Beyond Reality discussion

It’s time to start taking nominations for our March 2012 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.

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. You can also check the group bookshelves for previous Books of the Month to see if your nomination has already been read by the group. (If your nomination was a BotM in the past, it's not disqualified, but be aware that it may hinder your nomination’s chances at the polls.)

• Feel free to re-nominate a book that didn’t win in the polls in previous months!
• Seconding isn't necessary in this group, but feel free to assert your enthusiasm for any nomination all the same.
• Friendly discussion/debate is strongly encouraged, but let's please keep things civil.

Nominations will remain open through December 20, and the first round of polls will go up on December 21.

Thanks!

Stefan & Candiss (moderators)'

NOMINATIONS SO FAR:

FANTASY:

The Way of Shadows, by Brent Weeks
The Scar, by China Mieville
Tooth and Claw, by Jo Walton
The Owl Service, by Alan Garner
The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
Karavans, by Jennifer Roberson
The Etched City, by KJ Bishop
Darkborn, by Alison Sinclair

SCIENCE FICTION:

Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
The Dervish House, by Ian McDonald
The Sparrow, by Maria Dora Russell
Echo, by Jack McDevitt
The Quiet Invasion, by Sarah Zettel
Wild Cards 1, by George R.R. Martin
Dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delany
The Einstein Intersection, by Samuel R. Delany
The Shockwave Rider, by John Brunner
Matter, by Iain M. Banks

I have no idea what I might want to read in March. That's a far distant future. Isn't 2.5 months too long a lead time?

I would like to nominate The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks for fantasy. I'm reading it right now, and its really good.

I'd like to nominate The Scar by China Miéville.
I've got it shelved as Fantasy but don't mind which category people want to put it into.

I would like to nominate Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton for fantasy and Old Man's War by John Scalzi for science fiction.

I'd like to re-nominate The Dervish House by Ian McDonald for sci fi.

I loved his early stuff when it was first coming out. Though I wasn't reading much sci fi back then, I was intrigued by MacDonald's kaleidescopic visions. Yet, I've not read him since his more contemporary books have pushed him into major sci-fi consideration.

According to the blurb, this book mixes nanotechnological issues with Islamic power politics in a future world. And Stefan gave it 5 stars! I'd like to get back on the MacDonald caravan.

Nice looking choices once more, Jenny....

And Dervish House is on my radar too.

The Scar is technically book 2 in the New Crobuzon series, but if I recall correctly they work as standalone novels. Plus we read Perdido Street Station, even though it's now almost 10 years ago! So anyway, I guess it'll work as a nomination.

Stefan wrote: "The Scar is technically book 2 in the New Crobuzon series, but if I recall correctly they work as standalone novels. Plus we read Perdido Street Station, even though it's now almost 10 years ago! S..."

Yep - they are standalone books in a shared world/loose series, like Discworld. They need not be read in sequence. (My interest should be read to reflect my great need for an incentive to finally read this one.)

I'll nominate The Owl Service by Alan Garner for fantasy again, since there seemed to be some interest last month. I don't have a SF book in mind at the moment, but if I think of anything I'll come back.

I am so behind on my reading right now, I am hoping I will catch up by Marcha nd can read along with The Scar...which gets my second!

I'll nominate The Princess Bride and The Sparrow again. Might as well try again considering Princess Bride almost won last month.

Jim wrote: "I have no idea what I might want to read in March. That's a far distant future. Isn't 2.5 months too long a lead time?"

Jim, in this group our system has always been that we take nominations about 3 months in advance, so people have enough time to find and read the books before we start the discussion on the first day of the month we're taking nominations for. So you're not nominating for what you want to read IN March, but instead for what you want to read BY March 1st. Of course you don't have to nominate at all, if that doesn't work for you.

And people, please --- can you please add the authors' name and the genre to your nomination? If not, Candiss or I have to look it up for every single nomination. Thanks.

Stefan

Thanks Chris!

I didn't realize that the point was to read the book before the month it's assigned. Good to know, I'll keep that in mind.

I'd like to nominate for Science Fiction:
Echo by Jack McDevitt, now in paperback. I know it says it is #5 in a series; however, it is a series like Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot books are a series. That is, the protaganist and his assistant stay the same from novel to novel but the case they are researching changes. It is not a series like George R.R. Martin's series "Fire and Ice", wherein the story contines with the next book in the series.

I'm nominating Echo because (1) it is excellent Science Fiction and (2) it raises issues that might generate discussion. I'll post a Fantasy nomination later.

I've edited my nominated post twice and for some reason it's not saving. The author of Tooth and Claw is Jo Walton and Old Man's War is by John Scalzi.

Thanks, Jenny, got it. And yes, our group has always tried to set things up in such a way that people read the books before the 1st of the month we're discussing that book. However, the topics and folders and whatnot stay up for 3 months, so people can join in during and after the month is over.

I just discovered that Jennifer Roberson's third book in her Karavans trilogy is coming out in May - which is Very Cool, as I loved the first two. Therefore I'd like to nominate Karavans by that author for Fantasy - it's just the right mix of great characters, scary mystery, and otherworldly magic.

