SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Read 26 books, one for each letter in the English alphabet (A to Z). Or stack the different modes like alphabet blocks to build your own challenge!

Novels, short fiction, graphic novels, children's books, all allowed, especially for that pesky letter X! You can only use a book once in one mode, but it's OK to use the same book in two or more modes. (Example: Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee for N in Medium, L in Author and 9 in Number.)

Sign up for the 2021 challenge here on January 1st. You have to make a dedicated shelf for the challenge. Or you can keep track in this thread and/or your personal challenge thread. You can participate in this challenge again next year, so no need to try to cram all modes into 2021 :)

EASY MODE
Letter is anywhere in the title

Examples using the group bookshelf:
A: Remnant Population
L: The Memory Police
Z: China Mountain Zhang

MEDIUM MODE
Title starts with the letter (exclude the, a, an) *

Examples using the group bookshelf:
A: Among Others
L: The Last Policeman / Unicorn / Wish
Z: Zoo City

* For Medium Mode Light, X is the eXception and can be anywhere in the title

HARD MODE
The Most Extra Challenge for those who are The Most Extra!

The same as Medium Mode, but complete the challenge in one month. Choose February to be The Absolute Most Extra!

AUTHOR MODE
Author surname starts with the letter **

Examples using the group bookshelf:
A: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
L: Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
Z: A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny

** For Author Mode Light, X is the eXception and can be anywhere in the author's name

NUMBER MODE (10 books)
Title contains numbers 0-9 (numeric or spelled out)

Examples using the group bookshelf:
1: Ready Player One
5: The Fifth Season / Fahrenheit 451
9: Ninefox Gambit

BONUS
Add all the letters from your native (Latin) alphabet, or from the alphabet of a language you're learning. Or use an entirely different alphabet!

Add titles with numbers beyond nine.

GOODREADS LISTS
Titles that begin with different letters
Books with a single letter in the title
Lists for the letter X
More letter lists
Authors starting with X (with links to other letters)
Lists for titles with numbers

SCRABBLE MODE
Read titles that have as many of the same letter as possible, and get points for each letter based on the rules of Scrabble. If you're reading books in another language, also use the points for that language.

Examples using the group bookshelf:
A (1 point): The Master and Margarita -> 5x1 = 5 points
L (1 point): The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet -> 4x1 = 4 points
Z (10 points): Fuzzy Nation -> 2x10 = 20 points

EXAMPLES


Example A: I want to do Medium mode, with the three extra letters of the Finnish alphabet, and Number mode, with one extra number.

Medium: 26 books
Bonus: 3 books
Number: 10 books
Bonus: 1 book

I'll join the challenge with 40 books. Or less, if some of the books are the same across Medium/Number.

Example B: I want to do Author mode and Scrabble mode.

Author: 26 books
Scrabble: 26 books

Option 1: I'll join the challenge with 26 books (Author) and keep track of my Scrabble points separately.

Option 2: I'll join the challenge with 52 books and keep track of my Scrabble points separately. Or less, if some of the books are the same across Author/Scrabble.

--

Scrabble Mode Spreadsheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Instructions in message #405.

I've completed Hard mode three times, so I don't think I want to go there anymore. It's doable, but not exactly fun. (It's a great time for those 30 day free trials to unlimited audiobook services!) I'm not sure what combo I want to go for, but I think I'll at least go for Medium Light and possibly Number? I'm tempted by Scrabble, but I'm not 100% sure I'll go for it yet.

I will most definitely *not* be adding letters from the Finnish alphabet, because I don't want to be desperately searching for a title that starts with Å, in addition to the near hopeless search for X.

I'll update this when I have my plans figured out :)

for Author Mode is there an X exception as well?

I've never done this in author mode myself, but it's fair to assume it might be necessary, so I say yes! Same goes for any other letter that proves to be difficult in author mode. I know personally that in title mode all other letters are completely doable, but X is super hard.

