SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
SciFi and Fantasy Book Challenge
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CJ's projects and challenges (Comments welcome)
November 2024-???: Massive Cyberpunk-Biopunk Reading ProjectReading cyberpunk, biopunk, protocyberpunk, etc. and other titles relevant or adjacent to these subgenres. Priority will be titles that have been on my TBR for a while. If there are any books or authors anyone thinks I've overlooked, feel free to recommend, but I make no promises I will get to it!
The Clockwork Man by E. V. Odle (1923)
✔️The Tissue-Culture King by Julian Huxley (1926)
✔️I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (1950) - reread
✔️Gravy Planet by Frederick Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth (1952)
✔️The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (1957) - reread
✔️Return from the Stars by Stanislaw Lem (1961)
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (1968)
We Can Build You by Philip K. Dick (1972 [written in 1962])
✔️The Girl Who was Plugged In by James Tiptree, Jr. (1973) - reread
Frankenstein Unbound by Brian W. Aldiss (1972)
✔️The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner (1975)
✔️Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (1976)
Man Plus by Frederick Pohl (1976) - reread
Blood Music by Greg Bear (1980)
City Come a-Walkin’ by John Shirley (1980)
Software by Rudy Rucker (1982)
✔️Count Zero by William Gibson (1986)
✔️Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams (1986)
When Gravity Fail by George Alec Effinger (1986)
✔️Dawn by Octavia E. Butler (1987)
Vacuum Flowers by Michael Swanwick (1987)
Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling (1988)
Synners by Pat Cardigan (1991)
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992)
Quarantine by Greg Egan (1992)
Virtual Girl by Amy Thomspon (1993)
✔️China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh (1993)
✔️Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott (1994)
Permutation City by Greg Egan (1994)
Ribofunk by Paul Di Fillipo (1996)
Mainline by Deborah Teramis Christian (1996)
Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling (1996 [org. pub'd 1985])
This Alien Shore by C.S, Friedman
✔️Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (2003)
Accelerando by Charles Stross (2005)
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (2008)
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (2009)
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (2010)
Control Theory by Pedro Iñiguez (2016)
✔️Infomocracy by Malka Older (2016)
✔️Warcrossed by Marie Lu (2017)
✔️Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill (2017)
✔️Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace (2021)
✔️Noor by Nnedi Okarafor (2021)
✔️The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer (2021)
The Extractionist by Kimberly Unger (2022)
Electric Angel by Plum Parrot (2023)
✔️The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu (2023)
The Escher Man by T.R. Tapper (2024)
Jellyfish People by Philip Trainor (2024)
✔️Toward Eternity by Anton Hur (2024)
✔️Mechanize My Hands to War by Erin K. Wagner (2024)
• Anthologies
Cyberpunk: Stories of Hardware, Software, Wetware, Revolution, and Evolution (2012)
Altered States: a cyberpunk sci-fi anthology (2014)
Altered States II: A Cyberpunk Anthology (2016)
Embodied Exegesis: Transfeminine Cyberpunk Futures (2024)
• Recent relevant reads/rereads:
✔️Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1818)
✔️The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells (1896)
✔️R.U.R by Karel Čepak (1920)
✔️Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
✔️War with the Newts by Karel Čepak (1936)
✔️The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (1953)
✔️Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (1968) - my review
✔️Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
✔️Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress (1993)
✔️Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi (2013)
✔️The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells (2017-2025)
✔️The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2022)
January 2025-December 2025: SFFBC's Read All the Books 12: Books by the Dozen challengeReading books new to me from SFFBC's shelves. Main thread for this challenge is here.
For added challenge I'm trying to avoid books I'm already planning on reading for other challenges (for the most part) or would be rereads for me. Many of these I own already, so that's an added incentive.
I will be reading 2 dozen books for this challenge. Because the dozen theme makes me think of donuts, I'll use🍩to mark titles as I finish them. Ratings with 1/2 stars here are rounded up in my GR ratings the since GR doesn't allow 1/2 star ratings yet.
