Decent Book Clubs for Sci-Fi Fans?

willyhill writes "I'm a Sci-Fi and Fantasy book nut, but in the last few years I've found it more and more difficult to find the time to read. Contrary to what most people would think, I actually have a hard time finding books, rather than cuddling up with them. In reality, I don't have time to mess around at my local Barnes & Noble and browse books, and I find it dicey and expensive to do the same at Amazon or other online retailers. I was looking at a magazine the other day and I found an advert for the Science Fiction Book Club. While my experience with CD clubs and the like in the past has not been entirely positive, I was prepared to give it a shot given the fact that it would be less expensive than Amazon in the long run. The problem was that their selection is not exactly grand. Having read the Simmons Hyperion Cantos, for example, I was ready to give Ilium a go, but I could only find its sequel. How do other readers get their hands on Sci-Fi books? I tried Googling for book clubs and the like, but there's too much static out there, mostly caused by Oprah. Any suggestions would be appreciated!"

The library.

[by Anonymous Coward]

Check your city library. I know, it's not as fancy as a book club or a CD, but that's where most people used to go to find books.

Re:The library.

[montyzooooma (853414)]

I'd second (or third) the library idea and join a SF community forum to ask for book recommendations (eg http://www.sf-fandom.com/ [sf-fandom.com] ).

Re:The library.

[maceilean (892229)]

The only problem I have with libraries is that they expect you to actually RETURN the books.

Re:

[kalirion (728907)]

Unless you do what I do and buy books at library sales. At $0.50 a title, you can afford to take a risk on an unfamiliar author/novel and don't feel bad if you don't like it and stop reading after a chapter or two.

Re:

[NarcolepticPenguin (586989)]

Not always - I don't know about your local library, but here they have a monthly book sale at the main city library. They sell off surplus copies of titles they already have at ridiculously cheap prices - I picked up Asimov's collected Foundation Series for something like $1.50 - hardback, dust jacket and everything.

Sure, some are in horrible shape, but for $0.75 to $2.00 you can't really complain. I've found some remarkable (to me) treasures - old Time-Life publications like "Great Ages of Man" and su

Re:The library.

[h4rm0ny (722443)]

Or you could subscribe to a Science Fiction magazine. They usually have good review sections as well as some good short sci fi for the busy reader. My personal recommendation is Interzone magazine [ttapress.com]. It's pretty good, British but I think you can get it everywhere and it also has the best film reviews I've ever read (albeit always arriving long after I've seen the film). Definitely worth it for people who don't have the time to work their way through a bookshop looking for the occasional good sci fi.

Re:The library.

[JasterBobaMereel (1102861)]

The problem with your answer is that the bookstore only has "popular" titles ... ...Amazon had many more, but so many you are swamped ...at a book club he would get lots of "if you liked that then try this ..." recommendations from people who actually read the books ...

Real SF Problem

[WED Fan (911325)]

The problem with your answer is that the bookstore only has "popular" titles ... ...Amazon had many more, but so many you are swamped ...at a book club he would get lots of "if you liked that then try this ..." recommendations from people who actually read the books ...

The real problem is finding quality authors and stories. Back in the early 70's, I was growing tired of cookie cutter Edgar Rice Burroughs stories; "modern man put in a savage environment, finds pretty girl, and becomes king of all he survey

Re:The library.

[by Anonymous Coward]

The "real" problem is that people like you are so quick to condemn other people or put labels on them like 'lazy'. Whether or not you can believe it, there are people in this world who are too busy to kill an hour wasting time in a book store. That person would rather spend the free hour actually reading a good book. Just answer the question or ignore it. I'm sick of little twirps like you insulting the premise of the questioner because his question is about a problem that you personally don't have.

Your comment shouldn't be marked insightful, it should be marked ignorant.

Laziness is an inherent human attribute that has caused all kinds of great innovation. Have you ever used a microwave? Well gawlly! You're lazy! Everyone knows that anything worth eating is worth spending at least an hour to cook!

Re:

[chaim79 (898507)]

Go to a book store and count the number of SF/FF books they carry, now figure myself, I go through 60 to 80 books a year right now, and the bookstore has what, 500? 1000? 5000 SF/FF books? I don't have the time to read through all of them, the descriptions on the back aren't very good at telling you how good the book is or if it matches with what you are interested in... This is a problem even for serious readers, not for the lazy.

