2012 Sci-Fi Challenge - Finished

Thank you Ellie @ Curiosity Killed The Bookworm for hosting this challenge.

This has been a really interesting challenge for me. One of the objects of the challenge was to read outside one's comfort zone and I chose to read one book a month. I can definitely say I have done that. My husband has helped me find books for this challenge.

I have completed the challenge. I have read 12 books, one book a month and it was books that I wouldn't ordinarily have picked.
It surprised me that I didn't think much of Ursula Le Guin's Sci-Fi as I really like her fantasy books.
Of the 12 books of this challenge I have given 1 book 5 Polar Bears, 6 books 4 Polar Bears and 5 books 3 Polar Bears.
3 Polar Bears means it was okay and I liked it but not always enough to seek out more books from that particular author.
I think I read quite a bit more Sci-Fi than the 12 books for this challenge but not all Sci-Fi is outside my comfort zone so I chose just one book a month that had to be that. It has been quite interesting that I have liked as many of these books as I have.

My 12 books for this challenge are:

1. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
2. For Love of Mother-not by Alan Dean Foster
3. A Fisherman of the Inland Sea by Ursula Le Guin
4. Neuromancer by William Gibson  
5. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
6. The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester
7. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi 
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick    
9. The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner 
10. I am Legend by Richard Matheson
11. Zoo City by Lauren Beukes  
12. Old Man's War by John Scalzi 

 My posts for this challenge can be found HERE

Old Man's War by John Scalzi

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.
The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce--and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.
Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You'll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.
John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine--and what he will become is far stranger.  From Goodreads.

This book was nothing like I expected. I expected a book about a war and it is about war on lots of fronts with blood and gore but it is also about human nature and friendship. Old people joining up for something they know nothing about, they just think someone knows how to make them younger.
I didn't actually know this was the first book of a series when I read this but it is and I am definitely looking to read more of John Scalzi's books.

This book qualifies for:
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge,
2012 Sci-Fi Challenge,
2012 Ebook Challenge,
Scavenger Hunt 2012 Reading Challeng

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit and a talent for finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, she’s forced to take on her least favourite kind of job – missing persons.
Being hired by reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a teenybop pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass and their animal companions live in the shadow of hell’s undertow.
Instead, it catapults Zinzi deeper into the maw of a city twisted by crime and magic, where she’ll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former lives – including her own. From Goodreads.

I like the idea of people getting a familiar, an animal companion, when they commit a crime. This is a very interesting read and it takes several twists that I didn't expect which I really like. What I didn't like is that the book is full of foreign words that even though they make sense in a sentence just make the whole read more difficult. Words such as: nyangas, sangomas and muti. This distracted me from enjoying the book as much as would have liked.

This book qualifies for:
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Sci-Fi Challenge,
2012 Ebook Challenge,
Thankfully Reading Weekend 2012 

I am Legend by Richard Matheson

Robert Neville is the last man left alive on Earth...but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire. Neville spends his days scavenging for food and supplies, and hunting down the undead in their lairs in the ruins of civilisation. At night, he becomes the hunted and barricades himself in his home, waiting and praying for the dawn.
I Am Legend was one of the first, and certainly the most brilliant, fusions of horror and science fiction. Its powerful and disturbing reworking of the vampire myth has made it a classic and enduring novel that has had a profound impact on generations of writers. From Goodreads

I saw the film I am Legend (the one with Will Smith) quite a while ago but the book is very different and actually more scary. Following the life of Robert Neville the last man alive being tormented and hunted by vampires every night. At one point he sees a dog that is still normal. He spends weeks trying to become friends with this dog and then it gets infected and dies and he is devastated. I love the end of the book which is nothing like the film.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
FrightFall Read-a-Thon October 1 - 7 2012,
2012 Sci-Fi Challenge

The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner

One man has made it his mission to liberate the mental prisoners. to restore their freedom in a world run mad.
Nickie Halflinger, the only person to escape from Tarnover- where they raise hyper-intelligent children to maintain the political dominance of the USA in the 21st century – is on the run, dodging from loophole to crevice to crack in the computerised data-net that binds the continent like chains. After years of flight and constant changes of identity, at the strange small town called Precipice he discovers he is not alone in his quest. But can his new allies save him when he falls again into the sinister grasp of Tarnover...? From Goodreads.

