Meg’s Comments (group member since Jan 02, 2009)

Meg’s comments from the And Now For Something Completely Different group.

Self promotion is not allowed on this group. Your post will be deleted. Do not come back to this group.

I thought the group should have a thread in which they can recommend AGAINST a book if they thought it was really bad!

After all, not all books are good. So if you've got books that you think deserve a big ol' READER BEWARE, feel free to post about them here!

Since the group's been quiet for a while, I thought I'd ask what books you all have in your To Be Read pile (or what books you're looking forward to read if you don't have a TBR pile).

Right now I'm working on my own pile. I just finished The Broken Kingdoms by NK Jemisin, and I'm currently a quarter of the way through Warbird by Karin Lowachee and I've still got a lot of stuff I bought during my last used book binge to get through.

I'm enjoying Warbird a lot, but it almost made me miss my stop on the subway I got so engrossed in it! If I hadn't accidentally looked up after turning a page, I would've had to walk a long way home.

I think next to read will be A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin or the last of Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood books, Imago (I read the first two earlier this year).

After that it's a hard call. So, in no particular order, the rest of my TBR pile:

The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
Coyote Dreams (Walker Papers Book 3) by C.E. Murphy
Darkness Calls by Marjorie M. Liu
Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey
Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente
Dhalgren by Samuel Delany

And that's just the top of the pile! So what does everyone else have waiting in the wings to be read?

Sorry this group has been silent for a while, 2010 has been a bumpy, busy year for me. Hopefully 2011 will go a little smoother. Since the year's almost over, I thought we might talk about the best books we read this year that fit under the category of "Something Different" in SF/F.

Oh, and the books don't have to be published this year, just read this year.

I personally discovered some great new authors.

This year I really loved Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, for instance. Both were excellent speculative books.

Who Fears Death is set in post-apocalyptic future Africa and follows the journey of an outcast young woman fulfilling her destiny to change the world. This book has generated some controversy for it's depiction of the practice of Female Genital Mutilation and for other things, and it is not an easy or light read. It's definitely something that requires a reader to be ready to engage in some serious and troubling thoughts as well as someone willing to cast aside notions of "should be" and deal with the book on its own terms.

Jemisin's first book The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is wonderful. It's got touches of classic fantasy while escaping the tropes of what's become rather common and boring Eurofantasy that dominates the shelves. It's engaging and thrilling and exciting and I loved the hell out of it.

And I can't say enough about the addictive powers of Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra series. I gobbled up the latest volumes of it as quickly as I could.

I think a lot of folks would enjoy Cherie Priest's Boneshaker for steampunk goodness. And if you're into historical fantasy, I'd definitely recommend The Patriot Witch. It's a very authentic and well written historical fantasy set during the American Revolution. It got me through a long and epic road trip.

So what else have folks been reading and loving that's completely different?

What new authors/new books is everyone reading. I know we're a small groups that is inactive, but I'd like to get us going again.

I just finished "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" by NK Jemisin and it's fantastic. Completely new author, this is her debut novel and it really is worth a read.

So any other new/different things people have found out there?

Hey everyone, feel free to add any books by authors who fit the community rules on the bookshelf, I'd love it if we had a large selection of our favorite under-appreciated or brand new authors and books there. Plus, having a large bookshelf is a good way to pimp the books we love!

Ooh, thanks for the link. I hadn't heard of that site before. Does it generally work well for you (I'm just wondering, I know it's a bit OT), have you had any problems with it?

Hey, did you know that Jay Lake has a new one that just came out? It's called Green. I'm going to get it next time I make a trip to the bookstore. I really adore his works, too. It's a shame what's going on in his life though, I hope he recovers soon!

My apologies for not making this clear in the first place, but self promotion of any kind is NOT acceptable in this community.

While I applaud anyone's efforts to write and get published there are plenty of other avenues for advertising their works. This place is NOT one of them. Anyone who posts self-promotion for their own novels, short story collections, website, or other thing - especially when they have not participated in the community - will be summarily banned and have their messages deleted.

We are here to discuss other people's works, not our own.

Thanks,
Meg
THE MODERATOR

What trends in SF/F, especially debut SF/F do you really like or really hate?

What things do you wish that authors would do more or quit doing?

And which authors would you really love to see make it big and become popular?

Alternately, which authors would you love to see put down their pens?

You're the same as me then. Scalzi's prose is not poetic or anything spectacular, but it doesn't distract and isn't awkward. It's lean and functional most times. The first person narration in The Last Colony is fairly enjoyable.

The story and the characters are compelling, most of all.

Again, my fiancee is the bigger fan, but I like him to. It's worth checking out.

Prose-wise, Elizabeth Bear is elegant (if sometimes too elegant) and complex. But her stories can sometimes leave the reader baffled, and they're not very accessible, because they require a lot of brainpower. Try "Dust" by her, it's SFnal and a relatively easier read than, say, "Blood and Iron" - which I think is actually so esoteric in place as to be absurd on the author's part for having written it!

Hey, I'm Meg. I started the group because I wanted to talk about new authors and authors who hadn't gotten really popular yet.

Right now, some of my favorites are people like Elizabeth Bear and C.E. Murphy, because I'm on a fantasy kick. I also really adore Jay Lake. But as SF goes, I really like John Scalzi (my fiancee adores him even more).

Hey there K8e. I guess we're the only ones here right now, but I hope others will join. And good authors, btw! I think Dick and Gibson particularly don't get nearly enough appreciation in the SF/F world, what do you think?

This is the thread for introducing yourself. Feel free to mention your favorite obscure, undiscovered SF/F work or author as well!