Science Fiction London

We meet on the first Saturday of the month at 1:30 PM Eastern Time to discuss the selected topic, which could be a science fiction book, short story, movie, TV show, or theme. Detailed information on topic selection, meeting times and locations can be found on the meetings page.

Our upcoming topics

September 2, 2023

Hidden Empire

by Kevin J. Anderson

Presented by Albert A.

 Humans may be used to ruling their world, but in Nebula Award winning author, Kevin Anderson's galaxy, they find themselves at the bottom of the food chain.

In our galaxy's distant future, humans are one of three known intelligent races. Having had the ability to navigate star travel for only a few centuries, we are considered "the new kids on the block" in a long-established universe. The second intelligent race is the Ildirans, who are ruled by their Mage-Imperator; and the third race, the Klikiss, seems to have vanished and left behind a world full of artifacts and remarkable technology, which humans are now beginning to find and utilize.

One such piece of technology is a device that has the power to turn a gaseous and useless supergiant planet into a small sun, thereby creating a new solar system in which humans can live. But when the device is tried for the first time, it awakens the wrath of a previously unsuspected fourth race, the Hydrogues -- and a galaxy-spanning war that threatens all life begins. 

Availability Available from the London Public Library or from book stores e.g. Chapters/Indigo or Amazon or local used book shops.

October 7, 2023

Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury

Presented by James J.

Nearly seventy years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. 

This topic is in recognition of the American Library Association's Banned Books Week

Availability Available from the London Public Library or from book stores e.g. Chapters/Indigo or Amazon or local used book shops.

November 4, 2023

Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir

Presented by Ron T.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

Availability Available from the London Public Library or from book stores e.g. Chapters/Indigo or Amazon or local used book shops.

December 2, 2023

Upgrade

by Blake Crouch

Presented by Margot B.

“You are the next step in human evolution.”
At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.
But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.
The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.
Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.
Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.
And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?
Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.

Availability Available from the London Public Library or from book stores e.g. Chapters/Indigo or Amazon or local used book shops.

Topic selection for March 2024 to August 2024 will also be decided at this meeting. Please use the Topic Proposal form to submit an idea.

January 6, 2024

The Call of Cthulhu

by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society

Presented by JD D.

This clever 2005 indie film brings H.P. Lovecraft's famous story to the screen as a faux 1920's silent movie--made as if it were filmed when the story came out. The DVD also includes the highly entertaining documentary about how the HP Lovecraft Historical Society made their movie on a modest budget. 

Availability The presenter has copies to share. The originating short story is available online.

February 3, 2024

This meeting has two topics, one in each half of the meeting.

A Quiet Place

directed by John Krasinski

Selling 'Silence' In Contemporary Horror 

an essay by Selma Purac, PhD 

Presented by Mark A.

If they hear you, they hunt you. In this terrifyingly suspenseful thriller, a family must navigate their lives in silence to avoid mysterious creatures that hunt by sound. Knowing that even the slightest whisper or footstep can bring death, Evelyn and Lee Abbott are determined to find a way to protect their children at all costs while they desperately search for a way to fight back. 

"Selling 'Silence' in Contemporary Horror" is an essay that explores the use of silence as a device in the 2018 film "A Quiet Place". The essay is available at this link.

Availability We will watch the movie before the meeting in the library. The presenter has a copy to share and DVDs are available from the London Public Library or it can be streamed, purchased or rented.


The Kaiju Preservation Society

by John Scalzi

Presented by Terry B.

When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization.” Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.

What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm, human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble.

It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society who have found their way to the alternate world. Others have, too. And their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.

Availability Available from the London Public Library or from book stores e.g. Chapters/Indigo or Amazon or local used book shops.
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