Beyond Reality discussion

Hi everyone,

It's time to open nominations for our October 2015 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. A couple of suggestions to keep in mind:

1. 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.

2. To see if your nomination has already been read by the group, you can check:

a. the group's bookshelf for Previous Books of the Month

and/or

b. these threads:
Master List of Previous Books of the Month 2012-Present
Master List of Previous Books of the Month 2006-2011

Books the group has read in the past 2 years are not eligible for current consideration. Being chosen as a past BotM prior to that time is not an automatic disqualification, 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, self-nomination and various rules for nominations, 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 Monday, July 20.
• The first round of polls will open Wednesday, July 22, and will run through Sunday, July 26.
• The run-off polls go up Monday, July 27, and will be open through Saturday, July 31.

Thanks!


NOMINATIONS SO FAR:

FANTASY:
Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher(Jenny)
Except the Queen by Jane Yolen & Midori Snyder (Mary)
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (Nicole)
The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (Justine)
The Element of Fire by Martha Wells (Helen)

SCIENCE FICTION:
The January Dancer by Michael Flynn(Mary)
Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman(Justine)
Mainspring by Jay Lake (Jim)
Stealing Light by Gary Gibson (Tyler)
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr. (Maggie)

For Fantasy I'd like to nominate The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.

This is a new book by a wonderful author who is terrific at world building. I love that her stories take place in worlds that aren't Euro-centric. I loved her earlier novel The Killing Moon and I want to read more from her.

For Science Fiction I'm going to nominate Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher.

I know that this is a series that many have read. It's on my TBR list because of the rave reviews it gets. I think it would a great series for us to discuss as a group.

SF: The January Dancer by Michael Flynn Adventure in a marvelous far-future setting raising ontological questions

Fantasy: Except the Queen by Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder Two fairies offend the fairy queen, and land in modern-day as women of a certain age (since they can no longer use their magics to be young). To find a tangle of fairy politics. Baba Yaga hires one to manage the house where she's renting rooms to college students.

For fantasy I would like to nominate The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen. I'm starting to feel like the only person on Goodreads who hasn't read this one yet. :)

For science fiction I would like to nominate Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman. A debut novel of first contact on an alien planet. This is a brand new release, but here is a nice review from Liz Bourke on Tor.com:

http://www.tor.com/2015/07/13/book-re...

Nicole wrote: "For science fiction I would like to nominate Children of God by [author:Mary Do..."

Nicole - The group has never read The Sparrow, so unfortunately its sequel, Children of God, doesn't qualify for a group read. Would you like to nominate the first book in the series in hopes of the group reading on later, or do you have another book you would like to nominate for SF?

(I triple-checked all our lists, but no "Sparrow." I was pretty surprised it hadn't been read by the group, actually.)

Candiss wrote: "(I triple-checked all our lists, but no "Sparrow." I was pretty surprised it hadn't been read by the group, actually.) ."

If we did, it may have been back when this was a Yahoo group, but I thought that list had migrated here when we did. I thought I read it with the group, but I might be mistaken. I may have just read it based on recommendations from the group members. It's an excellent book!

Kathi, I think you're right about the pre-GR list migrating here with the group. I believe the "2006-2011" list contains much (all?) of it, but as I wasn't in the group in the Yahoo days, I'll have to let those of you who were decide if the list is complete.

Jenny wrote: "For Fantasy I'd like to nominate The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.

This is a new book by a wonderful author who is terrific at world building. I love that her sto..."

Jenny, I put both your nominations on the list yesterday, but now I find myself conflicted. You have nominated Furies of Calderon for science fiction, but it seems most Goodreaders have filed it as Fantasy. Reading the description, it looks to me like it could be a bit of both.

Has anyone here read the book? Is it SF or F, please?

I think Furies is pretty soundly epic fantasy. Butcher even states he wrote it as such.
From his site:

"The Codex Alera is Jim’s six-book fantasy epic set in another world, mixing the politics of Rome with a world alive with elemental animism."

http://www.jim-butcher.com/books

Thanks, Carol. That pretty much confirms what I suspected.

