Beyond Reality discussion

Hi everyone,

It’s time to open nominations for our June 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 Saturday, April 19.
• The first round of polls will open Sunday, April 20, and will run through 11:59PM PST, Thursday, April 24 (closing Midnight PST April 25.)
• The run-off polls go up Friday, April 25, and will be open through 11:59PM PST Tuesday, April 29 (closing Midnight PST April 30.)

Thanks!


NOMINATIONS SO FAR:

FANTASY:
The Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig (Kurt)
Stone Junction by Jim Dodge (Candiss)
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb (Sumant)
Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan (Dawn)
Except the Queen by Jane Yolen & Midori Snyder (Mary)
The Grey Horse by R.A. MacAvoy (Janny)
Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson (Athena (Shardbearer))
The Princess Bride by William Goldman (Richard)
Hounded by Kevin Hearne (Conrad)
The Lascar's Dagger by Glenda Larke (Nina)
Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold (Elizabeth)
Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick (Bob)
Abarat by Clive Barker (Linda)
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock (Paul 'Pezski')



SCIENCE FICTION:
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (Kurt)
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee (Candiss)
Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh (Dawn)
Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders by Richard Ellis Preston Jr. (Mary)
Lexicon by Max Barry (Deedee)
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (Sandi)
The Quiet Invasion by Sarah Zettel (Janny)
The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey (Thom)
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (Richard)
Alien Taste by Wen Spencer (Elizabeth)
The Beginning by Kevin J. Howard (Athena (Shardbearer))
The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu (Tyler)
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak (Linda)
Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks (Paul 'Pezski')

For Fantasy I will nominate by Chuck Wendig. Its urban fantasy but I hope people don't mind a fantasy book not set in some alternate ancient world.

For Science Fiction I nominate by Kurt Vonnegut. I've heard good things about this and think it would make and good summer read.

I'll toss a couple of noms into the ring:

For Science Fiction, I'll nominate the recent On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee. I find it interesting that Lee is more well-known as a non-genre author, and here he's applying some of his more familiar subjects of immigrant experience and culture clash to a future dystopia.

For Fantasy, I'll nominate Stone Junction. This 1990 book could be called an pre-popularity example of urban fantasy of the gritty sort. It's one of a small number of modern-ish fantasy works on the 1001 list, which suggests it may have broad appeal outside genre fans, too. I'm always looking for books in sf/f that I can potentially suggest to readers I know who aren't specifically fans of sf/f...gateway books, if you will. ;)

For Fantasy i want to nominate Chronicles of black company .

Sumant wrote: "For Fantasy i want to nominate Chronicles of black company ."

Sumant - The group read this in November, 2012 - so just 18 months ago. I'm afraid that's too recent for us to revisit it just yet.

Do you have another book you would like to nominate?


Here are the links to the previous discussion of The Black Company if you're interested. They are still/always open for additional posts:

Non-spoiler first thoughts folder: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Spoiler/finished reading folder: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Candiss wrote: "Sumant wrote: "For Fantasy i want to nominate Chronicles of black company ."

Sumant - The group read this in November, 2012 - so just 18 months ago. I'm afraid that's too recent for us to revisit..."

I have refereed this list List and according to that i am suggesting Assassin's Apprentice .

For fantasy I will nominate Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

For science fiction I will nominate Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh

For fantasy, Except the Queen by Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder. Two sisters banished from Fairy into the form of middle-aged women, finding themselves in a middle of a much larger problem. (I also like the epistolary point-of-view)

For SF, Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders by Richard Ellis Preston Jr. -- Adventure! Action! In a post-apocalyptic steampunk California! (The reasons why it's steampunk are not all made clear in this book, some in the next, but it's a fascinating world.)

For Fantasy, I like the nomination of Assassin's Apprentice. I'll be voting for that one!

For Science Fiction, I'll nominate a book that I've wanted to read for awhile:
Lexicon by Max Barry. It won the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2013).

I just listened to Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor and really enjoyed it. However, I'm not sure if it should be science fiction or fantasy. Her work tends to be both. It would make for some interesting conversation and we might be able to get the author to participate.

Deedee wrote: "For Science Fiction, I'll nominate a book that I've wanted to read for awhile:
[book:Lexicon..."

I enjoyed Lexicon. But then Max Barry's never let me down yet. :)

Sandi wrote: "I just listened to Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor and really enjoyed it. However, I'm not sure if it should be science fiction or fantasy. Her work tends to be both. It would make for ..."

Pretty much all of the reviews I've read of it consider it sf, and even though not many people on Goodreads have shelved it as sf or f yet, still more call it sf... So I listed it as such.

I'll put in The Quiet Invasion by Sarah Zettel for SF. Her work is TRULY wonderful but way too often overlooked.

Fantasy - The Grey Horse by R.A. MacAvoy - a fun stand alone that is very colorful, takes place in Ireland, by an author who does exquisite work but is seldom mentioned, here.

For Fantasy, I nominate Lord Foul's Bane

Sci-fi, I nominate Revelation Space

Science Fiction: Anne McCaffrey, The Ship Who Sang

Athena (Shardbearer) - Lord Foul's Bane works, but Revelation Space was our book of the month last month, March 2014. ;) (If you scroll down the group's homepage, the discussion is still active. Post away!)

