Beyond Reality discussion

June! Around here it brings the end of the school year, fresh local produce, and lazy summer days for reading a book. What should we read?

Each group member can make 1 science fiction and/or 1 fantasy nomination. If you would like to make a nomination, please post in this thread with the title and author of the book(s) you would like to put forward for the group’s consideration. A couple of suggestions to keep in mind:

1. 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. If possible, please use a link to the book and author in your nomination post. Click on “add book/author" for an easy way to do that.

2. To see if your nomination has already been read by the group, you can check:

a. The Beyond Reality Google spreadsheet of Previous Books of the Month, available at this link: Previous Books of the Month in Searchable Spreadsheet. To search for a specific title, use the "Find and Replace" option under the EDIT menu. Don't worry, you will be able to find a title but you will not be able to replace it since the spread sheet is in "View Only" mode.

Or you can use our previous methods:

b. the group's bookshelf for Previous Books of the Month
and/or
c. these threads:
Master list of Previous Books of the Month 2018 - Present
Master list of Previous Books of the Month (Apr-Dec 2017)
Master list of Previous Books of the Month 2012 - 2017
Master list of Previous Books of the Month 2006 - 2011

Books the group has read in the past 2 years are not eligible for current consideration. Being chosen as a past BotM prior to that time is not an automatic disqualification, but be aware that it may hinder your nomination’s chances at the polls.

General guidelines:
• Feel free to re-nominate a book that didn’t win in the polls in previous months!
• For questions regarding specifics such as book formats, books in series, self-nomination and various rules for nominations, please see the group FAQ.
• Seconding is NOT necessary in this group.
• Friendly discussion & debate is strongly encouraged, but please keep things civil.

Schedule:
• Nominations will remain open through Thursday, March 19.
• The first (preliminary) round of polls will open Friday, March 20 and will run through Wednesday, March 25th.
• The final run-off polls go up Thursday, March 26th, and will be open through Tuesday, March 31st.

Thanks!
Shel, for the Mods

Nominations so far

SF:
The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (mod note: this is a sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which the group read in 2016)
The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh
One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
Moving Mars by Greg Bear

Fantasy:
The Diviners by Libba Bray
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Barbed Coil by J.V. Jones
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
Highfire by Eoin Colfer

SF: The Atrocity Archives
It looks like it's been quite a while since this group read anything by Charles Stross, and I've heard really good things about this series. It seems a bit more light and humorous than some of the other SF selections recently, which is a nice change of pace.

Fantasy: The Diviners
Another series I've heard good things about - and doesn't a fantasy mystery set in the 1920's sound like fun?

For fantasy, I'd like to nominate the recently Nebula-nominated Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

On sci-fi, I'd like to nominate A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers.

For fantasy, I will nominate The Barbed Coil by J.V. Jones. I have a number of books by this author on my shelf and have never read any of them. This is a stand-alone, which has gotten rarer in the world of fantasy.

For fantasy, I nominate Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. It has been shortlisted for some major literary prizes, an unusual occurrence for SFF works.

For SF, I nominate The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh, an author more of whose work I’m eager to read.

I might as well throw One Word Kill back into the ring one more time for SF, since it keeps making the finals as runner-up so I know people are interested!

For Science Fiction, I nominate The Vanished Birds. Lots of technological detail and corporate greed, but also a personal story about a lonely woman and a rescued child.

For Fantasy, I nominate Highfire. This is the first adult book (yes, there is a lot of adult language) by the author of Artemis Fowl. It features a dragon living in Cajun country …. 'nuf said.

For Science Fiction, I will nominate Moving Mars by Greg Bear. It was nominated for several awards after it came out in the early 90s, and won the Nebula Award for Best Novel. It’s a stand-alone. And Greg Bear is another author whose books adorn my shelf, mostly unread, and this might help me change that. As far as I can tell, our group has not read any of his books, at least not since 2006.

Edited to add that I did more checking, and the group did read 2 or 3 of Bear’s books prior to 2006, but not this one.

Last day for nominations...

Preliminary polls are up!

Fantasy poll

SF poll

Vote in the final polls for our June reads here:

SF final poll

Fantasy final poll

I just picked up the June fantasy winner Gods of Jade and Shadow on Kindle for $2.99 in the US.

https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Jade-Shad...