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Hi everyone,

It’s time to open nominations for our August 2014 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.

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. You can also check the group bookshelves for previous Books of the Month to see if your nomination has already been read by the group. (Being chosen as a past BotM does not necessarily disqualify a book from current consideration, 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, etc., 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 Tuesday, May 20.
� The first round of polls will open Wednesday, May 21, and will run through 11:59PM PST, Monday, May 26 (closing Midnight PST May 27. This gives us all the Memorial Day Holiday. Yaaay.)
� The run-off polls go up Tuesday, May 27, and will be open through 11:59PM PST Saturday, May 31 (closing Midnight PST Sunday, June 1.)

Thanks!

NOMINEES FOR FANTASY

The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin (Shel)
Dusk by Tim Lebbon (Kurt)
A Sorcerer's Treason by Sarah Zettel (Nick)
Except the Queen by Jane Yolen (Mary)
The Steel Queen by Karen Azinger (Athena)
The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan (Wastrel)
Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner (Paul)
Kinless by Stephen Godden (Patrick)
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Michelle)

NOMINEES FOR SF

The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough (Shel)
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Candiss)
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (Kurt)
Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders by Richard Ellis Preston Jr. (Mary)
All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka (Athena)
Natural History by Justina Robson (Paul)
Flood by Stephen Baxter (Paulo)
The Skylark of Space by E.E. "Doc" Smith (Wastrel)
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (Michelle)
Old Man's War by John Scalzi (Maria)

I'll nominate The Darwin Elevator for SF, it's been sitting on my shelf for a while calling to me :)

For fantasy, how about The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin? We read The Killing Moon a few years ago and I loved it, have been meaning to pick up the sequel for quite some time.

I'll nominate something for science fiction this time around: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. I've seen so much intriguing chatter about this one.

I may have a fantasy suggestion later, but I'm not sure yet.

For Science fiction I'll nominate Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner.

For Fantasy I'll nominate Dusk by Tim Lebbon.

Sarah Zettel should be on our bookshelf -- I've been saying this for years, and it is true. Too many readers from across the board of interests in our group like her on a consistent basis.

Though many of her books get favorable reviews from our readers, the one which appears to stand out in its accolades is A Sorcerer's Treason. I have not read this one, but I would like to, so I'll nominate it for Fantasy.

For fantasy, Except the Queen by Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder. Two sisters banished from Fairy into the form of middle-aged women, finding themselves in a middle of a much larger problem. (I also like the epistolary point-of-view)

For SF, Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders by Richard Ellis Preston Jr. -- Adventure! Action! In a post-apocalyptic steampunk California! (The reasons why it's steampunk are not all made clear in this book, some in the next, but it's a fascinating world.)

I nominate All You Need Is Kill for SF

I nominate The Steel Queen for Fantasy.

Athens, both those have been on my "Want to Read" list for a bit but every time I almost decide to read All You Need Is Kill I look over the synopsis and other reviews and can't really work up enthusiasm for this short book.

Have you already read it? I may vote with both these but I'm not sure about that one. Thanks.

For a different sort of fantasy, how about The Brides of Rollrock Island, Margo Lanagan's achingly beautiful elegaic tragedy? It's set in something much like the real world, mostly on the eponymous Rollrock Island - home a largely timeless and placeless fishing town. The fantasy is largely limited to a single conceit: the existence of witches and their ability to create selkies - that is, to call seals out of the water, strip off their fur, and reveal supernaturally beautiful and obedient young women. This is something that, as one might imagine, causes some disruption in seaside life.

It's a book that, I must admit, I had some problems with, and I consider it only a very, very good book - I'm in the minority here, since everyone else seems to think it's unutterably brilliant. I'd be interested to see what a group of people NOT already Lanagan fans would make of it. Even if you don't love it, I hope you'll be able to appreciate the stunning prose.

Lanagan I suspect is someone who doesn't get the attention she deserves, because her work falls between two camps: on the border of being too literary for hardcore fantasy fans (usually low-magic, ordinary-life settings, a sort of fairy-tale aesthetic), but too fantastical for hardcore literary fans (both Rollrock and her earlier Tender Morsels have both witches and shapeshifting, and TM also has interdimensional travel), and also with too much of an (allegedly) YA focus (although if Tender Morsels is Young Adult, I expect a traumatised generation...)

