Sci-Fi Group Book Club discussion

September we will be Choosing the the Group reads from:

Hard Sci-Fi, Alternate History, or Steampunk.

(one theme will end up missing out so make sure you get the book you really one mentioned on this thread)

I nominate The Big Time. You can d/l it from Archive.com for free, it's the first of a series, it won the Hugo Award for Best Novel (1958) and was a BSFA 50th Anniversary Award Nominee for Best Novel of 1958 (2007) and I'm pretty sure it would loosely fit into all three categories (at least 2). Oh, and it's short...about 128 pages if read in the standard fare or about 3 and 3/4 of an hour if listened to in audiobook form.

Hard Scifi - Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. It's a big challenging read but wow it's good.

I'll nominate 11/22/63 for the alternate history theme, in honor of this year being the 100th anniversary of JFK's birth.

Anthea wrote: "Hard Scifi - Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. It's a big challenging read but wow it's good."

yesyesyesyes!!!

Alternate history: Lest Darkness Fall

Internet Archive PDF

Scribd ebook

Oodles of other sources offer it as well. There's a book version paired with a slew of other related stories that I'd strongly recommend:
Lest Darkness Fall & Related Stories

Some nice ideas here so far. Seveneves was a group read a year ago but there's no harm in another bunch of people reading it. :)

I'm going to nominate The Difference Engine and Worldshaker as my two steampunk suggestions.

Steampunk - Greg's suggestion, Worldshaker, or Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.

Alternate History: Voyage by Stephen Baxter (also very close to hard SF)

Hard science: Children of Time
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
It new-ish and will blow your mind!

Brad wrote: "Hard science: Children of Time
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
It new-ish and will blow your mind!"
It did...in a really good way. Excellent read!

Nominating for Steampunk, Railsea, it's on my to read list.

I'll second Greg's nomination of the Difference Engine for steampunk.

Adding a vote for Children of Time too! Another brilliant read. Just about to start his Empire of Black and Gold.

I just want to point out to newer members that there will be a poll shortly to pick two titles from the suggestions members post here so if you like a suggestion that somebody else makes in this topic be sure to vote for your choice in the poll once it's live.

Greg wrote: "I just want to point out to newer members that there will be a poll shortly to pick two titles from the suggestions members post here so if you like a suggestion that somebody else makes in this to..."

I wonder if it would also be worth asking people to check the group's bookshelf before making a nomination, Greg. Both Seveneves and Children of Time are great books, but this group has already read them - last summer, in fact.

Donna Rae wrote: "I wonder if it would also be worth asking people to check the group's bookshelf before making a nomination, Greg. Both Seveneves and Children of Time are great books, but this group has already read them - last summer, in fact."

That's a fair point, Donna. I did comment about Seveneves earlier on the basis that it was discussed a year ago but I forgot about Children of Time.

It's difficult to decide on a cut-off point that will satisfy everybody. For example, one group, Horror Aficionados, considers books read within the previous 12 months to be ineligible for consideration for an up-coming group read. On this basis, both books would be eligible again as Children of Time was a June 2016 group read (14 months ago) and Seveneves was one for the following July (13 months ago).

That said, is 12 months long enough? Should it be 18 months or two years before a book can be considered eligible for a fresh group read? I'll be happy to go with a majority view if members would like to offer their opinions on this.

18 months.

I completely understand that reasoning, Greg, especially when it comes to books that newer members might want to read but which older members have already covered. Difficult to please everyone.

I do have a suggestion, though: how about holding an additional quarterly poll for 'Bookshelf Reads' i.e. books that the group has already read, but which newer members (and older ones if they wish to revisit a book) can nominate and vote for in addition to the monthly polls? This would have the advantage of keeping the monthly poll fresh with new material whilst offering a 'catch-up' solution for newer members.

If that suggestion isn't do-able, however, I'll concur with Mel and go with 18 months.

By the way, Horror Aficionados looks really good - I've just joined. Thanks, Greg!

Donna Rae wrote: "By the way, Horror Aficionados looks really good - I've just joined. Thanks, Greg!"

You're welcome Donna! :)

And are you suggesting that 'bookshelf reads' should be an additional theme that people could vote on for each of the themed reads?

Tomorrow, I'll be setting up the poll so if anyone has any additional suggestions to make you still have a chance to make them!

Greg wrote: "And are you suggesting that 'bookshelf reads' should be an additiona..."

Erm ... My suggestion is for the monthly polls/themes to continue as they are, but with nominations for books not previously read by the group so that the monthly polls offer fresh reading material every time.

There could then be a separate, additional quarterly poll (for example) for books already read by the group (Bookshelf Reads) where members could nominate from any of the (currently) 63 books on the group's bookshelf. This would allow members to revisit any books previously enjoyed whilst also catering for newer members who might have missed out on a book they would like to read with the group.

Hope that makes sense. Just thinking of ways to cater for everyone without having too complicated a system. The group's bookshelf grows all the time from the monthly polls and there's already a wide variety of material to choose from. But what do other members think?

Based on the nominations given above, I've set up the poll for our September group reads here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1.... It will become live at midnight (GMT) or 4pm (PDT).

As some of you will already have seen, the two books chosen for our September group reads are The Difference Engine and Perdido Street Station. The discussion topics for these books may be found here and here, respectively.

Having copies of both books, now I have to choose which one to read, or at least which one I should start with! :O