Thursday, June 18, 2009

Booking Through Thursday - Science Fiction

btt button

One of my favorite sci-fi authors (Sharon Lee) has declared June 23rd Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers Day.

As she puts it:

So! In my Official Capacity as a writer of science fiction and fantasy, I hereby proclaim June 23 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Day! A day of celebration and wonder! A day for all of us readers of science fiction and fantasy to reach out and say thank you to our favorite writers. A day, perhaps, to blog about our favorite sf/f writers. A day to reflect upon how written science fiction and fantasy has changed your life.

So … what might you do on the 23rd to celebrate? Do you even read fantasy/sci-fi? Why? Why not?

I rarely read science fiction or fantasy; as a kid it didn't appeal to me and I never really got into it as an adult. I did read The Chronicles of Narnia series but then when I tried to read The Hobbit around age 12 I just thought it was boring and never finished it or moved on to Lord of the Rings. But I watch a lot of science fiction TV, and as a kid collected and read the V tie-in novels. In the past couple of years though, I read A Wrinkle in Time and just loved it, and this past winter I read The City and The City by British scifi writer China Mieville and thought that was pretty good, too.

I have enjoyed some of what I'd call literary science fiction and fantasy- dystopia especially, for example Zamyatin's We, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and Kelly Link's short story collection Magic for Beginners. Even Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita could qualify. With my huge TBR and all of the other interests I have, it's unlikely that I'll get into any more scifi any time soon, but I'm ready to admit that it's not all schlock!

Read more Booking Through Thursday posts here


20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I forgot Never Let Me Go . You know the more I read other's BTT posts, i realize that I've read much more Sci-fi and fantasy than I think :)

Anonymous said...

Both science fiction and fantasy fall under the more evocative umbrella term of Speculative Fiction. If you liked Atwood, then Gene Wolf or Sherri S Tepper might be good tries.

Amy said...

Good choices! I think I'll add Never Let Me Go to my TBR pile!

Marie said...

I am very particular about my scifi too. I love philip k. dick thought- "three stigmata of palmer eldridge" is one of my favs and of course, Orwell's 1984.
I don't like anything with elves or UFOs... more dystopian future stuff.

Flossie said...

I'm reading, and enjoying, Nick Harkaway's Gone-Away World at the moment - dystopian fiction so maybe not *quite* SFF, but would definitely suit those with literary tastes. It's completely mad.

bermudaonion said...

I don't read much sci-fi or fantasy either - I always thought of them as male genres. When my son took Intro to Sci-Fi and Fantasy in college, I asked him if there were any girls in the class and he said about half the class was female. Shows what I know.

JoAnn said...

I forgot about Never Let Me Go - that was really something!!

Admin said...

Everyone join in on declaring the 23rd Science Fiction day. You should also start collecting signed science fiction books like I do.

The Social Frog said...

I'm not one to read sci-fi but fantasy is fun.www.thesocialfrog.com

Unknown said...

Margaret Atwood, Kurt Vonnegut, Cormac McCarthy, Michael Chabon, Isabel Allende, Jose Saramago and Jonathan Lethem are all lit-fic writers who's stuff falls quite often into science fiction. The thing is, most people fall into the assumption that if it's good, by definition it's not science fiction. That's how bookstores shelve it anyway.

Jess said...

Author Kate Veitch was just telling my book group how much she loved Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita at Monday's meeting. Great post!

Lisa (Southern Girl Reads) said...

Sci-Fi and Fantasy aren't usually genres I read much of. However, I did read The Chronicles of Narnia books and really liked them.

fibrowitch said...

Hey did you miss me? Or did you not notice I was gone?

I love science fiction. Yet, my library trends to non fiction. I have a shelf full of Arthurian legends - from La Morte de Arthur to modern criticism and historical searchers. Another shelf is dedicated to Tolkien, his books and books about his books.

Two full shelves are given over to my favorite science fiction author Anne McCaffrey. I love her as a person and her son is a sweet heart.

Star Trek takes up an entire book shelf. Subject matter leans more toward essays and books about Star Trek than novels in the ST Universe.

Anonymous said...

Oddly, for me the sci-fi/fantasy genre is such a norm, that every BTT I read thatcalls a book by name, I say, "Oh yeah... forgot that was a sc-fi/fantasy." or "Didn't think of that one as sci-fi/fantasy"

LOL.. I didn't even think of Narnia or Tolkein's books. I guess it has to be really weird for me to remember it as an example of the genre.

Brooke from The Bluestocking Guide said...

I'm a Star Trek and Star Wars fan myself. Come see what I've got planned. Here is mine

Anonymous said...

I completely forgot about Ishiguro! Never Let Me Go was one of those really freaky books. And now, I just remembered Huxley's Brave New World!

I haven't read, or attempted to read LOTR yet. I did enjoy The Hobbit though.

Yvonne said...

I'll read some sci-fic and fantasy, but not really alot. It's not my favorite genre.

Shari said...

I liked Lord of the Rings a lot more than the Hobbit. I really enjoyed Never Let Me Go as well.

anthonynorth said...

I agree with you regarding fantasy, but I do enjoy sci fi.

Meytal Radzinski said...

That's funny, I never think of "The Master and Margarita" as science fiction or fantasy. Perhaps there should be a new genre: "what the..." literature. I can think of a lot of books that fall into that bizarre category.