Beyond Reality discussion

It's time to select our December reads!

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, which you can find here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

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 Sunday, September 19.
• The first (preliminary) round of polls will open Monday, September 20 and will run through Saturday, September 25th.
• The final run-off polls go up Sunday, September 26th, and will be open through Thursday, September 30th.

Thanks!
Shel, for the Mods

Nominations so far
SF:
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Inversions by Iain M. Banks
Afterparty by Daryl Gregory
The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas

Fantasy:
The King's Blood by Daniel Abraham
The Vagrant by Peter Newman
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
Starless by Jacqueline Carey

Since we are reading the first book in Daniel Abraham’s Dagger and Coin series this month, I will nominate the second book, The King's Blood for fantasy. (Sneaky way to get another series read going…)

pssst....it's not sneaky if you tell us what you're doing!

;)

Two more days to make nominations - chime in with your suggestions !

I'd like to nominate The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón in Fantasy.

and The Vagrant by Peter Newman in sci-fi.

(The Vagrant has more tags as Fantasy, can I still submit it?)

Hi Rafael,
Our standing practice is to classify a book by what the most users have tagged it as. By that standard, The Vagrant would fall under a fantasy nomination. Which of the two would you like to nominate, and do you have another pick for SF you'd like to put forward?

Rafael wrote: "I'd like to nominate The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón in Fantasy.

and The Vagrant by Peter Newman in sci-fi.

(The Vagrant has..."

Shel wrote: "Hi Rafael,
Our standing practice is to classify a book by what the most users have tagged it as. By that standard, The Vagrant would fall under a fantasy nomination. Which of the tw..."

Then I'd like to nominate The Vagrant for fantasy.
For sci-fi I'll nominate Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

Since there aren’t many nominations, I’ll add a SF nomination—Inversions by Iain M. Banks. It did pretty well the last time I nominated it; maybe this time it will be the final choice! One of his Culture novels.

Fantasy- I'd like to nominate Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots. A superhero setup from the POV of a minor henchperson in a temp job, who does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job.

Sci-fi: I'd like to nominate Afterparty by Daryl Gregory. Based in the years after the smart drug revolution, Lyda is a brilliant scientist and one of the co-creators of a drug originally developed to treat schizophrenics, but which has residual effects, including- the perception that a divine personality is appearing to each of them as a personal guide.

I'll put some in too since there aren't very many nominations yet (you have until the end of the day! I'm putting polls up tomorrow!).

For fantasy - I'll try again with Starless by Jacqueline Carey, since there seemed to be some interest when I suggested it before.

For SF - I've been hearing good things about The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas.

Preliminary polls are up! Vote here:

Preliminary SF poll
Preliminary fantasy poll

Final December polls are up! Fantasy had a three-way tie for runner up, so I discounted my own vote to narrow it down from the original four.

Vote here:
Final SF poll
Final fantasy poll