March UN-official SFF/SF KIT: Alternate Worlds

It's the world-building that makes SF and SFF so very different from other genres. After all, people are people and what drives them does not change (unless of course they are aliens). But still, the worlds are nearly always quite a bit different from the world we are used to. Even if the differences are minimal, they are there.

So this month's KIT is to explore some of them, and perhaps learn about some of the techniques used to create them.

Alternate Histories: Some things, usually one thing, or a series of things, changes sometime in the past, and the world as we know it is altered by that one small or large change.

Ha'penny Jo Walton
His Majesty's Dragon Naomi Novik
The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick
The Peshawar Lancers - S.M. Stirling

Future Worlds Dystopias generally fit here. Catastophe has struck and folks live with what is left. Also though, future worlds can be positive for the most part, but just as different.

Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
A Canticle for Liebowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr

Alien worlds: New planets other than Earth are the site of the action. Alien planets, our own solar system planets and moons, or space stations, or even generation ships or war ships are the site of the action.

The City & the City - China Mieville
Dune Frank Herbert
The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

Hidden worlds: This includes things like urban fantasy, where although most folks don't know it, there is another level of reality that we can't see, or interact with, or maybe glimpse but don't believe it exists because, well, we think we know what the world is really like.

Storm Front - Jim Butcher
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone - J K Rowling
Elfland - Freda Warrington
Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne

Alternate universes. Earth isn't even a part of these, or if it is, it is in the past, and doesn't impact this current universe.

Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erikson
Dune Frank Herbert
Dragon Riders - Anne McCaffrey
Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds
Pandora's Star - Peter F. Hamilton

These categories are mine, and they overlap. There are probably others, or combinations of them that will also fit. Think Steampunk, Cyberpunk etc.

Don't worry about which category a book falls into. If the world where the story is set differs from ours, it fits.

Wiki is here: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2016_Unofficial_SF/SFFKIT#March

Love it! Thanks for creating this thread "early".

I see several on this list that will work for me. I have A Canticle for Liebowitz and Garden of the Moon and I have two Harry Potters left to read.

Yay - this is where dystopias fit! And I love alternate histories as well. I'm sure I have a lot of books to choose from.

>1 majkia: Great intro! Seems like most epic fantasy would fit under "alternate universes," so I'm sure I'll have no trouble finding something for March. :)

I just finished The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters. A very good pre-apocalyptic novel of a policeman trying to solve a crime as an asteroid bears down on earth threatening to wipe out all of civilization. What choices do we make when we are certain to die within six months?

It doesn't quite fit in the categories above, but maybe it would fit as a dystopian novel where the change hasn't happened but it is 100% predicted to happen within six months thus affecting everyone's behavior.

Question, would Solaris fit this category. The planet is referred to as a sentient planet. Anyway, I think I will start it now as a fiction choice for Dewey this month. It isn't very long.

>7 Kristelh: Sure, it fits!

I've got too many choices to count, but I think I'm either going to go with The Slow Regard of Silent Things, which would fit into the hidden worlds subcategory (from what I can tell...) or else The Book from the Sky (aliens) or Gregor the Overlander (hidden worlds again).

I'm going to go for alternate history for this challenge. I have some Guy Gavriel Kay and Eric Flint books on my shelves. I'd also love to read the books that follow Jo Walton's Farthing but I feel I should work on the books off my shelves first.

I will be reading the second book in Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bastards series, Red Seas Under Red Skies. Also I will be continuing with the Liaden Universe series with Conflict of Honors by Sharon Lee.

If I don't get to read Fortress of Ice by Monday, I think it might fit nicely here. I got sidetracked by Leviathan Wakes in February...

Wiki is here: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2016_Unofficial_SF/SFFKIT#March

Finished this a bit early: Bad Wizard by James Maxey, a book club pick for this month. It's a sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with Dorothy all grown up and gets taken back to Oz by the Wizard, who is now a bigwig in the U.S. government. Fun, action-packed, light read.

I've finally settled on my choices for March:

The Man in the High Castle
The Road
Arrows of the Queen
Quantico

And here we go!

I'm currently reading The Last Tobacco Shop in the World by Bjorn Turmann, set in 2040 on the island of Jarangwa, which, because it doesn't belong to any country, is the last place on Earth where it is legal to openly buy and consume tobacco. I doubt I'll finish it in February, so I'll count it here.

>15 LisaMorr: have you read Arrows of the Queen before? It's one of my favorite Mercedes Lackey stories, and the series is good.

If you like it, I'd highly recommend the Alberich books: Exile's Honor and Exile's Valor. By the Sword is another one I really, really liked.

>17 fuzzi: That's good to hear - I have the omnibus version Queen's Own (it's been on my shelf forever) - and I don't think I've read anything else by her, so happy to finally read it!

>18 LisaMorr: I'll be looking forward to your review.

For March, I'll be reading the following books from my shelves: Unseemly Science, set in an alternative Britain, and A Thousand Words for Stranger, set in an alien world, plus two works of apocalyptic fiction that also fit this month's DeweyCAT: Elijah in Jerusalem and Lord of the World.

I've also ILL-ed a YA fantasy, The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim, which is set in a world in which dragons exist and looks like a lot of fun.

I am starting with A canticle for Liebowitz

COMPLETED The Last Tobacco Shop in the World

My review:
In 2040 tobacco is illegal all over the world except on one small island in the Andaman Sea. Anton Brick is hired as the guest relations manager for the hotel on the island but there seems to more going on than a safe haven for those who want to buy and consume tobacco legally.

Rather slow world-building meant too much was crammed into the second half of the book so that when the big reveals came, they left as many questions as they answered.

I finished The Man in the High Castle. I wanted to like it more than I did, but glad I read it.

