Beyond Reality discussion

Hi everyone,

It's that time again! Please post your nominations for our August Books of the Month here. As always, everyone may make one fantasy and/or one SF nomination. We'll take nominations until May 20th.

Thanks!

Stefan

NOMINATIONS SO FAR:

SF:

Fool's War by Sarah Zettel
Kethani by Eric Brown
Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh
Local Custom by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks

Fantasy:

Sorcerer's Legacy by Janny Wurts
World's End by Mark Chadbourn
Scar Night by Alan Campbell
A Madness of Angels Or The Resurrection of Matthew Swift by Kate Griffin
Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg
Mistborn The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson.

I'll nominate a couple of books I have readily available at home that I've needed an excuse to read for weeks:

Fool's War by Sarah Zettel - For 500 years we have carried our ancient hatreds and millennia-old wars into interstellar space. With them have gone the seeds of new self-aware life-forms mutating from artificial intelligences, techno-viruses, and info-flow. Beings with no bodies and no limits, evolving to leap from cyberspace to outer space. Beings born to be our rivals... Katmer Al Shei, owner of the starship Pasadena, does not know she is carrying a living entity in her ship's computer systems. Or that the electronic network her family helped weave holds a new race fighting for survival. Or that her ship's professional Fool is trying to avert a battle that could destroy entire worlds. And when Al Shei learns the truth, all she'll really know is that it's time to take sides...

Sorcerer's Legacy by Janny Wurts - THROUGH THE EYE OF ETERNITY TO A WORLD OF PASSION, INTRIGUE AND ENCHANTMENT...

The sorcerer beckoned to her froim a land of ice and snow and, stricken by the death of her husband and the loss of the lands they ruled together, she followed his call. He led her to a world ruled by wizards who played a deadly game of court intrigue, with a kingdom as the prize. He brought her to their court wrapped in the protection of his sorceries - and then he died. And she was left in the centre of the game, with no knowledge of the rules or the players, no way of knowing who played with White magic and who played with Black...

Jon wrote: "I'll nominate a couple of books I have readily available at home that I've needed an excuse to read for weeks:

Fool's War by Sarah Zettel - For 500 years we have car..."

I'll second that! I have Fool's War on my shelf too and have been waiting years for a reason to read it...

I'd like to nominate World's End by Mark Chadbourn for fantasy. It's just been released in the US, so hopefully is easy to get hold of.

When Jack Churchill and Ruth Gallagher encounter a terrifying, misshapen giant beneath a London bridge they are plunged into a mystery which portends the end of the world as we know it. All over the country, the ancient gods of Celtic myth are returning to the land from which they were banished millennia ago. Following in their footsteps are creatures of folklore: fabulous bests, wonders and dark terrors As technology starts to fail, Jack and Ruth are forced to embark on a desperate quest for four magical items - the last chance for humanity in the face of powers barely comprehended.

I don't have a SF nomination at this point. I'll add one if I think of one.

For SF I'd like to nominate Kethani by Eric Brown. It's in mmpb and shouldn't be hard to get.

"It takes an alien race to show us what humanity truly is. This is the irony faced by a group of friends whose lives are changed forever when the mysterious alien race known as the Kéthani come to Earth bearing an amazing gift: immortality. These superbly crafted episodes deal with human emotions in the face of the vast consequences of the alien arrival, and show how people across the world react to this benign invasion, how ultimately we evolve as we gain the stars."

I think I'll do the same as Jon and nominate a couple of books that I've been meaning to read for ages.

For science fiction: Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh

Exiled to the island of Mospheira, a colony of stranded humans relies on one man, their "paidhi" (liaison), to explain their ways to the dominant species of their adopted world. When Bren Cameron, the current paidhi, becomes the target for assassination in a culture where licensed murder is a recognized political solution, the conflict between species becomes a life-and-death struggle for survival and understanding. Veteran sf/fantasy author Cherryh plays her strongest suit in this exploration of human/alien contact, producing an incisive study-in-contrast of what it means to be human in a world where trust is nonexistent.

For fantasy: Scar Night by Alan Campbell

Campbell sets his stunning debut fantasy in Deepgate, a town wreathed in chains that keep it hanging suspended over a bottomless abyss, peopled by worshippers of Lord Ulcis, the god of chains, and tormented by a mad angel named Carnival. The author, who was a video game designer, renders Deepgate beautifully. It's a complex city of creaking metal links, stone and shadow, inhabited by priests, assassins and the boy-angel Dill, who will lead a journey into the abyss in a desperate attempt to save the city. Campbell has Neil Gaiman's gift for lushly dark stories and compelling antiheroes, and effortlessly channels the Victorian atmospherics of writer and illustrator Mervyn Peake as well.

