Beyond Reality discussion

Hi everyone,

** I'm stretching the time frame for each phase of the nomination and voting process this time around, as my online availability may be a bit unpredictable for much of the rest of the month. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of wiggle room so that no questions or issues get missed or overlooked. We'll have a full week for nominations, a week for preliminary voting, and another week to cast final votes. **

It's time to open nominations for our January 2016 (!) 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 Friday, October 16.
• The first round of polls will open Saturday, October 17, and will run through Friday, October 23.
• The run-off polls go up Saturday, October 24, and will be open through Friday, October 30.

Thanks!


NOMINATIONS SO FAR:


SCIENCE FICTION:
The Peripheral by William Gibson (Nick)
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson (Candiss)
Mainspring by Jay Lake (Jim)
Night Lamp by Jack Vance (Jaro)
Ice Crown* by Andre Norton (Mary)
Saturn Run by John Sandford, Ctein (Justine)


FANTASY:
Last Song Before Night by Ilana C. Myer (Shel)
The Winds of Khalakovo by Bradley P. Beaulieu (Bill)
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Candiss)
The Bees by Laline Paull (Helen)
Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance (Jaro)
The Queen's Necklace by Teresa Edgerton (Mary)


*Out-of-print but available used. In-print and ebook form as part of omnibus Ice and Shadow

No! It's like Christmas just vanished.

It's officially published (and I've finished it already!) so now I can safely nominate Last Song Before Night for fantasy. I'd love to discuss it with you all, it was truly lovely!

I will renominate The Peripheral by William Gibson for sci fi. I did not nominate it last time, but it looked like a good bit of updated cyberpunk -- and by the virtual creator of cyberpunk, to boot!

I would like to nominate The Winds of Khalakovo by Bradley P. Beaulieu for fantasy.

For sci fi I would like to nominate Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor.

I have been hearing a lot about both authors and was able to pick both books up cheap.

I'm going to toss a couple of books on the nominations pile this time.

For science fiction, I'll nominate a semi-oldie that I am pretty surprised the group has never read together: The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson. I keep meaning to get to it, but it's become clear to me that I need a bit of a push. Everyone I know who's read it seems to love it, and of course it won Stephenson both the Hugo and the Locus Awards.

For fantasy, I'll nominate a more recent title, City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. I thought it had been nominated in the past several months, but I can find no evidence of it. I've heard nothing but good things about this one, and the author is amazingly versatile in his writing, putting out well-regarded epic fantasy, urban fantasy, mysteries, and horror (and probably travel guides, cookbooks, and children's pop-up books I just haven't heard of yet.)

Lol, The Bees. I believe it's a sort of dystopian, however goodreads shelving has it higher for fantasy. I hear good things about this. Plus, it's bees :)

Helen wrote: "Lol, The Bees. I believe it's a sort of dystopian, however goodreads shelving has it higher for fantasy. I hear good things about this. Plus, it's bees :)"

Helen, I believe it's both fantasy and a dystopia. Bees acting specifically human is pretty fantastical, and fantasy worlds can bee be* dystopian, i.e., a society characterized by misery, oppression, etc..

Good suggestion, either way! ;)

*giddy at getting to make a mom-pun

I will nominate Mainspring by Jay Lake again for SF. It's not exactly either fantasy or SF. Has elements of "steampunk" but not really that either. It's a character driven tale of a mechanical Earth that needs to be repaired to continue to exist. Our hero in the tale considers it a holy duty to fix things. I'll accept its placement in whichever category is deemed appropriate.

Jim, we'll go with SF, because more people have it shelved that way. (That also "conveniently" evens us up with 4 Fantasy and 4 SF noms so far.)

Bill wrote: "For sci fi I would like to nominate Lagoon"

And, Lagoon was on sale this month in US Kindle last I checked.

Although I did love City of Stairs... I think Lagoon might have lots of discussion material.

Ok, there are some really great choices here already. :)

At the risk of appearing single-minded I will, for fantasy, renominate: Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance, a gorgeous book filled to the brim with love, hope and longing. It is the first book in his Lyonesse trilogy.

And for balance (thought I suppose it does not have much hope of winning) I will, for science fiction, nominate Night Lamp by Jack Vance, a quirky, unpredictable, well-written and simply glorious book I've been longing to reread. It is available both in Tor paperback and as part of the SF Masterworks series.

For fantasy: The Queen's Necklace by Teresa Edgerton. One of the early clockpunk works. Swashbuckling adventure and political intrigue in a hundred kingdom, heirs to the fallen Goblin Empire.

For SF: Ice Crown by Andre Norton. A book by the classic author. Far future technology holds a planet in thrall, and an off-worlder finds herself in the middle of the issues. (In print, but I think only in the omnibus Ice and Shadow)

Candiss wrote: "Helen wrote: "Lol, The Bees. I believe it's a sort of dystopian, however goodreads shelving has it higher for fantasy. I hear good things about this. Plus, it's bees :)"

Helen, I b..."

Yay, I'm a mum. I remember the whole rolling eyes thing.

I'm going to nominate only one this month in SF, Saturn Run by John Sandford. It just came out this month. A sci-fi suspense book about a race to Saturn between the US and China to meet a spaceship spotted approaching and decelerating towards that planet.

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

The preliminary polls are up and will be open for voting through Friday, October 23. The run-off polls go up Saturday, October 24, and will be open through Friday, October 30.


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

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

And now our final run-off polls are open. You can vote through 11:59 PM PST, Friday, October 30.

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

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

Just to let you guys know, in case it was forgotten, no message from the group went out about the run-off polls. I imagine why that's why the number of voters is so low.

Lulu wrote: "Just to let you guys know, in case it was forgotten, no message from the group went out about the run-off polls. I imagine why that's why the number of voters is so low."

Lulu, it was intentional. I mentioned in the first-round polls mailing that I wouldn't be sending one for the run-off polls unless we got to the last day with very few votes (which it looks like we will) or we are looking at a tie.

The reasoning: I've had a number of notes asking for fewer group mailings. Since there are very few ways for members to limit mailings without eliminating them altogether for a group, I wanted to try an experiment. If it does more harm for the group than good (as it looks like it might be doing,) I'll have a good and tested reason for why we send 3 mailings per month (first-of-month, preliminary polls, and run-off polls.) On the contrary, if voter turn-out was decent per usual, we could go to 2 mailings a month as a compromise with members who wish for fewer mailings.

Thanks so much for the heads-up, all the same, as it is wholly possible at any time that we space out doing something like this! :) I'll probably end up sending a note out tonight to let folks know we have few votes and a day left to vote.

Candiss wrote: "Lulu wrote: "Just to let you guys know, in case it was forgotten, no message from the group went out about the run-off polls. I imagine why that's why the number of voters is so low."

Lulu, it was..."

Oh sorry, I mustn't have read the first round poll message properly, sorry! Too excited to vote I expect, aha. That's perfectly understandable and reasonable, whatever you decide. I personally like a head's up about polls, but can understand that if someone is involved in lots of groups where messages go out all the time, it might be a bit less manageable.

Thanks for letting me know! :)

I voted in the runoff for SF but not Fantasy because neither of the Fantasy choices appealed to me.

I'm happy with three emails but as long as this thread gets an update I would spot a vote.

Yes, I don't necessarily need the email if that's the decision, but I would see an update to this thread. I also admit to not having read the first message properly either - sorry!