Science Fiction Book Discussion

A new part of our programming for 2012 will be attempting to form a science fiction book discussion group.  We've had a long-standing mystery group, The Mystery Mavens, and we thought the time was right to expand our repertoire.

In order to fit in with our end-of-the-world "Are You Prepared..." theme for 2012, two of us here with an interest in SF picked the first two titles for consideration:

The first book is Forstchen's One Second After which explores the after effects of an EMP caused by a nuclear weapon.  We will meet on Feb  Here's Booklist's review:

In a Norman Rockwell town in North Carolina, where residents rarely lock homes, retired army colonel John Matherson teaches college, raises two daughters, and grieves the loss of his wife to cancer. When phones die and cars inexplicably stall, Grandma’s pre-computerized Edsel takes readers to a stunning scene on the car-littered interstate, on which 500 stranded strangers, some with guns, awaken John’s New Jersey street-smart instincts to get the family home and load the shotgun. Next morning, some townspeople realize that an electromagnetic pulse weapon has destroyed America’s power grid, and they proceed to set survival priorities. John’s list includes insulin for his type-one diabetic 12-year-old, candy bars, and sacks of ice. Deaths start with heart attacks and eventually escalate alarmingly. Food becomes scarce, and societal breakdown proceeds with inevitable violence; towns burn, and ex-servicemen recall “Korea in ’51” as military action by unlikely people becomes the norm in Forstchen’s sad, riveting cautionary tale, the premise of which Newt Gingrich’s foreword says is completely possible. --Whitney Scott --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Our second book is the classic A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller which begins in a post-apocalyptic future 600 years after a nuclear holocaust:

Written at a time when the Fear of the Bomb was at full steam, the Hugo-winning A Canticle for Leibowitz stands head and shoulders above virtually every other post-apocalypse SF novel of its day, and it may be the most important SF novel ever written. It beggars the imagination to think that this was Miller's only novel; though in 1997, the year after Miller's death, a sequel titled Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman was finished out by Terry Bisson and released. Contemplative, elegiac, and gut-wrenching in its best moments, the story allows Miller to view the human race through a glass darkly. Will our species ever learn from its mistakes and not repeat them? Miller hopes so, though he doesn't exactly appear to think so. This book is a lament for humanity.

Our plan is to work through 6 books in 2012.  We'll start as soon as possible with our first meeting scheduled for February 2nd.  After that, we'll meet bi-monthly.  We have the first two books ready, but we'll decide as a group the remaining four books to read.  Hopefully, we can then carry the group on through subsequent years on more-or-less the same quantity of books...unless the long count calendar cycle that ends in 2012 really IS the end.