Obscure References

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

November 2009 -- "Off Armageddon Reef" by Dave Weber

November's selection is the space opera, "Off Armageddon Reef" by Dave Weber.

Humanity pushed its way to the stars - and encountered the Gbaba, a ruthless alien race that nearly wiped us out. Earth and her colonies are now smoldering ruins, and the few survivors have fled to distant, Earth-like Safehold, to try to rebuild.

But the Gbaba can detect the emissions of an industrial civilization, so the human rulers of Safehold have taken extraordinary measures: with mind control and hidden high technology, they've built a religion in which every Safeholdian believes, a religion designed to keep Safehold society medieval forever. 800 years pass. In a hidden chamber on Safehold, an android from the far human past awakens. This "rebirth" was set in motion centuries before, by a faction that opposed shackling humanity with a concocted religion. Via automated recordings, "Nimue" - or, rather, the android with the memories of Lieutenant Commander Nimue Alban - is told her fate: she will emerge into Safeholdian society, suitably disguised, and begin the process of provoking the technological progress which the Church of God Awaiting has worked for centuries to prevent.

Nothing about this will be easy. To better deal with a medieval society, "Nimue" takes a new gender and a new name, "Merlin." His formidable powers and access to caches of hidden high technology will need to be carefully concealed. And he'll need to find a base of operations, a Safeholdian country that's just a little more freewheeling, a little less orthodox, a little more open to the new.

And thus Merlin comes to Charis, a mid-sized kingdom with a talent for naval warfare. He plans to make the acquaintance of King Haarahld and Crown Prince Cayleb, and maybe, just maybe, kick off a new eraof invention. Which is bound to draw the attention of the Churchand, inevitably, lead to war. It's going to be a long, long process. And it's going to be the can't-miss SF epic of the decade.

The Obscure References Book Group will meet at Linebaugh Library in Murfreesboro, TN on Wednesday, November 18 at 6:30 p.m.

Please note: Due to Thanksgiving, we will meet a week earlier than usual.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

October 2009 -- "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman

October's selection is the Hugo-award winning novel, "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman.

Here's the description of the book, courtesy of GoodReads.

Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place-he's the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians' time as well as their timely ghostly teachings-like the ability to Fade.

Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead? And then there are things like ghouls that aren't really one thing or the other.

This chilling tale is Neil Gaiman's first full-length novel for middle-grade readers since the internationally bestselling and universally acclaimed Coraline. Like Coraline, this book is sure to enchant and surprise young readers as well as Neil Gaiman's legion of adult fans.

The Obscure References Book Group will meet at Linebaugh Library in Murfreesboro, TN on Wednesday, October 28 at 6:30 p.m.

Monday, September 21, 2009

September 2009 -- Someplace To Be Flying By Charles De Lint

September's selection in Charles De Lint's "Someplace to be Flying"

Nobody does urban fantasy better than Charles de Lint. He has a gift for creating engaging, fully realized characters, totally believable dialogue, and a feeling that magic is just around the corner.

Someplace to Be Flying is set in Newford, a town familiar to readers of de Lint. (He set two prior novels (Memory and Dream and Trader) and two anthologies (Dreams Underfoot and The Ivory and the Horn) in Newford.) One late night, as Hank drives his gypsy cab, his reliable though perilous city is transformed. He encounters the mythical "animal people," and the experience leaves him--and the reader--questioning accepted reality.

"Hank just wanted away from here. He'd sampled some hallucinogens when he was a kid and the feeling he had now was a lot like coming down from an acid high. Everything slightly askew, illogical things that somehow made sense, everything too sharp and clear when you looked at it but fading fast in your peripheral vision, blurred, like it didn't really exist." Fans of Emma Bull and Terri Windling (as both an editor and an author) will enjoy de Lint. He can make you believe "as many as six impossible things before breakfast." --Nona Vero

"The [Newford] books have all been written in such a way that you should be able to pick up any one and get a full and complete story. However, characters do reoccur, off center stage as it were, and their stories do follow a sequence."

The Obscure References Book Group will meet at Linebaugh Library in Murfreesboro, TN on Wednesday, September 23 at 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

August 2009: "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

August's selection is the epic first installment in the "Song of Fire and Ice" series, "A Game of Thrones."

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)

From a master of contemporary fantasy comes a novel of imaginative power unlike any you've ever encountered...

In A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin has created a genuine masterpiece, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill the pages of the first volume in an epic series sure to delight fantasy fans everywhere.

In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

The Obscure References Book Group will meet at Linebaugh Library in Murfreesboro, TN on Wednesday, August 26 at 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

June 2009: "Santiago" by Mike Resnick

June's selection is "Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future" by Mike Resnick

Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future (Santiago)

Here's the summary from GoodReads: "Bandit, murderer, known to all, seen by none....has he killed a thousand men? Has he saved a dozen world? His legend is as large as the Rim itself, his trail as elusive as a wisp of starlight in the empty realms of space. The reward for him is the largest in history."

The Obscure References Book Group will meet at Linebaugh Library in Murfreesboro, TN on Wednesday, June 24 at 6:30 p.m.

Thoughts on "The Stars, My Destination"

Overall, the group liked "The Stars, My Destination." The informal count taken found all but one member happy with the book. For many, this was the first time reading this classic of science-fiction.

Discussion centered on jaunting, the character of Gully Foyle and Bester's portrayal of female characters in the story. And, of course, there were the usual side tangents and obscure references that got us off topic more often than not.

If you liked this book, you may want to give Bester's other "big" book, "The Demolished Man" a try. It's short and if you're a fan of "Babylon Five," you will see elements of Bester's portrayal of telepathic powers carry over to "B5."