SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
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2024 Bookshelf Rereads
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January 15th
The Lathe of Heaven >> First impressions | Final thoughts & Series (First has some spoilers)
Jade City >> First impressions | Final thoughts & Series
February 15th
The Word for World is Forest >> First impressions | Final thoughts & More & Series
The Obelisk Gate >> First impressions | Final thoughts & Series
March 15th
The Left Hand of Darkness >> First impressions | Final thoughts & More & Series
Piranesi >> First impressions | Final thoughts
April 15th
Dune >> First impressions | Final thoughts & More
The Dispossessed >> First impressions | Final thoughts & More & Series
May 15th
A Scanner Darkly >> First impressions | Final thoughts & More
The Steerswoman >> First impressions | Final thoughts & Q&A & Series
June 15th
Parable of the Sower >> First impressions | Final thoughts & Series
Babel-17 >> First impressions | Final thoughts
July 15th
Infernal Devices >> First impressions | Final thoughts & More
The Raven Tower >> First impressions | Final thoughts
August 15th
Frankenstein >> First impressions | Final thoughts & More
Ancillary Sword >> First impressions | Final thoughts & Series
September 15th
His Majesty's Dragon >> First impressions | Final thoughts & More
Ancillary Mercy >> First impressions | Final thoughts & Series
October 15th
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep >> First impressions | Final thoughts & More
Alphabet of Thorn >> First impressions | Final thoughts & More
November 15th
The Tombs of Atuan >> First impressions | Final thoughts & More & Series
The Lies of Locke Lamora >> First impressions | Final thoughts & More
December 15th
A Natural History of Dragons >> First impressions | Final thoughts
A Memory Called Empire >> First impressions | Final thoughts & Series
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Live results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Voting ends: November 25th
Voting is open for January-March 2024 rereads!
Links to all books on the form (continues in next message):
(view spoiler)
This list is so stacked! Shoutout to The Black Company, Neuromancer, and Warbreaker! Some of my favorites of all time!
Yes, lots of good stuff!I voted for some that I own and others I want to read that I can get from my library.
I’ve voted for so many books, some of them just have to get through.
Did my good omens obsessed self vote for everything Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett wrote? Mayhaps.
I'm feeling in a mean mood - I voted for the Dr Who one
I feel like I always vote for a lot of books and they rarely get chosen. Basically, I only vote for books I already own, but I’ve been known to add my vote for books others have a burning desire to see get in.
I tend to do a mix of voting for books I'd like to read, authors I want to try that I haven't read before, and books with interesting sounding titles - not very logical, I know. I am also happy to add in votes for books that others really want to read.
DivaDiane wrote: "I feel like I always vote for a lot of books and they rarely get chosen. Basically, I only vote for books I already own, but I’ve been known to add my vote for books others have a burning desire to..."Which book did you pick this time, Diane? I can switch my vote to your pick.
Wow, I'd like to read all the current top six... Nevertheless I'm campaigning for The Obelisk Gate, which is the second book in the Broken Earth trilogy, for anybody who's planning to (re)read The Fifth Season next month.
Besides, The Dispossessed would be an interesting read following The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.
Michelle, I voted for a lot of books! What books did you vote for? Here’s my list:* Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip
* The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey
* The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
* Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer
* The City & the City by China Miéville
* Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams (I think this actually got in fairly recently, but I didn’t manage to read it. Oops)
* Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman
* The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
* The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
* The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
* The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
* The Once and Future King by T.H. White (The last time this was up - fairly recently - I only read the first part, so I need the push to finish it)
* Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (I’ve read this before, but I recently acquired the whole trilogy and would like to finish it)
* The Outside by Ada Hoffmann
* The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson (This might be highest of my priorities. I started it a few years ago, but got distracted, but I do want to finish it)
* Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
Diane, I also voted for Alphabet of Thorn and The City & the City on my original list! I added a few more of yours to my vote. :-)Two I would really like to read are Dawn by Octavia Butler and The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin. I have read a lot by both authors, but not either of these.
a.g.e. - I voted for The Obelisk Gate, too!
