• Monday, May 21, Organizer’s Home: The Uncertain Places by Lisa Goldstein (also picking new books)
• Monday, June 4, North Village Library: Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey
• Tuesday, June 19, Milwood Library: War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
• Monday, July 2, North Village Library: The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

Eight people attended this discussion at the Milwood Branch Library. Our topic was Queen of Shadows, the first novel by Austin writer Dianne Sylvan. The story is about an Austin musician named Miranda who gets involved with the world of vampires. None of us had read the author before. Five of us started the book, and all five finished it.

Everyone at the meeting commented said that they were not in general fans of the paranormal romance/urban fantasy genre to which this book clearly belongs. Despite that, we found the author’s storytelling kept us interested all the way to the end. Most read the book in one or two days. Several of us appreciated the well-written action scenes.  We liked many of the characters and appreciated their distinctive and snappy dialog.

One reader liked this book a lot. She appreciated that Miranda had power of her own and did not have to keep getting rescued by vampires. She felt that the vampire romance “fit in the box, but fit nicely.”

Others did not enjoy the romance between Miranda and the vampire king all that much, calling it “boilerplate”. However we appreciated the supported characters. We particularly enjoyed Sophie, the vampire who trains Miranda in self defense.

Several of us liked the Austin setting that was such a strong element of the book. We enjoyed Miranda having ice cream with a vampire at Amy’s. The Congress Avenue bat bridge fit in well with the story. However we questioned Miranda’s tastes in local pizza and Mexican food. (Domino’s and Texican Cafe? Really?)

Near the end of the meeting we talked about other books we’d read in the group that were set in Austin. We mentioned Lunatics by Bradley Denton and Resume with Monsters by William Browning Spencer, both of which we liked a great deal.

Overall we found this book to be a pleasant surprise. After the meeting, many of us adjourned to a nice dinner at La Morada.

–A. T. Campbell, III

Nine people attended this meeting at the Milwood Library. Our topic was Bug Jack Barron, a classic sf novel published in 1970 by Norman Spinrad. Spinrad will be Guest of Honor at the forthcoming 2013 WorldCon in San Antonio.The book is about the powerful host of a national television show who comes across a big story involving cryogenics and immortality. Five people at the meeting had read Spinrad previously. Seven of us started the book, and four finished it.

One member expressed difficulty getting through the first chapter. She commented it was “just about the purplest prose you can write” and said the author’s prose style was a mix of bad beat poetry and lots of double-reflexive technique. She thought the characters were nauseating and felt the book had a dreadful point of view on women. On the other hand, this reader felt the book had good ideas about the influence of television and on the struggles of the haves vs the have-nots.

Another reader said that when he read this book shortly after it was published, it was the most sexually explicitly book he’d ever read. He felt that the characters seemed unbelievably bad and uninteresting even when the book was new. This reader, who’d read a lot of other Spinrad, felt that Bug Jack Barron was a macrocosm of Spinrad’s obsessions: politics, media, and American culture. He did not feel that the book was a successful novel, but could see how its themes were influential on cyberpunk authors like William Gibson.

There was one reader at the meeting who was too young to have read this book when it was new. He said that Bug Jack Barron worked better for him than did most New Wave sf. He felt the writing style was comprehensible. He liked the book’s examination of media, and only wished Spinrad had pushed these ideas further. This reader was most bothered by the book’s attitude toward women.

Another reader hated the book’s writing style and felt the rapidly-changing viewpoints (sometimes between paragraphs) were bothersome. She did not like the main character at all. She summarized: “the life and times of an asshole are uninteresting to me.”

Yet another member suggested that the author was high during the entire time he wrote the book. She wished someone at his publisher had the nerve to tell him the book was no good. She hated the entire book and felt that every character spoke in the same ridiculous slang, which was dated even at the time the book came out.

