I came to the realization recently that I have been lax in my responsibilities and have neglected to provide a venue by which to wrap up the 2012 Science Fiction Experience. I have noticed some of you have done wrap up posts and I wanted to do my own if for no other reason than to express my gratitude and to have a place where the rest of you can link your Experience-ending posts so that we can all reminisce about the opening months of the last year of our collective existence.
So with no further adieu, It’s a Wrap!
Around 50 of you tremendously terrific people chose to join each other in experiencing the wonders and joys of Science Fiction, old and new, resulting in 177 reviews posted on the Experience Review Site. Andrea of Little Red Reviewer hosted the highly entertainingVintage Science Fiction Month in January and was gracious enough to join forces so that folks could participate in both of our non-challenges at the same time. A lot of great vintage science fiction was read in January and Andrea’s features on the authors she read were fantastic. Thank you Andrea! I’m already excited for the possibility of a second Vintage Science Fiction Month in January of 2013 (if we make it past doomsday).
As for my own Experience, I read:
1. Dancing Barefoot ~Wil Wheaton
2. The Stainless Steel Rat ~Harry Harrison
3. Orbit 7 ~edited by Damon Knight
4. Foundation ~Isaac Asimov (7/10)
5. The Planet Buyer ~Cordwainer Smith
6. The Underpeople ~Cordwainer Smith
7. Hunt the Space-Witch! ~Robert Silverberg
8. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall ~Nancy Kress
9. Foundation and Empire ~Isaac Asimov
10. Second Foundation ~Isaac Asimov
This was the least amount of reading I’ve accomplished over the months of Jan-Feb since I started the Experience, but what I lacked in quantity I made up for in quality. With one exception these were some great reads. My one regret was not getting the Cordwainer Smith books reviewed as they tripped my trigger. Wow!
In addition I pulled out a few science fiction film favorites and worked those in as well.
I am so incredibly grateful for all of you who chose to participate, took the time to link your reviews, and for those of you who visited each other and engaged in conversation about what you read and watched. Thank you so very, very much!
This Experience was extra-special because a small but very dedicated group of readers joined in to group read the three novels that make up Isaac Asimov’s Hugo-award-winning Foundation Trilogy. I read the novels for the first time about 5 years ago and it was an immense pleasure to read them again. This group of readers stimulated some great conversation and for me personally it was like reading an entirely different set of books from the first time I dove into them. The series is not only highly relevant in today’s world but it did for many of these readers what it did for me 5 years ago–it proved that science fiction can often be misjudged as “hard” or “inaccessible” but once you get into the story it is as engaging as any other type of fiction. The smile on my face when I read those comments on various sites was HUGE, because that is what the Experience is all about. So a special thanks goes out to all of you who participated in part or fully in the reading of Asimov’s classic work.
I’d love to read any thoughts that the rest of you may have posted about your experience with The 2012 Science Fiction Experience, so if you did a post, or end up doing a post, please link to it below. And stayed tuned because in a few days the announcement for Once Upon a Time VI will go live.
For me the experience of reading science fiction is never truly wrapped up. I am still reading some books I started during the event and I have a long list of books, including ones yet to be released, that I hope to get to this year. But this two-month mostly exclusive focus on science fiction has passed and it was a delight. Thanks again to everyone who joined in. You are a great bunch of readers!
I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to do a wrap-up post since I’m knee-deep in Diana Wynne Jones month so I’ll just say here that it was my first time participating and I had a wonderful time! I picked some great books (especially Blackout and All Clear) that got me through a snowstorm and a case of the blahs. Thanks for hosting, Carl! I’ll definitely participate again next year.
No worries Kristen. Thank you so much for taking part. I’m excited and a bit jealous that you have read and enjoyed the Connie Willis books. I have yet to make room for them but have a great deal of anticipation that I will enjoy them.
It was a lot of fun once again, Carl! I actually did a much better job actually reading for it this year. 🙂
I’m glad, and always enjoy having you along Kailana.
Thanks for hosting the group reads. I don’t know if I would have read all 3 if it wasn’t for the group. Once Upon a Time is almost here…It will be my second time and I’m super excited!
It was a tremendous pleasure to do and I’m so thrilled with our group read of Asimov. It was more fun than I even anticipated it would be.
If it wasn’t for the groupread, I probably would have gotten distracted and stopped reading after the first book in the series, which would have been a terrible mistake! Thank you very much for hosting it!
These group reads have helped me keep focused as well, Grace, and because of that I’ve read some amazing books.
I had fun as always. I didn’t read as many books this year due to the fact the few I did read were quite large. None the less I enjoyed them all. I read…
On Basilisk Station by David Weber. I had been wanting to read this for years and this year I was finally able to do it! Yeah me! I now know why this is such a successful series. I found it highly entertaining. I don’t often read military science fiction but I didn’t find this book to be bound by just battle scenes although it did have those. There was a lot more going on with mystery and character building. I hope to read more of Honor’s adventures one day. I have already picked up another book in the series.
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Covey. This book was HUGE but completely worth it. I haven’t read an old school scifi book like this in quite awhile. Not only was it scifi but it heavily mixed in horror and detective noir elements as well. I was also happy that even though it is book one of a trilogy it had a very satisfying stand alone ending as well.