So, Jenny - Which of your two nominations would you like to stick with for Fantasy, and do you have another nomination for SF?

Also, we're still waiting to hear from Nicole regarding her SF nom, as stated a few posts above. (If I don't hear from Jenny and Nicole by tomorrow/Sunday evening, I'll send them both a message so that we can move on with the polls.)

If anyone has nominations they would like to suggest, we're a bit short this month, especially in SF, so toss them on the table! If we don't get at least 5-6 valid nominations in each category, I'll grab the top several runners-up from the past few months' polls and include them. (It happens that The Sparrow was runner-up just a couple of months ago, so if Nicole doesn't get back to me, I'll include that one.)

Kathi wrote: "Candiss wrote: "(I triple-checked all our lists, but no "Sparrow." I was pretty surprised it hadn't been read by the group, actually.) ."

If we did, it may have been back when this was a Yahoo gro..."



I am a member from yahoo days. I swear we read Sparrow . I don't mind a reread. It is a really discussable book

Candiss, if you are looking for other possible sci-fi reads to beef up the pool, can I suugest Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett, and also The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers? I've already put in nominations so I'm just suggesting these to add to the sci fi pool, but I think either would be a great pick.

Elysium was a Locus Award finalist; The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was originally a self published book that was picked up by a publisher and republished in 2014.

I was looking at the previous polls too, what about A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias? That one almost won the BOTM final poll for April.

Anyway, that would bring the SF suggestions up to 5 right there. :)

To flesh out the SF nominations, might I suggest Mainspring by Jay Lake. From 2007, a book about an alternate Victorian era with a steampunk flair, it would seem. 2004 winner of the John W. Campbell award and a previous Hugo nominee, Jay Lake was a talented wordsmith taken from us in untimely fashion. I believe this one would be a worthy read.

The Element of Fire, excellent nom for fantasy!!! Again, but seeing as we were asked to beef out nominations :)

Furies is definitely fantasy, excellent series too.

for sf I'll throw in Stealing Light by Gary Gibson. Great start to an underappreciated space opera trilogy.

How about Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree? I have heard SO many good things about this book, I was surprised it wasn't on the list!

Maggie wrote: "How about Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree? I have heard SO many good things about this book, I was surprised it wasn't on the list!"

Maggie, I think the reason may be that it's a collection of short stories. There doesn't seem to be any rules against collections in Stefan's original FAQ (and we haven't added any to the modified FAQ now in use,) but we haven't done much collection reading for books of the month. We'll toss it in the poll and see how it fares!

Ok, folks. Nominations are closed, and the first polls will be going up in a bit.

Nicole got back to me, and she does want to go with The Sparrow for SF.

Jenny hasn't gotten back with me yet, so I'm going with Furies of Calderon for Fantasy vs The Fifth Season, which isn't released until August and thus will be less likely to be available everywhere by October. (I checked, and it will be available in Europe/UK/US/Can/Aus, but as I have to have some reason to pick between this one and Furies, I'm going with Furies's greater availability at libraries and pre-owned shops.)

Jim, Helen, Tyler, and Maggie - I have your noms, but I haven't updated the first post.

Justine, thanks for the awesome suggestions, but I think we have enough now that I don't have to decide whether to include multiple noms from the same member. ;) Hold on to them for future months!

The first round of polls are up and will remain open until 11:59 PM PST, Sunday, July 26. The top two qualifying books in each category will go on to the run-off polls beginning Monday, July 27.

Fantasy: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Science Fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

The run-off polls are up. You can vote through the end of the day (PST) Friday, July 31.


Fantasy: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Science Fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Everyone, Alexa has brought my attention to the fact that we had a tie for 2nd place in the prelim Fantasy poll, so their should be 3 books in the run-off poll. I've added the omitted book, but I can't broadcast a 2nd mass message to the group in one day, so until tomorrow morning this is your notice that The Element of Fire by Martha Wells is now in the running for final Fantasy book-of-the-month, too.

Sorry about the omission. I can't see well due to an eye infection keeping me from wearing my contacts, and I misread the numbers for the book in question. Thanks to Alexa, the mistake was caught early!

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...