What we liked:
– electric animals, normal animals as a status symbol —> how fast can humanity adapt?
– “slice of life feeling”
– dystopia feel, not about hard science, more about social changes
– hardboiled detective + police procedure –> mix cool
– Android & human interactions
– What makes a human? –> Mindgames great
– Who is an android, who is human? –> Messing with mind
– Empathy: fail
– Mood organ: fascinating –> Depression today
– Mercerism: new religion, empathy box based, reminds the people what it means to be human
– set on Earth –> those who were left behind

Things we discussed:
– Androids programmed to be male fantasies?
– We felt sorry for Decker’s wife
– Hard to relate to most characters
– Mercerism too weird? Too philosophical?
– Old-Fashined (Cold War Sentiments)
– Ending super weird –> sleep deprivation might explain it
– Pacing fascinating: book = 24 hours
– Spider scene: we were super upset about the spider –> made us realise how much a life (however little) is worth
– Goat weird. Androids incapable of empathy?

We also watched “Blade Runner”, some opinions:
– Incredibly important and influential movie
– Soundtrack great, aesthetics great
– Rape scene with R. and D. very hard to watch –> not okay when watching the movie now
– Oftentimes too exaggerated, hyperbolic
– Ending controversial: Unicorn = Decker = Android? Or just a warning?
– Soliloquy by Roy great, even though androids were a bit too weird:

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”

Thank you everyone for the great discussion!

Things we liked:
– “Once upon a time”, backdrop of fairy tale, horror elements, style and themes change, interesting (war, court games)
– how the magic worked: book vs. natural magic
– unwilling wizard (like Howl) being annoyed –> draws on fairy tale tropes
– protagonist not as pretty & perfect as Krasia –> the Dragon cannot get his marriage
– interactions are funny
– turned out completely different from what it started off with
– humour excellent, very dry
– friendship between A. & K. great
– interesting world-building that felt alive
– Slavic mythology nice but not overburdening
– Dragon has to go back to her, good message, he has to commit
– story transcends the tropes
– bends of genres makes it accessible

What we discussed:
– novel wants to be too much — some would have preferred it to stick to one thing
– Prince Marik not likeable and isn’t supposed to be
– Cthulhu trees creepy af
– Joint magic very intimate –> balance; Dragon socially inept –> not being able to deal with people
– abusive / problematic behaviour of the Dragon cannot be accepted by all members, especially in the beginning // women being captured, first moments with him creepy – touches her against her will, victim blaming, could’ve been a great friendship, she could’ve stayed in the tower but she’s staying
– no typical love story, author does not force them together, sex on A.’s terms (equal pleasure)

Thank you for the exquisite discussions!!!!

Extra talk – Jay Kristoff:

Jay Kristoff (*1973) is an Australian sci-fi and fantasy author for both adult and young adult readers. He’s mostly known for “The Illuminae Files” he co-authored with Amie Kaufman and “The Nevernight Chronicle”, an Italian revenge tragedy / play inspired fantasy trilogy. He also wrote “The Lotus War” series (3 books), “Lifel1k3” (3 books), and “The Aurora Cycle”, again co-authored with Amie Kaufman (3 books).

We briefly discussed the “Nevernight” series, which some of us really enjoyed apart from the last book. If you’re into a revenge story with really cool assassins (cooler than Maas’ “Throne of Glass” series), pick it up! 🙂 The “Illuminae Files” are also really cool sci-fi books transgressing the limitations of the text with pictures, call-logs, chats and text in pictures.

If you have any other recommendations, let me know.

Alissa & Sabrina travelled to Sweden in December and found a beautiful bookshop in Stockholm! Isn’t it precious???
It’s Science Fiction Bokhandeln, Västerlånggatan 48, 111 29 Stockholm –> https://www.sfbok.se/

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What we liked:
– setting new and fresh, world-building nice, four Londons just cool
– magic system explained to Lila as an outsider — good way to do it
– Holland interesting character
– Bone magic violent and has a cost —> good and bad magic
– we’re fans of Kell’s coat
– less action, more story (but the action was nice)
– YA-ish, but supposedly adult? Surprisingly dark
– witty, funny, great dialogues; comic relief; jokes hide the seriousness
– great family relations (and how messy they can be)
– Kell being a smuggler between worlds is great

What we discussed:
– Lila a bit messed up? Does not reflect enough on what she does? Maybe her air of aloofness is just a facade? Too ambitious? Too cool?
– Why force a romance? It would’ve worked well without K. and L. falling in love. Felt off to many. Isn’t it possible to have a book without a love story?
– Kell lowkey gay? And then denied.
– We want to know more about the Londons and their different political issues? What about other parts of the country? We also want to see “Everything”, just like Lila.
– And why is White London between Black and Red? Why not Black, Grey, Red, White? How does it work with magic leaking into other worlds?

