Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

Picked by: Steph


Bill: Masterful combination of human relationships and sci-fi technology. The characters are not secondary to the technology, which I found unusual in the sci-fi genre.
General Read: 5 | For Discussion: 4

John: As a child I often would think of how vast is space. This book brought some of those thoughts back. When the replicators traveled deep into space and sent information back was very interesting. I would have liked to hear more from Jason about what he learned from the replicators.
General Read: 4 | For Discussion: 5

Judi: Plot somewhat disappointing; the mystery of the Spin is not clearly explained. Good character development, although female characters, for the most part, were in subservient roles.
General Read: 3 | For Discussion: 3

Phyllis: Interesting concept - well written, kept my interest. Women could have been more developed as characters - stronger, less dependent. Tyler was a wonderful narrator, but Jason & Diane's stories would have been interesting if more developed.
General Read: 5 | For Discussion: 4

Steph: Good character development, but something was lacking somewhere. Maybe the characters were too dramatic and over-simplified? I am also turned off by loves that don't get together. I loved the sci-fi technology aspect; seemed well thought out.
General Read: 4 | For Discussion: 5



Discussion questions used:

I asked one question and we ended up discussing things for over an hour:

• What were the themes you observed?

Discussed at Firefly Coffee Shop

Old Man's War by John Scalzi

Picked by: Phyllis

Andrea: An easy read, enjoyable for entertainment, lacked depth and development of underlying themes. Posed questions it did not explore and left a lot of potentially great concepts unexplored. I would recommend it for a lazy afternoon's read: you can lose yourself in the story without working too hard for the reward.
For Discussion: 3 | General Read: 4

Eric: Old Man's War is a very easy read, perhaps too easy. The subject matter lends itself to so much more and I was disappointed by Scalzi's lack of encouraging his characters, and thereby his readers, to ask the deeper questions or commit to some real opinions. I felt the characters lacked depth and development. That said, it was still a nice freshmen showing and I currently have the next book in the series in my possession so that must say something about this books readability.
General Read: 3.5 | For Discussion: 2

Discussed at Steph's house.

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. LeGuin

Picked by: Judi

Eric: Not a difficult read but a literary journey which seems at least as arduous to traverse as the main characters' nearly three month ice journey which takes up at least a third of the book. While I do not believe that dust-cover-reviews do it justice and I enjoyed it much more than expected, I definitely would not have enjoyed it as much if I had not had the potential of a hearty group discussion at reads end. Perhaps this book suffers from being an artistic pioneer and stylistically copied since, but at my reading, some forty years post-debut, there were parts that seems formulaic and not well polished and other parts that seemed very timely during a post-war, pre-election era which may make its reading during later periods not nearly as pertinent as it was to me. Overall, I considered it to be better than average but not so much so as to be noticeably present on my recommendation list. I would read something else by this author but probably give my copy of the book to the library had I not checked it out from there in the first place.
General Read: 3.5| For Discussion: 4 (potential)

Discussed at Firefly Coffee Shop.

Book Reviews

A new item we're adding to discussion: Reader Opinions.

If you are a current member and would like to submit your opinion to previous books, click here.

Your reviews will be put up using first name only. Or a pseudonym if you like.

Going forward, written opinions will be asked for at each discussion.

:)

Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton

Discussion questions asked:

• Compare the technologies to the ones we have today.
  
• Do we put too much confidence and faith in technology to solve our problems?
  
• Do you think this book would be relevant in its time? If it came out today, would it have as much impact?
  
• What do you think of the style it was written in with fake documentation?
  
• What did you think of the characters?
  
• What about females? Was it sexist, or just a product of its time?
  
• For the person who chose this book: What made you want to read it? What made you suggest it to the group for discussion? Did it live up to your expectations? Why or why not? Are you sorry/glad that you suggested it to the group?
• How would you have liked it to end?

Discussed at Firefly Coffee Shop.