1. These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs (2023)
🍩2. Among Others by Jo Walton (2011) ★★★1/2
🍩3. The Children of Gods and Fighting Men by Shauna Lawless (2022) ★★
🍩4. The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (2020) ★★★
5. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2020)
🍩6. A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark (2021) ★★★★★
7. The Outside by Ada Hoffman (2019)
🍩8. An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (2017) ★★★1/2
🍩9. Witchmark by C.L. Polk (2018) ★★★
10. Semiosis by Sue Burke (2018)
11. The Changeling by Victor LaValle (2017)
🍩12. Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill (2017) ★1/2
🍩13. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger (2020) ★★★
14. A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)
15. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1992)
🍩16. The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz (2023) ★★★
🍩17. Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon (1996) ★★★★★
18. Grass by Sheri S. Tepper (1989)
🍩19. Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield (2022) ★★
🍩20. Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi (2024) ★★★★
🍩21. Lost Ark Dreaming by Suya Davies Okungbowa (2024) ★★★★1/2
🍩22. To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose (2023) ★★★
🍩23. You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo (2021) ★★★1/2
🍩24. The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan (2023) ★★★★
How did you like Moon of the Crusted Snow? There’s also a sequel, which I’m anxious to read. I also really enjoyed The Marrow Thieves.
I can recommend Hyperion, Grass and Solaris. Also, a cyberpunk that I really enjoyed that’s not on your list is Mainline, by Deborah T. Christian
DivaDiane wrote: "I can recommend Hyperion, Grass and Solaris. Also, a cyberpunk that I really enjoyed that’s not on your list is Mainline, by Deborah T. Christian"
Oh thank you for that. I don't think I've seen that name mentioned in any list I've seen, and female writers are really overlooked by cyberpunk fans in particular.
I really liked Moon of the Crusted Snow. It starts off so understated that it doesn't seem to be going where it ends up, with how it looks at various sources of conflict and how the main character reckons with his community and the needs of his family. I was impressed with how Rice really intertwined Native culture, tradition and folklore into the arc of the story and coming to a resolution with where his main character would seek moral guidance. I want to read the sequel but my library doesn't have it yet and I spent my Audible credits on Fevered Star and Dawn, so I have to wait on that.
Challenge completed!November-December 2024: Indigenous Writers Reading Challenge
✔️Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich (2017)
✔️The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (2017)
✔️The Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice (2018)
✔️There There by Tommy Orange (2018)
✔️This Town Sleeps by Dennis E. Staples (2020)
✔️Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine (2022)
✔️Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse (2022)
✔️Bad Cree by Jessica Johns (2023)
✔️As Many Ships As Stars by Weyodi Oldbear (2024)
✔️Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange (2024)
✔️1666 by Lora Chilton (2024)
Titles I wasn't able to get to, for one reason or another, but still want to read down the line:
The Way of Thorn and Thunder: The Kynship Chronicles by Daniel Heath Justice (2011)
Love Beyond Body, Space & Time: An Indigenous LGBT Sci-Fi Anthology (2016)
Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction (2019)
Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology (2023)
Dec 5: Challenge completed!
Dec 17: Moving the list for this challenge down-thread so I can keep ongoing challenges at the top
CJ wrote: "November 2024-???: Massive Cyberpunk-Biopunk Reading ProjectReading cyberpunk, biopunk, protocyberpunk, etc. and other titles relevant or adjacent to these subgenres. Priority will be titles that..."
I'm excited to find you cyberpunk/biopunk list. I'm particularly interested in more biopunk.
I kind of have them all jumbled together as the two subgenres really overlap and some books are only a bit cyberpunk or biopunk. I'm just interested in the scope and development of these subgenres, so I am casting a wide net and reading anything that seems related in any way. Biopunk is kind of hard to pin down compared to cyberpunk, which has had its own distinct vibe and aesthetic for better or worse, while biopunk has been more about speculative ideas centered around the use of bioengineering, especially cloning.
I will definitely steal from your cyber/biopunk master list.
a.g.e. montagner wrote: "I will definitely steal from your cyber/biopunk master list."Feel free! Just keep in mind I've been casting a wide net out of interest in seeing what influenced and has been influenced by these subgenres, in addition to titles that fit more snugly into them.
