7/11/2008
- procedural question
jason wants to read french sci-fi/fantasy. many of these books are not
translated until many years later. for example, a book from 1989 might
not be translated until 2000. much discussion ensues. verdict: whether
or not this is against the rules, it is encouraged.
- adam: john scalzi. the android's dream.
- verdict: --
- review:
this is among the worst books he's ever read. "worse than thomas
covenant." really awkward dialogue, and way too much of it. grabbed
the book for the obvious philip k dick reference. he relates a
synopsis, which i will spare you. he felt like an asshole for reading
the book.
- jeff: john c wright. orphans of chaos (etc).
- verdict: ++
- review:
he finished this series, which he began presenting to us back in
february. the series is three books, the title book as well as
"fugitives of chaos" and "titans of chaos." kids in an orphanage,
strange things ensue. the kids eventually discover that they're
demigods in effective captivity. roughly based on greek mythology and
some sci/tech stuff, they all discover their powers. predictably, the
series focuses more on the girls' physical attractiveness than the
boys'. (we repudiate this.) anyway the synopsis goes on for some
time. after all, this is three books worth of story, and it seems to
be quite complex. chad wonders how appropriate this is for high school
goths. it is appropriate for high school goths. all in all, kind of
juvenile and goofy, but well written and he really liked the
series. recommended.
- jeff: alastair reynolds. revelation space (etc).
- verdict: ++
- review:
he has now read five books in the revelation space setting, and has
enjoyed them all. as there's a new one in the series, he wanted to
report on them now. he describes the setting, sounds like pretty good
hard sci-fi. the new book is called "the prefect," and jeff has not
read it, but he thinks probably it could be read independently. highly
recommended.
- chad: joe abercrombie. the blade itself and before they are hanged.
- verdict: +++
- review:
made good use of the library of lore, and read two books that chris
already presented. POSSIBLY THE FANTASY CLASSICS OF OUR GENERATION. if
you want to know what good fantasy is, THIS IS IT. "this won't make
you cry, it'll make you go 'fuck yeah!'" a lot of swearing, a lot of
violence, some extremely awkward sex. this is a trilogy, and the third
book has been released in england. recommended absolutely as highly as
possible.
- josh: j f lewis. staked.
- verdict: +
- review:
another debut book. he's never read vampire books before this club
(read baltimore a few months back and didn't like it a whole
lot). this was fun! this book spends a lot of time explaining the
crazy things that vampires can do. josh remembers this from buffy, and
thinks it's weird how much this genre seems to be obsessed with
defining exactly what vampires can do. the synopsis seems to involve
some kind of real estate scam involving werewolves? the writing is ok
(but josh notes that he has not yet criticized a book for its
writing), and overall he enjoyed it. if you're looking for a trashy
novel, recommended.
- chris: ekaterina sedia. the secret history of moscow.
- verdict: -(-)
- review:
mentioned it last time, and has now finished. characters from russian
folklore places into a new setting in a completely flat and lackluster
way. post-cold war moscow, mid-90s or whatever. chris personally finds
this to be an interesting setting. "but no." it could have been set
anywhere. people are turning into birds. it's weird and freaky. a girl
with a disapproving mother, a cop with his own disapproving mother, a
homeless street artist, etc etc. they find themselves in the moscow
underworld. there are people with "maybe some powers," there's a
cow. honestly, he can't even remember why the people were turning into
birds. anyway, they figured it out. verdict has been downgraded from +
to -. bickering about the rating ensues. chris thinks it's worse than
that, but adam: "you didn't hate yourself as you were reading it."
chris: "i did toward the end." anyway, he ended up hating it and
that's all.
- coda
discussion about whether or not all these vampire novels and stuff
are really sci-fi/fantasy. matt's argument: there should just be a
goth section in the bookstore, end of story. chad disagrees. people
take sides and we argue for awhile.
- administrivia
we plan to try for the next meeting in august.
- that's all, folks.