Private Library Development...[and LibraryThing]

[rootrot (103518)]

One alternative is to work with a good book dealer to build whatever sort of collection you might be interested in creating. Most of my business is in collection/library development, most often for people in the situation you describe...people who love books, want to read what comes into their collection, but lack the time to properly track down material.

Several of my favorite clients are on personal "book of the month club" programs, where I send them a random book within their interest area(s) each month. Thus far, I've never had anyone complain about a choice.

I strongly encourage you to find a good book dealer and have a chat. In the alternative, drop me a line *g*...my personal collecting is in hard spec. fiction and cryptography.

Good luck. .ijk
--
Ian J. Kahn
Lux Mentis, Booksellers
Antiquarian & Fine First Editions
211 Marginal Way, #777
Portland, ME, 04101
http://www.luxmentis.com/ [luxmentis.com]
Member ABAA/ILAB

p.s. You should also check out the SF comm. at www.librarything.com.

Re:Private Library Development...[and LibraryThing

[pretygrrl (465212)]

p.s. You should also check out the SF comm. at www.librarything.com.

I was about to write that, but here it is already!
I agree, of the many websites that organize/recommend content, I think the librarything.com does a great, great job! excellent use of tags, you can input several of your favourite titles and see who else picked them and what their OTHER favourite titles are. I personally am not into fantasy, more sci fi, but thelibrarything.com helped me discover asher, and also Ian Banks.
enjoy!

yahoo, orkut

[William Robinson (875390)]

Dunno whether it is useful or not, why not join some online groups (yahoo?) or some special communities in Orkut? Orkut there is a community for Sci-Fi book club http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=34191 [orkut.com]

Orkut has recently added some features related to reviews on books and you could find some leads.

BTW, FP?

If you don't mind Audio books

[thermian (1267986)]

I'd recommend Audible.

They have a decent selection of SF books (including some first rate cast based unabridged versions of the Dune books that I'm currently enjoying).

I've been using it for about eight months, and I like it.

Also, they let you convert the books to mp3. It's a bit long winded, you have to export to cd/virtual cd using a version of nero they supply, then convert them. I use mediamonkey to do that, then mp3 tag tools to sort out the tags/rename the files.

Or you can leave them as .aa files.

Library

[SomethingOrOther (521702)]

Join a bloody library!
Most (free!) librarys have a decent SF section and will cary SF periodicals if you ask nicely.
Lots of fellow geeks will be hovering around the Fantesy/SF section also, so you can meet a few people.

It isn't rocket science dude.

Re:Library

[yog (19073)]

Libraries are good. Also, used bookstores, the kind where they can afford to stuff the stacks with old books, not just the selective boutiques that need to pay high rents and wages and can't afford to have lots of stuff. I found about 20 old Clifford Simak novels in the basement of this wonderful old (and now closed) used bookstore in Arlington, Mass. Classic and great stuff, cheap, and out of print.

Also, join forces with a fellow science fiction lover. Reviews and fancy cover art are no substitute for the impressions you can get from a trusted friend. A buddy and I used to trade books and it was so wonderful to discuss the stories, their strengths and weaknesses, the author's visions and values.

I think what the OP wants is something along the lines of the Quality Paperback Book Club, which I used to belong to many years ago. They attempted to live up to their name by vetting the books and providing sophisticated reviews, and the books were pretty good, but after a while it got tedious sending the stupid form back every two weeks. New bookstores that have decent sci-fi collections are pretty good, too; you can browse the books before buying.

One problem is that books are becoming a niche item in the U.S. (don't know about Europe). People read on the Web, or watch multimedia/video/TV, and the reading of old fashioned books is getting to be almost a lost art form. Bookstores are dropping away, and browsing at Amazon.com is just not the same. Anyway, I'm glad when someone asks this kind of question because occasionally you can get some useful information. Not that I have enough time to read... :(

Hugo Awards

[Misanthrope (49269)]

This might seem obvious, but the yearly Hugo awards usually give a good selection of new books. Even the runners up are usually worthwhile.

Re:

[halifamous (1142139)]

I wanted to agree with you, but after checking their list of winners I found they completely missed some of the best books from the last five years: Oryx and Crake, by M Atwood; Never Let Me Go, by K Ishiguro; The Time Traveler's Wife, A Niffenegger; The Book of Dave, by W Self. The Book of Dave is only tangentially sci-fi, I admit. The Nebula Awards overlooked these, too.

I recognize that these are not hard sci-fi/tech driven stories, of course, so I think I want to restate the question: Where do you fin

SF vs non-SF writers

[geek2k5 (882748)]

If M Atwood is Margaret Atwood, then many people wouldn't consider her to be a science fiction writer.

