The blog moves

The blog for the Edinburgh SF Book Group has now migrated to a nicer and more reliable WordPress format here.

June 2007 meeting

The next meeting of the Edinburgh SF Book Group will be on Tuesday 26th of June from 6 to 7pm in the usual haunt of Henderson's bistro on Hanover Street, where the book under discussion will be Russell Hoban's acclaimed novel Ridley Walker.

The picking of books

The picking of books is a difficult matter,
it isn't just one of your holiday games...

(apologies to T.S. Elliott for riffing in his poetry)

Thanks to Beth for sending me an updated list of who will be picking a book each month for the next several meetings; if your name is on there this gives you a chance to think what book you want to pick. For anyone interested in joining the group, we take it in turns to select books to discuss, with regulars getting a month each to pick out a book. The criteria is pretty flexible - we take in traditional SF, modern and classic, horror, fantasy, graphic novels and 'slipstream'/speculative fiction works which may not be considered SF&F by many but do contain some SF elements (such as some of Margaret Atwood's novels, for example). The main aspect really required in a choice is that it contains elements that will generate some discussion.

May – Greg

June – Thomas

July – Jake

August – Suzy

Sept – Chris

Oct – Jer

Nov – Joe

Dec – Beth

May meeting

The next meeting of the Book Group will take place on Tuesday the 29th of May from 6 to 7 pm in Henderson's in the New Town's Hanover Street. Greg (H) has the choice for this month and he has picked out an old classic of SF, "I, Robot" from the prolific pen of Isaac Asimov, the start of a series of works which gave us the famous Three Laws of Robotics (ignore the lacklustre movie version!) which seem to have increasing relevance half a century on as people start to discuss the possibility of artificial intelligence. All are welcome to come along and join in.

April meeting

Due to schedule conflicts, the April meeting will actually be in May - well, only just by a tiny, teensy bit since it will be Tuesday 1st May. The book for this month will be the jolly crime caper fantasy romp The Lies of Locke Lamora, the debut novel by Scott Lynch (it made me think of a Stainless Steel Rat book mixed with Renaissance Venice). Venue as usual will be Henderson's bistro on Hanover Street in the New Town, all are welcome.

March meeting

The March 2007 meeting will take place on Tuesday 27th from 6 to 7pm in the usual venue of Henderson's on Hanover Street. This month we will be looking at Charles Burns' acclaimed graphic novel Black Hole, a tale of teenage problems, school and coming-of-age set against a bizarre sexual disease which attacks only teens, creating odd mutations.

February meeting

The February meeting of the Edinburgh SF Book Group will take place on Tuesday February 27th from 6 to 7pm in Henderson's on Hanover Street. The book under discussion this month will be the classic Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; all are welcome to come along.

Coffee and Comics February

The first meeting of the book group's graphic novel offshoot, Coffee & Comics, went pretty well and so we're going ahead with a second meeting on Tuesday 13th of February where we will be discussing the Pulitzer Prize-winning interpretation of the Holocaust by Art Spiegelman, Maus.

January meet - location change

The meeting due this week will not take place in the usual location of Henderson's as the plan has now changed to take in watching the movie version as well as talking about the book of Starship Troopers. Anyone new wanting to join in, normal service should be resumed for the February meet.

Coffee and comics reminder

Just a reminder that the first meeting of the graphic novels offshoot of the Book Group, Coffee and Comics, will be this Tuesday (16th) from 6 to 7pm in Biblos on the corner of Chambers Street and Southbridge to discuss Pride of Baghdad.

Coffee and Comics

Details for the first meeting of the graphic novel offshoot from the Book Group, Coffee and Comics, can be found over on a new blog here.

January 2007 meeting

The Book Group meeting for January 2007 will take place on Tuesday 30th in the usual haunt of Henderson's on Hanover Street (hopefully a bit quieter and in our usual spot this time) at 6pm. The book under discussion will be Robert A Heinlein's SF war tale of man versus superbug Starship Troopers.

December meeting

The December meeting will fall on Tuesday 19th at the usual time of 6pm in Henderson's on Hanover Street. It's Beth's turn to choose this month and she has selected a classic from one of the godfather's of SF, Herbert George Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau, with themes of eugencics, race and manipulation of nature by man which seems to become more relevant every decade. Since this is such an old book it is well outside copyright, meaning there are many budget Penguin Classics and the like editions to be had, or you can get the text free from Project Gutenberg.

November meeting

After a terrific meeting tonight (ticked all the boxes - great turnout, good book with tons to discuss and everyone liked it) for Michel Faber's Under the Skin we've picked out book and date for next month. The next meeting will be on Tuesday 28th of November at 6pm in Henderson's and the book under discussion will be Provender Gleed by James Lovegrove, a book set in a world much like ours except run by the Families (the great Families have run everything since the Borgias and the Medicis formed an alliance), playing with notions of celebrity, hereditary power, class, inequality and also some fine humour and the world's only anagrammatic detectives.

October meeting

The meeting for October will take place on Tuesday 24th at 6pm in Henderson's on Hanover Street. Our latest member Jer had the choice for this month and he's picked one of the books that put a revamped Edinburgh publisher, Canongate, on the UK-wide literary map with Michel Faber's Under the Skin.

September 2006 meeting

After struggling to choose between Jennifer Government and Singularity Sky (and then lately Provender Gleed after a certain someone mentioned a James Lovegrove-related Gleed tale) Chris has settled on Jennifer Government by Max Barry for September's meeting, which will be on Tuesday 26th in Henderson's as usual.

This meeting will be starting a little earlier this time due to commitments (5.30 instead of 6 for the kick-off if folks can manage it, if not toddle in at the usual time and we will just talk about you until then). And what a great turn-out and meeting last night for August's discussion of Lathe of Heaven! Next up to choose should be Jer for October.