SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Just wanting to know what everyone is reading during the month of April.

I'm re-reading The Gunslinger and The Drawing of Three with the Dark Tower group. Other than that, I'll probably be reading Hyenas by Joe Lansdale and the Golden Age trilogy by John C. Wright.

Going to read the two monthly reads as well as the join the subversive group to read Across the Nightingale Floor. I also plan on reading The Day of the Triffids, Behemoth, The Fall, A Kingdom Besieged and The Heroes.

But things rarely turn out like I plan :P

It's not April yet, at least not here in the Heart of America! :)

But I'll be reading Stormed Fortress by Janny Wurts followed by Silverthorn by Raymond E. Feist. Then I'll switch gears to read The Mill on the Floss for a Victorian literature reading group sponsored by my local public library.

Anything else I grab will be added to my current-month book shelf.

I can't believe it will be April tomorrow.

I'll be reading Foundation for the book group. I'm continuing my reread of the Dresden book with Death Masks and Blood Rites. I'm also continuing with the Hyperion books by reading Endymion. My classic literature selection is Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Lover Mine will be a quick read between the larger books on my list.

Just finished Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. Most imaginative. Next up is The City of Glass by Clare. I like to read series books together when I can. Angel is very good and I enjoyed it as much as The City of Bones, my first read by this author. Have to get to my reading challenge books after Glass.

I suppose I should probably read Eon: Dragoneye Reborn and, if my library co-operates, I will also be reading Across the Nightingale Floor.

Other books on the list for April are:
The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan (which I already started and will probably finish tonight)
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
and
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay (This will be my first Kay book. After all the hype I hear about Kay, it better not suck.)

I'm finishing off two March books; and . My plans for April include: Pilgrim by Timothy Findley, Payment Deferred by C.S. Forester, Son of the Morning and Other Stories by Phyllis Gotlieb and a biography for another group challenge (not sure what that one will be yet)

I'm finishing up Lord of Light then working down the conveyor belt of my Queue shelf.

Immediately in line after LoL are:

For my popcorn reads, I've got the rest of Simon R Greens Secret Histories books to read.

Also have City of Golden Shadow up next, then all the BotM choices on deck.

Also, it's not April until it's April in America.

'Merica, F Yeah!

Ala wrote: "For my popcorn reads, I've got the rest of Simon R Greens Secret Histories books to read.

Also have City of Golden Shadow up next, then all the BotM choices on deck."


Re: City of Golden Shadow: Ooh, enjoy. One of my favorite series of all time. :)

I'd never heard of it until last week, then someone suggested it so I figured "what the hell" and grabbed the first book of the series.

I hope it's good

Ala wrote: "For my popcorn reads, I've got the rest of Simon R Greens Secret Histories books to read."

I gave up after the first one, because I thought it read too similiarly to Nightside. I like Nightside, but I didn't want to read another series that was essentially the same, with minor differences.

Does it vary more after the first, or is it still pretty standard Green?

I'm almost done with the second one in the series, so this is my take on it so far.

It's definitely got Green's writing style, and his tendency to reuse certain phrases("get violent suddenly and all over the place", "demons/hell lies, except when the truth hurts more", etc).

It does have a bit of a different feel from the Nightside stuff, though. A little more 'open', since it's not locked in to one location(Nightside). And there's a bit different dynamic here, since it's a family(the droods) and not a lone rogue(Taylor).

But, really, there are a lot of similarities here. more than there needs to be. Hopefully it will really differentiate itself from the Nightside series soon, though.

I have all my BOTM reads for April caught up,The Windup Girl Foundation. so now I will be re-reading Memories of Ice for the Malazan re-read and then getting started on Opening Atlantis and getting through Dust of Dreams. I picked up some classics from Baen for in-between...namely Sheepfarmer's Daughter and The Warrior's Apprentice
Also finishing up Assassin's Apprentice

Thanks, Ala. I think I'll continue to pass on it until I hear otherwise.

