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Nominations open for our January subjects which will be:

Hard SF vs Fantasy

please pick your nominees for Hard SF here: /group/books... You might want to try to avoid books that are in groups.

please pick your nominees for Fantasy here: /group/books...

Please take a week to select and then I will put the poll up around midnight next Sunday morning.

Paste your selections on this post, please.

I am not sending an email because the same number of people shows up last time as usual. Therefore, I'm thinking an email is not necessary

Later!

FYI, I just found a book that this group has already read, This Immortal by Roger Zelazny. I am not sure why it didn't get marked "read" and I will try to check for other wrong entries, but it's not going to be soon.

So it you look to the right at the column " shelves" and the first entry should be either "to-read" or "read." If you see that it says "read" please don't select it.

I'll start

For Hard SF, I will nominate Planet of the Damned by Harry Harrison You can get it for free or for 99 cents for Kindle (US) here:

For Fantasy, I will nominate Superpowers by David J. Schwartz

If at any time any of you feel that there's a book needs to be on a particular shelf but it's not, let us know.

We tried (well, Art and Bryan tried), but we have not read all of the books yet. So they may not all be in the proper shelves. We can add a book to any shelf. At least, I will try to figure out how to add to a shelf

Hard SF Singularity Sky by Charles Stross

Fantasy Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance

Hard SF Kesrith by C.J. Cherryh

Fantasy The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

Kate, re: misshelvings, I noticed Down and Out in Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow was shelved as "fantasy", which is incorrect. DaOiMK tells a story about post-scarcity future and contains no fantastical elements.

OK, now I have to figure out how to move. But it won't be today. Thanks!

Where should I move it to?

I'll move it thanks for info

I have a question, something I've been wondering for awhile: how does the group decide which categories to nominate from for each month? Is there a discussion thread I'm missing or is it an executive decision from the mods? Just curious.

For my nominations:

Hard SF: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov

Fantasy: The City & the City by China Miéville

Are multiple nominations okay? I noticed that Jo Walton's Among Others is not listed as fantasy and it should be. It's currently categorized as YA/magical realism and I don't know how accurate those labels are, but wikipedia just says "fantasy literature." I'd like to nominate this one too.

Kalin wrote: "I have a question, something I've been wondering for awhile: how does the group decide which categories to nominate from for each month?"

We, the mods either decide it ourselves (like this nomination) or ask members. There is no clear rule on it

As for Among Others its label as magical realism is more appropriate. It definitely isn't a classic dragon and sword fantasy, but a story of a girl, who thinks her mother is a witch.

Re: selecting categories. Before a couple of months ago, I think shelf selection method was that some of us mods pretty much always selected the categories. But I didn't realize that even though I became a mod a while after the others. I never cared about what shelves because I'm going to read them all anyways (should I live long enough.)

Anyway, it was my fault that I asked what shelves we should read from for November. After our buddy and co-moderator Art disappeared this last summer, I was confused about how we did it, and so I opened November to shelf nominations from the group. (The other subjects for this year had been settled before Art left us.)

I remember that the rationale was to evenly distribute the types of books that were selected so that all of the bookshelves got even distribution and we weren't left with a bunch of the same kind after a few years.

The bookshelves here /group/books... are divided into categories, as I am sure you all noticed. The ones that start with the numbers 3 and 4 are the ones that mostly are the types we are trying to distribute, but there's also Fantasy under 2 and Sci Fi under 2.

The schedule that has been proposed amongst us three remaining moderators for this year is:

Jan: (Hard SF vs Fantasy)
Feb: (Apocalyptic vs Humorous))
Mar: Women Authors
Apr: (Alien Invasion vs Artificial Int)
May: (Steampunk vs Cyberpunk)
Jun: (Dark Fantasy vs High Fantasy)
Jul: (Alt History vs Time Travel)
Aug: (Young Adult vs Retros)
Sep: (30s - 70s vs 80s -10s)
Oct: Spooky Books
Nov: (Hugo Winners vs Nebula Winners)
Dec: (Battle of the close calls of the year) (I want the second book to be books that totally lost in our polls, but I have not discussed this with the other mods. Both books are close calls at this point.)

Of course, not all of us will be excited about all of these subjects. For example, I not all that fond of any of the Steampunk or Cyberpunk books I have ever read. So the month for Steampunk vs Cyberpunk--probably not too much fun for me.

