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May 2014 Challenge Roundup
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DrNefario
Posted 2014-05-31 1:11 PM (#7862)
Subject: May 2014 Challenge Roundup		Quote Reply



Uber User

Posts: 526
500
Location: UK		I think it's time for another monthly summary thread.

Here are my challenge books from May:

Bridge of Birds - Barry Hughart
- 12 in 12 (Mythopoeic)
- Book Ones

The Female Man - Joanna Russ
- WoGF
- Masterworks (SF/MW - I'm counting it as a mistresswork for now)
- Second Best (Nebula)
- End of the World
- Guardian

Sporting Chance - Elizabeth Moon
- Sequel
- Elizabeth Noun

Heir of Sea and Fire - Patricia A. McKillip
- Sequel
- Read More

Dorsai! - Gordon R. Dickson
- Book Ones
- Second Best (Hugo)

Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
- Masterworks (MW)
- 12 in 12 (Clarke)
- End of the World
- Guardian
- Read More

Best book of the month would be between Bridge of Birds and Handmaid's Tale, which are so different I don't know if a comparison is even meaningful.

On the other hand, The Female Man and Dorsai! are probably among my least favourite books from all the challenges to date. The Female Man was too broken up and confusing. I'm sure it was doing something clever and literary, but I like stories. I don't want to be invertedly snobbish about capital-L Literature, but I'm not much of a fan of experimental structures, these days. Dorsai! was just a bit flat and boring. I couldn't help feeling that our superman military genius hero was only a military genius because he had the author on his side.

Having just managed to squeak Handmaid's Tale in under the wire last night, I have also just passed the half-way point on my ever-shifting list of books to read, at 25 of 49.

My challenges:

WoGF: 9/12
Book Ones: 11/12
Masterworks: 6/12 (3 SF, 3 MW)
12 in 12: 6/12 (Neb, Shirley Jn, Campbell, Loc YA, Mytho, Clarke)
Second Best: 7/12 (Loc F, Mytho, BSFA, Loc SF, Loc YA, Neb, Hugo)
Sequel: 6/12
End of the World: 7/12
Elizabeth Noun: 2/3
Guardian: 5/7
Read More: 4/12
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FeminineFantastique
Posted 2014-05-31 7:18 PM (#7864 - in reply to #7862)
Subject: Re: May 2014 Challenge Roundup		Quote Reply



Uber User

Posts: 154
100
Actually was insane enough to add another challenge even though I'm running behind. List looks more productive than it is because I'm concentrating on the short fiction challenge right now (making me feel a little less behind):

Unlocked, John Scalzi - EoTW, Short Fiction
Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler - 12 Awards, AoC, Sequel, EoTW
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, Catherynne Valente - 2nd Best, Faerie Mythology
The Other Half of the Sky, ed. Athena Andreadis and Kay T. Holt - Short Fiction
Among the Thorns, Veronica Schanoes - Short Fiction, Faerie Mythology
The Mothers of Voorhisville, Mary Rickert - Short Fiction
Redemption in Indigo, Karen Lord - 12 Awards, AoC, Mythopoeic Award
The Lady Astronaut of Mars, Mary Robinette Kowal - Short Fiction

AoC - 4/12
LGBT - 3/12
12 Awards - 5/12
2nd Best - 3/12
Mythopoeic - 2/12
Creature Feature - 3/6
EoTW - 3/12
Faerie Mythology - 5/12
Short Fiction - 7/12
Read the Sequel - 3/12

This has been my best month for reading so far; everything was stellar. But my favorite has to go to Veronica Schanoes' Among the Thorns. Tied for second are the second fairyland book and The Other Half of the Sky.

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Engelbrecht
Posted 2014-05-31 11:30 PM (#7866 - in reply to #7862)
Subject: RE: May 2014 Challenge Roundup		Quote Reply



Uber User

Posts: 454
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I've had a pretty good month with 12 books read.

Overall I've read 44 challenge book YTD (and 48 total), with 3 books still missing from the db (I need to get busy!).  98 of 222 challenge slots have been filled, representing 5.3 months worth, so things are looking good.

Challenge Status:
  • 12 Awards 4/12
  • Masterworks 4/12
  • Short Fiction 12/12
  • Authors of Color 2/12
  • Women of Genre 12/12
  • Pick and Mix (lists) 7/12
  • Read the Sequel 6/12
  • Young Adult 0/12
  • Creature Feature 6/6
  • End of the World 4/12
  • Fantasia 7/12
  • In Translation 6/12
  • Mythopoeic 1/12
  • The 35 11/35
  • Guardian 1/7
  • Trilogies 6/9
  • Second Best 5/12
  • Bucket List 4/9
May Challenge books:
  • Range of Ghosts / Shattered Pillars / Steles of the Sky by Elizabeth Bear (2012/3/4) (8/10)  Well done epic fantasy trilogy.  The ending was a bit chaotic & untidy, but still satisfying.
  • That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote by J. K. Bishop (2013) (8/10)  A collection that's a mixed bag, but the good pieces compare favorably to her wonderful The Etched City.
  • Kindred by Octavia E.Butler (1979) (8/10)  Powerful and unsettling.
  • The Nightingale by Kara Dalkey (1988) (7/10)  Underwhelming.  Could have been better.
  • Tyrannia and other Renditions (2013) (8/10)  Strong collection by a guy who takes his fictive weirdness seriously!
  • Questionable Practices by Eileen Gunn (2013) (8/10)  Another strong collection - some excellent stories, and some so-so ones.
  • Impossible Monsters edited by Kasey Lansdale (2013) (6/10)  It really felt like she was riding her dad's coattails on this one.  Most of the stories were weak to so-so.
  • The Mummy!  A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century by Jane Webb Loudon (1827) (4/10)  I badly wanted to like this one - it could have been one of the greats in the history of SF, being the ur-mummy book combined with SF speculation, written on the heels of Shelley's Frankenstein, but it was SO badly written.
  • How the World Became Quiet by Rachel Swirsky (2013) (7/10)  An OK collection that started off well, but the lack of subsequent tentpole stories was keenly felt.
Also read in May:
  • The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce (2013) (9/10)  A typical Joyce - fantastic characters and sense of place, but the fantastical elements don't quite hold up their end.
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Thomcat
Posted 2014-06-01 7:48 AM (#7871 - in reply to #7862)
Subject: Re: May 2014 Challenge Roundup		Quote Reply



