Sci-Fi Group Book Club discussion

It's that time to make suggestions for our next group reads! Unlike that of September, this is not a themed read so anything goes. All suggestions made in this topic will be listed in a poll this weekend so that we can vote on the two books for the monthly group read.

If a book has featured in a previous group read in the last 12 months, please do not suggest it for this next group read. However, please feel free to repeat any earlier unsuccessful suggestions you made in previous topics.

I'll nominate Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky Arkady and Strugatsky Boris. I've been meaning to read this for years.

"Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. "



The Soviet film "Stalker" was based on this book.

David wrote: "I'll nominate Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky Arkady and Strugatsky Boris. I've been meaning to read this for years.

"Red Schuhart is a stalker, one..."

Sounds interesting - and I haven't read any Russian sci-fi as yet. Did you see the film you mention, David?

Greg,
Yes, I did see the film a few years ago. It was very well done, especially the photography. It'll be interesting to see how faithful to the book it was.

I am placing into nomination Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. This is a group of short fiction pieces, with "Story of Your Life" being an noted source of an idea for the recent film "Arrival," which was one of the better sci-fi and first contact films I have ever seen. It was elegant, impressive, and at times thrilling. It appears that Chinese authors are getting more exposure in our genre lately. I felt that this collection was short enough for a decent sampling without being too lengthy.

Respectfully submitted, from The Great Lone Star State ,
Richard W. Buro

Richard wrote: "I am placing into nomination Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. This is a group of short fiction pieces, with "Story of Your Life" being an noted source of..."

Good suggestion and nice and short! Would be good to know what people think who've seen the movie and read the book.

David wrote: "I'll nominate Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky Arkady and Strugatsky Boris. I've been meaning to read this for years.

"Red Schuhart is a stalker, one..."

I'm halfway through this at the moment, so from my perspective also a good suggestion. I'd heard a lot about it too. But I've got it as an audiobook and I don't know if that was the best format. Will be keen to hear what you and others think if it gets chosen.

Richard wrote: "I am placing into nomination Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. This is a group of short fiction pieces, with "Story of Your Life" being an noted source of..."

That book's been on my TBR shelf for a year. As far as I know, I haven't read anything by Chiang yet so this might be a good place to start. Good suggestion, Richard!

I've read Stories of Your Life and Others some time ago. =) Ted Chiang is one of the few remaining sci-fi authors who knows how to balance the scientific speculation and characterization! A lot of science fiction today (for example most if not all of last year's Nebula short story nominees) focus on characterization, introspection, emotional fillers and tend to forget that science fiction is supposed to be a literature of ideas and speculation.

I would say that the movie "Arrival" and the short story "Story of Your Life" complement each other, although if you are a science buff like me, then go for the short story since its presentation of Fermat's Principle of Least Time and the alien's similar conceptions of time is mind-blowing and I felt that this was kind of left out in the movie! =)

By the way, I'm back guys! Hi again to everyone, special mention to the "regulars" Greg, Damon, Donna Rae, Mel and Richard! Did you miss me??? Hahaha. Anyway, I would like to nominate for this month's reading Neal Stephenson's latest novel The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. published last June this year and written together with Nicole Galland. I can't find a copy of the book in the Philippines but good thing I found one when I went to Singapore for a conference! You guys know I'm a huge Stephenson fan! In fact, I can remember that the first time I joined here last year, I nominated his "Seveneves". =)

Marvin wrote: "By the way, I'm back guys! Hi again to everyone, special mention to the "regulars" Greg, Damon, Donna Rae, Mel and Richard! Did you miss me??? Hahaha. Anyway, I would like to nominate for this mont..."

Welcome back, Marvin! I did wonder where you had gone to - apart from the conference in Singapore, were you away on vacation to some distant land (planet? dimension? :O)?

As a Stephenson fan, you missed the Snow Crash group read last month - although you've probably read this book already. I only finished it a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it.

There's no harm in nominating another Stephenson book!

JuniperGreen wrote: "Marvin wrote: "By the way, I'm back guys! Hi again to everyone, special mention to the "regulars" Greg, Damon, Donna Rae, Mel and Richard! Did you miss me??? Hahaha. Anyway, I would like to nominat..."

Child of Fortune looks interesting, Juniper! And I haven't read any Spinrad either so this looks like a good place to start.

Greg wrote: "Marvin wrote: "By the way, I'm back guys! Hi again to everyone, special mention to the "regulars" Greg, Damon, Donna Rae, Mel and Richard! Did you miss me??? Hahaha. Anyway, I would like to nominat..."

I was consumed by the fantasy genre. :) Was able to finish the first 5 "Mistborn" novels and the first 4 "Wheel of Time" series since I was reading it with my girlfriend. It is still ongoing but I thought I could do a parallel reading each month between fantasy and scifi. And I do miss the latter! Was only able to read scifi short stories in between my foray into fantasy so I want to get back to longer scifi works!

Marvin wrote: "Greg wrote: "Marvin wrote: "By the way, I'm back guys! Hi again to everyone, special mention to the "regulars" Greg, Damon, Donna Rae, Mel and Richard! Did you miss me??? Hahaha. Anyway, I would li..."

Wow! You've been busy! Those aren't slim books!

The poll for October's group reads can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1... and will go live at 12:01 AM (GMT) 2 October or 4:01 PM today (PDT). All the books nominated in this topic have been included but members may write in their own nominations in the poll itself.

I would like to nominate my own book if that's allowed The Alien Mind
I would also be happy to provide a digital copy to whomever would like to read it.

V.L. wrote: "I would like to nominate my own book if that's allowed The Alien Mind
I would also be happy to provide a digital copy to whomever would like to read it."

Hi Virginia - welcome to the group! There's no problem in authors nominating their own books for group reads.

I've set up the discussion topics for the two books that received the most votes in the poll for October's group reads.

The selected books are The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., which got the same number of votes as Roadside Picnic. The discussion topics for both books can be found here and here, respectively.

Since I'm only a quarter of the way through Perdido Street Station, I might not get the chance to read either of these books this month but I'll be following the discussions all the same.