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All postings are public, thus viewable by the entire Web community. Please keep this in mind, and mind the Rules......
RULES!!!!! We encourage the personal expression of opinions, but ask that anyone posting please be respectful of the opinions of others. Content is moderated by the Lisle Library District. We reserve the right to remove any objectionable content posted at any time, without warning. By posting here, you agree to follow the TOS of Grouply. 2/22/12 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
3/28/12 - His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik 4/25/12 - Except the Queen by Jane Yolen & Midori Snyder 5/30/12 -- Old Man's War by John Scalzi 6/27/12 -- Sir Apropos of Nothing by Peter David 7/25/12 -- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline 
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5 = Fantastic
4 = Good 3 = Worthwhile 2 = Poor 1 = Beyond Redemption We always take a head count, and then average everyone's rating to arrive an an overall rating of the book. |
 My own personal theory is that they eat squirrels, but if you want to know
what's on other's peoples minds ("Brains!") click here to view a forum
discussion of this hot topic. One thing for certain, I doubt that they
brush after every meal.
A friend recommended this article about the worst book covers.
John Picacio, the artist for the Zoo City cover, discussed it at the last
Capricon during his presentation.
The article actually has 18 web pages of covers so the article covers a
lot of material!
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/tag/strange-animals/
Les
British Science Fiction Awards. Les
"Former winners China Miéville and Christopher Priest vie with Lavie Tidhar,
Adam Roberts and Kim Lakin-Smith"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/24/shortlists-british-science-fiction-awards?newsfeed=true
Last night, the group met to discuss Cherie Priest's Boneshaker. As
always, we had a pretty rousing discussion .... especially when it got into the
territory of zombies. Please note: one brilliant member of the
group had the idea that we could all use aliases when I'm posting about the
discussions, so I'll be doing that from now on. Some people did not
choose an alias .... which is fine, but if you change your mind later, please
let me know.
So, without further digression .... here is some of what people had to say last
night:
* Pokethulu started the discussion by stating that she didn't really like
it, which was seconded by Rachel --- they both agreed that the book just didn't
catch their attention at all. Nicole also said that she didn't
finish the book, and didn't really care about the characters (it wasn't that she
didn't like them -- she just didn't care what happened to them).
Klaupacius said he thought the book was so-so, and liked the intro.
However, he felt there was a lot of unnecessary action once Briar and Zeke
got into the city, and he felt the story needed to be tightened up a bit.
* On the other hand, Mike really did like it from
start to finish. He liked that it had a quick pace, and the characters
weren't too stupid. He also liked the writing, and how the author
structured the society --- and also appreciated what the author had to say in
the Epilogue. Hola also liked it - she thought it was a fun ride, liked
the sepia colored font, and how the female characters were self-sufficient.
* In response, Pokethulu said that she felt
this book was like the ads for Sonic (before we had one in the Chicagoland area)
--- a lot of hype made it sound really good, but when she finally went there, it
wasn't very exciting.
* Menolly said that this was her second time
reading this book. The first time, she remembered liking the book, and it
was her first exposure to steampunk. She remembered the zombies weren't
too overdone and she liked the characters of Briar and Zeke (Briar, in
particular, had moxie --- a sentiment also expressed by other people).
However, on this second read of the book, she had more questions --- like
what were the Chinamen doing in the story? Was the purpose of the journalist at
the beginning and end? Mike did have a theory on them, and mentioned how
historically, there were a number of Chinese in this area in this time period.
Overall, readers felt they were included for that historical value.
* Ulvskog said the book reminded him of
the Scarlet Letter, with Briar's shunning in the community, and how she
disappeared from the society at the end. Hola said she was reminded of
Empress of Mars (a bar is a stronghold, there's a single mother), and Furry was
reminded of the Orpheus and Eurydice story (mother going into Hell to fetch her
son).
*Some readers really liked the
author's writing style. Kathleen called it "cinematic" writing, and
really liked how visual it was. Naberius mentioned that she liked how the
author would turn a phrase, and that she appreciated that the author seemed to
really give some thought as to how things like airships would work.
* Ulvskog said he felt this would make a
really good MMRPG, where you could meet characters, play out the storyline, etc.
There was some discussion about what would make this a good movie ---
which, interestingly, may just happen. According to this, the rights to
the novel have been acquired to adapt to the big screen.
* We did have discussion about the characters of
Briar and Zeke. Many readers liked Briar, but didn't like Zeke so much.
However, this could have been because Zeke is kind of annoying (and
realistically so). Zeke,and the subject of adolescent boys, was actually a
good discussion all in itself. The female characters in this book all
were self-sufficient and unapologetic, which Naberius really liked. She
appreciated that the author didn't make Briar self-sufficient and beautiful and
talented..... she was pretty believable.
* Burt Macklin, FBI did listen to the book on audio,
and said it was done where a woman read the chapters about Briar, and a man (Wil
Wheaton, actually) read the chapters about Zeke. He liked the book, and
thought the readers did a good job with the material.
* The group had a discussion all about
zombies and the Rotters --- there were questions about their lifespan, and how
they would survive, and if they eventually rotted away. Ulvskog had a good
theory about how zombies convert what they eat - they convert the fat stores
found in the adipose tissue from what they eat, and that lets them survive.
Naberius had the theory that current-day zombies could easily preserve
themselves by existing on a diet of Wonder Bread and Twinkies, instead of
resorting to eating humans. We definitely found as a group, though, that
we could ask the author several questions about zombies and what her theories
would be.
* Ulvskog pointed out that the author's
previous books (prior to Boneshaker) had been Gothic-y, dark books, so this book
shows those influences. He found Boneshaker to be pretty formulaic, and
felt that Dreadnought was a better read.
More comments are always welcome! The codes assigned to the book
were: STP, HOME, NARC, ALT, FEM and MONST (monster ... for the zombies) and the
overall rating was a 3.5
I've created a public Google calendar for our group schedule for this year. This can be merged with your Google calendar (if you have one) or with other compatible calendars. You can probably also search Google Calendar for "Lisle Library Science Fiction". If you have problems and really want to use this, I can provide more details.
Jen, I can probably make you an administrator if you like; else please keep me in the loop about changes.
https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/qb9qoikbu49pma9rsr6mai3eug%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
My own personal theory is that they eat squirrels, but if you want to know
what's on other's peoples minds ("Brains!") click here to view a forum
discussion of this hot topic. One thing for certain, I doubt that they
brush after every meal.
A friend recommended this article about the worst book covers.
John Picacio, the artist for the Zoo City cover, discussed it at the last
Capricon during his presentation.
The article actually has 18 web pages of covers so the article covers a
lot of material!
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/tag/strange-animals/
Les
British Science Fiction Awards. Les
"Former winners China Miéville and Christopher Priest vie with Lavie Tidhar,
Adam Roberts and Kim Lakin-Smith"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/24/shortlists-british-science-fiction-awards?newsfeed=true
 I have now updated the Code list, both online and in print (so expect new lists
next month). I figure I can update it every so often as we add more.
Last night, the group met to discuss Cherie Priest's Boneshaker. As
always, we had a pretty rousing discussion .... especially when it got into the
territory of zombies. Please note: one brilliant member of the
group had the idea that we could all use aliases when I'm posting about the
discussions, so I'll be doing that from now on. Some people did not
choose an alias .... which is fine, but if you change your mind later, please
let me know.
So, without further digression .... here is some of what people had to say last
night:
* Pokethulu started the discussion by stating that she didn't really like
it, which was seconded by Rachel --- they both agreed that the book just didn't
catch their attention at all. Nicole also said that she didn't
finish the book, and didn't really care about the characters (it wasn't that she
didn't like them -- she just didn't care what happened to them).
Klaupacius said he thought the book was so-so, and liked the intro.
However, he felt there was a lot of unnecessary action once Briar and Zeke
got into the city, and he felt the story needed to be tightened up a bit.
* On the other hand, Mike really did like it from
start to finish. He liked that it had a quick pace, and the characters
weren't too stupid. He also liked the writing, and how the author
structured the society --- and also appreciated what the author had to say in
the Epilogue. Hola also liked it - she thought it was a fun ride, liked
the sepia colored font, and how the female characters were self-sufficient.
* In response, Pokethulu said that she felt
this book was like the ads for Sonic (before we had one in the Chicagoland area)
--- a lot of hype made it sound really good, but when she finally went there, it
wasn't very exciting.
* Menolly said that this was her second time
reading this book. The first time, she remembered liking the book, and it
was her first exposure to steampunk. She remembered the zombies weren't
too overdone and she liked the characters of Briar and Zeke (Briar, in
particular, had moxie --- a sentiment also expressed by other people).
However, on this second read of the book, she had more questions --- like
what were the Chinamen doing in the story? Was the purpose of the journalist at
the beginning and end? Mike did have a theory on them, and mentioned how
historically, there were a number of Chinese in this area in this time period.
Overall, readers felt they were included for that historical value.
* Ulvskog said the book reminded him of
the Scarlet Letter, with Briar's shunning in the community, and how she
disappeared from the society at the end. Hola said she was reminded of
Empress of Mars (a bar is a stronghold, there's a single mother), and Furry was
reminded of the Orpheus and Eurydice story (mother going into Hell to fetch her
son).
*Some readers really liked the
author's writing style. Kathleen called it "cinematic" writing, and
really liked how visual it was. Naberius mentioned that she liked how the
author would turn a phrase, and that she appreciated that the author seemed to
really give some thought as to how things like airships would work.
* Ulvskog said he felt this would make a
really good MMRPG, where you could meet characters, play out the storyline, etc.
There was some discussion about what would make this a good movie ---
which, interestingly, may just happen. According to this, the rights to
the novel have been acquired to adapt to the big screen.
* We did have discussion about the characters of
Briar and Zeke. Many readers liked Briar, but didn't like Zeke so much.
However, this could have been because Zeke is kind of annoying (and
realistically so). Zeke,and the subject of adolescent boys, was actually a
good discussion all in itself. The female characters in this book all
were self-sufficient and unapologetic, which Naberius really liked. She
appreciated that the author didn't make Briar self-sufficient and beautiful and
talented..... she was pretty believable.
* Burt Macklin, FBI did listen to the book on audio,
and said it was done where a woman read the chapters about Briar, and a man (Wil
Wheaton, actually) read the chapters about Zeke. He liked the book, and
thought the readers did a good job with the material.
* The group had a discussion all about
zombies and the Rotters --- there were questions about their lifespan, and how
they would survive, and if they eventually rotted away. Ulvskog had a good
theory about how zombies convert what they eat - they convert the fat stores
found in the adipose tissue from what they eat, and that lets them survive.
Naberius had the theory that current-day zombies could easily preserve
themselves by existing on a diet of Wonder Bread and Twinkies, instead of
resorting to eating humans. We definitely found as a group, though, that
we could ask the author several questions about zombies and what her theories
would be.
* Ulvskog pointed out that the author's
previous books (prior to Boneshaker) had been Gothic-y, dark books, so this book
shows those influences. He found Boneshaker to be pretty formulaic, and
felt that Dreadnought was a better read.
More comments are always welcome! The codes assigned to the book
were: STP, HOME, NARC, ALT, FEM and MONST (monster ... for the zombies) and the
overall rating was a 3.5
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