A couple of us had read the book when it was new and had fond memories of it. One such person was surprised and disappointed by how poorly it held up. He thought the book had a few good ideas, but left an overall impression of the author trying a lot of new things that didn’t work out well. Another felt that the avant garde literary aspirations of this book were at least interesting to attempt. He did still like the book’s ideas about media and commented that the “ambush journalism” depicted in the book did not exist in the real world at the time.

In conclusion, we had a fun meeting and a lively discussion. After the meeting, several of us had a nice dinner together at Waterloo Ice House.

—A. T. Campbell, III

Ten people attended this discussion at the Milwood Branch Library. Our topic was Monster, a humorous fantasy novel by Texas author A. Lee Martinez. The story is about a pest control expert who specializes in supernatural creatures like yetis and dragons. Five people at the meeting had read Martinez before. Eight of us started the book, and seven finished it.

One person said that he enjoyed reading a light, quick book with humor but no puns. He liked that the humor seasoned the book but was not the sole reason for it. He wondered in the author consulted a D&D manual in coming up with creatures for the protagonist to round up.

Several members said they enjoyed reading this book so much that they read it in one or two sittings.  They felt the book was well-paced and laughed throughout it.

Another reader appreciated Martinez’s storytelling. He said this book continually surprised him with wonderful images such as purple worms breaking through the floor of a house.

We liked several of the characters. Monster the exterminator and Judy his client were fun characters, and their relationship developed in ways that surprised us. We thought Monster’s choices of girlfriends were interesting, running from a demon from Hell to a promiscuous angel. We all loved Monster’s sidekick Chester, the origami-man from the 6th Dimension who could fold himself into any useful shape including a bird or a bull.

Overall we found Monster to be a fun, light reading experience. After the meeting, many of us had dinner together at Culver’s.

–A. T. Campbell, III

The North Austin Reading Group met on December 5^th at the North Village Branch of the Austin Public Library to discuss Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey.  Eight people attended; all had read Fforde before.  All started the book and 6 finished it.  The book was published by Viking Adult, December 2009.  It is available in hardback, paperback, audio book and on the Kindle.  One innovation, “The Shades of Grey Cheat Sheet,” can be found at http://www.jasperfforde.com/grey/images/cheat.pdf.  It’s a two-page list of some of the high points of a difficult-to-describe book.

This element—being hard to describe—made the book ideal for a discussion group.  The setting is of a dystopian post-apocalyptic society (the Something that Happened) with a pecking order determined by one’s sensitivity to and perception of color.  The “New Order” had undertaken “The Great Leap Backward” and enforced a plethora of rules for which no one really understood the rationale.  The Greys were the lowest social order; Reds were next up, and so on up the chromatic scale.

There is a great deal of social satire and humor of an especially British flavour.  Most of the group enjoyed it, but a few knew they were missing some things.  One member didn’t finish the book because the humor didn’t appeal to him.  Another had nominated it for the Hugo because he especially enjoyed the humor and imagination displayed.

An animated discussion illustrated why the members enjoy this group so much.  One discussed Fforde’s background in film as making his work “visual” and giving him a lot of knowledge about the technology of color and the ability to translate this into his writing—and then went on to contrast Fforde, Miéville and Stross (who is visually impaired) as to the relationship between being able to write visually and relative commercial success.  Another member knows everything about Crayolas (see http://www.crayola.com/colorcensus/history/chronology.cfm, for example) and has a nearly-complete collection of them.  This was followed by a discussion of the development of color scale by Arthur Munsell (hue, value and chroma) and subsequent systems (RGB, CMYK, L*a*b, etc.) and how a “rebel” in Fforde’s society might prefer a different color scale than the administration.

One member especially liked the ambiguity: “What exactly is he making fun of?”  Another reread the book to “savor the language.”  She “looked forward to the end of each paragraph for something wonderful—or bizarre.”  Most agreed that “there are no coincidences in Fforde’s books.”  Everything is thought out, written and rewritten, edited and, according to one member, literally ripped out of his hands by the editors.

