Otherland Book Club - Fantasy is back baby!

We're finally back at reading fantasy in our book club after a l-o-o-o-ng long time and we'll pick up from where we left with Fonda Lee's kick-ass adult debut Jade City (Green Bone Saga #1).

In a universe where the warrior Green Bones' performance is enhanced by the ever so precious and magical jade, the city of Janloon is divided between two rival clans; No Peak and Mountain. Nothing stays as it is though; not only is the hard earned peace in danger because of increasing unrests between the two groups but also a new drug that allows everyone -not only green bone warriors- to carry the powerful jade stirs up the balance!

It's all here, people: Asian martial art meets high fantasy meets mafia!

A Gloranthan Night at the Otherland!

Otherland Bookshop is proud to host the release party for the brand-new edition of the role-playing classic RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha! We‘ll have the new edition‘s chief designers Jeff Richard and Jason Durall as guests, and a box or two of print copies of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the accompanying Glorantha Sourcebook, published by Chaosium. This will be your first opportunity to get these in Germany. If all goes well, we will also have a few sets of the new RuneQuest dice sets, designed by Q-Workshop, available.

First released in 1978 by Chaosium, RuneQuest radically widened the scope not only of role-playing games, but also of fantasy world-building. Its setting Glorantha, created by Greg Stafford, owes much more to classic mythology than to the conventions of modern fantasy.

The release party takes place on August 11th, 2018 at 6.30 pm at the Otherland Bookshop. We look forward to seeing you there and chat about imaginary worlds, role-playing games and all kinds of Gloranthan goodness!

OBC Meeting Next Week

Dear Book Clubbers,

Ready for an extremely political discussion at our next meeting?
It is next week already: Friday, July 13th, 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookshop. Admission is free as usual and there'll be drinks and snacks.

Infomocracy is a cyberpunk polit-thriller and the first book of Malka Older's "Centenal Cycle" as well as her debut novel.

The Locus Award finalist for Best First Novel is set in a world where the ever present "Information", a powerful search engine monopoly, has pioneered the switch from warring nation-states to global micro-democracy. The story revolves around the lives of three individuals in the wake of elections: Ken from the idealistic Policy1st party, the sceptic Domaine who works to overthrow the system and the Information operative Mishima.

Infomocracy has already propelled to the first place (together with Ben Aaronovitch's latest novella in the Peter Grant Series, The Furthest Station) on our top ten bestseller list! So I guess we are expecting lots of people, very excited about this!

OBC Horror Special in August and next meeting

Book Clubbers!

As I previously announced we'll have a horror special in August, so we don't have to wait too long for a horrific discussion at the Otherland. Of course our new (English) horror section comes in super handy at that.

What we'll do is this: Anyone can bring one or more suggestions to the next discussion on June 6th and we'll have a voting (just like a regular OBC voting). We can also settle on a date for the horror special at our next meeting.*
IF nobody comes up with a suggestion, I have a little selection of books I'd like to read and discuss with you, and here they are:

Updates on the Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club

So much confusion... First we didn't receive the supply of Infomocracy we were expecting, then we had a tie at the vote for the next book and decided to include both books, add  the summer plans of variuos participants... Too many hurdles, really.
But, after a long discussion, we came to a compromise and this is what our ultimate schedule for the next few months looks like:

Friday May 11th -           Light by M. John Harrison
Friday June 8th -            Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
Friday July 13th -           Infomocracy by Malka Older
Friday August 10th -      Jade City by Fonda Lee
Friday September 14th - Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward

Since horror falls short in this selection, there will be an additional "OBC Horror Special" in August! So start collecting titles of your favorite horror books for the voting, this summer will be SCARY in Otherland!

Our next regular title, M. John Harrison's Light, is the first book of the "Empty Space Trilogy" and won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 2002 and a was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clark Award in 2003. It follows the lives of three odd individuals whose lives are linked to each other in many unlikely ways.
See you at the book club, only two weeks to go!

Upcoming Event: Reading with Peter V. Brett!

He has just recently concluded his "Demon Cycle" with a breathtaking finale and he's in Berlin again! Dark fantasy fans, Otherlanders, don't miss the opportunity to listen to Peter V. Brett reading from his latest book, The Core, and take all your Demon Cycle books out of your library one last time to get signatures.
The event takes place tomorrow April 24th at the Wasserturm Kreuzberg (Kopischstr. 7, 10965 Kreuzberg) at 8 pm. Admission is free as always.

Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club

Don't forget our next discussion.

Otherland Speculative Fiction Book ClubApril 13, 2018 / 7.30 pm @ Otherland Bookshop