Wow! Your lists look so impressive and inspiring! Looking at your, Ale's and Aga's threads, I'm so tempted now to create one of my own to help me focus on completing series.
CJ wrote: "Just keep in mind I've been casting a wide net out of interest."Makes sense. I'll just start from the basics...
I was an early convert to cyberpunk, I must have been freshly out of primary school or thereabout (and I was the only one among my friends who also read sci-fi, the others were basically epic fantasy puritans); but availability was spotty at the time, with no internet to boot and zero knowledge of English.
It will be a rekindling of my younger self!
(Cory Doctorow puts most of his work online for free and it shouldn't be hard to find, e.g. https://craphound.com)
Thank you for that link to Doctorow's books! I think it was Radicalized that I was specifically looking for and it's on there (although it's not free). I grew up with cyberpunk but didn't really read much of it at the time--I was more into older SF as a kid--and most of the cyberpunk I was exposed to was through the later films of the 1990s rather than the books that had come out in the 1980s. Then through college and the years afterward when I was doing my language studies I didn't have much time for SF. So I'm playing catch up myself.
CJ wrote: "Thank you for that link to Doctorow's books! I think it was Radicalized that I was specifically looking for and it's on there (although it's not free). I grew up with cyberpunk but didn't really ..."
there was a Doctorow Humble Bundle last year or the year before and I stocked up on a lot of them that way. I'll be reading Radicalized sometime this year
He's been on my "I need to check this out" list forever, but I wouldn't even know where to start by now. Except that it might be a good idea to clear the old guard before moving on to post-cyberpunk!
I did enjoy Big Brother. Or was it Little Brother?!?
I'm looking forward to finally getting to Neuromancer for one of the rereads in March. It's been recommended to me many times since I loved Snow Crash.
Posting this here for my own record--keeping.SFFBC's Scifi and Fantasy Combat 2025 - Team Scifi
2025 Science Fiction & Fantasy Booklovers Combat main thread
Team SciFi chat thread
Original prompts: (hidden by spoilers to reduce to space they take up in the thread since I've completed all of them)
(view spoiler)
My reads for monthly prompts are listed in next post ⬇️
con't of my SFFBC's Scifi and Fantasy Combat 2025 - Team Scifi post (above):Monthly prompts:
Previous months:
(view spoiler)
***
September Protagonist: Pollyanna
1. Optimistic: Read a book where a character presents as extremely optimistic. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
2. Hopebringer: Read a book where a character receives hope after giving up.
September Antagonist: Mad Scientist
1. Dangerous Creation: Read a book where a scientist creates something dangerous. The Strange Case of Dr. Jykell and Mr Hyde and Others Stories by Robery Louis Stevenson
2. Unintended Consequences: Read a book where a choice or action has unexpected, negative consequences.
My reads for power points and other bonus prompts are listed in next post ⬇️
con't of my SFFBC's Scifi and Fantasy Combat 2025 - Team Scifi post (above):Power Points:
💪Our Wives Under the Sea by Julie Armsfield ★★
💪Masquerade by O.O. Sangoymi ★★★1/2
💪Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao ★★★★★
💪The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes ★★
💪Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa ★★★★1/2
💪To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose ★★★
💪Annie Bot by Sierra Greer ★1/2
💪Witch King by Martha Wells ★★★★★
💪You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo ★★★1/2
💪The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan ★★★★
💪One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez ★★★
💪Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes ★★1/2
💪The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong ★★★
💪Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman ★★★
💪Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman - DNF'd at 60%
Big Dumb Object:
💪1. Big: Read a book where a character wields an oversized (for them) weapon. Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock ★★★★
💪 2. Object: Read a Book that features an object (and not people) on the cover. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata ★★★★
***
🟢 Bonus Summer Prompts! 🟢 - June 20-September 22:
Multi-Cultural Alien Planet
🟢1. Alien Planet- Read a book set on an alien planet (a planet that has or once had a non-human species living on it). Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky ★★★★★
🟢 2. Multiple Species - Read a book where 3 or more species cohabitate: The Harbors of the Sun by Martha Wells ★★★★1/2
Intergalactic Empire
🟢1. Colonial Acquisition- Read a book where a government has acquired another political entity through force. House of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky ★★★★
🟢2. Resistance Forces- Read a book where an organized (but less powerful) force actively tries to thwart the ‘lawful’ government. Star Wars: Razor's Edge by Martha Wells ★★★★
Tech City
🟢1. Advanced Power Technology- Read a book where a non-electric technology powers a city or a large population. Reliquary (Stargate Atlantis #2) by Martha Wells ★★★★
🟢2. Cyberpunk- Read any book classified as cyberpunk: Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson ★★★
Spec Fic Short Works Challenge! - June 2025-December 2025Reading spec fic short stories and novelettes. I will try to keep up with links to GR pages as stories are added by GR librarians.
