SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
SciFi and Fantasy Book Challenge
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2023 Read All The Books: A Decade of AtTENding the Shelf
Anna wrote: "(I do count books I read before they became group books if I read them the same year, it's easier that way since that's how the challenge tracker works.)"This is the way that I'd do it, for sure, especially since I have almost never read the same book twice in a year.
CBRetriever wrote: "well, I'm now at 12 (original pledge = 10) since Ive already read Mexican Gothic which is one of the two books for September"Way to go.
CBRetriever wrote: "Anna wrote: "CBR, you can do what I do and count new/previous reads separately! If I've read it before it's BOTM, it doesn't count for RATB :)My current situation as an example :D
05/24 Group Re..."
Don't worry I am sure you will have a break out ending
Just finished The City We Became by NK Jemison. Took me a little while to get into it, as it is pretty much New York centric. Not really a spoiler, the title says it all, certain citizens in the 5 boroughs of New York 'awaken' and become part of New York City, and face a threat to the city overall. Not being a New Yorker, only been there twice, it took a little while to get into the book, but once I got it, it went quite fast and was quite entertaining!So of the 10 books I pledged to read, got 8 down! just need to read parable of the sower by Octavia Butler and Gene Wolf's Shadow of the Torturer. Which I'll get to later!
Marc wrote: "Just finished The City We Became by NK Jemison. Took me a little while to get into it, as it is pretty much New York centric. Not really a spoiler, the title says it all, certain citizens in the 5 ..."Good luck with that last one. I have been struggling along in that one for a bit and am about half way through.
My 9 to 5 bookA book that was a breath of fresh air. It was a great read and so enjoyable even though it was a bit of a slice of High School life with all the anguish that implies. Add to that the main character debating wither he is gay or bi adds a little more anguish to the book. So this book could have gone terribly wrong as far as I was concerned but the cover and the title had me hooked and am glad they did.
The High School oh woe is me and my life sucks moments were well done and treated with respect and not used to fill the book with pathos. When something is used to move the story it makes a great deal of difference on how it will be received. The romance aspect of the book is the same. It is more humorous than cringe worthy. Then there are the moments of magic. Like when the Main Character gets to touch a Unicorn. These moments of Magic are set of with moments of terror (for the character at any rate) like having the above mentioned Unicorn try and run you down and impale you.
A fantastic read for the real world/Fantasy mix
The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic
A book of promise and loss. A powerful moving work that holds out the promise of hope and then snags it away. It is a cautionary tale of many things but possibly science is the big one. Science brings hope, makes dreams come true, but it is a slow process. The whole point of Science is to see if you can make something work by disproving it along the way. So it makes for a very sad truth, a sad book, but one that is monumentally worth the read. Flowers for Algernon
I am not sure what it is, but this Gaiman book I just couldn't get into. I enjoyed the previous book, American Gods, but as far as I was concerned this book didn't really hold a candle to that one. I will refrain from too much comment since I generally don't have much praise in regards to this book and I don't feel the need to ruin it for those who might enjoy it more than I do.
Anansi Boys
I've read three more, up to 13 for the year.Space Between Worlds 4⭐️
Foreigner 3⭐️
Dr. Who and the coming of the Terraphiles 2⭐️
I'm on track for 25 for the year. There aren't any so far that I absolutely loved... no five stars yet. https://www.goodreads.com/user_challe...
I had high hopes for The Underground Railroad, The Spear Cuts Through Water and Red Mars, so was disappointed when I didn't like them more.
Surprised me: Legends & Lattes I thought I wouldn't like and then I did.
Also I liked The Bone Shard Daughter enough that I continued and read the rest of the series.
Deciding now what to pick next.
