Addendum to the OBC Discussion on N.K. Jemisin's "The Fifth Season"

by Gisle Martens-Meyer

LETTER TO OTHERLAND

Dearest Fulcrum filth!!

With greatest sadness I cannot be present tonight, I'm at Frankfurt Buchmesse, tirelessly robbing publishers of their free drinks.

However! Tonight! Be careful what you say about The Fifth Season! My torus is immense! My orogene ears are listening in the Earth!! My army of stone eaters are standing by!! ONE NEGATIVE WORD about this greatest piece of literature ever, and my wrath and punishment will be instantaneous! My Obelisk death-rays are pointing straight to Bergmannstrasse! My lava sharks are circling in the magma under your feet at this very moment!

I give a remote thumbs up. I expect a universal vote. Thank you. Have a pleasant evening.

Blogger's note: No need to say that the book got our Otherland Book Club approval. As to Gisle, we expect to see ten rings on his ten fingers next time we see him. Hope he enjoys the drinks!

Next Meetings, Titles and Dates for the Otherland Book Club

Dear Book Clubbers,
Our meeting on October 12th is drawing nearer! Are you close to finishing The Fifth Season yet?

N.K. Jemisin's 2015 science fantasy novel is the first book of the groundbreaking Broken Earth Series which sensationally has been winning the Hugo Awards for best novel for the last three years!
In the single supercontinent Stillness, every few centuries comes a so-called "fifth season", a season of extreme climate change. In Stillness the society is divided into many communities ("comms") and species: the Orogenes, energy controlling "freaks"; the warriors and hunters called "Guardians"; the academic Geomests and the sculpture-people Stone-Eaters are only some of them.
In the prologue, an orogene with super powers expresses the sad state of the world and then uses his power to fracture the entire continent, thus causing the worst Fifth Season of all time. The book then follows the stories of three female orogenes: Essun, Damaya, and Syenite.

Meetig is on October 12th, 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookshop as usual. And as usual there will be snacks and drinks. Just read the book and come over!

Next titles and dates for the Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club are:

November 9th - The Book of Dust Vol. 1 - La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Belle_Sauvage
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34128219-la-belle-sauvage?from_search=true

November 23rd - A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay (HORROR SPECIAL)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Head_Full_of_Ghosts
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23019294-a-head-full-of-ghosts?ac=1&from_search=true

December 14th - Blindsight by Peter Watts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight_(Watts_novel)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48484.Blindsight?from_search=true

Meetings are always on a Friday and at 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookshop. See you there!

Alastair Reynolds was here!

Alastair Reynolds while signing all his books at the Otherland!

Life can surprise you in pleasant ways sometimes. Sometimes the most renowned and acclaimed author who seems totally out of reach can turn out to be the nicest, coolest, most down-to-earth person ever. That was the case with Alastair Reynolds. We at the Otherland were so fortunate and so happy to be able to welcome him and his wife Josette at our bookshop!

Not only did they agree to make a stop in Berlin and to make a short reading of the next Revenger book and a QA-evening at the Wasserturm for the Otherland, even though they were heading for Elstercon in Leipzig . Alastair also signed all of his books in the shop and enchanted his fanbase in Berlin by taking time for each fan during the event and the signing!

Charles Stross - third time at the Otherland

A recap of an evening with Charles Stross

by Wolf Tress

 

Wolf and unimpressed cartoon cat in Otherland

I remember quite well the first time Charlie walked in our Otherland. With a friendly hello he strolled by and entered the english book section. I was thinking: Wow, this guy looks like... and this guy is standing right in front of the books of ... and now he takes one of the books of ... so I walked over and asked: “Are you...” “Yes, I am Charles Stross - do you mind if I sign my books?” Well, yesterday was the third time he came to visit the Otherland and do a reading / Q&A-Session with us.

What's next at the Otherland Bookshop?

The Otherland is on FIRE... metaphorically speaking of course! We're thrilled to bring you one or two special guest(s) each month from now until the end of the year.

Here a short overview of the incredible events coming up, so mark your calendars:

Monday September 10th, 8 pm; SF author Charles Stross at the Otherland Bookshop
Thursday September 20th, 8 pm; SF author Alastair Reynolds at the DTK Wasserturm (Kopischstr. 7)
Wednesday October 17th, 8 pm; SF author Cixin Liu at the Kreuzkirche-Church (Zossener Str. 65) (This event isn't free unfortunately; please reserve tickets at service@otherland-berlin.de)
Friday October 19th, 8 pm; horror author Tobias O. Meißner at the Otherland Bookshop
Monday November 5th, 8 pm; SF author and activist Cory Doctorow at the DTK Wasserturm (Kopischstr. 7)
Thursday November 29th, 8 pm; Le Guin-translator Karen Nölle at the Otherland Bookshop
Thursday December 13th, 8pm;  horror/SFF author and aquaphile Nate Crowley at the Otherland Bookshop

Whew! On top of that we have our regular meetings - Book club, Gatherland and role playing evenings - going as usual (except for Gatherlands in September and October - those are cancelled).

As to our book club, here are the titles and dates for the next few months:

Friday September 14th, 7.30 pm; Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward
Friday October  12th, 7.30 pm;    The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
Friday November 9th, 7.30 pm;   La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
Friday November 23th, 7.30 pm;   HORROR SPECIAL - A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

The fall and early winter will be insane at the Otherland!!! See you there, I guess.

The Zombie Novel You Never Knew You're Desperate to Read

Inci German on Nate Crowley's The Death and Life of Schneider Wrack

 

Nate Crowley will be visiting the Otherland on December 13th for a reading and QA event! Don't miss it!

 

This Friday we're breaking new ground with the “Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club Horror Special”! We're not jumping in at the deep end by starting off with the heavy stuff though, like hardcore sadistic short stories or extreme horror that will give you nightmares. For starters we chose a horror comedy about a Zombie uprising; The Death and Life of Schneider Wrack by Nate Crowley. Exciting!

I didn't really know what to expect when we voted it, had never heard of Nate Crowley before and Zombies aren't exactly my kind of horror. But the premise sounded super interesting and the cover is very very cool (yes, sometimes I do judge a book by its cover). And yes, this book won me over at the drop of a hat.

True, this isn't your typical horror story that makes you piss your pants and leaves you all paranoid and shit scared for days after – but Crowley uses a traditional horror trope in an exceptionally creative way in order to tell a morbidly funny, fairly disgusting, partly horrifying, insanely absurd and yes, towards the end even surprisingly deep and heartwarming tale.

Spoilers from here on

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!