Wrapping Up The 2012 Science Fiction Experience

Well, it’s the end of the Science Fiction Experience, hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings, and let me say it has been quite an experience! A very good one of course!

I wrote that my sci-fi reading was really pathetic and I’m glad that I read some books I’ve always heard good things about. I posted a list of books as potential reads. Let’s review that list again:

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Earthbound by Joe Haldeman

Count to a Trillion by John C. Wright

Let’s see…

I did read Foundation (as part of a group read) and Starship Troopers. I didn’t get to The Time Machine, War of the Worlds, The Grand Design or Earthbound. I read Ender’s Game and I got about fifty pages into Count to a Trillion and had to set it aside. I was finding I was just not very interested with what was going on. I also had to abandon The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, for the same reason. Like Count to a Trillion it didn't draw me in and I guess it wasn't the right time for either book. I'll return to them again someday.

I did get to some other books I hadn’t planned on: Legacy by James H. Schmitz and Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi, two books I enjoyed immensely.

I also completed the Foundation trilogy when I participated in the group reads of Foundation and Empire, as well as Second Foundation. You may be wondering what happened to the conclusion of the Second Foundation group discussion. The questions were a bit late and I’ll have those up on Monday to take care of that.

I was also able to finish up Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies with Venessa on Tuesday. I’ll have a review for that next week. And yes, it will be a video review featuring the lovely V! There may be some readers who are new to the blog and haven't seem them before, but I try to read daily to my daughter and when we finish a book I'll post a review with her thoughts and mine. Click here if you'd like to see some of our past reviews.

I was very disappointed when I went searching for juvenile science fiction books that would be appropriate for her age. Most of the books Amazon and Good Reads suggested were mostly fantasy. I had to really dig and look elsewhere and that’s how I discovered Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies. THEN I went to Barnes and Noble one day and found this series: http://www.goodreads.com/series/68640-the-roar but I think AotFB was better suited for Venessa for now.

Oh! Let’s not forget about a certain show that took over my life in January!

Overall I had a really good time. I enjoyed all the books I read and the one TV series I watched (which, seriously, did took up all of January). After the two misses with Count to a Trillion and The Difference Engine, I was a little worried but everything I read after that was a lot of fun.

Now it’s time to look forward to another reading challenged hosted, once again, by Stainless Steel Droppings (these challenges are really a lot of fun!). This will be the Once Upon a Time Challenge and it will be a fantasy reading challenge and I’m really excited about this one. I’ve already got a good stack of books ready for it (my sister was kind enough to send me three of them) and I’ll probably start a bit early because I just got a book I want to read for it from the library. More details to come!

In the meantime, I’m cleansing my reading palate with a non-fiction book about the underworld of London that I am finding to be really fascinating! And if you’d like to see what others read during the Science Fiction Experience, head over to the review site: http://2012sfexperience.blogspot.com/ Lots of reviews and lots of intriguing books. Who knows, maybe you’ll find your woobie there!