Book Club on the Edge of Forever - Neuromancer

A few of us decided to start a book club for genre fiction (science fiction/fantasy). And while we were discussing, we thought we'd record it. The podcast is called The Book Club on the Edge of Forever. This month was Neuromancer: https://bookclubontheedgeofforever.podbean.com/e/neuromancer/

This months selections?

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (9 points) - Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself ― but first she has to make it there, alive. 96 pages. 2.5 hour audiobook

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (13 points) - Considered by some to be quintessential epic fantasy, Robert Jordan took the fantasy genre that was created by Tolkien and elevated it even further.

In this first book of a 16 part series, a group of villagers must identify who is the Dragon Reborn, a hero that will come to save and destroy the world. It is 782 pages long and I will eat a copy of it if this gets chosen, one page at a time. It has also been subjected to a dramatization by Amazon and is currently being watched by millions.

The First Nova I See Tonight by Jason Kilgore (13 points) - Space jockey Dirken Nova and his cyborg companion, Yiorgos, are hired for an "easy money" job transporting a mysterious safebox between planets. It would be enough for them to finally afford their own starship again. But the gig goes sideways when galactic pirates attack. A merciless pirate captain, a tentacled mafioso, an enigmatic cult, and a femme fatale alien lover all want the package for themselves. Who's a smuggler to trust? 

This space opera is a return to the beloved "zap gun" stories of the past -- a fun, exciting, and sometimes erotic romp across the galaxy! 249 pages.

Neuromancer by William Gibson's (23 points) - Gibson's 1984 novel that really kicked cyberpunk into the mainstream. It's a story about a hacker, stripped of his abilities, who agrees to take on a new job for the chance to cure the damage that keeps him out of cyberspace. It won the Nebula and the Hugo the year it came out, and I loved it when I read it, but with NFTs and the Metaverse in the news I'm curious about how it holds up and what it's like to read it almost 40 years later. 270 pages. I don't remember there being anything especially objectionable in it.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (17 points) - 208 pages. Two agents in a time war start a correspondence. Big Piranesi vibes. I picked it up in my quest for substantive stories about time wars. It was disappointing on that front, but a good read.

As always, the points are the end result of ranked voting from all 5 of our members.

I wasn't sure why I wasn't compelled by Bindi. I don't remember who I voted for this one. It seems pretty stock. It clearly pitches me the idea--maybe just an idea--in the blurb; culture and education. I mean, yeah, IDIC. It seemed to confidently tell me what it was about and it wasn't novel enough. If I realized how short it was, it got a solid bump up the ranks.

Oh wow, the first book in an epic fantasy series. I get that following series and authors are a way of guaranteeing quality in the face of Sturgeon's Law. On the other hand fuck epic fantasy series. If you're going to write one hundred thousand books about your fantasy world without sexy elf twinks, you could at least make each book more digestible than a dictionary.

If was writing an epic fantasy series, I wouldn't use the Encyclopedia Britannica as a template.

This is How You Lose the Time War was my suggestion. I realize my description is short, but it came in second. All I have to say about it is that it's short and good.

Our final runner-up (last loser?) is First Nova I See Tonight, a high adventure sci-fi adventure that styles itself a callback like Captain Proton, but played straight. However simple Binti's idea was, it had an idea. First Nova doesn't seem like it's got that, even. I guess there's nothing wrong with a wiz-bang adventure. It's better than another bloody epic fantasy series. 

Another Bloody Epic Fantasy Series? ABEFS? I'll workshop it.

Finally Neuromancer. 

Yes. 

Yes, I would like to read a science-fiction classic.

This isn't even close, guys.

You can find The Book Club at the Edge of Forever here: https://bookclubontheedgeofforever.podbean.com/

Book Club on the Edge of Forever - Stormfront

A few of us decided to start a book club for genre fiction (science fiction/fantasy). And while we were discussing, we thought we'd record it. The podcast is called The Book Club on the Edge of Forever.

The this months selections?

