Israel SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

My personal favourite at the moment is the Tattoo Fairy \ Wicked lovely . And yes the synopsis sounds horrible but they are really good books

The last YA book I really enjoyed was The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. This surprised me because the one other book that I read by her (but didn't finish), Shiver, was pretty ridiculous.

Defiance by C.J. Redwine was also pretty good. I believe that comes out next month.

For some reason I'm not a real fan of fairy stories so I haven't read any of those Melissa Marr books.

Shiver is officially the most ridiculous book i read in the past 5 years . And yes i did read "Twilight" in this time

Do you dislike the "Faire Folk " type of fairies as well ?

Genia wrote: "Shiver is officially the most ridiculous book i read in the past 5 years . And yes i did read "Twilight" in this time

Do you dislike the "Faire Folk " type of fairies as well ?"

I guess. It's nothing that I can really pinpoint. For some reason stories about faries just don't appeal to me. This was true even of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

And I know I shouldn't admit this because I could get a lot of flak for it but I enjoyed Twilight, and I loved The Host. The Host is what convinced me to give scifi books a try. Until then I wouldn't have considered reading a book involving aliens or body snatching (unless it's by Douglas Adams)

I liked The Host . It's a bit overly conservative for my taste but i grow up reading Heinlein so pretty much everything is conservative.

And will mister Norrell is great it's also tedious . I enjoyed it but it was definitely a challenging read

As for twilight it would have probably seen better if i didn't have others of its type in my background. But i like people enjoying books no matter if i enjoyed them or not

Earlier this year, I read an e-ARC of Seraphina. It's YA about a society with humans and dragons (that can shapeshift into humans) and the tensions between the two species, told from the point of view of a teenage girl who's half-human, half-dragon. I loved this book so much that I pre-ordered the paper version from Book Depository, and I re-read it when it arrived earlier this month. I still love it, even more than the first time I read it.

Tzippy wrote: "Earlier this year, I read an e-ARC of Seraphina. It's YA about a society with humans and dragons (that can shapeshift into humans) and the tensions between the two species, told from the point of v..."

Ooh, that's a book I really want to read. I've heard great things about Seraphina and it's now at the top of my TBR list.

Simcha: If you need a copy, and you live in/near Jerusalem, I could probably lend it to you.

Tzippy wrote: "Simcha: If you need a copy, and you live in/near Jerusalem, I could probably lend it to you."

Tzippy, that would be awesome! I sent you a private message to see about about arranging this, and to see if there are any books I can lend you in return.

Tzippy wrote: "Earlier this year, I read an e-ARC of Seraphina. It's YA about a society with humans and dragons (that can shapeshift into humans) and the tensions between the two species, told from the point of v..."

It sound very close the plot of Dragonvarld trilogy by Margaret Weis...

Well obviously my favourites are The Hunger Games trilogy and the Harry Potter series.

I didn't find Shiver too bad though maybe a little superficial.
Shade was better than I expected though probably more for older teens.
Clarity was an interesting paranormal YA mystery but Deadly Cool was much more popular in this house.

Has anyone here checked out Throne of Glass yet? it looks interesting, and this one might become a stellar bestseller in no time.

Nimrod wrote: "Has anyone here checked out Throne of Glass yet? it looks interesting, and this one might become a stellar bestseller in no time."

Throne of Glass sounds like a combinations of so many other books that I've read (particularity Poison Study & The Hunger Games) that it didn't really interest me but if I read some good reviews of it maybe I'll give it a try.

One of the new YA books that has caught my attention, though, is Earth Girl, which sounds like it could be really good.

I'm also keeping my eye out for The Unnaturalists which looks like it could be a fun YA steampunk.

If you are looking for some good YA books I'd like to recommend these, which I really enjoyed:

Shadows on the Moon, particularly if you enjoy fairy tale retellings

Cinder: Also a unique fairy tale retelling.

Human.4: This book blew me away because I had no idea what to expect and was completely surprised by what happens. Try to avoid reading reviews of this book so you don't come across spoilers.

Flip was also pretty interesting, especially since I've never read a story like this before, about body switching.

And a non-genre series that I've really been enjoying is The Agency series by Y.S. Lee, the first of which is A Spy in the House

my fav is percy jackson

A few months ago I read Karissa Eckert's review on Throne of glass and it convinced me to try Throne of Glass. http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I haven't heard of Earth Girl, it could be an interesting book.I'll follow this one.

Simcha wrote: "If you are looking for some good YA books I'd like to recommend these, which I really enjoyed:
..."

I'm familiar just with Cinder (maybe I'll put it on my list), I'll check the others. Thanks :)
I haven't read much of YA's, but the YA's I'm looking for are those which less focused on romance.

Hm, I'm trying to think of some YA that I've read which didn't have romance and I'm having trouble coming up with anything. There was The Maze Runner, but you're probably already familiar with that book and I didn't love it as much as everyone else did. Same with The Knife of Never Letting Go.
A Monster Calls was really good, though it's a different kind of book than the other.s

I'll see if I can think of anything else...

that's because YA with no romance are usually categorised as something different like Coming of Age Stories if you think about it nancy drew is one :)

Cory doctorow and rick royden are two of the ones i know to have little or no romance in them .And the question if Charles de Lint 's works are YA or not is still open

As of books The Painted Boy by Charles de Lint is good
really good .
Heinlein have some more simplistic classic sci-fi like have spacesuit will travel

I would try YA book if it looks interesting (even if it has some romance in it).For example, I'm willing to read books such as Graceling,Divergent,Throne of Glass,Thief's Covenant etc, etc.. but not books like Hush, Hush, Unearthly, Matched etc, etc..

:/ i like hush hush... i must admit

Coolkidrox123 {vieled in ambiguity.} wrote: ":/ i like hush hush... i must admit"

Hush Hush is one of those books that I probably would have enjoyed when I was younger but doesn't really appeal to me now. Though it does seem to be very popular with both teenage girls and women, so you are definitely not alone ;)

Nimrod, I had lent Graceling to my friend and her husband ended up reading it and loving it, which really surprised me. I really enjoyed Graceling myself and Thief's Covenant is also on my list of books to read (mostly b/c I really enjoyed Ari's other book, The Conqueror's Shadow)

Graceling was good but not great so I haven't continued the series.
The premiss was brilliant and I have to admit that at one point I was so involved with events that my heart began to beat quite wildly.
But the character development just didn't do anything for me and the romance was a little too predictable.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone. At the time I read it, I wrote "lots of metaphor. I can't help wondering if this a metaphor for the Middle East conflict. Much of the mythology could come out of the history of the conflict. Many of the names are Hebrew, which tends to make that comparison more relevant." Don't ask me now for an example as it was too long ago. I guess I should reread.

Scorpio Races, Wicked Lovely, the Gates (more a children's book than YA), Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Age of Miracles (not classified as YA though the main character is 12).

A lot of recent buzz books disappointed me: Divergent, the Night Circus (incredible imagery and interesting concept but too many unimportant characters), The Knife of Never Letting Go (how many times can a character come back from the dead to threaten?).

Karen.s wrote: "Daughter of Smoke and Bone. At the time I read it, I wrote "lots of metaphor. I can't help wondering if this a metaphor for the Middle East conflict. Much of the mythology could come out of the his..."

I also really enjoyed Daughter of Smoke and Bone, well- most of it anyways. The story started losing its hold on me when it went into flashback mode. I did think it was interesting that the author chose to use the name Akiva, which isn't common, but I haven't see anything that point to her having a particular reason for doing so.

I remember when I read Daughter of Smoke & Bone, there were a few times that it struck me as being metaphorically anti-Israel. I downloaded the Kindle sample of the sequel (Days of Blood & Starlight) and now I can't get past that feeling. All of the characters on the angels' side have Hebrew names, they're portrayed as violent and bloodthirsty, and the first book refers to them as occupiers of land that rightfully belongs to the other guys. Now I don't particularly want to continue this series...am I reading too much into this?

Tzippy wrote: "I remember when I read Daughter of Smoke & Bone, there were a few times that it struck me as being metaphorically anti-Israel. I downloaded the Kindle sample of the sequel (Days of Blood & Starligh..."
It maybe an unconscious bias by someone who buys in to the mass media view of the situation.
There was a time when Hollywood movies always had English-accented characters as the baddies and American-accented ones as the goodies.
I would have to read it to judge but there is an awful lot of anti-Israel sentiment out there so I wouldn't be totally surprised if it was intentional.

I really don't remember getting that impression at all though now I'm curious to give the book a reread and see if I notice any of those anti-Israel sentiments that you mention. Though many fantasy books have similar themes so I wouldn't necessarily think that this author was specifically referencing Israel.

I think it was all the Hebrew names, specifically on one side of the conflict, that jarred me.

I am now convinced it's a metaphor after reading the second book Days of Blood and Starlight. However, both sides (at least their leaders) are painted as equally bloodthirsty and merciless and the message of the book is it's time to get past the senseless blood-letting and find a way to peace.

I reread Daughter of Bone & Smoke over shabbat and I still didn't get the sense that the author had any anti-Israel intentions in mind.

I suspect that it's just that the author wanted to stick with tradition and give the angels Hebrew names, which seems to be the case with all UF books involving angels, but she also wanted to be original so she used modern Hebrew names rather than the usual Gabriel, Raphael, etc. And because she used these Hebrew names it's made us sensitive to any other similarities there might be to Israel.

I think I'm actually going to email Laini Taylor to ask her about this.

I had started reading the sequel, Days of Blood and Starlight, but it's just so continuously bleak that I couldn't get myself to keep reading.

I did email Laini and she wrote back to me! How awesome is she! Here's a quote:

Though I wasn't trying to draw a clear parallel to Israel/Palestine, it was certainly the conflict that was the most present in my mind, both consciously and unconsciously, as I created the situations in the story. There were several other historical conflicts as well, Rome/Carthage being chief among them, and Loramendi being, like Carthage, annihilated utterly. I also looked at the Hundred Years War. I am not especially knowledgable about the Israel/Palestine situation, and did not do research, but yes, certainly, when I would think of the hopelessness of the chimaera/seraph situation, I couldn't help but think of Israel/Palestine -- which is hopefully NOT hopeless. I like to think that nothing is truly hopeless, I guess that's a major theme in the book, but I vacillate in reality between thinking that it's hopelessly naive to believe there can ever be resolution, and wanting to be bolstered by my own fictional ability to create resolution. If it can happen in Eretz ... Well. Fiction is easy, right?"

"why I chose to use Hebrew names, and I was conscious that it would seem like more of an allegory this way, but the main reason was one of worldbuilding. The fantasy premise of all of my books is the idea that there IS something beyond our earthly world, and that over time humans have had occasional glimpses of it: just enough to create their own stories, which in fact bear little resemblance to the reality of which they have glimpsed only a fragment. So, if humans had seen seraphim long ago, they would have then created, essentially, Christianity, and all of angel lore, based on these sights of beautiful winged men and women. I used Hebrew for their names and language for this reason too: the idea that Hebrew was actually based on the language of seraphim. Also, it was to create a cohesive sense of culture, and because I started with the name Akiva and went from there :-) "

She's truly awesome !

Karen.s wrote: "I did email Laini and she wrote back to me! How awesome is she! Here's a quote:

Though I wasn't trying to draw a clear parallel to Israel/Palestine, it was certainly the conflict that was the most..."

In general I've found that most authors are really cool about responding to readers, and happy to hear from them. I remember how psyched I was when I first started using Twitter and I mentioned how much I has enjoyed a particular book that I just finished and the author immediately responded to me with a thank you. Since then I've had the chance to chat with many of my favorite authors, one of whose books I've been reading since I was a teenager. It's pretty awesome.

And I'm really glad that you got an answer to this question since I had really wanted to know about the name thing.

I love the inheritance cylcle.
that series was great but i have yet to read the last one. it has everything fantasy in it.

I also rewlly enjoyed The percy jackson series and i highly reccomend it... its about how the greek gods are in full power in the modern days and their going around haveing kids.... demigods. And there is this camp for half-bloods that is the only sade gaven for demigods...safe from monsters.


hex hall was ok... i got bored at the second book and flipped through.

Storm was an AMAZING book ... first in a trilogy. I just love the way its written..with humor and characters you can really relate to!

Spark is the second book in the seris.... this one really gets to you...well.. to me.... The elemental for fire...Gabriel...is being accused of causing fires but he is the one saveing people FROM it...his twin brother isnt talking with him and everyone is turned against him! When its not even HIS fault!!!

for the first book its in becca and chris's POV... the girl that got caught in an elemental war....and a water elemental....

the second book is in the POV of gabriel and this other girl i cant remember the name of..
.

both were worth every one of those hours i missed of sleep!!

I love the inheritance cylcle.
that series was great but i have yet to read the last one. it has everything fantasy in it.

I also rewlly enjoyed The percy jackson series and i highly reccomend it... its about how the greek gods are in full power in the modern days and their going around haveing kids.... demigods. And there is this camp for half-bloods that is the only sade gaven for demigods...safe from monsters.


hex hall was ok... i got bored at the second book and flipped through.

Storm was an AMAZING book ... first in a trilogy. I just love the way its written..with humor and characters you can really relate to!

Spark is the second book in the seris.... this one really gets to you...well.. to me.... The elemental for fire...Gabriel...is being accused of causing fires but he is the one saveing people FROM it...his twin brother isnt talking with him and everyone is turned against him! When its not even HIS fault!!!

for the first book its in becca and chris's POV... the girl that got caught in an elemental war....and a water elemental....

the second book is in the POV of gabriel and this other girl i cant remember the name of..
.

both were worth every one of those hours i missed of sleep!!

oops sory..on phone cant delete