The Seeker - Jack McDevitt

Picked by: Phyllis

Neuromancer - William Gibson

Picked by: Steph

Foundation - Isaac Asimov

Dune - Frank Herbert

Picked by: John & Bill

Kindred - Octavia Butler

Picked by: Denise

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Picked by: Judy

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

Picked by: Bill

Discussed at Firefly Coffee Shop

Contact - Carl Sagan

Cold Skin - Albert Sanchez Pinol

Picked by: Barb

Discussed at: Phyllis/Bill's

1984 - George Orwell

The Children of Men - P.D. James

Picked by: Judi

Discussed at: Firefly Coffee Shop.

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein

Picked by: Phyllis

Steph: First half was good but then I think the author smoked something and made the main character's life his fantasy. Sparked good discussion, but only because of its eccentricity.
General read: 1 | For Discussion: 4

Phyllis: The bible of the love generation, it had themes of "individual liberty, self-responsibility, sexual freedom and the influence of organized religion on human culture and government." The book started out extremely well, the religious part was quite enjoyable-making fun of the crazy religions that were popping up at the time, but the sexual freedom was carried a little far and dragged the book down. It became less sci fi and more 'summer reading'.
General read: 3 | For Discussion: 4

Discussed at Higher Grounds Coffee Shop

The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick

Picked by: Steph

Steph: An abstract alternate history which is subject to interpretation. General Read: 4 | For Discussion: 4

Phyllis: Alternate history where the Nazis and the Japanese won the war. The I Ching is featured in the book and also was used to make decisions as the plot developed.
General Read: 3 | For Discussion: 3

Discussed at Seeker's Coffee House.

Lucifers Hammer

Picked by: Phyllis

Phyllis: A comet hits the earth all around the world. People will have no food and begin to hoard and look after themselves. Cannibalism ensues. Who is good and who is bad? How do you decide who lives and who dies? Your friends or those that can contribute? What is the worth of a politician? Good read but too long in places.
General Read: 3 | For Discussion: 4

Steph: Middle of the road disaster story.
General Read: 3 | For Discussion: 3

Discussed at Seeker's Coffee House.

1st Meeting

RECAP OF FIRST MEETING OF THE OFFICIALLY GEEKY® SCI FI BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

When: Sunday, May 7; 2pm

Where: Seeker's Coffeehouse on Coldwater Rd.

Book: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

Seekers was the perfect venue for book discussion. In attendance was Aunt Phyllis & Uncle Bill, Judy, and myself. We were all so excited about discussing the book that the discussion started before we even picked our couches. We talked for two hours about characters, plot, and our general impressions of the book. Sandoz seemed to be the character that dominated the discussion, since he was the only one to survive [and had the HAND THING]. We talked about which characters we identified with and why. We all expressed interest in reading the sequel, called Children of God (and available at ACPL!).

We all agreed that it was awesome to hear other people's views on the same book, and we definitely all had unique perspective to present. We had a good time, and had some good food - thanks Aunt Phyllis! We picked out the date & title for the next discussion. I highly recommend that you attend next time!!! There is plenty of room for different points of view! And if the four of us thought it was awesome to hear three other points of view, think of how awesome it would be to hear how five or six other people interpreted the book!

After our discussion, I decided it wasn't geeky to like sci-fi (it's cool), so I've changed the title of the discussion group simply to:

"THE OFFICIAL SCI FI BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP®"

The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell

Picked by: Steph

Phyllis: The Jesuits continue their missionary experience but it is now to planets. They become stranded on the island. A crew sent to find them think one Jesuit is a traitor. Easy to read but it drove me nuts that he did not tell them sooner what had happened to him-but, you don't want the ending in the middle! I kept wanting to turn to the end to find out what happened.
General Read: 4 | For Discussion: 4

Steph: I'm glad we picked this as our first read. Excellently written with the right amount of suspense and science fiction. Russell does an excellent job of storytelling.
General Read: 5 | For Discussion: 5

Discussed at Seeker's Coffee House.