Read Friend and Enter!
Welcome to the Beam Me Up International Science Fiction Book Club blog!
“Live long and prosper!” Spock bet Sarek bet Skon bet Solkar
“Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“By Grabthar’s hammer, by the suns of Warvan, you shall be avenged!” Dr. Lazarus of Tev’Meck
All are welcome to join us at our monthly meetings. This is us and this is what we will be reading and discussing.
We’d love to have you at our monthly virtual meeting. Just contact us via the About the Beamers page and we’ll add you to the distribution list.
A star will shine on the hour of our meeting.
R. F. Kuang’s Babel – A Virtual Discussion
Join the Beam Me Up Book Club on June 7th at 7pm Eastern Time for a virtual discussion of the acclaimed novel Babel by R.F. Kuang. This critically praised work blends fantasy, philosophy, and complex moral quandaries into an engrossing tale.
Babel takes place in an alternate version of the early 19th century where the mastery of an ancient language gives one the power to control the fundamentals of reality. At its heart is a profound exploration of colonialism, racism, privilege, and the moral dilemmas surrounding the pursuit of knowledge at all costs. The novel grapples with the moral ambiguity of gaining power through subjugation and the cyclical nature of oppression. It delves into power dynamics and who dictates historical truth, as well as the effect of childhood trauma on the psyche. Ultimately, Babel pushes readers to consider the ethical boundaries of language acquisition.
Themes we may explore:
- The power of language and translation
- Colonialism, imperialism, and cultural clashes
- Identity, assimilation, and being caught between worlds
- Mythology and the magic of words
- Sibling bonds and family dynamics
R.F. Kuang is a Marshall Scholar, Chinese-English translator, and the Astounding Award-winning author of the Poppy War trilogy. After studying philosophy, she completed degrees in Chinese studies and modern Chinese literature. Her academic background brings a scholar’s insight into weighty themes like those explored in Babel.
The novel is Kuang’s second published work, following her acclaimed debut The Poppy War series of fantasy novels. Her fiction works often blend Chinese history and mythology with nuanced commentary on power dynamics, morality, and the long-lasting impacts of violence and oppression.
We hope you can join us on June 7th for a lively conversation about this compelling and layered novel from R.F. Kuang! Click here to request logon information.
Flying Bellerophon to the ‘burbs
What does it take to be a Mythic Hero(tm)? The Beamers were contemplating this level of (super-)human achievement with the aid of our May book, Chimera by John Barth. The recently deceased Mr. Barth was a recognized titan of American literature who took to arguing storytelling with Scheherazade herself, while questing after (and questioning) the meaning of heroism embodied by those Greek demi-gods, Perseus and Bellerophon, both riders of the flying horse Pegasus. Would the Beamers ascend Mount Olympus to spend time with the gods, or would we be tossed off our own mounts on the slopes of Mr. Barth’s towering prose?
Continue readingSF&F Books with Lawyers as Main Characters!
According to Claude AI, there are a few speculative fiction novels–very few (ed.)–that put lawyer characters at the forefront. It’s a relatively niche subgenre compared to other professions portrayed in science fiction and fantasy. Here’s Claude AI’s list:
Science Fiction:
- The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley – A lawyer is recruited by an alien race to help resolve a contract dispute, dragging her into an interstellar conflict.
- Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress – A lawyer becomes a champion for the rights of the genetically engineered “Sleepless” community who don’t need rest.
- The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer – A lawyer grapples with the legal and ethical implications of an experiment to upload a human consciousness into a computer.
Fantasy:
- The Laws of Magic series by Michael Pryor – Aubrey Fitzwilliam is a law clerk working in a magical legal system, enforcing the laws that govern the use of magic.
- The Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone (Craft novels) – This series imagines a world where magic is regulated like law, with lawyer characters like Tara Abbot navigating the system.
- The Atario Tangram by Dennis Carey – In a world of legal magic, lawyer Ethan Hetherington inherits a powerful grimoire that puts him in danger.
