Science Fiction Discussion Group: Recent Episodes
Accessible World
Science Fiction Book Club on Accessible World. Meets the second Thursday of each month at 9pm Eastern. Facilitator leads the discussion and that month's attendees share a science fiction book they've recently read. Sponsored by Helping Hands for the Blind.
Hello Folks,
A good meeting to start out the new year.
We decided to read the first book in a popular series, Hospital Station by James White, book 1 in the Sector General series.
There’s an Excellent version on Bookshare at:
https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/1053784
The Bookshare synopsis reads:
Sector general is the home of many strange creatures, including humans!
it is a vast sectionalized hospital, set up in space to care for all kinds of extra-terrestrials. Each section has a different atmosphere and habitat to cater for the many different species. all the problems of the staff and patients are in this book. how to design a spacesuit for a surgeon with eight legs?
NLS has Hospital Station as the first book in a three-book collection called Beginning Operations, DB63073, narrated by Jack Fox:
https://nlsbard.loc.gov/bard2-web/search/DB63073/?prevPage=search_books&from=%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2F%3Ftype%3Dbook%26initialFormat%3Dall%26search%3Dbeginning%2Boperations%26initialLanguage%3Den
Hello Folks,
Hope you all are having a good start to your new year.
It’s just about time for another meeting of the Science Fiction club, the first one of 2026.
It’s another Bring Your Own Book meeting. We decided to do that, rather than have a group read over the holidays. Besides, we’ll now have five weeks until the next meeting on February 12, so the length of the book will not be an issue.
So hope you guys will be thinking about what we might want to read as a group this month.
available from BARD.
https://nlsbard.loc.gov/bard2-web/search/DB126013/?prevPage=search_books&from=%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2F%3Ftype%3Dbook%26initialFormat%3Dall%26search%3Dthe%2Bobject%26initialLanguage%3Den
The object DB126013
Author:Calvert, Joshua T.
Reading Time: 15 hours, 4 minutes
Read by:Shelton, Jessie
Subject:Science Fiction
“Deep space holds secrets… and one astronomer for NASA has found a bigone. But it’s not what she thinks. Dr. Melody Adams, a physicist and theGemini North Observatory, was studying Pluto in the telescope data andit struck her as odd. The numbers didn’t make sense. Could there be anextraterrestrial object in our solar system? She followed protocol. Thescientific community didn’t believe her. And before she knew whathappened, her career was over. The day that changed Melody’s life waslike any other over the previous two years. She’d found she had a giftfor writing and her career as an author had almost healed the pain oflosing her job. When the Secret Service rang her bell, everythingchanged. Something was nearing Saturn… and it was slowing down. Hadshe been right about the object? You’ll love this hard science fictionnovel because Melody is about to find out that everything she knew aboutspace and time was wrong.”– From publisher. Strong language and someviolence.
Hey Guys,
It’s bring your own book for this meeting, but please also bring any ideas you may have for our group read for November. We have five weeks this time, so don’t worry about length.
The taking DB58300
Author: Koontz, Dean R. (Dean Ray)
Reading Time: 9 hours, 8 minutes
Read by: Michele Schaeffer
Subjects: Bestsellers, Occult and Horror Fiction, Suspense Fiction
Twenty-eight-year-old Molly Sloan and her husband, Neil, awaken to terrifying news of impending global disaster. As they lose all communication and watch an eerie fog settle on their small California town, Molly, Neil, and their neighbors brace themselves against the onslaught of evil. Violence and some strong language. Bestseller. 2004.
New York : Bantam Books, c2004.
Here is the Bookshare link to this book:https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/4564319?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPVRoZSUyQlRha2luZw
Hello Folks,
At our most recent Science Fiction club meeting, we agreed to read the book The Engines of God, by Jack McDevitt, for our February 13 meeting.
It is available from BARD:
https://nlsbard.loc.gov/nlsbardprod/download/detail/srch/DB41883
The NLS synopsis reads:
Early in the twenty-third century, young Priscilla “Hutch” Hutchins serves as a space pilot for a team of archaeologists investigating a long-extinct galactic civilization. Marvelling at the monuments left on distant planets, Hutch and her colleagues confront the natural hazards of new worlds and stay one step ahead of human colonizers, as the archaeologists unravel a secret that may be the key to human survival.
