Beyond Reality discussion

Hi everyone,

It’s that time again! Please send in your nominations for our June 2011 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. (Being chosen as a past BotM does not necessarily disqualify a book from current consideration, 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!

Nominations will remain open through March 19th, and the first round of polls will go up on March 20th.

Thanks!

NOMINATIONS SO FAR:

FANTASY:

The Magicians, by Lev Grossman (dawn)
The Crystal Shard, by R.A. Salvatore (kevin)
Sarah Canary, by Karen Joy Fowler (nick)
Vampire$, by John Steakley (tom)
Vellum: The Book of All Hours, by Hal Duncan (phoenixfalls)
The Silent Gondoliers, by William Goldman (richard)
Never Knew Another, by J.M. McDermott (philip)
The Elder Gods, by David Eddings (helen)

SCIENCE FICTION:

State of Decay, by James Knapp (sherri)
The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester (kevin)
The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman (laurel)
Armor, by John Steakley (Jim)
The Fortunate Fall, by Raphael Carter (phoenixfalls)
Pavane, by Keith Roberts (richard)
In the Garden of Iden, by Kage Baker (candiss)

For Fantasy, I think I'll go with The Magicians by Lev Grossman :)

State of Decay is definitely SF. (Imagine if Philip K. Dick and Robert Heinlein got together and wrote a zombie book.) You can argue that the science which produces the zombies/revivors is a bit soft, but it's definitely not a fantasy book.

Dawn wrote: "For Fantasy, I think I'll go with The Magicians by Lev Grossman :)"

Again? You are alway going to nominate this until you win.

Sherri wrote: "I think this one technically UF, but it has (to me, at least) some nice dystopian SF overtones (and it is sitting in my TBR pile).

State of Decay

Looks about right to start of the ..."

I got this book for free with five or six other newish urban fantasy, give it away a week later.

Kevin wrote: "Dawn wrote: "For Fantasy, I think I'll go with The Magicians by Lev Grossman :)"

Again? You are alway going to nominate this until you win."

Makes sense to me when it's a consistently strong second place finisher. There's obviously group interest.

I would very much like to discuss Magicians. It creates a parallel version of our own world, a set of magical pockets within that "normal" world, and a magical realm from a set of children's stories everyone grew up with. I think it could lead to some very interesting discussions.

Kevin wrote: "Dawn wrote: "For Fantasy, I think I'll go with The Magicians by Lev Grossman :)"

Again? You are alway going to nominate this until you win."

Ummm yeah, again. And yeah, I'm going to nominate it until it wins, because I think it will make a good group read. Don't like it? Then don't vote for it or read it if it does win. Simple enough!

For fantasy I like to nominate my favorite book of all, The Crystal Shard, even though this is the fourth book in the series, it should be first read because it was not suppose to be a series. Plus who does not love Drizzt as a character.

For Science Fiction I would like to nominate The Demolished Man, the first Hugo Award winner, one of the first science fiction murder mystery.

Dawn wrote: "Kevin wrote: "Dawn wrote: "For Fantasy, I think I'll go with The Magicians by Lev Grossman :)"

Again? You are alway going to nominate this until you win."

Ummm yeah..."

You are going to beat the book to death like this.

Not like Drizzt isn't beaten to death or anything...

Chris wrote: "Not like Drizzt isn't beaten to death or anything..."

All it is to be said.

hahaha and I will keep helping with my vote for Magicains till it winss

I felt like the Magicians is too much like it has already been done.

I'm feeling like beating something right now, but it's not the book :P

Wow, the threat is coming back.

Unless I'm mistaken, this is the thread for nominations.

Not the thread for campaigning against nominations.

Lastly, I could see how you would like this book being too hyped up as I have said before. I am now done now.

What threat? It's my birthday, I'm making a cake, gotta beat some eggs :P

And gotta beat out Drizzt in the vote with my Magicians. Beatings all around! Theoretically. I'm a lover, not a fighter.

Chris wrote: "Unless I'm mistaken, this is the thread for nominations.

Not the thread for campaigning against nominations."

Correct you are!

Kevin wrote: "Lastly, I could see how you would like this book being too hyped up as I have said before. I am now done now."

You know me so well. I am now done now as now now as well now.

Sorry about the threat thing. I hope you have a happy birthday.

Sherri wrote: "Kevin wrote: I got this book for free with five or six other newish urban fantasy, give it away a week later."

Well, thank you for very usefully informing me of that incredibly worldshaking fact, ..."

