Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

Greetings dear members, I am excited to announce a new game to commemorate our reaching a new milestone of 200 members. This time there is also a possibility of being creative, so please enjoy and have fun with your posts! If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to ask in this theead.

The directions for playing the game are as follows:

Player A: chooses a title of a book (e.g. The Running Man)

Player B: must think of a title containing either of the words from previous post (e.g. The Positronic Man)

Player C: must continue the chain, IF one cannot think of an existing title comtaining either of the words, the player can simply imagine one. But this alternative comes with a caveat, the person who creates an imaginary title must provide a short synopsis of what that book might be about:
(e.g. "Positronic Dog": a story of a robotic puppy, which upon an accidental run in with a self-driving car discovers a surprising ability to wag his tail on a whim, while struggling to understand the unreasonable urge to chase a cat up a tree and mark his cubicle with machine oil. A story of nascent humanity in a mechanical pet.)

Player D: continues the pattern using either existing or imaginary title.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please use the "add book/author" button to provide book references and have fun creating your own titles!

Let me kick it off with an easy one:

A Game of Thrones

Keeping things easy:

The Hunger Games

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, by Roxane Gay

Memoirs of a Geisha

Geisha, a Life, by Mineko Iwasaki. This one is a real life memoir, written in response to Memoirs of a Geisha. I liked it a lot, but still felt it was probably not entirely truthful. Also it dealt with a career in the 1960's... not exactly the heyday of Geisha culture.

Cynthia wrote: "Geisha, a Life, by Mineko Iwasaki. This one is a real life memoir, written in response to Memoirs of a Geisha. I liked it a lot, but still felt it was probably not entirely truthful. ..."

I've heard good things about it, but never read it myself. Surprised to hear it's about this relatively recent events.

Life of Pi

Life of Pi --> The Secret Life of Bees

On my list because it is supposed to be this great book, but I may never read it

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

I've read this and enjoyed it.

Kateblue: my wife read the Secret Life of Bees and didn't think much of it. I decided to skip it based on her non-recommendation.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

Snow Crash -> Snow White

Annti, thanks!

Snow White-->The White Dragon

The White Dragon [Pern 3] -> Dragonquest [Pern 2]

Dragonquest -> Assassin's Quest

Assassin's Quest-->Spider's Bite (Elemental Assassin Series Book 1)

Spider's Bite -> Along Came a Spider

Along Came A Spider-->Spider Bones (Temperance Brennan, #13) by Kathy Reichs (This book series is what the TV show "Bones" was based on, though the Bones character is quite different.)

The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones -> Bag of Bones I can hardly remember what the book is about, I remember not being too impressed by it.

Bag of Bones-->The Carpetbaggers

Bag of Bones -> Boneshaker

The Carpetbaggers > The Carpet People (Terry Pratchett's 1st novel)

The Carpet People-->Star Ka'ats and the Plant People by Andre Norton

Plant People > Kiln People

Kiln People -> How to Win Friends and Influence People :)

How to Win Friends Etc -> Playing to Win: Becoming the Champion by David Sirlin.

Short book (originally a series of web articles / blog posts) about playing competitive games, and how good games become even better when you play at higher levels.

Playing to Win: Becoming the Champion -> Playing Possum

Playing Possum -> Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture

Playing to Win: Becoming the Champion-->Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

Well, darn, you snuck in on me, Oleksandr! I had the page up for a while and while I was away from it, you snuck in and beat me to the word "champion"

I can't think of anything right now. later!

Breakfast of Champions -> The Eternal Champion, one of the books that shifted me from SF to fantasy for several years. I had only the first novel - Phoenix in Obsidian w/o the ending (the book had two identical 32-page sheets)

The Eternal Champion -> Eternal Night

Eternal Night

A veteran knight, woman of legendary prowess and skill with all things pointy finds herself mentoring an unlikely apprentice, a young man born completely blind.
The path to overcome the trials, whether by skill or blind luck, of his chosen vocation is long and perilous, but it is equally matched by the protagonist's perseverance. Will he be honored by the ultimate title of the Eternal Knight? Find out in the first installment of the "Improbable Heroes" trilogy!

Eternal Night -> Night's Master

btw, Kate is that blind knight a basilisk hunter or medusa gorgona?

Night's Master > Past Master

Pastor of None – a far-future military space opera. The protagonist, a missionary, is losing her religion. Her message of faith is met by skepticism and hostility from alien races. Support from her home world wanes, as emerging technologies become objects of worship. Will she persevere? Only time and maybe some sort of divine intervention will tell!

Pastor of None (strangely enough you've got me interested) -> None of the Above a friend of mine recommended it to me back when it just came out, but upon leafing through it I decided against it. Seemed like a desperate attempt to profit from the pre-election frenzy.

None of the Above -> And Then There Were N-One , novella nominated for Hugo this year, an interesting twist of Agatha Christie's classics

@Victor - your text reminded me of Robert Sheckley's story were aliens became Christians with their goal to go to Hell - their favorite environment is boiling sulfur :)

And Then There Were N-One -> The Hobbit or There and Back Again

Hobbit -> Time and Again A novel that I've had for years but never got around to reading.. Yet..

Time and Again -> The Time Machine

The Time Machine > Time Enough for Love

Time Enough for Love -> Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? -> Animal Farm

Animal Farm -> Farmer in the Sky

Farmer in the Sky > The Stone Sky

The Stone Sky -> The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones-->Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone -> Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

a side note - this is book #5 in GR database :surprised:

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban -> The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Just picked this up on the recommendation of a friend and it looks really good.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August -> The Guns of August