Of course, some people who write 'speculative fiction', like Atwood, don't want to be called SF writers because the public would reject them. Their books meet the criteria of SF, whether it be science fiction or speculative fiction, but they stay clear of the genre because of the 'taint'.

When you get down to it, there are a number of very popular writers, like Tom Clancy, that write SF involving technolo

Re:Hugo Awards ... and the Nebulas

[zoward (188110)]

The Hugos [wsfs.org] are voted on by SF readers. The Nebulas [sfwa.org] are voted by SF authors. Occasionally the same title will win both honors.

Dozois's "Year's Best Science Fiction"

[elrous0 (869638)]

Of course, it depends largely on the kind of science fiction you like ("hard" vs. "soft," literary vs. pulp, etc.) but, as a big fan of serious science fiction (no pulp or Star Trek books for me, thanks), I've found that the best place to start is Gardner Dozois's Year's Best Science Fiction [amazon.com] anthology. First of all, if will give you some great reading itself. But, more importantly, it will give you a great introductory essay on some of the year's best science fiction novels, and a great list of quality authors to look for (if you like their short story).

I've been a long-time science fiction fan and this has been THE book for me each year, in filtering out the diamonds from the shit.

Very vague terms

[IICV (652597)]

I looked through the website, and they're very, very vague about what you really have to pay. For one thing, it's 5 books for a dollar each (and one free), but you also pay $13.70 in S&H. That's a pretty good price for six hardcover books, but then you're committed to buying four books from them - and it seems like the books they have mostly aren't new. I tried looking some of them up on Amazon for comparison with their "member prices", but most of the ones I chose apparently weren't for sale any more - except Spook Country, which I knew was new. It's about a dollar more expensive there. The one thing I can't seem to find without becoming a member is the S&H on the further books you purchase. I wouldn't be surprised if that's a ripoff. Anyway, it seems like their strategy is to get various interesting-sounding novels for cheap when they stop selling well, and then seed somewhat slightly more popular books in to that.

Use a specialist bookstore

[dubl-u (51156)]

Go with a specialist sci-fi bookstore. I use Borderlands Books [borderlands-books.com]. I just walk in and ask them what's good; after some discussion over my particular standards of good, they'll happily drag me to some favorite they have. They are awesome.

Even if you're not in the area, that's fine; they have a newsletter, and do mail order. And I'm sure that you could call them up, give them a credit card number, and just ask them to ship you a good book every month. Or if you can find a bookstore in your area like that, try th

google minus oprah

[sonamchauhan (587356)]

> too much static out there, mostly caused by Oprah.

http://www.google.com/search?q=book+club+-oprah [google.com]

Look to the british...

[tcdk (173945)]

Firstly, let me warn you about the Illum books. The first one is okay, but the last one is really bad. Simmons gets lost in the quantum magic of the story and never really finds his way back again...

I can't tell you about SFBC as they don't do the rest of the world outside of the US...

Amazons recommendation system seems to work okay.

Looking at who wins the Hugo or Nebula, can work, but should be taken without a grain of salt.

Forums and news groups like rec.arts.sf.written can be a really good source of inspiration, but can consume so much time that you will not have time to read books.

But if you are ready for something different I'll recommend you the "new" wave of authors from Britain. People like Charles Stross (he has a few free e-books out), Peter F. Hamilton (Nights Dawns trilogy is not a good place to start), Ken MacLeod.

Read up on them on wikipedia.

No Time?

[Vectronic (1221470)]

"I don't have time to mess around at my local Barnes & Noble and browse books..."

I suggest you re-prioritize your life if your life doesnt allow an hour or so spent in a bookstore, then worry about finding books.

Re:No Time?

[jdawgnoonan (718294)]

I was going to comment about that same line: "I don't have time to mess around at my local Barnes & Noble and browse books..." It sounds like you need to fix your life first if you can't make an hour sometime during the course of your week to go to the bookstore. It doesn't take any more time than does Amazon. You have time to read magazines, make time for the bookstore. I also do not understand: "Less expensive than Amazon in the long run." The clubs are only less expensive for a short while. They give you free books and then require that you buy their more expensive and generally cut-rate, cheaply bound editions. Book club books are not built of the same quality as what are at the store and they charge you the same or more. Also, last time that I checked Amazon is pretty cheap. You are a whiner.

