[bksvol-discuss] Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, Thursday, August 9, 2012

From: "Evan Reese" <mentat1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Bob Acosta" <boacosta@xxxxxxxxxxx>, <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "SF list" <scifi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:12:49 -0400
Hello Folks,

We had another good turnout at our most recent meeting, including a new 
participant. Most of us liked our book, The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury.

For our next book, we've chosen the first volume of a trilogy that takes place 
on a giant starship far from Earth. We'll be reading Dust by Elizabeth Bear.

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, August 9, 2012.

Place, Book Nook at:

http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs7867a2369e0e

Time, 9 PM Eastern, 8 PM Central, 7 PM Mountain, 6 PM Pacific, and 1:00 UTC.

Our book, Dust by Elizabeth Bear, the first volume of the Jacob's Ladder 
trilogy,  is available from both BARD, and as a publisher quality edition from 
Bookshare.

The BARD link is at:

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.67426

and the Bookshare version is at:

https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/221157

Here is the NLS synopsis:

Aboard a decaying starship, young servant Rien cares for her mistress's new 
prisoner, Perceval, whose angel wings have been severed. When Rien discovers 
Perceval is her sister, she helps her to safety. Artificial intelligence Jacob 
Dust watches over the girls as they attempt to prevent war.

Here is Bookshare's long synopsis:

On a broken ship orbiting a doomed sun, dwellers have grown complacent with 
their aging metal world. But when a serving girl frees a captive noblewoman, 
the old order is about to change.... Ariane, Princess of the House of Rule, was 
known to be fiercely cold-blooded. But severing an angel's wings on the 
battlefield--even after she had surrendered--proved her completely without 
honor. Captive, the angel Perceval waits for Ariane not only to finish her 
off--but to devour her very memories and mind. Surely her gruesome death will 
cause war between the houses--exactly as Ariane desires. But Ariane's plan may 
yet be opposed, for Perceval at once recognizes the young servant charged with 
her care. Rien is the lost child: her sister. Soon they will escape, hoping to 
stop the impending war and save both their houses. But it is a perilous journey 
through the crumbling hulk of a dying ship, and they do not pass unnoticed. 
Because at the hub of their turning world waits Jacob Dust, all that remains of 
God, following the vapor wisp of the angel. And he knows they will meet very 
soon.

Finally, here's a description From Publishers Weekly taken from Amazon's page 
for this book:

Bear proves there's still juice in one of science fiction's oldest tropes, the 
stranded generation ship, in this complex coming-of-age tale. Rien, a handmaid 
in a feudal society, must care for the prisoner Ser Perceval-a mutilated enemy 
who Rien discovers
is her half-sister by an absent scion of the ruling family. Their quest for a 
safer home tangles with their society's own quest for safety, as the 
descendents of an artificial intelligence and the genetically engineered crew 
battle for control to save the ship from an impending supernova. Standard plot 
devices litter the familiar landscape: tarot, pseudo-angels, named swords with 
powers, and politics as a family quarrel. But Campbell Award-winning author 
Bear uses them beautifully to turn up the pressure on her characters, who 
respond by making hard choices. And--as she did in Carnival and Hammered--Bear 
breaks sexual taboos matter-of-factly: love in varied forms drives the 
characters without offering easy redemption.

Those who like the first book will be pleased to know that the remaining two 
volumes are available from both BARD, same narrator, and in publisher quality 
editions from Bookshare.

Sounds like this one could be a lot of fun, as well as containing some sense of 
wonder, so hope many of you can read it and join us at the next meeting to talk 
about it.

Evan
[bksvol-discuss] Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, Thursday, August 9, 2012

Other related posts:
