SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
SciFi and Fantasy Book Challenge
>
2023 Read All The Books: A Decade of AtTENding the Shelf
Not-much-progress report for page 3.Goal: 7 books. (1/7)
Completed
Currently Reading
n/a
On Deck
(RP1 in tandem with the "372 Pages We'll Never Get Back" podcast episodes)
So far this year, I've read 3/20 and really enjoyed them.Light From Uncommon Stars 5⭐️
Spirits Abroad 5⭐️
Aeronaut’s Windlass 4⭐️
I also previously (before 2023) read and enjoyed
Legends & Lattes 4⭐️
Stories of your life and others 4⭐️
So, I've added 5 to my total bookshelf read count and I'm up to 188.
The Fifth Season
I have seen people rate this book very highly and I can understand why. Understanding why others do that didn't really make it into my doing so as well. The reason is pretty simple really, in spite of the fascinating premise the world-building, and the character development there were times when I wanted to put the book down and walk away. The plot has to be one of the most convoluted I have read in a very long time. For myself, this made it very hard to keep the plot threads straight in my mind and not lose track of who was doing what and why. I am glad I stuck it out the ending is well worth the struggle but I just couldn't bring myself to rate it higher than a three-star. I will be looking at the next one, I just hope it doesn't have the same sort of twisty plot line.
Trying hard not to make my reading challenge too large and overwhelming this year. So I will stick with 10 picks off the shelf for 2023.1. Rebecca Roanhorse - Black Sun - Finished 03/05/2023
2.
Mod
I know very little about the latter, other than that the author is being made a SFWA Grand Master. I’ll report on my reaction to the book when I get around to trying it.
I enjoyed both books a lot (I also enjoy pastries and coffee quite a bit), but while L&L is a warm hug of a book, Sunshine is deeper and darker.
Coffee & muffins are among my favourite things in the world. Cinnamon rolls are also ok. When it comes to books, I much prefer “deeper and darker” to “warm hugs”.
About to start my 4th book of 5, PK Dick's A Scanner Darkly!
three books finished with this being the most recent:excellent and interesting read which left me wanting more
This is a first: 4 out of 8 group reads books so far this year are books I read in 2022. They don't count toward the challenge, but of course they count toward my total read from the group's bookshelf. They are:Amatka
Spear
Elatsoe
A Half-built Garden
Otherwise, I've read Legends & Lattes and am in the middle of Contact, after which I'll finish Spirits Abroad and Stories of Your Life and Others.
Mod
Finished A Scanner Darkly, a rather weird book! basically a narcotics agent who ended up taking the wrong drug (fictional) and ended up with a split personality, a drug abuser and a narcotics officer. It's basically an alt-1970's universe, references to 70's musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Jim Croce. Was a bit hard at times to follow.4 down, 1 to go (unless I add another book!).
oh, I updated my list, now 9. And, I inadvertently knocked off one of the additions, Read The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K LeGuin. A short but great book! a colonial group interacting with a native population on a distant planet!I'll be knocking off one of the additions later, gonna read Samuel R Delany's Babel 17. gotta get through two books before then though.
Mod
Just read empire star (was on travel, hardly read), but wow, that was trippy! flipped the book over and starting babel-17!
About halfway through Sunshine and enjoying it. The main character is engaging and I’m liking the way she tells the story.
I finished Sunshine, 3rd of my 10 books. In the end I decided it was a 3-star read, rather than 4, partly because of the vampire/romance elements, which weren’t to my taste. But it’s a smart and interesting book. I’ll try something else by the author.— Editing this comment the next day, I’ve raised my rating to 4 stars. I like what was done with the main character across the arc of the story. I think the book is really all about the character, and very much from her point of view. Having said that, the book is full of world-building detail, frequently conveyed by the author in the main character’s conversational tone in the middle of scenes, as she expands on some more or less interesting point that has come up. A couple of times dialogue resumed after two or three pages of this and I had to go back and refresh my memory of what they were talking about. I don’t think this is necessarily a problem, I found the story gripping enough and the “infodumps” didn’t detract from that.
