LORDS OF LORE

We are a sci-fi/fantasy book club in Chicago. There are ten or so of us. We abide by a fairly strict set of rules (see below). This is the official LORDS OF LORE home page, containing information and a record of our deliberations.

Rules

Here are the rules:

  1. You choose a book to read.
    1. Your book must be sci-fi/fantasy, and really it must be classified as such by the publisher. In other words, it must be "genre fiction", don't try any shit like reading a Vonnegut or Murakami book and calling it sci-fi. Hint: suitable books can be found in the SCI-FI SECTION of your favorite store.
    2. Your book should have a copyright date of 2006, 2007 or 2008. There are a few problems with this. The idea is to be reading new books, so really it should have an original copyright date of 2006, 2007 or 2008. Don't read some book that's twenty years old but just republished, or some mass market that came out in 2003 in hardcover, or some book that came out in a British edition in 2000 but is just now seeing American release. However, we do recognize that sometimes it's pretty hard to find out when a book was really originally published, which makes this a little challenging. Just do your best. ALSO: we do recognize that this is pretty restrictive. You might not have an easy time finding something, particularly something that's not part of an ongoing series and particularly in the fantasy genre. This is sort of the point. So really, just try to do your best. If you pick something from 2005 and can justify your choice, you will IN ALL LIKELIHOOD not be expelled from the club. But like I said, this difficulty is really sort of the whole point of the club, so please try to do your best.
  2. Read your book, and prepare in any way necessary to present your findings.
  3. Present your findings at our next club meeting. Generally, meetings are held every two months.

That's about it. Go nuts.

Meeting Dates

  1. Tuesday, October 30, 2007 (minutes, which are frankly garbage)
  2. Tuesday, December 10, 2007 (minutes, which are nearly garbage)
  3. Tuesday, February 5, 2008 (minutes)
  4. Tuesday, April 29, 2008 (minutes)
  5. Friday, July 11, 2008 (minutes)
  6. Tuesday, August 26, 2008 (minutes)
  7. Friday, October 3, 2008 (minutes)
  8. November, 2008 (planned)

Mailing list

There is a mailing list for the purpose of coordinating our actions. It can also be used to foster a small amount of discussion or for the distribution of noteworthy news items.

Books Read

Roughly in chronological order. Reviews and comments can be found in the meeting minutes (sometimes spread across several meetings or reviewed by different people on multiple occasions), and copies of most have been donated to the Library of Lore and are available to be checked out.

  1. Jack McDevitt. Seeker.
  2. Charles Stross. Glasshouse.
  3. Alastair Reynolds. Pushing Ice.
  4. Chris Genoa. Foop!.
  5. William Dietz. Runner.
  6. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Left Behind.
  7. Peter F Hamilton. Pandora's Star.
  8. Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden. Baltimore.
  9. Joe Haldeman. Camouflage.
  10. Brian Francis Slattery. Spaceman Blues.
  11. M John Harrison. Light.
  12. M John Harrison. Nova Swing.
  13. Jeff Vandermeer. Shriek: An Afterword.
  14. Violette Malan. The Mirror Prince.
  15. Charles Stross. Missile Gap.
  16. Karl Schroeder. Sun of Suns.
  17. Karen Traviss. Matriach.
  18. Vernor Vinge. Rainbow's End.
  19. Vernor Vinge. A Fire Upon the Deep.
  20. Karl Schroeder. Sun of Suns.
  21. John C Wright. Orphans of Chaos.
  22. William Gibson. Spook Country.
  23. Charles Stross. Halting State.
  24. Matthew Jarpe. Radio Freefall.
  25. Joe Abercrombie. The Blade Itself.
  26. Joe Abercrombie. Before They Are Hanged.
  27. Patrick Rothfuss. The Name of the Wind.
  28. Dan Simmons. Hyperion.
  29. Dan Simmons. The Fall of Hyperion.
  30. Ekaterina Sedia. The Secret History of Moscow.
  31. China Mieville. Iron Council.
  32. Richard K Morgan. Thirteen.
  33. Michael Flynn. Eifelheim.
  34. Iain M Banks. Matter.
  35. John Scalzi. The Android's Dream.
  36. John C Wright. Fugitives of Chaos.
  37. John C Wright. Titans of Chaos.
  38. Alastair Reynolds. Revelation Space.
  39. Alastair Reynolds. Chasm City.
  40. Alastair Reynolds. Redemption Ark.
  41. Alastair Reynolds. Absolution Gap.
  42. Alastair Reynolds. Galactic North.
  43. J F Lewis. Staked.
  44. Iain M Banks. Consider Phlebas.
  45. Geoffrey A Landis. Mars Crossing.
  46. Donald Kingsbury. Psychohistorical Crisis.
  47. Joe Abercrombie. Last Argument of Kings.
  48. Stephenie Meyer. Twilight.
  49. Stephenie Meyer. New Moon.
  50. Portia Da Costa. The Stranger.
  51. Gene Wolfe. Pirate Freedom.
  52. Audrey Niffenegger. The Time Traveler's Wife.
  53. Mary Roinette Kowal. For Solo Cello, Opus 12.
  54. Leinad Zeraus. Daemon.
  55. Michael Chabon. The Yiddish Policemen's Union.
Last updated 10/2008 by Matt.