The City and the City by China Miéville (17 points) - Inspector Tyador Borlú, of the Extreme Crime Squad in the fictional East European city-state of Besźel, investigates the murder of Mahalia Geary, a foreign student found dead in a Besźel street with her face disfigured. He soon learns that Geary had been involved in the political and cultural turmoil involving Besźel and its "twin city" of Ul Qoma. His investigations, which start in his home city of Besźel, lead him to Ul Qoma to assist the Ul Qoman police in their work, and eventually result in an examination of the legend of Orciny, a rumoured third city existing in the spaces between Besźel and Ul Qoma.

Book Club on the Edge of Forever - Piranesi

A few of us decided to start a book club for genre fiction (science fiction/fantasy). And while we were discussing, we thought we'd record it. The podcast is called The Book Club on the Edge of Forever.

The first months selections?

All Systems Red by Martha Wells (18 points) - "In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by  Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn't a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid, a self-award SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth."

Hard Magic by Larry Correia (13 points) - The story follows Jake Sullivan, a "Heavy" who has the ability control and manipulate gravity, density and mass. During a routine operation to take down a fellow "active", Sullivan becomes caught up with a secret society of "actives" called The Grimnoir as they try to save the world.

The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (19 points) - Story is about a fellow named Miles, the son of a lord of Barrayar, who due to some physical issues wasn't able to get into the military academy like he was expected to. So while feeling down he finds himself stumbling into trouble, and after some escalation finds himself leading a mercenary group sort of by accident. Part of a series, but none of the other books before or after are necessary to enjoy as its the first to focus on Miles (previous one featured him not quite born yet).

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (20 points) - Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house―a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

The point values were the books' final points in a ranked voting system. I find ranked voting works great for small numbers of people with a submission for each one. The numbers rarely ever land evenly.

My first vote was for All Systems Red, which was my submission. It was a light, informal book that typifies trends I've noticed in 'modern' fiction. "Informal" is the best word I can think of for it. It's one of those things I don't hate, but I'm not used to. 

When a book isn't too worried about presenting itself as not a book, I find it's hard for me to get engrossed in it, as though I'm not reading an overly long pamphlet, or breathless recounting of an TTRPG campaign or round of video gaming. The value it lacks is "pretentiousness" and I missed that when reading.

But it was still fun. I've read it before and enjoyed it quite a bit. Because of its unpretentiousness I was constantly aware of the tropes and shortcuts and plot points that became inevitable.

Sometimes when I read a good book, I'll put it down and savor the tension. Ask myself what might happen next. Absorb a plot twist. I tore though ASR and figured the structure out while taking a piss and eating dinner. It was an okay book at best, but that's not faint praise after two seasons of Star Trek: Picard.

Piranesi was my next choice. It seemed unique. A high concept speaking in the language of stories told around campfires, whether they were told about Zeus or hook-handed convicts. Piranesi didn't disappoint. It falters a bit at the end, but it's hard to keep the excitement up after the mystery is revealed. 

I teared up at the end because the story and characters had earned it, but the final act was 'merely' a well-told story in an exotic location. The climax lacked the mystery of the first half of the book and the emotional gut-punch of the wrap-up. 

A good book, and one I recommend.

The Warrior's Apprentice sounded like a typical story of an atypical hero being thrust into heroism. That it was a book in a fantasy series did whatever the opposite of "excite" is. It "cold water to the junk"-ed me.

But if TWA was cold water to the junk, Hard Magic was a jet of North Atlantic seawater shot into my pants until my testicles were test-icicles. My favorite part of HM's pitch was the conjunctions. If I was a vampire my crucifixes would be phrases like "secret society," "the ability to control," and "during a routine operation," along with any proper noun which literally has the word "grim" it.

Add to that that implication of some boorish magic system, and I practically bared my pens at it and hissed the title of Poe story before recoiling into the shadows of a nearby writers circle.

You can find The Book Club at the Edge of Forever here: https://bookclubontheedgeofforever.podbean.com/