Beyond Reality discussion

Hi everyone,

It's time to open nominations for our April 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 Saturday, January 21.
• The first round of polls will open Sunday, January 22, and will run through Thursday, January 26.
• The run-off polls go up Friday, January 27, and will be open through Tuesday, January 31.

Thanks!


NOMINATIONS SO FAR:


SCIENCE FICTION:
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (Lulu)
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov (Silvana)
A Just Determination by John G. Hemry (Mary)
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (Phil)
Blackout by Connie Willis (Maggie)
Footfall by Larry Niven (Lindsey)


FANTASY:
The Power by Naomi Alderman (Lulu)
The Queen's Necklace by Teresa Edgerton (Mary)
Jurgen by James Branch CAbell (Wastrel)
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake (Phil)
Child of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica (Lindsey)

Science Fiction: Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. This looks like it is going to be a shoe-in for Hugos, and has received a lot of high praise.

Fantasy: The Power by Naomi Alderman. A feminist dystopia with the fantastical element of women suddenly having the power to electrify with touch, at will. (Sorry for the run-on sentence!) Again, lots of high praise, and Naomi was mentored by Margaret Atwood for a while.

I'm not sure how everyone will feel about my classification of The Power - but I went by shelving, and because I don't think it has any actual science elements, though I realise these days that that isn't necessary for the science fiction moniker these days.

F: Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding
(I am not sure whether it is SF or fantasy but so far it seems more fantasy to me)

SF: The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
(one of the recommended series with no romance)

SF: A Just Determination by John G. Hemry. An SF Navy takes our young ensign through space and into a courtroom drama.

Fantasy: The Queen's Necklace by Teresa Edgerton. A continent-sweeping plot that encompasses magic and a long ago tyrant race.

SF: The Stars My Destination It's the most classic book that I haven't read yet. I hear it combines hard SF with a pulp sense of action and plot. This group hasn't read it in almost nine years, so there's probably plenty of us that have joined since it was last discussed.

Checking back into Time Travel, I will nominate Blackout by Connie Willis for sci-fi. Although connected to Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, it is not a sequel to them.

Fantasy: Jurgen. Immensely influential early fantasy novel that continues to shape the genre (e.g. Cabell is Neil Gaiman's favourite author). Used to also have mainstream literary adoration from people like F Scott Fitzgerald. It's hilarious and irreverent - think PG Wodehouse - but also moving and sincere, and feels almost perfectly fresh nearly a century later. And it desparately deserves to be remembered again.

Phil wrote: "SF: The Stars My Destination It's the most classic book that I haven't read yet. I hear it combines hard SF with a pulp sense of action and plot. This group hasn't read it in almost n..."

Pulp action and plot, yes. Hard science fiction? Pretty much exactly the opposite. It does have a bit of 'hard' attitude in its interest in exploring the logical consequences of things... but the things in question are at best wild handwaving and at worst patently ridiculous.

I don't have a problem with that, because it's not what the book is about and quibbling over the science seems like missing the point. But if you're someone for whom 'hardness' matters, you may be very disappointed.

You should absolutely read the book, though.

Alfred Bester's seminal works, The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination were both written in the mid 1950s. As such, no claim that either of them could be up to speed in today's scientific milieu should be made. Moreover, the fragmentation of the SF genre into discrete categories, e.g., hard, military, space opera, etc. is a relatively recent phenomenon. I feel it is more appropriate to simply consider such novels in a sui generis light, allowing them to stand on their own considerable merits.

Thanks, Wastrel & Jim. I enjoy early SF, pulp, and hard sf. If I had to pick, I'd take pulp over hard sf, but it sounds like either way this book is a winner.

My fantasy nomination is Titus Groan. It's probably the best fantasy book that I haven't read. It's pre-LotR fantasy, which is my favorite kind of fantasy, and beyond that, no one seems capable of describing it. I like indescribable books.

For Fantasy: Child of a Hidden Sea. It's about a parallel world with island nations where magic-by-naming is practiced. And did I mention sailing ships? I read it a few weeks ago and it was a pleasant surprise, not at all what I expected.

For SF: Footfall. It's the longest resident TBR SF book left on my shelf and, after reading Lucifer's Hammer last year, I'd rather unpack it with a group!

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

Silvana - I agree with you that steampunk feels more fantasy than SF, but we have to go with the way more Goodreads users shelve a particular book. The consensus seems to be that Retribution Falls is science fiction, so... I've included your SF nom in the poll, as it's not contested in any way, but Ret. Falls will have to wait for next month, if you choose to nominate it again (for SF.) :)

The first polls are up:

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

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

The run-off polls are open. There was a tie for 2nd place in SF.

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

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