Science Fiction Reading Group

Please note that places for this reading group are very limited. If you book a place and can’t make it, we would be grateful if you could let us know as soon as you can so that we can offer your place to someone else.

Starting this February, we’ll be kicking off our Fantasy and Science Fiction reading group, exploring worlds both fantastical and horrific, monstrous and utopian. Whether your interests lie in exploring the ruins of a lost civilization, challenging fiends to save the world from ruin or delicately navigating the politics of a corporate interstellar McEmpire™ (Ask about our franchising options and get a free McNuke™!), I do hope you’ll join us on every 3rd Monday of the month.

For the next reading group of 2023, we'll be departing earth for the reaches of outer space, navigating interstellar politics in The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. And perhaps more dangerously still, navigating interpersonal politics in the meantime.

When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The ship, which has seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past.

But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer. The crew is a mishmash of species and personalities, from Sissix, the friendly reptillian pilot, to Kizzy and Jenks, the constantly sparring engineers who keep the ship running. Life on board is chaotic, but more or less peaceful - exactly what Rosemary wants.

Until the crew are offered the job of a lifetime: the chance to build a hyperspace tunnel to a distant planet. They'll earn enough money to live comfortably for years... if they survive the long trip through war-torn interstellar space without endangering any of the fragile alliances that keep the galaxy peaceful.

The next session will be (in a slight departure from the norm) on the Tuesday of October the 17th - Join us in the bookshop for a great conversation and some wine, snacks and pleasant company! Don’t worry if you couldn’t make it to any of prior sessions or have missed one, no knowledge of the prior reading groups is required.