The Sci Fi Book Club

 
 
 

Book of the Month:
“The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022”
Editors: John Joseph Adams, Rebecca Roanhorse

This month we are keeping a beloved Sci Fi Book Club tradition alive. For the eighth year in a row will be reading the newest edition of a short story collection called The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. It has been a Club favorite each year and takes a good look at the current state of science fiction by highlighting some new and established writers in the genre. Each story has to meet certain criteria that you can read up on at the editor’s website and are chosen without the author’s name attached.

Stories are selected by John Joseph Adams and a new guest editor (this year is Rebecca Roanhorse, best-selling author of the novel 'Black Sun'. Roanhorse's writing is often inspired by indigenous and ancient civilizations and has a doctorate from Yale in Federal Indian Law. She is an exciting new voice in the sci fi and fantasy space and I'm curious to see what she and Adams have in mind.

Per usual, I recommend coming back around to the Introduction by Roanhouse until you've read the stories, it sometimes contains spoilers. The Preface is worth it, for sure! It describes the selection process.

Let us know in the Comments below which stories you like and feel free to skip one if you’re not digging it. There are always plenty of perspectives and approaches to the format in this collection.

“The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022” is available in paperback via Amazon and other online booksellers and is also available via the New York Public Library.

To join a Book Club meeting, all you will need is YOURSELF! If you haven’t had a chance to finish the book, we still would love for you to join us in the discussion.

 
 
 

Hi everyone,

Book of the Month:
“Voices from the Radium Age”
Editor: Joshua Glenn

We will be following up our April contemporary short story collection with a new book celebrating sci fi short stories from the early twentieth century!

From the Goodreads description, "Voices from the Radium Age" features work by the famous (Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes), the no-longer famous (“weird fiction" pioneer William Hope Hodgson), and the should-be-more famous (Bengali feminist Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain). It offers stories by writers known for concerns other than science fiction (W. E. B. Du Bois, author of The Souls of Black Folk) and by writers known only for pulp science fiction (the prolific Neil R. Jones). These stories represent what volume and series editor Joshua Glenn has dubbed “the Radium Age”—the period when science fiction as we know it emerged as a genre. The collection shows that nascent science fiction from this era was prescient, provocative, and well-written.

Let us know in the Comments below which stories you like and feel free to skip one if you’re not digging it. There are always plenty of perspectives and approaches to the format in this collection.

To join a Book Club meeting, all you will need is YOURSELF! If you haven’t had a chance to finish the book, we still would love for you to join us in the discussion.

Cheers,
Jon

 
 
 

Hi everyone,

We've been working to find a way to get Sir Terry Pratchett into the rotation and I'm glad to see you all agree. This was the first month with "The Long Earth" on the poll and it was picked by a wide margin. So let's get into it!

Book of the Month
The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (2012)

Stephen Baxter, who is a well-established sci fi author in his own right, and Pratchett collaborated a number of times before Pratchett's death in 2015. "The Long Earth" is widely considered some of their best work together. The story revolves around a string of alternate Earths, all within the same spacetime as our world, and the ability to "step" between those worlds. In their review of the novel, The Guardian found it to be "much more like a Baxter novel than a Pratchett one." It does not lean as hard on Pratchett's sense of humor for the engine of the story. It was also said to be "a charming, absorbing and somehow spacious piece of imagineering."

To join a Book Club meeting, all you will need is YOURSELF! If you haven’t had a chance to finish the book, we still would love for you to join us in the discussion.

Cheers,
Jon

 
 
 

Hi everyone,

We have another dimensional, time-travel novel for August from another heavy hitter of science fiction. "The End of Eternity" is a novel about Eternals, whose job is to range through past and present and manage their cause-and-effect relationships.

Book of the Month
The End of Eternity - Isaac Asimov (1955)

"Eternity" works as a futuristic thriller and is particularly effective as a straight-up mystery novel. Where time travel and multiple realities can get muddy, Asimov manages this story with grace and clarity. Many consider it to be one of his greatest novels.

To join a Book Club meeting, all you will need is YOURSELF! If you haven’t had a chance to finish the book, we still would love for you to join us in the discussion.

Cheers,
Jon