Sci-Fi Group Book Club discussion

Sorry for being a bit behind schedule - it's time to make suggestions for our next group reads! As this will be a quarterly themed read we first need to pick our theme. Rather than set up a poll, perhaps we could pick our theme in this topic by midnight (GMT) on December 2nd before going on to suggest books for the winning theme.

Possible themes as identified last February include:

Award winners/nominees of 2017
Past award winners
Cyberpunk
Apocalyptic/Post-apocalyptic
Alternate history
Weird (cosmic) fiction
Horror in a sci-fi setting
Classic (early) sci-fi
Something seasonal?
Something else not listed above

Unless there are strong objections, I think it's reasonable to exclude the previous quarterly themes of this year but they can always be picked again during 2018. Our previous quarterly themed reads this year were:

March - Space opera
June - Comedy
September - Steampunk

As per usual, all suggestions of books made in this topic will be listed in a poll in a few days 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. You may, however, feel free to repeat any earlier unsuccessful suggestions you (or anybody else) made in previous nomination topics.

Cyberpunk!

Weird (cosmic) fiction

Weird (cosmic) fiction

Weird (cosmic) fiction

Classic!!! Just like my first car.

Hank wrote: "Classic!!! Just like my first car."

What kind of car was it, Hank?

OK, so the most votes went for weird (cosmic) fiction! So now it's time to suggest books for that theme!

(Sorry guys, what classifies as weird (cosmic) fiction?)

Greg, must this be a novel, or could it include single-author short collections?

CTHULHU Down the Chimney 2Night wrote: "Greg, must this be a novel, or could it include single-author short collections?"

Single author collections would be fine.

Chris wrote: "(Sorry guys, what classifies as weird (cosmic) fiction?)"

Here's Wikipedia's definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weird_f....

I nominate The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard

The Ballad of Black Tom is truly fantastic.

Check out "When Gods War (Roman Candle)," about two planets on a collision course. Very cosmic. Averaging 4.3 out of 5 stars.

The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard and The Ballad of Black Tom are both on my TBR shelf but I don't have a copy of either yet. Good suggestions!

Welcome to the group Howard! When Gods War (Roman Candle) wouldn't be described as 'weird' but I get the 'cosmic' angle. :)

There are so many fantastic titles and authors to choose from in this category that I'm at a loss who and what to suggest. Ideally, we should have the grandaddy himself - H.P. Lovecraft - in one of the nominations, but there are so many excellent current writers - Laird Barron, Victor LaValle, John Langan, Jeff Vandermeer - in this category, that it's difficult to choose. Another point is that some of them lean more towards horror than sci-fi, so - as this is a sci-fi reading group - I've been thinking carefully about what to nominate.

I was going to nominate Vandermeer's Borne, which I read earlier this year - loved it! However, looking around various websites, I've seen Blindsight by Peter Watts described as "something Lovecraft might have written". I've no idea if that's true, but it's piqued my interest so I'll nominate that. Incidently, Blindsight is part 1 of a 2-part series called Firefall, which can be read in the omnibus edition I've linked here.

I agree about HPL--but since I am personally obsessed with him, i thought to expand my horizons. I read daily either an HPL tale or a Mythos short story.

I'm not going to nominate anything. There are so many nice choices already.

Do China Miéville books fall into that category?

I would definitely think so.

Tara wrote: "Do China Miéville books fall into that category?"

I would think so too. Perdido Street Station was one of our September group reads so it is ineligible for this month's group reads. We also read his The City & the City in August 2016 so it is eligible again. But another book by him might be preferable.

Since Lovecraft's name has been invoked (an evil cackling can be heard as I write this...) and as I have a copy of At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels of Terror and only read one of the longer stories in it, I'd like to nominate its title story, which can be read as a separate book - At the Mountains of Madness - and a novelette from the same collection, also published separately as The Dreams in the Witch House.

Oooh....."Dreams in the Witch House" is my 'most favorite" of HPL!

CTHULHU Down the Chimney 2Night wrote: "Oooh....."Dreams in the Witch House" is my 'most favorite" of HPL!"

I haven't read it yet so it's good to hear I'll have treat when I do!

I love it! Also, it's a fine example of HPL's elitism, which I don't think is as apparent in many of his stories. I wonder if it was one of his New York period stories; I'll have to look that up.