I'll add it to the text!

If anyone has more resources for titles/authors starting with a certain letter, let me know and I'll add them to the list.

This looks like such a fun challenge! I definitely might give it a try. Thank you for sharing :)

Nice one, Anna!

I just checked my kindle list of why-the-heck-did-I-buy-them-but-have-never-read-them books and I can nearly fill out all the letters. Only for 3 letters I have to resort to books I own in paper version.

Alexandra, hope to see you here in 2021! :)

Gabi, the first time I did this was for the A to Z Readathon (May 2017), which a YouTuber started to get through her stacks of owned books :) Denise is unfortunately no longer active on YouTube, but those of you who follow Rachel (Kalanadi) may have seen me reminisce about AtoZ in her AtoZ challenge videos. I don't remember how many people participated in the first round, but as far as I can tell, Rachel and I are the only ones who've continued doing this crazy month long challenge. I gave up in November 2018, I think I might have made a promise to everyone in my life I'd never do it again. Anyway, the way it was first introduced to me, it was indeed to help get through those TBR stacks, whether physical or digital. I'm not making you do it in a month, though, because I'm nice like that :D

Also, if you already have a book for X, please do share! I've only ever "cheated" with The Book of Phoenix and Vox, or read a short story starting with X. I have several books starting with X I'd be happy to read if I could get them fom the library, but none that I actually already own or have access to. That's why I'm probably going Light, I have lots of books with X somewhere in the title.

Interesting. Already getting me curious to see how well my this year's readings might've passed the Medium. And how the distribution of most common letters might look like.

Hmm... *goes to investigate*

Jemppu, Finnish books are great for K! :D

I'm gonna go catch some Zs now, so see y'all tomorrow :)

for X, since short fiction is allowed, try this Short Story In Xanadu by Lavie Tidhar. The Wall of America by Thomas M. Disch also has a short story of the same name. Unfortunately, I've already read both of them.

Hello sorry to intrude I wanted to know if I could use this challenge in my group? I think it would be lots of fun but I just wanted to ask you first.

For X I have a Manga series I intended to re-read for ages: X/1999, Volume 01: Prelude - I don't know if it is still available. I own it since ... forever ... ^^'.

Gabi wrote: "For X I have a Manga series I intended to re-read for ages: X/1999, Volume 01: Prelude - I don't know if it is still available. I own it since ... forever ... ^^'."

Hey, nice! I probably had the very same series: the German editions. Despite understanding hardly any <:D (They were pretty!) Sold them some years ago, though... I think... now I feel like I have to go check!

and an author: Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse by Xia Jia is in this short story collection: The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Two.

I'm not sure which is his/her last name

I'll participate, although I don't know what challenge level(s) I want to pick yet. For X, if you like graphic novels and don't mind reading the rest of the series first, there's always Lazarus: X+66

Kaa wrote: "I'll participate, although I don't know what challenge level(s) I want to pick yet. For X, if you like graphic novels and don't mind reading the rest of the series first, there's always [book:Lazar..."

And anything from the vast X-Men franchise :P

Anna wrote: "Jemppu, Finnish books are great for K! :D ..."

This sounds accurate. Certainly richer than the English well.

Pringle wrote: "Hello sorry to intrude I wanted to know if I could use this challenge in my group? I think it would be lots of fun but I just wanted to ask you first."

You’re welcome to join the challenge right here in SFFBC :)

CBR, I’ve also already read Xanadu. I have a couple of options, I’ll share tomorrow! 😊

What a fun challenge! (If you want even more challenges, also check out the 2021 series challenge I've just posted here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... )

For hard mode x: Xeelee is also an option for a book that starts with X (popular space opera series of novels). Maybe I'll read that since I already own it.

Now I'm off to make a an excel file with various options for books I could read. :-)

OK I have no good recs for starting with X, but here's what I still have on my shelves:


X (28 pgs, free on Kindle) - I read this for round 2 of AtoZ. I didn't like it, remember nothing, but it was free and a "perfect" X, so might be something to consider.

Still on my TBR, and SFF adjacent, in case I ever do AtoZ again:

The Xibalba Murders - Mystery, most likely to pick this because of reasonable Kindle price
Xanadu - anthology, would love to read this, can't get it
x0 - scifi, would read, but can only get as One of One
X's For Eyes - Lovecraftian, ehh
X-Isle - might read if library had it, won't pay $12 for it

These are probably all on the lists I linked to in the first post, but I'm still too traumatized to go through them.

If you're going Light, then there are tons of books with X somewhere in the title! No need to worry about that :) Easiest way to find them is to search your shelves (or the group shelf) for "x", and then sort alphabetically to see if you have any starting with X. In the most likely case you don't, you'll probably have something with an x somewhere, the group shelf does!

CBRetriever wrote: "Xia Jia"

Xia Jia is her pen name, and I'm assuming it's written last, first as per the Chinese custom, so would certainly qualify for author starting with X. She's written some excellent short fiction, so anyone who hasn't tried her stuff yet, here's a good reason to do so in 2021! :)

Do all the books have to be from the group bookshelf or is this a 'TBR clean up' type challenge?

TBR! 😊

thank you!!!!

I've stopped reading the anthology it's in and switched to another so I won't accidentally read it in 2020

I have Z covered with Zahn and Y with Yolen

I did a quick search on Storytel to see what horrendous thing I could force myself to listen to for the perfect X. Again, there are tons for X anywhere in the title, these are just some (truly horrible) options for books starting with X. They're naturally also available outside of Storytel, that's just the easiest place for me to start my search.

X-Troller (erotic scifi)
X Ways to Die (5th in a crime series)
X-15 Diary: The Story of America's First Space Ship (non-fiction)
XO (3rd in a thriller series)
Xavier Cold (2nd in a martial arts romance series)
Xeni (2nd in a contemporary romance series, the first one is called A Buff Male Nanny XD)
X Minus One Project (actual scifi!)

And of course I could finish Xu Sanguanin elämä ja verikaupat (Chronicle of a Blood Merchant), which I started in 2018 and never finished.

I think I'll go with the Finnish blood fest or the buff nanny :) In any case this means I can probably drop the "Light" from my pledge and go for Medium.

for the shelf, how are we to add the short story in an anthology? List the Anthology? That won't make it very obvious which book/author it is.

Yeah, I'd say add the GR record you'd pick if you weren't doing the challenge. Then as you list your progress here, just add an explanation if needed. For example, in author mode:

X: Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Xia Jia

Ok, I've identified both an author (I'm going with Xia Jia as well) and some books (non-SFF: A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness: Writings, 2000-2010 or X) for the letter X, so I think I'll start with medium mode for author and title.

I have an anthology with a story by Xia Jia (“Upgraded”), thanks for reminding me about her. I think I will use that in my challenge.

If anyone wants to do Author in easy/hard mode, that’s totally OK! I didn’t want to crowd the challenge with too many options.

... I didn't have any interest in Xeni just based on the blurb, but one of my GR friends gave it a gushing review and it includes some things I am very interested in that were not mentioned in the blurb, so I might give it a shot. I've liked some of the author's other books.

I didn’t read all of the blurb earlier, but I did just now and I’m def reading Xeni over Blood Merchant!

Are we allowed to change our minds part way through the year? For instance, if I finish one challenge mode faster than I expected can I start an additional challenge mode? Or do I have to stick with my initial choices?

I like this, and 26 is a nice manageable number after a year of basically no reading.

Probably just gonna do Medium Mode, I hate cheating for X but the pickings are too slim, and finding something really short feels just as much like cheating as finding something with X anywhere in the title. We'll see.

If I can get myself off to a good start I might add on the Number Mode; it only adds 10 more books.