There are a number of Publisher Quality versions on Bookshare, one of which is at:
https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/1175707
The synopsis for this Bookshare edition reads as follows:
The first Priscilla Hutchins novel!Humans call them the Monument-Makers.An unknown race, they left stunning alien statues on distant planets in the galaxy. Each relic is different. Each inscription defies translation. Yet all are heartbreakingly beautiful. And for planet Earth, on the brink of disaster, they may hold the only key to survival for the entire human race.
Hello Folks,
It’s time once again at the Science Fiction club for a group read.
For December’s meeting, we’ve selected Inverted world by Christopher Priest.
There are copies on both BARD”
https://nlsbard.loc.gov/nlsbardprod/download/detail/srch/DB69875
and two Publisher Quality versions on Bookshare:
https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/1020411
and
https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/4162792
The NLS annotation reads as follows:
The walled metropolis sits upon tracks, pulled along by a giant winchtoward the ever-moving “optimum.” After becoming an apprentice in thesecretive guild that keeps the city in motion, Helward Mann encountersan outside world that proves stranger than he ever imagined. Includes2008 afterword by John Clute.
and the Bookshare synopsis of one of the PQ versions reads:
The city is winched along tracks through a devastated land full ofhostile tribes. Rails must be freshly laid ahead of the city andcarefully removed in its wake. Rivers and mountains present nearlyinsurmountable challenges to the ingenuity of the city’s engineers. Butif the city does not move, it will fall farther and farther behind the“optimum” into the crushing gravitational field that has transformedlife on Earth. The only alternative to progress is death. The secretdirectorate that governs the city makes sure that its inhabitants knownothing of this. Raised in common in crèches, nurtured on syntheticfood, prevented above all from venturing outside the closed circuit ofthe city, they are carefully sheltered from the dire necessities thathave come to define human existence. And yet the city is in crisis. Thepeople are growing restive, the population is dwindling, and the rulersknow that, for all their efforts, slowly but surely the city is slippingever farther behind the optimum. Helward Mann is a member of the city’selite. Better than anyone, he knows how tenuous is the city’s continuedexistence. But the world–he is about to discover–is infinitelystranger than the strange world he believes he knows so well.
Hello Folks,Another meeting of the Science Fiction club is coming around again.Bring a Science Fiction book you've just read, or one you read a long time ago and tell us about it. Whether you liked it or loathed it doesn't matter. We'd just like to hear about it.
Hello Folks, Another meeting of the Science Fiction club is coming around again. Bring a Science Fiction book you've just read, or one you read a longtime ago and tell us about it. Whether you liked it or loathed itdoesn't matter. We'd just like to hear about it.
Hello Folks,It's time once again for another meeting of the Science Fiction club, the second of 2023.Bring any Science Fiction book you've read, or even started, and tell us about it.
Hello Folks,It's time once again for another meeting of the Science Fiction club, the first of 2023.Bring any Science Fiction book you've read, or even started, and tell us about it.
Hello Folks, Another meeting of the Science Fiction club meeting. This is the last one in 2022.
Hello Folks,
Another meeting of the Science Fiction club is coming around again.
Bring a Science Fiction book you've just read, or one you read a long
time ago and tell us about it. Whether you liked it or loathed it
doesn't matter. We'd just like to hear about it.
Hello Folks, It’s come around again, another meeting of the Science Fiction club. Bring a book that you’ve read, whether yesterday, or decades ago, or anytime in between, and tell us what you thought about it.
Hello Folks,
It's come around again, another meeting of the Science Fiction club. Bring a book that you've read, whether yesterday, or decades ago, or anytime in between, and tell us what you thought about it.
Hello Folks,
It's come around again, another meeting of the Science Fiction club. Bring a book that you've read, whether yesterday, or decades ago, or anytime in between, and tell us what you thought about it.
