SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Some people don't believe us. Some say it's impossible. But *whispers* we see read pages. They're everywhere, including here!

The goal is to read all (or some) books off the group shelf! Sign up on the challenge page and tell us about your progress in this thread throughout the year!

We scared everyone away :D It's okay, really! This is a safe space! We'll protect you from all those unread books. You too can see read pages!

I think I'll set my goal somewhere in the 30-36 range again, it seemed to be perfect in 2018. Aiming to read all 24 group picks, and a few old ones.

36/36

15/24 Group Reads 2019
         
     

06/24 Group Reads 2019 (previously read)
    

03/24 Group Reads 2019 (not gonna happen)
  

21/?? Group Reads Earlier
         
         

Ha! I'll be bold and set this one to 50. Can't have it, that I'm so far behind on the group shelf. ;D

I’m going to go for 30 this way I make a little progress on the group shelf. https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Total: 171/295

1. The Changeling by Victor LaValle - 1/2/19
2. Artemis by Andy Weir - 1/4/19
3. Among Others by Jo Walton - 1/7/19
4. The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris - 3/7/19
5. Touch by Claire North - 3/8/19
6. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis - 3/24/19
7. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis - 3/26/19
8. Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill - 3/31/19
9. Blackout by Connie Willis - 4/4/19
10. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin - 4/5/19
11. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - 4/25/19
12. Lock In by John Scalzi - 6/4/19
13. Red Sister by Mark Lawrence - 6/19/19
14. Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen - 6/29/19
15. The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon - 6/30/19
16. A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers - 7/2/19
17. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - 7/5/19
18. Dawn by Octavia E. Butler - 7/12/19
19. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead - 7/15/19
20. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - 8/15/19
21. The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin - 9/8/19
22. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers - 9/8/19
23. Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler - 10/5/19
24. An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon - 8/8/19
25. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman - 11/12/19
26. Ancillary Justice byAnn Leckie - 11/13/19
27. The Power by Naomi Alderman - 11/16/19
28. Zodiac by Neal Stephenson - 11/25/19
29. The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley - 12/5/19
30. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - 12/8/19
31. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm - 12/10/19

I'll be setting my goal for 15 books, I think.

Whew... This is a daunting one! I'd be happy with like.... 10.

My goal is 12 books from previous years that I haven't read, plus a couple re-reads and whichever of the books this year sound appealing.

My goal is to reduce the number of books on the shelf that I haven't read to 25. It is currently at 27 (or 29 if you include January's books). I don't know how many that will involve reading as I don't know how many of next year's I haven't read.

Kaa wrote: "My goal is 12 books from previous years that I haven't read, plus a couple re-reads and whichever of the books this year sound appealing."

One a month could be doable!

@Becky: That's my hope! I don't want to focus too much on this, to the exclusion of everything else I want to read. It will help that there are several Ursula Le Guin books I'm planning on reading that are also on the group shelves.

I’m the same. I signed up for too many challenges this year and it really narrowed my reading. I want to be able to read a little more freely next year so I’m skipping the tbr and time traveler challenges even though they look fun.

Coralie wrote: "My goal is to reduce the number of books on the shelf that I haven't read to 25. It is currently at 27 (or 29 if you include January's books). I don't know how many that will involve reading as I d..."

You've read almost 250 books on the group shelf? That's amazing!

Coralie wrote: "My goal is to reduce the number of books on the shelf that I haven't read to 25. It is currently at 27 (or 29 if you include January's books). I don't know how many that will involve reading as I d..."

Way to go, Coralie!!!

I'll be down for another 30+ in 2019.

I'm probably going to set mine at 30. This year I started at 20, and was almost there by June, so I doubled it to 40....and proceeded to read only 6 or 7 more from our group shelf, so I'm at 25. I think 30 is realistic.

I’m planning to try reading all 24 books this year plus a few more to whittle down what I haven’t read on the Group Shelf. Will leave that additional number unspecified for now to have some wiggle room to read off list books.

I'm going to shoot for 30. Maybe more if I've already read some of next year's selections.

I have a hefty non-fiction read list for next year that will keep me from going much higher.

I didn't complete my goal for 2018, but what I read off the list made up for it! I found some new authors and series that I really liked. So I'll do the challenge again next year. It was a lot of fun!

