Book club

Book club was nerve-wracking Tuesday night.  Eight people had spent a month reading one of my favourite science fiction books, Sundiver by David Brin.  We ended up talking an hour and a half about it.  Some people loved it, some liked it, one didn't like it at all.  Several people didn't understand the science.  Anna emailed David Brin for a question to ask the book club, he replied with this:

One thing I have always said, when I teach writing courses, is that a first novel should be a murder mystery.  Even if you plan to make a career in romance or fantasy or sci fi, the first book should be a murder mystery!

Ask your club members "why would Brin say that?"  And did Sundiver fit the bill?

Sundiver definitely fits the bill, murder mystery, set on Mercury and the sun, but with a lot of science fiction going on around it.  The general conclusion was that murder mystery lets you poke around in several different genres and experiment.  What do you think of the question?

Next book is Watership Down, I haven't read that since I was in high school.