The Mayflower: The JC Sci-fi Book Club

Okay, you might look at this and think I'm ripping it off from Gandy's Fantasy book thread, and you would be right. While I love many fantasy books; my first, last, and only addiction is Sci-fi books. Here sci-fi lovers will discuss the book of the week that I will put forth for reading. You will be told what the new book is at least two weeks in advance. Most, if not all, will be paperback books. If I put forth any hardbacks you will almost definetly be able to find them in your local library.

Your suggestions for other books are welcome, but I encourage you to PM me with your ideas for new books instead of posting them here. Once we start discussing a certain book it will only clog up the issue at hand.

Warning: I am very partial to old books and dead authors like Frank Herbert, Heinlein, and Asimov. If I request that you read book that are of those authors era, I will make sure they are well known enough that their books will still be in the libraries or in bookstores.

I'm going to the bookstore to see what would be good for a first book, but until then I invite you to discuss Dune. Without Herbert's masterpiece many people would never have even looked at a sci-fi book.

So discuss already,

Specs

 

Some rules to go by while your here:

1) Lets keep the gushing down, if and when a mod is named for this board I don't want them to lock this thread for lack of content.

2) Be nice! I don't care if you don't like someone's opinion, that does not give you the right to troll all over them.

3) All things posted are by definition opinion.

4) Please don't spoil others by posting your opinion before we are officially discussing it.

5) Troll my thread and I'll have Vertical or another mod on you like white on rice.

6) Please no suggestions for SW books. We have enough threads about those at Lit already.

We are currently serving Purple Dinosaur Meat Cookys. Drinks are pretty cheap over at Gandy's thread. Be sure to visit it if you like fantasy novels.

Have fun!

 

I'm about to read Heinlein's "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls."

Is it as good as Job or Stranger?

 

Oh, its been awhile since I've read The Cat Who Walks Through Walls Ender. I need to re-read it. But I remember liking it. In fact, I can't remember ever not liking any of Heinlein's stuff. If you like Heinlein I would definitely recommend "Tunnel in the Sky." It's one of my all time short book favorites. I've read it about 5 times so far.

 

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for that one.

 

Okay I have selected the first book, discussion/debate on it is to begin June 17.

Book: Warchild
Author: Karin Lowachee
Published: 2002 by Aspect Science Fiction
Length: 451 pages
Awards: Warchild was the winning entry in the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest

Comments on Warchild: Story of a boy's comming of age amongst interstellar war. Remenisant of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

"Warchild is a remarkable and powerful first novel. Well-written, with realistic characters, crystal-clear alien cultures, and compelling moral choices. An outstanding debut." -- Kevin J. Anderson

Comments on Karen Lowachee: This is her first novel. She holds a creative writing and English degree from York University in Toronto.

This is an outstanding book, enjoy. Here is the schedule for this month and the beginning of July.

June 17: Warchild by Karen Lowachee

June 24: There and Back Again by Pat Murphy

July 1: The Postman by David Brin

July 8: Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard

Note: I know most people didn't like The Postman as a movie, but the book is much better. Battlefield Earth is a long book, you may want to go ahead and start on it. I may decide to allow two weeks to get done reading this one.

Specs

Edit: Warchild's price (on the cover) is $6.99 US/ $9.99 Canada. But I think most libraries have it in stock.

 

I've read Warchild. I'm looking forward to discussing it

 

Has anyone read anything by Kage Baker? Very nice lady. She's writing a series of books kind of similar to Connie Willis' Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, except that Kage is both a better and funnier writer. The first book of hers is called In the Garden of Iden, the second book, which is better, is Sky Coyote. Very worth reading if you like any sort of time travel at all. I'm looking forward to reading Warchild one of these days. It's on "the list."

 

Between this and fantasy, I may have some trouble keeping up. Especially with books the length of Battlefield Earth on the list. [face_shocked] Not to mention -- real life!

 

Real life? Where can I get one of those?

I'm going to have to pass on the current fantasy bbok, I couldn't find it at the library or the bookstore.

I'm still in debate about Battlefield Earth, but I think it would be worth while if ya'll can find the time to read it.

Also has anyone ever heard of Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank? It is one of those post-apocolypse books they were writing in the 70's and 80's. I'm thinking of adding it to the list later on if everyone can find it.


Specs

 

Nope Mastadge, never heard of Kage , but I'll keep an eye out for her books.

 

ooo, Alas Babylon is one of my friend's favorite books. She had me read it. It wasn't bad. Actually I found it interesting how many targets are here in Florida. I think we're royally screwed if that situation ever actually happens in real life

 

All those poor alligators...ummm I mean people. Your friends got good taste ismaren.

 

actually it suprises me she likes it so much. Most of what she reads is Chaim Potok or Prayer for Oenide . Oh, and star wars books of course.

EDIT: There really isn't a lot of alligators here. They've been killed off and run out by all the people

 

I haven't read Warchild; I'm picking it up tomorrow. But from the few reviews I've read it looks a lot like John Steakley's Armor, which I highly recommend.

 

I've never read Armor Mastadge. I've seen it a few times but never gave it more than a glance.

I will definitely be adding Starship Troopers to the list. It is nothing like the movie. It is WAY better than the movie. Of course, for the movie to have been anywhere near as good, it would have had to have been about nine hours long!

 

I've never read Armor Mastadge. I've seen it a few times but never gave it more than a glance.

I will definitely be adding Starship Troopers to the list. It is nothing like the movie. It is WAY better than the movie. Of course, for the movie to have been anywhere near as good, it would have had to have been about nine hours long!

Funny you should mention that. The list is short of definite bugwar novels:

Starship Troopers
The Forever War
Armor
Ender's Game

But despite the similarities in each, they're all completely different.

Starship Troopers, despite the high-tech and the cool suits, was pretty much Heinlein preaching about the military,
Armor, despite the high-tech and the cool suits, was pretty much about a man being torn apart by the fact that he continues to survive.
The Forever War so far as I can tell was Haldeman's response to Vietnam.
Ender's Game, well, I don't know what the hell Card was trying to accomplish, exactly, but he did it damned well! Although he did steal the Nebula from Armor that year by disqualifying it from the ballot on some technicality. By the time he acceded to several authors' demands to have it put back in, Ender's Game had 100 votes and Armor had only amassed 6. Steakley was ROBBED.

Have any of you read Vernor Vinge's duo, A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky?

 

I prefer Ender?s Shadow to Ender?s Game. It might have something to do with having read Shadow first, but I simply prefer Bean to Ender.

I found Ender to be an idiot savant. He was brilliant, but he missed the obvious. Reading Ender?s Game for the first time, my younger bother was able to figure out what was going on by the time Ender was sent back to Earth, and he rarely catches those sorts of thing. But Ender, who is supposedly one of the most brilliant people on earth, was unable to figure it out. Even in the sequels, Ender never came across to me as being of anything but average intelligence.

On the other hand, Bean came across to me as being smart. Given fewer clues than Ender, he was able to figure out more, faster than I was able to put things together with the aid of a narrator in Card. In Ender?s Shadow, he came across to me as being as smart as he was hyped to be. Not so much in Shadow of the Hegemon, but there were moments there too.

Also, in the time between Ender?s Game and Ender?s Shadow, Card?s writing improved noticeably. I found Shadow to be plain out better written on a technical level.

Just my opinion?

 

Well, Card is FAR from one of my favorite writers, but I enjoy Ender's Game specifically as a quick read.

He was brilliant, but he missed the obvious.

Kind of like Rhapsody and FitzChivalry. Except for the "brilliant" bit.

 

Fitz didn't miss the blatantly obvious. If you pounded it through his head often enough, he got the idea. Rhapmarysuesody did have a tendency to miss the blatantly obvious though, yes.

More than any other quality in a fictional character, I like common sense and intelligence. I don?t care how much butt they kick in combat, how brave or noble they are, how heroic or villainous they are, etc. I like intelligent characters. Not necessarily characters that know everything or are super-brilliant, but characters that can pick out the blindingly obvious at ten paces.

On a related note, Ric Olie is the man.

George R. R. Martin, Matthew Woodring Stover, J.R.R. Tolkien, Guy Gavriel Kay, Aaron Allston and most other authors that I like generally have one big thing in common: their characters have an amazing talent for grasping the obvious. That?s too rare a quality by times.

 

Have any of you read Vernor Vinge's duo, A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky?

Yes! I laughted, I cried, I drooled. I'm torn between the JC and reading books now. It's not fair!

I also read all the other books you mentioned, Mastadge. Loved them all. I love military sci-fi. Even those that don't have any plot line like In Death Ground and its sequel The Shiva Option.

Ender was actually my favorite character. For some reason he didn't annoy me at all.Rhapsody *shudder* just take her out and the story would be great.

 

Pham kicks ass. We need a SW character like him.

 

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!


Oh, and have you ever read Mayflies by Kevin O'Donnell Jr. ? One of my favs. I think I've read it about a hundred times now. It's only a few hundred pages long, but when I get done with it, I feel like I just read an epic.

 

Nope. Haven't read Mayflies.

 

Read. It. Now. Please.

It's about a guy who dies and wakes up as the brain of a intersteller colony ship. The book spans about a 1000 years.