Gardens of the Moon, for sure (since I'm definitely not gonna finish it tonight, heh), and Eon: Dragoneye Reborn once it gets here. I also won a copy of Daughters of Rome, so I'll start that at some point, and hopefully I'll get around to starting The Hunger Games.

Maggie,

Going from the Farseer Trilogy, one of the most beloved fantasy series of all time, to the Mikes Vorkosigan Adventures, one of the most beloved sci fi series of all time... I gotta say, April is going to be a great reading month for you!

I hope so! I run out of things to read when Malazan gets too heavy...

I'm going to finish reading Dragonfly in Amber and hopefully start reading The Yiddish Policemen's Union and perhaps A Clash of Kings. I'm also hoping to get through some others like Let the Great World Spin and The Guns of August and maybe The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 if time permits. April will be fun.

I'm working on a The Great Huntre-read right now. Man I'd forgotten how wonderful this series was. Its fantastic falling in love with the characters all over again (my solution to the Aes Sedai boredom to come in later books? Skimming. Lots of skimming). Also working on The Sea Thy Mistress, which is proving slow going as I remember very little of the first book (and still don't understand why Bear released a prequel before releasing the sequel...). Also working on The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny. The Nightside books may not be Great Literature, but they're super fun.

Just read and reviewed:
Fledgling, by Octavia E. Butler - review
Zoo City, by Lauren Beukes - review
The Bone Palace, by Amanda Downum - review (this one was on the honor list for the Tiptree Award last year, and it was fantastic)

Read but did not review:


And I'm now in the middle of .

After that. . . I should probably read something by a man. So far this year my ratio is 4 male authors/25 female authors. . . it's all the binging on Heyer and Sayers that's throwing me off, but still. Might pick up one of these:

I have and just have not been able to get to The Yiddish Policemen's Union Andre...you will have to tell us what you think of it

Still reading Gardens of the Moon and A Game of Thrones. But Shadowfever just came in for me at the library, so those will have to go on hold while I read it. :)

After those, I've haven't decided. I have a huge TBR pile.

I've decided to quit reading altogether. It's pretty dumb really, so I'm going to burn all of my books.

April Fools? lol.. Lame, I know :)

For real though, I'm reading Warbreaker right now, and plan to read these during April (I'll read more than these, I just don't have any plans nailed down yet):

Silverthorn
The Ruins of Gorlan
Graceling

I'm currently reading China Miéville's King Rat, and I'd ideally like to reread A Game of Thrones before the TV series starts (and the rest of the series before ADWD is out). I'm also dying to read Catherynne M Valente's Deathless

I'm in the middle of The Birthday of the World and Other Stories, by Ursula K. LeGuin. I only recently found out about this book, and was delighted that it included stories set in the same world as The Left Hand of Darkness, as well as other interesting worlds in the same universe. I'm loving it!

I'm finishing up Foundation tonight after which will be The Windup Girl. Once that is done I will continue on through C.S. Forester's novels.

Angelmass wrote: "I'm finishing up Foundation tonight after which will be The Windup Girl. Once that is done I will continue on through C.S. Forester's novels."

How did you enjoy Foundation? I thought the series was fantastic when I read it back in my university days.

Still reading City of Golden Shadow, albeit slowly. One of those slow burn style of stories, apparently.

Also started in on The Spy Who Haunted Me (3rd in the Secret Histories books). Colleen, just to let you know, this series is set in the same London as the Nightside stuff. So there's some overlap here and there, which is kind of nice.

Tried The Windup Girl for the second time, and still having trouble getting through the first chapter... something about this book just isn't clicking with me. Might just set it aside until after I've gotten through all the other BotM selections.

Ive recently finished World War Z, which was entertaining and, on the sci-fantasy front am now reading the third book of the Codex Alera, Cursor's Fury, which is amusing brain candy and lets me rest in-between such light reads as Fielding, Adam Smith and Gibbon.

