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Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2016-05-09 1:41 PM (#13529 - in reply to #13419)
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CDR_Bill - 2016-04-30 2:48 PM

That did it! The reviews not showing were all set for the "private" default.

It took me a bit to get in to both Babel-17 and Lord of Light. Actually had to re-read parts of both to make the right connections. However, The Fifth Head of Cerberus just wasn't for me.


*nods*Babel-17 could be a bit confusing at places, I agree, but I loved Lord of Light and didn't find it nearly as challenging. Then again, I read a lot about mythology, psychology and religion, so since much of it read like mythology, I suppose it's an acquired taste.

I wasn't fond of Cerberus either. I understood it, which most of the people whose reviews I read who didn't like it did not, but I'm not a literary sci-fi fan. For me, stories are about characters, and Wolfe had no characters I could really identify with. Plus each story completely changed style and that's a little jarring. The first novel was a monster flick you watch at 3 a.m. in black and white; the second was an aboriginal mythology, and the third was Kafka. Neat that he can do that, but odd how it was all meshed together into one book.

I had to read Gateway early because I had to get it back to the library, and I thought it was amazing.
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2016-05-09 3:19 PM (#13530 - in reply to #11131)
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By the way, for those interested in joining us, you have just enough time to get in on the ground floor for 3 books before we start the new list in September!

For the rest of the 2015-16 challenge, we're reading:
June - The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith
July - Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
August - Earth Abides by George R. Stewart (also good for the Apocalypse Now challenge!)

Starting in September, for next year's challenge we will be reading:

September - Martian Time Slip by Philip K. Dick
October - The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
November - Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
December - The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
January - The Drowned World by J.G. Ballad (also good for the Apocalypse Now challenge!)
February - The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
March - Emphyrio by Jack Vance
April - A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
May - Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
June - Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock
July - The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2016-07-01 9:05 PM (#13886 - in reply to #11131)
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Hey guys! So I've been thinking about it, and I think next year I'm going to open up more flexibility in the challenge. The challenge that I feature here will be to finish 12 books out of the whole SF Masterworks imprint in a year. If you want to follow along once per month, then most of you who are interested in that have already joined our Goodreads book club, and I think we can continue that way over there. What do you guys think? How have you found the challenge, and have you enjoyed what you've read?
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2016-07-01 9:06 PM (#13887 - in reply to #11131)
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Hey guys! So I've been thinking about it, and I think next year I'm going to open up more flexibility in the challenge. The challenge that I feature here will be to finish 12 books out of the whole SF Masterworks imprint in a year. If you want to follow along once per month, then most of you who are interested in that have already joined our Goodreads book club, and I think we can continue that way over there. What do you guys think? How have you found the challenge, and have you enjoyed what you've read?
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Weesam
Posted 2016-07-02 3:58 AM (#13892 - in reply to #11131)
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Location: New Zealand		That would work for me. I have already read so many of the books. Out of the next 12, there are only 3 I haven't already read.
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kabouter
Posted 2016-07-06 8:11 AM (#13931 - in reply to #11131)
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Location: Belgium		Well, that seems like a good idea. Mostly because I already interpreted it that way. As it gave me a little more freedom since I only joined up recently.
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2016-07-11 12:46 PM (#13982 - in reply to #13931)
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kabouter - 2016-07-06 6:11 AM

Well, that seems like a good idea. Mostly because I already interpreted it that way. As it gave me a little more freedom since I only joined up recently.


Hey, that's cool by me! I say finish it any way you like at this point, especially since the new challenge starts in August. And welcome!

Congrats to CDR_Bill, by the way, who has finished the whole challenge as originally described! And I see that Weesam only has "Earth Abides" left!

