Sci Fi Challenge Overview!

Ellie from Curiosity Killed the Bookworm set this challenge up last year in order to encourage more people to give the genre ago. For me it was a genre I was familiar with but one I had abandoned for a few years. When I realised I had only read three sci fi books last year (which is shocking since I went through a phase of reading it almost exclusively) I decided to join the challenge. The plan was to read some sci fi that I had been wanting to read for years but never got around to. I think I succeeded and got to read some great books. I even joined in one or two of the group choices. I stuck with just one book a month. Here is my list and a link to each of my reviews.

Zoo by Lauren Beukes
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
Empire State by Adam Christopher
Cities In Flight by James Blish
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds
Manhattan In Reverse by Peter F. Hamilton
The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
Ringworld by Larry Niven
The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey

A bit of a mixed bag I think. Some new authors, some classics and a couple of old favourites. I think I didn't do too badly. There are still some books out there that I want to read but I think that I read all of the ones that I had set out to. The main one would be Enders Game. I knew as soon as I signed up for this that it was going to be on my list. Getting hold of a coupy proved to be a little difficult. They must be getting ready for a re-print with the new film coming out. As it was it was months of a wait to buy and so I ended up going via the library route. That also meant a wait but it was worth it. A great read and not at all what I had been expecting.

I wish I had taken part in the group choices more but I had promised myself I would cut down on the book buying and I had a few in my tbr pile that I wanted to read. I did read three from the book choices though; Zoo, Do Androids Dream and Flowers For Algernon. Zoo I had been wanting to read since I saw it reviewed and couldn't resist. The other two were on my bucket list.

I don't think there is one book on that list that I completely disliked. The ones that probably will never be a favourite had their good points so I can't say that I disliked them. They were; Cities In Flight, Century Rain and Ringworld. Century Rain was probably the one that I was most disappointed with but only because I loved other books by the author. Again, I didn't completely dislike it.

It's also hard to choose a favourite. There were so many good ones and each of them different. I very much enjoyed going back to Peter F. Hamilton. I was reminded of why I loved this author. Do Androids Dream and Flowers For Algernon were fantastic classic sci fi. They reminded me that I need to go back and try more. Oh, and Wyndham is also an old favourite. The Kraken Wakes wasn't his best book but it was still a good one.

Thanks Ellie for organising this. Hopefully I will keep up with my sci fi reading next year! Oh, and if any of you are interested Ellie is hosting another challenge for next year. This involves reading translated books. Called 2013 Translation Challenge and has another fab lego gif.