SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

What are your first impressions? Similarly to how I'll be approaching Grass, I knew nothing of book or author when I picked this one up. And I feel it's the best way to approach this book. No preconceptions, just dive right in.

I had seen this book on the shelf at a bookstore once. There's the level of knowledge I have going in. I try not to judge books by their covers--though, to be honest, I've never been burned by a book with an awesome cover--but this one strikes me as one I would never read were it not for this group. The birds are pretty, but it doesn't strike me as a cover that would make me even crack it open to see what it's about. But that's what this group is for, in part, exposing us to things we wouldn't read otherwise. Will be starting this one tonight.

Serendipity. I started reading the book last week. About 1/5th of the way thru.

EDIT: I finished the book, and enjoyed it pretty well. As recommended, I'm saving any further commentary for later.

No spoilers for content but I have finished reading.

(view spoiler)[ This had many things I really liked, but it was put together in a way that made it almost a chore to get through. I chose the audiobook, and although the narrator wasn't great, I was so happy to have the book force fed to me through my ears, instead of having to actually work at it. The last few hours I just sped the whole thing up at 2x to get it over with. It wasn't bad, the individual interesting pieces just didn't make a naturally flowing story. It's possible that the audiobook forced a weird pace, maybe I would've taken breaks when there was a jump, and then it maybe wouldn't have felt so all over the place. (hide spoiler)]

I'm 39 pages in. Initially thought I really would not like it. Now it's sucking me in.

J.w. wrote: "though, to be honest, I've never been burned by a book with an awesome cover"

I sure wish I could say that.

Cheryl wrote: "Ok, four of you have finished and are judging. I would be grateful if you saved those comments for the spoilers thread, coming mid-month. Sure, you didn't reveal that the butler did it, so to speak..."

I would agree, the summations do seem a bit premature.

I'm 1/3 of the way in and loving it. The section on feet at the mall and Theodolphus Rose was worth the price of admission. Not quite Douglas Adams' brilliant, but definitely just as quirky.

Everybody who has commented on your overall reaction to the book could you please edit out those comments?

I think with this particular book it would be best to talk only about the first 20-30 pages and your reactions there.

Something else in the early pages that had me thinking was how many different sources are being drawn from right at the beginning. I've been reading through a list of the top 200 science fiction books of late, and I noted numerous references, many of which I assume are quite intentional, to some of the classics. I looked and it appears the author is the editor in chief of io9, which certainly helps explain that as well. It was something else that helped draw me in despite my initial skepticism.

Also, I did finish the book tonight--a kind of one-sitting read-through.

Trike- I'm sure I will get burned at some point, but given the number of books I have read purely based on the cover, I've been surprised by how lucky I've been so far.

I was expecting something more exciting especially with the magic part but I felt let down by the beginning. I found it too caricatural, too simplistic YA especially since (view spoiler)[during their teenage years, it seems nearly everyone who has a part seem out to get them because their big goal was of course to annoy the MC and not having their own life first (hide spoiler)] .

Kim wrote: "What are your first impressions? Similarly to how I'll be approaching Grass, I knew nothing of book or author when I picked this one up. And I feel it's the best way to approach this ..."

I know nothing about this author or what I was expecting from the beginning. So far I am enjoying it. I read some of it aloud to my boyfriend he seemed to enjoy it. But it's cute so far :D I haven't got too invested in it as I'm prepping for an interview.

Sometimes if I don't investigate stories before hand I find things I wouldn't have tried. I'm doing that with this and Grass.

Thank you everyone for editing your comments.

Awesome! I was about to read this book so will be jumping in on this one :) Will probably start tomorrow.

Ilona wrote: "I was expecting something more exciting especially with the magic part but I felt let down by the beginning. I found it too caricatural, too simplistic YA especially since [spoilers removed] ."

I started wondering if this was a YA book for the first few chapters also.

I've finished 15 chapters. As has been said, feels YA in tone.

I'm about a quarter in and it's just...weird. I like weird, but it's not at all what I expected.

This book is so weird. I can't decide whether I like it or not yet. So far it's nothing like the blurb...

Is anyone else sick of the "parents are idiots" trope in YA books, in TV shows, and in movies? I'm really over it.

I'm not in love with this story so far, but I'm not hating it either. I'm about 4/5 done. I'm not really a huge YA fan because they are often stuffed with tropes and cliches.

Nicholas wrote: "Is anyone else sick of the "parents are idiots" trope in YA books, in TV shows, and in movies? I'm really over it."

As a parent of a 21 yo, yeah, I'm done w/ it, too.

This is one of only 3 books out of over 1,000 that I have abandoned. It felt like it was written for, and by, a 10 year old.

I'm still waiting on my library, and will attempt to read it.

I have to wait until the end of the month. I'm extremely curious about it.

So this took a few tries but I finally decided I liked it :)

About a third in, first impression: this is extremely YA-ish, and not in a good way

Thanks to all for taking the YA bullet instead of me. I'll not read this one.