Many recent stories will come from notable spec fic publications like Uncanny, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Psychopomp, and others (I encourage other SFF readers to support these publications however they can).
Short stories (under 7500 words/40 pages):
🟣The Machine Stops, EM Forster (1909) ★★★★
🟣Zero Hour, Ray Bradbury (1947) ★★★
🟣All Cats are Grey, Andre Norton (1953) ★★★
Missing Link, Frank Herbert (1959)
🟣Calved, Sam J. Miller (2015) ★★★★
🟣A Burden Shared, Jo Walton (2017) ★★★★
🟣The Fifth Day, Tochi Onyebuchi (2019) ★★★★1/2
🟣Free Little Library, Naomi Kritzer (2020) 2021 Hugo and Locus nominee ★★★★1/2
🟣The Night Sun, Zin E. Rocklyn (2020) ★★★★★
🟣The Translator, at Low Tide by Vajra Chandrasekera (2020) ★★★★1/2
🟣To Rise, Blown Open, Jen Brown (2021) ★★★★
Dick Pig, Ian Muneshwar (2022) 2022 Nebula nominee
🟣Douen, Suzan Palumbo (2022) 2023 Nebula nominee ★★★★
🟣Miz Boudreaux’s Last Ride, Christopher Caldwell (2022) ★★★1/2
🟣How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub, P. Djèlí Clark (2023) 2024 Hugo nominee and Locus winner ★★★★★
🟣Emotional Resonance, V.M. Ayala (2025) ★★★1/2
🟣The Witch Trap, Jennifer Hudak (2024) 2025 Nebula nominee ★★★★1/2
🟣Five Views of the Planet Tartarus, Rachael K. Jones (2024) 2025 Nebula nominee ★★★1/2
🟣Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole, Isabel J. Kim (2024) 2025 Nebula and Locus winner ★★★
🟣Evan: A Remainder, Jordan Kurella (2024) 2025 Nebula nominee ★★★1/2
🟣The V*mpire, PH Lee (2024) 2025 Nebula nominee ★★★★
🟣We Will Teach You How to Read, Caroline M. Yoachim (2024) 2025 Nebula nominee ★★★★1/2
🟣Woodmask, Adrian Tchaikovsky (2024) ★★★★
🟣A Book is a Map, a Bed is a Country, Angel Leal (2024) ★★★★
🟣Three Faces of a Beheading, Arkady Martine (2025) 2025 Hugo nominee ★★
🟣10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days, Samantha Mills (2025) ★★★1/2
🟣The Breaker of Mountains and Rivers, Aliette de Bodard (2025) ★★★1/2
🟣Asymmetrical, Garth Nix (2025) ★★★
🟣You Don't Belong Where You Don't Belong, Kemi Ashing-Giwa (2025) ★★★★
🟣The Best Way to Survive a Tiger Attack, A.W. Prihandita (2025) ★★★★1/2
🟣Missing Helen, Tia Tashiro (2025) ★★★1/2
🟣Proxima One, Caryanna Reuven (2025) ★★★★
🟣Marginalia, Mary Robinette Kowal (2025) 2025 Hugo nominee ★★★1/2
🟣The Heart of the Reproach, Adrian Tchaikovsky (2025) ★★★
Novelettes (7500-20,000 word/40-100 pages):
...And Then There Were None, Eric Frank Russell (1951)
🟣Away With the Wolves, Sarah Gailey (2018) 2020 Hugo Nominee ★★★1/2
🟣A Dream of Electric Mothers, Wole Talabi (2022) 2023 Hugo nominee ★★★★
🟣If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You, John Chu (2022) 2023 Hugo Nominee. 2023 Nebula winner ★★★1/2
🟣I am AI, Ai Jiang (2023) 2024 Nebula and Hugo nominee ★★★
🟣The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video, Thomas Ha (2024) 2025 Nebula nominee ★★★★★
Katya Vasilievna and the Second Drowning of Baba Rechka, Christine Hanolsy (2024) 2025 Nebula nominee
Another Girl Under the Iron Bell, Angela Liu (2024) 2025 Nebula nominee
🟣What Any Dead Thing Wants, Aimee Ogden (2024) 2025 Nebula nominee ★★1/2
🟣Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being, A.W. Prihandita (2024) 2025 Nebula winner ★★★★1/2
🟣Joanna’s Bodies, Eugenia Triantafyllou (2024) 2025 Nebula nominee ★★★1/2
🟣Loneliness Universe, Eugenia Triantafyllou (2024) 2025 Nebula nominee ★★★★
