Beyond Reality discussion

Hi everyone,

It's time to open nominations for our March 2017 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 Wednesday, December 21.
• The first round of polls will open late Thursday, December 22, and will run through Tuesday, December 27.
• The run-off polls go up Wednesday, December 28, and will be open through Sunday, January 1.

Thanks!

NOMINATIONS SO FAR:


SCIENCE FICTION:
The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton (Sumant)
Revenger by Alastair Reynolds (Justine)
The Business by Iain Banks (Piers Rippey)
New Pompeii by Daniel Godfrey (Helen)
The January Dancer by Michael Flynn (Mary)
Control Point by Myke Cole (Silvana)
Time and Again by Jack Finney (Joey)
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (Phil)
The Quiet Invasion by Sarah Zettel (Janny)

FANTASY:
The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell (Sumant)
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley (Maureen)
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier (Justine)
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (Chris)
Except the Queen by Jane Yolen & Midori Snyder (Mary)
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (Silvana)
War with the Newts by Karel Čapek (Phil)
The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer (Janny)

For sci-fi I will nominate The Reality Dysfunction

& for fantasy The Last Kingdom

for fantasy I will nominate The Rook

For fantasy I would like to nominate Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier.

For SF I would like to nominate Revenger by Alastair Reynolds.

Justine wrote: For SF I would like to nominate Revenger by Alastair Reynolds.


Good choice! I have this one on my Christmas wish list!

Not sure if this counts as SF but I'd like to nominate The Business by Iain Banks.

I will nominate All the Birds in the Sky. It's been showing up on several Best of 2016 lists, and I'm anxious to read it.

New Pompeii for sci sci-fi.

For SF, The January Dancer by Michael Flynn Action, adventure, and thought in the far-future spiral arm.

For fantasy, Except the Queen by Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder. an urban fantasy of two fairies trapped in the modern world, as women of a certain age.

For SF, Myke Cole's Control Point. Military SF with X-Men, sound very action-packed and recommended by the Tor.com podcast.

For Fantasy, The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Sumant wrote: "For sci-fi I will nominate The Reality Dysfunction

& for fantasy The Last Kingdom"

I really enjoyed The Last Kingdom (and the whole series), but I don't see it qualifying as Fantasy. It is clearly in the Historical Fiction realm. Anyone who likes adventure fantasies would probably enjoy Last Kingdom.

Piers Rippey wrote: "Not sure if this counts as SF but I'd like to nominate The Business by Iain Banks."

Well, it's not technically SF, because it's written as "Iain Banks" - which the author uses for his non-SF - instead of "Iain M. Banks," which he uses for SF. BUT reviewers mention that it involves alternate history and/or an alternate universe, so I'm inclined to let it stand. We'll let the group decide with their votes. :)

I won't be able to get the polls up until tomorrow evening/late afternoon, so although nominations are supposed to end tonight, you have part of tomorrow to nominate, too.

I would nominateTime and Again by Jack Finney.

For SF, Doomsday Book because I really wanted it to win the last runoff.

For fantasy, War with the Newts.

I'd like to nominate The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer for fantasy. It's fantasy with an adventure slant, superb characters, an interesting take on the magic, by an author with a superb grasp of narrative tension and suspense. I read this adjacent to Anthony Ryan's Blood Song, and found the narrative pace to be every bit as solid. Though it's the start of a trilogy, it reads quite well by itself, and if you enjoy it and want to go on, Schafer sticks the ending.

For SF, I'll try again with The Quiet Invasion by Sarah Zettel. This author writes seriously well done SF and it's criminally overlooked. This story involves an alien invasion of Venus - by a species that looks like nothing mankind ever imagined to encounter. Highly recommended, it's stuck with me for years.

Janny wrote: "I'd like to nominate The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer for fantasy. It's fantasy with an adventure slant, superb characters, an interesting take on the mag..."

Once again, Janny, I completely agree with you over the issue of Sarah Zettel. Her work is, as you say, "Criminally overlooked." As we have discussed in the past, I am not a Fantasy reader very often, but Zettel writes both Fantasy and Sci Fi with a really interesting flair that I appreciate greatly. One of these days, this group has got to get her on its reading list.

Maybe this time....?

Nominations are closed, and the polls are going up.

Here we go:

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

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

Please note that the poll schedule is scooted one day, to allow for the holiday. The first round of polls will run through Tuesday, December 27. The run-off polls go up Wednesday, December 28, and will be open through Sunday, January 1.

Candiss wrote: "Here we go:

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

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

Please note that the poll schedule is scooted one day, to allow for the holiday. The first round of polls will run through Tuesday, December 27. The run-off polls go up Wednesday, December 28, and will be open through Sunday, January 1."

Great job getting things rolling despite holiday pressures.

The run-off polls are going up later than I'd hoped, as I ended up unavailable the 28th and 29th due to my birthday. This is one of the advantages of having polls for several months down the line!

The run-off polls are up and will run through January 3rd. We had a tie for 2nd place in the SF category, so we have 3 books to choose from.

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

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

Candiss wrote: "The run-off polls are going up later than I'd hoped, as I ended up unavailable the 28th and 29th due to my birthday."

Congrats! Apparently you and my 15 year old granddaughter are the same age! Same birthday anyway. Christmas babies always have it tough.

Jim wrote: "Candiss wrote: "The run-off polls are going up later than I'd hoped, as I ended up unavailable the 28th and 29th due to my birthday."

Congrats! Apparently you and my 15 year old granddaughter are ..."

Thanks, Jim! I turned 46 on the 29th. My 22-year-old son took me to dinner and told the waiter I was turning 29. I said, "Whoa, no way, kid! I'm not ashamed of my age; I earned these years!" :D