Re:

[Lumpy (12016)]

Yup. and if the sticker shock at B&N is what is keeping you away. go to a used book store. there are at least 30 of them in every mid to large town and most better ones will have newer books that are cast off from B&N and Borders and for sale at 50% of the cover price. Honestly if you cant wait a year to read that new book, then you dont have enough books to read. I'm 3 years behind on my reading Que and I consume 1 per month.

Re:

[paleo2002 (1079697)]

I actually agree with the OP's feeling about B&N. No matter how gigantic the store is, the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section of the typical B&N consists of a half-dozen shelves off in a corner next to the Teen Readers section. The books are in order by author, rather than genre, which makes it difficult to find a particular type of book if you don't have an author in mind.

Unless, of course, you're looking for a vampire book or a generic medieval fantasy. Just throw a dart at the shelves and you're likely

Locus Magazine

[jhoug (514751)]

Locus Magazine [locusmag.com] is a real magazine put together by Science Fiction Fans (notably Charlie Brown who has received many Hugo awards for it). Contains lots of reviews, you'll learn which reviewers have the same taste as you. Yeah, it's not a book club.
The Young Adult section of the library (don't sneer - the quality of the Science Fiction there is very high) shouldn't be forgotten. Cory's Little Brother [amazon.com] is a must-read, and is a YA novel.

Tor Books

[bball99 (232214)]

Tor regular sends me free SciFi/Fantasy books for free (you have to register but Tor doesn't spam you)...

kudos to another /. poster for cluing me in on this deal...

Marc Andreessen

[buccaneer9 (848820)]

The best list I've seen in the past year was the one published by Marc Andreessen. I've worked my way through almost all of these now and, aside from one or two clunkers, its a stellar list of books and authors I had not heard of. http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/top_10_science_.html [pmarca.com]

The ABC

[johannesg (664142)]

I visit the American Book Centre in either The Hague or Amsterdam. Either one is a comfortable half hour by train from my house, and it has the widest selection of F&SF books you will encounter anywhere in the world - including the large bookshops in the US.

Online here: http://www.abc.nl/ [www.abc.nl]

And before you protest that travelling to the Netherlands might not be any easier or cheaper than joining an online club, you never mentioned what country you were in so I have no reason to assume you are an american ;-)

Ask Shashdot!

[zwei2stein (782480)]

I think it is obvious. Just make bi-monthly "What new SF/F book do you recommend"

I am sure a LOT of people would find that useful. (hint: not a sarcasm)

Tapping large geek pool of shashdot should be enough to get good recommendations.

Other than that, geeky literature majoring friends are great source of recommendations, i suggest making one!

Mysterious Galaxy

[ShakaUVM (157947)]

I love Mysterious Galaxy (http://mysteriousgalaxy.booksense.com/). The staff there are awesome, and can find books for whatever your personal tastes are.

They're great people, and I think F&SF specialty stores like that deserve our support.

Book sale at local libraries?

[Two99Point80 (542678)]

My wife works at a county library branch, where the vast majority of donated books are sold very cheaply for fundraising (only a few are suitable for adding to the library's collection). She recently snagged two SF anthologies for a total of forty US cents.

Its because you exhausted the pool of good books

[mcdg (1213760)]

Imagine a pile of 100 best sci-fi books ever, and a new one is out once every 3 years or so. When you are just getting into sci-fi as a teenager, you can be assured to have a big pile of great sci-fi to read ahead of you.

As you finish it all, it becomes harder and harder to find new good ones, which gives the impression that "today sci-fi is not as good as the years past". Its only the impression, because you wen't thru 50 years best sci-fi in maybe 5-6 years.

Now you have to wait 2-3 years to discover another gem, while before you could have just went to any "best 100 list" and picked any one up.

My recent great finds: The bright of the sky: Entire and the Rose (can't even begin to describe it), Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space universe, Commonwealth Saga + Dreaming Void by Peter Hamilton.

My recent disappointments: Neal Asher. Tried to read Gridlinked, could not even finish.

Baen

[by Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget the Baen Free Library - they also sell ebooks with NO drm.

http://www.baen.com/library/

http://www.webscription.net/

Use your library !

[soundman32 (147936)]

Here in the UK at least, the local library is free, and you can get (almost) any book delivered there for free (used to be 30p I think!).
Although my library is very small (probably 1000 books), the staff are more than helpful and will be able to get the book you want from some other library.
I haven't bought a book for years. What's the point when a good quality, hardbacked version can be borrowed for free.

