Fantasy-Faction’s New Sci-Fi Book Club

Welcome to the start of a brave new world…

As the header shows, we are starting a brand new book club! As this is Fantasy-Faction and not Sci-Fi-Faction we are not looking to take anything away from the Fantasy Book Club over on the main forum. This will be an alternative to the usual fantasy fare which all of us read.

Some of you may consider yourself a sci-fi fan first and some might just have some sci-fi books on the ever-growing TBR list, which inevitably get pushed back because of the latest fantasy release – either way, this book club will cater to the needs of everyone.

We are looking for everyone – from sci-fi veterans to sci-fi noobs (like me :D) and those who read fantasy first and foremost, but just have a hankering for some laser-y, space ship, cyberpunk goodness.

How does the book club work?

Choosing a Book
What we do is take suggestions from our forum members in the 1st week of the month. Then our members vote on which book they would like to read. In the 2nd week of the month we close the poll and users have a week to obtain the book – either borrow it, buy it, find it and pull it out from your collection, etc. We start the book club on the 3rd week of the month so that we don’t clash with the fantasy book club, for those of us who wish to partake in both. So week 1 for the sci-fi book club will actually be the 3rd week of every month.

Spoiler Free Discussion
Next, we want to discuss our books in a way that will not spoil the story, so we limit how much you can discuss and when.

Week 1 – You may only discuss the first 1/4 of the book
Week 2 – You may only discuss the first 1/2 of the book
Week 3 – You may only discuss the first 3/4 of the book
Week 4 – Anything goes

We are going to go based on page count. So for example, if a book has 500 pages then week one you can discuss up to page 125 and then week two 250 and so on. Each week will have a separate thread, so as not to spoil the story for people who fall behind or come in late.

What if you want to read faster than that?

Not a problem at all. You are more than welcome to read ahead, but when discussing things just remember to post in the appropriate thread. And if you’re not sure when something happened, you can always use the spoiler tag to hide your post.

Should you not want any spoilers or discussion during the reading process, then just come after the end of week three and start discussing the book once you have finished. (This is how most book clubs operate anyway.)

Fantasy-Faction Sci-Fi Book Club is something we are very excited about and we really hope you join in. It will certainly be a way to read some books on your reading list, and find some new ones and talk with a like-minded community of sci-fi fans both new to the genre and long time veterans!

If you would like to join in you can visit the book club section of our forums here.

Month 1: June/July 2012

The voting for this month’s book has closed. For the inaugural Sci-fi Book Club we have chosen…(drum roll)

Neuromancer by William Gibson

“The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus- hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace . . .Case had been the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

Hotwired to the leading edges of art and technology, Neuromancer ranks with 1984 and Brave New World as one of the century’s most potent visions of the future.” – Goodreads

This month will be a little different due to the late start. We will be moving on a slightly quicker schedule. The book club officially begins on the 22nd of June and will run for 3 weeks.

This club is open to everyone and we hope it will be successful enough to continue and read some more of the classics in the genre, and some of the modern favourites too!

Live long and may the force prosper (or something like that :D).

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