Beyond Reality discussion

Hi everyone,

It’s time to open nominations for our February 2014 Books of the Month. Each group member can make 1 science fiction and/or 1 fantasy nomination in this thread. If you would like to make a nomination, please reply to this post with the title and author of the book(s) you would like to put forward for the group’s consideration.

Telling us a little about the book and why you think it would be a good group read can help get other members interested in reading (and voting for) your nomination. You can also check the group bookshelves for previous Books of the Month to see if your nomination has already been read by the group. (Being chosen as a past BotM does not necessarily disqualify a book from current consideration, but be aware that it may hinder your nomination’s chances at the polls.)

General guidelines:
• Feel free to re-nominate a book that didn’t win in the polls in previous months!
• For questions regarding specifics such as book formats, books in series, etc., please see the group FAQ.
• Seconding isn't necessary in this group.
• Friendly discussion & debate is strongly encouraged, but let's please keep things civil.

Poll schedule:
• Nominations will remain open through Wednesday, November 20.
• The first round of polls will open Thursday November 21, and will run through 11:59PM PST, Monday, November 25 (closing Midnight PST November 26.)
• The run-off polls go up Tuesday, November 26, and will be open through 11:59PM PST Saturday, November 30 (closing Midnight PST December 1st.)

Thanks!


NOMINATIONS SO FAR:

FANTASY:

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (Kevin)
The Darkness That Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker (Maggie)
The Pastel City by M. John Harrison (Pickle)
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson (Andreas)
The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll (John)
Sasha by Joel Shepherd (Tyler)
The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman (Antonis)


SCIENCE FICTION:

The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Maggie)
Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds (Pickle)
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (Andreas)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Nick)
City of Pearl by Karen Traviss (Tyler)
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Marty)
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan (Antonis)

For fantasy again I would like to nominate Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.

I will nominate The Darkness That Comes Before for fantasy-I have been wanting to read it forever!

and for sci-fi I nominate The Atrocity Archives

For sci-fi i will again nominate Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds.

For fantasy The Pastel City by M. John Harrison

For fantasy I nominate Alif the Unseen who just won the World Fantasy Award 2013.

For sci-fi I nominate a real classic from 1968: Stand on Zanzibar which got the Hugo and BSFA.

Argh! Already some great suggestions. I've had Alif on my short-list, and anything Maggie recommends is bound to be interesting!

Don't want to split the vote, so I'll endorse Pickle's choice of Chasm City for SF instead of tossing out another Reynolds opus. And I don't feel qualified to make a Fantasy nomination, so there it is.

For Fantasy, I'd like to nominate The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll.

For Sci Fi, The Dervish House by Ian McDonald. Social Science as one of the chief components of Sci-Fi is something I've always admired, probably because I started reading sf in the early 70s when social concerns were all the rage.

MacDonald has kept colonialist issues a major element of his sci fi since he began writing in the 1990s. I enjoyed his first few books, but then fell out of the habit of reading him, and I'd like to remedy that! "Dervish" has been nominated here before -- we'll see how it does now.

What a great range of titles we have so far!

The list is updated now up to this point.

For fantasy I'll again nominate Sasha by Joel Shepherd.

And for sci-fi I'll nominate City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

Ancillary Justice by Leckie. sf. Runner up last month. Please.

From my huge to-read list, I'm picking two of the bottom ones (in order to get more incentive to read them sooner!)

For fantasy I would like to nominate: The Half-Made World
For science fiction I would like to nominate: Altered Carbon

I hope people like them and vote them! :)

Marty wrote: "Ancillary Justice by Leckie. sf. Runner up last month. Please."

I read that one as part of the Sword&Lasers this month. It is hyped very much currently and got quite different opinions - main one was that it started really slowly. I personally wouldn't recommend it, though. But of course, others have different tastes and you really might want to form your own opinion.
If you're interested, you might want to read my review.

Just to offer a contrasting opinion - I thought this was one of the best SF novels of the year, and definitely the SF debut of the year. (And rather than "hyped" I'd say it's being very enthusiastically recommended by many people!)) I nominated it last month and would have done so again, but Marty beat me to it :)

Here's my review, in case anyone's interested.

Yes, it is very good for discussions - I appreciate different opinions on books and I like your review.
I just don't want to bring in too much negativism ;)

This is the last day for nominations, folks. If you'd like to nominate something but haven't yet, please let us know!

Edit: Polls are up. Go vote!

Science Fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/9...

Fantasy: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/9...

Nominations are now closed, and the first round of polls are going up.

The run-off polls are now up, so go vote for your faves!

Science Fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/9...

Fantasy: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/9...