Challenges

The 2016 Sci-Fi Experience

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(Art by Chris Goff, used with permission.)

“I had the ambition to not only go farther than man had gone before, but to go as far as it was possible to go.”

— Captain Cook

Though the good Captain was unlikely to be contemplating space travel when (if) he said those words, they reverberate in my head to the orchestral notes of the Star Trek opening theme and those famous words, “Space: The final frontier…”

Though few of us have, or ever will, physically leave the confines of our beloved Earth, we have the privilege of being able to sail the heavens upon the words of writers and poets through the simple act of reading. We can visit other galaxies and other times through acting and special effects via big and small screens. We can immerse ourselves in imagined Earth futures or on alien worlds through our consoles and computers with the latest generation of video games. We can lose ourselves to daydreams, drawn into the world of imagination through the digital and traditional tools of artists who create science fictional works of art.

For several years now I have been celebrating the start of a new year by hosting The Sci-Fi Experience. The hope has always been to encourage others to venture into the fiction that I consider my first love: science fiction. As the years have progressed I have added science fiction viewing and gaming to the event and, beginning last year, changed the format to encompass the last month of the year as well as the first month of the new year.

The 2016 Sci-Fi Experience begins December 1st and runs through January 31st, 2016.

Shall we boldly go?

Events like these are all about taking the largely solitary act of reading and viewing and gaming and adding the element of “community” to it.

The Sci-Fi Experience will hopefully give people an opportunity to:

a) Continue their love affair with science fiction
b) Return to science fiction after an absence, or
c) Experience for the first time just how exhilarating science fiction can be.

If you have ever wanted to give science fiction a try, or are already a fan of the genre and are looking for a group of kindred spirits, this is the event for you.

We will once again be promoting Andrea’s Vintage SF Month as an event that you will also hopefully participate in. The event runs through the month of January and is focused on reading science fiction novels published pre-1979. It is a great time and I look forward to reading some classics for The Experience during the month of January. For more information on Vintage SF Month, please follow this link. Andrea always reads interesting classics and writes great reviews, so you will want to stay tuned to her site leading up to, and during, this event.

You are welcome to participate as much or as little as you would like over the next two months. If you write any posts about science fiction related books you are reading, television shows or films you are watching, games you are playing or science fiction art you are appreciating, please feel free to link those on the Review Site. If you want to sign up to let us know you are taking part, please do so in the Mr. Linky at the end of this post.

As always, some amazing talented artist has been kind enough to allow us to use their art as a banner for the event. This year that artist is Chris Goff. I’ve liked this image for years, and the non-cropped version has been my Windows desktop image several times. You can find the large version here. Check it out, it is a fantastic piece of concept art. Makes me wish we had a base like this on the moon right now, I would love to go visit. Be sure to view all the art on Chris Goff’s site. I’m especially fond of the work in his Personal Gallery. After a few years of spaceship images used for the banner, I was excited about this particular image of a base on the moon. It is the kind of art that not ignites my science fictional passions, but also fuels my interest in the real-life work that is going on in our solar system to increase our understanding of the planets closest to us.

Thank you so much, Chris, for being so generous to allow us to use your art for the event this year.

There are several different sized banners below for your use. Please use this link to give credit to the artist.

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Whenever I make lists for reading events, I rarely stick to them. However, the fun to be had by making lists cannot be missed. Thus, in a perfect world, I would be partaking of the following during The 2016 Sci-Fi Experience and Vintage SF Month:

Books

1. A Call to Arms ~David Weber, Timothy Zahn, Timothy Pope
2. The Memory of Earth ~Orson Scott Card
3. The Dragon Never Sleeps ~Glen Cook
4. Nightfall ~Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg
5. The Snow Queen ~Joan D. Vinge
6. Necessity’s Child ~Sharon Lee, Steve Miller (finish)
7. Dragon Ship ~(Sharon Lee, Steve Miller (audio, finish)
8. Something by Andre Norton
9. Something by Robert A. Heinlein
10. Impossible Things ~Connie Willis

Films/Television

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
2. The Expanse
3. Doctor Who, Season 9, second half

Games

1. Fallout 4
2. Gears of War Ultimate Edition

If you want to sign up, please do so here. If you are doing a post then please link to your sign up post. If not, then please put your direct site in. It is not necessary to be a blogger to participate.

If you are new, or relatively new, to science fiction and would like some recommendations, please make sure to ask in the comments, and give us some indication of the type of books you currently like to read.

December is nearly upon us. Let us get started on our journey, shall we?

“Every cubic inch of space is a miracle.”

