She-Geeks discussion

The polls are now closed and here are your reads for the month of March! We are announcing the monthly reads ahead of time so that everyone have the chance to pick up the selections they want to read and participate in our discussions which we'll start having on the 1st.

1.) The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld



The undead Emperor has ruled his mighty interstellar empire of eighty human worlds for sixteen hundred years. Because he can grant a form of eternal life, creating an elite known as the Risen, his power has been absolute. He and his sister, the Child Empress, who is eternally a little girl, are worshiped as living gods. No one can touch them.

Not until the Rix, machine-augmented humans who worship very different gods: AI compound minds of planetary extent. The Rix are cool, relentless fanatics, and their only goal is to propagate such AIs throughout the galaxy. They seek to end, by any means necessary, the Emperor's prolonged tyranny of one and supplant it with an eternal cybernetic dynasty of their own. They begin by taking the Child Empress hostage. Captain Laurent Zai of the Imperial Frigate Lynx is tasked with her rescue.

Separated by light-years, bound by an unlikely love, Zai and pacifist senator Nara Oxham must each in their own way, face the challenge of the Rix, and they each will hold the fate of the empire in their hands. The Risen Empire is the first great space opera of the twenty-first century. [Goodreads]


2.) Preacher by Garth Ennis



One of the most celebrated comics titles of the late 1990s, PREACHER is a modern American epic of life, death, love and redemption also packed with sex, booze, blood and bullets - not to mention angels, demons, God, vampires and deviants of all stripes.

At first glance, the Reverend Jesse Custer doesn't look like anyone special-just another small-town minister slowly losing his flock and his faith. But he's about to come face-to-face with proof that God does indeed exist. Merging with a bizarre spiritual force called Genesis, Jesse now possesses the power of "the Word," an ability to make people do whatever he utters. He begins a violent and riotous journey across the country in search of answers from the elusive deity. [Goodreads]


3.) Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo



Regarded by many as the finest comic series ever produced, Akira is a bold and breathtaking epic of potent narrative strength and astonishing illustrative skill. Akira is set in the post-apocalypse Neo-Tokyo of 2019, a vast metropolis built on the ashes of a Tokyo annihilated by an apocalyptic blast of unknown power that triggered World War III. The lives of two streetwise teenage friends, Tetsuo and Kaneda, change forever when dormant paranormal abilities begin to waken in Tetsuo, who becomes a target for a shadowy government operation, a group who will stop at nothing to prevent another catastrophe like that which leveled Tokyo. And at the core of their motivation is a raw, all-consuming fear: a fear of someone -- or something -- of unthinkably monstrous power known only as...Akira. And Akira is about to rise! [Goodreads]


In the meantime, we are still reading and discussing our current zombie-themed books of this month. Come join the conversation!
Victorian Undead
Warm Bodies
Highschool of the Dead

As much as I wish we were finally gonna read a Trudi Canavan book the poll website is telling me that Fangirl by Rainbow Powell won by quite a large amount.

Stefani - SpelingExpirt wrote: "As much as I wish we were finally gonna read a Trudi Canavan book the poll website is telling me that Fangirl by Rainbow Powell won by quite a large amount."

Yikes! How did I overlook that??? Fixing it now...

Stefani - SpelingExpirt wrote: "As much as I wish we were finally gonna read a Trudi Canavan book the poll website is telling me that Fangirl by Rainbow Powell won by quite a large amount."

Wait... I just read the synopsis for Fangirl and it doesn't sound like fantasy nor science fiction which is all we read in this group outside of comics and manga. The next runner-up will have to be The Risen Empire which I much rather read anyways!

Stefani - SpelingExpirt wrote: "As much as I wish we were finally gonna read a Trudi Canavan book the poll website is telling me that Fangirl by Rainbow Powell won by quite a large amount."

Damn, I thought the Canavan book won too. I'm 120 pages in. Off to order the Westerfeld....

How are you finding the Canavan book?

I'm not a fan of high fantasy, so it is taking me awhile to work through it. I'm way out of my comfort zone, and I have a feeling it is building up to something big. There is lots of world building. I don't plan to stop reading it, so that's that. I just may put it on the back burner to read the Westerfeld.

New to the group. When do you start discussing the books. April 1? Also, I dont see the fangirl one anywhere. Should I just read Risen Empire?

These are March's reads so they are already up for discussion. Risen Empire is the novel.

Amanda wrote: "New to the group. When do you start discussing the books. April 1? Also, I dont see the fangirl one anywhere. Should I just read Risen Empire?"

Hi Amanda,
I just wanted to say "welcome"!