I also have Haldeman's The Forever War on my shelves, which I want to get to at some point, Martin Amis's Time's Arrow, Stephen Fry's Making History, Lev Grossman's The Magicians and Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

No idea when I might get to each.

Bill wrote: "How did you enjoy Foundation? I thought the series was fantastic when I read it back in my university days."

Foundation is actually the first Asimov book I've read. It's a really interesting premise and the scope is just amazing. It took me a bit to get used to the idea driving the story rather than a character since it spreads such a large period of time but it works! I already have the second and third books lined up to read as well.

Because the group SF read this month is Foundation, I went on an Asimov run by justing finished Foundation and Empire, then onto other classic Asimov, incluing Pebble in the Sky, which I am currenting read. Afterwards, The Stars Like Dust, Currents of Space, then The End of Enternity, alone with maybe Fatastic Voyage to wrap all the Asimov up.

Also going to read Pentecost. I won it in a giveaway and just received it. I'm not a religious person by any means but I am a fan of action-thillers so hopefully it'll be ok.

Finally getting around to reading Asimov's Foundation trilogy. On deck, "Behold the Man" by Michael Moorcock. Also have Borges Collected Fictions and Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick at the bedside from which I pick a story or two every night.

Ala - Yeah, I'd heard that Walker makes an appearance in the Secret Histories, and he mentions the Droods in passing in the last Nightside book I read, which was 'The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny'.

Angelmass wrote: "Bill wrote: "How did you enjoy Foundation? I thought the series was fantastic when I read it back in my university days."

Foundation is actually the first Asimov book I've read. It's a really in..."


I'm finally reading it as well. I feel like I'm reading a very well written, and somewhat more personalized history of an era that has not happened. I'm really enjoying it, even more than I expected I would.

I have just started A Wizard AloneA Wizard Alone the 6th book in the Young Wizard series- despite the name it is rather science fictiony- some loose concepts of physics thrown in. After that I will either read the next one, Wizard's Holiday
or Empire of Ivory if I decide I'd rather read about dragons than wizards :)

I'm planning on reading

Lord of Light
Graceling
Eon: Dragoneye Reborn
Fire
Foundation
The Windup Girl
Wolves of the Calla
The Good Earth

We'll see if I can fit them all. ;)

I just finished The English Patient and started Stories from the Plague Years, a collection of short stories by Mike Marano.

Across the Nightingale Floor, then Lord of Light. Not sure after that.

Angelmass wrote: "Bill wrote: "How did you enjoy Foundation? I thought the series was fantastic when I read it back in my university days."

Foundation is actually the first Asimov book I've read. It's a really in..."

Angelmass/ Chris - I read everything by Asimov at one time and thoroughly enjoyed every story; the Foundation series, the Robot series and the Fantastic Voyage, all great.

Finished Flyboys: A True Story of Courage. Excellent book. I have to put it in my favorites. The author did not glorify war, but made me aware of the human side of it. The thing that struck me most is his noting that war is immoral. Yeah, you can give rhetorics to make war palatable, like, don't kill the civilians, and don't torture the people who bombed and killed your families and town, but, in the end, there is no morality in war.

Listening to Ayn Rand and the World She Made. While I do not agree with some aspects of her selfish philosophy, I admire her individuality and tenaciousness in making things happen for her to create her world, which is also what her philosophy is about. Fascinating biography about a fascinating woman. I don't want to stop listening to this. I'd hate to say this, but this is also inspirational for me as a woman.

Noticed that Foundation is April's read. I'm going to participate in that one since it is on my list of must read books, which I am slowly making my way towards. Now, I have a good excuse to read it.

I just finished The Adventure of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle. (Aloha, you should take a look at that one.) Also re-read My Name Is Asher Lev and The City & The City. Plus, read Pack of Lies and enjoyed it.

Just started Halting State this morning, enjoying it so far... :)

Just received Graceling in the mail today. HOORAY! I've been waiting for this one.

Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, read Bhavad-Gita.