June SFFKIT: The Road Trip

       

This month, we'll look at science-fiction and fantasy road trip novels. A road-trip novel is about a journey in which the road itself plays a prominent part in shaping the story. Here, we'll be very flexible about the definition of "road". It can be, for example, a dirt path, a highway or an interstellar route. I've listed some suggestions below.

Road trips in fantasy realms:
The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (consider participating in the Lord of the Rings Group Read, which continues through June)
The Odyssey by Homer

Post-apocalyptic road trips:
The Stand by Stephen King
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Road trips in space:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

More ideas:
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
Watership Down by Richard Adams

You can add your selections to our Wiki page here:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2019_SFFKIT

My possibilities here are Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers or Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon

Gotta think on this one, but a reread of Watership Down is a possibility!

I have Roadmarks by Roger Zelazny on my wishlist and it seems to take an interesting take on the roadtrip theme. :) The reviews are hit or miss and it's out of print but I may try to order a second hand copy.

I've settled on reading Passage in The Sharing Knife series by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is a weird series for me. With the first two books, I was really interested in the story itself, but Bujold's writing drives me a little batty. Yet, this is one of those cases where story wins out, and I want to keep going with the series. I'm sure it won't be a 5* read for me, but I'm hoping the story itself will live up to the first books. I guess we'll see?

I will be reading the final volume of the Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King which will complete the adventure quest that the fellowship has embarked upon.

I have chosen Find Me by Laura van den Berg.

I started a few days early but today completed listening to an audio version of The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien. The quest is completed in this volume and I am going to miss travelling along with these characters!

>7 JayneCM: I'd not heard of this book but it looks really interesting!

>8 DeltaQueen50: Wow, that was fast! Yes, I felt that way too when I finished my reread of the third volume. However, I'll be starting The Hobbit soon for this challenge, so I'll get to see some of the characters again.

>9 mathgirl40: I couldn't stop listening once I started The Return of the King - so much action!

>4 chlorine: oh, that's one I've never read, and I love Zelazny!

I started Anathem in May but finished in June. I think it fits here. This is a quest, there is a trip to find Fraa Orolo, there is travel in a space craft. I think it works here.

>12 Kristelh: Yes, Anathem would definitely work for this theme!

I finished my pick over the weekend:



The Weathermonger by Peter Dickinson
A brother and sister barely escape a dystopian England to France after their fellow villagers try to drown them for tinkering with machinery. Something's happened across the entire country so that people have abandoned technology out of fear and have reverted to a Dark Age mentality. The French authorities send the kids back to England to try to discover what has caused such a change, and equips them as best they can for the quest. It helps that Jeff, the brother, has the power to change the weather, which also seems to have come to him (and others in England) as a result of The Changes. They need to make a dangerous cross-country journey to find the source of the change and try to stop it themselves. A fun, not-too-intense dystopian novel (the third in a trilogy, but can easily stand alone), and a neat, Arthurian ending.

I forgot I had American Gods on my TBR and I haven't read it yet, so I will try to read that for this month's challenge.

Based on the number of entries on the wiki, this seems to be a somewhat challenging theme!

I picked up a book for RandomCat, and it ended up working well for this Kit, too. For the Killing of Kings by Howard Andrew Jones has plenty of travel - from two groups, no less. I wasn't sure I was going to like this fantasy, but I did. If the next one in the series had been available, I would have started reading it right away!

>14 scaifea: I love YA stories like this. I'll have to check out Peter Dickinson's works.

>15 LisaMorr: That's a great road-trip novel. I hope you manage to get to it this month.

>16 Dejah_Thoris: I'm glad you found a book that works for both RandomCAT and SFFKIT. Sounds like a good one.

I finished a reread of The Hobbit -- such a fun story with wonderful characters! I'm currently reading Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman and enjoying it very much so far. I'd loved Hartman's Seraphina duology and this is a follow-up work, but with a new main character.

I've not been able to snag a copy of Roadmarks so I'm wondering if my current read Legacy for the James H. Schmitz group read would qualify? The protagonist is doing some interspace travel.

>18 fuzzi: I'm not familiar with the book, but interspace travel sounds like a road-trip to me. :)

>19 mathgirl40: woo, thanks!

Finished The Sharing Knife: Passage by Lois McMaster Bujold.

This series is a little bit of a tug-of-war for me. I love the concept, and I actually really like the characters, as well, but I'm really not a fan of Bujold's writing, and the scenes where she delves into romance and the relationship at the forefront of the book feel nothing less than awkward to me. So, on one hand, I enjoy the story... but it's difficult to enjoy the reading experience. For readers who like traditional, clean romance and also like large-scale fantasy novels, this might be just their cup of tea, but I think I'm finally setting aside the series. The romance just feels more and more awkward, and although it may be that I'm being somewhat picky about the writing, the awkwardness just doesn't outweigh what I like about the series anymore. There were also a ton of reminders in this book that the romance is between an 18-year-old woman and a man in his fifties, and each one just made the whole thing feel more awkward and strange.

Finished my book early this morning...


Legacy by James H Schmitz

Fairly standard scifi work with two-dimensional characters. There were some interesting plot twists, and a strong female lead. Entertaining.

Finally finished The Fellowship of the Ring last weekend. I had hoped to finish the entire trilogy as the Group Read but alas, the Quest was too large for what my reading time could accomplish. I'll give in to my OCD side and pick up The Two Towers as a matter of course, of course, but not for the group read. Anyway, great topic, and glad everyone enjoyed The Hobbit for the first time or as a group read!

I reread Mélusine by Sarah Monette. It's one of my all-time favorite books, so I have read it at least half a dozen times before. It contains a "road trip" which takes up less than one-quarter of the text, but I always remember that part better than almost anything else in the book.

>21 whitewavedarling: I felt the same way about the first book of this series and didn't bother continuing with it. I'm a huge fan of Bujold's Vorkosigan series, though.

>22 fuzzi: OK, now I'm intrigued ... what are those mushroom-like things on the cover?

>23 threadnsong: Good luck with the remainder of your Quest. Glad you enjoyed the topic!

>24 amaranthe: I loved The Goblin Emperor by Monette/Addison, but I'd not gotten around to reading more of her work. I must put Mélusine on my wishlist.

As for myself, I finished Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman, which was really enjoyable. I do recommend reading the Seraphina duology first, even thuogh this book can be read as a standalone.

Thanks, everyone, for participating in the Road Trip challenge! Please remember to update our Wiki page and feel free to continue discussion of books related to the theme here, even if the challenge is "officially" over.
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2019_SFFKIT#June:_-_Theme:_The_Road_Trip

>25 mathgirl40: I definitely recommend Monette's whole Doctrine of Labyrinths series, with the caveat that Mélusine and its sequels are a darker read than The Goblin Emperor, which itself isn't exactly jolly. (Early details/possible abuse triggers:) It has a couple of violent rape scenes in the first chapter, as well as other abusive situations later on and discussion/flashbacks about child abuse. Also, characters you like might get killed. For some readers, that kind of thing can turn them off before the story even gets going. I don't normally like dark fantasy because it makes me feel bad, but in this case I am ok with it because the darker elements in this story are balanced, and effectively contrasted, with the beautiful ones. The main characters are kind of complicated in the same way. Sometimes they aren't nice people at all, but then they do something that is so obviously the right thing to do, and that isn't easy or likely to be rewarded, and then I tear up a little. And the ending of the first book is kind of hopeful? Like it isn't doubling down on the darkness, the way some "edgy" stories like to do, nor is it an unrealistic, perfect happily-ever-after. Same with the end of the last book in the series, Corambis. (Not really a spoiler--no real details, just discussion about the general tone of the ending(s).)

>26 amaranthe: I generally don't mind darker books and have a pretty high tolerance for disturbing content, as long as the graphic stuff isn't gratuitous. If it's an integral part of the story, and especially if it's balanced with more positive elements, then it's all fine to me. Thanks for the warning in any case, as it might help with other potential readers' decisions.

>25 mathgirl40: not a spoiler, those are plasmoids, semi-living machines created by an ancient civilization. They're very popular. :D

I didn't get to American Gods yet, but I will try to fit it in at some point this year.

>28 fuzzi: Thanks for the answer! :)

>29 LisaMorr: I'm sure you'll be able to find another KIT or CAT challenge to fit it in, and it's definitely worth reading!