The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea, Naomi Kritzer (2024) 2025 Hugo nominee
🟣Signs of Life, Sarah Pinsker (2024) 2025 Hugo nominee ★★★
🟣The Diner at the Intersection of Duty and Despair, John Chu (2025) ★★★1/2
🟣Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy, Martha Wells (2025) ★★★★★
Oh... maybe I have too few challenges too and need to stir things up?..
I have been told by a number of people that I would like Alien Clay.
Tchaikovsky has been hit or miss for me so far, but I'm really enjoying Alien Clay. I'm convinced he drew from Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn's The Gulag Archipelago, just with a SF setting. The alien biology is very intriguing in the context of the novel's philosophical and political themes.
Olga wrote: "Oh... maybe I have too few challenges too and need to stir things up?.."Oh no, I hope I'm not being a bad influence!
CJ wrote: "Oh no, I hope I'm not being a bad influence!"More books can never be bad )))
What book is next on your list (if you don't mind company)?
CJ wrote: "Tchaikovsky has been hit or miss for me so far, but I'm really enjoying Alien Clay. I'm convinced he drew from Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn's The Gulag Archipelago, just with a SF setting. T..."I had planned to read The Gulag Archipelago many years ago after reading and "enjoying" Cancer Ward. Interesting that Alien Clay could be considered somewhat derivative.
Olga wrote: "CJ wrote: "Oh no, I hope I'm not being a bad influence!"More books can never be bad )))
What book is next on your list (if you don't mind company)?"
After Alien Clay, I'll be reading Time's Agent, since I already have it checked out from the library. Might double up and read The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain concurrently, because I own the ebook and meant to read it last year.
I'm going to have to buy Triangulum and City of Dancing Gargoyles at the start of the month when I have money.
Cheryl L wrote: "I had planned to read The Gulag Archipelago many years ago after reading and "enjoying" Cancer Ward. ."Cancer Ward. Oof. Any Solzhenitsyn is heavy reading.
I bought Archipelago more than a year ago, but somehow just can’t find the strength to open it. It terrifies me, even though I understand that it’s a must read in this damned country.
I read the first volume almost 30 years ago. Never got to the rest of it. I read Cancer Ward and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich around the same time, as well as his Nobel lecture. He was living here in the US at the time, and my thesis director, who was a Russian-American Orthodox priest, was personal friends with one of his translators. I have all those books packed up in storage now (where I live I don't have a lot of space for physical books). I haven't had a lot of interest in revisiting that kind of literature since I left grad school (I studied philosophy and theology). I read mostly for pleasure these days. I feel I've earned it, lol.
CJ wrote: "After Alien Clay, I'll be reading Time's Agent, since I already have it checked out from the library. "Oh, it has a time device on the cover! I've been looking for one of those. And blurb sounds interesting. I can buy a Kindle version on Amazon, so will put it as next up after I finish Steerswoman.