In summary, this is considered by most to be a funny, enjoyable and imaginative book, and they are looking forward to the next in the series even though it won’t be out until 2014.  But be ready for a humor that is sharp and with a British flavor.  Don’t expect belly laughs.  Well, maybe a few . . . .

After the meeting, the group enjoyed dinner at the Korea House on West Anderson Lane.

– Tom Sciance

The North Reading Group met on October 9^th to discuss Terminal World, by Alastair Reynolds.  The book was published in mid-2010 by Gollancz and Ace Books.  It is set in the future, in a world with a geography resembling Mars, and begins in a city/structure called Spearpoint.  “Zones” existing at different energy states are inhabited by humans, some modified to exist in specific zones.  The zones are at different technology levels, and transitioning between them requires drugs and may induce debilitating or even fatal biological problems.  The protagonist is an “angel” from “celestial levels” who has been modified to exist at lower levels, who is pursued by a faction intent on killing him to prevent his carrying out the mission for which he had been modified.  He is eventually forced to go to ever deeper levels and finally into the “Outzone.”  The novel is generally classified as “Steampunk,” at least among some who define the genre, although some of our members didn’t agree.

Eight members attended the meeting, 5 had read Reynolds before, 5 started the book and 3 finished it.  The ones who did not finish “got bogged down,” and others simply decided that there were other books to read that would be more interesting.  One person liked the book and actually read it twice.  He concluded that he would recommend Reynolds, but not necessarily this book.

One of the problems appeared to be that although Quillen (the protagonist) empathized with others on the planet, he wasn’t especially likeable, nor were his associates.  Some involved a criminal organization which valued his skill as a physician.  One woman helped him because she was unaware of his origin; otherwise she would have refused.  The other major objection was that very little happened.  Some who finished the book were unsatisfied by the ending and felt they had been “left hanging.”  On the other hand, one reader thought the ending was “perfect—answers given, problems solved, and the start of a new journey of knowledge.”

That said, the members were generally appreciative of some of the hard SF features.  Those who had read Reynolds’ other works liked them very much and urged the other members to try one of those.

–Tom Sciance

The North Reading Group met on June 21st to discuss A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  Nine members attended and 8 had read it.  The story was serialized in All-Story magazine, starting in 1912, as “Under the Moons of Mars,” by “Norman Bean.”  The stories were collected and A Princess of Mars was published in 1917.  One member commented that she ”could see how it was pretty hot stuff in the old days,” and “Beats the hell out of Little Women and all that stuff!”  Another said that this was from the golden age of SF and he had “strong memories of reading the whole pile.”  He owned first editions.

Other comments were generally complimentary, qualified by the time since it was written- that the protagonist, John Carter, was a fun adventurer; Burroughs was a natural story-teller; he was “good at making up names;” and that it was “good movie material—things blow up a lot!”

The main fault found by these SF fans was that, besides being “hokie and so incredibly of the time period,” that it actually combined little or no science with the fiction.  Burroughs moved the story along with absolutely no attempt to explain how something like a trip to Mars might have been accomplished.  One had to suspend belief and then enjoy the swashbuckling of the hero—much like a western novel of the period–A “penny dreadful.”

Only one person really detested the story, and has since her grandmother gave it to her at the age of 13.  It didn’t fit her attitude then and even more so now.  (Stories from that era involve many attitudes and activities that wouldn’t be considered politically correct today, so readers beware.)

In summary, it was an enormously successful series from an extremely popular author, and spawned a lot of stories by other authors.  It’s an adventure story that does not really involve science but does take place on Mars with several alien species.  But it’s long past its consumption date for some.

– Tom Sciance

The reading group met at the North Village Library on Steck on Monday, April 4, to discuss Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan. Fourteen people attended. Thirteen started the book, and nine finished reading it. Two people had read this author’s work before. Seven people intended to read the next book in the series. Many said that they would have enjoyed it in their adolescence also  (the targeted age group).

