Beyond Reality discussion

Hi everyone,

It's time to start taking nominations for our January 2011 Books of the Month! As always, you can make 1 SF and/or 1 fantasy nomination, by posting a reply to this post with the title and author of the book(s). Adding a note about why you're nominating the book will help people decide whether they want to read it. Please feel free to re-nominate a book from previous months if it didn't win the polls.

I'll take nominations until October 19th and set up the first round of polls on October 20th.

Stefan

NOMINATIONS SO FAR:


FANTASY:

Night Watch, by Sergei Lukyanenko (felina)
Fortress in the Eye of Time, by C.J.Cherryh (sandra)
The City of Dreaming Books, by Walter Moers (jan)
The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson (jo)
Son of Avonar, by Carol Berg (deedee)
Song of the Beast, by Carol Berg (marne)

SCIENCE FICTION:

Dragon's Egg, by Robert L. Forward (random)
The Quantum Thief, by Hannu Rajaniemi (anomander)
WARCHILD, by Karin Lowachee (sandra)
Air: Or, Have Not Have, by Geoff Ryman (candiss)
Downbelow Station, by C. J. Cherryh (marne)

I'd like to nominate Night Watch for the fantasy category. I forget who nominated it for the December poll but it looked really interesting.

Felina - I was the original nominator. I was going to re-nominate it this month, so I'll just second your nom, as I would still like to discuss it with others. (I'm still thinking on SF.)

Awesome Candiss!

I'll third Night Watch. It sounds interesting.

I'll toss out Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward again for Science Fiction.

For science fiction I nominate The Quantum Thief which I just read, as to why here is Charles Stross' short review:

"The Quantum Thief" by newcomer Hannu Rajaniemi, is due from Gollancz in the UK this September. Full disclosure here: I've known Hannu for some years, and I've been waiting impatiently for this novel ever since I began reading his short stories at the local writer's workshop. He's Finnish, lives in Scotland, has a PhD in string theory, and — well, if you dropped Greg Egan's hard physics chops into a rebooted Finnish version of Al Reynolds with the writing talent of a Ted Chiang you'd begin to get a rough approximation of the scale of his talent. If that's a somewhat recondite metaphor, then alas, recondite is what you're getting: this is deep SF, and if there's any criticism I can level it's that readers may find "The Quantum Thief" hard to interpret without a prior background in the field. However, it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up when I read it, and I think Hannu's going to revolutionize hard SF when he hits his stride. Hard to admit, but I think he's better at this stuff than I am. And "The Quantum Thief" is the best first SF novel I've read in many years.

Stefan wrote: "Hi everyone,

It's time to start taking nominations for our January 2011 Books of the Month! As always, you can make 1 SF and/or 1 fantasy nomination, by posting a reply to this post with the tit..."

FANTASY NOMINATION
Against All Things Ending, BY Stephen R. Donaldson
The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 3
Release date, Oct. 19, 2010
Pre-sale now on hardback @ Amazon $17

Charles - Against All Things Ending sounds interesting, but isn't it the third in a trilogy? That's what the book's Goodreads page says. Is it a stand-alone? (It doesn't seem so to me, but not having read the series, I can't be sure.)

Sorry, my extreme bad. It is 3rd in a series, and I retract my nomination. Sometimes I forget important stuff.

Well, I'll nominate the ones I did earlier as they lost out -

Fantasy - Fortress in the Eye of Time by C.J.Cherryh

Science Fiction - WARCHILD by Karin Lowachee who wrote the stirring The Gaslight Dogs that we read a couple of months ago.

Ooh, I'll second Warchild.

Have to think about fantasy nominations and come back.

I'd like to renominate The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers in the Fantasy category.

Walter Moers writes a very different kind of fantasy, and the book is filled with so many subtle literary references, I'd love a discussion just to discover references I haven't caught before.

How about The Way of Kingsby Brandon Sanderson for Fantasy, I think its an excellent book. I admit it took a while to get into it, but now I am nearly at the end and will be biting my nails for the next book.

Hi "Sandra aka Sleo" I've read both and both are good, I'll refrain from nominating and vote for one of yours.

I can't remember if this is one of the groups where things have to be seconded... but, if it is, I'll second The City of Dreaming Books.