... and I routinely vote for Butler and Le Guin!(along with Delany, Dick, Leckie...)
Kaia and Michelle, I added those books to my votes. I’ve read both of Kaia’s (but I could reread them!) but not Blood Song.
I already voted for Word for World is Forest, but I added Dawn and Blood Song since I have not read them .... and Dr. Who & the Terraphiles which I read this year but I think everyone should have the chance to, um, encounter.
I voted for 6 books. In case The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack makes the cut, I'll be lurking in the discussion threads - I loved that book.💙
I keep checking the list for updates like everyday, yet the vote is open for literally another month...
Mod
Again, my whimsical clicks seem to be skewing the results way too much. Get in there and vote and diffuse my influence, pleeze. :D
I voted for it! I listened to one of Doctorow's non-fiction books very recently (finished it less than a week ago) and was curious what his fiction might be like.
Beth wrote: "I voted for it in my whimsical picks! I listened to one of Doctorow's non-fiction books very recently (finished it less than a week ago) and was curious what his fiction might be like."they're good and funny on top of that
Meredith, I always vote for that one! I’ve read several Doctorow short stories, and I’ve always wanted to read one of his novels.Michelle and Nicky, I realized I missed yours when I was adding more to my list last time, so so I also added Blood Song and The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack (which coincidentally also meet my criteria for selecting books I don’t know but that have interesting titles :-)
Kaia wrote: "Michelle and Nicky, I realized I missed yours when I was adding more to my list last time, so so I also added Blood Song and The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack (which coincidentally also meet my criteria for selecting books I don’t know but that have interesting titles :-)"Good for you! :D Spring-Heeled Jack is a crazy and hilarious book, I hope you'll enjoy it.
Meredith, I'll add it. Whimsical is always welcomed!
If The Obelisk Gate makes it to the rereads, we'll (most likely) have a discussion of the whole series in VBC in January (or February).Just sayin'...
... and I'd rather conclude one afrofuturist series before starting another, like Butler's Xenogenesis series. On the other hand, we might get Babel-17 into the list? It's stand-alone and quite short.
It seems Gardens of the Moon is not doing as well as last time. I keep wanting to give Malazan a shot, but I'm soooo intimidated.There are still some really interesting selections in the lead - particularly Perdido Street Station, Dawn and Frankenstein - all on my shortlist to read for the first time.
Aga (or anybody else who is familiar with it), what about the Green Bone saga? Jade City is the only title in the current top six that's a complete blank to me and not on my to-read list.Usually I'm cautious about embarking on sagas and trilogies, unless I have a real interest in the author.
a.g.e. montagner wrote: "Aga (or anybody else who is familiar with it), what about the Green Bone saga? Jade City is the only title in the current top six that's a complete blank to me and not on my to-read list.Usually I..."
a.g.e., I loved, loved, loved the Green Bone saga. It was the rare trilogy where I actually like the second and third books better than the first. Jade City is a little slow to get going. I love books with a lot of character development, and you really get invested in the characters. There are also a lot of great martial arts inspired fight scenes, and I like that Fonda Lee doesn't always make choices that seem like the expected / typical ones (also, she somehow manages to make the business side of running a criminal empire interesting and exciting - though that's more of a sideline to the main plot).
You must be joking. Running a criminal empire is obviously a lot of fun, especially if martial arts are involved.
Marvel Comics has its own version of this type of setting: Madripoor. I had forgotten it also appears in the MCU. Sorry, off-topic.
a.g.e. montagner wrote: "Aga (or anybody else who is familiar with it), what about the Green Bone saga? Jade City is the only title in the current top six that's a complete blank to me and not on my to-read..."I’m thinking about reading the series since my brother recommended it to me. And I have all the books in my ebook subscription. I saw it on YouTube a couple of times recently recommended by book tubers that have similar taste in books.
I’ll probably read it anyway next year but it’s always more interesting with the group. And if the book gets to reread list, there’s always a chance we will discuss it on the VBC.
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Live results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Voting ends: November 25th / GR links to all books here
The vote is open for another three weeks? O___oI don't think I can handle all the thrills...