Have I said free enough :-)

Baen books & Webscriptions

[Knightman (142928)]

You can always check out http://baen.com/ [baen.com] they have an online library of free books and sample chapters for new books. They also have the webscription site where you can read e-Arc (advance reader copy) books yet to be published and other books for a monthly fee.

Also, check out http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/ [thefifthimperium.com] which have all the CD's Baen has published. The CD's are free to copy for non-commercial use and contains alot of books in digital format.

None of the books you get in digital format from Baen is encumbered with DRM in any way.

Go to Baen.com or Tor.com

[pillageplunder (183475)]

Go out to http://www.baen.com./ [www.baen.com] They have the Baen Free Library project, links to many Authors web-sites, a very good online "baens Bar" where you can interact with authors, and the right approach (IMO) on how to deal with free content.

Do some leg-work! As others have pointed out, go visit a local book-store, and not just one of the chains. Find a used book-store, or two.

Ebay!

[Antifuse (651387)]

Seriously... Ebay is a FANTASTIC place to pick up used books on the cheap. I'll usually just buy a "lot" of like 20-30 books... with Media Mail (if you're in the States), it is MEGA cheap to get them shipped to you. You usually average around 2 bucks a book if you do it this way... often times even cheaper.

Re:

[julesh (229690)]

If you let someone else select your books, you'll get books that are to someone else's taste.

Yes, but if you find somebody whose taste overlaps yours well enough, this isn't an issue. The problem is finding that person.

That being said, I'd have to agree with bball99 - Tor has sent me about 10 books for free and so far I've read (and liked) the first 3.

From what I've read about the offer, I suspect those books are being picked by Patrick Nielsen Hayden [wikipedia.org]. Just so you know.

Re:

[zoney_ie (740061)]

Perhaps, although there is plenty of "sci-fi" that in reality is just fantasy in a futuristic setting (or galaxy far far away etc.). Probably hard-core sci-fi fans have the most to grumble about. Apart from finding some pure sci-fi tough going, I think the mixed shelving arrangement probably suits fantasy fans.

Re:

[StarvingSE (875139)]

Just go for the classics...Philip K. Dick, Issac Asimov, etc.

I know it's in the fantasy genre, but A Song of Ice and Fire has been holding my interests for a while.

Re:Quality on the decline

[Lord Apathy (584315)]

I think I'm going to have to disagree with you on this. The quality of some authors has declined as they got older. If I see one more Ender book I think I'll barf. I'll give you that the quality of Star Trek and Star Wars books has gone down in the last few years. There are some really good authors out there that don't have name recognition though. I just finished John Scalzi Old Man's War and found it to be great. Never heard of him before.

Now here is a strange place to find book recommendations but I Wikipedia. If you type in a few key words you can usually find a list of books and subjects that you are interested in. Then you can look them up on Amazon. Strange but it works for me.

Re:

[rjstanford (69735)]

As long as we're tossing recommendations out there, how about Cherryh? She often seems to get overlooked in these kind of lists, but has a pretty solid writing style and, more to the point, wonderful characterization while maintaining the first rule of sci-fi - pick a universe with rules, and stick to them.

Actually, even though its heavier on elves (not the kind you're thinking of) than spaceships (although its had a couple of those too), the Discworld series by Pratchett is far closer to sci-fi than fanta

Re:

[Lord Apathy (584315)]

Holy Shit! Someone feels almost the same way as I do about the same books. I read all the Dune books right up to God Emperor. I got halfway through it and put it down. I didn't hate it, I just didn't like it.

Rendezvous with Rama is on my all time favorite reading lists. Anything after Rama in that series I wouldn't give the honor of lining my bird cage with. The three squeals to have the honor of being the only books that I've ever went out of my way to destroy. Problem I see with some of these ol

Re:

[oDDmON oUT (231200)]

I'd like to add:

Peter Watts (Rifters Triology, dark, twisted, but quite good)
Scott Westerfeld (Risen Empire was a great space opera, but he seems to have abandoned it for his more lucrative juvenile line)

I've noticed that the preponderance of decent, new, SF is coming from British authors.
Perhaps growing up with the longest running SF serial on the planet [bbc.co.uk] helps inspire them.

Seconded!

[Tmack (593755)]

I have used it to get several books Ive had a hard time finding anywhere else. Its a great way to get rid of the ones you have already read and are just taking up shelf space, and for exploring new authors. The only down sides are you have to wait for the other user to mail it, which can take a few days, and some high demand books can be hard to come by (ie: Ender's Game might take a while to catch a copy not already mooched).

tm