We are just trying to hit all of the shelves. And if there are any suggestions (or complaints) about this method, please feel free to chime in.

Actually, I am worried about Art. Has anyone heard from him?

Yes, I am sure Red Mars should be on the Hard SF list. Z, can you fix that, please?

Did we want to wait and read the series . . . that's my question. Of course, that will probably make it be after we read Vorkosigan.

Actually, I am not one to decide re reading it now vs later challenge. Red Mars is a book that I believe I got from the Science Fiction Book Club years ago and did not get through. I will try again, but I am not the judge of this one.

Any opinions about Red Mars now vs all three later as a challenge? Please state!

Z, and especially Kate, thanks for taking the time to explain that process for me. I def appreciate it, and I like your nomination category ideas. (But yeah, steampunk vs. cyberpunk = ick)

Re: Red Mars -- I've been reading the Mars trilogy one book each January for the last two years, and plan to read Blue Mars this coming January. It's kind of sad because it basically means I read the best book I'm going to read all year in January and it's all downhill from there!

I would recommend splitting it up. They're quite dense and long, and I would imagine could get tedious if you try to rush them back-to-back for a challenge. The prose, characters, and emphasis on place over plot are not for everyone, but Red Mars is a 5-star book, and while I don't plan to re-read it anytime soon (I just don't do re-reading much), I'd be happy for this group to experience it.

re Mars trilogy. Yes, it is definitely hard Sf, I'll change. As to a monthly nomination vs challenge I'd prefer the latter because books are relatively linked (each is next-generation) and if new readers come after we read the first book and selected the 2nd or 3rd it can be hard to catch up.

However, the nomination of Red Mars is accepted, so let's members decide!

p.s. before seeing this post I started Green Mars re-read yesterday

I listened to Among Others on audio last year. It was read by the late Katherine Kellgren in a spellbinding, lilting Scottish (or what I took to be Scottish) accent that sounded like music. I would have had to force myself to read it, but her reading took the book to another level, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Hard SF: Blindsight by Peter Watts
Fantasy: His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

I'm pretty indifferent as to which fantasy book wins, so I'll abstain from voting in that category. But for Hard SF, I nominate Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

Here are the nominees so far.

Planet of the Damned by Harry Harrison
Singularity Sky by Charles Stross
Kesrith by C.J. Cherryh
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
Red Mars
Earth
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey



Fantasy

The City & the City by China Miéville
Superpowers by David J. Schwartz
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance
Among Others by Jo Walton
The Tower at Stony Wood

As you can see, I went ahead and put Red Mars and Among Others on the list. Close enough, I say!

Thanks for the info on listening to the audio of Among Others, Allan, I think I might get it from library, assuming they have it.

When will we be voting in a poll for this?

Anthony wrote: "When will we be voting in a poll for this?"

Yes, two polls, for fantasy and hard SF will be set after we finish nominating on Sunday, Nov 17th to vote until the end of November.

Cool, thanks!

I will put them up tomorrow.

Did mine not make it in time?

your what, allan?

nominations are still open today. I always seem to start everything right after midnight.

are yours not listed in my list above? Maybe I missed them in all the chitchat. Tell me what they are and I will insert them

Blindsight by Peter Watts
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

Polls are up, the thread will be closed tomorrow, if I missed something please notify

I don't have any particular preference for the fantasy book, but for the Hard Sci-Fi category I would like to nominate The Fountains of Paradise, a classic which I have sadly never read before.

Necot wrote: "I don't have any particular preference for the fantasy book, but for the Hard Sci-Fi category I would like to nominate The Fountains of Paradise, a classic which I have sadly never re..."

Added to the list

Necot wrote: "I would like to nominate The Fountains of Paradise, a classic which I have sadly never read before."

Some people have voted already so it's not likely to win for January, but if there's another way to nominate in the coming months I'd be excited to read this one.

I actually want to read it, also. Maybe next year we can just do a buddy read. But towards the end of a month, say, February, and not promising yet.

Read it a couple months ago. In my view, it lived up to its status. Very good, one of my favorites of this year.

If we have a tie between His Majesty's Dragon & The Grace of Kings, can I use an ENC to push the former over the top?

Allan wrote: "If we have a tie between His Majesty's Dragon & The Grace of Kings, can I use an ENC to push the former over the top?"

Yes, sure