Paul, that's a reasonable sounding number to me! Good luck!

Jen, I'm glad you had fun ^^ That's really what this is all about. Can't wait to see what you find next year!

Wooo! Good work, Don, welcome! Great goal. Read along with us, and you'll have a whole new social life ^^

I'm signing up for 24 again, even though I fell short this year.

This year I read started with a goal of 12, and ended up reading 20 (8 new and 12 from the back list).

I think I'll stick with 20 for next year. I'm happy with that number.

I will sign up for 15 only because I’m such an impulsive reader, meaning even though I planned to read something, last minute I end up picking up something else instead which might not be on this shelf. 15 gives me a good room for impulsiveness while managing this challenge. Also I wanted to read The eye of the world which should count for more than one ;)

Haha Victoria! I agree! That sucker took me 6 months to finish (albeit with a lot of breaks).

I'm setting a goal of 12 group books. This year I started with a goal of 6 which I upped to 8 and to date I have read 9, plus I have two in progress (Jade City and Rivers of London), so 12 seems do-able.

Hi everyone. I'm new here. I'm setting a goal of 15 although there are so many amazing books on the group shelf I think I'm going to have a hard time deciding which ones

Charlotte wrote: "Hi everyone. I'm new here. I'm setting a goal of 15 although there are so many amazing books on the group shelf I think I'm going to have a hard time deciding which ones"

Hi Charlotte! The great thing about this challenge is that you can always adjust your goal if it looks like you'll end up reading more than you planned. I think I started with a goal of 12 in 2017, and ended up reading 53.

I think I'm on 16 (and a half) for this year but I only read a handful of books for the first half of the year so I think I'm going to set my goal for 2019 at 24 and see how I go.

I'm gonna do 12 as my overall goal again this year. last year, when I include my group reads that were put in, I hit a total of 15 books. I expect I'll probably go over again this year, but I think that's ok - I like to set a realistic goal for myself, and then achieve it.

I've gone through this morning and picked out my initial list; as with last year, it'll probably change as I DNF something I'm not feeling or add something new.

The Gospel of Loki *
The Calculating Stars *
Rosewater *
City of Stairs *
Dawn *
Red Rising *
Ancillary Mercy
Ancillary Sword
The Goblin Emperor
Alif the Unseen
The Stars My Destination
The Lathe of Heaven


(* indicates a book I have already acquired on kindle or audible)

Great list!

I'm going to make a plan to complete 12. I'm going to focus first on the ones that I own. Yep, I own all of these!

The Way of Kings
Leviathan Wakes
Brave New World
A Princess of Mars
The Night Circus
Seveneves
The Martian Chronicles
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
Foreigner
The Mote in God's Eye
Ubik
Watership Down
War for the Oaks
I Am Legend
A Fire Upon the Deep

Ok, I wasn't going to decide already which books I was going to read for this, but y'all are making me brave! So here are the 12 I am going to try to read:

The Farthest Shore - for the UKL challenge
Kindred - group re-read
Flowers for Algernon - group re-read
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - buddy read + I need to either finally read this or kick it off my TBR forever
Hyperion - I own this
Parable of the Sower - before the BR of Parable of Talents
The Book of Phoenix - to go with Who Fears Death
Children of Time - before the BR of Children of Ruin
City of Bones
The Three-Body Problem - I own this
Tigana
The Calculating Stars

Kaa wrote: "Ok, I wasn't going to decide already which books I was going to read for this, but y'all are making me brave!..."

Not me! Carpe libros, or something like that!

I can’t decide which ones to focus on. Initially I was thinking I’d go for the SF side, but I really want to read Red Sister and Midnght Riot and Touch and-

Haha. Remember the mice from Disney's Cinderella? I often feel like I read like they collect corn. Im getting that vibe here too.

I'm quite new here, so do I need to sign up or only make my shelf the 1st January? And where can I find the group shelf?

Saar The Book owl wrote: "I'm quite new here, so do I need to sign up or only make my shelf the 1st January? And where can I find the group shelf?"

Hi Saar! You make a separate shelf, and then you link to that shelf when you sign up on Jan 1st. That way the challenge will know which books to keep track of. Of course you don't have to sign up for the challenge, you can keep track in any way you want. The challenge shelf will do all the work for you, that's why it's convenient.