I was going to ask "Somebody please rescue The Obelisk Gate", but apparently somebody just did. Thanks!
Kaia & Aga, the Green Bone saga sounds very interesting! I'd join but the whole thing (including short stories) has to be on the scale of 1500 pp. and honestly I want to read everything currently at the top — runners up included.
a.g.e. montagner wrote: "Kaia & Aga, the Green Bone saga sounds very interesting! I'd join but the whole thing (including short stories) has to be on the scale of 1500 pp. and honestly I want to read everything currently at the top — runners up included"a.g.e., the novels are definitely doorstoppers. 🙂 I read the series over a couple of years (when I started, the last book wasn’t even out). I can’t imagine reading them one after the other - it would be a big time commitment.
Kaia wrote: "included" a.g.e., the novels are definitely doorstoppers. 🙂 I read the series over a couple of years (when I started, the last book wasn’t even out). I can’t imagine reading them one after the other - it would be a big time commitment"I am at the end of that very project. I liked the Jade magic/Green Bone world, but am quite ready to move onto something else
in the interest of perhaps recruiting a couple more votes for them, here are the books I picked:I, Robot (Isaac Asimov has to be one of the best sci-fi writers ever)
The Road
Snow Crash
American Gods
Dune
Piranesi
Altered Carbon (an excellent TV show!)
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
Hyperion
The Master and Margarita
Watership Down
excited to see the results :)
Tesseract wrote: "in the interest of perhaps recruiting a couple more votes for them, here are the books I picked:I, Robot (Isaac Asimov has to be one of the best sci-fi writers ever)
[book:The Road|6..."
I'll add these to my vote!
Frankenstein is high on the list too. Nice, I think about reading the book for some time. I remember reading it in translation as a teenager and would like to read the original.
Oh, more movement at the top. Including a good number of tomes. It might only be a problem for me, and mostly because I've committed to the entire Broken Earth trilogy, but I couldn't read that many thousand pages combined.
It was Neal Stephenson's birthday recently and I read about his work while going to work. The outcome is that (1) I discovered a treasure trove and (2) going to work now irrevocably reminds me of Stephenson.
Frankenstein is very Romantic and Gothic, quite bleak, and the beginning of modern science fiction. Incidentally, I think Mary Shelley also started post-apocalyptic fiction with The Last Man.
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Live results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Voting ends: November 25th / GR links to all books here
I just checked the latest results and am delighted to see 2 Ursula K Le Guin books and Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie. I just finished Ancillary Justice. Fingers crossed some of them stay up there. :-)I haven't read Dune in decades and Snow Crash is a romp.
Two Le Guin novels in the same month would be fun, but other couplings might be more practical. There are currently several books tied for the sixth slot and, as much as I want to read Leckie, I don't think the best scenario is to have the second book of the Imperial Radch in a quarter that already has the Broken Earth series AND the Green Bone series.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (other topics)Alphabet of Thorn (other topics)
The Tombs of Atuan (other topics)
The Lies of Locke Lamora (other topics)
A Natural History of Dragons (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Ann Leckie (other topics)Rivers Solomon (other topics)
G. Willow Wilson (other topics)
Miles Davis (other topics)
Haruki Murakami (other topics)
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Vote here: https://goo.gl/forms/joASo8yDfm9oGvDm2
Live results in spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
For the past few years we've gone through a process of voting for and scheduling past reads from the group bookshelf and reading them as a side group. This is intended to work in conjunction with the group Read All the Books! challenge. It is not necessary to join the challenge to participate in this process.
We'll be voting and scheduling for three months at a time. We'll be scheduling two reads per month based on member votes.
1. Voting will take place in
-> November for January-March
-> February for April-June
-> May for July-September
-> August for October-December
2. Schedule will be posted by the end of the voting month
3. Books that have been read by the group (main or reread) in the 24 months prior to the scheduled period will not be eligible, and will not be listed on the form
The only thing you'll need is a gmail login. You'll be able to change and update your votes at any point during the voting process. Books will be listed as title, author, page count.
For all books on the group shelf, see the links at the bottom of Current Events.