Foundation by Issac Asimov. I read the first book again this year but didn’t want to commit to the entire trilogy again as I had some other reading to get too.
I saw Underworld Awakening at the theater which was truly awful but I balanced it out by watching some truly wonderful seasons of The Big Bang Theory.
This is the first year I didn’t read any Star Trek during the challenge which was on my list. I still miss it so much on tv. I look forward at least to a new movie next year.
Thanks again for hosting my friend!
My pleasure. I’m sorry I was so lame in not keeping up with the books we were reading together. I was once again bitten by the distraction bug which made it far too easy to get distracted from chunksters. And I didn’t get as much reading done either.
I too really miss having Star Trek on television. I’ve been getting a strong urge lately to start DS9 all over again from the beginning. Before I do that I should really watch all of Enterprise since I bailed on it a mere 3 episodes in when it was on.
Underworld Awakening was really bad, which is a shame.
Hi Carl, thanks for all the hard work you did on the SF Experience, the read alongs, the badges, getting everyone excited about. . . letting me piggyback with Vintage stuff, what an incredible experience! and yes, there will surely be a Vintage month next year. 😀
my favorite part about the Experience and looking at everyone’s reviews on the review site was the vast variety of science fiction: classics, vintage, TV and movie tie-ins, brand new stuff, paranormal, time travel, far future, military SF, I think I saw every single possibly science fiction subgenre out there, and I LOVED that!
I thought it was a wonderful cooperative experience and am so glad it worked out. Sign me up for next year’s Vintage SF Month. I’m there!
I hadn’t thought about it but you are right, the various types of SF were well represented from those who participated. I could use the review sites as a to-read list and be satisfied for a long time.
I had great fun with this challenge! I read as many sci fi books in two months as I did in all of last year…and hopefully this has given me a push to get more in during the rest of this year too.
Looking forward to Once Upon A Time VI!
That is wonderful Cheryl! Yay!!! I hope you get some more in this year too and am happy that you’ll join along in Once Upon a Time.
Thank you for hosting this event! It was a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to the Once Upon a Time challenge. I’ve already got my list ready! 🙂
You are welcome. My OUaT list is growing pretty long already as well. I’m feeling really excited about it this year!
does it reach all the way to Pern??? *snort*
LOL! Good one deslily!
HI Carl – I just left you my link to my wrap-up post. I had such fun this year! I read some wonderful science fiction, most notably discovering Anne McCaffrey for the first time, and reading Greg Bear for the first time. Thanks to your link to World’s End, I’ve got a great list of reading material to get too, too!
Thanks Susan, I’ll check it out. I’m glad you headed on over to World’s Without End. It is such a great site. I’m happy that they are hosting the event that they are throughout the year. It will encourage me to leave some time open this year for great vintage SF.
Well, my wrap-up was a little early but I guess it counts maybe? It was a really fun non-challenge and I was happy to be introduced to a few new blogs too! So much fun.
Hey, it all counts. Especially because mine was really late!!! Ha, ha! I’m glad you found some new blogs through it Jeremy, that is always the best benefit of these experiences.
An impressive list of books! I think Cordwainer Smith was more effective as a short story writer than a novelist. The early Sliverberg works in HUNT THE SPACE-WITCH! make for fun reading. Your enthusiasm for the works of Harry Harrison motivated me to move some of his books higher in the Read Real Soon stack.
He was an amazing short story writer, George. And I think having read quite a few of his short stories made reading these two books (which really comprise one novel) so satisfying because there were nuggets from the short stories all throughout it.
I hope you enjoy the Harrison you read. I feel such a strong connection to his works because of his heavy influence on my early SF reading.
I think I read just ONE book, The Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke, during the challenge period. I was reading non-fiction including a couple of biographies, some books on the Northern Pacific Railroad, some mysteries, and during the first month I was sleeping a lot as that was when I had the pneumonia and broken ribs. That’s the least number of SF-F I’ve read in a two-month period in a long while.
I have LEVIATHAN WAKES sitting here, read the first 20 pages and set it aside to finish something else, and it’s still on the TBR. One of these days…
http://www.impressionsofareader.com/2012/03/completing-2012-science-fiction.html
Thank you Carl V.! I had a wonderful time. I didn’t post about my reads as much as I read, but I had a wonderful time reading all that science fiction. It gave me the chance to finish off reading one series, began reading another, and bought a bunch of books that I’ll be reading throughout this year.
I meant to join you on the reading of Foundation, but didn’t get to it! Maybe next time. 🙂
Okay, I think I missed something. When is Once Upon a Time exactly? I’ve been looking forward to it!
I’m off to search your blog. 🙂
Hello Carl
I must admit that I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped with my sci-fi reading for both challenges but I did take part in both. I haven’t written a follow up to it – probably because I was such a useless so and so.
But, out of everything I really enjoyed the Asimov readalong. When I started I thought that I would probably drop out and that it wouldn’t be my thing but I ended up being really drawn into the stories to the point where I couldn’t put them down. Plus the discussions were excellent.
I also enjoyed reading what I thought were a couple of vintage – Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Positronic Man -which were both great. I wish I’d been able to read more but for some reason this year my reading is really slow. I guess life is just getting in the way!
I’ll keep my eye on your future readalongs. You’re a great host.
Lynn 😀