50 Book Challenge 2015 Part Five

[southeastdweller]

Thread five of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2015, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. It's still not too late to join, any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

First thread of the year here, second thread here, third thread here, and fourth thread here.

Happy reading

Ah yes, I remember now Well, we might just have to leave it at "fun" sci-fi for now.

I'd love some more recs for 'fun' sci-fi. Have been living in Nazi Germany for far too long this year!

Check out Lock In (£1.99 on the Kindle) and Brilliance (£1.00 on the Kindle). Did you read Lexicon when I was raving about it last year?

Orange is the New Black is currently just 99p on Kindle.

Cote, why do you love sci-fi so much? What should I read to make me love it too? I quite enjoyed The Drowned World by J.G Ballard this year, which is maybe sci-fi. And Flowers for Algernon. But what should I really be reading? Tell me one great sci-fi book and I will read it.

This Thing of Darkness is still one of my favourite books of the year. God that was good.

I'd be interested too Cote. I've never really got on with sci-fi but I loved The Martian.

the day without yesterday by Stuart Clark is £1.19, it's the third in the dark labyrinth series, focus on Einstein this time. I really enjoyed the other two do have snapped this up too . They are semi fictional type accounts of key periods in famous scientist's lives. Written like fiction but historically and scientifically accurate (I believe, am no expert!)

Before joining this thread I'd hardly read any sci fi (although I quite like fantasy, eg Lord of the Rings, Diana Wynne Jones). Since joining, I've read several sci fi books (eg The Martian, Lexicon, The Left Hand of Darkness) and have a few more waiting on my kindle - mainly recommended by Cote! I have enjoyed them all but still wouldn't describe myself as a massive sci fi fan. It's certainly broadened my reading horizons though.

I also read more non fiction as a result of this thread.

So glad to see the love for, 'This Thing of Darkness.' I've just passed my copy on to another friend (it's the third one I've bought so far!) in the hope of spreading the love a little further.

Book 147 - by Laurent Binet
My gosh, this was bloody good. It's about Reinhard Heydrich (the Nazi responsible for the Final Solution) and his assassination in Prague, plus its dreadful repercussions. On top of all that, it also very cleverly plays with ideas around what it is to write a historical novel, and the blurring of fiction and history. Absolutely superb - I can't recommend it highly enough for anybody who is interested in history, or literature, or writing or, indeed, man's inhumanity to man. Please, please can everybody read it and tell me what you think?

That link doesn't work, Remus.

HhHh Second time lucky?

"Cote, why do you love sci-fi so much?"

Because it deals with the big issues about the future of humanity rather than trivial concerns of normal individuals going about their daily lives. What would a "first contact" with an alien species be like? What will happen to us if/when a true artificial intelligence (a conscious machine) emerges? Can we really live on a different planet? What would a message from outer space say and how would we respond to it? How will technology continue to change our lives and even our species, if one day we manage to download our consciousness into computers/machines?

Good sci-fi features smart people doing smart things. And that sort of thing interests me much more than family dramas, heartstring-tugging stuff about adopted children, lost children, etc. I love a book that makes me think, and better yet, be in awe of the author. "How on Earth did he come up with that?!?" is high praise in my book and those are the books I want to read more of. It's a character defect

Read 'HhHh' Cote - I bet you a bar of Fruit and Nut that it proves to be another novel we both love.

I LOVE Fruit & Nut bars! OK, I'll give it a go, Remus

I have sort of overdosed on WWII with Double Cross which I just finished, but I put HHhH on my Kindle Wish List.

That sounds good Cote
Can you recommend me a title?

"What should I read to make me love it too?... But what should I really be reading? Tell me one great sci-fi book and I will read it."

Well, this is a big responsibility so I thought about it for a bit and came up with Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It is interesting, intelligent, and yet not too "sciencey" or brainhurty 🤓 and so I think is enjoyable for even sci-fi novices.

Another book I would like to recommend is The Diamond Age, which is brilliantly visionary and has incredibly pertinent things to say about the evolution of cultural "tribes", socio-economic & technological future of humanity, and (funny enough) raising a child. The story takes place in our near-future, when Nanotech is commonplace and Seed technology is beginning to take shape. A wealthy man orders an interactive electronic 'book' to help raise his daughter in the best possible way (yes, it's widely regarded as having anticipated the iPad). Aside from his daughter, two other girls of the same age receive

I love The Diamond Age and think that it is a very important work that everyone should read at some point, but I am hesitating to recommend it as an entry-level sci-fi book. Do please read it at some point but maybe read Hyperion first.

I forgot to say: The name "Hyperion" comes from John Keats' poem by the same name. There is quite a bit about Keats and poetry in general in this book.

Glad you liked HhHh Remus agree it is bloody good

As for sci fi, I like it because it is full of really interesting ideas and for me the best ones have great human drama on top.

The books that got me into sci fi were Philip K Dick's short stories, Isaac Asimov's foundation series, Douglas Adam's hitchhiker series

One I'd really recommend is The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell. It's a great blend of sci fi and the human. That book is great literary fiction which happens to be sci fi.

More standard but still great is the Pandora's Star I raved about up thread.

I think short stories are a great way to try it out if you are interested.

Yes, I also got into sci-fi in my teens with Asimov's Foundation and I, Robot, Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land, Friday, Time Enough For Love, and Arthur C Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rendezvous With Rama etc. I don't know what I will think if I read them again, though. My recent re-read of Dune was a sobering experience, and it was one of my favourite books of all time that I reread often but had not read in the past 10 years or so.

Imho books are much better written these days and are far more complex, intricate, and insightful than they used to be, at least in sci-fi genre.

I haven't read much sci-fi but I loved Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Children of Men by P.D. James. The Diamond Age looks excellent-I have requested a copy from the library.

(Apologies for interrupting sci-fi convos with nonSF book!)

47. A Man called Ove by Fredrik Backman - I loved this book about a curmudgeonly Swedish man who has hilarious and very moving interactions with his crazy neighbours after a personal tragedy. Literally made me laugh and made me cry. Highly recommended.

Now off to check out HHhH which sounds extremely intriguing.....

95. The Demi-Monde: Fall by Rod Rees

The plan for the Grigori to emerge from their secret enclave and take control in the Real World is comiung to fruition. In the Demi-Monde the ForthRight are preparing for the Ceremony of Purification, when the non-Aryan peoples are destroyed. All that stands in the way of these murderous schemes are three young women, Ella, Norma, and Trixie.

This has been a good series, with the creation of a dystopian world within a dystopian world, themes of belief, and the nature of religion and reality. For all those potentially heavy themes it's not at all a heavyweight read.

Now onto the secret Santa book I got at my book club last week.

Sarah Waters' excellent book, The Little Stranger, is just 99p today on Kindle. Fingersmith is also 99p.

70. A Boy Called Christmas - Matt Haig

New kiddie fiction I found tedious. Nice illustrations, though.

71. A Spool of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler

How did this get through to this year's Man Booker shortlist? Dull story, dull character, mostly dull prose, and dull situations...did I mention this book was dull?