December SFFCAT - Under the Influence

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December SFFCAT - Under the Influence

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1mamzel
Editat: des. 3, 2015, 2:20 pm

Offered for your CAT challenge enjoyment this month - a choice of award winning science fiction and fantasy novels. Links to lists of previous award winners are given for additional inspiration.

World Fantasy Award - presented by the World Fantasy Convention (that's H.P. Lovecraft, by the way) - The award will not be Lovecraft's head after this year.



2012 - Osama by Lavie Tidhar
2013 - Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
2014 - A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar
2015 winner - The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Other nominees - The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
My Real Children by Jo Walton

Hugo Award - presented by the World Science Fiction Society


2012 - Among Others by Jo Walton
2013 - Redshirts by John Scalzi
2014 - Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
2015 - The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Nebula Award - presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.



2012 - Among Others by Jo Walton
2013 - 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
2014 - Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
2015 - Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy
2015 - Love is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Arthur C. Clarke Award - for science fiction published in the U.K.
2015 - Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Sidewise Award - recognizes the best in alternate history
2014 - The Enemy Within by Kristine Katherine Rusch

2Dejah_Thoris
nov. 13, 2015, 12:15 pm

My favorite site for SF and Fantasy award info is the aptly named Science Fiction Awards Database. Well, actually, the name would be more apt if it mentioned fantasy, but I'm sure the shorter name seemed like a good idea to somebody.

I won't have any trouble finding books for this Challenge.....

3Kristelh
nov. 13, 2015, 1:38 pm

This should be a nice way to finish the year for SFFCAT, so many books I could have read this year, need to do this again some year soon.

4DeltaQueen50
nov. 13, 2015, 5:29 pm

I can't believe we are entering our last month for the SFFFCat. I have really enjoyed this Cat.

I am planning on reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, it was nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo Awards and won in 2011 a Locus Award for first novel.

I am also planning on reading Blood Red Road by Moira Young which was nominated for Best YA Costa in 2011, won the ALA Best YA Fiction in 2012 and also won a 2012 Sunburst Award (Canadian Literature of the Fantastic).

5Dejah_Thoris
nov. 13, 2015, 5:38 pm

>1 mamzel: Just to confirm - non winning award nominees are acceptable?

6mamzel
Editat: nov. 13, 2015, 6:15 pm

They are as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure there are a lot of winners in the runners-up!

And any books that have received awards I haven't listed, too. I'm sure there are many others.

7RidgewayGirl
nov. 14, 2015, 5:23 am

Science fiction is not my genre, but Ancillary Justice was an amazing book and I highly recommend it.

8dudes22
nov. 14, 2015, 6:56 am

I'm pretty sure that I'll be reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman for my Dec read. I can't believe we're already looking at books for Dec. I will say this CAT has expanded my reading in the SFFF genre. Some of the books I've read will even be making my "best of" for the year. Which I would never have expected at the beginning of the year.

9MissWatson
nov. 14, 2015, 12:27 pm

I just found Redshirts on my bookswapping site, so I'm set.

10Kristelh
nov. 14, 2015, 3:02 pm

Just finished Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I am afraid I will need to read the next one to know what happens to the characters.

11LittleTaiko
nov. 14, 2015, 9:25 pm

Looking forward to finally reading Ancillary Justice.

12LibraryCin
nov. 14, 2015, 10:32 pm

It looks like my best option is:
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.

It won the Newbery Medal in 2013, I believe.

13cbl_tn
Editat: nov. 14, 2015, 10:39 pm

I will finally give Harry Potter a try with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

14rabbitprincess
nov. 15, 2015, 7:38 am

I will be rereading The Return of the King. The trilogy as a whole won the International Fantasy Award for Fiction in 1957, and of course it was also massively influential in general, to the point of making "Tolkienesque" an adjective.

15mathgirl40
nov. 15, 2015, 8:01 am

The proposed September Haruki Murakami group read never happened, and we'd talked about moving it to December. Kafka on the Shore won the World Fantasy Award in 2006, so it (and some of his other work) would fit this challenge.

16Robertgreaves
nov. 16, 2015, 12:09 am

I read The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse in November with a vague memory that it was about the quest for self-development. It wasn't but it was the book that clinched the Nobel Prize for Literature for Herman Hesse.