Everyone seemed to enjoy the book on some level. Many added the phrase “for a YA” to their compliments; only one person declared himself to be a fan of Young Adult books. People listed the following irritations:

• The world or premise was not believable.  (How did Darwin unravel DNA so fast? How did the Germans advance so fast mechanically?) (3 readers)
• The biotech, with its invention and use of animals, was repulsive, on the level British colonialism. (3)
• Thin characterization or dislike of one or the other protagonists (3)
• British society did not feel British. (2)
• Some scientific details were not accurate. (Mercury is not red. Hydrogen does not smell like bitter almonds, although hydrogen cyanide does. Fencing illustrations were wrong.)
• An escape plan that involved heavy gold bars rather than banking arrangements in other countries seemed doomed (and dumb).
• Like unfortunately too many books, the ending was abrupt, with no sense of resolution. (4)

However, everyone mentioned that despite these complaints, they kept reading the story. Several described it as a real page-turner. Others mentioned the wealth of sensory detail made them willing to suspend disbelief and enjoy the story anyway. Scott Westerfeld seems firmly established with us as a good steampunk (or biopunk) writer.

The sequel Behemoth has been published, and its sequel Goliath is scheduled to be published later this year. Westerfeld has another YA series published (the Uglies) and several adult novels as well.

—Madeleine Reardon Dimond

The North Reading Group met at the Milwood Library on January 18th to discuss Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. This is his most famous work and has been published in myriad editions since its first release in 1726.  Eleven members attended the meeting, and six editions of the book were represented.  All had started the book, and all but one had finished it. Only nine had read Swift before, but those who had read him had invariably read some version of Gulliver’s Travels.

Opinions varied wildly, with one reader calling it one of her favorite books of all time (read Asimov’s Annotated Gulliver’s Travels this time), and four not interested in finishing it this time around because of more entertaining, unread books to hand (2) or frustration with the content/style (2). In general, the group found the earlier chapters more engaging because they have more action than later chapters, which become more “tell” and less “show.” Most of the group respected Swift’s wordsmith abilities and his introduction of words and ideas that later authors built upon, but from an entertainment/accessibility standpoint, his “info-dump” writing style compared poorly for many readers to contemporary novels. Others had no problem with the writing style and enjoyed the perspective he presented on the politics and science of his time.

After the meeting, we repaired to Culver’s at the intersection of Braker and Kramer.
–Denman Glober

This meeting at the Milwood Library drew seven attendees. Our topic was Jeffrey Ford’s The Shadow Year, a recent winner of the World Fantasy Award. This book follows a group of kids in 1960s Long Island growing up in a neighborhood where strange things are happening. Two of us had read Ford before. All of us started the book, and six finished it.

We liked the book’s strong narrative voice and evocative description of Long Island in the LBJ era. People in the group who remembered that time enjoyed Ford’s authentic recreation of it. Most of us felt the personalities of the kids were well-fleshed-out, and the relationships among family members seemed believable. We enjoyed their crazy antics at Halloween and Thanksgiving. The narrator’s little sister was everyone’s favorite character. And the mystery element worked for many of us.

Most of the people at the meeting did not feel that this book had much or any fantasy component. This surprised some of us since it had won the World Fantasy Award. But many enjoyed the story enough that they did not mind. As one person put it, “it’s like expecting Beethoven and getting Philip Glass.”

The book has a fairly minimal plot that moves slowly. Some in the group had no problem with that, but a few were disappointed and bored. The book’s narrator is never given a name or a gender. This bothered one person so much that he stopped reading the book.

One person said she kept wondering how this story would have been told by another author. She felt that Ford took every exciting emotional moment and turned down the volume.

Overall we thought that The Shadow Year is a well-done book that would appeal to selective audiences. It was suggested that fans of Gene Wolfe or Tim Powers would likely enjoy it.

After the meeting, many of us got together for a nice dinner at Culver’s.

—A. T. Campbell, III