Hello Folks,
It's come around again, another meeting of the Science Fiction club. Bring a book that you've read, whether yesterday, or decades ago, or anytime in between, and tell us what you thought about it.
Hello Folks,
Another meeting of the Science Fiction club is coming around again. Bring a Science Fiction book you've just read, or one you read a long time ago and tell us about it. Whether you liked it or loathed it doesn't matter. We'd just like to hear about it.
Hello Folks,
Another meeting of the Science Fiction club is coming around again. Bring a Science Fiction book you've just read, or one you read a long time ago and tell us about it. Whether you liked it or loathed it doesn't matter. We'd just like to hear about it.
Hello Folks,
Another meeting of the Science Fiction club is coming around again. Bring a Science Fiction book you've just read, or one you read a long time ago and tell us about it. Whether you liked it or loathed it doesn't matter. We'd just like to hear about it.
Hello Folks,
It's time for another meeting of the Science Fiction club.
Bring a Science Fiction book, new or old, classic or obscure, no matter
when you read it, and tell us about it.
Bring a Science Fiction book, whether you've just read it, (or haven't even finished it yet), or you read it long ago, loved it or loathed it. Come and tell us about it.
Evan
Hello Folks,
Bring a Science Fiction book, whether you’ve just read it, (or haven’t even finished it yet), or you read it long ago, loved it or loathed it. Come and tell us about it.
Evan
Hello Folks,
Bring a Science Fiction book, whether you've just read it, (or haven't even finished it yet), or you read it long ago, loved it or loathed it. Come and tell us about it.
Evan
Hello Folks,
Well we took August off, so if you included any Science fiction in your
Summer reading, come and tell us about it. If not, then come and tell us about what you read last year, or in 1987, or whatever.
Hello Folks, Well it’s that time again, time for another Science Fiction club meeting. Bring any SF book you have read, no matter when you read it, and tell us why it was great, or why we should avoid it.
Hello Folks,
Time again for another meeting of the Science Fiction club. Bring a book, whether from yesterday or decades ago, whether beloved or despised or anything in between and tell us about it.
Bring a Science Fiction book, any book. One you've just read, or one from many years ago, whether you finished it or not, whether you liked it or loathed it. Tell us about it.
Hello Folks,
Well it's come around again, another meeting of the Science Fiction club. Bring a Science Fiction book, any book, whether you've just read it, or read it years ago; whether you really liked it or really hated it. Come tell us about it at the meeting.
Evan
Bring a Science Fiction book, any book, whether you've just read it, or read it years ago; whether you really liked it or really hated it. Come tell us about it at the meeting.
Evan
Hello Folks,
Well, it's time for the first Science Fiction club meeting of 2021.
It took place on Thursday, January 14, 2021, at 9 PM Eastern, which is 6 PM Pacific.
Hope to see a big turnout to welcome in a year that just has to be better than the last one.
Evan
Hello Folks, A smaller turnout than we had in April, but still a good discussion, and a new participant. The books people brought this time were: Galileo’s Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
Not quite as many people last time as usual, very likely because I forgot to send out the customary monthly reminder. Some good conversation nonetheless. The main books that people brought to talk about last time were:
For this meeting, we blended the two formats of each of us bringing a book we’d like to talk about with a group discussion of one book.
Come join us in January and we’ll start off another year of talking about the literature we love, Science Fiction. Happy New Year to all! Evan
We’ve chosen a tale of conspiracy among advanced humans in the far future in Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams. Our book, Aristoi, is available from BARD. The download link is on the following page:
Our book, Sundiver by David Brin, is available both from BARD, and in Publisher Quality from Bookshare. The page to download the BARD version is at:
Our book, The Best of All Possible Worlds, is available both from BARD and in Publisher Quality from Bookshare. The BARD version is at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.82117
For our next book, we’ve chosen a thriller across universes in Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. The next meeting of the Science Fiction club will be on Thursday, March 9, 2017. Place: Book Nook at:
For our next book, we’ve chosen a classic adventure story on a far future Earth in Hothouse by Brian W. Aldiss.