So, what did you guys think? Was this worth it? Were the books what you hoped they would be? What recommendations do you have for next year?
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Weesam
Posted 2016-07-11 6:47 PM (#13988 - in reply to #11131)
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Location: New Zealand		Whoops, have I not marked Earth Abides as read yet? How slack of me. I think I read it back on 1 July. Liked it. Marking it off now, so consider me finished.
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kabouter
Posted 2016-07-13 1:36 AM (#13997 - in reply to #11131)
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Location: Belgium		I'll probably sign up again in August, I'll try to do 12 next year. Now I'll be happy to do half of that, but I only signed up in May so the time was short.
The books I've read were certainly worth it. 'Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep' was on my to-read list for a long time, but thanks to this site I finally took the time to actually read it. And the others I've read for this challenge were all quite good. These challenges certainly help in reading something beyond what you would normally read, and also avoid reading the same ones over and over.
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2016-09-01 9:24 PM (#14258 - in reply to #11131)
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Hello all, and welcome to a new year of the SF Masterworks Challenge!

I was inspired by an imprint called SF Masterworks to create a book club to read these legendary sci-fi classics together and critique them. This imprint will be our reading list. Our inaugural year was a smashing success! But I've learned a few things so this year I'm offering two different ways to approach the challenge:

1. Read 12 books of your choice from the SF Masterworks list.

2. Read along with the Science Fiction Masterworks Reading Club, which will be reading the entire list in order of publication. This year we will be reading:

September: Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick

October: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

November: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner

December: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin

January: The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard

February: The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

March: Emphyrio by Jack Vance

April: A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

May: Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon

June: Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock

July: The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg

August: The Time Machine & The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

Our goals are:
1. To promote the reading of science fiction.
2. To share and discuss the classics of the genre as fans and literary critics.
3. To enjoy good reading in a subject that interests us as a social activity that we can share.

Care to join us?

You can find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/849620445151239/ and onGoodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/170669-science-fiction-masterwo...
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2016-09-01 9:26 PM (#14259 - in reply to #13988)
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Weesam - 2016-07-11 4:47 PM

Whoops, have I not marked Earth Abides as read yet? How slack of me. I think I read it back on 1 July. Liked it. Marking it off now, so consider me finished.


Congrats, Weesam! You and me, we did it the way I originally intended it, didn't we? I thought Earth Abides was a hell of a good book. Really glad I read it. And I struggled hard with The Last and First Men, but it won me over in the end.
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2016-09-01 9:31 PM (#14260 - in reply to #13997)
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kabouter - 2016-07-12 11:36 PM

I'll probably sign up again in August, I'll try to do 12 next year. Now I'll be happy to do half of that, but I only signed up in May so the time was short.
The books I've read were certainly worth it. 'Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep' was on my to-read list for a long time, but thanks to this site I finally took the time to actually read it. And the others I've read for this challenge were all quite good. These challenges certainly help in reading something beyond what you would normally read, and also avoid reading the same ones over and over.


"Androids" was on my to-read list forever and a day too, and I, too, found this site to be a great motivator to finally get around to it. I'm really glad that you're finding these challenges are giving you that experience, in reading things you wouldn't normally read and getting something out of it. I'm finding the same, and I can feel my horizons expanding as we speak.
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Weesam
Posted 2016-09-02 3:19 AM (#14261 - in reply to #14259)
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Sable Aradia - 2016-09-02 2:26 PM

Weesam - 2016-07-11 4:47 PM

Whoops, have I not marked Earth Abides as read yet? How slack of me. I think I read it back on 1 July. Liked it. Marking it off now, so consider me finished.


Congrats, Weesam! You and me, we did it the way I originally intended it, didn't we? I thought Earth Abides was a hell of a good book. Really glad I read it. And I struggled hard with The Last and First Men, but it won me over in the end.


It was tough for me doing it that way. I kept wanting to read ahead, and it was hard to stop myself and only read one a month. Got there in the end though. I can't do it this way for the next 12, as there is only one of them I haven't read, and I don't really want to do a re-read of the others just yet.

Last and First Men was very strange. I really am not sure what to make of it, but I do admire the author for writing it. I agree that Earth Abides was good. Much better than I expected given my general apathy towards the apocalyptic sub-genre.
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2016-09-02 2:44 PM (#14262 - in reply to #14261)
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Weesam - 2016-09-02 1:19 AM

Sable Aradia - 2016-09-02 2:26 PM

Weesam - 2016-07-11 4:47 PM

Whoops, have I not marked Earth Abides as read yet? How slack of me. I think I read it back on 1 July. Liked it. Marking it off now, so consider me finished.


