Book Club Goes Valerian!

It's a friday evening movie date, then:

Meeting point - Entrance Cineplex Neukölln, Friday July 21st, 7.30 pm.

See you guys there!


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Hello past and present book clubbers!

We want to go to the movies with you and watch "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets". Just sign up and write down when you have time (it's always the 19.45 show at the Cineplex Neukölln)!

Here's the doodle-link:

http://doodle.com/poll/qknqxee63ka2wf7r

The winning date(s) will be announced here on the blog no later than Thursday (July 20).
Totally excited about this!!!

The King of the Dead is Dead, Long Live the King!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

It was only in February that we celebrated George A. Romero's 77th birthday with a Zombie-Special, and now I have to hear that he has passed away yesterday July 16, 2017.

It's so very very sad - we lost a legendary, genius, iconic master of horror!
Thank you George, for having been.

You can read stuff we previously published about him here and here. And here's a great documentary about his work, among other directors. Let's all take the time to indulge in Zombie movies today in his remembrance.

Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club

It is soon discussion time again at the Otherland Book Club!

Haldeman's The Forever War (1974) is not only the first title in the SF masterworks series AND winner of the Nebula, Hugo and Locus Awards, it is also the first military science fiction we will be talking about in our club!
So we expect everybody who is reading it or has read it in the past to join. It isn't even a long book, you can still make it if you start today.

Plus, the movie is comming out soon! Don't miss the chance to crack your smartass-smile and say "The book was better!" when it is showing! Read it!

Friday July 14th, 7.30 pm at the Bookstore, admission free, no registration needed as always! See you there.

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!