SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

A few questions to get us started:


1. What did you think of the world?
2. What did you think of the characters?
3. What worked or didn't for you?
4. Overall thoughts?

One of our TSG readers posted this reddit link where the binary code chapters are translated.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...

They are quite fabulous.

Melanie wrote: "One of our TSG readers posted this reddit link where the binary code chapters are translated.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...

They ..."

That is so cool! I was wondering if the binary sections really said something. I'm excited to check it out when I'm finished (or maybe before).

Edited to add - I couldn't wait. The translations are in spoiler tags, so you can choose to view only the sections you've read so far.

Wow, this was a fun read!

This is my first book read with the group. This book was not something that I would have probably chosen to read on my own, but I really enjoyed it.

The characters and their interactions with each other I think is what really stood out to me. It was fun to see the progression of Demeter's personality throughout the adventure.

I would say the only thing that gave me trouble was any fight with vampires from Frank's perspective. I mean it makes sense since he can't see them, but I struggled to follow the action in some spots.

I'm now finished, and I also really enjoyed this (and I don't think I would have picked it up on my own). It was weird, and a strange blending of genres, and also kind of sweet in parts. I like how the beginning pieces, which seem like an unconnected series of bad luck instances for Demeter, come together again in the end.

I really liked Demeter, and her relationship with Steward, and how both of their characters grew and changed over the course of the story. I also loved the part where Demeter and Steward were helping to raise Issac and Agnus on the ship. And the part with the strange fish people was kind of ridiculous, but also fun.

Some of it was certainly far fetched, but with a vampire on a spaceship at the beginning, followed by werewolves and Cthulu fish people, I just turned off my disbelief and went with it.

I thought the audiobook narration was great overall. My only real complaint about the book is that sometimes the pronunciation of things was incorrect / inconsistent (Angus instead of Agnus for instance, or even once or twice where I am pretty sure the narrator said the wrong word entirely). But these instances were uncommon and didn't take away from my overall enjoyment.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought th pacing was a little off though as it reached a high point at fishy people and then sort of slowed down for the last third.

Overall I liked it. Demeter is a very interesting character

I agree with that. I feel like the author wanted us more invested in Demeter's relationships more than introducing *another* monster classic.

I am so glad I found this group because I LOVED THIS STORY!

I listened to it on audio (the binary chapters were tough and I thought the book was corrupted when I first started it- thanks so much to the post above that translated them!) It was a bit over-produced and I don't know why they didn't just stick to each narrator voicing all their own spoken parts rather than just their own chapters because it was weird having each author narrating each character with a different voice.

My only real qualm with the story itself, and please correct me if I'm wrong, was that it was never clearly explained as to why that particular Demeter ship was the only one who had all the monster activity. What are the odds? There was one excerpt that alluded to other AIs dealing with monsters but no other mention of other ghostships. So why was she the creep magnet?

The relationships, the monsters, the plots, and the humor all had me smiling ear to ear and laughing aloud often. Though, I was able to use this for my "reminds me of my childhood" prompt for the popsugar reading challenge too because I used to love having monster movie marathons this time of year growing up, so I was probably the target audience.

I wasn't sure about this book at first, I didn't really want a space horror book. But it turned out to be a fun monster "horror" that happened to be in space. It wasn't too graphic and there were definitely parts that were fun.

I'm still wondering if Agnus (I hate this spelling of her name, I keep reading Angus) was the one who actually killed everyone in the observation deck...

I liked the way that Demeter grew as a ... person? The way her and Steward's relationship developed was sweet. Also, all the Easter eggs were great. Naming the ship Demeter, the Prometheus drive, etc.

I finished this book a few days ago. I started my pre-Halloween reading extra early this year!

Rating: 3.5 stars

Very, very quirky and fun. This "cozy" sci-fi horror story mixes monsters (from my childhood books/movies) with AI spaceships (with attitude). Sometimes it takes monsters to have a chance to win a fight against bigger monsters.

Midway through I thought there was a romantic interest brewing between Agnus and Frank, so Agnus' relationship decision at the end surprised me. I also was a bit confused by Agnus' grandmother losing control over her beast...was this somehow due to Dracula's influence or control. If so, I must have missed his interference. Now I'm not sure whether the grandmother or Dracula was responsible for the deaths of all of the passengers and crew during the first killing spree?

Yep, I also kept reading Agnus' name as Angus. It added confusion to a plot that wasn't always clear to me. On the plus side, I enjoyed the snappy dialogue and quick pace. The short chapters helped make it a fast read. A real pleasure.

Kaia wrote: "Melanie wrote: "One of our TSG readers posted this reddit link where the binary code chapters are translated.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm......"

Thanks for posting the translation link! That's interesting.

I think the fish people are from the famous horror novel by H. P Lovecraft, The Shadow over Innsmouth.

I loved ‘Of Monsters and Mainframes’! The entire book is an Easter Egg of sorts, actually. So much fun to pick out the tribute elements!

L.G. wrote: "I finished this book a few days ago. I started my pre-Halloween reading extra early this year!

Rating: 3.5 stars

Very, very quirky and fun. This "cozy" sci-fi horror story mixes monsters (from my..."

I believe grandmother lost control because Demeter flew near a planet with moons.