SciFi and Fantasy eBook Club discussion

I don't know about every one else here but most books that I've read I've read because a friend recommended it. But sometimes you are at a book store or somewhere else and you buy a book randomly and fall in love with it. I want to know who your favorite authors or books are that you discovered all by your lonesome? Mine would have to be "How to live in a science fiction universe" by Charles Yu. I was in a random book store wile visiting San Fransisco and thought the title was fun. It turned out to be one of my favorite books and authors.

I'd recommend these by M T McGuire

http://hamgee.co.uk/books/few-are-cho...

There's four in the series (which is finished so no waiting for the next book) and with the ebooks the first two are free
I actually bought the paperbacks because I loved them :-)

It's the other way around for me: I usually find my books by browsing in bookshops or on the internet. It's very rare that I read a book because someone recommended it to me.

So, Jim Butcher I discovered on Amazon. Lois McMaster Bujold I remember seeing in the library when I was a kid and not reading as I was put off by the garish cover; when I came across one of her books again, I took a look to see what I'd missed.

I picked up Revelation Space because I am a sucker for space ships and thought the cover looked cool :-p

..and loved it :-) As well as the sequels. I even had the honor, years later, of meeting the author down in Melbourne :-)

I get most of mine because they are recommended - I find book blurbs are often misleading (although I may read a bit from the middle to see if I like their style).

I'd recommend M T McGuire too!

The first books I read were mostly recommended by boyfriends - Stranger in A Strange Land among them - but it was pretty new then, and radical in its own way. Looking at it now, people seem to disparage it.

I dunno Jemima. I think it still is a pretty powerful book. Same with The Dispossessed. Part of the trouble is, these days a lot of people don't seem to want to read anything that's more than about 5 or 10 years old -- which is a shame, because there are so many works out there whose readability really doesn't fade with time!

Don't get me wrong, it's great to read new stuff, too :-) I'm reading a 4-year-old novel called Vast at the moment because it looked cool and was in a box of books my brother was given by a couple who were moving. I'd never heard of the author, but am intrigued. It's very much "hard sci-fi" though, so if that's not your thing, steer clear!

I'm glad you think that! I suppose I suffer from having read some things when they were new and people look back on them now with the advantage of thirty-forty years of space exploration, and other things in life!

Some books stand the test of time; others don't. My husband's sci-fi tastes stopped at about 1979 until I introduced him to newer stuff; he returned the favour and introduced me to Arthur C. Clarke. He was an excellent enough writer that A Fall of Moondust is still gripping - even when part of one's mind is noting that saving everyone's lives is men's work; women's work is making tea.

On the other hand, I never managed to get more than a chapter or so into Stephen Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever - the overwrought prose and the long monologue where Lord Foul (really! I kid you not!) tells the protagonist all his nefarious plans ruined it for me ("Mwahahahhaa!!!").

Jemima wrote: "I'm glad you think that! I suppose I suffer from having read some things when they were new and people look back on them now with the advantage of thirty-forty years of space exploration, and other..."

I'm in a similar position and actually I find it fascinating. Like reading The Dispossessed in the 1970s with the cold war still going on, and looking back on it now.

Theophania wrote: "On the other hand, I never managed to get more than a chapter or so into Stephen Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever - the overwrought prose and the long monologue where Lord Foul (really! I kid you not!) tells the protagonist all his nefarious plans ruined it for me ("Mwahahahhaa!!!"). ..."

If I never pick up a copy of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant ever again it will still be too soon!
To quote, probably, the late great Dorothy Parker, "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

Jim wrote: "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant ... should be thrown with great force..."

I agree - but, please, look before you throw. That much weight could do serious damage!

There seems to have been a fashion for overwrought "lyrical" prose in the 1970s. I wonder if authors intended to do some sort of homage to Thomas Malory, or similar? The whole chivalric tale thing.

It might be that Theophania, although he fails on the chivalric front.
But then there was 'the book of the new sun' which I read but couldn't claim to ever have got to grips with

There must have been something in the water at the time!

My brother-in-law loved the Thomas Covenant books. Perhaps because he read them when he was very young, and that placed sentimental value on them for him. *shrug*

I myself struggled through the first volume. Yes, it WAS a struggle, and I never managed to make myself pick up the next book, but I must admit Donaldson had some cool ideas.