Sorry if you don't like meanness post like that. P.S. I see the ad for book on Goodreads once or twice. I know you don't like me for posting that.

May I nominate The Forever War? I have a used copy I've been itching to get to. I think it's a fairly well known sci fi book that should be available in most libraries.

I'd just like to remind everyone to please keep things civil. (Here's the ubiquitous yet completely relevant link to the group FAQ. It's recently been updated and is quite a sensible doc for a group of this size, I think, with the group's few rules regarding interpersonal conduct.)

I know we all have a tendency to feel passionate about our favorite books, but we don't need to resort to needling each other.

I don't want to be preachy, but I do want everyone to enjoy their time here, so I thought it might be time to pop in here. Back to the noms!

Laurel wrote: "May I nominate The Forever War? I have a used copy I've been itching to get to. I think it's a fairly well known sci fi book that should be available in most libraries."

New to the group. If I'm not out of line, I would endorse this nomination. I just read it recently and can't believe I waited so long to get to it. Great read. One of the best first person narratives ever and a fascinating scenario.

As is explicitly stated in the "Call for nominations" post, it's perfectly fine to re-nominate a book that didn't win. It's actually a good idea if the book keeps coming in second, because it shows a lot of people want to read the book. If you don't like it, don't vote for it. If you're going to give people a hard time about re-nominating a book, this may not be the group for you. Personal attacks are not welcome in this group.

I'm unhappy about the fact that this is the second time in less than a week that a thread is starting to become unpleasant. I've never had to boot anyone from the group (except for spammers), but if I have to, I reluctantly will do so. Please consider this a final warning for everyone involved in this.

Finally - The Forever War was our book of the Month fairly recently (October 2009). The topics are still in our Previous Books of the Month folder. Here are a few of them:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

This doesn't mean the book isn't eligible. If you want to keep the nomination, and enough people vote for it, it'll win - we've had repeats before. But you can also get the discussion in the older topics going again and nominate something new instead. Either way, the group's votes will decide.

Thanks, Stefan.

I'd like to nominate Armor by John Steakley. It has similarities to The Forever War & Starship Troopers, but is a more mature, updated view, IMO. Since we already have a discussion about the "Forever War", it should be interesting.

That book has been recommended to me by many people in the past. You're right, it would make a great follow-up to the Forever War discussion.

Wouldn't mind rereading Armor, great book.

Jim wrote: "I'd like to nominate Armor by John Steakley. It has similarities to The Forever War & Starship Troopers, but is a more mature, updated view, ..."

I liked because in the introduction to Ender's Game a soldier in the first gulf war said that Ender's Game and Armor was how he got through basic training.

"Finally - The Forever War was our book of the Month fairly recently (October 2009). The topics are still in our Previous Books of the Month folder."

I'll do my homework first next time before jumping on the bandwagon. All in all, however, I see this discussion forum as quite stimulating.

Stefan wrote: "As is explicitly stated in the "Call for nominations" post, it's perfectly fine to re-nominate a book that didn't win. It's actually a good idea if the book keeps coming in second, because it shows...Personal attacks are not welcome in this group."

However, if you can't say something nice about someone, come sit next to me, as Mrs Longworth said.

Hahaha Ron love that. I was surprised at the animosity on this thread. Its not like this group to be that way. I sm still voting for the Magician. I do hope it wins.

I mean if I could struggle through Stranger in a Strange land, you can allow us our choice for the Magicians

For Fantasy I'll nominate Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler. It's the story of a dark stranger who walks into a nineteenth-century mining town in the American West with an air of mystery -- but it's not Clint Eastwood, it's "Sarah Canary" -- and she just may have some fantastical powers at hand also.

Karen Joy Fowler wrote this as she was helping to found the Tiptree Awards for exploration of gender issues in science fiction and fantasy. It was on the shortlist for the first award, but the author graciously pulled herself out of consideration for the win, since she was one of the founders of the awards. The Shortlist committee insisted on keeping the book in on the nominees list anyway -- so I sorta think of this as the "first Tiptree winner" even though it's not. (Fowler would later have her biggest success as the author of the mainstream novel The Jane Austen Book Club and she's a Nebula award winner for her short stories.)

Nick, I've had Sarah Canary on my home shelf for ages. I'd love to read it soon. (I'd really like to read others in this thread, too. Win/win is a good thing!) Another bit about the book (which is not a spoiler, as it's advertised openly) - It's an archetypal twin to The Wizard of Oz. It's not a retelling or anything so literal. It's more of a metaphorical parallel.

