Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Quarter of the year gone already, but still plenty of time to reach your goals.

What are you reading this month?

I'm continuing with my monster theme for the year. I've done a couple vampires, just did a green witch with a major water allergy, and next up is zombies!

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

I'm not a big zombie fan but this was in one of those book exchange boxes so couldn't resist. I've also got the movie on PVR to watch after I finish the book.

Starting The Violence of Sound, an ARC and book 2. Steampunk. Loved book 1.

WWZ was pretty good. The zombies in the movie were the first ones I'd seen that moved fast!

Hey! I'm a newbie in this group, having fun seeing what threads you have :)

I'm currently reading All the Seas of the World (my favourite author so of course I'm loving it). Hoping to get to Klara and the Sun and continue reading the Thomas Covenant books later in the month.

I remember reading WWZ years ago and finding it very different from the movie. Good book.

I found the foreword and introduction parts of Fifty Years of Dungeons & Dragons to be pretty dry, but once the essays on the history and development of D&D start, it gets a lot more interesting, although there hasn't been much that is new to me.

I'm quite enjoying Dracula Unbound, which is essentially a retelling of Stoker's novel with a science fiction background, I'm about 2/3 of the way through.

And I've read a couple more stories in The Science Fiction Anthology - The Girls from Earth by Frank Robinson, and Songs in a minor key by C.L. Moore. The former is very much a product of the 1950s, and hasn't aged well, the latter is a very short (2 pages) addition to the Northwest Smith canon. The last story written about this iconic character, I believe.

The Key-Lock Man by Louis L'Amour

Beth wrote: "...and continue reading the Thomas Covenant books later in the month."

Someone in this group just recently read through the Thomas Covenant books. I read them a while back, will be interested to see what you think of them too.

Beth wrote: "Hey! I'm a newbie in this group, having fun seeing what threads you have :)

I'm currently reading All the Seas of the World (my favourite author so of course I'm loving it). Hoping..."

Welcome, Beth!

I am kicking April off with Starship Troopers 😎

Beth wrote: "Hey! I'm a newbie in this group, having fun seeing what threads you have :)"

Hey Beth, welcome! :-)

Thank you for the lovely welcomes, everyone!

@ Andrea, I will let you know :)

Just finished the Dresden series! Whew! Battle Ground

Last Stand at Papago Wells by Louis L'Amour

Georgann wrote: "Just finished the Dresden series! Whew! Battle Ground "

The next one is coming out early in 2026: Twelve Months

I followed Bryan's good advice (in the March thread) and dnf'ed Ready Player Two. I started Ender's Shadow and I am enjoying it sofar.

Michelle wrote: "The next one is coming out early in 2026: Twelve Months"

Nice! Will be looking forward to that.

I'm on The Dark Forest, but I'm struggling to get ahead.

I have finished Dracula Unbound. This is Aldiss reimagining, rather than retelling, Stoker's Dracula - it's a big change to go from a gothic novel to a science fiction novel. Pretty good, but the ending was a bot convoluted - as can happen with stories involving time travel. It also fills the Vampire slot in my Bingo.

Michelle wrote: "Georgann wrote: "Just finished the Dresden series! Whew! Battle Ground "

The next one is coming out early in 2026: Twelve Months"

Hopefully!!!

I finished another story in The Science Fiction Anthology, this one Sentry of the Sky by Evelyn E Smith. An interesting and somewhat unpredictable story.

no sf, been reading a lot of crime fic some robert crais, two adrian mckintys and jakob arjounis, and a james ellroy.

My review of A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

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

I have started reading Touch. I quite enjoyed her first book - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and this has started well also.

Michelle wrote: "Georgann wrote: "Just finished the Dresden series! Whew! Battle Ground "

The next one is coming out early in 2026: Twelve Months"

Wow!

Tony wrote: "I have started reading Touch. I quite enjoyed her first book - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and this has started well also."

Claire North is so good!

I'm reading The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, and also Flint the King.

Another story in The Science Fiction Anthology - Meeting of the Minds by Robert Sheckley. A very good story with some Invasion of the Bodysnatchers vibes - an alien lifeform attempting to merge all life into a communal mind.

Under the Sweetwater Rim by Louis L'Amour

Another two very short stories in The Science Fiction Anthology - Junior by Robert Abernathy and Death Wish by Ned Lang. Neither was great, and Death Wish was pretty poor.

Took a trip to the library, picked up couple novels but while I was there I also wanted something fun to read, like a manga series. Since I'm sorta doing a vampire theme this year (you wouldn't know it from what I've read so far) I picked up Call of the Night, Vol. 1 by Kotoyama

Its very silly, a bit angsty but not in an annoying way. Maybe because the lead is male, not female, he's not doing the "OMG I'm not good enough for that amazing girl, I'm so unworthy" he's just like "Not sure what to do with my life and am I really attracted to this girl with fangs? How do you know if you're in love?"

Its not going to end up in my top ten manga by a longshot but its a nice break from more serious stuff and I can read one a day while still reading other stuff too.