Check out Current Events for links to pretty much everything, including group bookshelf.

I just went through the list and I have read more than I would've thought I had! Seriously, I thought that I'd read like 30 from the group shelf, but I've read 79/269 and already own 49 more.

So my plan is to read at least 1 a month from these 49, but if I can do more, even better. There's definitely some overlap to my other challenges, so it should be doable. :D

I completely failed in 2018 but have made a list to 2019, 11 books so far, will put a target of something like 12 I think, 1 a month.

EDIT: like Lowell above, I've put an asterisk next to all the books I already own and have on my to-read pile. Which as it stands will be all of them (Jade City Arrives today with a non-bookshelf book)

The Gospel of Loki - RE-READ - will try to do it with the group *
Jade City *
The Stars Are Legion *
Six of Crows *
Sea of Rust *
Artemis *
Red Sister *
A Closed and Common Orbit *
The Final Empire *
The Power *
Boneshaker *

Should hopefully do it this time! 2016 was my best year going past my goals for both this group and the general 2016 site-wide reading challenge.

Sounds great, Steve! I believe in you! That's quite a diverse list, I can't wait to hear what about each of them speaks to you :-)

Allison wrote: "Sounds great, Steve! I believe in you! That's quite a diverse list, I can't wait to hear what about each of them speaks to you :-)"

Thanks! Will hopefully update here!

I rounded out my challenge shelf at 20, maybe 12 of which I currently own so I'll start with those.

I'm gonna start with these 12 books which I'll probably end up changing up depending on what I'm in the mood to read. A book a month sounds doable right now. Also, I tried to stick mainly to standalones as I have enough series I've started and haven't gotten around to finishing :)

Snow Crash
The Road
The Handmaid's Tale
The Graveyard Book
The City & the City
A Scanner Darkly
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Flowers for Algernon
The Hobbit
Station Eleven
Seveneves
Six of Crows

Wow, I hadn't realized how many of our standalones were of the bleak emotional sort! That's a strong list but I also hope you have a few cutesy reads in your future!

I was also reading that list and thinking about what a downer that would be if read in a row.

Yeah, I am hoping to spread them out and read some more upbeat books in between

Hi! I'm new to the group and this looks like a great place to start. I love reading the first book in a series but it will really have to be something special for me to continue with a series. It looks like our list contains many series firsts. I'm going to set a goal of 16. That may be pushing it a bit but there are so many on the list that I'm really motivated to get started.

Woo! You go, Joe! Hope you enjoy!

Updated 07/08/2019

Starting on 01-01-2019, my reads start where I left off on 12-31-2018 (first 12 on this list) — planning for 2 x 12 or 24, all new for us all. Up to 24 my first reads of the bi-monthly re-reads list for our group, four books every two months, results in the 24 total - this year. I am also working on my currently reading list already on the docket of a research project - up to 6 available spots this year, with notes and summaries, for my research. This list rounds out a total of fifty (50) reads completed by 12/31/2019.

Ambitious for me, the ultimate slow reader, but why not ... I always love the Challenges. Since I am focusing on all reads "new" to me, I plan to submit my Goodreads personal challenge list like the one I have outlined here.

In summary, 24 new, up to 24 first read on up to 4 bi-monthly selections by our leaders as re-reads. Fill in of second 24 by reads on my TBR not covered by any other means. That is 48 for me.

