Litsy

In the Company of Others | Julie E. Czerneda

pick

Humanity has been confined to the Solar System and a few severely overcrowded space stations by the Quill. Rumour says there was a single survivor of a Quill attack.

Good world building with an intriguing and exciting story. 2 minor complaints: the way the story was slowed down by Aaron and Gail's romance. I wish the author had chosen a different name for the aliens - I kept imagining people being massacred with obsolete writing implements.

The_Book_Ninja The quill is mightier than the light sabre 2d

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Robotswithpersonality

The Last Gifts of the Universe | Rory August

so-so

I'm struggling to resist the urge to call this pleasantly packaged fatalism, because it's definitely a reductive way of looking at the story as a whole. I usually enjoy sci-fi stories that are more human-focused, that address the interpersonal, exploring how humans/beings deal with life and each other, but this narrative walks the less trod path of addressing 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? 'even if there is basically no reason to hope, each moment has value, and making the effort to treasure the life left available to you, continuing to live a life, is a worthy thing' rather than the more popular 'it's bad but it can get better, there's always hope'.
I have to wonder if the author has experience with the loss of a loved one through illness or accident, a circumstance that couldn't be fought, had to be accepted, because it's 4d

Robotswithpersonality 3/? very much a grief narrative.
I think in these troubled times, it's instinctual to reject the idea of accepting an impending dark fate, but that doesn't mean the message of cherishing a life in the face of unconquerable death doesn't have value.
Also introduced is the idea of wanting to give your life for someone and needing to accept when someone else makes a decision about their own fate, and the tension between the two sides. (edited) 4d

Robotswithpersonality 4/? Aside from any subjective issue with the messaging, I have to say the overall feel is a bit muddled, the pacing and the tone. I guess it's true to life that there are fun cat moments and missing your mother, exploring alien archaeology and critiquing corporate greed, but something about the writing left me feeling more like the author was attempting an emotional manipulation to deliver the message rather than actually making me feel the 4d

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Robotswithpersonality 5/? the required emotion to deliver the impact. Are all books emotionally manipulative? Well, when it's done well I don't feel like I can see the attempt. There's some complications in the choice to drop the reader in with these characters in the midst of their lives and missions and focusing more on the humans than the world-building. I did end up wishing I had more background on everybody, 4d

Robotswithpersonality 6/? and the plot then required explanation about the worlds and beings and records encountered, and the antagonistic forces at issue...so some passages felt skeletal, some over-stuffed. I feel like this was trying to be Becky Chambers in tone and it didn't quite manage it. Or maybe that's just what I wanted/thought I was getting? 4d

Robotswithpersonality 7/7 Having seen both covers, I can understand why the publisher went with a peppier cover, but the original is definitely truer in tone. If August wants to write a series of short stories about the continuing adventures of Pumpkin and his humans I'll happily pick it up, but I'm not sure I'd try out another novel by this author. 🫤 4d

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Robotswithpersonality

The Last Gifts of the Universe | Rory August

I love when sci-fi authors solve language puzzles presented by telling a story with aliens in a language created by humans.
How do you say something's man-made, when it wasn't made by man? [ Yeah, you could say artificial or not natural, but this is more fun 😊].

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Robotswithpersonality

The Last Gifts of the Universe | Rory August

Oof, anybody else having a less-than-pleasant post-grad school unemployment phase flashback? 🫣
Say it with me people: degree ≠ job. 😣
You'll have much less stressful twenties if you can hold onto this truth.

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Robotswithpersonality

The Last Gifts of the Universe | Rory August

Yes, I'm officially spamming the feed with Pumpkin-related quotes 'cause KITTY! 😍🐱🎃

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Robotswithpersonality

The Last Gifts of the Universe | Rory August

And so it should be. 🤖♥️

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Robotswithpersonality

The Last Gifts of the Universe | Rory August

It's a RULE. 😸

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Larkken

The Martian Chronicles | Ray Bradbury

That moment when you realize you were not-so-patiently waiting for a hold on a book you already own🤪🤦‍♀️
At least this hold was only a couple weeks - last time, I had waited on hold for MONTHS. Lol anyway, am only now starting my reread for #classicLSFBC obviously...

Ruthiella Oopsie Whoopsie! 😂 4d

dabbe Guilty of this as well! 🤩😂🤩 4d

31 likes2 comments

Ruthiella

The Martian Chronicles | Ray Bradbury

Welcome to 2025 and our first book of the year.

A couple of questions for any who have finished this month‘s #ClassicLSFBC pick. If anyone would like to be added or removed from the tag list, let me know.

🚀In many of the stories, Bradbury addresses a real-world issue such as colonialism, racism, or censorship. How successful were these stories for you? Do you have any favorites?

