It's not too early to plan for 2018!

Get your copy now! 
The Kansas City SF&F Literati were holding their November book discussion when this post went live. If you read The Clown Service but couldn't attend the meeting, you might enjoy the after-meeting online summaries and comments they post on their Facebook page.

And there's no time like the present to plan for their next meeting! 

Since their regular Fourth Monday of December always falls during the height of the winter holidays, the group takes a month off, but that just gives you more time to read and enjoy the January selection, a sweeping space opera. Order or reserve your copy now!

Seeds of Earth
By Michael Cobley

Overview 
from Barnes & Noble:
The first intelligent species to encounter mankind attacked without warning. Merciless. Relentless. Unstoppable. With little hope of halting the invasion, Earth's last roll of the dice was to dispatch three colony ships, seeds of Earth, to different parts of the galaxy. The human race would live on ... somewhere.

150 years later, the planet Darien hosts a thriving human settlement, which enjoys a peaceful relationship with an indigenous race, the scholarly Uvovo. But there are secrets buried on Darien's forest moon. Secrets that go back to an apocalyptic battle fought between ancient races at the dawn of galactic civilization. Unknown to its colonists, Darien is about to become the focus of an intergalactic power struggle where the true stakes are beyond their comprehension. And what choices will the Uvovo make when their true nature is revealed and the skies grow dark with the enemy?

Hope to see you next year!

Plan now to join the discussion January 22, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. in the Oak Park Mall Barnes & Noble Booksellers (second floor, by the windows). Everyone's welcome, even if you haven't finished the book or have never joined the group before. 

IMAGE: Many thanks to Amazon for the Seeds of Earth cover image.

Join Section 37 and the discussion with SF&F Literati Monday!

Save Britain from Zombies on Monday:

The Kansas City SF&F Literati meet MONDAY!
When: November 27, 2017, at 7:00 p.m.
Where: at the Oak Park Barnes & Noble in Overland Park, KS on the second floor
Selection Title: The Clown Service,
First book in The Clown Service series.

Author: Guy Adams.

Join the discussion:
The Kansas City SF&F Literati always host a fun and fascinating conversation. They also warmly welcome new people, even if they haven't read the selection! (You may find you have something to say, anyway!).

About the November selection:
Toby Greene has been reassigned. After one screw-up too many, he finds himself at a largely forgotten branch of the British Intelligence Service, working for August Shining, a Cold War relic, and charged with defending the country from paranormal terrorism. But when an ex-Soviet-era enemy returns with an insidious plan to raise the dead and destroy London, it seems Toby's impossible job is to save Great Britain—whether he believes it or not.

"The Clown Service is fun and rips along like the finest episode of the old Avengers series" —The Independent on Sunday

"I just couldn't put it down ... highly recommended" —FantasyBookReview.co.uk The Clown Service is a Recommended Book of the Month from Fantasy Book Review, which also called it "a fantastic read."

"The Clown Service is a great beginning to what could become a classic series. Guy Adams has all his pieces in place, and ably demonstrates what he can do with them. If the dark gods of publishing -- and his audience -- so decree. ... one of my top three reads of the year" —SFSite.com

"it feels like Men in Black but a lot more British and sensibly funny" —The Bookbag 

"This is the spy thriller that Douglas Adams never wrote ... it's hilarious and well worth your time" —Starburst magazine

Plan ahead:
The SF&F Literati meet most months on the Fourth Monday of the month (no meeting in December, since there's often a conflict with Christmas; Meet a week earlier in May, so there's no conflict with ConQuesT).

MANY THANKS: to Goodreads for the cover art image, and to Amazon for the Editorial review shorts and Description.

Following up: 45 Recommended Authors, plus our October guest readers

The KaCSFFS Thanksgiving Feast at The Writers Place is now in the rear-view (it was taking place when this post went live), but there are some updates due, from recent meetings past.

Recommended Reading

Back in September, inspired by our program of a reading by Christine Taylor-Butler, we posted this notice:

"You wouldn't be a KaXFAN if you didn't love reading. Whose fiction gets your juices flowing or inspires your imagination? We'll have a place where you can share a list of your favorite books and authors, too. We'll publish the list in a future blog post. If you can't make the meeting--or even if you can--please feel free to post a comment that shares some of your reading favorites! KaCSFFS is all about sharing our love of reading."

We got several pages of recommendations from our members (though no comments on the blog post--y'all are falling down on the job!). You'll find a lot of so-called Golden Age SF in this list, but also an eclectic mix of others. Remember, this list is not exhaustive, so we apologize if we left off your favorites: you should have left a comment! (You can do that now, in the place below this post!) Also, not to seem as if we're playing favorites, the recommendations are listed in alphabetical order by the author's last name. 

Poul Anderson: The Flandry stories; Three Hearts and Three Lions. 

Ilona Andrews: The Magic series.

Isaac Asimov: The Foundation Trilogy; The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, I, Robot, plus "the rest of the robots and many more."

