Think Galactic- Certain Dark Things

For the October meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

We've had kind of mixed results for our "spooky October reads" for the last few years, and, while light, this novel about warring vampire clans in Mexico City was a fun read. Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Think Galactic- My Soul to Keep

For the October meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed "My Soul to Keep" (1997) by Tananarive Due.

The novel is pitched as a vampire story (though we had some debate about that), and reads as kind of a thriller/relationship drama. Discussion points and possible spoilers below!

Think Galactic- Buffy Season 8

For our first graphic novel discussion since "Saga", Think Galactic discussed "Buffy: Season 8" (2007-2011) by Joss Whedon, Georges Jeanty & many more writers/artists.

Taking place a bit after the events of the television show (which ended with Buffy & co. empowering thousands of other young women to have Slayer strength & abilities), "Season 8" follows the Scoobies in a much more global conflict with new villains. Possible spoilers below!

Weird & Wonderful- Vermilion

For the last meeting of City Lit Books' Weird & Wonderful club, we discussed "Vermilion" (2015) by Molly Tanzer. "Vermilion" is the story of Lou Merriweather, a kind of professional exorcist in a fantastic 19th century American West who becomes embroiled in a sinister scheme. The world is somewhat steampunk, with a very healthy dose of the supernatural, along with some fanciful alt-history turns, such as the talking bears who alter the course of post-Civil War politics in the west.

We had a few criticisms, but by and large we found this very enjoyable, and reviewed it as solid beach read. Possible spoilers below!

Megatext 2: Octavia Butler

Megatext 2: Octavia Butler

Thursday, August 25th, 7pm

Open Books, 651 W. Lake St.
(Facebook Event Page)

For our second Megatext discussion, we're going to be talking about Octavia E. Butler (1946-2008), who's had a powerful impact on the genre. This discussion is being supported by Open Books, who are hosting, and by Think Galactic.

The idea behind the "Megatext" book club is that we talk about an author as a whole, rather than one specific book. Feel free to come if you've read everything Butler's written, if you've only read one book, or if you're just interested!

photo via Joshua Trujillo

Think Galactic: Vampire Junction & Annihilation

For October's meeting of Think Galactic, we had a Monster Mash: a double-header book-club featuring S.P. Somtow's "Vampire Junction" (1984) and Jeff VanderMeer's "Annihilation" (2014). Spooky stuff.

While we had a fairly low completion rate for "Vampire Junction", we had a pretty interesting discussion, especially qua horror novel.

"Annihilation" generated a ton of discussion--it's a really engaging novel from a literary angle, and doing a lot of interesting things with genre as well. We got pretty far out on some possibly shaky but definitely fruitful theoretical branches for this one.

Probable spoilers, Monster Mash MIDIs below: