Last Tuesday we had our regular meeting over warm drinks at the café. We talked briefly about the story we had agreed to read (“The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” by Ted Chiang), but noone present (except me) really liked it. It’s always interesting to see how different reactions people can have to the same story!

Some of us had read other of the Nebula nominated stories, and P had even brought a written report about the story by Lucius Shepard: Stars Seen Through Stone. She passionately disliked it.

P:s summary of the story made me think of the New Wave (and in particular of the Michael Moorcock story “A Dead Singer”). It turned out that not everyone was aware of this movement in fantastic literature, and we discussed genre history for a while.

We also talked about different awards, and what different types of books are favoured for them. I’m not sure if we had any conclusions, but MS decided to keep an eye on the Hugo nominations when they come.

When we talked about what to read for next time we discovered that some of us read way more than others. M has no problems with reading 4-5 novels a week, while I struggle with finishing 3 or so in a month — and P is still reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. We decided to read whatever we want, and make the next meeting a general recommendation and discussion meeting where we can tell eachother about things we have read recently.

Our meetings are sadly short, and after one hour we broke up. M and I continued to The Copper Penny and talked about time travel while watching American Idol.

The next meeting will be on April 8, if we don’t get any ideas before then.

I have decided to post here at least once a week, so if you come here on Mondays you will find something new and hopefully interesting.