Comments on: Sci-Fi reading group at the Madlab

By: Hwa Young Jung

Hwa Young Jung — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:36:40 +0000

Hi Col, the Sci Fi Book Club is quite a lively group, and pretty separate from the SpecFic. In fact, we are reading The City & the City tonight. Please come along to the next one!

By: Col

Col — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:40:35 +0000

Have meetings happened? Is this still an extant group? Has it been subsumed into the SpecFic writing group?

By: Simon Wharton

Simon Wharton — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:07:07 +0000

Probably not going to make this due to transport issues. Would love to get to the next one

By: Kate Feld

Kate Feld — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:52:22 +0000

Ok. I won’t be able to make Monday (first day back at work, way too much to do) but I hope to be able to come to the next meeting.

By: Simon Wharton

Simon Wharton — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:35:10 +0000

Another shout out for Joe Haldemann here. Not what I expected and better for it
I’ve been reading nearly everything by Peter F Hamilton of late http://www.peterfhamilton.co.uk/ Great ideas and the balls to base a lot of stuff in the midlands. Northampton even. The Nights Dawn trilogy is a great work and a mental idea.

Count me in as an advocate of low brow.

By: Hwa Young Jung

Hwa Young Jung — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:28:19 +0000

Thanks for all the great suggestions!
Think 4th has most votes, or least opposition. As this is the first meeting, I think we can discuss which date is better in the future, and create a booklist, so people will know what to read if they miss a meeting.

By: Dave Carter

Dave Carter — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:24:47 +0000

Great idea, around on 4th and 5th, not rest of the week. How about a real classic: Alfred Bester’s “The Stars My Destination” (aka ‘Tiger, Tiger’). Dave

By: Kate Feld

Kate Feld — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:00:50 +0000

I have actually never read Neuromancer so would be very up for that. Phillip K Dick is always fun too, and Niall’s ideas sound great.

How’s the 7th for everyone else?

By: Niall Flinn

Niall Flinn — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:11:46 +0000

I reread the Sprawl trilogy earlier this year. They’re all great, but really short! They still glitter, but there are more and more moments when you think “yeah, but they invented that last year”. And no one has mobile phones.

Books I rate:

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Love, war, culture shock and relativistic time dilation. The flip side of Starship Troopers. A smart allegory for the author’s experiences as a Vietnam veteran.

Under The Skin by Michel Faber

One of the best novels I have ever read, in any genre. To say more would be to divulge too much. There’s a film in the works, but I suggest you read this first before they gut it for the big screen.

The Drowned World by JG Ballard

Set on a research station manned by scientists studying a submerged and tropical London. Ballard’s perennial themes of environmental catastrophe and primordial compulsion are exemplified as well here as anywhere.

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick

I know everyone has seen the film, but the book is kick-ass too. I hadn’t been too sure about Dick, stylistically (I started with his early short stories which are fairly turgid) until I read this. Dark and incredibly paranoid

Hope those are useful – really wish I lived in Manc so I could attend this…

Niall

By: Dave Mee

Dave Mee — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:19:34 +0000

Agreed that Adrian has pulled out some beefy starting points. I’d also like to look at some of PKD’s pulpier short stories and I think it’s ripe time to revisit Neuromancer.