Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Our group's Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Challenges for 2017 are now available!

(For those who haven't participated before, our Group Challenges let you set a reading goal for yourself to read a certain number of books that fit the criteria of that Challenge. It's a SF&F-oriented complement to the Goodreads Annual Reading Challenge. Because each Challenge lets you set your own goal for the number of books you want to read, it's a form of self motivation, not a competition.) You can sign up for as many, or as few, as you like.


  The SF&F 2017 Reading Challenge
Set yourself a goal for reading Science Fiction and Fantasy books in 2017.

  The SF&F 2017 Discussion Challenge
Set yourself a goal for reading Science Fiction and Fantasy selected by our group for discussion in 2017. Join the conversations!

  The SF&F 2017 Explorer Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read SF&F books by authors you've never read before. Explore new worlds, find new favorites!

  The SF&F 2017 Awards Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read SF&F books which have won awards, such as the Hugo and Nebula, or any other award(s) you care to use.

  The SF&F 2017 Graphic Novel Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read SF&F Graphic Novels.

  The SF&F 2016 Short Story Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read SciFi & Fantasy short stories, novelettes & novella.

  The SF&F 2017 Historian Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read SF&F from its early days. Verne, Shelley, Wells or whoever. (Pick whatever date you want to define "early days.")


Three new Group Challenges available for the second half of 2017:

  The SF&F 2017 Geographic Setting Bingo Challenge
Set yourself a goal for reading Science Fiction and Fantasy books set in different locations. (You can pick your geographic unit, e.g. continents, regions, countries, states, provinces, cities, planets, whatever. You can add a comment to the challenge after your set your goal to explain which you are using.)

  The SF&F 2017 Author Geographic Bingo Challenge
Set yourself a goal for reading Science Fiction and Fantasy written by authors in different locations. (You can pick your geographic unit, e.g. continents, regions, countries, states, provinces, cities, planets, whatever. You can add a comment to the challenge after your set your goal to explain which you are using.)

  The SF&F 2017 Female Author Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read Science Fiction and Fantasy written by female authors.


* You can see all our past & present SF&HF Group Challenges here.

Edit: Added the 3 new challenges for 2nd half of the year

How To Set Up A Group Challenge Goal

Click on one of the Challenges listed above to get to the Challenge's page.

Then, enter the number of books you want to read for that challenge.

Finally, enter the name of a shelf on your personal bookshelf where you'll put the qualifying books. E.g., I use sff-2017-reading-challenge, sff-2017-explorer-challenge, sff-2017-discussion-challenge, and so on. (Unlike the Goodreads Reading Challenge, only books you add to the designated bookshelf will count towards your Group Challenge. (You also need to mark the book as "read" and set the "date read" of the book within the Challenge's period — any date in 2017 — for it to count toward your goal.) Using designated bookshelves for each Challenge lets you read books that don't count toward your challenge(s), maybe even something that isn't science fiction or fantasy (I've heard rumors such things exist!) If you name a shelf for your challenge that you haven't created for your bookshelves yet, the shelf will be automagically created for you.

Remember to add the bookshelf to books you want to count towards your goal. If a book counts towards more than one challenge goal, be sure to place the book on all the appropriate shelves.

I put myself down for 10 in the main group challenge. For some reason I don't understand, my entry isn't reflected in the group stats.

Edit an hour later: okay, there it is. That was weird.

Joined the reading and explorer challenges again and now added shorts and historian.

Silvana wrote: "Joined the reading and explorer challenges again and now added shorts and historian."

I wondered if anyone would go for the Historian Challenge (basically, reading really, really old sci-fi/fantasy, where you define what really old means to you.) We tried it out in 2014, and it wasn't popular, so I dropped in 2015, but decided to try reviving it this year and see if anyone was interested.

Hey, you updated your avatar for the new year!

Mike wrote: "I put myself down for 10 in the main group challenge. For some reason I don't understand, my entry isn't reflected in the group stats.

Edit an hour later: okay, there it is. That was weird."

Yeah, I've noticed before that Goodreads caches the Group Challenge display pages, and they don't update in real time. In fact, I noticed the total of books read for individuals often doesn't update for weeks unless I click into the "view books" page.

G33z3r wrote: "Silvana wrote: "Joined the reading and explorer challenges again and now added shorts and historian."

I wondered if anyone would go for the Historian Challenge (basically, reading really, really o..."

Silvana wrote: "Joined the reading and explorer challenges again and now added shorts and historian."

I added myself the historical challenge. I only set a goal of 3 but even that might be a stretch. Any good lists for these anywhere?

I did the reading challenge (60) and Explorer Challenge (15) as well. Both should be do-able.

I added myself the historical challenge. I only set a goal of 3 but even that might be a stretch. Any good lists for these anywhere?

I noticed that wikipedia has lists of books published in various decades (both SF and Fantasy), think I saw some Goodreads lists as well. I guess to figure out if something is actually worth reading though, will need to ask for suggestions here or just check out their ratings :)

Here's the wiki page for the 1940's for example - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...

