Beyond Reality discussion

Hi everyone,

It's time to open nominations for our September 2015 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. 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.

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

a. the group's bookshelf for Previous Books of the Month

and/or

b. these threads:
Master List of Previous Books of the Month 2012-Present
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 isn't necessary in this group.
• Friendly discussion & debate is strongly encouraged, but let's please keep things civil.

Poll schedule:
• Nominations will remain open through Saturday, June 20.
• The first round of polls will open Sunday, June 21, and will run through Thursday, June 25.
• The run-off polls go up Friday, June 26, and will be open through Tuesday, June 30.

Thanks!


NOMINATIONS SO FAR:

SCIENCE FICTION:
To Live Forever by Jack Vance (Jaro)
The January Dancer by Michael Flynn (Mary)
Empress of Eternity by L.E. Modesitt Jr. (Kurt)
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Nicole)
Forgotten Suns by Judith Tarr (Tani)
Parasite by Mira Grant (Justine)


FANTASY:
Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance (Jaro)
Except the Queen by Jane Yolen & Midori Snyder (Mary)
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (Kurt)
The King's Blood by Daniel Abraham (Nicole)
Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Tani)
California Bones by Greg Van Eekhout (Justine)
Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover (Sumant)

FANTASY: Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance (simply the most amazing, imaginative and intelligent fantasy novel ever written, except perhaps for its sequels).

SCIENCE FICTION: To Live Forever by Jack Vance (one of Vance's highly held early works that I just happen to have planed to read in September).

SF: The January Dancer by Michael Flynn Adventure in a marvelous far-future setting raising ontological questions

Fantasy: Except the Queen by Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder Two fairies offend the fairy queen, and land in modern-day as women of a certain age (since they can no longer use their magics to be young). To find a tangle of fairy politics. Baba Yaga hires one to manage the house where she's renting rooms to college students.

For Science Fiction I will nominate Empress of Eternity by L.E. Modesitt Jr.. We should read more classic authors in the group. This book is available on Kindle so it's not hard to find.

For Fantasy I will nominate A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. It sounds like an interesting premise about different worlds with and without magic.

For fantasy, I'd like to nominate Uprooted by Naomi Novik. I've heard really positive reviews about it all over the place, and it sounds like fun. Basically, these people live on the edge of a corrupted Wood, and the Dragon protects them, but only if they hand over a young woman to serve him every ten years.

For science fiction, I nominate Forgotten Suns by Judith Tarr. It's about a planet where a vast majority of the people have disappeared, and archaeologists have been trying to figure out what happened. But funding is about to get to cut, so one of the archaeologists opens a tomb and finds a king, held in stasis. I've seen some very good reviews of this one as well.

Just a quick note, as I'm not on my computer: I'll get these nominations sorted out later today. I've had a hard drive take a nose-dive and have to wait until I'm somewhere where I have more more reliable access for looking up the nominated books and making a neat list. :)

For science fiction I would like to nominate Parasite by Mira Grant. It is set in the future where everyone owes their health to voluntarily ingested genetically engineered tapeworms ... of course that doesn't turn out well. The book was a Hugo nominee and also a Goodreads Choice Nominee for horror, so it is probably creepy (well Mira Grant + tapeworms should make that obvious) :)

For fantasy I would like to nominate California Bones by Greg Van Eekhout. This has been described as an urban fantasy heist novel where the magic system is based on people gaining powers by eating bone fragments. The more powerful the creature the fragment came from, the more power is obtained.

I haven't read either of these, but they both look really good.

California Bones is fantastic. A darker, alternate world--Los Angeles has water! I thought the magic system was interesting, but even more than that it was a fun heist-like story.

I'm back in the land of computer-aided book appreciation. I never ended up near a computer as I thought I would be on the 17th, but I've completed my reinstall on a new, stable hard drive and am ready to go.

I don't see anything here that looks problematic. I'll update the first post with the current nominations later today, and the first polls will open tomorrow morning.

My laptop could do with a visit from you ;)

I just read A Darker Shade of Magic recently and thought it was really good...my only complaint being that by the end I was like what? That's it? It isn't a cliffhanger so much as it just comes to an end and there are still unanswered questions. There is a second book coming out so eventually there will be more to come. :)

For fantasy I nominate Heroes die a book by Mathew stover

Uk kindle readers, August fantasy read Vicious is under £3 - don't know if this is its price or an offer.

Nominations are closed, and the polls will be up in a moment.

The first round of polls are up. Voting will be open through the end of the day (PST) Thursday, June 25th.

Science Fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Fantasy: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

The run-off polls are live.

Science Fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Fantasy: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...