Aussie Readers discussion

I have been thinking about next year a fair bit and I think I am going to go back to my first love; Science Fiction. I have neglected sci-fi in recent years, what with discovering the classics (this year) expanding my repertoire of Marine Biology, Art and amazing Australian authors. I want to catch up on some of the new authors I have missed out on in the genera and revisit some of the old classics.

So, 2021 a space odyssey. This list has old school elements, old school enough to include plenty of classic sci-fi, space opera and dystopian. There are also some titles that I meant to read in 2020 as part of my 'classics' challenge and could not find in time.

Classic Sci-Fi
The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
To Your Scattered Bodies Go byPhilip José Farmer
Iron Cage by Andre Norton
The Gate of the Cat by Andre Norton
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack
Hunter of Worlds by C.J. Cherryh
Prime Number by Harry Harrison
Solaris by Stanisław Lem
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Genesis by Poul Anderson
The Menace from Earth by Robert A. Heinlein
Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison
Logan's Run by William F. Nolan
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Seconds by David Ely
The Dinosaur Planet Omnibus by Anne McCaffrey
Coils by Roger Zelazny
The Classic Philip Jose Farmer 1952-1964 by Philip José Farmer
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny
The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny
Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny
The Hand of Oberon by Roger Zelazny
The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny
Trumps of Doom by Roger Zelazny
Blood of Amber by Roger Zelazny
Sign of Chaos by Roger Zelazny
Knight of Shadows by Roger Zelazny
Prince of Chaos by Roger Zelazny
Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny
Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper
CV by Damon Knight



Modern sci-fi
Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Lexicon by Max BarryAA
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon
Light by M. John Harrison
Equations of Life by Simon Morden
Head On by John Scalzi
Lock In by John Scalzi
The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
The Zenith Angle by Bruce Sterling DNF
Company Town by Madeline Ashby
Austral by Paul McAuley
Ghost Species by James BradleyAA
Dark Space by Marianne de PierresAA
The Erasure Initiative by Lili WilkinsonAA
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
The Swan Book by Alexis Wright
Rules of Engagement by Elizabeth Moon
The Dark Side by Anthony O'Neill was a fizzer for me, I DNFed it
Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling
Hearts of Oak by Eddie Robson
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Valour's Trial by Tanya Huff
We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker
The Sea and Summer by George Turner
The Ghost From The Grand Banks Arthur C. Clarke
Glasshouse Charles Stross
Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks
The Burning Man by Christa Faust
Ruin's Wake by Patrick Edwards
The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi
The Last Emperox by John Scalzi
Woken Furies by Richard K. Morgan
Q by Christina Dalcher

Radio Play
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Children's, YA
House of Stairs by William Sleator
Before the Storm by Sean McMullen
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff
WWW: Wake by Robert J. Sawyer
Darwin's Blueprint by Christopher Slatter
Other Worlds by Jon Scieszka
The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He
The Pioneer by Bridget Tyler

Good luck Deborah and happy reading!

What a great title for a year!

I’m looking forward to your list, Deborah :) I enjoyed your classics journey this year.

Good luck and happy reading in 2021 😊📚

Good luck!

Thanks guys; I am excited and keen...

I love sci-fi too Deborah. You must add the James S A Corey series "The Expanse" starting with Leviathan Awakes. If you haven't read this series yet it's really good & has loads of twists in each book. I'm sure you'll love it if you love sci-fi.

Enjoy your 2021 sci-fi challenge

Wild wrote: "I love sci-fi too Deborah. You must add the James S A Corey series "The Expanse" starting with Leviathan Awakes. If you haven't read this series yet it's really good & has loads of twists in each b..."

Actually yes! I have not read those yet and I want to. Thank you so much for reminding me about them!

Sounds great Deborah! I like a bit of sci-fi myself so I’ll look forward to your reviews. Enjoy!

You always come up with a thought-provoking/ inventive theme. Happy reading.

