Beyond Reality discussion

Hi everyone,

It's time to open nominations for our November 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: https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

and/or

b. these threads:
Master List of Previous Books of the Month 2012-Present: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Master List of Previous Books of the Month 2006-2011: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

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 Friday, August 21.
• The first round of polls will open Saturday, August 22, and will run through Wednesday, August 26.
• The run-off polls go up Thursday, July 27, and will be open through Monday, August 31.

Thanks!


NOMINATIONS SO FAR:

FANTASY:

Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance (Jaro)
Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord (Alexa)
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu (Kurt)
Cinder by Marissa Meyer (Tylor)
The Just City by Jo Walton (Justine)
The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris (Lulu)
The Bees by Laline Paull (Nick)

SCIENCE FICTION:

The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough (Shel)
The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (Tom)
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Alexa)
Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos (Kurt)
City of Pearl by Karen Traviss (Tylor)
To Live Forever by Jack Vance (Jaro)
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (Justine)

Fantasy: Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance - a work of true elegance and wonder.

Science Fiction: A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe - Will be released on October 20th

I will nominate Last Song Before Night by Ilana C. Myer for fantasy, and will freely confess that the author is a friend of mine - this is her debut novel, published by Tor. I'm not just suggesting it because she's my friend, though, I'm super excited to read it (haven't read it yet, but have pre-ordered my copy!) because it sounds lovely. Goodreads has a giveaway posted at the moment for anyone who is interested.

For SF, I'll nominate The Darwin Elevator, by Jason Hough.

Here's my SF : The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

literary awards: Arthur C. Clarke Award Nominee for Best Novel (2015), British Fantasy Award Nominee for August Derleth Award (best horror novel) (2015), James Herbert Award Nominee (2015)

For fantasy I would like to nominate Redemption in Indigo. This was Karen Lord's debut novel - it was nominated for and won a ton of awards - and I have always thought it looks absolutely fascinating!

Jaro wrote: "Fantasy: Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance - a work of true elegance and wonder.

Science Fiction: A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe - Will be ..."

Hi Jaro,

I am going to have to make absolutely sure that we are conforming to the rules here. The rules for nomination state that the book must be available in print format. A book which is not out yet is not available in print format. So I am going to have to ask you to wait until October to nominate the Gene Wolfe. He is one of my favorite authors, so I hate to squash a nomination of his. But i have to make sure I am following the posted rules. Please feel free to nominate another book for sci-fi, if you wish -- and I cannot wait until October when you can appropriately nominate this one.

Shel wrote: "I will nominate Last Song Before Night by Ilana C. Myer for fantasy, and will freely confess that the author is a friend of mine - this is her debut novel, publish..."

Hi Shel,

See my note to Jaro above. I feel it is best to wait until a book has come out in paper format before nominating it. Last Song before Night looks great! Next month I think you will be fine in nominating it. Feel free to make another Fantasy nomination for November.

For science fiction I would like to nominate The Summer Prince - this seems to have caught lots of attention and got lots of award nominations - I think it looks intriguing!

I'm sorry I'm late to the discussion!

I concur with Nick's choice. I think books may have slipped in a bit early a time or two in the past, but we have never intentionally allowed it, and it's not a good precedent to set. Although things seem to go pretty smoothly for major publishers, even they can have a setback with an author, printer, or some distribution or rights issue, and indies are even more likely to encounter a problem at the last minute. (I can't tell you how many books I've placed on my TBR, only to watch their release dates come and go, pushed back weeks/months/even a year or more.)

Chances are both the books in question will release as expected, but we should stick to the rule that nominations must be available in print in all major markets at the time they are nominated. (This also allows for the fact that if a book comes out just a few weeks before we are scheduled to read it, some members who use the library will be excluded due to wait lists and limited library budgets disallowing the purchase of all new releases in the same timely fashion.)

Please nominate these books after their release, though! :)

For Fantasy I will nominate The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu. It's medieval adventure with gods, royals and bandits. But its set in Asia not Europe so how it all comes together should be a fun read.