Harry Potter discussions:
– We love Harry Potter and are fond of it, but we think JK Rowling should just stop and let it be (not destroy it). We can still like things even though we disagree with their creator.
– Many of us dislike Snape and how he is hyped. (Others love him despite his toxicity.)
– Fanfiction the result of lack of queer romances in the novels, e.g. Sirius and Remus fanfiction.
– Despite how cute their love story was, Tonks and Remus relationship felt a bit weird / rushed. Everyone is expected to start a family right away. Remus being loved despite his illness is a nice message (and maybe an HIV metaphor).
– Harry and Hermione expected to become a couple, didn’t. Nice. Harry marrying into the Weasley family is wholesome.

We’ll read Philip K Dick’s classic Sci-Fi/dystopian novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” also known as “Blade Runner”. The latter is also the title of the movie with Harrison Ford we’ll watch after our meeting! (I’ll bring vegan popcorn for everyone!) Even if you know the story already, maybe give it a reread?

“Maybe I’ll go where I can see stars, he said to himself as the car gained velocity and altitude; it headed away from San Francisco, toward the uninhabited desolation to the north. To the place where no living thing would go. Not unless it felt that the end had come.”

By Alissa

Maggie Stiefvater is the author of several YA fantasy novels but it is probably best to describe her as an artist because she does not only write novels but also illustrates children’s books, tarot cards and writes music for each of her audiobooks.

Her most popular series is the Raven Cycle (TRC) where she tells the story of a group of friends who are on a quest to find a medieval Welsh king who is supposed to be sleeping underground in Virginia. This might sound very weird at first but the series is full of references to Celtic mythology and also features some Arthurian elements. On top of that you will encounter interesting characters, friendship, a magic forest, dreams, psychics, prophecies, mirrors and evil Latin teachers.

The Raven Cycle consists of The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, Blue Lily, Lily Blue and The Raven King but there is also the Dreamer Trilogy set after TRC. The first instalment, Call Down The Hawk, was published and it is a series which is featuring some characters from the Raven Cycle but focuses on the Lynch Brothers and many new characters. It can be read without knowing the previous books but it contains a few spoilers so you might consider reading TRC first.

Other books by Maggie Stiefvater:
The Books of Faerie (2 books): Celtic faerie mythology, four leaf clovers, music
The Scorpio Races (standalone): Scottish kelpie mythology, a race with dangerous water horses
The Wolves of Mercy Falls (Shiver trilogy): werewolf romance (very cliché YA fantasy romance)
Sinner (spinn-off standalone): werewolf romance but focusing on a different character of the Shiver trilogy, werewolf and former rock star on a reality TV show
All the Crooked Saints (standalone): Mexican mythology, strange magic/miracles, saints, overcoming your own demons

Friday, December 6, 4pm in Room A, IAAK. There will be mulled wine and spiced apple punch, so please bring your own cups (and maybe snacks.) We’ll talk about Schwab’s “A Darker Shade of Magic” and later Harry Potter. I’m looking forward to our last meeting of 2019! Oh, and please feel free to wear your ugliest sweater!

“Uprooted” by Naomi Novik is a standalone (!) fantasy novel inspired by Slavic / Russian mythology and fairy tales.

The Goodreads blurb is the following: “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.” —– Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood. But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.”

The book is available RIGHT AWAY at Witsch & Behrendt, so go and pick your copy up now. 🙂

If you have read “Uprooted” already, never fret: You can read Katherine Arden’s “The Bear and the Nightingale” (another fantasy novel inspired by Slavic mythology) instead, which we will talk about in our extra talk! 🙂 (Both books are perfect reads during the festive season (whether you celebrate Christmas or not), so enjoy!)

Thanks E. for the beautiful bookish picture! If you have taken a bookish picture and would like to see it published here (plus on Facebook and Instagram) feel free to send me your picture via email, Facebook, Insta or Discord. HAPPY READING!

