Book Recommendations of January 2019

New year, same shit all over again? Not in the Otherland. - and even if 2018 were to repeat itself, it would be great, because last year was awesome! Still we really hope to be able to greet many more authors from the SF/F/H realm and have a great time! Let’s see what this year will bring…
On January 25th, we’ll be having a book release party at the Otherland: contributing authors and artists of AndersWelt will be presenting this short story collection slash artbook! The reading is in German; it starts at 7 pm, and admission is free, as always.
You will find in this newsletter not only reviews of recommended books, but also little passages on what we’re looking forward to in the year 2019, enjoy!

Next Otherland Book Club Meeting

Our first meeting in 2019 will take place this Friday already and we'll be discussing Annalee Newitz's snazzy little book about anti-monopolist drug pirates and AI love, Autonomous.
It has been nominated for both the Nebula and Locus Awards for Best Novel last year and has already catapulted to number 4 of our best-seller list.
Meeting takes place on Friday January 11, at 7.30 pm at the Otherland as always.



The Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club meetings are always on the second Friday of the month at 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookstore.
There's always snacks and drinks that you don't have to pay for, but contributions are welcome.
You never need to sign up to join us, but please do read the book if you're coming.

Hello, Good Evening, Welcome and Goodbye...

It was such a blast having SFF-author and aquaphile Nate Crowley and his lovely wife Ashleigh here in Berlin!

Particularly the reading (if you thought Schneider was a good book, you will die laughing reading The Best 100 Video Games (That Never Existed) - soon available at Otherland) was so enjoyable and funny, we just might have to repeat it soon.
Thank you very much for this lovely event, for the aquarium visit and for joining our book club discussion on Blindsight!
We hope you come back and don't forget that this city is even better when it's warm!

Book Recommendations of December 2018

Well well well, looks like we have reached the end of yet another year... And what a year it was! So many great authors have visited our humble little book shop, so many great books were published that we could hardly keep up with reading them, the Otherland got a few exciting new sections and our beloved bookshop turned 20!
We still have three appointments left for this year, then it’s off to sweet sweet tranquility and boredom. For a couple of weeks at least - we’ll talk about fresh events at your favorite local bookstore in our next newsletter in January.
Have a nice fin de l’année, we wish you some peace and quiet and a safe passage to 2019! See you then!

An Evening with Nate Crowley!

Make a blue fist and join our band to greet NATE CROWLEY at the Otherland Bookshop next Thursday, Dec. 13, at 8.00 pm!

He'll present his awesome Zombie-Klassenkampf novel The Death and Life of Schneider Wrack (find my spoilered review here!) and maybe read a little from his other book, The 100 Best Video Games that Never Existed, too!
Boy, remember all the fun we never had playing those games? Yeah, me neither...

Admission is free as usual, there's snacks and drinks, it's cold outside and warm inside, there's an immensely talented author visiting us, reading and chatting with us, it will be perfect! Come by any means!

Next OBC Discussion

Hey book clubber,

how about meeting next Friday (Dec. 14th), 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookshop?

Discussion is about this masterpiece on the left!

Blindsight is a veeery eerie and inventively genious first-contact-story that admittedly needs a little getting used to before it carries you away to the heights of fright... and anxiety... and neuroscience...
Peter Watts, who was here in Berlin and visited us a couple of years ago, is one of our favorite Hard SF writers whose new novella The Freeze Frame Revolution was just recently published, don't miss it!

As you probably all know by now:
The Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club meetings are always on the second Friday of the month at 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookstore.
There's always snacks and drinks that you don't have to pay for, but contributions are welcome.
You never need to sign up to join us, but please do read the book if you're coming.

Next titles are:

Otherland Bookstore Christmas Special Newsletter Recommendations

I know there are people out there who thoroughly enjoy the so-called “festive season”. They love racing around in the cold weather drinking mulled wine to keep themselves fueled; ignoring the huge waste of energy sources spent on stupid lightings, spending money here and spending money there to buy masses of stuff neither they nor anybody needs, producing huge amounts of waste, rejoicing at the thought of the central-european-black last two weeks of the year when they will be stuck with a bunch of people they happen to be related to in an enclosed space, bore each other to death and give each other, with sparkling eyes, obsolete stuff which the recipient can’t wait to exchange for items they need even less.
I am not one of them, neither is the assumed reader of this introduction. Yet here I am, telling you to buy books for this ghastly time of the year. Not because I want you to go through all the aforementioned procedure, but because I think that books and movies are CRUCIAL FOR YOUR SURVIVAL in these hard times! Stock up on books, movies, music, games, anything you find that will fight depression off and invigorate your spirits during long toilet breaks, afternoon naps, intervals after everybody’s passed out from eating too much and while hiding inside the christmas tree.
For those of us who don’t find any religious meaning in these days: You will find below some of the means that will help you make it through. Some are our personal recommendations and some the subjective best of the ending year 2018.
Persevere my fellow sufferers, my companions in misery; times are difficult but we need to stay strong, keep on reading! [Inci]