Update 2: the concensus seems to be Inverted World for April and the Earthsea Trilogy for May. If anyone wants to change this comment now or forever hold your piece (but don’t do it in public).

Inverted World is a little harder to find than Earthsea but it’s still available reasonably cheaply from Amazon and ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Books-Comics-Magazines-/267/i.html?_sop=15&_sac=1&_from=R40&_nkw=inverted+world

Update: Rodney has suggested it would make creating posters for the group easier (and cheaper!) if we could decide three months in advance. He has suggested Inverted World by Christopher Priest. How about we do Inverted World in April and the Earthsea trilogy in May? Comment asap as Rodney needs to update the poster soon.

We need to choose a book for the April meeting and it would be good to make the choice as soon as possible. If anyone has suggestions can you post them as comments to this post.

To get things started, I’d like to suggest The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula Le Guin.

There are lots of cheap copies available on Amazon. There’s also a collection of the first four Earthsea books on Amazon, but the fourth and fifth (last) books aren’t as good as the first three so I wouldn’t bother reading them.

Don’t be put off by the fact it’s a trilogy because the three books are all short so the trilogy is really only the size of a single novel. It’s also very easy reading – I think it was originally intended as a young adult series, but there is enough sophistication in the books to make them interesting to adults as well.

The story follows the young magician Ged from a child to his final conflict with Death. There have been some terrible crimes against literature committed by writers attempting a fantasy series, but the Earthsea trilogy stands out as one the best written of the genre. Le Guin is an accomplished writer and the book is packed with original ideas. It’s one of my all time favourite books.

The next meeting is on Saturday 23rd March at 2 p.m. in the Chester Library meeting room.

The book for discussion is Land of the Headless by Adam Roberts.

The book is available cheaply. For example Amazon has lots of copies at 1p (+ £2.80 P&P!). We’ve donated a dozen copies to Chester Library and they should be on display from Monday. Previous experience suggests only a few of these will be lent out, so I wouldn’t worry too much about taking a copy from the library if you don’t want to buy your own.

Adams Roberts is one of those writers difficult to label. He reminds me of China Miéville in the sense that you’re never entirely sure what to expect from him. I’ve found some of his books hard going, but Land of the Headless is an easy read and a good story. Allegedly it’s an allegory on prejudice in society and religion. Well, maybe, but I wouldn’t worry too much about that – just enjoy reading it.

If anyone is interested, there is an article on Adam Roberts in the Guardian.

Update: the books are now on display in the library!

The next meeting of the second best Sci-Fi group in Chester, The Esoteric Bibulous Society, is on 13th March in the Olde Custom House at 7 p.m. The book for discussion is The Blade Itself, first book in The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.

Not that you’ll have forgotten, but I thought it worth posting a reminder that the next meeting is this Saturday 23rd Feb at 14:00 in the Chester Library meeting room.

Anyone a bit puzzled by the ending might want to have a look at http://freespace.virgin.net/n.asher/page81.html but don’t follow the link until you’ve finished the book or it will spoil the ending!