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RamsFan1963

Classic Science Fiction Stories | Adam Roberts

Hi Everyone!! I'm trying to be better with my mid-month check-in for #ClassicLSFBC. I hope everyone was able to find a copy of Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, either in print, ebook or audiobook. Now is the time to make nominations for January's #ClassicLSFBC selection. As usually, the book with the most votes will be January pick and the runner up will be for February. With it being a new year, with a new presidential administration, ⬇️

RamsFan1963 I was sorely tempted to pick something dystopian, but I'll try to keep it positive. My nomination is The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey. @Bookwomble @Ruthiella @TheSpineView @BookmarkTavern @wanderinglynn @Readergrrl @Johanna414 @Lizpixie @BookBelle84 @Larkken @julesG @Deblovestoread @majkia @LeticiaToraci @sebrittainclark @kwmg40 5d

RamsFan1963 @CatLass007 @BookwormAHN @CSeydel @bnp @PaperbackPirate @Klou @Roary47 @AuthorCjwhitcomb @PageShifter @MerlinTheSlightlyAwkward @Books_et_al @rwmg @tokorowilliamwallace @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm @rretzler @RaeLovesToRead @The_Literary_Jedi @KathyWheeler @Lesliereadsalot @AnishaInkspill @bookwyrm7 5d

Ruthiella Looking forward to another year of classic sci-fi! 👍I don‘t have any nominations, however. I‘ll vote from everyone else‘s picks. 5d

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TheSpineView Would love to reread

The Martian Chronicles

CatLass007 I loved The Ship Who Sang. I‘m almost certain that I still have my copy. But it‘s packed away in a box in my storage building behind my house. But I‘d love to read something else by Anne McCaffrey. The Pern series is fabulous but she wrote other series I‘ve never read, so I‘ll nominate Freedom‘s Landing. Whatever the group chooses, I‘m inspired to read a lot more of her work in 2025 than I had thought of.

Freedom's Landing

swynn Yay for more classic SF! I hope to participate more regularly in 2025. I've been thinking about a reread of Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man, so I'll nominate that.

Demolished Man

Larkken Yay! I‘m enjoying Connie Willis more than I thought I would! What is our cutoff for classic, again? 10h

RamsFan1963 @Larkken We never really established a cutoff date, but I've always thought we shouldn't be using anything after 1990. Snow Crash was published in 1992, that has been our most recent selection so far. 9h

Larkken Excellent! I like it. I loved Mccaffrey when little, which reminds me I also loved Andre Norton. I'd be curious how this holds up too

The Zero Stone

40 likes9 comments

julesG

When the Moon Hits Your Eye | John Scalzi

pick

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

Expected publication: 27 March 2025

I'm shamelessly quoting from the Afterword and Acknowledgements of the review copy I was generously granted: this is "a book about the moon turning to cheese, [...] each chapter represent[s] a day in the lunar cycle, each chapter with mostly different characters in mostly different places in the United States, reacting to it in ways specific [to] them alone"

⬇️

julesG What more can I tell you about the book? The title of the book gave me an earworm, but not in a bad way. Each chapter is different, first of all because each chapter has it's own main character(s), who might show up in one of the other 27 chapters again; but also because the style of each chapter is different, one of the chapters is a chat-log, for example.

⬇️ 6d

julesG Kudos to Mr Scalzi for casually throwing in a historical detail from the 12th century that happened in a city near where I grew up. That's some weird pub-quiz trivia to include in a story about cheese or the moon.

If you have read Scalzi's work before, you will certainly like it. If you haven't read his work before, what are you waiting for? 6d

LeeRHarry I reading this one atm 😊

The Kaiju Preservation Society

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julesG @LeeRHarry Which is also very good! 6d

mariaku21 I'm just thinking of the song now!! And I had just watched 'Moonstruck' the other night 😂 5d

julesG @mariaku21 it's hard not to get an earworm 5d

56 likes6 comments

Robotswithpersonality

Under Fortunate Stars | Ren Hutchings

pick

I don't THINK any of this is a spoiler but I went into the book knowing nothing at all and had a wonderful time, so maybe just take my recommendation to read it, and come back to this review if you feel like sharing the love (or yelling at me) after you've read it. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? Absolutely thrilled to be able to add another author to my shortlist of humanity-forward sci-fi. If you've read any Becky Chambers, you know the vibe I'm talking about. Yes, there are ships, and worlds, and aliens, and even wars, but what counts is the communication and compassion between people, between beings. 6d

Robotswithpersonality 3/? There is another way this book could have been written, pacing-wise, to add a thriller element, and it would have driven me up the wall. There are a lot of things to find out throughout this story, but I never felt like anything was being dragged out for meaningless suspense, that the reader was being exposed to an odious individual just to increase tension. 6d

Robotswithpersonality 4/? Perhaps even more so than is seen in Chambers' Wayfarers series, the people we meet in this book have flaws and vulnerabilities and even traumatic pasts, and it makes all the difference. It's an ensemble cast, and multiple POVs and timelines/flashbacks result in a lot of ground to cover, but again, it never really loses an intimate feel, even if the story is fairly epic in scope. 6d

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Robotswithpersonality 5/? Less chosen one narrative, than introducing the idea that people can choose, that whole 'bravery is being scared and doing it anyway' thing, with a strong element of redemption, 'this is my chance to help' kinda deal. 6d

Robotswithpersonality 6/? I can almost see a reader complaining that they saw a certain story thread coming, but I think that has more to do with a well-plotted tale, you are brought to an inevitable conclusion, the only one that would fit. Not fate, destiny, faith, or even miracles, as much as that last word is bandied about, more a chance to touch history, question the facts, and decide you want to do your part, because it's one of the good things humanity's done. 6d

Robotswithpersonality 7/? The best parts of Star Trek First Contact and Star Trek Generations combined: In a place where time seems to stand still, meeting people who were part of important historical events, meeting your heroes from history and the dawning comprehension of all the edges they contain that history has polished off, if you loved those aspects of those two movies, I think you will really love this book. 6d

Robotswithpersonality 8/8 Suffice to say the only dismaying discovery I made was that this is Hutchings' debut novel, so I cannot immediately dive into her backlist and will now have to wait for her next book, evidently it will be in the same universe as this stand alone, coming out Fall 2025. Highly anticipated! 6d

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Robotswithpersonality

Under Fortunate Stars | Ren Hutchings

Second instance of Shaan cutting efficiently through the BS. Maybe it's personally motivated, but it propels the plot, and I love her for it. 👏🏻

7 likes

RamsFan1963

Ringworld | Larry Niven

pick

112/150 Finally finished November's #ClassicLSFBC selection. I first read this when I was around 17 and thought it was a great adventure, but looking back on it 44 years later, I see the more obvious flaws. I still enjoyed the Ringworld as an amazingly imaginative construct, something that would take multiple books to fully explore and understand, but the characters annoyed me more this time than before. Louis's attitude toward Teela, and all ⬇️

RamsFan1963 women for that matter, was extremely grating. Teela herself was pretty infuriating at first, but at least she improved a little by the end. The non-humans, Nessus and Speaker-to-Animals, were much more interesting than either human. I have the sequel to this that I might get around to reading one day. 3 ⭐⭐⭐💫 2w

AnishaInkspill yeah, this has flaws but there is something about it and I would also read the second one 2w

kwmg40 Agreed. The non-human characters were much more interesting. 1w

51 likes3 comments

Robotswithpersonality

Under Fortunate Stars | Ren Hutchings

When the cover art is pretty enough to use as the endpapers too. Love it. 😍

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Creme_de_la_them

Psychlone | Greg Bear

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Book #21 of 2024: “Psychlone” by Greg Bear

A decent atomic-era sci-fi novel from the 70s. It kept me engaged and wanting to see what would happen next. It‘s not light but it won‘t make you cry or ruin your mood.

1 like

AnishaInkspill

Ringworld | Larry Niven

pick

thanks @RamsFan1963 and #ClassicLSFBC, great pick

I enjoyed the wackiness and the comedy, but the flat characters, especially the women, left me a little exasperated at times. So, not a perfect novel but there are some interesting parts to it and I am intrigued to know how the story continues in the sequels.

DogMomIrene Astute observation! 2w

RamsFan1963 @AnishaInkspill I first read this when I was around 17 and thought it was great. 44 years later I see the flaws and flat characterization that alluded me before. I hope to finish this this weekend so I can start on Doomsday Book. 2w

AnishaInkspill @DogMomIrene 💛 💛 2w

AnishaInkspill @RamsFan1963 yeah that happens. I think books are wonderful in how we revisit them, and it's different to have we remember it One of my fav things about reading is rereading but I do have a lot of books as well - so it's not always easy.

Doomsday Book, I am tempted but I don't think I havethe time as the books I want to finish before the year ends are bit tough and will need more time with them, and want to join in future reads. 2w

14 likes4 comments

Susanita

The Last Gifts of the Universe | Rory August

1. I met my Goodreads goal by completing the tagged book. It made me laugh and cry.
2. The pool was a little cold for my aquatics class Monday, so we warmed up with cross pool exercises to disco music.
3. South Korea stopping an attempted coup!
4. I spent all day yesterday going places and getting stuff done.
5. One stop was at a library branch I don‘t visit much. Since my last visit they have installed solar panels in the parking.
#5joysfriday

DebinHawaii

Suet624 Wonderful! 2w

DogMomIrene I was impressed with South Korea‘s democracy too! 🙌🏼 2w

Leftcoastzen Yay South Korea! 2w

dabbe 💙❄️💙 2w

DebinHawaii Wonderful joys! 💛💛💛 Congrats on hitting your Goodreads goal! 🎉📚🎉 Thanks for joining in! 🤗 2w

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swynn

Secret of the Ninth Planet | Donald A Wollheim

so-so

(1965) When the sun suddenly seems to dim, scientists discover that some agency has placed "Sun-tap" stations around the solar system to draw off solar radiation and send it somewhere else for reasons yet to be discovered. Because of [plot], teenager Burl Denning joins a team of scientists tasked with traversing the system from Mercury to Pluto to restore the sun. It's as silly as it sounds, but also fun in a vintage-juvenile-sf way.

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