Olga wrote: "Oh, it has a time device on the cover! I've been looking for one of those. And blurb sounds interesting. I can buy a Kindle version on Amazon, so will put it as next up after I finish Steerswoman"Excellent!
(reminds me that I need to read The Steerwoman myself)
I'm reading the second book now and it's ... unusual ))
Had to take a short break from my reading rotation to rest after my health and energy levels took a big dip recently. Will be getting back into my groove today hopefully by finishing up some of my current reads (not Anna Karenina which is a year-long slow read with a Reddit group--if anyone is interested in that, it's r/yearwithannakarenina and it's not too late to join, as the chapters are very short).After I finish the Philip K Dick nominees, I may read the past winners of the Ursula K Le Guin Prize, if I can access them. This is a new award that's only on its 4th year so the list is short.
2022 - ✔️The House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber ★★★★
2023 - ✔️Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell ★★★★
2024 - It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne de Marcken
2025 - TBA
2025 Shortlist -- announced June 18:
✔️Rakesfall, Vajra Chandrasekera ★★★★
✔️Archangels of Funk, Andrea Hairston ★★★★
Blackheart Man, Nalo Hopkinson
The Sapling Cage, Margaret Killjoy
✔️The West Passage, Jared Pechaček - DNF
✔️Remember You Will Die, Eden Robins - DNF
✔️The City in Glass, Nghi Vo ★★★
✔️North Continent Ribbon, Ursula Whitcher ★★1/2
June 21: Now that one of my libraries has acquired The Sapling Cage (finally), I have access to all the titles above.
Winner will be announced October 21st (Le Guin's birthday) so I think I have plenty of time to read this year's shortlist.
CJ wrote: "Had to take a short break from my reading rotation to rest after my health and energy levels took a big dip recently. Will be getting back into my groove today hopefully by finishing up some of my ..."I had looked into the UKLG Award last year and also considered trying some of the books nominated. I'm not sure I'll get to any soon with my overly ambitious book series reading schedule.
CJ wrote: "Had to take a short break from my reading rotation to rest after my health and energy levels took a big dip recently. Will be getting back into my groove today hopefully by finishing up some of my ..."I'm glad your feeling well enough to read again, CJ!
I read Aboreality a while back and really enjoyed it - as a bonus, it's very short. :-)
Thanks! Yes, all of the winners so far are <300 pages.Cheryl L wrote: "I had looked into the UKLG Award last year and also considered trying some of the books nominated. I'm not sure I'll get to any soon with my overly ambitious book series reading schedule."
I felt similarity looking through the past years' short lists. Last years' I had read a couple (The Saint of Bright Doors, which I loved, and Orbital, which I hated) already but I just don't think I have to time to go back and read all those. I am intrigued at the many titles on the short lists that I haven't heard about though, so it may be something I'll go back to when I need a new challenge.
CJ wrote: "Thanks! Yes, all of the winners so far are <300 pages.Cheryl L wrote: "I had looked into the UKLG Award last year and also considered trying some of the books nominated. I'm not sure I'll get to ..."
I do want to read the Saint of Bright Doors because of its intriguing premise.
I'm happy to hear that you feel better. Hope it continues that way. I finished Time's Agent and curious to know your thoughts on it.
CJ wrote: "Olga wrote: "Oh, it has a time device on the cover! I've been looking for one of those. And blurb sounds interesting. I can buy a Kindle version on Amazon, so will put it as next up after I finish ..."Me too (re: continuing Steerswoman).
I’m glad you are feeling better and getting back into the groove.
Olga wrote: "I'm happy to hear that you feel better. Hope it continues that way. I finished Time's Agent and curious to know your thoughts on it."
I'm trying to finish it--it was promising and intriguing at the start, but then there were some narrative issues that made me go, "What?" I'm not quite done as I had to go back and reread a few chapters to make sure I was understanding it, but at this point I'm thinking that it's a debut novel that maybe needed a few more drafts and edits. The SF premise of it is really good though, I can see why it was nominated for the PKD award, but so far I don't think the author was able to deliver on her own good ideas.