I chose the current reading shelf for this challenge and I`m three books behind, but I`m catching up.Up to now:
Amatka
Legends & Lattes
Contact
Spirits Abroad
Spear
A Half-Built Garden
The Marrow Thieves
The Spear Cuts Through Water
The Space Between Worlds
Elatsoe
Remarkably Bright Creatures
The Thief
Neom
The Prey of Gods
The Children of Gods and Fighting Men
Mexican Gothic
The Immortality Thief
I committed to a list of 10 for this challenge; currently at 5 from the list, but I expect to complete 2 more this month, so I’m in decent shape.
Mod
Goal: 7 books. (7/7) (complete!)Completed
Currently Reading
n/a
On Deck
We finished listening to RP1 in the car this morning, so there's my goal for this year complete. Two of the books were rereads, so if I wanted to be pointlessly strict with myself, I could push for two more. Should be possible either way, but if I don't manage it, it's all good.
Congrats to everyone who is on track or finished! Well done! ^_^
Anna wrote: "Congrats to everyone who is on track or finished! Well done! ^_^"Yes, well done everyone, and I can now include myself in a bit of self congratulation.
Just managed to finish my challenge of 15 bookclub reads for this year. Pretty good for me but still losing the percentage war.
Very heavy Fantasy bias, playing catch-up, with only two SF titles out of the fifteen. Here’s my list:
The Library at Mount Char ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mort ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Raven Tower ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Contact ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ship of Magic ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Assassin's Apprentice ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Elatsoe ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Last Unicorn ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Space Between Worlds ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Neverwhere ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Game of Thrones ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
His Majesty's Dragon ⭐️⭐️
Wizard's First Rule ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mexican Gothic ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Legends & Lattes ⭐️⭐️⭐️Still got 19 bookclub books on my shelves TBR, so I’ll carry on and see how I can get on, and of course look forward to next year’s challenge.
Bonnie wrote: "I'm on track for 25 for the year. There aren't any so far that I absolutely loved... no five stars yet. https://www.goodreads.com/user_challe...
I had high hopes for [book:The Undergro..."
Glad you liked Legends and Lattes, it really surprised me as well.
Since Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries was selected as one of the next Group's reads and I happen to have read it this year, I have officially finished my challenge at 12/12.Books from our shelf that I read this year:
Mod
Banshee wrote: "Since Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries was selected as one of the next Group's reads and I happen to have read it this year, I have officially finished my challenge at 12/12...."
Well now you can try and push past your limits. LOL
Some good choices for your list.
Well, I'm reading A Night in the Lonesome October for the first time now, so I'll end up with at least 1 book over the goal, haha!
Four more and I'm up to 17 read for the year. Mere Wife 2⭐️ (DNF) This just did not work for me
Marrow Thieves 4⭐️
Mexican Gothic 4⭐️
Terraformers 5⭐️ I really enjoyed this
I'm ending up with 13 which still leaves 13 in my TBR for 2024When Gravity Fails by Effinger, George Alec
Goblin Emperor by Addison, Katherine
Sheep Look Up by Brunner, John
Six of Crows by Bardugo, Leigh
Brown Girl in the Ring by Hopkinson, Nalo
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Harrow, Alix E.
The Best of All Possible Worlds by Lord, Karen <---- added
Quantum Magician by Künsken, Derek
Legends & Lattes by Baldree, Travis
Stories of Your Life and Others by Chiang, Ted
Elatsoe by Little Badger, Darcie
Neom by Tidhar, Lavie
Severance by Ma, Ling
One of these I read this year but didn't realize it was on our shelf so I added it plus one I actually read in 2022, so I removed it
Mod
Mer, yay! I love that you read some good'uns for ya ^^
(Is it weird I call you Mer in my head? Do you use that? I can tell my brain to stop)
Allison wrote: "I am so impressed by you all chipping away! Chessie, some of those are not things I expected you to prioritize! What were your thoughts?Mer, yay! I love that you read some good'uns for ya ^^
(Is..."
Not weird at all! It makes me smile to see it. My friends in college, and some since then, called me Mer.
Allison wrote: "I am so impressed by you all chipping away! Chessie, some of those are not things I expected you to prioritize! What were your thoughts?Mer, yay! I love that you read some good'uns for ya ^^
(Is..."
