Sci-Fi Experience Wrap-Up

Carl's enthusiasm is contagious. This year, he invited us for the second time to join him in a sci-fi lovefest for the months of January and February. I hate to say this, but I'm not a very big science fiction reader. And I hate it to say it because I worry it'll sound like "Eww, I don't read sci-fi", and that's so not how I mean it. I'm not doubting sci-fi's potential for brilliance - that potential is equal for any genre, I think. It's just that I'm naturally much more drawn to fantasy.

Anyway, all this to say that I joined the Experience again this year in the hopes of beginning to understand sci-fi better, and thus to appreciate it more. And you know what? I think it worked. Here's what I read:

• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• Stories from The Norton Anthology of Science Fiction, edited by Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Atterbery
• Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
• Messenger by Lois Lowry
• Hard-boiled Wonderland and The End of the World by Haruki Murakami
• The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
• Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
• Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
• Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut
• Parasite Positive by Scott Westerfeld
• Old Man's War by John Scalzi
  

I enjoyed every single one of these books. So much that I can't even pick a favourite. And sure, you could argue that some aren't traditional science fiction. But like Michael Chabon, I'm a firm believer that the only difference between science fiction that calls itself so and science fiction that doesn't is what the cover will look like and where it gets placed at the bookstore.

Memory was saying recently that the reason why she's not big on sci-fi is because it tends to be ideas-oriented, and she's more of a character-oriented reader. I haven't really read enough sci-fi to be able to say if I agree that this is a trend, but I'm also very much a character-oriented reader myself. A lot of these novels had great characters, and that's part of why I loved them. And my favourite sci-fi TV shows, Stargate and Babylon 5, do as well. But for example, Galápagos is very much an ideas sort of novel, and I could hardly have loved it more. It works - the ideas make it work, and Vonnegut's writing makes it work.

If you're wondering where this is going, you're not alone. So am I. Nowhere much, really. I think I'll always prefer fantasy, but I'm glad I pushed myself to go further with sci-fi, and I plan to continue to do so.

Thanks you, Carl. Now bring on the 3 months fantasy lovefest.