Stephen wrote: "I finished Sunshine, 3rd of my 10 books. In the end I decided it was a 3-star read, rather than 4, partly because of the vampire/romance elements, which weren’t to my taste. But it’..."sounds like it was an interesting read.
Lord of Light
A somewhat disjointed effort to retell myth cycles in an updated format. it is mostly based on the Bhudda Sam. The book juxtaposes time, with the first chapter in the present and all the others save the last in the past. An interesting piece of storytelling, but one that only does a light bit of world building more or less dropping things in and letting them lie and allowing the reader to determine how things look and what the situations in their being what, and where they are. I am not sure that having more of a background in the myth cycle that is being used here would help or hinder the enjoyment of the book and it is unlikely that I will go to the effort to find out.
A pretty good book, in spite of some of the downfalls of the time period it was written in.
War for the Oaks
This book was a breath of fresh air. To start with the main character is a Female, admittedly something that has become more prevalent in recent years but still. It is a book based on the interactions of the fae between each other and the humans around them. This is another thing that has become a more dominant theme in recent years. The real change here was the fact that the story focuses on a band and music is the main theme that moves the story along. You don't have to know how to make music on your own since the story rarely touches that much detail in the making but this is a book worthy of the effort to read and in the end, I have to agree with the author, this would make a good movie.
Mod
Which book are you talking about? I can only ever see the cover of the books and have no idea, DJ, if you’ve written anything at all afterward. The app is so annoying.
Dj wrote: "War for the Oaks This book was a breath of fresh air. To start with the main character is a Female, admittedly something that has become more preval..."
She wrote another called Falcon that was very good.
DivaDiane wrote: "Which book are you talking about? I can only ever see the cover of the books and have no idea, DJ, if you’ve written anything at all afterward. The app is so annoying."It is!!! War for the Oaks.
Allison wrote: "i felt the same, Dj!! glad you enjoyed it"After the start, I found myself really surprised by how good it was. But starts that leave me a little off-footed aren't to be unexpected so I don't usually let that hold me up. LOL.
DivaDiane wrote: "Which book are you talking about? I can only ever see the cover of the books and have no idea, DJ, if you’ve written anything at all afterward. The app is so annoying."Weird the last time I heard a complaint about the phone app was that it didn't display the image. I wrote about the
War for the Oaks, which I enjoyed.
The app doesn’t display images, but it will display one cover image and nothing after that. I’m glad you liked War for the Oaks. I read it over 20 years ago, but I remember liking it a lot. All I remember now is the Brownie.
DivaDiane wrote: "The app doesn’t display images, but it will display one cover image and nothing after that. I’m glad you liked War for the Oaks. I read it over 20 years ago, but I remember liking it a lot. All I..."
Yeah, Meg was fun, I need me a Brownie for my house. Would make things so much easier.
If that is the way the app works I might have to start putting the cover image at the end. Might make it easier for those with the ap to see the review. Thanks for the heads up
That would be great, Dj, because you post here a lot and I didn’t know how much I was missing!
Marc wrote: "Loved Lord of Light! started out a bit weird, is this sci-fi? but wow!Paused on babel-17. Empire star was trippy, need to read a more straight forward book, so reading Alexei Panshin's Rite of Pa..."
understandable. I have Babel-17 in my reading rotation and I have to agree it is a bit convoluted. I like it well enough that I have no real desire to put it back on the shelf though.
OK! I just finished Babel-17. Honestly, I didn't find it as weird as Empire Star. There were parts where I felt Delany let his weirdness flag going (not talking about sexuality at all, if you've read Empire Star, that was a bit of a mindbender!) when dealing with a crew member, but overall, I liked the book. What is it about (without spoilers)?Story is set in the distant future, humans have spread out to several galaxies, but is in a war with 'the invaders'. Protagonist is a youngish woman who is famous for her poetry, but has other talents in code breaking (before she 'retired' and went to poetry). She is tasked to break a new code called babel-17.