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Bookwomble Given that he was writing these stories in the late 40s & early 50s, as a Midwestern white man, I think he was well within the current of the Civil Rights movement. Of course, reading his expression of those ideas from a modern perspective can be cringy at times, but his liberation message is nonetheless clear. And he was getting these ideas across to a broad readership in an accessible form. I depart from him in some of his later statements, ⬇️ 4d

Bookwomble ... but if we see further... shoulders of giants. 4d

Ruthiella @Bookwomble think the anti-colonial themes particularly hold up. My favorite was probably “And The Moon Be Still As Bright”. 4d

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The_Literary_Jedi “Usher 2” and censorship. Directly connected to Fahrenheit 451 and presently to social media addiction (the irony for some on that point! Students eat it up!) Bradbury clearly believes banning books leads to the downfall of lit & society which is appropriate for 2025; when we read it in class, we try to do it during Banned Books Week annually to broaden the discussion 4d

Ruthiella @The_Literary_Jedi That story is definitely connected to Fahrenheit 451! I appreciated that little Easter Egg. I can see how parallels to social media can be extrapolated. Your students are lucky to have you. 4d

AnishaInkspill for me all of them worked, just had something about them, and each one said something but did it with a light hand so you didn't even notice, or the way I read books I wouldn't have all I would have seen is the comedy. 3d

kwmg40 @Ruthiella I too liked “And The Moon Be Still As Bright“ best. While Spender's methods were questionable, the struggle against those who pollute, exploit and destroy territories they enter, whether unwittingly or not, seem to be very relevant today. What would humans do to Mars or another planet if they were to occupy it, given they we've not had a great track record on Earth itself? 3d

Ruthiella @AnishaInkspill That‘s great! You really mesh with Bradbury as a reader! 3d

Ruthiella @kwmg40 My favorite SciFi novels or stories are those that make me think about humanity‘s current condition, for sure. Those are the ones that tend to stick with me. 3d

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Ruthiella

The Martian Chronicles | Ray Bradbury

Welcome to 2025 and our first book of the year.

A couple of questions for any who have finished this month‘s #ClassicLSFBC pick. If anyone would like to be added or removed from the tag list, let me know.

🚀It‘s an interesting discussion point to debate if Bradbury is even a “science fiction” writer. Certainly, his writing style is special - quite poetic at times. Would you classify him as SciFi or literary fiction or something else?

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Bookwomble Literary Sci-Fi? He deliberately transgressed genre boundaries, lifting science fiction, at least somewhat, out of the pulp gutter that "serious" critics had pushed it into. Most fiction, regardless of genre, is disposable, but they condemned all sci-fi as trash, which it wasn't, and isn't, and in doing so ghettoised a generation of writers. TMC is so clearly not about Martians, little green men and bug-eyed monsters ? 4d

Ruthiella @Bookwomble I‘m trying to think of other “SciFi” writers who also don‘t exactly fall under that umbrella…Vonnegut comes to mind. 4d

Bookwomble @Ruthiella Aldous Huxley and J. G. Ballard come to mind, too, as having used the SF form while not being totally identified with it. Philip K. Dick didn't fare as well: his non-genre fiction didn't find a publisher in his lifetime but they're some of his best work, imo. 4d

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RamsFan1963 Bradbury is not a writer who can be easily pidgeon holed into one genre. He's written sci-fi, fantasy, crime noir, mysteries and even horror (I'm thinking of Something Wicked This Way Comes which could be either dark fantasy or horror of a gentle variety). Its easier for publishers to label a writer, to sell their product to a particular market. 4d

Ruthiella @RamsFan1963 I think a few of the stories in The Martian Chronicles would fit well under the horror label, personally. The most powerful for me was maybe “There Will Come Soft Rains”. (edited) 4d

The_Literary_Jedi We teach “Soft Rains” often in our 9th grade lit course as literary horror & put it up next to Dagon, Frankenstein, & Dracula. I love “Usher 2” myself and it falls in that line of a horror but set in a sci-fi atmosphere. I generally say if it‘s an extraterrestrial setting or character, its main genre is Sci-Fi & then it can be sub-catted elsewhere 4d

Ruthiella @The_Literary_Jedi Absolutely. Categories are both useful and limiting. I agree that “Usher 2” could also fall under the horror category. 4d

AnishaInkspill He just fit anywhere, but I think that‘s why this is so easy to enjoy. 3d

kwmg40 I don't think books need to be put into one slot or the other. Bradbury's stories could be both sci-fi and literary. HIs work is definitely not hard science fiction, but hard sci-fi is, these days, a small category of everything that could go under the sci-fi umbrella. 3d

Ruthiella @AnishaInkspill I agree, that is why he appeals to so many readers. 👍 3d

Ruthiella @kwmg40 I think to market books, many feel they must be presented under some kind of label. And you are absolutely right in that even under SciFi there are many subgroups. 3d

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