I was definitely reading outside my comfort zone with this book. I have to admit that more than once in this book there were whole paragraphs that even after having read them several times, I still didn't have a clue what I just read. I found that it was a slow start and I just didn't get hooked in the book. I enjoyed the last part of the book most and got quite caught up in the story. The further I got in the book the more I understood of the beginning of the book as well.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Sci-Fi Challenge

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn't `retiring' them with his laser weapon, he dreamed of owning a live animal -- the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of animal life. Then Rick got his chance: the assignment to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But in Deckard's world things were never that simple, and his assignment quickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit -- and the threat of death for the hunter rather than the hunted... From Goodreads

My reason for reading this book was that it fit in my 2012 Sci-Fi Challenge. The film Bladerunner was based on this book. I have never seen the whole film only bits of it. My husband has wanted to read this book for ever and thought I should too.
I liked it but no more than that, I just didn't get pulled in the book as I like. Definitely outside my comfort zone. But I love the fact that my husband and I can read the same books, discuss them and rate them very differently. My husband gave this book 5 stars.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Sci-Fi Challenge,
2012 Where are you reading Challenge   

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko...
Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues 
run rampant across the globe.
What Happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits, when said bio-terrorism's genetic drift forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? Award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers one of the most highly acclaimed science fiction novels of the twenty-first century. From Goodreads

My husband suggested this book for me as one of the books for the 2012 Sci-Fi Challenge I am taking part in. I thought he had read it since he suggested it but it turned out that he hadn't! Well I read it anyway. It was definitely not a book I would have picked up myself. But it ended up being quite an interesting book. I found it a bit slow in the beginning but suddenly it caught me and I just wanted to know what was going to happen. It is Sci-Fi but I don't think the actual state of the world in this book is so far fetched and that makes for a chilling reading.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Sci-Fi Challenge,
2012 Where are you reading Challenge  

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

Gully Foyle, Mechanic's Mate 3rd Class. EDUCATION: none SKILLS: none MERITS: none RECOMMENDATIONS: none That's the official verdict on Gully Foyle, unskilled space crewman. But right now he is the only survivor on his drifting, wrecked spaceship, and when another space vessel, the Vorga, ignores his distress flares and sails by, Gully becomes obsessed with revenge. He endures 170 days alone in deep space before finding refuge on the Sargasso Asteroid and returning to Earth to track down the crew and owners of the Vorga. But, as he works out his murderous grudge, Gully Foyle also uncovers a secret of momentous proportions . . . From Amazon.

I am not quite sure what to think about this book. It was compelling reading, it sucked me in and I just had to keep going and try to make head and tail of everything going on. I don't really see any good versus evil in this book. Nobody is entirely good, actually I think most of the characters are closer to evil than anything else. But it is fascinating and who wouldn't like the idea of being able to "jaunt", being able to teleport from place to place just with your mind. This is a very interesting book and I will look for more books by Alfred Bester.

This book qualifies for:  
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Sci-Fi Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

The Earth's leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand--despite the fact that the fierce alien enemy they would oppose is inscrutable, unconquerable, and very far away. A reluctant conscript drafted into an elite Military unit, Private William Mandella has been propelled through space and time to fight in the distant thousand-year conflict; to perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive the ordeal and return home. But "home" may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to the time dilation caused by space travel, Mandella is aging months while the Earth he left behind is aging centuries... From Goodreads

I read this book for the 2012 Sci-Fi Challenge. As for most books in this challenge it is a book I would not have chosen if I did not take part in this challenge.Like several of the other books this has been a positive surprise. I found the idea of the soldiers not ageing much while back on earth  centuries flies by quite fascinating, and how much the accepted culture changes. From mainly heterosexual to it being illegal, to being look down upon and back to being the main sexuality again. Every time they engage the enemy they don't know how much the enemy fighting has changed as it has been decades since they last fought the enemy a few months ago. Very good read.

This book qualifies for:  
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge
2012 Sci-Fi Challenge

Neuromancer by William Gibson

The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus- hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace . . . Case had been the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction. Hotwired to the leading edges of art and technology, Neuromancer ranks with 1984 and Brave New World as one of the century's most potent visions of the future. From Goodreads





I liked this book but I won't say I enjoyed it that much. It was hard going in places with the language it was written in. Sometimes very difficult to understand and I had to reread some paragraphs in order for them to make sense. But I found it a very interesting story, artificial intelligence (AI) and man against another AI and I might at some point read the rest of this Sprawl Trilogy.

100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge, 
2012 Sci-Fi Challenge

A Fisherman of the Inland Sea by Ursula Le Guin

This new collection of short fiction by the only science fiction author to win the National Book Award celebrates her understanding that narrative is the shining thread with which we create our common humanity. Astonishing in their diversity & power, her stories exhibit both the artistry of a major writer at the height of her powers & the humanity of a mature artist confronting the world with her gift of wonder still intact. From Goodreads                    

1. "The First Contact with the Gorgonids" 
2. "Newton's Sleep" 
3. "The Ascent of the North Face" 
4. "The Rock That Changed Things"   
5. "The Kerastion" 
6. "The Shobies' Story" 
7. "Dancing to Ganam" 
8. "Another Story OR A Fisherman of the Inland Sea"  


First of, I really like Ursula Le Guin's books that are set in Earthsea. So I was recommended this from my husband for the 2012 Sci-Fi Challenge where the object is to read outside ones comfort zone. This was definitely outside my comfort zone! 

