Beyond Reality discussion

Here's something I've been thinking about for a while. There are several very good books that are a part of trilogies/series, but don't get nominated because we haven't read the first book as a group yet. So I am curious - would anyone like to read a series together? Is that even a feasible idea? Any suggestions?

I would be up for this. For example, I'd love to read the rest of the series that follows Hammered.

Depending on the series, I'd definitely participate in this. You could nominate the first book of a series, then when it wins the second one, and so on --- or just have a separate discussion without it being the Book of the Month, which would be great too.

By the way, I don't know if anyone else here follows the Tor blog, but I like the format they use for their current re-reads of the Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings series. They read a couple of chapters every few days and then discuss them in great detail.

I'd be up for reading trilogies in order. I like the idea for Wheel of Time .... and also for Martin's Song of Ice and Fire Series. Hey, Stefan, I agree, that Tor format of "a couple of chapters every few days" sounds good to me, too.

The only drawback I could see would be slower readers being left behind, but if there were different threads for each book in the series then you could move along as you read each book in the series

Over in the Fantasy Book Club, we usually include discussions of sequels in the folder with the main book discussion. That keeps the folder open longer, but it makes for some interesting ongoing discussions.

I would be up for this, but only if a series is actually finished!

How about a new 'Series of the [Year:]' poll & discussion? Read a book a month on a series, separate topics for each book. That would give everyone some pacing & they could stay out of topics further ahead than they are.

I'd create all the topics immediately, in order. Then folks who read faster or have already read the series can discuss where they want.
(Must think of a painful, horrible punishment for those who post spoilers in an earlier topic...)

I just finished reading the first 'Dresden Files' book, Storm Front, for the first time. I'd love to read Nine Princes in Amber or the Recluse series by L.E. Modesitt Jr., although the order that the latter is read in might be open to interpretation. That might make it more interesting, actually. Read as he suggests in published order or read in chronological order?

I think this sounds like a good idea.

I second Jim's idea.

Wow! Lots of great ideas and enthusiasm. Myself, I sort of thought this should be an "extracurricular" activity so that it wouldn't detract from the usual books of the month - just giving folks an extra option. Like Jane/Jim's idea of having separate topics for each book, but the chapter discussions sounds neat, too.

As for books, there are a lot of series that I'd be interested in, though I think finished a series would probably work best. I have Nine Princes in Amber and haven't read it yet and I just bought The Faded Sun trilogy by C.J. Cherryh. Some other good candidates would Robin Hobb's books (Assassin's Apprentice, et al.), Lois McMaster Bujold's books (fantasy or scifi) or continuing on with the Temeraire books by Naomi Novik.

Adding a third "series" Book of the Month might be a bit much for many of us. I would prefer keeping it at x chapters or x pages per week, and keep the amount relatively low. This would make sure that as many people as possible have the time to participate and keep it easy to catch up if someone falls behind a section. I don't think I'd be up for adding an entire book per month to my personal reading schedule, but if it's something that takes, say, an hour per week, I'd definitely go for it. I guess I'm really envisioning it as something similar to the Tor.com re-reads --- a small amount of pages per week, but discussed in very great detail.

We can definitely create a separate discussion folder for this when we get it started. Once we're ready, I can also set up polls to see how many people would participate and to vote on which series we'll read. Finally, it would be fun if someone would volunteer to "lead" the discussion, post some questions about every segment to get things started and so on. Obviously this would need to be someone who is relatively familiar with the series, but at the same time can avoid posting spoilers for those people who haven't read it before.

As for which series, I like almost all the ideas mentioned so far.

- I've been wanting to re-read Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series, so that would be high on the list for me. It has the added advantage that Baen has been re-releasing all the books in omnibus editions, following the internal chronology and even including some of the short stories and novellas that were published between the books.

- Modesitt's Recluce series is something I've been wanting to pick up again too (and I would vote for reading them in the original order of publication).

- Anything by CJ Cherryh - Faded Sun, the Chanur books, the Fortress books, the Foreigner books, even the whole Union/Alliance/Merchanter series would be great.

- My real favorite would be the Malazan books by Steven Erikson, because there's such an insane amount of detail in those that they really have to be read twice, but I know they aren't too popular with the group. (And I recently found a wiki devoted to the series, so I'm digging through that now to catch some of the details I missed.)

I'll play!

Unfortunatly the Malazan series isnt complete yet.
Wheel of Time completion is 3 more years, Apparently 3 books starting Fall 2009 and the rest a year appart

Bujold books are interesting. I read the 2 Omnibuses and have the 3rd waiting.

I like this idea, too. especially if, as Stefan says, its a relatively slow pace.

I love the Amber books and can always re-read them. And I have Bujold & Cherryh in my TBR pile.

Some day I would love to re-read the ASOIAF but its unlikely I'd do that until its finished (so, in about 30 years?)

The only drawback I can see to reading so slowly is that if the series isn't a re-read for some, it may be hard to read that slow. I know when I get into a book, if it's good, I don't want to put it down after a couple of chapters. And then trying to remember what parts went in which chapter to discuss it here might be difficult.

