June SFFKIT: It's About the Journey

This month we are reading SFF about journeys!

When I started exploring SFF a couple of years ago, I became fascinated about the idea of the Generation Ship, where it takes several generations for a spaceship to reach its destination. Check out books tagged Generation Ship. My own choice for this month is Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson, a Generation Ship novel.

Shorter journeys on spaceships are common in SF. Some older SF that I have read and enjoyed include journeys, such as Jack Vance's Son of the Tree and Houses of Iszm, or in the Vorkosigan saga, The Warrior's Apprentice. Murderbot takes significant journeys. The quest or journey is common in Fantasy as well (think The Hobbit). For more recent SFF titles, check out this great LT list, Best Books About Journeys and Quests.

ETA. Don't forget about time travel! I loved Time and Again and The House on the Strand when I first read them. A more recent favorite is Doomsday Book.

What are your favorite journeys in SFF? Share your recommendations, tell us what you read in June for this category, and don't forget to add your books to the wiki.

Planning on a re-read of Journey to the Center of the Earth. Medusa in the Graveyard will fit too. It is a generation ship tale.

I've got tons of options since one of my goals this year was to read more sci-fi, but I think I'm going to plan on The Silver Ships by S.H. Jucha.

I do want to get back to the Expanse series sooner than later--if you're looking for sci-fi with a touch of horror and haven't checked it out yet, you should. And it definitely works for the journeys theme!

My To Read shelf currently includes the classic children's book Neverending Story and the comedy Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest.

Or I might re-read the Discworld novels Jingo and The Fifth Elephant which are consecutive novels in the Watch series and both involve significant journeys.

>3 whitewavedarling: I second the recommendation of the Expanse series! The TV adaptation is excellent too and quite faithful to the novels (with some small differences).

I'd also recommend the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers, which stars with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

I'm hoping to continue John Scalzi's Interdependency series in June with The Consuming Fire. I'm not sure if this particular novel involves a journey, but space travel is a major theme of the series.

I'm not sure I have anything that really fits this. But I might try The Jewels of Aptor by Samuel R. Delany as it sounds like it might involve a quest.

I am going to be reading the second book in Ian Whates' Dark Angels Trilogy, The Ion Raider. The book features a crew of space treasure hunters as they journey along on their various quests. I highly recommend the first book, Pelquin's Comet.

So according to the "Best Books" link above, Neil Gaiman's American Gods is listed. I might choose it or the slightly smaller Neverending Story which would be a re-read for me. I'm finishing some hefty non-SFF books in May which will be a determining factor in what I have the bandwidth to read.

Does anybody think that either The Penelopiad or Circe would work for this theme? Both works are based on Ulysses' journey but as I understand Penelope and Circe do not travel themeselves.
If this doesn't work I currently have my eyes on Tyranael by Elisabeth Vonarburg but I'll still think about it.

>9 chlorine: I think you should read what you want. The Penelopiad and Circe seem close enough to me!

I'm looking forward to having lots of great recommendations from this month!

I recently purchased Pat Murphy's There and Back Again...the title implies a journey, so I'm hoping it will work for this KIT!

>11 christina_reads: There and Back Again is a retelling of The Hobbit so it's definitely a journey story. It's also a rare good retelling of Tolkien imo.

>12 spiralsheep: Yes, that was my thinking -- if it's a retelling of The Hobbit, a journey will definitely be involved!

>5 mathgirl40: A super-loud SECOND on The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. It was one of my favorite reads of quarantine last year.

ETA: Other worthwhile reads include~
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin (and more broadly The Broken Earth, which is bonkers good and all three books have important journeys! The world is ending and that means your characters gotta go on some unexpected-yet-thematically-and-personally-meaningful trips!).
The novella Binti by Nnedi Okorafor has the eponymous Binti journeying from her home to an interstellar university and SHENANIGANS ENSUE. (I don't remember the plots of the sequels enough to say they qualify for this specific category. But if you like the first installment, there are more!)
If you are more into comics and manga, Saiyuki by Kazuya Minekura is based on Journey to the West, so it definitely qualifies. If you were a nerdy teenager in '00s, this should bring a lot of fuzzy nostalgia! (And if you are a book-as-collectors-item freak with no money sense like me, Saiyuki: The Original Series Resurrected Edition 1 is a beautiful edition!)

>15 msemmag: Those who are bit longer in the tooth may remember "Monkey!", the wonderfully lunatic 1979 dubbed version of a Japanese TV serialisation of The Journey to the West

>10 NinieB: Thanks for the encouragement to approach this challenge with liberty ! :)

>15 msemmag: Binti has been on my wishlist for a while and it also qualifies for my personal Hugo/Nebula challenge so I very well might choose this one, thanks for the recommendation! :)

>16 Robertgreaves: I too am in the wrinkly / dusty / crumbly age bracket and remember the amazing tv series Monkey! I'm not sure it managed to introduce me to Buddhism though. >;-)

I thought I had more in my Unread stax that would fit this challenge, but I’m not quite in the right headspace for Tolkien right now (It’s getting Summery around here and for some reason I associate Tolkien with Winter reading…) and; the big journey book I have, Aurora (by Kim Stanley Robinson) is one I recently tackled last year or the year before… Which leaves (A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (by Becky Chambers 🚀

And it has the added bonus of having an author whose last name begins with a “C”! #AlphaKit 🙂

Do travels in time count? I am thinking of The Time Machine as one of my books for next month

>20 Robertgreaves: So glad you asked, Robert! I had meant to include time travel and now I see I totally omitted it. So yes!! time travel counts!

A group of friends and will be having a group read of The name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, and it seems it might fit the journey theme. If not I'll probably read Binti.

I have The Left Hand of Darkness sitting on my shelves, unread...hmm.

>23 fuzzi: An excellent book which does not deserve to be sitting on shelves unread :-)

>24 Robertgreaves: allright! Allright! I get it, I'll read it! :D

>9 chlorine:. There is quite a bit of traveling in Circe. Circe herself does a little traveling, and Penelope travels to see Circe. Also, a lot of men are traveling in it.

I would recommend Children of God by Mary Doria Russell as a travel book. Maybe I can get to the second Murderbot book.

>23 fuzzi: aaaaah I'd misread the title and thought it was Heart of Darkness (which, while not SFF, *is* a quintessential journey story) and I'd written a whole thing about how an excellent reading/movie sequence would be to first read Heart of Darkness, then watch "Apocalypse Now" (link: streaming options), one of my all-time favorite movies (srsly it's SO GOOD yall) and then watch the making-of documentary for "Apocalypse Now", "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse" which is somehow even MORE bonkers than the actual movie?? (and it is also, as Abed Nadir said, way better than the movie itself)

That being said? Left Hand of Darkness is fantastic.

I've just finished Finders by Melissa Scott which sends its three partners on a quest through human settled space.

I started A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (by Becky Chambers) last night. So far, the protagonist has arrived on a ship that makes black hole tunnels and; has met almost everyone onboard (all, except the Navigator). Though the page count is 400+, this seems like a fast and easy read!

I read Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest, by A. Lee Martinez, which is a comedy fantasy novel about two teens on a road trip across Enchanted America. There are a lot of familiar jokes and one liners in this but Martinez delivers them well. 3.5*

Quote

"My name is Waechter. Neil Waechter. National Questing Bureau." He held up a badge. He didn't flash it, but allowed them a good long look at it.

"What's that?" asked Helen.

"Your tax dollars at work. We're a small agency. Not very well known. We were the ones to throw Hitler's cursed ring into the fires of Mt. Heidelstein. We were the people who harvested and planted the last seed of the dying yax imix che tree to finally end the dust bowl. We found the magic arrow that ended General Sherman's rampage before he could gather enough sacrifices to... well, perhaps I've said too much." He smiled.

I have completed The Ion Raider by Ian Whates. It is the second book in his Dark Angels trilogy and although I didn't love it as much as the first book, I am still looking forward to getting to the third book, especially as this one ended in a cliff-hanger.

>26 sallylou61: That's good to know about Circe, thank you! :)
I'm still completely undecided between Binti, Circe and Children of God.
I know I'll read all three eventually but I have a choice to make as I have other challenges I'm committed to in June, and, believe it or not, other books I really want to read! :o ;)

>30 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Have just finished my 4th Becky Chambers novel. Hope you continue to enjoy yours. All four have been enjoyable reads for me.

There is a high likelihood that I will purchase Chaos Vector while on vacation next week and read it this month. I'm sure it will have a journey in it, given where the book Velocity weapon ended.

Just finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. First five star read of the year.

Finished Artificial Condition by Martha Wells. It was a quick read, enjoyed it but did like Book 1 better.

I just finished reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (by Becky Chambers) - Don’t let the 400+ page count scare you away! This is an easy, fast and very straightforward story about a crew who heads out on a lucrative contract to tunnel through a bit of space in a volatile area.

The author spends a lot of time creating characters of different species, genders, sexualities & loves— often at the expense of a more developed action line; but the overall world- and character-building are deftly done! A bit of fun, a tear here and there… A light Sci-Fi novel for when your brain goes into “beach read” mode!

Here's the tread for July and Historical Fantasy : https://www.librarything.com/topic/332975

Finally read a book for this! Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, which could equally have fit in May for Time Travel. Loved it.

I am very, very late with this, too, but I think Tuf voyaging fits as he travels across space in his huge ship with only cats for company.

I think I can use The Terror by Dan Simmons because it is about the journey; exploration of the Northwest Passage by British navy and besides historical fiction it also is fantasy including Inuit mythology.