I started with the Reading, Discussion & Explorer challenges.

I was on the fence about both Graphic Novel and Historian challenges -- I will hopefully read a few volumes that'd qualify for each category, but I don't know that it will be enough of a focus to merit a challenge. I may revisit later in the year. I hadn't really read any sff graphic novels (just a few of the usual suspects, Maus & Persepolis) before this group's 2014 graphic novel challenge, which prompted me to real both a number of classics (V for Vendetta, Watchmen) and some more contemporary series. At the least, I'll probably catch up on Saga sometime soon.

I plan to read some short fiction, but I didn't join that challenge b/c I find logging anything other than full anthologies or collections in Goodreads to be too annoying.

Keith wrote: "I added myself the Historical Challenge. I only set a goal of 3 but even that might be a stretch. Any good lists for these anywhere?.."

It took me a bit to remember where I originally posted this...

A very nice set of lists from SF Historian Joshua Glenn:

Scientific Romance: 50 Best SF Novels from 1864–1903 (Verne to Wells)

Radium Age Sci-Fi: 100 Best from 1904-1933 (Wells to Huxley)

75 Best Golden Age SF from 1934-1963

New Wave Scifi: 75 Best from 1964-1983

Those are some great lists!

Trying to fit in time to read, while spending time with my wife, and keeping a curious 1 1/2 year old out of trouble, while trying to get in the smidge of gaming I like to do is going to be quite the challenge. So I've picked 15 just to get read.

I have 7 queued up that I know I want to read. so that just leaves me another 8. Which shouldn't be a problem with some of the excellent recommendation you've all given me in various topics I've started.

Andrea wrote: "I added myself the historical challenge. I only set a goal of 3 but even that might be a stretch. Any good lists for these anywhere?

I noticed that wikipedia has lists of books published in variou..."

Thanks!

G33z3r wrote: "Keith wrote: "I added myself the Historical Challenge. I only set a goal of 3 but even that might be a stretch. Any good lists for these anywhere?.."

It took me a bit to remember where I originall..."

These are great!

Keith wrote: "added myself the historical challenge. I only set a goal of 3 but even that might be a stretch. Any good lists for these anywhere?."

Well I am going read three Verne novels I have from this collection: The Collected Works of Jules Verne in English: The Best of Jules Verne, including: Around the World in Eighty Days + Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the ... Moon + Five Weeks in a Balloon + many more (wow's that the longest book link ever)

G33z3r wrote: "Hey, you updated your avatar for the new year! "

yeah I am bored looking at Arya Stark. Even though it is a great (and canon) art work.

Silvana wrote: "The Collected Works of Jules Verne in English: The Best of Jules Verne, including: Around the World in Eighty Days + Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the ... Moon + Five Weeks in a Balloon + many ."

I love the ellipsis in the middle, like it couldn't remember what it was 20,000 leagues under and instead of "Sea" managed to grab "Moon" from it's muddled memory. Guess it's a story about lunar mining? ;)

I somehow didn't notice these till just recently. They have motivated me well in the past so I'm in for Explorer, Awards, and Graphic Novels. Im sure Historical would be good for my horizons but I don't think I'm up for old fashioned writing styles... Probably going to join Discussion too..

We have three new Group Challenges available for the 2nd half of 2017:
 

  The SF&F 2017 Geographic Setting Bingo Challenge
Set yourself a goal for reading Science Fiction and Fantasy books set in different locations. (You can pick your geographic unit, e.g. continents, regions, countries, states, provinces, cities, planets, whatever. You can add a comment to the challenge after your set your goal to explain which you are using.)

  The SF&F 2017 Author Geographic Bingo Challenge
Set yourself a goal for reading Science Fiction and Fantasy written by authors in different locations. (You can pick your geographic unit, e.g. continents, regions, countries, states, provinces, cities, planets, whatever. You can add a comment to the challenge after your set your goal to explain which you are using.)

Note that for both geography bingo challenges, there's no mechanism in Goodreads to make sure you have only one book for each location in the challenge; you'll have to keep track of that yourself, e.g. in your book review or status comment or a post-it™ note.

  The SF&F 2017 Female Author Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read Science Fiction and Fantasy written by female authors.


New to setting up a group challenge? Please see message 2 above for instructions on how to set it up! (Note that to count toward these three half-year challenges, the "date read" for the book must be set between July 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017.)

Oh, I thought it could be from January. That explains why my shelf stays 0 haha. I did not read the information carefully. No problem, I'll just lower my target.

Silvana wrote: "Oh, I thought it could be from January. That explains why my shelf stays 0 haha. I did not read the information carefully. No problem, I'll just lower my target."

Ha, that caught me too after some initial confusion. I've dropped my total to 3 for the Geographic Setting because I've done four already this year.

Cat just reminded me I've been remiss in reminding everyone else that our nine SF&F reading challenges are coming to their exciting conclusion. So check your progress before time runs out!

Managed to get mine done. Yay me :) Looking forward to 2018 challenges.