Congrats, Weesam! You and me, we did it the way I originally intended it, didn't we? I thought Earth Abides was a hell of a good book. Really glad I read it. And I struggled hard with The Last and First Men, but it won me over in the end.


It was tough for me doing it that way. I kept wanting to read ahead, and it was hard to stop myself and only read one a month. Got there in the end though. I can't do it this way for the next 12, as there is only one of them I haven't read, and I don't really want to do a re-read of the others just yet.

Last and First Men was very strange. I really am not sure what to make of it, but I do admire the author for writing it. I agree that Earth Abides was good. Much better than I expected given my general apathy towards the apocalyptic sub-genre.


I have read pretty much none of this year's list yet. Can't even find them in the library, so Amazon's gonna make money off of me this year. But by all means do it any way you want! Like I said, I think we're up to 12 years to read the whole list in this way. And I'm reading Starship Troopers before the end of this year anyway, regardless of the challenge, because I haven't read it for so long I barely remember it and I feel like it. I'm doing it for the Space Opera challenge instead.
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Weesam
Posted 2016-09-02 5:14 PM (#14265 - in reply to #14262)
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Location: New Zealand		You are in for a treat this year. There is some really great stuff in the upcoming 12. Star Maker is a personal favourite of mine, and although it is not everyone's cup of tea (like First and Last Men, it may be an acquired taste), it just totally blew my mind the first time I read it. I haven't dared re-read it since in case it doesn't live up to that first reading, 20 some years ago.

The Sirens of Titan is the only one of the list I haven't yet read.

I don't have to worry about getting hold of any of this series as when Gollancz started putting them out I thought they looked like a good way to get hold of some of the classics of SF, and started buying them. As I only had to buy 1 or 2 at a time, it wasn't too difficult. Now I still collect them as they come out, and the only problem I have is where to store them all! I long ago ran out of shelf space. I may have to buy a bigger house.

Edited by Weesam 2016-09-02 5:18 PM
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2016-09-13 3:54 PM (#14306 - in reply to #14265)
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Weesam - 2016-09-02 3:14 PM

You are in for a treat this year. There is some really great stuff in the upcoming 12. Star Maker is a personal favourite of mine, and although it is not everyone's cup of tea (like First and Last Men, it may be an acquired taste), it just totally blew my mind the first time I read it. I haven't dared re-read it since in case it doesn't live up to that first reading, 20 some years ago.

The Sirens of Titan is the only one of the list I haven't yet read.

I don't have to worry about getting hold of any of this series as when Gollancz started putting them out I thought they looked like a good way to get hold of some of the classics of SF, and started buying them. As I only had to buy 1 or 2 at a time, it wasn't too difficult. Now I still collect them as they come out, and the only problem I have is where to store them all! I long ago ran out of shelf space. I may have to buy a bigger house.


Looking forward to them!





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justifiedsinner
Posted 2016-09-13 9:01 PM (#14307 - in reply to #11131)
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Thank you for option 1. I have read 9 of the 12 on your list and will get to at least 1 of the unread 3 in the coming 12 months. I am more driven by my TBR pile which has 4 SF Masterworks on it at the moment.
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2016-09-14 8:27 PM (#14308 - in reply to #14307)
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justifiedsinner - 2016-09-13 7:01 PM

Thank you for option 1. I have read 9 of the 12 on your list and will get to at least 1 of the unread 3 in the coming 12 months. I am more driven by my TBR pile which has 4 SF Masterworks on it at the moment.


You're not alone, for sure! Welcome to the 2016 challenge!
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pauljames
Posted 2016-09-18 12:53 PM (#14328 - in reply to #11131)
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Location: scotland		I recently bought Flowers for Algernon which will be my next SF Masterowrk. Though I am not doing the challenge I thought I would see how many I want to read at this moment in time. I currently have 92 in total of which I have read 12. So a lot of fun ahead for me.
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2017-02-19 9:55 AM (#15318 - in reply to #14328)
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pauljames - 2016-09-18 10:53 AM

I recently bought Flowers for Algernon which will be my next SF Masterowrk. Though I am not doing the challenge I thought I would see how many I want to read at this moment in time. I currently have 92 in total of which I have read 12. So a lot of fun ahead for me.