Do you have another sci-fi nom?

Oh, ok. I'll check and nominate something else soon!

The Princess Bride by William Goldman for Fantasy. I know it so well I feel like I've read it, but amazingly never actually got round to it.

For Science Fiction 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Rather large and literary but meant to be very good.

For a light read how about any of the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne
or the Dwarf Chronicles by Derek Prior.

Sincerely,
Conrad

Richard wrote: "The Princess Bride by William Goldman for Fantasy. I know it so well I feel like I've read it, but amazingly never actually got round to it."

Be forewarned that the book is only vaguely like the movie -- and for once the movie is better.

I agree, Mary.

I'd like to nominate Lascar's Dagger by Glenda Larke. It's a new book by an Australian author and just released - deals with magic, spice trade, politics, and has some Asian based mythology/cultural refs.

Err -- I nominated Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders but the one listed as nominated by me is Romulus Buckle & the Engines of War.

Janny wrote: "Fantasy - The Grey Horse by [author:R.A..."

Agree ....she is very good.
:)
Haven't read this one yet.

Science Fiction : I nominate Alien Taste (Ukiah Oregon, #1) by Wen Spencer because it is one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors and it has been a while since I’ve read it.

Fantasy : I nominate Beguilement (The Sharing Knife, #1) by Lois McMaster Bujold because Lois McMaster Bujold is one of my favorite science fiction authors whose fantasy series is seriously under appreciated.

For fantasy, I'll nominate Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick. Have not read it, but it has been on the TBR list for a while.

How about for sci-fi.

Mary wrote: "Err -- I nominated Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders but the one listed as nominated by me is Romulus Buckle & the Engines of War."

Ack! Sorry, Mary. Usually, when you enter the first parts of a title into the "add book/author" box, the first book in a series comes up first. Apparently not this time, and I didn't notice. Fixed!

Conrad wrote: "For a light read how about any of the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne
or the Dwarf Chronicles by Derek Prior.

Sincerely,
Conrad"

Conrad - As you didn't specify a preference, and the Chronicles of the Nameless Dwarf don't seem to be available everywhere yet as a non-ebook, I went with the first book in the Iron Druid series. The group hasn't read any of them, so we'd have to go with book #1.

Sorry for not being specific.
And thanks for adjusting my post. I appreciate it very much.

Have a good one.

Sincerely,
Conrad

Candiss wrote: "Conrad wrote: "For a light read how about any of the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne
or the Dwarf Chronicles by Derek Prior.

Sincerely,
Conrad"

Conrad - As you didn't specify a preference, and ..."

For sf I'll nominate The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu.

Ruby, you aren't allowed to nominate your own books. Also they need to be a fantasy genre or sci fi :)

I think Lagoon is fantasy as well, I read the book. Didn't like "fears death" and "lagoon", maybe cause I had great expectations.

Donaldson for fantasy and Wen Spencer for scifi.

For science fiction -- Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

For fantasy -- Abarat by Clive Barker

Helen wrote: "Ruby, you aren't allowed to nominate your own books. Also they need to be a fantasy genre or sci fi :)"

Helen is correct. This is my first stop-in this morning, and I won't have time to clean up the new stuff in this thread or engage everyone for a couple of hours yet.

A few quick reminders for all members:
- Books do need to be specifically sf/f, and preferably suited to an adult and/or young adult age group.
- Authors, translators, illustrators, etc., may not nominate their own books.
- Books must be available in all regions in physical form, whether or not they are also available as ebooks.

Please see the group FAQ (linked above) for specifics.

I'll be back later to tidy things, look up the books nominated since my last visit and make sure they fit our purposes, and post any questions/comments. Gotta run now!

I'll nominate:

For SF Look to Windward possibly the finest of Iain M. Banks Culture books. While there are internal references throughout the series, each is a stand-alone novel.

For fantasy Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock, one of the great novels of modern fantasy literature

Paul 'Pezski' - Since we've established several times in the past during nominations that the Culture books are standalone, I won't argue with you here. ;)

I think we're caught up to this point, folks. I was afraid we weren't going to have very many noms this month, but look at us now!

Jonathan wrote: "I'll nominate Time Shifters for science fiction. It is available in print at http://www.lulu.com/shop/shanna-lauff... so libraries can g..."

I'm sorry Jonathan, but a Print-on-Demand company is not the same as a book being available in print in all regions. We can't ask libraries, for example, to pay to have a book printed for us. They have very specific buying structures, times and limits and don't just drop money on a book because one person requests it. (I'm sure there are some small libraries who might, but most don't do things that way.)

Print-on-demand publishers don't fit the available-in-print schema set forth in our FAQ. While sites like this are really cool, their products don't suit our purposes at this time, and the book you nominated is basically available only in ebook format and not in all areas.

If we didn't already have so many nominations, I'd ask if you have another nomination. But as we have many, nominations actually ended last night (cut-off posted in the first post) and your nomination was made just 5.5 hours ago, I'm not going to be able to do that this time. But please do come back to nominate for the next month!

The first round of polls will be going up shortly, folks.

The polls are up. Go vote!

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

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

Hey, all -

The July run-off polls are live!

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

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