For SF, I will try again with The Quiet Invasion by Sarah Zettel, who does terrific hard SF.

For science fiction I would like to nominate Wild Cards 1 by George R.R. Martin, the other series by George R.R, Martin and what he was known for before Song of Ice and Fire.

I have never discussed Dhalgren and long to, thus am nominating—for SF which is my 1st genre, but that is up for grabs, IMO.

I'll nominate The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany again. It came in as a close 2d for the February read. Great book, sort of SF mythology - Orpheus in a post apocalyptic world. Very cool.

Either Delany would be great for me, but Dhalgren is a read from the distant past and I would have to brush up.

I didn't realise they were read by dates - I'm suddenly 2 books behind on Honor! Don't think I'm nominating this month, there are already some interesting reads suggested.

Okay, I feel that for fantasy the time has come for The Etched City by KJ Bishop. Look into my eyes, not around my eyes but into my eyes. You will vote for this book.

While there are already several SF books I'm be happy with, I'll put forward John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider, considered by many a seminal work of cyberpunk, some time before Gibson.

Go 'Etched City'! w00t!

Hypnosis as a way of influencing the vote. I love it.

I've put all the nominations so far in the first post in this topic. Keep them coming!

I'm already torn between 4 of the SF recs and at least 2 of the F ones, so no noms from me this month.

I'll chuck an SF rec in as well :

Matter by Iain M. Banks.

This is a 'Culture' novel set in a universe shared with other novels of his but as far as I know it should be considered a stand alone story.

For Fantasy, I'd like to nominate: Darkborn by Alison Sinclair
It's part one of a trilogy. All three books of the trilogy are currently in print.

Richard wrote: "This is a 'Cuture' novel set in a universe shared with other novels of his but as far as I know it should be considered a stand alone story."

Aye, while there's a small amount of cross over between the Culture novels they're all independent.

Richard wrote: "I'll chuck an SF rec in as well :

Matter by Iain M. Banks.

This is the latest book my dad raves about.

There are already things I can vote for so I won't nominate. And I am going to continue o read when the month starts and not before. Works for me....

Helen wrote: "Richard wrote: "I'll chuck an SF rec in as well :

Matter by Iain M. Banks.

This is the latest book my dad raves about."

Oh great Helen, make me feel all hip and young why don't ya!

Last call for nominations! I'm setting up the polls in the next 12 to 24 hours, depending on my sleep patterns :)

Matter and The Einstein Intersection are in my top 5 favorite novels ever! -- and yet I nominated The Dervish House -- I guess that's what I get for nominating early on.

--and in any other roster, I would vote for the Sarah Zettel because I think she should be on this group's bookshelf and with a good discussion at least once.

What to do?

Don't you love it when a group of intelligent readers makes it so hard to vote? It's happened to me more times than I can count in the years I've been running Beyond Reality.

Nick wrote: "What to do?..."

Rejoice that we have so many great choices! :) Then see how things go and revise your votes as your intuition suggests so as to help one of the books you'd most enjoy reading make it to the top. (Well, at least that's what I do. Perhaps you prefer a different approach. Book democracy for the win! ;))

ooops, sorry Richard. I sometimes revise my vote too if my first choice is going nowhere.

Hi everyone,

The first round of polls is up! Please go vote:

Fantasy: http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/58...

SF: http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/58...

This round of polls will close, and the run-off polls will start, on Xmas day.

Stefan

Also, is there anyone who'd like to volunteer to lead the discussions, depending on which book wins? We seem to be stuck in this pattern where there are many nominations, many people voting in the polls, and then hardly any discussion. I think this can change if the person who nominates the book, or someone else who has read it, can help by posting some questions and topics for discussion. Candiss and I don't have the time to read all of our Books of the Month, so it'd be great if we could have some help with this. It's not hard! Give it some thought and let us know if you're interested.

(This also goes for the upcoming books for January and February, of course.)

I'm happy to lead if one of my noms wins ;D. Perhaps that's the best default setting, nominator leads unless they cop out.

One of my GR resolutions is to be more regularly active this year.

I'll volunteer for Wild Cards if it wins.

Laurel wrote: "I'll volunteer for Wild Cards if it wins."

I will co-lead Wild Cards since I did nominate it.

You can lead it yourself, Kevin. I'll volunteer another time.

Guys, we can have two discussion leaders. I've frankly been getting a bit desperate about finding people to lead discussions, so if we actually get more than one person, I'd be ecstatic. All it involves is reading the books and posting topics for discussion. There's no title or badge or funny hat that comes with the position. So if more than one person wants to help out, please just let me know.

Laurel wrote: "You can lead it yourself, Kevin. I'll volunteer another time."

What, Laurel you hating on me?

The run-off polls are up!

Fantasy: http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/58...

SF: http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/58...

Please go vote - it's your last Beyond Reality vote this year!

Well, that is exciting then!