- Amicus Impavidos by P.J. Hill – Amonus Fletcher is a defense lawyer who is also a licensed “wizardslinger” in a realm where magic is permitted with oversight.
- War for the Oaks by Emma Bull – Young lawyer Eddi McCandry gets caught between rival faerie kingdoms in modern Minneapolis. (Beamer selection for April 2015)
- The Night Court by M.J. Seton – Lawyers like Gideon Dale practice law in a magical Night Court that rules over supernatural beings.
- The Unbeliever by Nicholas Arden – Lawyer Alexander Zermati is pulled into investigating occult happenings in Edinburgh.
John Barth’s Chimera – Virtual Discussion
In memory of John Barth who died in April, the Beamers devote themselves to his Chimera. All are welcome to join us in our virtual discussion on May 3 at 7 PM Eastern.
John Barth was one of the most influential American novelists of the 20th century and a key figure in the postmodern literary movement. Barth’s most famous works, in addition to Chimera, include the novels The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), Giles Goat-Boy (1966), and the short story collection Lost in the Funhouse (1968). His writing was characterized by its boldly experimental nature, meta-fictional techniques, and intricately layered narratives.
Barth explored themes of sexuality, mythology, philosophy, and the role of the author/artist. His fiction frequently called attention to its own constructed nature and played with the conventions of storytelling. He was considered part of the influential postmodern movement alongside other innovative writers like Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, and John Hawkes.
Sadly, John Barth passed away on April 14, 2023 at the age of 92 in Baltimore, Maryland. His death marked the end of an enormously influential literary career spanning over six decades from his first published novel in 1956. He was praised by scholars and fellow writers alike for his groundbreaking contributions to 20th century fiction.
Chimera, published in 1972, is considered one of Barth’s seminal achievements and a quintessential work of postmodern literature. Its playful, mind-bending layering of stories-within-stories exemplified Barth’s talents and cemented his reputation in the postmodern canon.
Chimera consists of three loosely connected novellas that play with narrative conventions and the role of the author.
The first novella, “Dunyazadiad,” is a frame story about Scheherazade from the Arabian Nights continually delaying the ending of her tales. It explores themes of narrative desire, the limitations of storytelling, and the power dynamics between teller and audience.
The second novella, “Perseid,” follows a couple who discover a mysterious traveling showman and confront themes of identity, reality, and the blurring of fiction and truth.
The final novella, “Bellerophoniad,” reworks the Greek myth of Bellerophon in a tale about an author haunted by his own creations and struggling with the nature of his reality.
Throughout, Barth employs postmodern techniques like metafiction, intertextuality, and deconstructing conventional narrative structures. Chimera is considered a seminal work of postmodern fiction that influenced later novelists. Some key aspects critics explored include the novel’s self-reflexivity about the act of storytelling itself, its paradoxical mix of affirming and undermining narrative conventions, and its questioning of the boundaries between fiction and reality for both reader and writer.
We look forward to seeing you on May 3, 2024 at 7 pm Eastern. If you need log on information, click here.
Science fiction, why not?
With our hundreds of years (combined!) of reading science fiction, it is hard to believe that much could have escaped the collective intelligence of the Beamers. Until we came face to face with the history of female authors who labored long and were, in many cases, complete surprises to us. Editor Lisa Yaszek complied 25 stories, spanning the 1920s to the 1960s (terminating with Ursula Le Guin), to give us a good lesson on the contributions of women to speculative literature. Would we take careful notes and pass the exam, or would we goof off and flunk out of fandom?
Continue readingThe Future is Female! – Virtual Discussion
In honor of Women’s History Month (perhaps), the Beamers turn to The Future is Female!, an anthology of 25 stories edited by Lisa Yaszek.