To the readers discouraged by YA tone.

The style changes as you progressed through the book; so as the characters age, the story becomes more mature as well. I am about 80% in and the book is different now. (Don't expect Abercrombie, it's still "light", but more "adult").

I just started this this morning, so not very far in. It is written a bit younger than I expected so far, but being as I'm not someone for whom "adult = good" and "YA = bad", this doesn't much bother me.

I didn't get a YA vibe from this, and judging by how it's been shelved the majority of readers didn't either.

Leq wrote: "To the readers discouraged by YA tone.

The style changes as you progressed through the book; so as the characters age, the story becomes more mature as well. I am about 80% in and the book is diff..."

It's not the story being immature, it's like the characters never age. They are still essentially teenagers, even when they are adults. They never fully grow up. Their react and think like teens. They never fully connect with others, or learn to deal with responsibility in a way that an adult would.

I think this might be the author's problem, rather than the book's

Yefim wrote: "Leq wrote: "To the readers discouraged by YA tone.

The style changes as you progressed through the book; so as the characters age, the story becomes more mature as well. I am about 80% in and the ..."

That's discouraging. I was hoping they'd mature a bit... Oh well. I'm almost halfway through, and I still don't feel fully grounded in this story. IT's really, really weird. It's like I've just entered a party to which I've been invited, but know no one. Everyone else knows each other and they all have these inside jokes, but I just don't get them.

I just started "Book Three" this morning... and I like it, overall. I'm definitely curious to see where it goes and how things turn out.

As to the "parents are idiots" thing, it is an annoying trope, in general... but, outside of a bit of exaggeration for the sake of the story, I can sadly say I know parents almost as bad as these parents seem to be - in a broad strokes way. i.e. (view spoiler)[Listening to one sibling over another, and punishing a child based on the word of a sibling without evidence. Refusing to listen to the punished child's defense of themselves. Listening to teachers and "authority figures" over the word of the child. Not wanting their child to embarrass them in any way, and basically shutting them down because of it. So on and so forth. (hide spoiler)]

I also meant to say that I had gotten a bit of a 'Little, Big' vibe from the book - especially the way that it's just telling this sort of personal story which just happens to contain bits of magical realism. After I had that thought I saw the blurb on the front of my cover which also compared it to LB.

I'm liking this more than 'Little, Big', though, so far... I think I prefer the focus on the two (three?) main characters, and the story seems a lot less meandering than LB was. Hopefully the conclusion of this story is more satisfying.

Maybe this isn't the place to ask but I'm kind of surprised by the dismissive attitude towards YA. I've found many gems in the YA section. I don't really see a reason to just assume that if a book feels YA its bad. Or perhaps I'm missing the meaning being referenced.

J.w. wrote: "Maybe this isn't the place to ask but I'm kind of surprised by the dismissive attitude towards YA. I've found many gems in the YA section. I don't really see a reason to just assume that if a book ..."
There's some excellent YA out there for sure. It's the decidedly un-excellent YA that leans on such tropes as the "awful parent." When YA rises above these cliches, it really can do amazing things. I think I read an article somewhere that suggested YA was the only kind of literature nowadays that dealt with the really touchy political and cultural questions of our time. (I'm not sure I agree, but still)...

Little, Big was torture. And I also get tired of the YA = bad book thing. There's some amazing stuff out there.

Yefim, I was concerned about a couple of things on your review so I deleted the comment. Sorry.

And, as we all know, it's not like adult sci-fi or fantasy is chock-a-block with their own tropes. It is all completely original and never at all cliche. ^_^

I went ahead and opened up spoiler threads for both of this month's books since they've both been a bit difficult to discuss without spoilers.

I read quite often YA, there are good books there even if it is really hit-or-miss for me (and there are good books I just don't like). But the beginning of this book reminds me more the YA books I dislike.

I just completed this one and gave it a 3.5 star review. Strangely part sci-fi part fantasy, with a definite YA feel to it.
Some interesting characters.
All enjoy.

:sigh: Still waiting on my library.

Super conveniently, this one was on sale on Kindle a few weeks ago, so I already had it ready to go for the group read. I'm about one chapter in the book too, and like a couple of you, I wouldn't really have picked up this book just based on the cover alone, and I absolutely know nothing about either the book or the author.

First impression, at this point, knowing nothing else about it: if this book was any more charming, I would need to be checking my pockets to see if it was stealing something.

17% in. I haven't really read anything like this (are there other books like this?). I'm enjoying it so far.

My copy finally came in to the library. I plan to make a good dent in it tonight. It 'feels' like a reasonably quick read.

I was listening to the audiobook, decided to pull out my phone and check Twitter, and saw it just won the Nebula award.

www.locusmag.com/News/2017/05/12490/

Thanks, David.

I've really been wanting to read this one. As a bird lover, I enthusiastically approve of the title and the cover. Sadly, I've been a bit underwhelmed by the writing so far. Let's see how the rest of it is.