Sandra's choices are excellent - I've read both, and loved them. For those unfamiliar with WARCHILD, it is NOT dark in the vein of Gaslight Dogs.

And Fortress in the Eye of Time is awesome, stands alone very well.

I will have to think a bit as to whether I want to nominate against those two titles - this group shoves me into a conflict of voting, like no other!

There's no need to second nominations here. If that ever changes I'll let everyone know.

Oops, Thanks Janny, I like Fortress in the Eye of Timeto. Now I have to decide how to go.

Stefan wrote: "There's no need to second nominations here. If that ever changes I'll let everyone know."

'k, thanks. I just can't keep the rules straight from group to group. :)

Last month I just missed the deadline to nominate a novel by Carol Berg; so I'll do it this month!
For fantasy, I'd like to nominate the first novel of her 4-novel series: Son of Avonar . (All 4 novels of the series are complete and in print.)

I'll have to think about what to nomninate for the science fiction part.

Oh I'd like to read that too. I love Carol Berg! Now I'm going to have a hard time voting.

Jan wrote: "I'd like to renominate The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers in the Fantasy category.

Walter Moers writes a very different kind of fantasy, and the book is filled with so many su..."

Oh man, hard vote choice coming out again. I loved Moers The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear. But I really, really love Nightwatch.

Why does everyone here have to have such good taste?

Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "Hi "Sandra aka Sleo" I've read both and both are good, I'll refrain from nominating and vote for one of yours."

Yay!

Ahh, but I forgot Fortress in the Eye of Time now I'm in the proverbial quandary. :)

For science fiction, I will nominate Air: Or, Have Not Have by Geoff Ryman. It's won multiple awards - the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel , the British Science Fiction Association Award for Novel, and the James Tiptree Jr. Award - but it's one of those works it seems few people know of. I've heard Ryman manages to create a world all too believable and that he is wonderful at creating authentic characters. It seems to have the potential for broad appeal.

Candiss wrote: "For science fiction, I will nominate Air: Or, Have Not Have by Geoff Ryman. It's won multiple awards - the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel , the British Science ..."

I've not read "Air" but I love social science fiction, and I think we've had great luck with choices that have been Tiptree Award winners. After several months of harder scifi -- Stephenson, Stross, Niven & Pournell, "Air" might be a breath of fresh....

On the other hand...I've really been waiting for the right time for Dragon's Egg and I am glad to see it nominated again. It sounds like a type of hard scifi that has some cool underlying, imaginative ideas.

Another impossible choice!

Candiss wrote: "For science fiction, I will nominate Air: Or, Have Not Have by Geoff Ryman. It's won multiple awards - the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel , the British Science ..."

Candiss, you are not making this vote any easier! :)

I read Air several years ago and would be VERY interested to hear what you all have to say about it! I quite enjoyed it except for one plot point that I had a major problem with, so I'd be curious to see if anyone else has the same reaction...

Tuesday's the last day to make nominations, so if anyone else wants to add any, this is the time to do do! I just added the nominations we have so far to the first post in this thread.

Jan wrote: "I'd like to renominate The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers in the Fantasy category.

Walter Moers writes a very different kind of fantasy, and the book is filled with so many su..."

I managed to miss your Moers nomination entirely. Now I'm going to have a tough time choosing, as well, as The City of Dreaming Books has been sitting on my shelf, chastising me for neglect for almost two years, and it looks simply enchanting!

Fantasy: Song of the Beast by Carol Berg (a stand-alone novel, not part of a series)

Science Fiction: Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh.

Marne wrote: "Fantasy: Song of the Beast by Carol Berg (a stand-alone novel, not part of a series)

Science Fiction: Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh."

Oh, great choices, again!

Alright folks, the first round of polls are up! The top two from each poll will move on the run-off round. Please make sure to vote before the 25th.

Oh, and one note: regarding Downbelow Station, yes, it is officially nr. 3 in the Company Wars series, but it's generally considered a great point to start even if you haven't read the first 2, so I decided to allow the nomination.

It looks like The Quantum Thief is only available on the Kindle in the US, and is only coming out in paper form later in 2011? Can anyone confirm this? If so, I think it would make more sense to postpone reading this until a paper edition is available...

That's right as far as I know Stefan. We (UK) have hardcover and trade paper now. Tor (US) are publishing in hardcover May 2011 last I heard.