"The Brides of Rollrock Island" was nominated for a British Fantasy Award and a Locus Award, and is an expansion of a novella that won the World Fantasy Award. The novel won both the Australian genre prizes (the Aurealis and the Ditmar), which in total she's won 14 times. She's won the World Fantasy Award four times, with one more nomination. She's most famous for her story "Singing My Sister Down", which won the WFA, and was nominated for the Hugo, the Nebula, the Locus, the Sturgeon, and every other genre award going.

Hi all

I shall nominate:

Natural History by Justina Robson for SF. Now best known for her Quantum Gravity series, this earlier stand alone novel is one of the best explorations of artificial intelligence - and artificial life - I've ever read

For fantasy, let's try Thomas the Rhymer by the great Ellen Kushner

And for SF, how about The Skylark of Space?

Conceived during WWI and finished shortly after, it didn't find a publisher until the late twenties (Smith spent more on postage submitting it than he made back in the sale), but when it did it became a roaring success, establishing Doc Smith, or simply Skylark Smith, as arguably the world's preeminent author of SF - Smith is who Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke read growing up.

It seems almost too stereotypical to be true, but the academic and professional doughnut-chemist Smith was so uncomfortable at the thought of writing romantic scenes that all the romance and love interests were outsourced to a woman he knew, Mrs Garby; the characters are based heavily on the Smith and Garby families.

Smith would later be uncomfortable with how far the skylark novels were from accurate science, and his best-remembered works are the short story "Galactic Patrol" and his 'Lensman' novels, but "The Skylark of Space", with its consideration of interplanetary travel, is worth reading as perhaps the father-novel of 20th century space opera. Heinlein and Asimov both called him 'the first nova of 20th century science fiction', and the creators of Superman, Star Wars and Babylon 5 have all named Smith as an inspiration for their work.

The concluding novel in the series of four Skylark novels won Smith a posthumous Hugo nomination.

I'd like to nominate Kinless for Fantasy.

It's a gritty, realistic epic fantasy story. The author clearly has done his homework on medieval cultures and warfare, and he has created a very authentic set of religions, mythologies and cultures which clash over the fate of a island and the sacred power it contains.

It's a good old fashioned heroic fantasy story, set in a very nice, richly detailed world.

Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "Athens, both those have been on my "Want to Read" list for a bit but every time I almost decide to read All You Need Is Kill I look over the synopsis and other reviews and can't real..."

I agree on having them on my tbr list and hearing mixed reviews. I already have All you need is kill on paperback and I would like to read it already. But no I haven't read either one.

I hope they are enjoyable.

Well...I have reservations. I'll think about it. There are a couple here I've read already. Thanks.

I will like to nominate for SF Flood by Stephen Baxter. It's the first book of a duology.

Fantasy~ The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

Science Fiction~ Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

For fantasy, I'd like to nominate The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. It's a fairy tale style fantasy with an Arabian Nights feel to it. It's listed as the second in a series, but it was actually published first as a stand-alone.

For Sci-fi, I'm nominating Old Man's War by John Scalzi. There's a chance the group might have read it before, but if not, it's well worth the read.

Maria wrote: "For fantasy, I'd like to nominate The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. It's a fairy tale style fantasy with an Arabian Nights feel to it. It's listed as the second in a series, but it wa..."

Hi Maria,

The Blue Sword was our Fantasy BOTM in July of 2013, which makes it too soon for it to be nominated again.

Old Man's War was our SF book-of-the-month in March of 2012. That's long enough in the past to renominate, but you still may not get a lot of votes.

It is time to set up the polls, so i'm going to go ahead and put Old Man's War on the list. But it's always good to check our Bookshelves for titles you may wish to nominate.

Nominations are now CLOSEDfor the August BOTM's.

It is time to vote on our August Fantasy and Science Fiction BOTM's. The first round will decide which two books in each category will go on to the run off polls. This first round closes for voting at 11:59PM May 26 (Memorial Day Monday).

Fantasy August 2014

Science Fiction August 2014

Please vote.

The run off polls for the August BOTM's in Fantasy and Science Fiction are now up. Please take a minute to go vote.

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Thanks!