For Science Fiction I'll nominate Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos. A military science fiction story about what someone will do to escape poverty.

Nick wrote: "See my note to Jaro above. I feel it is best to wait until a book has come out in paper format before nominating it. Last Song before Night looks great! Next month I think you will be fine in nominating it. Feel free to make another Fantasy nomination for November."

Understood! Not a problem. I'll re-nominate when it's out next month :) I'll throw my weight behind Redemption in Indigo instead of making another nomination, then, because I read it a while back, loved it, and would love to hear what the rest of you think of it :)

For fantasy I will nominate Cinder by Marissa Meyer. It is YA but in my mind it kicks off a great fairy tale retelling series. It's really a science fantasy but it has more fantasy shelvings so that's what I'll go with.

And for sf I'll nominateCity of Pearl by Karen Traviss. I love this book and Traviss is an author I wish was more well known.

Nick wrote: "Hi Jaro,

I am going to have to make absolutely sure that we are conforming to the rules here."

I understand. For science fiction I will instead renominate To Live Forever aka Clarges by Jack Vance.

Wow there are some great nominations here! There are some on my TBR already and lots that I will likely add. Alexa, I'm so glad you nominated The Summer Prince, because, like you, I've heard good things about it but I haven't read it yet. I did read a review sometime back on Tor.com...if I can dig it up I'll post it later. I find those helpful anyway.

So just to try and round things out a bit, I'll put in a couple more for the mix. For fantasy, I'd like to nominate The Just City by Jo Walton.

Here is a book review from Tor.com for anyone who is interested:
http://www.tor.com/2015/01/05/philoso...

For SF, I'd like to nominate The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.

Another book review from Tor.com (sorry, it's the only website I really go to!): http://www.tor.com/2015/03/17/book-re...

For Fantasy, how about The Gospel of Loki? Although the GR reviews are mostly filled with Thor fans, all the reviews I've read offsite have been very favourable, marking it as a good retelling.

For SF, I'll go with The Bees, which I've heard nothing but good about. Plus, the concept is so appealing - a dystopia set in a beehive.

Alexa wrote: "For science fiction I would like to nominate The Summer Prince - this seems to have caught lots of attention and got lots of award nominations - I think it looks intriguing!"

I found the review I remembered reading months ago and it was as favourable as I recalled it being! Here is Liz Bourke's review of The Summer Prince posted at (where else) Tor.com:

http://www.tor.com/2014/12/30/sleeps-...

Lulu wrote: "For Fantasy, how about The Gospel of Loki? Although the GR reviews are mostly filled with Thor fans, all the reviews I've read offsite have been very favourable, marking it as a goo..."

Hi Lulu,

Great nominations, but there is one problem. The Bees has more GR genre votes as a "Fantasy" novel than as SF. According to our stipulations, we take these considerations into account when there is a question of genre. As nominations time draws to a close, i felt that, in order to avoid a possible question as to genre, I should take "The Bees" out of contention for SF.

However, I have not made any nominations yet, so I am going to nominate "The Bees" myself for Fantasy! Not only does it look intriguing to me, but it "evens out" the nominations at 7 each for Fantasy and SF.

Nick wrote: "Lulu wrote: "For Fantasy, how about The Gospel of Loki? Although the GR reviews are mostly filled with Thor fans, all the reviews I've read offsite have been very favourable, markin..."

Oh, I didn't think to check the genre - d'oh! I'm glad it still gets a nomination, though since I'm really interested in reading this, especially with other people's views :)

Nominations for November 2015 are now closed. The first round of voting, to determine which two books will go on to Round 2, is now open and will continue through 11:59PM PST August 26.

Here are the nominations for the Books of the Month for November 2015:

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

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

OR, you can go to the Beyond Reality homepage and click on "Polls" in the Right hand box of links.

Time to go vote!

I was told today that The Bees is excellent.

The second and deciding round of polls for our November Books of the Month are now up:

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

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

Time to go vote!