Tara wrote: "Do China Miéville books fall into that category?"

Absolutely. They're classed as New Weird.

Greg wrote: "Since Lovecraft's name has been invoked (an evil cackling can be heard as I write this...) and as I have a copy of At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels of Terror and only read ..."

I definitely think one of the books we choose from this category should be a Lovecraft one - his stories form the basis from which all else in this style follows. But it would be superb if the second choice is from a contemporary writer - that way, we get to see how far the genre has come and which direction it may be going.

Reign This book is a strange blend of Sci-Fi and fantasy. I wouldn't describe it as (weird cosmic) but it's definitely a dark adventure.

CTHULHU Down the Chimney 2Night wrote: "I agree about HPL--but since I am personally obsessed with him, i thought to expand my horizons. I read daily either an HPL tale or a Mythos short story."

If you haven't already, you might like to read Kij Johnson's The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, a novella that pays homage to HPL's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. As well as the contemporary writers I've already mentioned, you might also like Jeff Koon's A Man of Shadows, which I would have nominated were it not for the fact I've only just finished it! It's a truly excellent novel, although the 'dread' involved is thoroughly existentialist and is invoked through shifts in Time rather than cosmic beings. Definitely a recommended read!

Donna Rae wrote: "Greg wrote: "Since Lovecraft's name has been invoked (an evil cackling can be heard as I write this...) and as I have a copy of At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels of Terror a..."

I agree totally! :)

In case anyone hasn't seen it yet, the poll to pick our December reads is up and running here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1....

Happy voting!

Oh thank you, Donna Rae! I haven't read either--yet!!

CTHULHU Down the Chimney 2Night wrote: "Oh thank you, Donna Rae! I haven't read either--yet!!"

You're welcome! Being a fan of Lovecraftian horror myself, I'm always on the lookout for new material in a similar vein. I find the Lovecraft Ezine website, https://lovecraftzine.com really informative for this, though there are lots of other websites, too. Happy hunting!

Greg wrote: "In case anyone hasn't seen it yet, the poll to pick our December reads is up and running here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1....

..."

Oh dear - I've missed the poll for this. I'm not disappointed with the winning books, Greg, but could we add one of your Lovecraft suggestions to this month's group reads as suggested earlier? HPL really should be up there for this.

JuniperGreen ~❄Winter is coming❄~ wrote: "I'm happy to see that The Ballad of Black Tom won - and I'd highly recommend to read Lovecraft's The Horror at Red Hook first, if you haven't already done so. It can ..."

An excellent idea! I've already read The Ballad of Black Tom and enjoyed it, but it's been a long time since I've read The Horror at Red Hook. Worth catching up with, thank you!

I'm overjoyed to have reason to reread both!:)

I've set up the discussion threads for the two winning books - here (The Ballad of Black Tom) and here (Blindsight).

Donna Rae wrote: "Oh dear - I've missed the poll for this. I'm not disappointed with the winning books, Greg, but could we add one of your Lovecraft suggestions to this month's group reads as suggested earlier? HPL really should be up there for this."

JuniperGreen ~❄Winter is coming❄~ wrote: "I'm happy to see that The Ballad of Black Tom won - and I'd highly recommend to read Lovecraft's The Horror at Red Hook first, if you haven't already done so. ... Knowing the original lends greater impact to LaValle's story, and this way we'd have the master of cosmic horror himself covered. ."

In answer to both of your suggestions, I'll now set up a separate thread for Lovecraft reads, whether or not it's The Horror at Red Hook, The Dreams in the Witch House or any other Lovecraft tale!

And that complementary Lovecraft group read for December can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/....

Greg wrote: "And that complementary Lovecraft group read for December can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...."

Thanks, Greg!

You're welcome, Donna!

Lovecraft compendia are easily found in any e-book outlet, Amazon, B&N, etc. Many are priced less than a dollsr ot two, and almost all have the book that Greg noted in his earlier traffic. Hope that helps.

Richard wrote: "Lovecraft compendia are easily found in any e-book outlet, Amazon, B&N, etc. Many are priced less than a dollsr ot two, and almost all have the book that Greg noted in his earlier traffic. Hope tha..."

Hi Richard - thanks for pointing that out. I think Lovecraft's works are now out of copyright which facilitates widespread distribution across the Net. I wonder what Lovecraft would think of the Net if he were alive today.