In wrapping up the Sci-Fi Reading Challenge, thank you to all the participants. I figured maybe a dozen would be interested, so 37 sign-ups was a welcome surprise. I hope your explorations of science fiction were a success- you liked what you read and had fun. I enjoyed looking at the wide array of selections, from Margaret Atwood to Robert Heinlein to Mary Shelley and a slew of others. Thank you all for making me feel like my first hosted challenge was a success. For those inclined, please feel free to share your wrap-up posts on the roster.
For those who were new to and/or wary of SF, what were your impressions and would you possibly be interested in reading more? I guess now is a good time to announce that the challenge relaunches on August 28th.
“There’s a great fear of the imagination. It’s a dangerous thing. It’s out of control, it’s subversive.” ~Ursula Le Guin
My original, tentative selections were:
1. Anthology: Worlds Apart
2. Michael Swanwick: the Iron Dragon’s Daughter
3. something by Isaac Asimov
4. something by Robert Heinlein
5. Sylvie Bérard: Terre des Autres and/or Of Wind and Sand
6. Robert Silverberg: Majipoor Chronicles
7. C.S. Lewis: Perelandra
8. C.S. Lewis: Out of the Silent Planet
The outcome was:
1. Robert Heinlein: Tunnel in the Sky
2. Robert Silverberg: Majipoor Chronicles
3. Anthology: Worlds Apart
4. Robert Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land
5. Steven Barnes: Lion’s Blood
6. Steven Barnes: Zulu Heart
7. Jules Verne: Journey to the Center of the Earth
8. Michael Swanwick: the Iron Dragon’s Daughter
I’d only read some short stories by Heinlein before so it was good to read a couple of his novels and I’ll be reading more. I liked Worlds Apart more for it’s GLBT reason to be, but overall it was pretty good. The rest of Silverberg’s Majipoor series is in the reading queue. Lion’s Blood and Zulu Heart are long-time favourites that were better the second time around. Verne’s book was okay, but I’m wondering if part of it was due to the translation- that’s what I’m telling myself. I’m really glad I finally got around to reading Swanwick’s dark fairytale and will be reading it again.
I’m looking forward to exploring more new authors, books, and worlds with this year’s upcoming SF challenge.
I’ll definitely sign-up again! There are just so many sci-fi books that I’ve wanted to read for a long time, but I still haven’t… With this challenge, I’ll definitely read more of them
By: Aleksandra on August 8, 2010
at 3:16 pm
An early welcome aboard then. Yeah, challenges make good incentives for those “haven’t yet” books.
By: Mish on August 9, 2010
at 12:07 am
I’m going to give this round a go. I think its about time I dig into the sci-fi genre.
By: Hannah on August 9, 2010
at 7:24 pm
Oh dear! I was going for the 3.14 option and I managed 2.33 from a list of eight possibles. Not very good.
Does leave plenty of room for improvement! Perhaps I will do better next time.
The Island of Dr Moreau was excellent and I was very pleased to have had an incentive to read it. The Ian Banks, Transition… Um, bit dodgy. Cryptonomicon bit the dust, but it’s not off the hook yet… If I can read Ulysses I can read anything!
By: Sarah on August 18, 2010
at 2:02 pm
E for effort.
Dr Moreau’s been on my list. Yeah, I remember talking about Crypto. I almost bought it, but figured I’d wait since it would be awhile before I got to it anyway.
By: Mish on August 19, 2010
at 11:07 pm
E? Harsh but fair!
By: Sarah on August 20, 2010
at 3:09 am
Would you prefer an F? Heheh.
By: Mish on August 22, 2010
at 1:35 pm