1. Artemis by Andy Weir -- READ. REVIEW.
2. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Reading is IN WORK. REVIEW on Deck - To Be Started at the end of Reading.
3. Touch by Claire North -- Reading is IN WORK. REVIEW to follow on the conclusion of reading.
4. Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill -- READ. REVIEW .
5. The Power by Naomi Alderman-- READING is IN WORK. REVIEW will start when Reading is COMPLETED.
6.Red Sister -- READING is IN WORK.
7. Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty -- READING is IN WORK.
8. Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys --Reading is IN WORK. REVIEW to follow on conclusion of reading.
9. Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant-- READING is IN WORK. REVIEW will start when Reading is COMPLETED.
10. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie-- READING is IN WORK. REVIEW will start when Reading is COMPLETED.
11. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo-- READING is IN WORK. REVIEW will start when Reading is COMPLETED.
12. The Bear and the Nightingale byKatherine Arden -- READING is IN WORK. REVIEW will start when Reading is COMPLETED.
13. Catseye by Andre Norton - 01/19 SciFi -- READ. REVIEW.
14. The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris - 01/19 - Fan-- READING is IN WORK.
15. 2/2019 - A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe - 02/19 - -- READING is IN WORK.
16. Brown Girl in the Ring byNalo Hopkinson 02/19 - Fan -- READING is IN WORK.
17. Planetfall by Emma Newman - 03/19 - Sci-Fi -- READING is IN WORK
18. Early Riser by Jasper Fforde - 19. The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco 4/19 - Fan -- READING is IN WORK
19. Here and Now and Then 4/19 - SciFi > TBD
20. Semiosis by Sue Burke --5/19 - SciFi >
21. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - 5/19 - Fan
22. 6/2019 - choice SciFi > TBD
23. 6/2019 - choice Fan > TBD
24. 7/2019 - choice SciFi > TBD
25. 7/2019 - choice Fan > TBD
26. 8/2019 - choice SciFi > TBD
27. 8/2019 - choice Fan > TBD
29. 9/2019 - choice SciFi > TBD
30. 9/2019 - choice Fan > TBD
31. 10/2019- choice SciFi > TBD
32. 10/2019 - choice Fan > TBD
33. 11/2019 - choice SciFi >TBD
34. 11/2019 - choice Fan > TBD
35. 12/2019 - choice SciFi >TBD
36. 12/2019 - choice Fan > TBD
37. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
38. Storm Front by Jim Butcher
39. The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. LeGuin. READ. REVIEW is IN WORK.
40. The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
41. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
41. 05-06/2019 1st time read of up to 4 of Group's selected Re-Reads May-Jun-
42. 07-08/2019 1st time read of up to 4 of Group's selected Re-Reads Jul-Aug-
43. 09-10/2019 1st time read of up to 4 of Group's selected Re-Reads Sep-Oct-
44. 11-12/2019 1st time read of up to 4 of Group's selected Re-Reads Nov-Dec-

My current large research project

45. JFK: The CIA, Vietnam and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy by L. Fletcher Prouty, Col., USAF (Ret.) -- Read. REVIEW.
46.The Pentagon Papers: The Secret History of the War In Vietnam by Ellsberg, Daniel. READING is IN WORK. REVIEW to follow READING.
47. In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam by Robert S. McNamara.
48. Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam by H.R. McMaster.
49. The Secret Team: The CIA & its Allies in Control of the United States & the World by L. Fletcher Prouty.
50: The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World by A.J. Baime, READING is IN WORK. REVIEW to FOLLOW READING.
51. The Door Through Space by Marion Zimmer Bradley. READ. Review is In Work.
52. Critical Path by R. Buckminster Fuller. READING is IN WORK. REVIEW to follow READING .

This is my personal research project to help me understand the situation in Vietnam. The time is right for a historical review of the available information about the involvement in Southeast Asia that resulted in the loss of 58,000+ American servicemen and women in a war that was initially to end at the end of 1965, according to the information contained in a NSAM by John F. Kennedy wrote in 1963 to pull out certain forces by the end of 1963 with all personnel out of Vietnam by the end of 1965. Dealey Plaza ended that lofty goal, and thereby hangs a tale that's needed some 54 years to simmer on history's back burner. My favorite historian and college European History Professor, Dr. Ralph Lynn once said that the time to look at history was a half-century after the fact. Well, Dr. Lynn, my time to look into this one is now, and I have expended a budget to look at aspects of everything from the initial historical context, the debacle that kept President Kennedy's late 1963 National Security Agency Memorandum from being put into action. This may never see a published page but the research is real and I am following the body count and the trails to see where they lead to and why the led to the apparent ends I am thinking I am about to find.

I love it! Keep up the good work, I hope you reach your goal!

Update: thought I'd add another re-read.

The Gospel of Loki - RE-READ - will try to do it with the group *
Good Omens - RE-READ - due to upcoming Amazon adaptation *
Jade City *
The Stars Are Legion *
Six of Crows *
Sea of Rust *
Artemis *
Red Sister *
A Closed and Common Orbit *
The Final Empire *
The Power *
Boneshaker *

So that's 12 and I'll put 12 as my goal, will extend the goal if I end up re-reading/listening more from the shelf.