Of the 8 stories I only actually liked 3, 2 were okay and the last 3 just weren't for me. 
I liked :
4. "The Rock That Changed Things" 
7. "Dancing to Ganam" 
8. "Another Story OR A Fisherman of the Inland Sea"   
My favourite was 8. "Another Story OR A Fisherman of the Inland Sea" 
Were okay:
1. "The First Contact with the Gorgonids" 
5. "The Kerastion" 
Not for me:
2. "Newton's Sleep"
3. "The Ascent of the North Face" 
6. "The Shobies' Story"

Ursula Le Guin is brilliant at describing the different societies. And even in 2 of the ones that wasn't for me I do like the setting and description of the place and society
I am pleased I have read some of her fantasy books because this book might have put me off picking up another of her books. As I like her way of writing I think I might try another of her sci-fi  books at a later date. I might put one in my holiday reading pile. Maybe.

For Love of Mother-Not by Alan Dean Foster

He was just a freckle-faced, redheaded kid with green eyes and a strangely campelling stare when Mother Mastiff first saw him at the auctioneer's block. One hundred credits and he was hers. For years the old woman was his only family. She loved him, fed him, taught him everything she knew--even let him keep the deadly flying snake he called Pip. Then Mother Mastiff mysteriously disappeared and Flinx took Pip to tail her kidnappers. Across the forests and swamps of the winged world called Moth, their only weapons were Pip's venom ... and Flinx's unusual Talents. From Goodreads

I had never heard of Alan Dean Foster so when my husband suggested this book for the 2012 Sci-Fi Challenge I thought why not, this challenge is about trying out new authors and books.
I enjoyed this book and liked the idea about Flinx's talents and how everybody are afraid of them but  he accomplishes more from common sense and being streetwise than from his talents. I am looking forward to follow Pip and Flinx on more adventures.

I am just being told - as I keep forgetting it, that I actually have read a book by Alan Dean Foster before. I have read Midworld. I just don't always remember which book goes with which author. Keeping this blog might help me with that.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Ender Wiggin is a very bright young boy with a powerful skill. One of a group of children bred to be military geniuses and save Earth from an inevitable attack by aliens, known here as "buggers," Ender becomes unbeatable in war games and seems poised to lead Earth to triumph over the buggers. Meanwhile, his brother and sister plot to wrest power from Ender. from Goodreads





 





This is a book about kids, small kids that are made into military commanders. It is brutal and scary. I kept forgetting that I was reading about kids around the age of 6 to 13. Ender is 6 years old at the start of the book and when the first part is over he is only 11. Ender is shown as someone who doesn't like to hurt people but at the same time he does everything he can to survive which means he has to hurt and injure somebody else quite badly. He hates it and is afraid to become like his brother.
He has been born just so he can go to the military school in space and by playing computer mind and war games learn how to fight the enemy. In order to make him what they want he is set against his classmates and never left anywhere long enough to become real friends with anyone.


I read this book for the 2012 Sci-Fi Challenge I am taking part in. The Pern trilogy that I have just read is also Sci-Fi but I didn't feel they fit the challenges of Want to challenge yourself to read outside your comfort zone in 2012? as they were re-reads and not outside my comfort zone of reading. Ender's Game was outside my comfort zone and I am pleased I have read it.


This book qualifies for:  
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge
2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge
2012 Sci-Fi Challenge 

2012 Sci-Fi Challenge

2012 Sci-Fi Challenge

I will chart my progress HERE

And all the posts for this Challenge will be HERE

I mentioned to my husband that I was going to take part in this 2012 Sci-Fi challenge. I said I wasn't sure what to read but there would be book suggestions on the challenge blog:

I don't think I have to look at the suggestions very much as my husband came up with 7+ titles within one minute.

Here are the first 7 titles. (the + titles were more books from the same authors)

 Ursula Le Guin: A Fisherman of the Inland Sea

Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game

 Alan Dean Foster: For Love of Mother - Not

 William Gibson: Neuromancer

 Joe Haldeman: The Forever War

 Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination

Paolo Basicalupi: The Windup Girl










If I give my husband a few more minutes, he might just come up with a dozen more titles so I will have more than enough for the year.