Sci-fi Book Club

Join us for December's sci-fi book club meetup to discuss 'Retrograde' by Peter Cawdron.

Our meetings start loosely, hanging out with new and old friends while everyone arrives. After most people arrive, there are introductions and the main group discussion about the book. As that runs out of steam, everyone drifts into whatever groups and topics make them happy.

We are meeting at Koelbel Library. We have 'Meeting Room C' reserved, which is found at the back of the library's cafe. It has sofas, easy chairs, and a variety of tables with stools. This one is on Saturday, so the library cafe will be open for the first half hour. "Light snacks and covered drinks" are also allowed in the space but alcohol is not. I usually bring one variety of small snacks and friends often bring more.

The library closes at 5 PM, but there is a nice patio area to linger outside if the weather is still good. I usually like to continue talking there, or we can go somewhere for dinner. There are also a couple restaurants across the street and it is only a couple blocks to the large variety of DTC. We have not yet committed to doing this, but at some point we'll relocate to one of those and continue on.

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The book poll for January settled on 'Blindsight' by Peter Watts (2006) - 384 pages

This is the linked pdf of all our previous polls and selections:
Previous Poll Info

Can't wait to see you all!

**Please update your RSVP if you change your plans about attending.**

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December's book description:
'Retrograde' by Peter Cawdron (2017) - 258 pages

Venturing into space and traveling to Mars sounds like an exotic adventure, but the reality of living on a rocky, frozen, lifeless planet is exacting on the Mars Endeavour crew. The exhilaration of reaching the surface of Mars has worn off for the public, and the exploration has moved into its scientific phase. The only viable option for long-term habitation lies hundreds of feet beneath the surface, in lava caves that shield humans from harsh cosmic radiation.

Connor, Harrison, and Liz are senior members of the U.S. module. When war breaks out on Earth and rumors spread to Mars, their core principles are rocked by the devastation and loss of friends and family. Whom can you trust on an international mission when your countries are at war? As colonists from different nations struggle to figure out what really happened on Earth, grief and anger become pitted against camaraderie and the spirit of exploration.

Join us for January's sci-fi book club meetup to discuss 'Blindsight' by Peter Watts.

Our meetings start loosely, hanging out with new and old friends while everyone arrives. After most people arrive, there are introductions and the main group discussion about the book. As that runs out of steam, everyone drifts into whatever groups and topics make them happy.

We are meeting at Koelbel Library. We have 'Meeting Room C' reserved, which is found at the back of the library's cafe. It has sofas, easy chairs, and a variety of tables with stools. This one is on Saturday, so the library cafe will be open for the first half hour. "Light snacks and covered drinks" are also allowed in the space but alcohol is not. I usually bring one variety of small snacks and friends often bring more.

The library closes at 5 PM. There is a nice patio area to linger outside if the weather is good, but the odds are it won't be warm enough. If there are a few people who would like to carry on after the library closes, there are many restaurants we can shift to. It's my hope to start doing this with the next couple meetings.

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The book poll for February's selection will be linked here after the December meeting.

This is the linked pdf of all our previous polls and selections:
Previous Poll Info

Can't wait to see you all!

**Please update your RSVP if you change your plans about attending.**

~~~~~~

January's book description:
'Blindsight' by Peter Watts (2006) - 384 pages

Two months since the stars fell...

Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown.

Two months of silence, while a world holds its breath.

Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route.

So who do you send to force introductions on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn't want to meet?

The crew you send may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. You send them all to the edge of interstellar space, praying you can trust them with the fate of a world. And you'd give anything for that to be true, if you only knew what was waiting for them...