I only read them because I owned them. Some were from Humble Bundles, some were from StoryBundle and some were from Tor. You should see my list for another forum's challenge - it's full of really odd books. When we get our challenges for next year, I'm hoping to use some of the odder books I own like the Shatner Tek War series and this one looks really odd: How to Mars
Mod
Excellent, Mer, I shall allow my brain to continue!
In 2022 I set goal of 30 so I can get bit ahead with reading all the club books. I managed 19 since I kinda lost track in the second half of the year. So I decided to try again this year knowing I can reach 30. I have read 4 so far 😅 Will try harder next year I guess.
Banshee wrote: "Well, I'm reading A Night in the Lonesome October for the first time now, so I'll end up with at least 1 book over the goal, haha!"Watch out for the Watch Dog
Stephen wrote: "I finished Hyperion, which gets me to 7/10."I have decided, just barely scratching the beginning of Hyperion that it seems to be based a little on Canterbury Tales
One of the best books I have ever read about fictional colonization. Most Sci-Fi books I have read over the years tend to gloss over such events in a, more or less, sanitized vision of harmony. This isn't really a deep dive into the case of taking land from those who already have it and are thought to be too primitive to make proper use of it, but that wouldn't make a good read on any large scale anyway. It is however a look at what happens when cultures clash and how things will never be the same again. A very nice read and a input into a mostly overlooked aspect of going into space.
The Word for World Is Forest
One more after my current Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Fairies and I will hit 25
A book that I found a tad difficult to get into but one that was worth the effort. It is a dark future where not everything is natural and gene splicing is, or was, the norm. It is set is South East Asia and this is one of the few places that still has the ground and the people to conduct experimental farming practices. The Government in the Nation is not really friendly to foreigners and the prejudice is a nearly physical thing.Despite the fact that I found the opening uneven and disjointed it was a very good introduction to a dystopian future that had the problems of the old world as well as the new to worry about. overall it was a very interesting read.
The Windup Girl
This book left me feeling out of sorts. Everything seemed to come so fast and with little or no indication of what was going to be coming up. It is almost like more than one person was in on the writing and they would change places during each section that is done. So quickly do things change it seems like they are working at writing their fellow writers into a corner. This book was too jumpy and jerky to be a good, or easy read, despite the fact that the main thread is still going in the same direction. Still, I didn't find it all that worthwhile. Consider Philebas
Two very different books read, both getting four stars but for very different reasons.
That’s two over my target, but will continue as I’ve now got The Terraformers all ready to go.
Dj wrote: "A book that I found a tad difficult to get into but one that was worth the effort. It is a dark future where not everything is natural and gene splicing is, or was, the norm. It is set is South Eas..."I had so much trouble with The Windup Girl. I found the world/society extremely interesting but got really put off by the treatment of the female character. It felt a bit too Tess of the d'Urbervilles to me. I have put the book back on my TBR though since the other ideas explored intrigue me.
Cheryl L wrote: "Dj wrote: "A book that I found a tad difficult to get into but one that was worth the effort. It is a dark future where not everything is natural and gene splicing is, or was, the norm. It is set i..."Well, the most solid statement I have ever read to keep me from reading Tess I have ever seen. Thanks
A fairly decent twist on the Arthurian Legends that gets a little lost in the shock of its romance. I hope that the author learns to tone down the one, not get rid of just tone down, to explore the options presented in changing the story more fully. Spear
Finally ready to start my 9th book on my list, Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sowers!
I have started books 8 and 9, Oryx and Crake and More Than Human. The latter has really grabbed me, the former not so much, to date.
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)
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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)
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My current situation as an example :D
05/24 Group Reads 2023 (rea..."
I'm still at 11 though since I read Stories of Your Life and Others in May w/o realizing it was read in February. I was hoping to have 10 to pledge next year that are in my TBR pile (currently at 7)