Robert Aspirin: The Myth Series.

Robin Wayne Bailey: The Saga of Frost Series, Shadowdance, "and many, many others."

David Brin: The Uplift Series.

Lois McMaster Bujold: "Especially the Vorkosigan Saga and the Chalion Series."

Emma Bull: War for the Oaks. 

Edgar Rice Borroughs:  The Barsoom (John Carter/Mars) stories, and Tarzan.

Jim Butcher: The Dresden Files.

Octavia Butler: "Oh, my God, everything!"

Rob Chilson: Black as Blood, Men Like Rats, "and others."

Arthur C. Clarke: Rendezvous with Rama, 2001: A Space Odyssey, "and many others."

Glen Cook: The Garrett, P. I. Series 

James S.A. Corey: The Expanse novels.

E. Everett Evans: Man of Many Minds. 

Alan Dean Foster: The Tar-Ayim Krang, and the rest of the Flinx series and associated stories

Neil Gaiman: Stardust, American Gods, The Graveyard Book, "and many others."

Zenna Henderson: The Books of The People, especially Pilgrimage, and No Different Flesh. 

Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land, the Heinlein Juveniles, "and many more."

Robert E. Howard: The Conan stories.

N. K. Jemisin: The Broken Earth Series. 

Gini Koch: The Alien Series, especially Alien Nation, Alien Education, Alien Tango, and Alien in the House. 

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness and other Hainish novels, the Earthsea books, and many others.

Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time books. 

Anne McCaffrey: The Dragonriders of Pern Series.

George R.R. Martin: Of course A Game of Thrones, but also Wild Cards, "and earlier works."

Holly Messinger: The Curse of Jacob Tracy.

Elizabeth Moon: The Serrano series the Paksenarrion books, and Vatta's War series.

Andre Norton: The Last Planet, The Zero Stone, Breed to Come, the Witch World Series, Beast Master, and "most everything else." 

Naomi Novik: Uprooted, and the Temeraire novels.

Nnedi Okorafor, The Binti series, Akata series, and "pretty much everything she writes."

Spencer Quinn: The humor-suspense Chet and Bernie mysteries "not normally marketed as fantasy, but when they're narrated by a dog . . . "
J. K. Rowling: The Harry Potter Series, "especially as read by Jim Dale on audiobooks."

John Scalzi: Old Man's War, Redshirts, "and many others."

Lawrence M. Schoen: The Buffalito books, and Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard.

James H. Schmitz: The Witches of Karres, and the Telzey Amberdon stories. 

Clifford D. Simak: Time Is the Simplest Thing, Way Station, and The Werewolf Principle. 

Wm. Mark Simmons: the Half/Life Chronicles Series, the Dreamland Chronicles. 

E.E. "Doc" Smith: The Lensmen Series, Spacehounds of IPC, The Galaxy Primes, the Skylark Series, the Subspace duo.

George O. Smith: Pattern for Conquest.

Christine Taylor-Butler: The Lost Tribes Series.

J. R. R. Tolkein: The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.

A. E. van Vogt: Slan, The World of Null-A.

David Weber: The Honor Harrington Series, Out of the Dark, Path of the Fury (and its expanded version), The Hell's Gate Series, and the War God's Own.

As we've said--if you don't see a favorite on this list, please comment below!

Revised Readers

Before our October meeting, we announced that our program would feature short fiction or excerpts by three authors--but as it turned out, one of them had to cancel at the last minute, and another agreed to step in. Our final lineup consisted of Sean Demory, Sherri Dean, and Allison Stein.

The fiction was delightful, although the space was a bit tight--our venue had made an "oops" and booked another event during our time slot (we've since worked that out!). But we all managed to be cozy in the Library (what better spot for a reading, after all?).

Local author Sean Demory read an intriguing chapter from a current work-in-progress, to set the mood for the evening. Standing: KaCSFFS Director David Means. In the background: Allison Stein and Sherri Dean.

Sherri Dean read an as-yet-unpublished story (pages custom-edged with appropriate Halloween-themed designs) that managed to be both gruesome and humorous at the same time.

Allison Stein rounded out the evening with a seasonally-appropriate story, Field Test #421, from the Yard Dog Press anthology Flush Fiction Vol. II: Twenty Years of Letting it Go! edited by Selina Rosen; cover art by Sherri Dean.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Goodreads, for the Asimov Foundation cover image; to Barnes & Noble Booksellers for the Corey Leviathan Wakes cover art; and to Amazon for the Schoen Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard cover art. The photos of our October readers were all taken with permission, by Jan S. Gephardt, for use in KaCSFFS communications such as this. If you wish to use one, we request a credit and a link back to this page. Thanks!

KaCSFFS Thanksgiving Saturday!

What: Monthly KaCSFFS Meeting
When: Saturday, November 18, 2017, 6:00 p.m. setup
Where: The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania Ave., Kansas City, MO 64111
Food Theme: Thanksgiving Feast

Join our festivities!

Here's part of the 2016 dinner crowd. We'll save a place for you this year, if you'll come!

Please join us on Saturday for the annual KaCSFFS Thanksgiving Feast. It's our best-attended meeting each year (KaXFEN love to eat!),  and it'll be here before you know it.

This year, we're also encouraging like-minded people from sf, fantasy, horror, anime, and similar, speculative-fiction fandoms to come join us at The Writers Place in Kansas City, MO, and bring favorite goodies to share.

The Food
What kind of goodies to share? KaCSFFS provides the turkey, so we do need to know if you're coming! Email us, please, or respond to our Facebook Event. We ask all who come to bring a side or dessert to share potluck-fashion. If there's a special drink you'd like to bring, feel free.

Sides include: Vegetable dishes (except broccoli--sorry! We've learned most KaXFEN won't eat it), bread, potatoes or stuffing, salads or fruit salads, cheese, relish, and suchlike.

Desserts include: Pies, cakes, cookies, tarts, candies, or other such things, to end the meal on a sweet note. Please consider the diabetics among us--consider bringing a sugarless alternative (be sure to label it!).

Glimpses of our "groaning board" and some of our partakers, from our 2015 and 2016 Thanksgiving events. Identifiable, L-R: Ruth Lichtwardt, Ty Gephardt, Paul Burns, Beth Moscato, Marisa Means, David Means.

More snapshots from the Food Department, 2015 edition: Our turkey-carver is James "Dr. Paisley" Murray.

We also hope some maybe bring along a card game or other tabletop game you think might be fun to play after dinner.

PHOTOS: Many thanks to Jan Gephardt and Ty Gephardt, for the photos used in this post--and to all the KaXFEN who allowed them to take their photos for club communications. Feel free to re-post any you like, but PLEASE include attribution and a link back to this post! Thanks.

Just over two weeks left to save Britain from Zombies!

Two weeks till doomsday!

The clock is ticking!

The Kansas City SF&F Literati meet November 27, 2017, at the Oak Park Barnes & Noble in Overland Park, KS, at 7:00 p.m. on the second floor, to discuss the November selection, The Clown Service, by Guy Adams.

What do the critics say?
"The Clown Service is fun and rips along like the finest episode of the old Avengers series" —The Independent on Sunday

"I just couldn't put it down ... highly recommended" —FantasyBookReview.co.uk The Clown Service is a Recommended Book of the Month from Fantasy Book Review, which also called it "a fantastic read."

"The Clown Service is a great beginning to what could become a classic series. Guy Adams has all his pieces in place, and ably demonstrates what he can do with them. If the dark gods of publishing -- and his audience -- so decree. ... one of my top three reads of the year" —SFSite.com

"it feels like Men in Black but a lot more British and sensibly funny" —The Bookbag 

"This is the spy thriller that Douglas Adams never wrote ... it's hilarious and well worth your time" —Starburst magazine

Toby Greene has been reassigned. After one screw-up too many, he finds himself at a largely forgotten branch of the British Intelligence Service, working for August Shining, a Cold War relic, and charged with defending the country from paranormal terrorism. But when an ex-Soviet-era enemy returns with an insidious plan to raise the dead and destroy London, it seems Toby's impossible job is to save Great Britain—whether he believes it or not. (Editorial review shorts and Description courtesy of Amazon)

IMAGE: Many thanks to Goodreads for the cover art image.

What will you bring to the Feast?

Join the festivities!

Here's part of the 2016 dinner crowd. We'll save a place for you this year, if you'll come!

In two short weeks on November 18, 2017, it'll be time for the annual KaCSFFS Thanksgiving Feast. It's our best-attended meeting each year (KaXFEN love to eat!),  and it'll be here before you know it.

This year, we're also encouraging like-minded people from sf, fantasy, horror, anime, and similar, speculative-fiction fandoms to come join us at The Writers Place in Kansas City, MO, and bring favorite goodies to share.

Glimpses of our "groaning board" and some of our partakers, from our 2015 and 2016 Thanksgiving events. Identifiable, L-R: Ruth Lichtwardt, Ty Gephardt, Paul Burns, Beth Moscato, Marisa Means, David Means.

More snapshots from the Food Department, 2015 edition: Our turkey-carver is James "Dr. Paisley" Murray.

KaCSFFS provides the turkey, so we do need to know if you're coming! We ask all who come to bring sides or desserts to share potluck-fashion, and maybe also bring along a card game or other tabletop game you think might be fun to play after dinner. We provide tableware, but if there's a special drink you'd like to bring, feel free.

PHOTOS: Many thanks to Jan Gephardt and Ty Gephardt, for the photos used in this post--and to all the KaXFEN who allowed them to take their photos for club communications. Feel free to re-post any you like, but PLEASE include attribution and a link back to this post! Thanks.

It was a great song

Beware! It's Fannish Friday . . .

IMAGE: Many thanks to JunkIFindontheInternet via Pinterest, for this image.