SF-expert Lisa Yaszek presents the biggest and best survey of the female tradition in American science fiction ever published, a thrilling collection of classic tales. Here are over two dozen brilliant writers ripe for discovery and rediscovery, including Leslie F. Stone, Judith Merril, Leigh Brackett, Kit Reed, Joanna Russ, Zenna Henderson, James Tiptree Jr., and, of course, Ursula K. Le Guin. Imagining strange worlds and unexpected futures, looking into and beyond new technologies and scientific discoveries, in utopian fantasies and tales of cosmic horror, these women created and shaped speculative fiction as surely as their male counterparts. Their provocative, mind-blowing stories combine to form a thrilling multidimensional voyage of literary-feminist exploration and recovery.
We look forward to seeing you on April 5, 2024 at 7 pm Eastern. If you need log on information, click here.
To everything, turn, turn, turn
In the immediate present, the Beamers tackled the far, far future, looking at the end of human time and the extinction of our Sun. With a particular if peculiar hope. In the dark of winter, what could brighten our days? This time, it was the 2006 Hugo winner, Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson, a novel that answers the Fermi Paradox (“Where are they?”) question with an answer that promises a future that includes humans, though maybe not exactly as we might have wished. Would the Beamers stride into the days of a dying Sun heads high, or would we take to our final frontier with folded hands?
Continue readingFictional Librarians
Emily Temple, managing editor of the Literary Hub, has ranked the best 50 fictional librarians.
Number 50 on the list is the alternative Mary Hatch (not Bailey) from Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. (A terrible role model. And a terrible reflection of the real Mary.)
Number one is Rupert Gile from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower, or a-a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell musty and-and-and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is a . . . it, uh, it has no-no texture, no-no context. It’s-it’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then-then the getting of knowledge should be, uh, tangible. It should be, um, smelly.
48 more librarians in the article, including Conan, the Librarian(?).
Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin, a Virtual Discussion
The Beamers leave the possible apocalypse of Louise Erdrich‘s Future Home of the Living God for the very different but still very possible apocalypse of Robert Charles Wilson‘s Spin.
Watch the video for the day and time of the Beamers’ discussion.
One night in October, the stars go out. They all flared into brilliance at once, then disappeared, replaced by a flat, empty black barrier.
The effect is worldwide. The sun is now a featureless disk–a heat source, rather than an astronomical object. The moon is gone, but tides remain. Not only have the world’s artificial satellites fallen out of orbit, their recovered remains are pitted and aged, as though they’d been in space far longer than their known lifespans. A space probe reveals a bizarre truth: The barrier is artificial, generated by huge alien artifacts. Time is passing faster outside the barrier than inside–more than a hundred million years per day on Earth. At this rate, the death throes of the sun are only about forty years in our future.
Hugo Award winner in the Best Novel category, Spin has also won the French Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, the Japanese Seiun Award, the Israeli Geffen Prize, and the German Kurd Lasswitz Prize, among others. A Locus Bestseller.
Here’s a book that features speculative conceits as brash and thrilling as those found in any space opera, along with insights into the human condition as rich as those contained within any mainstream mimetic fiction, with both its conceits and insights beautifully embedded in crystalline prose. — The Washington Post
Spin is many things: psychological novel, technological thriller, apocalyptic picaresque, cosmological meditation. . . Another triumph for Robert Charles Wilson in a long string of triumphs. — Locus
If you’d like to participate in the discussion, please contact us through the About the Beamers page. We’ll send you all you need to connect to the virtual meeting.
We look forward to seeing (and hearing) you.
Misfiring Chekhov’s phaser
Bringing the Beamers up to speed on some contemporary fiction, we tackled a newer work by an author not known for her science fiction, Louise Erdrich, who posits that evolution could reverse its course and suddenly leave Earth as a vacant lot waiting to become the Future Home of the Living God. Full of saints and sinners, Ms. Erdrich’s novel gave us a lot to ponder, which may not be the best strategy for a writer dealing with a bunch of sharp-eyed readers. Would she build us the house of our dreams, or would she cash our deposits and run off and leave us out in the cold?
Continue reading
Beamer Books 