
10. X marks the spot
11. Murrderrrrr
12.
13. Features a game or puzzle
14. I have no gift for strategy
15. Features best friends
16. Queen of hearts
17.
18. Amazing race
19. Taboo
20. Critical hit
18. Amazing raceGulliver's Travels Lilliputians etc.
I finished Gulliver's Travels a few days ago. A 5-star classic in every way. Glad to have finally read it. I bought the copy I read 2nd-hand in the late ‘90s.
4/20 at this point, I believe. I’ve started a couple of others.
Oh, Gulliver’s Travels is wonderful! I think I read it in the 90’s from a Dover Thrift Edtion (poor music student days). It’s due a reread, if I didn’t have so many unread books on my shelves (the poor student days are behind me!).
There are two versions of Gulliver's Travels (from Wikipedia)In March 1726 Swift traveled to London to have his work published; the manuscript was secretly delivered to the publisher Benjamin Motte, who used five printing houses to speed production and avoid piracy. Motte, recognising a best-seller but fearing prosecution, cut or altered the worst offending passages (such as the descriptions of the court contests in Lilliput and the rebellion of Lindalino), added some material in defence of Queen Anne to Part II, and published it. The first edition was released in two volumes on 28 October 1726, priced at 8s. 6d.
and
In 1735 an Irish publisher, George Faulkner, printed a set of Swift's works, Volume III of which was Gulliver's Travels. As revealed in Faulkner's "Advertisement to the Reader", Faulkner had access to an annotated copy of Motte's work by "a friend of the author" (generally believed to be Swift's friend Charles Ford) which reproduced most of the manuscript without Motte's amendments, the original manuscript having been destroyed. It is also believed that Swift at least reviewed proofs of Faulkner's edition before printing, but this cannot be proved. Generally, this is regarded as the Editio Princeps of Gulliver's Travels with one small exception. This edition had an added piece by Swift, A letter from Capt. Gulliver to his Cousin Sympson, which complained of Motte's alterations to the original text, saying he had so much altered it that "I do hardly know mine own work" and repudiating all of Motte's changes as well as all the keys, libels, parodies, second parts and continuations that had appeared in the intervening years. This letter now forms part of many standard texts.
" In one version, for instance, instead of peeing on the Empress's palace, he uses an enema syringe."
Update for January: I'm tracking back on the first page, and I just realized that I finished one (A Memory Called Empire) and am reading 2 more at the moment. Rendezvous with Rama andChildren of Time
I also realized that I did a better job this year of picking books that I actually had plans to read sooner rather than later. I hope that bodes well for the books that are more challenging. (I'm looking at you Sunrunner's Fire)
Mod
So for my Queen of Hearts challenge: The Women Who Changed the Course of History: Eve, Cleopatra, Isabel the Catholic, Marie Curie, Winnie Mandela, Benazir Bhutto, Juana Azurduy. Lessons from the Great Women That Forged Our SocietyThis is one of those books that there are all sorts of things that can be picked out to show what is wrong with a book like this. In some ways, it is just too easy. Some people might not agree with the choices that were made to show strong female characters that struggled to make change. Some people Could disagree with how they are presented since some of them have less than stellar reputations.
The Truth is though any time you use a select group of individuals to hold as examples of what can be done and how far things have come there is never going to be a perfect book. Some books come closer than others though and this was a fantastic effort. I would pass it around to nieces without hesitation.
This year I'm going to try to avoid leaving entries in this challenge until last few days of December. Right. Anyway, here's a start:✔︎ 2. Red or black: Community of Magic Pens (ink color choices that you'd find at the office)
✔︎ 10. X marks the spot: The Steerswoman (mapping the world)
✔︎ 18. Amazing race: The End of Everything ("Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice.")
Right now I'm using a mix of fiction and nonfiction. I'm still considering a separate nonfiction TBR.
Progress: 3/20
I’ve read one since my last update February 4, now at 5/20.17. Role-play
Double Star Another I haven’t reread in decades
Excellent interplanetary thriller. Interesting in that there’s a fair bit of political discussion but I would say the politics is of a generally liberal, positive mid-century American type. Not the more controversial stuff you get in some of his (Heinlein’s) later writing.
1. Young adults find a jackpot at a salvage yard and attempt to win a contest
so far I've completed 1, 8 & 18 .... ooo, that's a mathematical series!
I have decided to change out my Taboo book. The Mythology and History of Witchcraft: 25 Books of Sorcery, Demonology & Supernatural: The Wonders of the Invisible World, Salem Witchcraft, Lives of the Necromancers, Modern Magic, Witch Stories…
It seems that this isn't a book, but twenty-five of them. A bit of a stretch for a TBR challenge. So I am going to be switching to
Creatures of Light and Darkness should still be in the ballpark and it is at least a singular book
So I finished my Jackpot book: The Prince
A strange mix of do this but don't do that lessons in regards to ruling. Sometimes the advice seems to be a tad contradictory and that may in fact be the point of it all. The book though was significant for any number of rulers or would-be rulers who followed the advice put forth and thus it can be a very good aid to character development in writing.
