Unfinished Reading: Michael Swanwick, Chasing the Phoenix

Every few weeks, it’s the same thing: There’s tons of new books I’ve been meaning to review or at least muse about online, and I just can’t get it done. Part of this is the bookseller’s curse: I keep starting to read books before finishing the current ones, and then I stop reading these other book – sometimes when I’m 50 pages in, sometimes when I’m 50 pages before the end.

Updates on the Speculative Fiction Book Club

Don't forget our book club meeting next Friday, June 9 at 7.30 pm!

After Library at Mount Char in May, we pursue the theme of sociopathic unreliable female characters with a chilling mystery classic: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.

Here's our plan for the next few months:

July 14th: Forever War by Joe Haldeman

August 11th: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

September 8: The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. Le Guin
(You may want to start reading this one because it comprises the first four books of the Earthsea  cycle. It was scheduled for September so everybody has enough time to finish it).

Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club

The Making of Carolyn

 

İnci German on Scott Hawkins’ The Library at Mount Char

It is not easy to review Library without giving away too much – as is the case with every book that has a major twist. I even hesitated entitling this entry as I wanted to because I am too scared to spoil anyone’s reading experience. I can safely say though, - and folks at the book club (whether they adored or passionately hated the book) unanimously agreed upon this - this is a major page-turner, a horror-fantasy which is hard to compare to anything you’ve read before. Hawkins certainly knows how to keep you reading and he definitely polarized the OBC.

As full of spirit as the month of May…

by Inci German

How spectacularly May 2017 has begun in Berlin!
No, I’m not talking about the revolutionary May 1 rally nor the inevitable catastrophe that was the Eurovision Song Contest for Germany – These were lousy compared to the spring program of the Otherland bookstore! Two top-class double features (Caitlin Sweet/Peter Watts and Ty Franck/Peter Orullian) in one week, followed by the RPG-evening and one of the most fierce book club discussions ever and yet there’s so much to come! I’m talking Anne Leckie (July 26^th), Marko Kloos (July 28^th) and Roadside Picnic (at the Gatherland) here! It’s all so exciting!

Reading with Ty Franck (James Corey) and Peter Orullian

Attention Expansers and Vault of Heaveners!

On Friday May 5, at 8pm, science fiction author Ty Franck (one of the two constitutents of the virtual author James S.A. Corey, The Expanse Series) and fantasy writer/musician Peter Orullian (Vault of Heaven Series) will visit the Otherland Bookshop! So grab your copy of Leviathan Wakes and Caliban's War and Trial of Intentions and whatnot, and BE THERE!

Reading with Caitlin Sweet and Peter Watts

Hooray we have guests!

Caitlin Sweet (The Pattern Scars, The Door in the Mountain, The Flame in the Maze) and
Peter Watts (Blindsight, Echopaxia) are paying a visit to the Otherland Bookshop for a joint reading event on May 3rd, 8 pm!!! Yes they are! And yes, admission is free as always!

Superb writing, excellent worldbuilding, the guts to bring up the ugly, the uncomfortable, the creepy - Fantasy author Caitlin Sweet has it all. I'm pretty picky when it comes to fantasy, and even I am genuinely enchanted by her writing, surely she'll win all Otherlanders over in a walk!

At our last Gatherland meeting many eyes started to shine when the name "Peter Watts" was mentioned. Yes, there's a bona-fide hard SF-fanbase eagerly waiting to hear more about the disturbingly brilliant first-contact-novel Blindsight and its equally ingenious sidequel Echopraxia.

This will be a great evening and You, dear Otherlander, should definitely be there. So mark your calendar!

Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club

Hey Book Clubbers!

This one's to remind you that this month we don't meet the day after tomorrow, but exceptionally next Friday, April 21st. So lock yourselves in for the long weekend, lay down on that couch, snuggle under your blanket and read the astounding SF masterpiece that is Gateway. By the way Jakob has written a review on it right here, so you may wanna check that out. And while you're at it - also start reading The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins, because that's what we'll talk about in May (on the 12th to be exact).

Keep calm, read books and have a nice long weekend! See you next Friday.