17sturlington
nov. 16, 2015, 1:32 pm

I just finished Slow River by Nicola Griffith, which I'm going to count for this month even though I read it in November. It won the Nebula and Lambda Literary Award.

18LibraryCin
nov. 22, 2015, 4:50 pm

The one option I thought I had has a lot of holds on it at the library, so I may go for this instead, we'll see...

To Say Nothing of the Dog / Connie Willis

19klarusu
nov. 22, 2015, 5:05 pm

I have so many options in my TBR! I think it will either be The Man in the High Castle, Hyperion or The Three-Body Problem. I'm partway through The Goblin Emperor so hopefully I'll finish that up too.

I shall miss SFFF CAT next year!

20LibraryCin
nov. 22, 2015, 9:58 pm

G'ah! Both my options have many holds at the library. Sigh... I just hope one will come in for me in time!

21mamzel
nov. 28, 2015, 4:36 pm

I've started Annihilation, the 2015 Nebula reader. (That is a word I am having real trouble learning how to spell.)

>19 klarusu: If you are able to watch it, The Man in the High Castle on Amazon is absolutely amazing.

22LibraryCin
Editat: nov. 28, 2015, 7:58 pm

Ok, someone has suggested to me that The One and Only Ivan is not really fantasy, since it's from the animal's point of view (I think that was the reason). (Although it is tagged that way...)

I may go for The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo instead. Looks like it hasn't won any prestigious awards, but it has apparently won the "Bookbrowse award" and the "Minnesota Book Award".

Or, I may do both, anyway.

23fuzzi
Editat: nov. 29, 2015, 3:44 pm

>1 mamzel: all the "award" links take me to a "new topic" box...?

24klarusu
nov. 29, 2015, 4:08 pm

>21 mamzel: That's my plan after reading the book! Glad to hear it's worth it.

25mamzel
nov. 29, 2015, 4:44 pm

>23 fuzzi: Thanks! All fixed!
I had written the post elsewhere and copied it to the page when I was ready to open the thread but that doesn't work. I noticed the pictures needing tweaking but didn't check the links. Extra coding must have snuck in from the word processor. It's like cooking a steak in advance and reheating it before serving. It never, ever tastes the way it should. Lesson learned.

26fuzzi
nov. 30, 2015, 12:31 pm

Question for all, on topic (I hope!):

I have heard very good recommendations for the author Lois McMaster Bujold. If you were me, had never read anything by this author, what would you recommend as a first read?

Thanks!

27mathgirl40
Editat: nov. 30, 2015, 1:01 pm

>26 fuzzi: Short answer: Bujold's Vorkosigan series is very popular and Shards of Honor and The Warrior's Apprentice are both good starting points.

Long answer: we had a Vorkosigan group read last year, and the thread is still active. The first post has pointers to various suggestions for reading order, and there are more recommendations throughout the thread.
http://www.librarything.com/topic/160914

Trust me: you won't go wrong with Bujold!

28leslie.98
nov. 30, 2015, 1:30 pm

>26 fuzzi: >27 mathgirl40: I notice that her book Paladin of Souls was a Hugo winner -- has anyone here read that? Is it similar to the Vorkosigan books?

29DeltaQueen50
nov. 30, 2015, 6:20 pm

>26 fuzzi: It also depends on whether you wish to read Science Fiction or Fantasy. Her Vorkosigan series is pure old-school space opera and they are fun to read. She also does fantasy which is what Paladin of Souls is. I loved her World of Five Gods series of which Paladin of Souls is part of. These books can be read in any order as the only connection is that they are all set in the same place although often hundreds of years apart.

30fuzzi
Editat: nov. 30, 2015, 8:02 pm

>27 mathgirl40: >28 leslie.98: >29 DeltaQueen50: thanks for the info. I enjoy both fantasy and SciFi, although as I get older I find myself more interested in SciFi. My favorite author in the genre is CJ Cherryh, who mainly does space stories, with an emphasis on relationships and political maneuvering. I love Tad Williams' epic fantasy series Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, too. I don't mind dark, but I dislike reading about violence, if descriptive.

