In an attempt to broaden our horizons, we are trialling a new book club at the society. Each month we will select a book to read, by democratic means (i.e. Facebook poll, anyone may nominate a book). At the end of each month, we will meet at a cafe, usually esquires, to discuss that month’s book or anything else sci-fi related.
Books 2018/2019
December/January 2018
Ancillary Justice- Ann Leckie
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.
Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was the Justice of Toren – a colossal starship and an artificial intelligence controlling thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.
An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. But that might just be enough to take revenge against those who destroyed her.
November 2018
Mort – Terry Patchett
Although the scythe isn’t pre-eminent among the weapons of war, anyone who has been on the wrong end of, say, a peasants’ revolt will know that in skilled hands it is fearsome.
For Mort however, it is about to become one of the tools of his trade. From henceforth, Death is no longer going to be the end, merely the means to an end. He has received an offer he can’t refuse. As Death’s apprentice he’ll have free board, use of the company horse and being dead isn’t compulsory. It’s the dream job until he discovers that it can be a killer on his love life…
October 2018
The Fifth Season – N. K. Jemesin
This is the way the world ends. Again.
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
May 2018
The Time Machine – H. G. Wells
Chosen by our esteemed video officer, Anthony, this classic sci-fi follows a Victorian scientist, whose latest invention propels him into the year 802701 AD.
As part of the public domain, this book is freely available, and, being such a short read, is the perfect book to escape from revision stress.
Durham University Science Fiction & Fantasy Society 