Brenda --- good point, but I still think it'd be better if some people read faster and then just jump in the discussion when the group gets to a specific chapter, instead of people not being able to keep up and falling behind.

Then again, we can completely avoid the problem if we follow Jim's original suggestion of creating all the topics before the discussion starts, so there'd be a discussion thread "Chapter 1 - 3", "Chapter 4 - 6" and so on. People who have read ahead can post something in the threads for the later chapters, and people who aren't at that point yet can simply avoid those threads, and read and comment on them when they've caught up. And, as he mentioned, we shall devise an appropriately horrible punishment for people posting spoilers in an early topic. :)

I guess I was thinking of this as something to read "on the side", in small chunks, while reading other books, but I'm open to other formats too. I just want to make sure we get to a format that works for everyone before we get started, because this would definitely be a long-term reading project!

I'd rather see topics on entire books than chapters for series discussion, I think. Maybe sections in longer books, like the Lord of the Rings books where they're broken into two sections. I never know what chapter I'm on.

My knee jerk reaction was to suggest a series be completed before a group read, but the best discussions I've seen have been about those that aren't. Speculation about the future seems to bring out some of the best exploration & analysis. Everyone picks up on different clues, weighs them & produces wildly varying results. Makes a more lively conversation & one of the reasons I'm for discussing a series.

The Amber series by Zelazny was never really finished. There are a lot of threads hanging loose. Some of the story line was cleaned up outside the series books by short stories Zelazny wrote, but a lot remains a mystery since his death. Betancourt did a prelude to the series about Oberon. That was never finished since the publisher went out of business & the new one has no interest in finishing the series. John said he even offered to write a novella wrapping it all up in the paperback edition, but was never answered, so it's a done deal as far as he's concerned. What would have happened would all be speculation & I'd love to hear what others think.

Did anyone mention David Weber's Honor Harrington series? That's another good one.

I've been enjoying all of the suggestions, and love the idea of a series we all read together at a relaxed pace.

I had the idea that it may work well to have both a general topic or two for each book, as well as discussion threads for a set of chapters. That way, if someone is ahead of the game, they can talk about the overall themes in a topic thread, and those of us who are reading on pace can discuss possible cliffhangers, predict what we think will happen, etc in the chapter threads. I have to say I'm very excited about the chance to talk with others about what I think/hope will happen!

If we're looking at finished series, we could look at Tad Williams work. He has two finished series. There is also Michelle Westwhose Sun Sword series is finished. Then there are those on going series that have sub-groupings (like Discworld).

Are we thinking Fantasy or SF?

So, to recap:

Question 1: It looks like some people want to discuss an entire book, or maybe if it's a larger book split it in two sections. Others want to do it in smaller sections of a few chapters at a time. I guess we'll need to set up a poll to decide.

Question 2: Finished or unfinished series. I don't think this needs a poll. We can allow both to be nominated and then just let the votes decide on what wins.

Question 3: Fantasy or SF. I think we can handle that the same way as question 2 --- both can be nominated and the votes decides what wins.

Anything else? If not, I can set up the poll for question 1 and then we can start taking nominations after that.

Thanks to Betsy for the idea, and Stefan for the organizing - can't wait to see how it turns out.

Aww, thanks Laurel. :) Can't wait for the polls!!!

Sorry guys, I'll set up this poll tomorrow. I just started the first round of the BotM polls and don't want to over-poll everybody :)

I was actually thinking of having the series discussions start on the 15th and end on the 14th of the next month, if we end up going with the "one book per month" format, instead of going from the 1st to the end of the month. That way we don't have all the book discussions starting on the same day and it spreads out the deadlines a bit. Of course that would only matter if we go with "one book per month" rather than "x pages or chapters per week".

What do you think?

works for me. :)

That's a great idea! Stagger the discussions. :)

I'm not sure if we should allow unfinished series - for the sake of continuity - if we get to last published book of an unfinished series we'd have to then switch to a new series while we wait for that next book to come out - and may never get back to it...

Sisimka wrote: "I'm not sure if we should allow unfinished series - for the sake of continuity - if we get to last published book of an unfinished series we'd have to then switch to a new series while we wait for ..."

I think an unfinished series might be a lot of fun. I'm sure a "What do you think will happen next" topic would generate a lot of conversation & debate. Then when the next book does come out, those with the closest guesses will be SURE to re-open the topic so they can chortle!

I would be okay with an unfinished series, but I would prefer one that has a lot of books published already, just so we can keep the discussion going for a long time. E.g. I don't think the Recluce series by LE Modesitt Jr. is done yet, but there are more than 10 books already. Same with the Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust. If we pick a series with only 2 or 3 books so far, we'll run out of books to discuss too soon.

I just set up the poll and added a discussion thread in the "General" folder. Please go vote and please (re-)post your nomination in that discussion. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions and helped us flesh out this idea. I'm going to close this thread so we can gather any new posts in the new thread.