I'll have to get started on a list though to see how practical this is. If it strays too far from what I've already decided I want to read this year than it may not work.

The rules do say:

Novels, short fiction, graphic novels, children's books, all allowed, especially for that pesky letter X!

Caillen, it's absolutely allowed to change your mind at any point! More, less, something completely different, anything goes! Someone joining in July could go for 13/26. You could start reading without planning this too much, see how many letters you get naturally, and then start looking for the missing ones toward the end of the year.

Joon, I know it does sort of feel like cheating, but having done this three times, I didn't want to inflict the perfect X on anyone! It's not worth it! The idea is to have a fun way to get books read from your TBR, and most people are going to have to go out and find an X book, so it doesn't really fit that idea. Most people will have a book with X somewhere in the title, so I feel like that's the compromise. I went with a tiny compromise 2/3 times I participated in Hard mode, and chose books that *end* in X. (See msg #8.) During the A to Z readathon it was also suggested that books starting with "ex" would count, because it sounds the same as X :) However you want to make it work!

I've picked mine except for the X book and Q & U authors but i still have to do numbers and I'm not going to include any Book X in Y Series for the numbers. So far I have 1 ,2, 3 & 6

ETA: Too bad I've already read all the Stephanie Plum books for the numbers

I also went down the rabbit hole and chose all my books for both the author version and the title version. I think I found books for all letters in both! Since I’m also doing the series completion challenge, I tried to insert as many books from series. Not doing numbers, though. That’s where I draw the line!

I picked 2-3 alternatives to most letters to accommodate my mood reading. I gave up on X. I did this challenge this year and didn't read Q, Y and Z but I'll read them in 2021 hopefully.

Wow, you're all very on top of things! I've only selected one book :D

Leticia, did you do the challenge with Rachel in November?

Leticia, I did the same for most letters. Slim pickings for SFF books for some letters though. I’m hoping that my moods don’t get in the way too much!

Anna wrote: "Wow, you're all very on top of things! I've only selected one book :D

Leticia, did you do the challenge with Rachel in November?"

No, I did an year long challenge. I did A to Z in 2019 too.

Short Fic FTW here I think haha

Leticia wrote: "No, I did an year long challenge."

Oh OK, I was thinking you're a brave one to jump into this challenge after suffering through a month of AtoZ :D

OK, any ideas for an author with U?
or
A Nine other than Ninefox Gambit?

I've managed to find all the rest for the Hard Mode for Title, Author Mode and Number Mode except those.

I did find another X, but it's a short story and not SF&F; Xingu by Edith Wharton that sounds interesting and it's free so it doesn't add monetarily to my TBR pile.

I like the 'Ex-' cheat for X. Seems a good compromise.

I've already got most of the alphabet filled out with a couple options each based just on what I'd already wanted to read this year so it should be easy enough to fill out the rest. Numbers may be tougher than I thought but we'll see.

EDIT: I mean unless I just read Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence, which would knock down half the numbers all on its own, lol.

EDIT: NVM numbers are so easy. Mostly.

This looks fun. I’m teetering on the brink of too many reading challenges. I’d like to just see how I do as I read, but I know at some point I will become fixated on completion.

I think I’ll try a medium challenge and see how the authors work out, just for fun.

CBRetriever wrote: "OK, any ideas for an author with U?
or
A Nine other than Ninefox Gambit?

I've managed to find all the rest for the Hard Mode for Title, Author Mode and Number Mode except those.

I did find anothe..."

Dunno if you're Firefly fan enough to read the novelizations they've been putting out but the second one is called "The Magnificent Nine".

And Marie Brennan has a short story collection called The Nine Lands, which is looking like my pick.


Can't help with "U" authors though. May just have to choke down a John Updike book.

I would say Ursula Le Guin or Umberto Eco but if you are looking for last names only I can’t think of one off the top of my head.