I’ve been slowly reading through my “Critical hit” selection, Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000–2016, with A Journal of a Writer's Week. This is mainly my “read on the phone while waiting to pick up groceries” book, but I’m about halfway through and I don’t pick up groceries that often, so obviously I’m reading it at other times as well. Lots of good stuff here, only a few pieces that bored me.Here is a quotation from Le Guin’s introduction to a new edition of The Languages of Pao:
“ It is easier to explain airily that everybody speaks Ing-Lish ever since Urth installed the Galactic Empire than it is to cope realistically with Babel.”
I like this partly because I’ve just begun reading The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 1, I suppose. I read a few books in French in the ‘90s but I’m really a unilingual anglophone when it comes to literature, dependent upon translations when I try works from other languages and cultures. It’s nice that more translations seem to be available these days.
This is for 13. Features a Game or a Puzzle. This is for Spellbreaker
A murder/thriller set in industrial revolution England with magic. Ever since the Paper Magician, I have found myself enjoying this author. The stories are well told, they have fresh ingredients that keep them from being just another take on the same theme, and they are told from a female point of view. This is a combination that makes these books such a fun and interesting read. The Magic in each series has been rich and subtly different than what you find in other works. Also, the foundation on which she builds her Magic stands up throughout the work. It is consistent and stays solid in the works that this type of Magic is used so there are no major breaks that cause a drop in the level of disbelief that the reader builds into the reading of the story. Add all that to the fact that the stories are well done and easy to flow into this makes for a great read.
Mod
Finished:5.
Usually alliterations is the first letter, but I'm choosing to go with the last three and this sounds interesting
it was interesting, but not my cup of tea. If you like comedic soldiers fighting aliens with a romance thrown in, this one is for you. It was interesting though and a quick, fast read
I'm now at 4 out of 20. I think I'll go for Red Planet for #2 Red or Black for my next SciFi book
I've read another three books that I found a way to fit onto my TBR challenge list:✔︎ 1. Take a gamble: Clockwork Boys (This team? Not a chance.)
✔︎ 3. Behind the eight ball: Nature Obscura: A City's Hidden Natural World (nature in an urban environment)
✔︎ 4. Charade: The House in the Cerulean Sea
I enjoyed all of these quite a bit. The House in the Cerulean Sea was a feel good found family story that I loved as a break from the pandemic. Nature Obscura: A City's Hidden Natural World taught me things about both observing nature and where to find it. Clockwork Boys is a T. Kingfisher work (part of one at least) and I haven't read anything of hers yet that I disliked. This one is an interesting combination of dark, touching, and, at times, funny.
Overall progress: 6/20
Finished yet another one:9.
a Dealer is also usually a trader
it doesn't really fulfill the Dealer part of the prompt as the trading involves two people trading bodies. However it was an excellent book and very entertaining
I'm now at
CBRetriever wrote: "Finished yet another one:9. Dealer's choice = Trader by Charles de Lint
a Dealer is also usually a trader
it doesn't really fulfill the Dealer part of the prom..."
Sounds like an interesting read.
Dj wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "Finished yet another one:9. Dealer's choice = Trader by Charles de Lint
a Dealer is also usually a trader
it doesn't really fulfill the Dea..."
it was a 4 star for me (only classics or extraordinary books get a 5 star from me). I really enjoyed it and couldn't put it down until I finished
CBRetriever wrote: "Dj wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "Finished yet another one:9. Dealer's choice = Trader by Charles de Lint
a Dealer is also usually a trader
it doesn't really fulf..."
I can well relate to your ranking system. I like the few books by DeLint that I have read I will have to give it a look
Tonight I finished this one:20.
Critically acclaimed book
to make it to 7 out of 20. I wasn't too enthralled with this book at the beginning, but it did get better towards the end. Other than being an Own Words book that I got for free, I wouldn't normally have read this one. Plus I could have used a glossary.
I’ve read 2 more, which gets me to 7/20:13. Features a game or puzzle
The Book of Dreams Plot involves a magazine contest
The fifth and last novel in the author’s Demon Princes series: Kirth Gersten seeks to track down and kill master criminal Howard Alan Treesong. Very typically Vanceian, featuring drollery; digressions on exotic planets, cultures, flora and fauna; and often oddly elaborate prose. The action hero and his romantic interest have an old fashioned mid-20th century character. I enjoyed the book.
20. Critical hit
Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000–2016, with A Journal of a Writer's Week - well received collection of critical writing and other nonfiction
This book actually won a “Best Related Work” Hugo a few years ago, which I had forgotten. I liked most of it, particularly essays on H. G. Wells and Jose Saramago and reviews of books by Margaret Atwood among others.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
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Every Heart a Doorway (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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Steven Savile (other topics)
Mark Lawrence (other topics)
Mark Lawrence (other topics)
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Good point! That is indeed a very valid reason for 'the reversal'.