Kansas City Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club

Description from Goodreads:

The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel in the world. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake. It is a world of geniuses and tyrants, of airships and steam engines, of unusual animals and mysterious machines.

Soon after arriving for his honeymoon at the Tower, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, Thomas Senlin, gets separated from his wife, Marya, in the overwhelming swarm of tourists, residents, and miscreants.

Senlin is determined to find Marya, but to do so he'll have to navigate madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassins, and the long guns of a flying fortress. But if he hopes to find his wife, he will have to do more than just endure.

This quiet man of letters must become a man of action.

The first book in the stunning and strange debut fantasy series that's receiving major praise from some of fantasy's biggest authors such as Mark Lawrence and Django Wexler.

“Classics on the Side” is an additional, informal book club meet-up, which focuses on older and classic works from the sci-fi and fantasy genres.

Join us to discuss “Brave New World,” by Aldous Huxley. First published in 1932, Huxley’s novel is both widely praised and often banned for its depiction of life in a future dystopian society.

Book synopsis from the Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition:

Aldous Huxley’s tour de force, Brave New World, is a darkly satiric vision of a “utopian” future—where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively serve a ruling order. A powerful work of speculative fiction that has enthralled and terrified readers for generations, it remains remarkably relevant to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying entertainment.

Description from Goodreads.com:

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

The Catenan Republic – the Hierarchy – may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus – what they call Will – to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please Note: This event is two weeks earlier than it would otherwise be, to avoid conflicts with the Christmas holiday. The venue and all other properties are otherwise unchanged relative to our normal book discussion events.

Additionally, we will be doing our annual book exchange at this meeting. If you would like to participate, please bring a science fiction, fantasy, or other speculative fiction book (new, used, or in any format), either wrapped or in a gift bag, and we will have a blind exchange among those who brought books.

Many of our book discussions lead to broader conversations about what people have been reading and watching, as well as contemporary issues of science and culture. Each month, we have a meetup with this as the explicit goal: we'll open the conversation by talking a bit about what we have been reading lately (possibly asking everyone to give a brief synopsis of a recent book they've read and their impressions of it), and continue where the conversation takes us.