Beyond Reality discussion

Hi everyone,

It's hard to believe, but it's already time to take nominations for our January 2010 Books of the Month! As always, every member can make one SF and/or one fantasy nomination. You can nominate anything --- a new book you just read, or one of your old favorites, or something you're planning to read soon and would like to discuss. You can also re-nominate any book that was nominated before but didn't win the poll.

Please make your nominations, by replying to this message, before October 20th.

Stefan

NOMINATIONS SO FAR :

Fantasy:

To Reign in Hell, by Steven Brust (peregrine)
The Stolen Child, by Keith Donohue (mawgojzeta)
Ariel, by Steven R. Boyett (ken)
Eon Dragoneye Reborn, by Alison Goodman (nick)
Flesh and Spirit, by Carol Berg (janny)
Thor, by Wayne Smith (chris)
Blood and Iron, by Elizabeth Bear (ron)
The Way of Shadows, by Brent Weeks (sarah)
Lavinia, by Ursula K. Le Guin (cliff)
The Tower at Stony Wood, by Patricia A. McKillip (deedee)

Science Fiction:

Hominids, by Robert Sawyer (peregrine)
Chess With a Dragon, by David Gerrold (mawgojzeta)
Anathem, by Neal Stephenson (ken)
Dragon's Egg, by Robert L. Forward (random)
Jerusalem Fire, by R.M. Meluch (janny)
On Basilisk Station, by David Weber (chris)
Darwinia, by Robert Charles Wilson (sarah)
The Ghost Brigades, by John Scalzi (cliff)
The Inverted World, by Christopher Priest (deedee)
Endless Blue, by Wen Spencer (kerry)

Fantasy: To Reign in Hell by Steven Brust

Science Fiction: Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer

Fantasy: The Stolen Child A Novel by Keith Donohue

Science Fiction: Chess With a Dragon by David Gerrold

How about Anathem by Neal Stephenson for SF

Fantasy...hmm
Ariel by Steven R. Boyett

Going to try this one again :)
Science Fiction: Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward

First contact, evolution of a species/world, some great fodder for discussion.

A couple of months ago, Diane nominated Eon Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman. I'd like to renominate it for Fantasy in January. It did fairly well on its first go-round; it might fare better in the new year.

It won the Aurealis Fantasy Award in 2008 and was shortlisted for the Tiptree Award. The blurb on goodreads makes it sound fascinating, a story of gender equality issues geared towards young adults. I guess you could say the same for "Twelfth Night" or "As You Like It," but here we have a contemporary fantasy that looks really intriguing.

I'll be voting for the Sawyer book, I think, depending on what else gets nominated.

I'd like to nominate Jerusalem Fire by R.M. Meluch for SF - this is an astounding novel, one of my all time favorites, with an unfolding premise that totally blew me away. One of the most under appreciated SF titles EVER - with angles of human depth and astonishment seldom equaled in the field. It is character driven, more than an idea book - but examines the facets of conflict with daring perception. When it opened, I thought I would be reading a space opera - boy was I ever wrong!

For fantasy, I'd like to put forward
Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg. This is book one of a duology of striking originality. It is not traditional fantasy at all - Carol's work is known for splendid depth of characterization. Her people always are not what they seem, on the first page. This duology opens up and develops into a resoundingly gorgeous world view, with an intricate interaction between two races, interlinked on one world. She is very deft in opening up the back story, and bringing the threads to a gorgeous completion. She puts more depth and world-building into two slim volumes than most writers pack into five fat bricks. Again, I feel this series deserves a lot more recognition than it has received. The fantasy is beautifully realized, and the magic system, exquisite.

I love the nominations in this group. I always get turned on to at least one or two good books, even if they don't win.

For fantasy, Thor. It's a really good twist on the whole were-wolf idea.

For SF, On Basilisk Station.

Kathi wrote: "I'll be voting for the Sawyer book, I think, depending on what else gets nominated."

I don't know anything about
Robert J. Sawyer except for the blurb on him on this goodreads site. This is testament to how out of touch I've been with the sci-fi world for the last 20 years. But his bio sounds really interesting and Hominids sounds like a cool story. So Kathi, I may be going along with you on this one --

But I don't know for sure. These other nominations look pretty cool too. Good thing we've got a week to mull it over.

Perhaps Jan 2010 will be too late to discuss, as I'm sure most hard core fans will fly through it the first week or so that it is out, but what about "A Memory of Light", the first installment of the last book of the Wheel of Time series, as written by Brandon Sanderson. (There is a joke somewhere in that sentence, I just can't seem to find it...)

That one's actually not eligible. One of our few remaining rules is that later books in a series can only be nominated if we've read the preceding book(s) already.

Otherwise we have some great nominations so far. I just updated the list in the first post, but there's a whole week left to add nominations, so... keep them coming!

Oops - sorry Stefan.

i plan to vote for either "Anathem" or "Jerusalem Fire" so I won't nominate another sf title, but how about the first volume of Elizabeth Bear's 'Promethean Age' series, Blood and Iron for fantasy?

I didn't even notice that. Hominds is pretty good. I am surprised nobody nominated FlashForward.

Ron, I've got Blood and Iron on my TBR so that would be painless. grin.

I don't know very much sci fi. And I totally support Janny's suggestion of Flesh and Spirit. Guess that means I don't have to think about it too hard. :)

For fantasy I would nominate The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks, and for SF - Darwinia A Novel of a Very Different Twentieth Century by Robert Charles Wilson.

I was going to nominate another Robert Sawyer book, Flashforward, since there's a TV show based on it, but it seems wrong to set up two books by the same author to compete, so instead I'll nominate
The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi as the sci-fi nomination and Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin as the fantasy nomination.

We'll accept The Ghost Brigades, because Old Man's War was already Book of the Month here (albeit several years ago). I haven't read it (and am not planning to), but I believe it's a sequel to Old Man's War?

Three more days to enter nominations!

Hello all! I wanted to nominate Julian Comstock A Story of 22nd-Century America for science fiction. I'm halfway through reading it right now and it is a most excellent novel! However, it is available only in hardback, and Stefan has a point about waiting until it is also in paperback. My next choice was Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress; however, the paperback of that one isn't available until February of 2010. My next choice is The Inverted World A Novel by Christopher Priest (of "The Presige" fame). Today the only way to buy a new copy of "The Inverted World" is as an Oversized Paperback; however, since "The Inverted World" is a reprint (original printing in the 1970s), numerous older inexpensive copies are floating around, both here and in England. Therefore, for science fiction this time around I nominate:
The Inverted World A Novel by Christopher Priest

I nominate for fantasy: The Tower at Stony Wood by Patricia A. McKillip. She writes what is called "High Fantasy", and I think that The Tower at Stony Wood is one of her best.

I'd like to nominate Endless Blue by Wen Spencer for SF. It's a lot lighter than many of the nominations but I thought I'd toss in a change of pace.

There are so many good fantasy books with several I'd like to read already that I'm not going to add to my indecision by nominating something myself.

Thank you for your nominations, everyone! The polls have been set up, so please go cast your votes. The run-off polls with the top 2 of each poll will start on Oct. 25th.