Also I've been somewhat focused on the Raskura series by Martha Wells, since I'm still feeling a bit low and I'm enjoying the series so it's easier for me to focus on than a book with narrative issues. I liked the first of this series, loved the second, and so far the third is hitting so close to my heart it hurts. The MC is like "I just want to leave already, being alone is better than this shit" and I'm like "Relatable!"
Yes, I also had a feeling that the story was a bit confused about what it wanted to do at some places, but for a debut I think it was not so bad. I felt there could be more told about the Taino. It seems very much similar to Masquerade in this regard - a missed opportunity to show the culture that the world at large knows little about.
This past week hasn't been great for reading but I'll still here! February was a bumpy month for me, health-wise, but I got some good news from my oncologist re: my cancer treatment (it's working) that has helped me be a bit more optimistic. But I did cut back on my challenges (I removed the indie spotlight challenge) as I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I'll be reading City of the Dancing Gargoyles and Triangulum in March and that'll finish up the PDK Award shortlist. I don't have access to one of the SFFBC BotM books for March so I'll just be reading the Vampire Accountant one. I don't know what I'll read for the March combat prompts but I do know virtually any of the Drizzt books probably will fit some of them, as Drizzt is often helped out by other characters. I'm on book 10.
I also plan to get back to my cyberpunk project in March--I've had physical copies of Virtual Girl and Software sitting by my bed all month and I hate that I didn't get to either of them. I just got bogged down with a few unappealing reads this months so I didn't get through as many books as I hoped.
The 2025 Nebula nominees have been announced! Let's see how many I can read before June!Nebula Award for Novel
Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory,Yaroslav Barsukov (Caezik SF & Fantasy)
🪐Rakesfall, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom) ★★★★
🪐Asunder, Kerstin Hall (Tordotcom) ★★ - DNF
🪐A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher (Tor; Titan UK) ★★★
🪐The Book of Love, Kelly Link (Random House; Ad Astra UK) ★★ - DNF
🏆 -🪐Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell (DAW; Arcadia UK) ★★ - DNF
Nebula Award for Novella
🪐The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed (Tordotcom) ★★★★
🪐The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler (Tordotcom) ★★★★★
🪐Lost Ark Dreaming, Suyi Davies Okungbowa (Tordotcom) ★★★★1/2
🪐Countess, Suzan Palumbo (ECW) ★★★★★
🪐The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain, Sofia Samatar (Tordotcom) ★★★★★
🏆 -🪐The Dragonfly Gambit, A.D. Sui (Neon Hemlock) ★★★
Nebula Award for Novelette
🪐The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video, Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 5/24) ★★★★★
Katya Vasilievna and the Second Drowning of Baba Rechka, Christine Hanolsy (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 4/18/24)
Another Girl Under the Iron Bell, Angela Liu (Uncanny 9-10/24)
🪐What Any Dead Thing Wants, Aimee Ogden (Psychopomp 2/24) ★★1/2
🏆 -🪐Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being, A.W. Prihandita (Clarkesworld 11/24) ★★★★1/2
🪐Joanna’s Bodies, Eugenia Triantafyllou (Psychopomp 7/1/24) ★★★1/2
🪐Loneliness Universe, Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 5-6/24) ★★★★
Nebula Award for Short Story
🪐The Witch Trap, Jennifer Hudak (Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 9/24) ★★★★★
🪐Five Views of the Planet Tartarus, Rachael K. Jones (Lightspeed 1/24) ★★★
🏆 - 🪐Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole, Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld 2/24) ★★★
🪐Evan: A Remainder, Jordan Kurella (Reactor 1/31/24) ★★★1/2
🪐The V*mpire, PH Lee (Reactor 10/23/24) ★★★★
🪐We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read, Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed 5/24) ★★★★
EDIT: June 20: The winners 🏆 have been announced and that will conclude this challenge for me. The the novelettes that I did not get to are being added to my new Spec Fic Short Work challenge.