I suggest that Cherryh's "Foreigner" might also be a good suggestion for the series discussion, as there are at least nine in the series now, set up as three trilogies.

I'll add a science fiction nomination of Local Custom by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. I've been wanting to reread it for a while, so will use this as an excuse to encourage me.

Each person shall provide his clan of origin with a child of his blood, who will be raised by the clan and belong to the clan. And this shall be Law for every person of every clan . . .

Master trader Er Thorn knows the local custom of Liaden is to be matched with a proper bride, and provide his prominent clan Korval with an heir. Yet his heart is immersed in another universe, influenced by another culture, and lost to a woman not of his world. And to take a Terran wife such as scholar Anne Davis is to risk his honor and reputation. But when he discovers that their brief encounter years before has resulted in the birth of a child, even more is at stake than anyone imagined. Now, an interstellar scandal has erupted, a bitter war between two families—galaxies apart—has begun, and the only hope for Er Thorn and Anne is a sacrifice neither is prepared to make . . .
.

Ron,

Good idea --- we can do that for our next series. Foreigner was actually Book of the Month here before (in the Yahoo group).

I would like to recommend for fantasy A Madness of Angels Or The Resurrection of Matthew Swift

Stefan wrote: "Ron,

Good idea --- we can do that for our next series. Foreigner was actually Book of the Month here before (in the Yahoo group)."


Rats. I scanned the list, but must have missed it. Sorry about that.

It doesn't disqualify it. We used to have a rule saying a book could only be re-nominated one year after it was BotM, but we scratched that rule at some point - and anyway, we did this book in 2004 so it's definitely fine. If people don't want to read/discuss it again, it just won't get votes. I would actually not mind re-reading the book myself --- I read the first 6 books in that series several years ago and would like to re-read them at some point to gear up for the most recent ones, because I forgot so many of the details. However, if you would like to change your nomination, please feel free to do so.

I didn't know "Foreigner" had been BOTM in the Yahoo group--I guess '04 was before I joined. I read it and loved it, but got bogged down in the second book. I just hated the second translator/diplomat. Which is certainly exactly what Cherryh wanted, but I couldn't get past it. Would like to take another crack at the series, also happy to read some more Miles first.

I'll second Sorcerer's Legacy for fantasy.

Is a book of short stories OK for a group read? I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream has come up recently. Harlan Ellison's work would be interesting to discuss, I think.

I nominate for science fiction: "Consider Phlebas" (#1 of The Culture Series) by Iain M. Banks. I haven't read it yet and I've heard good things about it; plus I think it received the second largest number of votes last month.

For Fantasy, I've been meaning to read Carol Berg for some time now. Therefore, I nominate "Flesh and Spirit" for fantasy. "Flesh and Spirit" is the first of two novels ("Breath and Bone" is the second one). Carol Berg refers to the two novels as "a duet", from which I infer that it's a two-novel series. Here's the url for Carol Berg's blog:

http://www.sff.net/people/carolberg/l...

Later all

Looking at the list of SF candidates, I have to say there's no bad choice there, not a clunker in the lot.

Kerry wrote: "I'll add a science fiction nomination of Local Custom by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. I've been wanting to reread it for a while, so will use this as an e..."


I recently read a fantasy duology by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller and really enjoyed their writing style. I'd love to try a SF book from them.

My nominations stand as is then. Thanks!

One more day to make nominations --- I'll start the first round of polls tomorrow! I've just updated the top post in this topic with all the current nominations. Let me know if I missed any.

I've also added my own fantasy nomination: Mistborn The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. Fair warning: it's the first book of a trilogy, but on the plus side the last book of the trilogy was just released. I'm in the middle of reading his debut Elantris (a BotM here several years ago) and am enjoying it tremendously so far.

I'm not going to nominate anything for SF this time because all the books I'd want to nominate are only out in hardcover so far... but as soon as The Best of Gene Wolfe A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction comes out in paperback, I'll nominate it until it wins :)

When that happens you'll get my vote. Except maybe against "The Steel Remains" or "The City and the City"...

The polls have been set up! Please take a moment to go vote. The first round of polls will be up until May 25th, and then the top two books of each of those polls will go to the run-off polls.

I'm closing this thread now. Please post any comments about the books in the polls' comments. (And feel free to campaign for your nominations, of course!)