You know I'm not a huge sci-fi fan, Deborah, but I do like A Wrinkle in Time! I'm working my way through the series, and I'm up to book 5 (if you decide to read the series, I found book 3 a bit ordinary, but if you can push past it, book 4 was great!). However, I think this series merges with another series that fits in before book 5 - just to confuse the issue!

Happy reading, anyway!

Alex wrote: "You always come up with a thought-provoking/ inventive theme. Happy reading."

Thanks Alex; I do love thinking about reading almost as much as the actual reading.

Kathryn wrote: "You know I'm not a huge sci-fi fan, Deborah, but I do like A Wrinkle in Time! I'm working my way through the series, and I'm up to book 5 (if you decide to read the series, I found ..."

I believe I have read most of the A Wrinkle in Time series, and that specific one multiple times, it is a really good book.

It is a good example of how speculative sci-fi can go and I am sure there are others out there that you would like.... But I know what a busy reading schedule you have, so I will not push them on you.

I am off to a good start with an excellent, 5* read Company Town by Madeline Ashby

I actually applied for an ARC copy for this book, when it first came out. I missed out on an ARC but finally caught up with it at the library.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I have been meaning to read more work by John Scalzi ever since I (way too recently) encountered his work.

Just finished and I give it 5*
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Deborah wrote: "I have been meaning to read more work by John Scalzi ever since I (way too recently) encountered his work.

Just finished and I give it 5*
https://www.goo..."

I really enjoyed that one!

An excellent challenge Deborah, and I wish you all the best with some great reading.
I too am a SF fan, and similarly, have not read much in recent years. I think SF is a very creative genre.

Leonie wrote: "Deborah wrote: "I have been meaning to read more work by John Scalzi ever since I (way too recently) encountered his work.

Just finished and I give it 5*..."

Did you continue with the 'locked in' series? I am considering going on to the second one.

MaryG2E wrote: "An excellent challenge Deborah, and I wish you all the best with some great reading.
I too am a SF fan, and similarly, have not read much in recent years. I think SF is a very creative genre."

It is! So much room for social commentary and speculation while still telling a great story.

Just finished Austral by Paul McAuley

It was almost exactly what this challenge is about; science fiction, speculative about the effects of golbal warming, an author new to me and a book which I had never heard about. Going back to my roots, discovering new sci-fi. Perfect.

4* https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I suspect Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey is a bust for me. I have tried several times to get into it (I loved the series, The Expanse) but I just can't!

The intro, with Julie Mao is excellent, but the next bit which goes straight onto theCantubury ... well... my attention just slips away in under a page, each time I try to read it, for no reason I can see.

Great challenge, Deborah! What's your favourite sci-fi book?

Sarah wrote: "Great challenge, Deborah! What's your favourite sci-fi book?"

Thanks Sarah! There is no way I could pinpoint a single book or even a single author I'm afraid, there are just so many I love. Lots of the old, classic sci fi that would not even register as sci fi if it was written today, much of the speculative fiction, so much of the cyberpunk and dystopian... Even quite a bit of the good old rollicking space opera.

I do tend to prefer ones which use the platform for strong social commentary, but I like it integrated into a good story.

Sarah wrote: "Great challenge, Deborah! What's your favourite sci-fi book?"

I see we both like Fahrenheit 451, that is a really good example of classics sci-fi with a social commentary, there are plenty more like that on my old favorites shelves

Deborah wrote: "I see we both like Fahrenheit 451, that is a really good example of classics sci-fi with a social commen..."

Ooooh, yes, I loved that!

Sarah wrote: "Deborah wrote: "I see we both like Fahrenheit 451, that is a really good example of classics sci-fi with a social commen..."

Ooooh, yes, I loved that!"

Definitely my favourite by Ray Bradbury - that era of writing is where my love of sci-fi started.