***
(Original post from Jan 28, 2025) Because I'm not already trying to do too many challenges, I want to read through the nominees for the 2025 Philip K. Dick Award before the winner is announced:
🤖City of Dancing Gargoyles by Tara Campbell ★★★★
🤖Your Utopia by Bora Chung ★★★★
🏆 - 🤖Time's Agent by Brenda Peynado ★★★
🤖The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar ★★★★★
🤖Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky ★★★★★
🤖Triangulum by Subodhana Wijeyeratne ★★★
It's quite an interesting selection. The winner will be announced on April 19, 2025.
EDIT April 20: The winner 🏆 is Time's Agent by Brenda Peynado!
I enjoyed Time's Agent, but I felt the author is a bit inexperienced and that the novel suffered a bit from uneven execution. My personal fav was Alien Clay by far.
I am not having a fun time with the Nebula novel shortlist. I DNF'd the first two I tried to read (Hall and Wiswell) and just picked up the Kingfisher one from the library, where I promptly groaned to read on the back that it is yet another "retelling" of whatever. I am not someone who's enjoyed the whole retelling trend and feel like the book market is just over-saturated with them. I know Kingfisher is sort of a leading writer in that (although she is not the original--she and others owe a huge debt to Angela Carter), so I will try to be open-minded, while I have not particularly enjoyed the Kingfisher I've read so far. But before I start A Sorceress Comes to Call, I will finish up the 2025 Philip K Dick shortlist with Triangulum by Subodhana Wijeyeratne. I have enjoyed this shortlist much more. And of course, next month I will read Lost Ark Dreaming (Nebula novella shortlist) with the group.
As for my other projects, I am taking a break from my "bookclubs" although I am eager to continue with my readings of both Wells and Russ. The one book I have read recently for my cyberpunk/biopunk project, Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace, was quite disappointing, both the novel itself and how little it contributed to the project, which is to look at the ways these two subgenres have developed over the years.
Currently reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for the SF Combat team as well as for Women's History Month.
Ironically, I'm reading precisely Angela Carter.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories (other topics)Dungeon Crawler Carl (other topics)
Piranesi (other topics)
The Outside (other topics)
Reservoir Bitches (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
T. Kingfisher (other topics)Cory Doctorow (other topics)
My current TBR post for August 2025
2025 SFFBC groups challenges:
SFFBC SciFi and Fantasy Combat - Team SciFi - My books
SFFBC Read All the Books: Books by the Dozen - My books
Personal reading challenges and projects:
Massive Cyberpunk/Biopunk Reading Project
Spec Fic Short Works Challenge
Ursula K. Le Guin Prize winners and 2025 shortlist
Personal Challenges I'm doing for the GR group Catching Up on Classics
2025 classics personal challenges (Tolstoy, Hugo, Austen, Booker Prize)
Completed challenges:
November 2024 Indigenous Writers Challenge
2025 Nebula and Philip K Dick shortlists
2025 Catching Up with Classics Bingo
January 2025-???: Martha Wells Book Club
Reading Wells' works over the year and not just Murderbot. I will be casually be following Alex Brown's Martha Wells Book Club column on Reactor.com as well as reading others of Well's work as I can fit them in.
The Element of Fire (1993)
🌸City of Bones (1995) ★★★
The Death of the Necromancer (1998)
🌸Wheel of the Infinite (2000) ★★★
🌸Reliquary (Stargate Atlantis #2) (2006) ★★★★
🌸Entanglement (Stargate Atlantis #6) (2007) ★★★★
🌸The Cloud Roads (2011) ★★★★
🌸The Serpent Sea (2012) ★★★★★
🌸The Siren Depths (2012) ★★★★★
🌸Star Wars: Razor's Edge (2013) ★★★★
🌸Emilie and the Hollow World (2013)★★★★
Emilie and the Sky World (2014)
🌸Stories of the Raskura, Volume 1 (2014) ★★★★
Stories of the Raskura, Volume 2 (2015)
🌸The Edge of Worlds (2016) ★★★★★
🌸The Harbors of the Sun (2017) ★★★★1/2
🌸Witch King (2023) ★★★★★
🌸Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy (2025) ★★★★★
Queen Demon (2025)