June SFFKit: Monsters!

The June SFFKit's focus is Monsters, and there are so many to choose from!



From cryptids like you see here on to the monsters made famous by classic monster movies--Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves, Frankenstein's monster, etc.--there are so many that have come on into the Science Fiction and Fantasy space!

I invite you to interpret monsters broadly, and make sure to let us know what you're reading! If you're stuck, though, here are some ideas...

Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks (adventure sff/ horror with sasquatch)
House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (cozy sff with all sorts of monsters!)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (need I say more?)
The Expanse Series (James Corey) (horror/sci-fi with monsters)
The Moon Fall series (James Rollins) (grimdark with some fantastic monsters)
Humans are the Problem: A Monster's Anthology (all sorts of monsters)

...so, what monster are you hanging out with this month?

And once you've decided, don't forget to update the Wiki! ... https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2024_SFF_KIT#June:_-_Monsters

As I did not read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien for February's Creatures and Critters as I intended, I hope to get to it in June. It has an evil dragon, trolls, orcs and wargs!

I am planning on reading Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst.

Planning to read Fonda Lee's Untethered Sky, which features orcs and manticores.

I'm planning on hanging out with The Maleficent Seven

I'm thinking about The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century by Jane Webb, which Wikipedia tells us was the first book to have a revivified mummy as a character

I’m probably going to read either Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova or Grendel by John Gardner. Grendel has been languishing on the shelf for far too long, but I’m drawn to the shiny new Monstrilio and will probably choose it if it becomes available at the library.

I can already tell this month's challenge is going to add oodles of books to my TBR. The only one mentioned so far that I've already read is Grendel!

I am considering reading the sequel to Only a Monster by Vanessa Len for this challenge - Never a Hero.

I read Forget Me Not (Systema Paradoxa Volume 10) by Carol Gyzander for the challenge. It's a tale about the 'monster of Lake Erie', and while it was entertaining enough for a fast read, it's probably not something I'd recommend. Full review written.

As part of my award nominee inspired reading - this time the Nebula - I read Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee, which is such a shoo-in for this month theme that I had to count it; monsters used to hunt monsters, and the monstrosities that human enact to create tame monsters.

I just finished Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova, and while it’s definitely about a monster, I don’t think it really fits the SFF category. Magical realism, maybe, or just straight-up non-genre fiction. So I’ll probably go ahead and read Grendel as well.

I finished The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien with its abundance of monsters.

Here's the link to July reading

>14 h-mb: There seem to be 2 threads started. Folks are posting to this one.

>15 Charon07: Thanks for warning me ! I hope I cancelled the other thread.

I finally found a book that fits this challenge! It's The Shattered World by the (late) Michael Reaves, and it features a shapechanger with the likely name of Beorn. It opens with a manticore acting as the guard for a rich merchant's house and doesn't stop there.

I also read Ariadne by Jennifer Saint, which features the monstrous Minotaur.

>11 amberwitch: I also read Untethered Sky. Not an awful book, but I prefer a solid story to this sort of gathering of vignettes.

I have completed my read of the stand-alone fantasy entitled Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst. The plot revolves around the racing of bloodthirsty monsters.

>19 KeithChaffee: agree - the story did not live up to the expectations set at the beginning. The set-up hinted at big drama, betrayals etc, and then it petered out in a very personal, small scale event.
A series of vignettes is a good way to describe it.

I read The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson.

I found A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness on my shelves - I'm not 100% sure it fits the theme, but I'm still going to give it a shot!

Oh, I think that fits the theme just fine! (And it's a lovely book.)

>24 KeithChaffee: That's great to hear! I wasn't sure if it would be a 'real' monster...

I did a reread of The Hobbit this month which I liked even more this time around.
I also read an excellent short story collection, Monstrous Beauty by Marie Brennan. This was a very short collection featuring dark fairy tale retellings.

Re-read The Shattered World by Michael Reaves for this month's challenge. Liked it better than the first time I read it in the 80's! Understood the characters' motivations and perils even more now that I've had a bit of life experience. And it has a were-bear as one of the main characters, along with a chimera, dragons, centaur, manticore, and a wood-nymph.

Thanks to everyone who came around to share their monster reads this past month--I hope everyone enjoyed them and found some more among the reviews/messages here to look forward to!