I finished by James Bradley

Less of science fiction than speculative fiction and set in Tassie

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Just reviewed by Robert A. Heinlein

I needed time to let my thoughts percolate before reviewing...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Even younger than Heinlein's juvenilia, a good, dystopian kid's bookHouse of Stairs by William Sleator
And you can't tell me that whoever wrote The Maze Runner never read this when they were a kid...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

by Max Barry

This was astoundingly good - I knew I would like it, because the sci-fi / cyberpunk / speculative fiction that this author comes up with is always good. This one was a five star spectacular thriller of a sci-fi.

It totally exceeded expectations.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And finished by Frank Herbert

Such an amazing book - there are not enough stars...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

One more from the classics - is 1990's too late to be çlassic' sci-fi? I'm not sure...

Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

One more for my space odyssey ... by Philip José Farmer
A lot of the old, classic, sci-fi was originally published in magazines, so I have to descend from my high horse about short stories collections to get at them.
3* for this collection
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Just finished another old classic, by the author whos work inspired my challenge name Arthur C. Clarke was a great inspiration to calssic science fiction, usually heavy on the science. But in one of his first books, Childhood's End he is much more philosophic and interested in the paranormal. It was a good book, 3*

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I also recently finished by Simon Morden

Just finished a really good psychological thriller / maybe sci-fi by Australian Author Lili Wilkinson

It perhaps merits more than the 3* I gave it, but I remain undecided.

Review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

one more classic sci-fi by one of my favourite authors Roger Zelazny. I somehow never encountered this book before and it was great fun to read a new Zelazny, he was not as prolific as some authors.


review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Oh man! by Sam J. Miller

So good! So very, very good *5

review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Isaac Asimov wrote The Foundation Trilogy which were increadibly influential and greandbreaking sci-fi and everyone has heard of them ect ect.

I read one as a teen and all I can remember about it is that I was not very much impressed, unlike Asimov's short stories, which were really good.

I am trying to read the trilogy as an adult. Without it, I am told, it is impossible to 'get' other books set in his universe. I am not loving the process though.

Foundation 2* not fun to read or listen to.
review; https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Foundation and Empire 2*
Meh, better than the first one, but only just.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Well, with a challenge name like that of, course I had to read Arthur C. Clarke

And a marvellous book it turned out to be, far exceeded expectations 5*
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I am honestly nonplussed by the fact that Veniss Underground Jeff VanderMeer is classed as science fiction, but it is. I guess that there is a kind-of cyberpunk feel to it, and there are bioengineering concepts and it is sort of set on the future.... Anyways if everyone else is so sure this is sci-fi, who am I to argue.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Really enjoyed this classic sci-fi by C.J. Cherryh

The cover is so much of it's era that it is almost respectable; so bad it is good style


And the story was thoroughly enjoyable 4*
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

With the completion of by Isaac Asimov I am done with the Iconic! Hugo award winning! Famous! Foundation trilogy. I did not enjoy it at all. I think two stars is over generous to be honest.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Well, I finally read the classic 60's sci-fi Solaris by Polish author Stanisław Lem at least, I read most of it as it was a DNF at pg 162

I thought it was terrible on every level. 1* but only because GR does not go into negative stars.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I really enjoyed by Mur Lafferty 4*

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

by Robert J. Sawyer

meh
2 1/2 stars another award winner that did not live up to it's own hype.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

This good, well written and well plotted speculative fiction by Poul Anderson was a decent counterweight to the shoddy modern sci-fi I was reading at the same time.

3* but I think it would get more as a 'real book' rather than audio.


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

How on earth has I forgotten how much I adore Roger Zelazny and his writing? how, HOW?

Well I have remembered now, and I suspect I will not stop until I have devoured the all, I am going through the amber series now.

I fell into the trap of reading old favourites... The dragons of Pern books helped me fall in love with the fantasy genera as well as the science-fiction one (these were called sci-fi when I was a young ún)

Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey is as always 5*
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And so is Dragonsong

I love Pern!