Sounds like fun! Good for you that you've collected so many! I have found the challenge to be a good way to encourage me to broaden my horizons and expand my sci-fi education. Many of these books I probably wouldn't have read otherwise, and most of them I enjoyed completely. Though so far 2017 hasn't been very good to me this way. I thought The Drowned World was boring and The Sirens of Titan made me angry. Hoping I'll like Emphyrio better!
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kabouter
Posted 2017-02-24 1:36 AM (#15352 - in reply to #11131)
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Location: Belgium		Wanted to read some more in the SF Masterworks series and so ended up reading three H.G. Wells': 'The Man in the Moon' (rather so so), 'The Time Machine' (pretty good) and 'The War of the World' (good stuff). Apparently the last two are included in the series individually as well as in one tome. So I cheated a bit there with the challenge :-)
Now I've started with 'The Last and First Men' by Olaf Stapledon.
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2017-03-30 3:41 PM (#15508 - in reply to #11131)
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I really liked Last and First Men. It grew on me. I wasn't enjoying it at first, because I couldn't identify with what was going on, but then I realized that "humanity" was the protagonist, and then it was awesome.

Not doing well with this one right now. Wasn't fond of The Sirens of Titan and I'm not liking Emphyrio so far either. I didn't like the MC of Titan, didn't see what point the story had, and didn't find it funny. It seemed like a bunch of miserable crap happening to someone for no reason to me, and we get enough of that in the real world. And so far, as far as Emphyro goes, it reminds me of a Cordwainer Smith story and I think he did it better and with less words. Don't like the MC so far either, but he's still a kid at the moment, so we'll see as the story progresses.
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jontlaw
Posted 2017-06-01 4:11 PM (#15796 - in reply to #11131)
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Location: Alief, TX		I recently joined up, and I appreciate your expanding the challenge away from the pre-picked list. I had already read five of those books.

So far, this year's Masterworks are:

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Now Wait for Last Year by Philip K. Dick
The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick
Ubik by Philip K. Dick

Up next, the Simulacra by Philip K. Dick.

Yes, you sense a pattern.
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2017-09-25 5:40 PM (#16292 - in reply to #11131)
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Hi gang! I'm sorry I've been really quiet for a while. Welcome to our new members and I hope some of our old hats will consider re-joining this year's challenge! We have a new logo. I'm a bit behind in the list myself and am struggling to catch up (gotta admit, Stapledon bogged me down this time, in addition to a very busy writing schedule) but I'm progressing. This year's list is:

August: The Time Machine and War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
September: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
October: Ubik by Philip K. Dick
November: Timescape by Gregory Benford
December: More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
January: Man Plus by Frederik Pohl
February: A Case of Conscience by James Blish
March: The Centauri Device by M. John Harrison
April: Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick
May: Non-Stop by Brian W. Aldiss
June: The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
July: Pavane by Keith Roberts

Remember that you can also choose to do any 12 of the SF Masterworks as well as doing it month-by-month, as I'm doing. That also counts. So the PKD reading schedule that @jontlaw plans is perfectly legit! Happy reading, everyone!

Edited by Sable Aradia 2017-09-25 5:42 PM
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2017-10-08 5:25 PM (#16334 - in reply to #11131)
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Finished The Time Machine/War of the Worlds and Flowers for Algernon. Really glad of the re-read. I've read Wells before of course, and I remember the Flowers for Algernon novella from school, all of which made a lasting impression on me. But all are even better as an adult reader, even though I was a precocious child. I had not realized what a genuinely good writer Wells was. And though I remember the novella of Flowers clearly, and it stuck with me, the novel is really so much better because it's so much more personally intense, especially in regards to the subplot of Charlie's relationship with his family, which was intense. Reviews for all forthcoming!
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