The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion

We are looking for nominations for any sci-fi novel or collection of short stories written between 1980 and 1999 that has not previously been read by the group. Please check the bookshelf here before nominating.

As previously mentioned to increase the variety of authors read per period we will exclude authors where we have already read two or more books in the period. Therefore for the New Wave nominations, this time we will not accept any nominations for books by William Gibson

Only one nomination per person please.

There are a lot of good books, it is hard to choose. :)
I nominate Emergence by David R. Palmer, which was nominated for Hugo Award and Philip K. Dick Award and won Compton Crook Award in 1985.
One great disadvantage, this book isn't available as an e-book, at least officially.

I've been enjoying Emma Bull's works lately.
Bone Dance is the one that I own that has the highest number of GR ratings, which would hopefully point to easier availability. ;)

Limes inferior Ok, nvm. He was not translated into english. What a shame!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_...

His works have been translated into Belorussian, Bulgarian, Czech, Esperanto, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Russian and Slovenian. Almost none of his works have been translated into English; the only exception is the short story Wyjątkowo trudny teren ("Particularly Difficult Territory") that Zajdel wrote for the English language Tales from the Planet Earth anthology edited by Frederik Pohl and Elizabeth Anne Hull.

It always strikes me how language may limit us from reading great works. And Zajdel... he's such a classic I assumed he was translated into every popular language. [*]

I nominate Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr. (1990)

From the blurb on the book: "Collects eighteen brilliant short stories from a luminary of the science-fiction genre, James Tiptree, Jr. This updated edition is the quintessential Tiptree collection and contains revisions from the author’s original notes. Tiptree’s fiction reflects the darkly complex world its author inhabited: exploring the alien among us; the unreliability of perception; love, sex, and death; and humanity’s place in a vast, cold universe."

Dan wrote: "I nominate Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr. (1990)"

I would really like to read this one.

It is a great collection, but we read it in 2016 here.

So sorry. I pledge to check the bookshelf before making future nominations.

Thanks for mentioning the book, though, Dan. I have not read this author before and these stories look fascinating. I've added this to my TBR list.

Kacper wrote: "Limes inferior Ok, nvm. He was not translated into english. What a shame!
..."

I agree, I would have been interested to read it. He doesn't seem to be translated into French either. Saying that the anthology where his story is published, Tales from the Planet Earth: A Novel with Nineteen Authors looks quite good with authors from 18 countries.

I nominate Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

I nominate The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. Although it is the second published book in the Culture series, the books can be read out of order and many fans believe Player of Games is the best starting point.

By the way, there's currently a four-way tie in the two polls for July's read. Does that mean we're going to read all four books? If so we might want to spread that out over two months.

No ties now. Let's see what happens at the end of the voting. No sense borrowing trouble.

I usually forget to vote in our polls, but when I do my criteria is on I haven;t read before and that is available from my library, especially as a audio book. So I just voted. Didn't break any ties. Didn't even vote for contenders.

I'm not sure if I want to nominate A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge or The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stepheson.

You need to pick one, Marc-André.

I'll nominateOn Basilisk Station by David Weber. It's the first of the Honor Harrington books, a space age homage to Horatio Hornblower, another series I really liked.

It's a good book & Baen did a really smart thing by giving it away for free. I read it & then went on to buy it & another dozen books in the series. They sucked me in. You can find it here:
https://www.baen.com/on-basilisk-stat...

The Integral Trees by Larry Niven. I'm almost sure I must have read this when it was new, but I can't remember for sure.

I nominate Robert Silverberg's Sailing to Byzantium (1984).
It can be found in this collection of six novellas:

Ok, I've decided. I'll nominate The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson.

Marc-André wrote: "Ok, I've decided. I'll nominate The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson."

Excellent choice. I'm reading that one right now.

I nominate The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge. Not only was this science fiction book nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1981, it won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1981.

Susan wrote: "I nominate Robert Silverberg's Sailing to ByzantiumSailing to Byzantium (1984). "

You mean Sailing to Byzantium, right? Please post a book link or it may not make it into the poll.

Ronald wrote: "I nominate Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois:"

Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois

We're up to a dozen books now, so we'll probably have 2 polls.

Jim wrote: "You mean Sailing to Byzantium, right? Please post a book link or it may not make it into the poll ..."

Sailing to Byzantium is one novella in this collection of the same name: Sailing to Byzantium. Two of the six novellas are from the 70s and the other four from the 80s. Sailing to Byzantium was published in 1984.

Marc-André wrote: "I'm not sure if I want to nominate A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge or The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stepheson."

Since Marc-Andre picked The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, I'd like to nominate A Fire Upon the Deep. That book has been languishing on my TBR list for far too long, and a Group Read would be just the thing to push it to the top of the pile!

I nominate The Dream Archipelago by Christopher Priest

And hello, everyone, by the way! Been a while since I was last active here (life can be distracting), but I'm hoping to start showing my face again a bit more frequently. Looks like things have changed quite a bit since I was last here. Great to see the group growing :)

Jo is out & about so won't get a chance to make the poll until tomorrow. I might get to it later today, but I'm a little too foggy this morning & I want to get out before the heat kicks in. We'll be breaking the books into 2 polls by decades.

The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge (1980)
The Integral Trees by Larry Niven (1983)
Emergence by David R. Palmer (1984)
Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg (SS 1985)
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (1986)
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks (1988)

Bone Dance by Emma Bull (1991)
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)
Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois (SS 1992)
On Basilisk Station by David Weber (1992)
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson (1995)
The Dream Archipelago by Christopher Priest (SS 1999)

Great choices! I will be reading whatever wins this time, I wager.