That's all I'll say about it, any more, I feel it would start to add spoilers. You may need to re-read the last 15 or so pages to understand the ending. the first time I read it I missed stuff that made the ending kinda meh. on re-read I was like ooh! I didn't catch that!
Anyhoo, I'm gonna go now and read some short stories from Ursula K Le Guin, and then maybe resume my quest a little later in the year, as I got 6 down, 3 to go!
Servant of the UnderworldSome books I find difficult to read due to the author's style. Some I find difficult to read due to the subject matter, and there are those that I find difficult to read due to the fact that I am outside the circle of knowledge that makes up the basis of the story. This was one of the last for me. It is at its core a murder mystery. So that in itself is nothing outside of my familiar reading, this one though is set in an Aztec setting with names and myth backgrounds to match. I know little of these myths and pronouncing words of Aztec origin is a tad beyond my ability, this did make the book a little difficult to read but it didn't stop me from finishing the book or liking the style of the author, but it did prevent full enjoyment of the work, not that changing these factors could have made it any better, I am quite sure that would not be the case.
I Am LegendOver the years I have not found myself drawn to reading this book and even more to watching any of the movies that had been based on it. So when I started this book I had no real thoughts on what to expect other than something to do with Vampires. At first, I found the book to be a tad slow and not much to put a great deal of investment in. I will say that I felt that way pretty much up to the end and then it sort of all fell into place. I am glad that I gave this book a chance but it won't ever be high on my recommendation list.
A book that I started with great optimism. I have read another book by the author that I really enjoyed but I found this one missed the mark for me. A major reason for this is that I found none of the characters redeemable. They were believable and well-written but not one of them made me feel like they should have something happen to make things better for them. I will still give the author chances in the future. Ship of Magic
Dj wrote: "A book that I started with great optimism. I have read another book by the author that I really enjoyed but I found this one missed the mark for me. A major reason for this is that I found none of ..."I felt the same about Ship of Magic. It was just okay. I really enjoyed Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice and finished the Farseer Trilogy.
Dj wrote: "A book that I started with great optimism. I have read another book by the author that I really enjoyed but I found this one missed the mark for me. A major reason for this is that I found none of ..."Ditto!
DJ and Ellen, I’d like to encourage you to continue the LiveShip Traders trilogy to the end. I was blown away and like it more than the Farseer Trilogy. The characters have an arc that sees them evolve over the course of the 3 books, so don’t let their horribleness in the first book deter you.
DivaDiane wrote: "DJ and Ellen, I’d like to encourage you to continue the LiveShip Traders trilogy to the end. I was blown away and like it more than the Farseer Trilogy. The characters have an arc that sees them ev..."Thanks Diane that's good to know. I was wondering if it got better in the other books.
just started When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger. So far, so good. I'd read another one of the Budayeen series Budayeen Nights previously
CBRetriever wrote: "just started When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger. So far, so good. I'd read another one of the Budayeen series Budayeen Nights previously"Ooh that’s a good one. I really liked it, but it does get very dark in places.
I've read three more and I'm up to 6/20.I've read
Spear 4⭐️
Fuzzy Nation 4⭐️
A Canticle for Leibowitz 3⭐️
and retroactively added
Elatsoe 4⭐️
So, I'm up to 192 shelf reads.
Amazing achievements, both Meredith and Ellen!!
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Neom (other topics)Mexican Gothic (other topics)
The Immortality Thief (other topics)
The Children of Gods and Fighting Men (other topics)
Remarkably Bright Creatures (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Alix E. Harrow (other topics)Alix E. Harrow (other topics)
Alix E. Harrow (other topics)
Alix E. Harrow (other topics)
George Alec Effinger (other topics)
More...
Gonna take a small break before I get to my next book on this list, PK Dick's A Scanner Darkly, starting to work my way through Samuel R Delany's Einstein Intersection