By contrast, I do appreciate storytelling that simply flows so well you forget you're even reading a book. 'Love that feeling. I got that when I read The Terror.

Gaines wrote: I do appreciate storytelling that simply flows so well you forget you're even reading a book...

Me too. I read for story and character - so "lyrical prose" just sets my teeth on edge. It's like the author is waving a big flag and shouting "Hey, forget all those stupid characters and their troubles - look at ME! Aren't I clever and literarary?"

On the other end of the scale, there's The Changeover by Margaret Mahy. Published in 1984, and it's (despite being a young adult book) one of those books you return to again and again. Mahy's prose is simple and elegant, and she manages to insert enough imagery to add mystery/wonder without it being distracting and overdone. One of my all-time favourite books.

Okay, maybe I'm in the minority. I really liked the Thomas Covenant series (other than the first 100 pages of the first book which went much too slow for me). It reminded me a lot of The Lord of the Rings.

It is one of the few series that I enjoyed later books in the series. Too many time's I've read the first book of a series and really loved it, and then was disappointed with the second one. An example is Dark Eden that I found by accident. I absolutely loved the first book, but found the second one "Daughter of Eden" lukewarm.

Almost all the books I've read have NOT come from recommendations. I've been introduced to a few authors by other people (Frank Herbert, Greg Bear, Neil Stevenson, Vernor Vinge) but most of what I read I pick for myself because there are far more authors and books I've been recommended that I ended up disliking. Even my closest friends who read in the same genre as I can't accurately predict what I'll like. I would never, EVER, read a book upon the recommendation of a stranger (or even a thousand strangers). Shoot, most people like The Martian and I could tell in the first page it wasn't for me.

So, some of the ones I've found for myself were...

Carlucci 3-in-1 (The Carlucci trilogy) by Richard Paul Russo (I've read several of his other books, all pretty good)

The Petrovitch Trilogy by Simon Morden (won the Philip K. Dick award)

Grey and Yarn by Jon Armstrong (he'll be in Boston's Arisia con this year on a panel with William Gibson discussing fashion in SF)

vN by Madeline Ashby (nanotech based self-replicating humanoids trying to make good in the bad old meat-human world!).

And the Retrieval Artist series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Yeah, everyone has a unique taste :-) I agree, a lot of the time book recommendations are gestures at which I nod politely and voice a sincere thank you. While appreciative, however, I don't always follow up on them. An exception is when my brother recommends something to me; I guess we know each other's likes and dislikes pretty well, so 95% of his suggestions hit the nail on the head.

Tony Schumacher has recently written two alternate history books set in London after the Nazis win WW2.

The Darkest Hour
The British Lion: A Novel

As you'd expect, they are fairly bleak and violent - make that very - but well realised.

Can you help me find this book? I can't remember the title or author and I'm hoping someone will recognize the plot and identify it for me.

The ebook was purchased on Amazon. I believe it was a self-published book.

After reading the story of the man's education, one begins to feel nervous about the main character. As the story of his career advances, one realizes that the character is indeed a sociopath. His appointment after school is to a space station that is huge, but only occupied by two other people. One of these, he rarely sees. The other, he never sees.

In the course of the book, he inadvertently becomes what other people would call "friends" with some people on the planet and starts building a relationship with a young woman, much to his chagrin.

Of course, there is much more to the plot, but I hope this is enough to help identify it. Sci-fi featuring a sociopath in space is not your mainstream sci-fi, at least, not my reading experience.

Does this ring a bell? Can you help me find this book again?

By the way, I do recommend this book, whatever it is. :-)

Thanks!

Raggedyann wrote: "Can you help me find this book? I can't remember the title or author and I'm hoping someone will recognize the plot and identify it for me.

The ebook was purchased on Amazon. I believe it was a s..."

Could it be Empty Space by Alan Black

Yes!! Thank you!! I wish the Kindle app for iPad would let me add tags so I could find books again. Obviously, my faulty memory isn't sufficient. LOL
Thank you again!

Raggedyann wrote: "Yes!! Thank you!! I wish the Kindle app for iPad would let me add tags so I could find books again. Obviously, my faulty memory isn't sufficient. LOL
Thank you again!"


You are very welcome.