I am rereading The Elfstones of Shannara which should work for this category, though I don't know if it is a future world or an alien world! I guess a future world...

>24 leslie.98: Not ours at any rate!

I chose Far North by Marcel Theroux for the GeoCAT, but it fits here as well. It is set in a future dystopian Siberia. It's pretty much a post-climate change Western. I thought it was beautifully written.

I guess that the Dreamlands fits within the hidden worlds part of this Kit so I will add Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute. Didn't quite enjoy it as the previous two in the series but still a decent read.

>23 LisaMorr: I had that reaction to The Man in the High Castle too - I have loved some of Dick's books but disliked others. That one fell into the middle - neither loved or hated.

I read We by Yevgeny Zamyatin for the GeoCAT, but it also fits here. It takes place in the dystopian nation known as One State.

>29 staci426: Oooh, I just bought We a few days ago!

I read and reviewed S. E. Grave's The Glass Sentence, which is set on an Earth in which something happened in the late 1700s and now different regions belong to different time periods. It a bit over-long, but lots of fun. I've started the sequel, The Golden Specific, and so far it's living up to the standard set by book 1.

Finished Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde set in an alternate Great Britain in 1985.

I read The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century which is a nice collection of stories, many by authors which were new to me. There is even one novella which postulates the South winning the War Between the States. I very much enjoyed reading these stories and thought that this volume would be a good introduction to the Alternate History subgenre.

I finished another one for this category: Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic Sudan, and the protagonist is also able to magically transport herself into another plane.

I finished Lockstep by Karl Schroeder. Wow, it really was an alternative, exceedingly different take on future society.

After I finish up my current read, When Eight Bells Toll, I plan to finally read Fortress of Ice by C.J. Cherryh, woo!

Since I last posted I've read the following books for the challenge. If it looks excessive, I should note that I was on Spring Break last week and didn't have much else to do but read:

Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty, an excellent book about deadly goings on at the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina and the girl who decides to save the day

The first five Mercy Thompson books by Patricia Briggs (Moon Called, Blood Bound, Iron Kissed, Bone Crossed, and Silver Borne), about a coyote shapeshifter surrounded by werewolves

The Golden Specific by S. E. Grove, continuing Sophia's quest to travel across ages to find her parents

Finished Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold. Most of the action occurs on the planet Jackson's Whole. Can't say too much without giving away the plot but let it be known that Miles and his clone (brother) Mark are the ones doing the mirror dance.

Also I will add this to the Vorkosigan Challenge.

Currently reading and will finish before the end of the month Gardens of the Moon. It is entertaining, but oh so many characters and things to keep straight.

And one more for this challenge, which makes 4. This is obviously a category I like. :-)

Anyway, I finished The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins, which features a gigantic library situated outside of our universe.

Added my 2nd read for the month here with The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce as it fits in with the hidden worlds aspect of this KIT.

>39 Kristelh: Yes, lots of characters and races and philosophies etc etc. Such a fully developed world. I keep checking on tor.com as I read the malazan books. Cheat sheets with characters and the reread summaries and commentary are really helpful to keep things straight in my head.

>42 majkia: yes, I have been using the site to help. Very helpful.

I just finished His Majesty's Dragon. Simply wonderful.

Seems like I'm on a roll for this KIT this month having read The Naming of the Beasts by Mike Carey. It's the 5th book in the Felix 'Fix' Castor series of urban fantasy novels.

>44 MissWatson: I'm really looking forward to the last book of the series to come out next month! It has been a wonderful ride. Glad you liked it.

I finished Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia. I loved the book but the author has an unfortunate lifestyle choice which I can't accept and I won't be reading any more by him. What a shame!

I think Wir by Evgenij Zamjatin fits the Future World theme: a diary from a creepy totalitarian state.

I've finished three final books for the challenge, all of them Catholic novels of the End Times:

Lord of the World (the World wins and the Antichrist comes) and The Dawn of All (the Church wins) by Robert Hugh Benson

and

Elijah in Jerusalem by Michael D. O'Brien (takes place after the discovery of the Antichrist)

I finished Arrows of the Queen - very good! When I get some time on the weekend I'll add some comments on it on my thread. I have two more books in the Queen's Own series in the omnibus I own and I'm sure I'll be reading more in this series.

>49 LisaMorr: the Arrows series is my favorite series by Mercedes Lackey.

The others that I love are Exile's Valor and Exile's Honor, and By the Sword, all quite good.

I have completed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch for this month's theme of Alternate Worlds.

I have finished Fortress of Ice, the final book in the Fortress series by C.J. Cherryh.

It took me all month, but I finally finished the 816 densely packed pages of Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson. Pant, pant.

I am on the lookout for a new epic fantasy series and this sounds doable. I read the PW review of the first book and I think I could really get into them. Summer reading!

>54 mamzel: which one, the Fortress series by C.J. Cherryh, or the one by Steven Erikson, or Mercedes Lackey?

Sorry. I was looking at Erikson's series, The Mazalan Book of the Fallen.

>56 mamzel: no problem, I was just wondering. :)

I am just finishing up the first book in the The Mazalan Book of the Fallen, Gardens of the Moon. This one would work here as this is a whole different world populated by many human and nonhuman, male and female characters but it will also work for April.

>58 Kristelh: I have one that will work like that, too: Caliban's War.

See you all in the April thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/220178

And the Wiki is here: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2016_Unofficial_SF/SFFKIT#March

I finished two alternate history books for this challenge: 1635: Music and Murder by David Carrico, part of Eric Flint's Ring of Fire series, and Lord of Emperors, the second half of Guy Gavriel Kay's Sarantine Mosaic duology. Kay is my favourite alternate history / historical fantasy writer!