Sci-Fi Themed Book Club - join in!

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CRLiterature is THE group to stay in touch with the deviantART Literature community. Among the ton of things they post, support and share, they host a monthly book club, and this month it's a science fiction story, so we're talking about it with you of Realm-of-Fantasy  too.

What is science fiction?


Because that's a funny question if you think about it. We can pick from a list of stories/images which are sci-fi and which aren't, easily enough, but when we have to give a clear definition of the genre... just try to Google "science fiction definition" and you'll see how many articles talk about how difficult it is to define it.

So I would like to ask to all of you, firstly, how would you define science fiction? Or, which is your favourite definition of it?

Read Better, Write Better - 'tis the way of life


This month, CRLiterature is reading a book by a writer that won The Hugo Award twice, The Nebula Award twice also, AND The MacArthur Fellowship, or "Genius Grant". The first two up there are simply the highest sci-fi recognitions a writer can get, and the third? Oh, just a "no strings attached" award, giving out $625,000 dollars to the winner, to encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations.

So worry not, this is definitely some quality book we're talking about.
The writer is Octavia E. Butler, and the book we're reading from her is "Dawn":

Butlerdawn by PinkyMcCoversong


This story was first published in 1987, and it takes place after a nuclear war that has left Earth uninhabitable. When the few survivors of the aftermath are taken and saved by an alien race, the protagonist - one of these lucky humans - is confronted with a choice that will shape her future, and Earth's, forever.


"Dawn" is the first of a trilogy, Xenogenesis (also known as Lilith's Brood). It's a book that is available to buy online, so you don't even need to move from your chair to get it! Amazon has it for its Kindle, Barnes and Noble for their Nook, and you can buy a physical copy from Amazon and and Barnes and Noble too!

A word about the author


Octavia Butler wasn't just an all-around talented writer, but also a black woman. The reason why this matters at all is first of all that sci-fi was a genre mostly dominated by male writers, and with her books, she helped demonstrate that women can write as good sci-fi as men; and secondly, by writing books in which there were PoC characters (and characters of different sexualities, too!) she introduced diversity in a genre that tends to be very whitewashed.

Her hands shaped the world of science fiction writing as a whole.

And there's more!



Since it's a book club, and reading makes us better writers, CRLiterature offers some books as prizes for the most active participants in each month's club! :eager: so you get to read something, participate in a discussion with other writers, and get another book as a result. Isn't that pretty neat?

Want to know what books we're giving out this month? Check our journal out:



We're waiting for you, come read with us! :la:

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Viergacht's avatar
Oh, excellent! Butler's one of my all time favorite authors. I hope they'll get to the entire trilogy eventually.