Boswell Science Fiction Book Club

Posted by Jason July 01, 2016

The Calcutta Chromosome Cover Image

On July 11th--we will be meeting to read The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh. Here is a brief description below:

Description

From Victorian lndia to near-future New York, The Calcutta Chromosome takes readers on a wondrous journey through time as a computer programmer trapped in a mind-numbing job hits upon a curious item that will forever change his life. When Antar discovers the battered I.D. card of a long-lost acquaintance, he is suddenly drawn into a spellbinding adventure across centuries and around the globe, into the strange life of L. Murugan, a man obsessed with the medical history of malaria, and into a magnificently complex world where conspiracy hangs in the air like mosquitoes on a summer night.

About the Author

Amitav Ghosh is the internationally bestselling author of many works of fiction and nonfiction, including "The Glass Palace", and is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes. Ghosh divides his time between Kolkata and Goa, India, and Brooklyn, New York.

What's everybody reading?

I am currently finishing off Justin Cronin's The Twelve.

Just finished The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.

Comments

In Ascension

Leigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as an escape from her unhappy home life and volatile father. Enchanted by the undersea world of her childhood, she excels in marine biology, traveling the globe to study ancient organisms. When a trench is discovered in the Atlantic ocean, Leigh joins the exploration team, hoping to find evidence of the earth's first life forms - what she instead finds calls into question everything we know about our own beginnings. Her discovery leads Leigh to the Mojave desert and an ambitious new space agency. Drawn deeper into the agency's work, she learns that the Atlantic trench is only one of several related phenomena from across the world, each piece linking up to suggest a pattern beyond human understanding. Leigh knows that to continue working with the agency will mean leaving behind her declining mother and her younger sister, and faces an impossible choice: to remain with her family, or to embark on a journey across the breadth of the cosmos. Exploring the natural world with the wonder and reverence we usually reserve for the stars, In Ascension is a compassionate, deeply inquisitive epic that reaches outward to confront the greatest questions of existence, looks inward to illuminate the smallest details of the human heart, and shows how - no matter how far away we might be and how much we have lost hope - we will always attempt to return to the people and places we call home.

Past Book Club Picks 2020-present

April 2024-- Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
March 2024-- Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
February 2024--More Perfect by Temi Oh
January 2024-- The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
December 2023-- The Employees by Olga Ravn
November 2023-- 40 by Alan Heathcock
October 2023-- Something More Than Night by Kim Newman
September 2023-- Shadows of Eternity by Gregory Benford
August 2023-- Kaikeyi by Vashnavi Patel
July 2023-- Moths by Jane Henningan
June 2023-- Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller
May 2023-- Dead Silence by SA Barnes
April 2023-- Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin
March 2023-- Telluria by Vladimir Sorokin
February 2023-- Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty
January 2023-- Galaxias by Stephen Baxter
December 12 2022-- Sinopticon edited by Christine Ni Xueting
November 2022-- This Weightless World by Adam Soto
October 2022--Scorpion by Christian Cantrell
September 2022--The 22 Murders of Madison May by Max Barry
August 2022-- Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts
July 2022-- Up Against It by Laura J. Mixon
June 2022-- Stars and Bones by Gareth L. Powell
May 2022--Deep Dive by Ron Walters
April 2022--Absynthe by Brendan P Bellecourt
March 2022-- The Resisters by Gish Jen
January 2022-- This Virtual Light by C.S. Friedman
February 2022-- We are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker
December 2021--Early Riser by Jasper Fforde
November 2021-- The City We Became by NK Jemisin
October 2021-- The Down Days by Ilze Hugo
September 2021-- The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
August 2021-- Repo Virtual by Corey J. White
July 2021- The Last Human by Zack Jordan
June 2021-- The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
May 2021-- The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
April 2021-- Zed by Joanna Kavenna
March 2021- The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz
February 2021-- The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
January 2021-- Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
December 2020-- The Year's Best Science Fiction V1 edited by Jonathan Strahan
November 2020- Automatic Eve by Rokuro Inui
October 2020- A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
September 2020- Sea Change by Nancy Kress
August 2020- The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
July 2020- Memoirs of a Space Traveler by Stanislaw Lem
June 2020- Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan
May 2020- The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
April 2020- Agency by William Gibson
March 2020-- Fledgling by Octavia Butler
February 2020-- Salvaged by Madeleine Roux
January 2020-- The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

Past Book Club Picks 2015-2019

December 2019-- Not One of Us edited by Neil Clarke
November 2019--Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh
October 2019-- Blackfish City by Sam J Miller
September 2019-- Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin
August 2019-- Oval by Elvia Wilk
July 2019-- Martian Time-Slip by Philip K Dick
June 2019-- The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch
May 2019-- The Tiger Flu by Larissa Lai
April 2019-- The Synapse Sequence by Daniel Godfrey
March 2019-- One Way by SJ Morden
February 2019-- Space Opera by Catherynne M Valente
January 2019-- Thin Air by Richard Morgan
December 2018-- The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts
November 2018-- Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
October 2018-- An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Soloman
September 2018-- The Space Between the Stars by Anne Corlett
August 2018-- Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar
July 2018-- Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
June 2018-- Embers of War by Gareth L Powell
May 2018-- All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
April 2018-- The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
March 2018-- Binti Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor
February 2018-- Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
January 2018-- The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley
December 2017-- The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 edited John Joseph Adams
November 2017-- A Man of Shadows by Jeff Noon
October 2017--The Mercy Journals by Claudia Casper
September 2017--Escapology by Ren Warom
August 2017-- Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
July 2017-- The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts
June 2017-- The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
May 2017-- Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
April 2017-- The Machine by James Smythe
March 2017-- Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
February 2017-- More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
January 2017-- Our Lady of the Ice by Cassandra Rose Clark
December 2016-- Octavia's Brood edited by Walidah Imarisha
November 2016-- In Conquest Born by CS Friedman
October 2016-- Counting Heads by David Maursek
September 2016-- The Only Ones by Carola Dibbell
August 2016-- Central Station by Lavie Tidhar
July 2016-- The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh
June 2016-- The Burning Dark by Adam Christopher
May 2016-- Planetfall by Emma Newman
April 2016-- The Fold by Peter Clines
March 2016-- Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
February 2016-- My Real Children by Jo Walton
January 2016-- Eon by Greg Bear
December 2015-- The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015 edited by Joe Hill
November 2015-- Finches of Mars by Brian W Aldiss
October 2015-- The Space Merchants by Frederick Pohl & CM Kornbluth
September 2015-- Archangel by Marguerite Reed
August 2015-- A Planet for Rent by Yoss
July 2015-- The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu
June 2015- Starfish by Peter Watts
May 2015-- The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis
April 2015-- Babel-17 by Samuel Delany
March 2015-- The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord
February 2015-- The Mount by Carol Emshwiller
January 2015-- On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee

Past Book Club Picks 2010-2014

December 2014-- The Massive Volume 1 by Brian Wood
November 2014-- The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
October 2014-- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
September 2014-- ??
August 2014-- Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
July 2014-- Lexicon by Max Barry
June 2014-- Half Past Human by TJ Bass
May 2014-- Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
April 2014-- The White Forrest by Adam McOmber
March 2014-- The Female Man by Joanna Russ
February 2014-- The Heart of Iron by Ekaterina Sedia
January 2014-- Far North by Marcel Theroux
December 2013-- Saga Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughn
November 2013-- The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe by DG Compton
October 2013-- Towing Jehovah by James Morrow
September 2013-- Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
August 2013-- Love Minus Eighty by Wil McIntosh
July 2013-- VN by Madeline Ashby
June 2013-- The Algebraist by Iain M Banks
May 2013-- The Sparrow by Marie Doria Russell
April 2013-- The People of the Ruins by Edward Shanks
March 2013-- Deathless by Catherynne M Valente
February 2013-- Ubik by Philip K Dick
January 2013-- This Alien Shore by CS Friedman
December 2012-- The Years Best Science Fiction 29th Edition edited by Gardner Dozois
November 2012-- Islanders by Christopher Priest
October 2012-- Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
September 2012-- Death Sentences by Kawamata Chiaki
August 2012-- God's War by Kameron Hurley
July 2012-- Mindscan by Robert J Sawyer
June 2012-- Redshirts by John Scalzi
May 2012-- Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe
April 2012-- John Dies at the End by David Wong
March 2012-- The World Inside by Robert Silverberg
February 2012-- Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
January 2012-- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
November 2011-- How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe by Charles Yu
October 2011-- Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
September 2011-- Neuromancer by William Gibson
August 2011-- Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts
July 2011-- To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
June 2011-- A Wave Without a Shore by CJ Cherryh
May 2011-- The Windup Girl by Paolo Baciagalupi
April 2011-- Startide Rising by David Brin
March 2011-- Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
February 2011-- Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
January 2011-- The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
November 2010--??
October 2010-- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
September 2010--??
August 2010-- The Player of Games by Iain M Banks
July 2010-- Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson
June 2010-- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
May 2010-- The City and the City by China Mieville
April 2010-- The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
March 2010-- The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
February 2010-- Inverted World by Christopher Priest
January 2010-- The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers