SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

It's a new decade! How are you starting it off? Please share with us your thoughts as well as the actual book--it's much friendlier when everyone talks about what they've been reading!

I just finished Luck in the Shadows which was delightful. I read that it's supposed to be sort of based on Sherlock Holmes, and I can sort of see that--it's definitely got that gothic flare.

(Also, can you guess what books are being referenced in our new SFFBC icon?)

Allison wrote: "... (Also, can you guess what books are being referenced in our new SFFBC icon?)"

Ah... There's a lot more detail to it blown up (especially the second 'f'). Is this another one of those clues?

The new logo does make me wonder about something. Why is Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America known as "SFWA" but the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club goes by "SFFBC?" Should someone talk to them about changing their branding?

I just finished the first one in the 2020 TBR challenge: All Flesh is Grass

This one was pretty good and much weirder than Pines by Blake Crouch but in the same genre.

Raucous wrote: "Allison wrote: "... (Also, can you guess what books are being referenced in our new SFFBC icon?)"

Ah... There's a lot more detail to it blown up (especially the second 'f'). Is this another one of..."

Haha! Yes, please pen that letter and share the response!

No more clues! (For now!) I have unveiled all the secrets we wish to share with you. But all of the letters in our logo now are from books we've read as a group, and we tried to use ones that are fairly unique.

The second F is from . A couple of the others look familiar...

I am STILL reading Remnant Population. Maybe one day soon I’ll finish it.

I finished:


Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames
Rating: 3 stars (rounded up from 2.5, let's say)
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


Mort by Terry Pratchett

Today I finished listening to Old Man's War by John Scalzi while hiking home from work and started listening to Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. I also have that one in print so I could switch back and forth if I wanted to, but my print book slot is already occupied by a reread of the shining :) Old Man's War was a very profound book. There's something to be said for being single. I don't think I could give my books the kind of attention I do if I were in a relationship. lol.

Taking a short break from sci-fi/fantasy before I jump in with both feet to prepare for Hugo nom process. I’m currently reading 10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World by Élif Shafak, which is amazing. Flashbacks of a woman’s life every minute for 10 minutes and 38 seconds during which her brain is shutting down after being murdered. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize. Élif was chosen by Politico as one of the twelve people “who will give you a much-needed lift of the heart.” I need to get my hands on her other books and find out who the other 11 people are. :)

Carolyn wrote: "Taking a short break from sci-fi/fantasy before I jump in with both feet to prepare for Hugo nom process. I’m currently reading 10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World by Élif Shafak..."

I read 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World on a whim last year (library Hot Reads 1-week-only shelf) & adored it!

Raucous, I’m reasonably sure that the SFWA used to be the Science Fiction Writer’s Association and that at a certain point they ruled to change the name but have the F do double duty in the acronym.

Diane wrote: "Raucous, I’m reasonably sure that the SFWA used to be the Science Fiction Writer’s Association and that at a certain point they ruled to change the name but have the F do double duty in the acronym."

Ah. I had a vague memory that the name didn't used to include "Fantasy" but that was from so long ago that I figured that I was just misremembering. Digging into their history I see that you're right. In fact for a while after the name change they used both SFFWA and SFWA before switching back to just SFWA. Now I know. Thanks!

The first 'f' in the logo is from Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh (read by the club in 2017). I don't recognize the others. Yet.

Aha, the S is from Spin, .

And the 'C' is from Six of Crows .

The 'B' is, of course, from Ninefox Gambit .

Hmm... So what does this tell us?

It tells me that I’m waaayyyyyy behind in my reading.....

Hah! Me too. I've only read one of these and it's from before I joined the group.

I own Six of Crows so that’s a start I suppose.

I started the year with finishing

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas which I loved! An all female cast in a time travel story that emphasises on the mental impact of time jumping. Really well done - but only for readers who don't need to think about technicalities and causalities all the time. A certain level of suspension of disbelief is a requisite.

Transcendent 2: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction 2016 which had a nice spectrum of sub-genres featuring transgender or two-spirit protagonists. Some great stories, some that weren't for me, but an overall positive impression so that I already bought the other two volumes (I got an amazon voucher for Xmas so I can indulge myself at the moment)

Both books work for our TBR cleanup challenge as well as for some other challenges in other groups. This year it's all about squeezing books into as many challenges as possible XD.

I love the collective geekyness that couldn’t quit until we found ALL the letters!

Melanie wrote: "I love the collective geekyness that couldn’t quit until we found ALL the letters!"

LOL! Yeah, I just saw those mentions above - great work Raucous and Meredith - I wouldn't have known where to start with looking for the letters.

hahaha! yes! well done finding all the letters ^^

I finished The City in the Middle of the Night, which reached into my soul and made me cry multiple times, and I started The Witch Boy this morning.

I've been trying to branch out more from SFF, so I've been reading some of Agatha Christie's books lately, particularly her Miss Marple books. My current one is The Thirteen Problems. I'm on the eighth short story right now and I've only correctly guessed the solution for two of the stories so far, although I think I've figured the current one out.

I'm also just finishing up The Girl in the Tower. I think I've got about an hour left to go, so I'll probably finish it up on the drive home this afternoon. So far I'm liking it more than the first one. The Bear and the Nightingale spent a lot of time setting up the characters and the world, so this second book was just able to just jump right in and bring on the plot.

And I'm still slowly making my way through Agency. It's a good book so far, I just keep getting distracted by other shiny books, so I've been reading it in little dribs and drabs.

Melanie wrote: "I love the collective geekyness that couldn’t quit until we found ALL the letters!"

I had no idea what folks were talking about until GR refreshed this morning. Yesterday the profile pic was just a blank image.

First book of 2020 was The Naked Sun by grand master Isaac Asimov! 5 stars! Celebrating today 100 years since his birth!

I have decided to work through the complete expanse series to start the year. I have read bits and pieces and planning to do them all together.

Adam wrote: "I have decided to work through the complete expanse series to start the year. I have read bits and pieces and planning to do them all together."

What a cool project! Good luck and keep us posted :)

Cool, Stratos! I didn’t realize it was his 100th birthday!

About 1/3 of the way through The Rise of Magicks. It's not bad, pretty formulaic but fun nonetheless.

Half way through the audiobook of A Natural History of Dragons and will be switching to book form since the audiobook has to be returned. This book has been on my radar for a long time but I never took the time to start. Glad I did!

I'll be starting on Lies Sleeping for my audiobook once the other returns. Can't wait, love this series! Then on to Children of Ruin and either Changeless or Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Audible is giving $20 credit if you listen to 3 Audible books by the beginning of March so I'm all in!

It's unusual for me to only be reading/listening to 2 books at a time...I feel kind of off kilter because I don't have very many characters running through my brain. Is this loneliness?? lol

I'm nearly half way thorough Blue Mars and I've just started Luck in the Shadows. I have so many books to get through this month.

I'm working my way through The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Thirteen, which is 2018 work (and if you run across a copy, I recommend it highly). In the past couple days I've read "When we were starless," by Simone Heller, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," by Zen Cho, two novelettes that I enjoyed a lot and a short story by Naomi Novik, "Blessings," which was fun but I kind of wish was longer.

I’m reading Down Among the Sticks and Bones, the second book in the Wayward Children series. Seanan McGuire is one of my all time favorite authors. These books are just marvelous! I believe the final book in the series is being released this month so I’m planning to read all of them in the next month or two.

Carolyn wrote: "I’m reading Down Among the Sticks and Bones, the second book in the Wayward Children series. Seanan McGuire is one of my all time favorite authors. These books are just marvelous! I believe the fin..."

I love this series too and I'm pretty sure there's more books coming in the series beyond the next one (though I couldn't find a specific press release about it).

Meredith wrote: "I'm working my way through The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Thirteen, which is 2018 work (and if you run across a copy, I recommend it highly). In the past co..."

I read this last year and enjoyed it as well.

Meredith, did you know that we discussed a few of these stories in the short fiction section of our group last year? Here are links to two that you mentioned:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Meredith wrote: "I'm working my way through The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Thirteen, which is 2018 work (and if you run across a copy, I recommend it highly). In the past co..."

Do you know a link to the content? I couldn't find a list of the authors/stories contained.

A Game Of Thrones

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

We do ask that people talk a little bit about the book, not just the name of the book and/or a review link. It is much more likely that people will want to engage with you, and your review, if you give them a little something to grab onto :)

Totally agree with that.

Christopher wrote: "Meredith wrote: "I'm working my way through The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Thirteen, which is 2018 work (and if you run across a copy, I recommend it highly..."

Thanks Christopher! I did look at the threads, but I should post some thoughts. I noticed several other stories from that volume were also discussed.

Gabi, I found you can see the table of contents on Amazon using the 'Look inside' option. Is that available to you?

I finished Starsight the second in a YA series by Brandon Sanderson. It is good. As usual he excels at his world building. He includes a very entertaining AI and a Doomslug which I rather liked.

My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

@Meredith: yes, I found it. Thank you very much!

@Phrynne: Doomslug FTW! (I turned into a complete Doomslug fangirl XD)

Just Finished"Ysabel" by Guy Gavriel Kay. Started this book at least 3 times, sometimes I need more BOOM! Took me a while to figure out it was a branch of "The Fionavar Tapestry" and explains some significant aspect of that story. Along with the story is lovingly detailed tour of Provence. I thought this would end up being my least favorite GGK book but as it turns out I may not have one.

Enjoyed the First DoomSlug novel but DNF'd the second installment, for now at least.

Finally finished Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon. It was a lovely story and I really enjoyed it. I get where she was coming from and why she wanted to do what she did. Gave it 4 ⭐️.

Doomslug eh? I have the first one here somewhere. I might check that out.

I just read The Wren Omnibus: The Four Wren Books. The first 3 books were a reread from my middle school years (I'd forgotten most of it so rereading was a good choice) and the 4th book wasn't published until recently. I remember feeling so distraught when I finished the 3rd book and then read on the author's website that she didn't know if the 4th would ever be published.

So, I'm glad I finally got to know how the story ended! (Even if there were some bizarre things in one of the books that I didn't at all like, overall it was still a nice trip down memory lane.)

DOOMSLUG!! I might reward myself with Starsight once I get through some of the books I really have to finish.

Don, I'm glad Ysabel salvaged itself for you! It's so great to end on a good note with an author you admire.

Glad you got to finish RemPop, and that you liked it, Jacqueline!

Aw, Stephanie, I'm glad you had a good walk through nostalgia, and some closure!

I’m doing a children’s classic monthly read along on Litsy so at the moment I’m working on finishing Emily of New Moon, by the author of Anne of Green Gables. A lot of similarities between those two girls (both plucky Canadian orphans) but I may actually prefer Emily of New Moon just a bit because of some of the other characters. Next up will be Ten Thousand Doors of January as I scramble to read as much sci-fi published in 2019 as possible so I can nominate knowledgeably for the 2020 Hugo awards.