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!"

google minus oprah

[sonamchauhan]

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

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

The ABC

[johannesg]

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 ;-)

Amazon is expensive?

[Bashae]

Here in Portugal it's next to impossible to find good sci-fi. My local bookstore (which is pretty big) has had practically the same books for years. They're hidden under a shelf, less than 30 books and many are sequels without first volumes. I think I'm one of the few people who ever bought from that shelf. However, fortunately, I can order from Amazon UK. Not only are they cheap (certainly cheaper than local retailers), and have second-hand books for sale, but they're also REALLY fast - books arrive in a couple of days through the normal, inexpensive shipping method, and no customs to pay since they're within the EU. Also, I know there are many horror stories about Amazon going around, but whenever I had trouble, I was always treated with courtesy and my problem solved in a manner satisfactory to me, even when that resulted in a loss for Amazon. I'm not affiliated with Amazon in any way. I don't work for them, none of my relatives of friends works for them, I have no reason to be defending them here other than my own experience as a customer. Buying from them has never been dicey or expensive to me.

Re:Hugo Awards

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Where do you find good sci-fi that's also a good book?

Kurt Vonnegut. [amazon.com] *

Re:Quality on the decline

[oDDmON oUT]

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.

Re:Quality on the decline

[StarvingSE]

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:Try Shelfari

[Anonymous Coward]

Try Shelfari [shelfari.com]. That and facebook now has a visual bookshelf system as well. I find that usually I have one or two friends who are very knowledgeable and if I can find a network of people with the same general tastes, usually one of them has some good stuff coming in.

Re:Quality on the decline

[rjstanford]

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 fantasy in the way that it treats the universe. Damn good writing, too, especially the latter half of the series.

Re:No Time?

[paleo2002]

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 to hit one. If you happen to ask a salesperson about a title not in stock, they direct you to their web site.

A useful piece of advice that I haven't seen posted yet is to check the personal web sites of some favorite authors. They sometimes recommend books or authors that influenced their writing and may point you in a new direction.

Private Library Development...[and LibraryThing]

[rootrot]

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:The library.

[NarcolepticPenguin]

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 such that I'd never be able to find at most traditional book stores.

I highly recommend checking it out if your local library has a sale like this. There can be some serious crowds there but in general it's a great way to get some good literature, as well as support your library system.

Re:Real SF Problem

[Grendel70]

I couldn't agree more regarding the state of modern science fiction. Entirely too many knock-offs and sub-par imitators. Having said that, one author I recently discovered that I highly recommend is Robert J. Sawyer. Rollback and Calculating God in particular were both good reads.

Re:Quality on the decline

[Lord Apathy]

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 old time authors is they just stop giving a shit after so long. If someone wants to write a piece of crap and stamp their name on it they have no problem as long as they get some $$$ off of it.

I don't know what OSC is smoking but he should have stopped Speaker for the Dead. Michael Crichton, I can take him or leave him. Jurassic Park I liked. Didn't care for the sequel. His other books I can read but don't feel I miss anything if I don't finish them.

I gave up on SFBC a long time ago. I thought their books where cheaply made and just didn't stand up. I had more than one totally fall apart in my hands as I was reading it. The glue just wasn't holding it together.

Use a specialist bookstore

[dubl-u]

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 them!

Re:The library.

[Sonri]

I've found that the Inter-Library Loan System is your best friend if your library doesn't have the book in question. If the book exists in a library that is part of the system, they can get it to your hands. I love it! The only downside is that it takes a little bit of time to get the book. I've had books come from across the nation just for my reading pleasure.

SF vs non-SF writers

[geek2k5]

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 technology but market them under 'action adventure'.

I suspect that the reason that these, and others, don't make the Nebula Award lists is that the authors wouldn't consider accepting a Nebula because they don't write SF&F from their points of view.