Seeing Armor reminded me of this book that I have wanted to read for a while. So I'd like to nominate Vampire$ by John Steakley for fantasy.

I'll renominate Vellum: The Book of All Hours for fantasy, even though it didn't win the last two (or is three now?) times I nominated it. . . *ducks*

C'mon folks! It's got Sumerian myths mixed up with Greek tragedy! It was nominated for both the World Fantasy Award and the Locus Award, and it won the Spectrum Award! Plus Hal Duncan has the coolest Scottish accent. . . ;)

For SF. . . The Fortunate Fall, by Raphael Carter. Because first-and-only novels that received wide critical acclaim intrigue me. . .

I've voted for Vellum the last few times, so I'm definitely hoping it'll win at some point. Then again, John Steakley Month sounds fun too. We'll have to see!

Some excellent nominations already, but I'd like to throw my hat into the ring with
: Pavane by Keith Roberts for SF
And
The Silent Gondoliers by William Goldman for Fantasy.

Pavane is my favorite alternate history novel, with a tiny whiff of fantasy about it, and a terrific thought provoking twist at the end. It is beautifully written and left a lasting impression on me.

The Silent Gondoliers is a short Fantasy novel by the author of The
Princess Bride. What more needs to be said than that.

A Steakley read month sounds good, although I wasn't as thrilled with "Vampires" as I was with "Armor". I read the latter first, so maybe that just raised my hopes too high. I haven't read either in years & would like to read them again.

How about Never Knew Another by my friend J.M. McDermott (author of Last Dragon).Never Knew Another

I wasn't going to make nominations this time, as there are several here I'd like to read, but I've decided to throw a suggestion into the ring for Science Fiction. (I still won't be making a Fantasy nom.)

For SF, I'd like to nominate In the Garden of Iden by the late Kage Baker. She passed away last January after a battle with cancer, and I can't believe I never read any of her work. (We lost John Steakley back in November, too, didn't we? I haven't read him, either, although his work has been suggested to me a dozen times.) This is the first book in Ms. Baker's Company series, which from what I understand are largely stand-alone pieces, due to their central theme of agents hopping around in time/to many cultures, with the stories pretty much self-contained, so I don't think this book necessarily commits anyone to a series.

(I linked my post to an older printing of the book, because it has a much better and more representative plot summary than the most common printing on Goodreads. The book was out of print for a while, but Tor brought it back into print as of 2005, so it's not hard to find now. I just picked up a copy of it myself, which is what sparked my interest in nominating the book.)

While it's true that each of the Company novels is something of a thing unto itself, the underlying thread of the Company operatives versus Dr. Zeus Inc. is paramount to the enjoyment of them. I actually got started way out of sync and read The Life Of The World To Come first. But I loved it and got on track with Iden next.

Kage Baker's wit, intelligence and humor are unique and will be much missed now that her voice is stilled. I think this nomination is a great idea.

Thanks for that clarification, Jim. I had been told they were self-contained, so I'm glad to know the specifics.

Edit to add: You know, your comment makes me think a bit of the Discworld novels. They are stand-alones to an extent, but there is over-arcing character development, interweaving plots, etc. that develop throughout the series.

I actually worry that some deserving writers will never get the recognition they deserve. Kage Baker falls into that category. While in a Morro Bay bookstore (a half hour's drive from her home in Pismo Beach), I noted a section in the store for local authors. I asked about Ms. Baker and the store owner had never heard of her. So it goes.

One of the reasons I love her work is because she is obviously a whole lot smarter than me. With her stories I can always be sure of being enlightened as well as entertained.

I love those books. I followed Kage Baker through several publishers and a long hiatus (before Tor picked the series up). Also was lucky enough to meet Kage at a signing, and even exchanged some correspondence with her. I despised time travel as a theme before that series. In the Garden of Iden is still one of my favorite recent SF novels. Jim is correct in that there's a major story arc throughout the series, but it's almost impossible to pick up on this with Iden, and it really only becomes clear a few books later. One of the things I love most about that opening novel is that it has a completely different impact if you know the rest of the story. So anyway, thanks for the nomination (even though, yes, we have read the book before, way back in 2006...)

Stefan, before I nominated the book, I sorted the Read shelf by author and title and couldn't find it. Now I sort again and there it is. Well, if too many folks have read it and don't wish to re-read, it won't win the vote, so viva la serendipitous, er, lack of ability on my part to correctly see a book on a clearly-labeled list. ;)

Last call for nominations! Tomorrow's the last day, so I'll be setting up the polls either Sunday night or Monday morning.