Do 14 years olds really wander the streets at 2 in the morning hanging out with drunks? And why does the vampire wear the skimpiest outfit, it just looks so uncomfortable. Reminds me of that "near naked female orc on the cover" competition we had a while back :o)

Finished World War Z. I liked it more than I expected, seeing as I'm not a zombie fan. I liked the format, where it was snippets of people describing their experiences from all kinds of different points of view. Author must have put in a fair amount of effort to determine what reactions different cultures and peoples would have to an event like this. Secondly, it was interesting reading this after having gone through a COVID pandemic, and while of course it wasn't exactly a battle against the living dead, the beginnings of it have a lot of similarities regardless of the type of pandemic you're dealing with.

I have no idea how a movie could follow that kind of format, but since its on my PVR I'll find out this weekend.

Starting on another library book, this one a novel - Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare by Darren Shan. I have books 4-6 from one of those free book exchanges, so needed to borrow the earlier ones to read first.

Andrea wrote: "Finished World War Z. I liked it more than I expected, seeing as I'm not a zombie fan. I liked the format, where it was snippets of people describing their experiences from all kinds of different p..."

Glad you enjoyed it Andrea. I might give it a go. 😊

Sheesh! How did I miss the "near naked female orc on the cover" competition??!! ha ha! Sounds like a good one!

I gave 4 stars to A Rip Through Time , which fit our time portal Bingo slot. It was good and I look forward to reading more.

Chancy by Louis L'Amour

I finished Starship Troopers and loved it. While there was a lot of food for thought, it also had a youthful vigour to it that reminded me of the vibes in A Clockwork Orange and Forever War.

I started reading The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks and while it's a good story so far I also find the plot is progressing a bit too quickly without fleshing out events enough. Like challenges arise and immediately escalate and then get solved or end. I get the impression he might be trying to set up his main story/give back story but rushing it.

The Way of Shadows is on my potential to-read list for this year. But its low on the priority list so probably won't make it. Especially now that I've started heading to the library again and that always derails all my reading plans :)

Andrea wrote: "Finished World War Z. I liked it more than I expected, seeing as I'm not a zombie fan...

I have no idea how a movie could follow that kind of format, but since its on my PVR I'll find out this weekend."

I thought the book was great, but I don't think the movie did it justice.

A book in a similar style to World War Z is V-Wars: A Chronicle of the Vampire Wars. It's been in my TBR list for ages, and I was considering it for my Features a Vampire Bingo slot, but went with Dracula Unbound instead.

I finished another short story - Dead World by Jack Douglas. It's an enjoyable military SF story which reminded me of the Dorsai series, although it was written a decade earlier.

Another excellent short story - Cost of Living by Robert Sheckley. Written over 70 years ago, it provides a disturbingly accurate description of modern consumer culture.

I’m doing a science fiction theme in April and I just finished “songs of distant earth” and immediately started “rendezvous with Rama”. I love Arthur C Clarke. I might reread 2001 also because I’d like to read the sequels but I think I’d need a refresher to appreciate them appropriately. So maybe more of an Arthur C Clarke theme actually…

Tony wrote: "I thought the book was great, but I don't think the movie did it justice."

The movie had nothing at all to do with the book except the title :)

I finished Ender's Shadow and enjoyed it very much; actually it is very likely the best book i read sofar this year. I just started the second book in the series, Shadow of the Hegemon, hoping that i will not be disappointed - I note that its rating is quite less than that of the first book.

World War Z was great, I highly recommend the Full Cast audiobook recording if you like that kind of thing.

Oooh, World War Z would be absolutely perfect as an audio book, after all its a collection of interviews. Hearing each section in a different voice would be amazing. I've never listened to an audio book before and while I didn't think I'd want to return to this book again, this might be a fun reason to do so. It would be better than the movie, that's for sure.

Got some fun SF/F names in there like Rene Auberjonois (very distinct voice too!), Bruce Boxleitner, Nathan Fillion. Not seeing too many Asian names seeing as at lot of characters were Chinese/Japanese, that's unfortunate not to get the right accents along with it.

I read Star Trek vs. Transformers. I'm a big Star Trek fan, but not much of a Transformers fan, and I didn't really enjoy the story much, although the art was good. I always thought it was unfair that the Decepticons got to transform into the cool stuff, while the Autobots were limited to cars and trucks 😝

A Sea of Rust by C Robert Cargill. It’s a dystopian themed story about a robot. No spoilers. So far it has my interest.

Currently reading Mission of Gravity, Found a very good condition book at a used bookstore in Mass. It's been on my "classics you should read" list for a while. I'm finding it interesting. A little slow for me, but still a good read with very intriguing aliens.

I have finished another couple of short stories - Aloys by R.A. Lafferty, which I thought was pretty poor, and With These Hands by C.M. Kornbluth, which is relevant to today as it examines the controversy of AI-created art against artist-created art.

I have started reading Masks Volume 1

I finished A Drop of Corruption , book 2 of the Ana and Din mysteries. Amazing world-building in these. It filled my "published in 2025" Bingo slot, and gave me my second Bingo!