— Walt Whitman

32 thoughts on “The 2016 Sci-Fi Experience”

    1. I have no idea. It is crazy that it is already December next week.

    1. That is perfect timing. But why leave us in suspense, what book?

    1. Thanks George, hope you guys are having an enjoyable Thanksgiving.

  4. I will be signing up soon. I hope you read and review the Glen Cook book because I would like to learn more about it.

    1. I have a friend who is dying for me to read that Cook book. It is not only his favorite of Cook’s, but one of his all time favorite SF novels, so I hope to make it one of my priorities.

    1. Yes indeed. I’m so stoked about Vintage SF month in conjunction with this to start the year. My list of desired books to read keeps building.

  7. I don’t know if I’ll get to any of them during the challenge, but I got 11 vintage paperbacks at Orycon last week, including Zelazny, AE Van Vogt, Sturgeon, and Damon Knight. I’m reading Delany right now from ’84 and have two Witch Worlds from Andre Norton in the wings.

    1. That is awesome, Stephen. Always fun to find treasures like that.

  8. I was wondering if I would find something like this. I’ve been waiting for an excuse to read sci-fi novels. I’m so glad this begins after NaNoWriMo, because I won’t have to worry about writing. Thanks a bunch for hosting this! Too bad I read The Rings of Time by Greg Cox back in October, lol.

    1. Great to have you, and congrats on NaNoWriMo. I hope you enjoy reading and sharing with us.

  9. Hey, as usual, I’ll take part in the experience. Unfortnunately I have read several science fiction pieces already and sf will have to wait a bit. I’m doing my “Fantastic World Stories” hopefully ther’ll be some sf in that too.

    Did you read Lem already? 😉

    1. I’m happy to hear it, Kama. I’ll be surprised if there is no SF in “Fantastic World Stories”.

      I have not read Lem.

      1. There’ll be, just the question is will I read them in the time for the Experience. 😉 I have quite a backlog of library books to read. Ok, there is an anthology of sff too among them, but… 😉 We;ll see…. for tomorrow’s post I plan to start with… African magazine.

  10. I haven’t been blogging for quite a while and only got back into it these past two months! And the first thing I joined was Rinn (Rinn Reads) and Lisa’s (Over the effing rainbow) Scifimonth – it was really great fun and has introduced me to so much good scifi out there. And now I can prolong this fun with the Sci-fi Experience. Awesome! Thank you for hosting 😀

    1. Rinn and Lisa’s event is great. I’m sorry I had so much going on this month or I would have joined in myself. I have been in spirit of late, as I’ve been reading a lot of science fiction this last week.

      So happy that you found out about this and decided to join us. It is a great pleasure to have you.

  12. Thanks for hosting again! I’m looking forward to reading your reviews.
    I’ve got at least a couple of steampunk books to read and I’m currently listening to Nancy Kress’ Probability Moon.

    1. I’ll be curious to hear what you think of the Kress book. I’ve read a handful of her short stories and one of her novellas, all of which I’ve enjoyed. Nice to see you joining in again this year, Mervi.

  13. A two-months-long full immersion into science fiction? Wonderful, sign me up!
    No, wait, I did that already… 🙂
    Thank you for hosting this wonderful event, I know it’s going to be fun!

  14. I’m late (as usual) but seeing as among the last few books I’ve finished were sci-fi that I really enjoyed; The Long way to a small angry planet & Ghost Brigades, I’ll just have to sign up

    1. Very excited you are joining in again, Fence. I was just talking to someone about Ghost Brigades the other day and how it comes a close second to Old Man’s War as my favorite Scalzi novel.

  15. I’m reading all the physical books I own this year (or at least trying…) and I made sure to have at least one book to join in. I will be reading Lincoln’s Dreams by Connie Willis and watching several sci-fi movies as well. Thanks for hosting this again!

  16. As I only just returned to reading ANYTHING at ALL this year, I’m going to use this to keep me going! Must not lose momentum!!
    I’m super stoked about this, and it’s a great excuse to stock my to-be-read pile with all the sci-fi I’ve missed, and planned on reading for forever. Thanks for hosting!

  17. Hallo, Hallo! 🙂

    Joining a bit late this year – my December was a bit less than stellar as I caught a bad cold virus I’m still recovering from as it has depleted my energy levels. However, I have left-over sci fi reads I began during #RRSciFiMonth as well as others I want to get to during January – therefore, it works out well, aside from the fact I’m nearly a month overdue from joining you! I will share a few posts first and then my official participant post the first week of January, as I’ve just returnt to blogging *today!* since I took ill! 🙁

    Looking forward to seeing what others are reading and exploring in sci-fi! Rock on!

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