The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde

Seven people attended this discussion at the North Village Library. Our topic was The Fourth Bear, second in Jasper Fforde’s Nursery Crime series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Jack Spratt and Detective Sergeant Mary Mary. In this book, our protagonists investigate the murder of Goldilocks and try to capture an escaped mass murderer, the Gingerbread Man. We had all read Jasper Fforde before, and all of us started and finished The Fourth Bear.

One reader commented that he simply loved this book. He had read several of Fforde’s other books, and this was his clear favorite. He liked Fforde’s smooth writing. Spratt’s numbered plot devices were amusing (e.g. #26: Looking for Dr.

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Farthing by Jo Walton

Twelve people attended this meeting at A.T.’s house. Our topic was Farthing, an alternate history set in England in the 1940s. In the world of this book, the US never entered World War II, leading to Germany taking control of continental Europe and signing a peace treaty with the United Kingdom. At a weekend gathering of the rich and powerful at an English country estate, a prominent politician is killed. The plot of the book revolves around the murder investigation. Only one of us had read Walton before. Ten of us started the book, and nine finished it.

A few readers felt that the alternate history element was the book’s strongest feature. They felt the theme of this book was how much people will take and let happen. They noted the book’s deliberate references to The Man in the High

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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

Fourteen people attended this meeting at the North Village library, and two submitted comments by email. Four were first-time attendees. Our topic was A Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein’s classic novel of a revolutionary war between a lunar colony and the Earth. Nine of us had read Heinlein before. Ten of us started the book, and all finished. Four of us had read the book years earlier, including two who read it serialized in a magazine in the 1960s.

One reader said that Heinlein is one of his all-time favorite authors, and he’d read this book at least four times. He remarked that Heinlein did an exceptional job

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Glasshouse by Charles Stross

13 people attended the discussion of Glasshouse by Charles Stross. Everybody but 1 person has read Stross before. 11 people started the book, about half of the people finished it.

Glasshouse is set in the same universe as Stross’ earlier far-future novel Accelerando. To quote an Amazon.com review, the protagonist Robin “is one of millions who have had a mind wipe, to forget wartime memories that are too painful — or too dangerously inconvenient for someone else. To evade the enemies who don’t think his mind wipe was enough, Robin volunteers to live in the

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On February 11, the FACT Reading Group took local author Maureen F. McHugh to dinner at Mongolian Grille. We’d recently read her collection Mothers and Other Monsters, and earlier had read her novel Half the Day is Night. Between the Reading Group, the author, and her husband, we had sixteen people at dinner.

We talked with Maureen about a variety of things: her writing, travels in China, dogs, and her day job as a writer for alternate reality games. She told amusing anecdotes about the alternate reality games she created for Halo 2 and Nine Inch

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Mothers and Other Monsters by Maureen F. McHugh

Seven people attended this meeting at the North Village library. Our topic was Mothers and Other Monsters, a recent collection by Austin writer Maureen F. McHugh. Six of us had read McHugh before. We all started the book, and three of us finished.

Several stories stood out. “The Lincoln Train,” set during the Civil War, was moving and effective as it examined prejudice. “The Cost to Be Wise,” a cautionary tale about what can go wrong when one civilization gives another too

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The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

13 people attended the FACT reading group discussion of Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination. Almost everyone has read something by Bester before. Most of the group has read this book when it first came out. Almost all of them re-read it anew before the discussion. Only one person did not finish the book.

This novel is set in the 24th century, when most humans have developed an ability to “jaunt”, or to teleport. The protagonist, a bad-guy antihero named Gully Foyle, seeks to avenge an injustice done to him in the past. His corporate masters

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The Demon and the City by Liz Williams

Ten of us gathered at the North Village library for this meeting. Our topic was The Demon and the City, second in the Detective Inpector Chen supernatural crime. While the first novel, The Snake Agent, focused on the human Chen, this book concentrates more on Chen’s partner, the demon Zhu Irzh. Nine of us had read Liz Williams previously. We all started the book, and eight of us finished.

The Demon and the City was one member’s first Liz Williams book. She started reading it but felt lost until she realized that there was a prior book. So she found The Snake Agent and read it, then returned to the newer book. She enjoyed it much more on the second try.

We liked a lot about this book. The setting and mythology, taken from China and

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The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi

13 people attended a discussion of The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi. 5 people have read Scalzi before. About 10 people started the book, almost all of them finished it. Most people liked this book, although they almost unanimously agreed it wasn’t very deep. The characters left some readers wishing for more depth.

The plot of the book can be summed up thus: “An interstellar scandal explodes when a human diplomat assassinates an alien diplomat by farting at him, albeit

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

This meeting at the North Village Library attracted seven participants, including two first-timers. Our topic was The Lightning Thief, a young adult fantasy by San Antonio author Rick Riordan. The book is a modern-day tale about an adolescent boy, Percy Jackson, raised by his mother and an unpleasant stepfather. Percy discovers that his absent father is a Greek God, and that supernatural creatures are out to get him. This leads him to a summer camp for “half-bloods” and eventually to a big adventure.  Two of us had read Riordan’s prior books, which are mystery novels.  Everyone at the meeting started and finished The Lightning Thief.

We enjoyed how this book revisited classic Greek mythology. It was fun to read about what gods do now vs. what they did in the past. We felt that much of this material might be new to a kid in its target age range.  One person appreciated

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