Please be aware that we changed our December meeting from December 5 to December 6, 4-6pm. Come in your ugliest Christmas sweater and bring a cup. I’ll provide red mulled wine and spicy apple punch. I hope you enjoyed “A Darker Shade of Magic” by VE Schwab. We’ll talk about Harry Potter after the regular meeting! 💚

Thank you for the lively discussions and the new faces!

What we liked about “An Absolutely Remarkable Thing”:
– strong and funny narrator
– identity that was given to Carl
– enjoyable to read
– April takes things into her own hands
– ending (open, sequel?)
– social media approach good for those of us who are into social media stuff
– Dream Space really cool (“I like the strangeness of it”)
– relatable how April is stressed out by social media / Hank’s own experiences?
– mix of genres and media (tweets and emails in the novel) great
– atmosphere great

Things that we discussed / disliked:
– April a bit of a trope herself? Savy snarky girl, unstable relationships, dorky camera guy side-kick, sometimes it lacks depth (just like social media) –> tropes are also subverted, everyone sorta likeable
– bisexual protagonist great, but it hurt to see her play the lesbian for the media –> still she makes mistakes
– pacing good, but latter part could’ve been faster
– lots of telling, not showing // not having the feeling that we know enough
– viral videos random?, social media dangerous but fun
– April comparable to Greta Thunberg: voice of a movement, symbolic figure because she was one of the first to talk about it
– everybody suuuper handsome (YA trope!)
– body image wasn’t challenged
– we want to know more about the Carls ❤
– great message: online communities working together, doing good –> reminded us of the Sherlock Fandom at its height –> hive mind idea amazing
– Magic Castle (= club for magicians) super cool, but never mentioned again –> possibility that the Carls were all just a magic trick?
– the hand reminded us of: the Beatles (the Glove); a knight; Coraline (Neil Gaiman), the Addams Family
– Interesting genre: 2010s contemporary novel (issues, slang, nerdy), not really sci-fi/fantasy but sci-fi elements –> left in doubt; plus social media novel, maybe magical realism (Murakami: realistic setting and something unexplicable happens); Carls = intrusions, aliens, sci-fi, high-tech, dream-speace = virtual reality?, political thriller (reminded us of Eggers’ The Circle) + YA
– April millenial life crisis?

Thank your for the lively discussion!

Le Guin:
What we liked:
– solutions to a dystopia
– honesty: exploiting the bizarre power –> George does not want to decide, seems passive, not our typical hero
– good and bad as categories vanish –> consequences of best intentions
– updating what is real now again and again
– science of dreams
– different writing styles for different characters
– climate change, racism, overpopulation as topics of this dystopia

What we disliked / discussion:
– Could George be erased? Are there other people with his abilities?
– erasure of Black people when everyone is grey (even though it makes sorta sense)
– alien invasion: escalated quickly, what do the aliens know about dreaming?
– aliens: new enemy from the outside (cf. Watchmen)
– power as morally ambiguous
– smaller tasks = smaller dreams might have enabled George / Haber to tackle issues such as climate change
– “made me question reality”
– Heather’s disappearance into the domestic sphere (vs. Le Guin as a female writer) –> Heather powerless when faces with effective dreams, scary message

Philip Pullman:

*1946, British contemporary novelist, knighted in 2019, author of His Dark Materials series (1995: Northern Lights, 1997: The Subtle Knife, 2000: The Amber Spyglass) + a fictionalised biography of Jesus called The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ + other series (Sally Lockhart, The New Cut Gang) and non-series books, plays and non-fiction works

We briefly talked about:
– how His Dark Materials do not adhere to the typical fantasy tropes, it’s rather transdimensional, metaphysical magical realism, portal elements, heavily inspired by our world, pseudo-Catholic church = Magisterium (Calvinism)
– how far is science allowed to go?

For most of our members present, Pullman is a five star read, even as an adult. If you haven’t read any Pullman yet, read it. You can start with Northern Lights and work your way through to the newest installments, La Belle Sauvage (2017) and The Secret Commonwealth (2019) – the latter one of Marthe’s favourite books of 2019 so far

Read up on Philip here: https://www.philip-pullman.com/
On Catholicism: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/19/philip-pullman-interview-catholic-church
On The Secret Commonwealth: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/28/secret-commonwealth-philip-pullman-review
His Dark Materials BBC Series: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000b1v2