Member

Posts: 44
25
Location: Seattle, WA		State of the Challenge report - Young Adult Reading Challenge - 5/12th done

23 participants signed up and there are 28 reviews submitted - 12 in the last two months. Among participants, there at 56 books completed.
While behind in other challenges, I am on-par here. More than a few new YA books added to the database recently - may have to blog about the new additions.
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2014-06-01 1:50 PM (#7872 - in reply to #7862)
Subject: Re: May 2014 Challenge Roundup		Quote Reply



Uber User

Posts: 794
500
12 Awards: 8/12
Have to Read More: 4/12
Masterworks: 4/12
WoGF: 4/12
Fantasia: 7/12
In Translation: 2/12
Read the Sequel: 6/12
The 35: 19/35
Book of Ones: 3/12
Trilogies: 4/9
2nd Best: 6/12
Short Fiction 1/12
End of the World 7/12
Guardian List 2/7
Mythopoetic 3/12
Killer B's 1/3

Challenge Books 83, actual books 24. Only 4 books read this month. My favorites would be Ship of Fools and When Gravity Fails. My top favorite was a non-SF: The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime.
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-06-01 2:16 PM (#7874 - in reply to #7862)
Subject: Re: May 2014 Challenge Roundup		Quote Reply



Elite Veteran

Posts: 1031
1000
Location: UK		I am not doing too well with my challenges these last couple of months because of health and family issues,and preparing for visitors from USA. Reading has been cut right down,perhaps to 2/3 of my usual.I have had to rearrange my challenge books to make fewer books spread over more challenges.

My Challenges

12 Awards - 6/12
Have to read more - 6/12
Masterworks - 4/12-
Pick and Mix - 10/12
YA - 8/12
Creature Feature - 5/6
Faerie Mythology - 7/12
Fantasia - 5/12
Book of Ones- 7/12
Guardian - 3/7
Killer Bees - 1/3
Second Best - 3/12
My Bucket List - 4/9

total challenges - 13
total book slots - 133
slots filled so far- 69
total different books - 64
total books read so far - 26 (40%)

Books read in May

Douglas Adams - Life,the Universe,and Everything
L K Hamilton - Caress of Twilight
L K Hamilton - Seduced by Moonlight
Gene Wolfe - Shadow of the Torturer
Laini Taylor - Dreams of Gods and Monsters
Wow five books! Not too outstanding,but remember I am doing a 144 book challenge over on shelfari, so I am reading several genres not applicable here.Shadow of the Torturer and Dreams of Gods and Monsters were fantastic reads,among the best reads this year.Here's hoping I can read more challenge books in June than I did in May!


Edited by dustydigger 2014-06-01 2:19 PM
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spoltz
Posted 2014-06-01 2:17 PM (#7875 - in reply to #7862)
Subject: Re: May 2014 Challenge Roundup		Quote Reply



Uber User

Posts: 370
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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		I added two more challenges to my list, Elizabeth Noun and Fantasia. Fantasia was an easy choice because I'm reading so much fantasy between the other challenges. I opted for the Elizabeth Noun challenge because I could use them for the WoGF challenge, and I've never read any of the Elizabeths. So why not?

The books I read in May:
The Steel Remains - Richard K Morgan 5 stars (LGBT / Fantasia)
Drawing Blood - Poppy Z Brite 4 stars (LGBT / WoGF / Second Best)
Pstalemate - Lester del Rey 3 stars (Grandmaster)
Arachne - Lisa Mason 3 stars (I Just Have To Read)
Winterlong - Elizabeth Hand 3 stars (Masterwork / WoGF / Second Best / Elizabeth Noun)

I also started The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C Hines for my SF bookclub. I thought it was terrible and was the first book I actually put down with no intention of picking up again. I would give this book 0 stars.

The Steel Remains was my favorite this month, because it was so dark and unabashedly vulgar and violent, and because the characters are so well developed. I never thought of myself as a splatterpunk fan, but I really enjoyed it here. And as a gay man, it's awesome to read a "mainstream" book where the main character is gay. Even though it's high fantasy, and I'm no hero, there's a level of identifying with a character that I haven't reached in a very long time. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, and hoping the third in the trilogy is out in October as currently promised.

I also really enjoyed "Drawing Blood." I haven't read any horror in a long time. If found it really creepy.

Tallies of my challenges:
I Just Have To Read 11/12
Grandmaster 3/12
LGBT 5/12
Masterworks 6/12
WOGF 8/12
2nd Best 8/12
Fantasia 8/12
Elizabeth Noun 1/3
Total: 50/87

So 21 physical books or 37 virtual books left to read. I'm heading to the library in a few minutes :-) I'm taking two more programming classes this year, so I'm hoping I can get through all my planned reading while writing copious amounts of Python code.
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