/r/Fantasy Discussion Group discussion

Sorry for the late turnaround on this - short timespan for us to nominate and vote, so let's get moving and nominate for October!

Our discussion for The Thousand Names has been decent, and Django was kind enough to do a continued Q&A with us. Hopefully we can work out something similar for October. Nominate away - I'll vote when we have 5 books with two nominations or more.

I nominate Lamentation by Ken Scholes. This is a brilliant novel and the start to a really spectacular series, and one that has flown far too much under the radar.

I'll nominate Sharps by KJ Parker.

I loved the "Engineer's Trilogy" and rapier fighting is never a bad thing...

Way of the Wolf by E.E. Knight... Mainly because I'm cheap and I already own it but haven't read it yet.

I nominate The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Because I just can't wait to read this book anymore.

I am keen for whatever is chosen, but can I request that this time we have maybe a 25%,50%,75% and 100% discussion topics for the book? It felt like it was hard to discuss the book as I read, as I was always worried about reading spoilers, or worried about spoiling it for others.

I'd like to nominate The Hammer and the Blade by Paul S. Kemp. Paul is excellent at writing character-driven stories and this is the first book of his own series (outside of the Forgotten Realms and the Star Wars EU).

Crystal wrote: "can I request that this time we have maybe a 25%,50%,75% and 100% discussion topics for the book?"

Yeah, I completely understand that. The downside to having 4 discussion threads is that there doesn't seem to be quite enough activity yet to keep support 4 conversations.

Perhaps a compromise of 2 discussions? One that is completely spoiler free where people can comment on their first impressions of the book and a second that is full spoilers?

I do know I hesitated to go into the Whitefire Crossing discussion for the same reasons you listed. It turned out that people did really well using spoiler tags and it worked out. I haven't had a chance to read Thousand Names this month, so I'm not sure how that one did, but I would imagine it also worked. When we tried two discussions (first half the book, then the entire book) for Blood Song, the first discussion only got a couple of comments in it.

It feels a little bit like no matter how we arrange it, people have problems with the discussions and avoid them. We split it, people want one easy discussion. We don't split, then people are afraid of spoilers. I would love to find a magical middle ground, but haven't quite figured it out yet.

Joel wrote: "We split it, people want one easy discussion. We don't split, then people are afraid of spoilers. I would love to find a magical middle ground, but haven't quite figured it out yet"

It's hard to get something everyone is comfortable with, especially with a new group like this. My vote would be to try more than 1. I am really used to the 4 discussions like Crystal suggested. People's comments/impressions of a book can change as they progress further in the book, so sometimes having more chances to discuss can lead to more overall discussion/conversation about the book. I did look back at the Blood Song Discussion 1 thread, and while there were not many comments in there, there were really good points/observations discussed.

I'll nominate The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan. I'm being selfish and nominating a book I already plan on reading next month :) Also, really intrigued by some of the reviews/comments I have read about it.

Lisa wrote:It's hard to get something everyone is comfortable with, especially with a new group like this. My vote would be to try more than 1..."

Two may work best. For me, there are only 2 points in a book: when I start and when I finish. I read so fast that I really don't consciously consider anything at points in-between. I enjoy discussing first impressions, but then I'm finished and ready to tackle the fun stuff full of spoilers.

There are plenty of good nominations already - so I'll reserve the one I was going to nominate for the next time around.

Michael wrote: "There are plenty of good nominations already - so I'll reserve the one I was going to nominate for the next time around."

None of them have been seconded yet. I have been debating about seconding two of them, but can't make up my mind :)

Feel free to still offer your nomination.... (which I am now curious about)

Aksel Gurkan wrote: "I nominate The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Because I just can't wait to read this book anymore."

I'll second this one. It's been sitting on the to-read shelf for awhile.

I'll second The Steel Remains

Lisa wrote: Yeah, I completely understand that. The downside to having 4 discussion threads is that there doesn't seem to be quite enough activity yet to keep support 4 conversations.


Perhaps we can do two discussions then? It's true that there isnt enough activity for 4 discussions, which is strange since there are many members of this book!

Perhaps one which would be people who are starting the book (0-50% through) with any spoilers tagged - and this would be more on peoples thoughts, impressions, predictions(?).

and one for (50%-100%) where any spoilers before 50% don't have to be tagged and this would be more of the "ALL" discussion, where people could talk about if they liked it and anything and everything?

I felt like there wasn't much discussion on the last book, but that was my first time participating, it sounds like other books have gotten more discussion.

We did a 50/50 with the previous book and it seemed to work well. I think we can do that again, assuming people cooperate and post for us :)

The Blade Itself by Sir Grimdark is our first nomination to be seconded!

Not sure if it's too late, but I would like to second Sharps by K.J. Parker.

Joel wrote: "I nominate Lamentation by Ken Scholes. This is a brilliant novel and the start to a really spectacular series, and one that has flown far too much under the radar."

I'll second this.

So, that's 4 seconds at this point (Lamentation, Sharps, The Steel Remains and The Blade Itself). One more ...

Aksel Gurkan wrote: "I nominate The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Because I just can't wait to read this book anymore."

Just go ahead and read it. Just finished the book myself, and it was absolutely amazing. Even if it's not the BotM, just do it. You won't regret it.

Lisa wrote: "I'll nominate The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan. I'm being selfish and nominating a book I already plan on reading next month :) Also, really intrigued by some of the reviews/comments I have read..."

I'll second this! Just read the description, seems really interesting and it's one I hadn't heard of.

The poll is up: http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/91...

Aksel Gurkan wrote: "I nominate The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Because I just can't wait to read this book anymore."

I'll second the Blade itself. I just picked up the trilogy for less than 10 bucks. :-)

Oh wow, i missed this. I was going to nominate House of Blades by Will Wight since his second book The Crimson Vault released this month. Both of his books have been regularly in the top for kindle fantasy for awhile now. Was hoping to see more discussion on him.

The Blade Itself had a pretty easy win. Hope there's some good discussions on it in October. I will try to comment, but I likely won't reread and it's been a couple of years since I read it. Absolutely loved it though!

There's also The First Law Comic which has the first few chapters of the book so far.

This is the first I've heard of the comic. Wow. Beautiful stuff.

It is really good stuff. And the fact that they have shared it online for free is is amazing. :)

Thank's for sharing the link Justin!

Yeah! I always like it when the book I vote for wins the poll. A good group of other titles as well, so hopefully some will read those as well.