The local library does not have Shards of Honor, but they do have Falling Free, which is listed as the first in the series. An ILL request has been submitted for the former. Thanks again!

31mamzel
des. 1, 2015, 11:07 am

>30 fuzzi: Funnily enough I've gone the opposite direction. I used to read a lot of science fiction but have recently been immersed in fantasy. I might have started down that path with the event of the Lord of the Rings movies.

32fuzzi
des. 1, 2015, 12:17 pm

>31 mamzel: in my opinion, LotR is in a genre by itself. The closest to its scope and detail is the aforementioned Tad Williams trilogy.

I found The Warrior's Apprentice for cheap on ebay, and ordered it. Others here at LT recommended it as highly as Shards of Honor.

33sturlington
des. 1, 2015, 2:25 pm

>32 fuzzi: I read The Warrior's Apprentice for Heroes month and really enjoyed. I've never read anything else in the series and I thought it was a good entree. Hope you like it!

34countrylife
des. 2, 2015, 7:54 pm

I'm going to try The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon, Nebula Award 2003.

35fuzzi
des. 3, 2015, 10:29 am

I found Falling Free at the local library, and started reading it. So far, I'm enjoying the read.

36Dejah_Thoris
des. 3, 2015, 10:43 am

>35 fuzzi: Falling Free is the only LMB book I've never read a second (or third, or fourth....) time. Perhaps it's time I did!

While it's true that Falling Free is listed as the first of the Vorkosigan books, it's only because it's set in the same universe - that action takes place several hundred years before the events in Cordelia and Miles' lives. The Quaddies - and many issues relating to genetic engineering - do turn up again in the later books.

37mamzel
des. 3, 2015, 2:21 pm

Finished the 2015 Nebula winner, Annihilation this morning. Wow! What a book!

I failed to mention it in the intro but I am glad people are listing the award and year won in the Wiki.

38sturlington
Editat: des. 3, 2015, 2:44 pm

>37 mamzel:. Are you continuing with the trilogy? I had to read it pretty much back to back. I'm pretty sure Annihilation is making it on my top 5 list for the year.

39mamzel
des. 3, 2015, 5:56 pm

>38 sturlington: I have them on my Kindle but I am taking a break. It was pretty dark.

40dudes22
Editat: des. 3, 2015, 8:48 pm

I've just finished The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman which won the Hugo Best Novel in 2009, the Newbery Medal for Best Novel in 2009, and the Carnegie Medal Best Book Winner in 2010. It was also a nominee for World Fantasy Best Novel in 2009 and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature Best Children/Young Adult Fiction in 2009. I enjoyed this story of a young boy who grows up in a graveyard.

41Kristelh
des. 3, 2015, 9:15 pm

Finished Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, this book won the Hugo, Nebula and the John W. Cambell Memorial Award and the Locus Award.

42leslie.98
des. 4, 2015, 1:39 am

>41 Kristelh: I debated reading that - how was it?

43fuzzi
des. 4, 2015, 7:03 am

>36 Dejah_Thoris: I finished Falling Free last night. I enjoyed it, and look forward to more books by Lois McMaster Bujold.

This was the first time I've read anything by this author, and I truly enjoyed it. It's an entertaining blend of engineering, both genetic and mechanical, in a story that kept me interested until the end. Nicely done.

44Kristelh
Editat: des. 4, 2015, 10:28 am

>42 leslie.98:; I liked it, gave it 4 stars. Others, more serious Sci Fi people criticize it for lack of character development; heres my review---I listened to the audio read by Peter Ganim and Robert J. Sawyer. This book was originally published in 1973, it is a story of space flight and first encounter. A probe enters Earth solar system. A crew land on the probe with the purpose of studying it to determine what it is and what purpose does it serve. I found the story interesting. I liked the speculation about the probe especially the one about it being the arc and the second coming. The title Rama is a name for the Hindu god Vishnu. The readers did a good job and the story was easy to listen to. Sometimes the detail in a science fiction can be a little much for audio but this wasn't the case with the book. The conclusion leaves you hanging. It was not written to be a series but the ending works perfect for a series and Arthur C. Clarke later wrote several books to follow. I would be willing to read another. This book, regardless of the criticism's was awarded the Hugo, the Nebula and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (1974) as well as Locus (Novel, 1974)and British Science Fiction Association Award (1973). I did like the ending; "The Ramans do everything in threes."

45leslie.98
des. 4, 2015, 2:13 pm

Thanks >44 Kristelh: -- I am hoping to get to Neuromancer for this CAT but maybe that one will join it (or replace it if I continue having trouble getting the Gibson from the library).

46Robertgreaves
des. 5, 2015, 2:13 am

Starting Peace and War by Joe Haldeman, an omnibus edition of "The Forever War", "Forever Free" and "Forever Peace".

"The Forever War" won the Nebula Award for Best Novel (1975), and the Hugo and Locus Awards for Best Novel (1976).

"Forever Peace" won the Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Novel (1998) and the John W. Campbell Award (1998).

47Kristelh
Editat: des. 5, 2015, 8:08 am

>45 leslie.98:, I liked Neuromancer though many people struggle with his books.

48DeltaQueen50
des. 8, 2015, 6:24 pm

I finished Blood Red Road by Moira Young which is one of the books I am planning to read for this month's SFFFCat. I found this one an very good adventure read.

49LibraryCin
des. 9, 2015, 11:16 pm

Apparently this has won a couple of smaller awards...

The Magician's Elephant / Kate DiCamillo
3 stars

Peter was orphaned as a child and his sister was stillborn. When a fortuneteller tells him his sister is, in fact, alive and an elephant will take him to her, he holds onto hope.

This is a quick little book, and it was ok, but nothing special for me. In fact, I found parts of it a little odd. I read the e-book and there were illustrations, but I bet the illustrations would have been nicer in a physical book.

50Robertgreaves
des. 10, 2015, 3:33 am

COMPLETED Peace and War by Joe Haldeman:

My review:
(The Forever War (Nebula Award for Best Novel (1975), and the Hugo and Locus Awards for Best Novel (1976))
William Mandella is drafted into fighting for Earth against the alien Taurans near the beginning of a war which lasts for 1143 years due to relativity effects as each side flies through collapsars (wormholes) to gain territory at the other's expense.

Not bad, not good. I don't see why it has received so much acclaim.

Forever Peace
(Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Novel (1998) and the John W. Campbell Award (1998))
Earth is split into two opposing camps, the Alliance and the Ngumi. Jason Class is a mathematical physicist who has to do National Service for 10 days a month as operator of a mechanical soldier for the Alliance. Working with his lover/colleague Amelia Harding, they realise that an experiment colliding elementary particles put in orbit round Jupiter will re-create the Big Bang, starting a new universe and ending this one. Can the experiment be stopped and can the ultimate weapon be kept out of an apocalyptic group's hands?

Ideas fizz off the page in this one, with lots of excitement in the race against time. However, the switching back and forth between omniscient 3rd person narrator and first person narrative got annoying after a while.

51fuzzi
des. 11, 2015, 10:07 am

>6 mamzel: how about the Prometheus Award? It's given for libertarian science fiction: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_Award

52mamzel
des. 11, 2015, 10:43 am

Sure. I'm sure there are a lot of awards and it's good to bring them to everyone's attention. I was glad to see how they've recognized Cory Doctorow, one of my favorite YA authors.

53fuzzi
des. 11, 2015, 11:24 am

Excellent. There are a lot of good books on that award list, including my favorite Heinlein: Friday.

54sturlington
des. 15, 2015, 8:39 am

I got in another book for this category: The Testament of Jessie Lamb, which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and was on the Booker longlist. It's an apocalyptic novel in which everyone has been infected with a bio-engineered disease that causes any woman who gets pregnant to die horribly. I actually would have thought this was YA if it hadn't been nominated for these awards. I had some issues with it, so I couldn't really recommend it. Read The Children of Men for something similar, but I think, much better.

55mamzel
des. 15, 2015, 10:28 am

If you have the Syfy channel, you should see their production of Childhood's End based on Arthur C. Clarke's ground breaking book from 1953. Not an award winner, this book is none-the-less recognized as a classic in its genre.

56MissWatson
des. 16, 2015, 4:13 am

I finished Redshirts and had great fun reading this. I liked the codas best, they give a glimpse of the stranger necks of the internet.

57DeltaQueen50
des. 20, 2015, 2:10 pm

I thought the writing was very good in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin but this story never quite pulled me in.

58hailelib
Editat: des. 27, 2015, 3:35 pm

I've just completed I, Asimov which won the nonfiction Hugo in 1995 (best related book). It was really great, as though he was sitting there with me telling all these very interesting stories about himself, other writers, the publishing business, and more.

59staci426
des. 28, 2015, 9:37 am

I finished The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick which won the Hugo in 1963. Also, I am almost finished with a reread of Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey which was nominated for the Hugo and Locus Awards in 2012.

60Kristelh
des. 28, 2015, 3:59 pm

I read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Great fantasy story. Won the Quill award, Science fiction, fantasy, horror 2007.

61countrylife
Editat: des. 28, 2015, 9:09 pm

For December's SFFFCAT: Influential / Award-Nominated/-Winning, I read The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon (Nebula).

ETA: This was not my favorite CAT, but I'm glad that I participated. I missed one month, and except for two months when I somehow managed two books, I barely squeaked a read in for the others. I'm glad my last read for this challenge was such a good one!

62fuzzi
des. 28, 2015, 6:48 pm

I also read Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold, which won both a Hugo and a Locus award!

I tried reading Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card, but gave up after about 100 pages.

63Dejah_Thoris
des. 30, 2015, 5:25 pm

I'm really going to miss the SFFCAT in 2016.

64fuzzi
Editat: des. 30, 2015, 6:00 pm

>63 Dejah_Thoris: me too...

...why can't we have an "unofficial" SFFCat? Like the AlphaCat, it could be a SFFKit, to distance it from the actual CAT challenges.

65Dejah_Thoris
des. 30, 2015, 6:06 pm

>64 fuzzi: I guess there really isn't any reason we couldn't do it - I think there's a core group of us who will be reading at least some SFF every month and could allow our selections to be swayed by the KIT. WOuld we keep the same monthly categories?

66fuzzi
des. 30, 2015, 7:30 pm

>65 Dejah_Thoris: good question...who else might be interested?

Voteu: Would you be interested in participating in an SFFKit in 2016?

Xifra actual: 11, No 1, Indecís 1

67fuzzi
Editat: des. 30, 2015, 7:32 pm

Voteu: If you answered "yes" to post 66, would you want to keep the same categories?

Xifra actual: 1, No 0, Indecís 8

68OldDan
Editat: des. 31, 2015, 9:38 am

Aquest missatge ha estat suprimit pel seu autor.

69fuzzi
des. 30, 2015, 8:23 pm

>68 OldDan: well, join if you want, or not, it's okay whatever you want to do. :)

70leslie.98
Editat: des. 31, 2015, 12:09 am

>68 OldDan: While I would call the Earthsea trilogy and Anne McCaffery's Dragonrider series fantasy, I would classify the Vorkosigan series as sci fi. Of course, the boundaries are blurry so it it ends up depending on your personal tastes.

I might be tempted by a SFFKit but would probably participate only sporadically.

71OldDan
Editat: des. 31, 2015, 9:37 am

Aquest missatge ha estat suprimit pel seu autor.

72fuzzi
des. 31, 2015, 10:02 am

>70 leslie.98: then participate sporadically, and just enjoy your reading!

:)

73LittleTaiko
des. 31, 2015, 10:38 am

I really enjoyed this challenge as it forced me to read some things I otherwise wouldn't have. Similar to Leslie I'm interested but might not participate every month.

74fuzzi
des. 31, 2015, 10:42 am

If we get up to ten "yes" votes, I will volunteer to post a 2016 SFFKit thread, unless someone else wants to do it.

However, I've never done a wiki...

75Kristelh
des. 31, 2015, 3:00 pm

I would like to continue pursuing SciFi. I've been working my way through NPR top 100 scifi, fantasy list and this CAT really helped me finally get a few of those read. Because of other demands my participation might be sporadic but I certainly would be motivated to continue reading through my collection of TBR.

76fuzzi
gen. 1, 2016, 10:46 am

I've created a discussion thread here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/210790

We need your input, come on over!