Our book, Mission: Tomorrow is available as a digital download from BARD. You can find the download link on the following page::
Our next book is a tale of “space exploration and alien contact from one of science fiction's greatest writers” in The Avatar by Poul Anderson.
Our book, A Night without Stars, is available in Publisher Quality from Bookshare at: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/1368058
Our next book is a tale of first contact with not one but three aliens, on a planet which might be humanity's last chance, in Jem by Frederik Pohl. Our book, Jem by Frederik Pohl, is available from BARD. The download link is:
Our book, The Flicker Men, is available from BARD at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.83173 The NLS Annotation reads:
For our next book we've chosen a tale of interstellar adventure and war in the first book in the Vatta's War series, Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon.
We've selected the classic, The White Mountains, and its sequel, The City of Gold and Lead, the first two books in the original Tripods trilogy by John Christopher.
we've chose a classic that most of us have read and enjoyed very much, and will happily read again, Way Station by Clifford D. Simak.
For our next book, we've chosen a story of mystery and wonder as a crew of explorers investigates a very alien ocean, in Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Our book, Solaris, is available as an audio download from BARD at:
Our book, Carbide Tipped Pens, is available both from BARD and in Excellent quality from Bookshare. The BARD link is at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.82176
Our book, Bowl of Heaven, is available as a digital download from BARD. You can download it from: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.81753 Here is the NLS Annotation:
Our book, The Abyss Beyond Dreams, is available in a Publisher Quality version from Bookshare at: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/1089320
For our next book we go much farther into the future for a tale of two mysteries, who killed one of the last remaining people on Earth, and why did the human race vanish in the 23rd century.
Our book, Edge of Dark by Brenda Cooper, is available in Publisher Quality from Bookshare at: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/1007987
Our book, Lord Valentine's Castle, is available both from BARD, and in a Publisher Quality version from Bookshare. The BARD version is at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.59545
For our next book, we've selected a tale of first contact by one of the best author collaborations in SF history: We've chose The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. available from both BARD and Bookshare.
Our book, Ventus, is available both from BARD and in Excellent quality from Bookshare. The link to the BARD version is at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.57168
Hello Folks, Another good turnout at our latest meeting. Most of us enjoyed our book, The Kraken Project by Douglas Preston. For our next book, we remember Leonard Nimoy as we read Spock's World by Diane Duane.
Our book, The Kraken Project, is available from both BARD and Bookshare. The link to the BARD version is at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.79300 Here is the NLS annotation:
Our book, The Companions by Sheri S. Tepper is available both as a download from BARD and as a Publisher Quality version from Bookshare. The link to the BARD version is at:
The link to the BARD version of Rivers of Time is at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.40578 And the link to the Bookshare version is at:
For our next book, we sample the work of many modern SF authors in the short story anthology Twenty-First Century Science Fiction, edited by two of the best in the field, David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden.
Our book, 2312, is available from Bookshare in publisher quality, and from BARD. The BARD version is at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.74887 and the Bookshare version is at:
Our book is a tale of one man's survival on Mars, suggested by one of our new members, Bob, The Martian by Andy Weir. Our book, The Martian, is available from both Bookshare and BARD. The Bookshare version is at:
For our next book we have some fun, a meeting of advanced aliens and medieval knights as only grandmaster Poul Anderson could portray it, in his classic The High Crusade.
For our next book, we go back a bit further for another book that was expanded from a Nebula Award winning shorter work, The Dream Master by Roger Zelazny.
Our book is a visionary tour de force from one of the greats of Science Fiction, Greg Bear: Blood Music. Our book, Blood Music by Greg Bear is available from both BARD:
For our next book, we go to the Star Trek universe for the first time with Doctor's Orders by DianeDuane.
Hello Folks, Our opinions of our book, Transcendental by James Gunn, were all over the map.
we'll be reading Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo. Our book, Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo, is available as a digital download from BARD at:
Our book, Dinosaur Planet by Anne McCaffrey, is available on Bookshare and as a digital download from BARD.
Our book for this month is Freedom (TM), the sequel to Daemon, by Daniel Suarez, available from both Bookshare and BARD. The Bookshare version is at: