Group Reads Book 10

Time to start working on a list of books to nominate for the next SF Group Read.

For anyone new to the group, you get to post a small list (please keep it small) of some science fiction books you would like to see in a group read. After a week of everyone nominating books, everyone can second one of the books voted on. The top five nominees go to a poll, the winner of which becomes the next book selected for the group read.

It has been suggested elsewhere that I post dates as to the approximate times as when each stage of the next process will begin, and I think it worth trying at least once, to see how it all goes.

Seconding Books - 18 April (Next Sunday)
Voting Poll - 25 April (one week after seconding)
Next Group Read 10th May (two weeks after poll completed).

I'll nominate three:

The Alchemy of Stone
Altered Carbon
Consider Phlebas

Hi, I'm a newby to the group. So if my nominations have been shot down before, sorry!

How about...

Revelation Space or maybe even Chasm City or The Prefect. I cannot tell which is the "first book" chronologically, or if that even matters.

Leaving Reynolds aside, I've been meaning to read something by Robert Charles Wilson one of these days. Does Darwinia or The Chronoliths sound good to anyone?

#4

Feel free to nominate pretty much anything SF - several books have been nominated in multiple threads.

"Revelation Space" is the first novel written in Alastair Reynold's "Revelation Space Universe". I would suggest nominating that book over the two sequels you have mentioned.

Nominated so far:

The Alchemy of Stone - Ekaterina Sedia
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks
The Chronoliths - Robert Charles Wilson
Darwinia - Robert Charles Wilson
Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds
The Man in the High Castle - Philip K Dick

The Philip K Dick book is my nomination.

#5>

The only reason I suggested the other two is, if I'm not mistaken, they take place earlier in the time line of Reynold's universe than Revelation Space. I think they are technically prequels.

Absolutely there is no need to read Revelation Space before Chasm City or The Prefect. They fit in to the series through setting more than anything else. If you want to consider another Al Reynolds book how about Century Rain?

I've yet to get a copy of the last group read, although I plan to do so any day now. Honest.

Meanwhile, here are some nominations:

The Accord, Keith Brooke
Winterstrike, Liz Williams
The Electric Crocodile, DG Compton

Some good nominations so far. I'd happily read any in post #6, although I just finished Darwinia recently when it lost out in the last go-around. Emmisaries finally came in to my library and I hope to pick it up and read it before too long.

I'd like to nominate:

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
The Accord by Keith Brooke
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

The Accord, Keith Brooke
The Alchemy of Stone - Ekaterina Sedia
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
Chasm City - Alastair Reynolds
Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks
The Chronoliths - Robert Charles Wilson
Darwinia - Robert Charles Wilson
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
The Electric Crocodile, DG Compton
The Man in the High Castle - Philip K Dick
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
The Prefect - Alastair Reynolds
Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds
Winterstrike, Liz Williams

I have put in all of the Alastair Reynolds books originally mentioned, but would suggest narrowing it down to one; otherwise, you narrow the potential votes for any of the books down. But I'm not the one nominating the books - feel free to do as you wish.

I'm good with going only one Reynolds. As Andy mentioned it does not really matter the order of the books. We can make it even easier by taking a non-Rev. Space book...

So I drop my Reynolds nominations in favor of Century Rain from post 8. That one looks just as good to me as the others.

I'll nominate Software by Rudy Rucker.

It's an older book, but the first of four in a series. I'll admit to a bit of self interest. I'm thinking of attending Westercon, and I've never read anything by the guest of honor, Mr. Rucker.

#14

Oooh - good choice. It is recently getting republished as an omnibus with all the others in the -ware series.

Current Nominations List:

The Accord - Keith Brooke
The Alchemy of Stone - Ekaterina Sedia
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
Century Rain - Alastair Reynolds
Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks
The Chronoliths - Robert Charles Wilson
Darwinia - Robert Charles Wilson
The Dispossessed - Ursula Le Guin
The Electric Crocodile - DG Compton
The Man in the High Castle - Philip K Dick
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
Software - Andy Rucker
Winterstrike - Liz Williams

I'll throw these out there again

Clifford Simak's City
Walter Miller's A Canticle for Liebowitz
Asimov's Nemesis

Updated list.

(2) Software - Andy Rucker

Accord, The - Keith Brooke
Alchemy of Stone, The - Ekaterina Sedia
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
Canticle for Leibowitz, A - Walter M Miller Jnr
Century Rain - Alastair Reynolds
City - Clifford Simak
Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks
The Chronoliths - Robert Charles Wilson
Darwinia - Robert Charles Wilson
Dispossessed, The - Ursula Le Guin
Electric Crocodile, The - DG Compton
Man in the High Castle, The- Philip K Dick
Nemesis - Isaac Asimov
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
Winterstrike - Liz Williams

I've seconded Software, by Andy Rucker - sounds like an interesting read.

Andy Rucker? Is that Rudy Rucker's brother?

I second A Canticle for Leibowitz by. Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Thanks, Ian.

(2) Software - RudyRucker
(2) Canticle for Leibowitz, A - Walter M Miller Jnr

Accord, The - Keith Brooke
Alchemy of Stone, The - Ekaterina Sedia
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
Century Rain - Alastair Reynolds
City - Clifford Simak
Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks
The Chronoliths - Robert Charles Wilson
Darwinia - Robert Charles Wilson
Dispossessed, The - Ursula Le Guin
Electric Crocodile, The - DG Compton
Man in the High Castle, The- Philip K Dick
Nemesis - Isaac Asimov
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
Winterstrike - Liz Williams

I second Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.

I second The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia.

List Update

(2) Alchemy of Stone, The - Ekaterina Sedia
(2) Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
(2) Software - RudyRucker
(2) Canticle for Leibowitz, A - Walter M Miller Jnr

Accord, The - Keith Brooke
Century Rain - Alastair Reynolds
City - Clifford Simak
Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks
The Chronoliths - Robert Charles Wilson
Darwinia - Robert Charles Wilson
Dispossessed, The - Ursula Le Guin
Electric Crocodile, The - DG Compton
Man in the High Castle, The- Philip K Dick
Nemesis - Isaac Asimov
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
Winterstrike - Liz Williams

I would second A Canticle for Leibowitz.

Although The Dispossessed is also great.

I'd like to nominate Canticle, but if I remember the rules I can't second my nomination. Therefore, I'll go with 'Chronoliths'. RC Wilson has treated me pretty good in the past. I'll read Canticle this summer anyways.

Does my buddy have good reason to strip me of a tech point for never having read Dune? Just curious. If you'd rather not bog down the thread here, come over this-a-way and tell me in person on my 50 BC thread.

Regardless of whether people say it is a good book or not (I think it is good, but can see the validity behind opposing arguments) it's an important book in the SF genre, and pops up in "best of SF" lists quite often. For that alone, it's worth reading at least once.

(3) Canticle for Leibowitz, A - Walter M Miller Jnr
(2) Alchemy of Stone, The - Ekaterina Sedia
(2) Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
(2) Software - RudyRucker
(2) Chronoliths, The - Robert Charles Wilson

Accord, The - Keith Brooke
Century Rain - Alastair Reynolds
City - Clifford Simak
Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks
Darwinia - Robert Charles Wilson
Dispossessed, The - Ursula Le Guin
Electric Crocodile, The - DG Compton
Man in the High Castle, The- Philip K Dick
Nemesis - Isaac Asimov
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
Winterstrike - Liz Williams

The poll is up, and voting is between our five seconded nominations:

http://www.vizu.com/poll-vote.html?n=208097

Currently, the polls are quite close - "A Canticle for Leibowitz" and "Software" are tied for the lead, with "Alchemy of Stone" one vote behind. Every vote counts!

Someone heeded your call to vote, rojse. It's now a 3-way tie!

You couldn't help organise these polls if you didn't have a sense of humour.

Looks like Canticle has pulled out in the lead again, now.

#4 - i very much enjoyed both Darwinia and the Chronoliths. Glad to see someone besides myself nominate and second Alchemy of Stone which was one of the very best books in any genre that I read last year. One of the few I bothered to review.

The poll is closed, and "Canticle For Leibowitz" is the winner.

You originally said start discussion May 10, 2 weeks after the poll closed, but the poll didn't close until May 3. When does discussion start then?

I finished the book last night and also ready for discussion.

36,37 - I'd say just start a thread in the format of previous book threads. I'm pretty sure rojse won't fault you for kicking off the discussion. :-)

I picked the book up this weekend and hope to start on it tonight. It has been so long since I first read it I can barely remember the story. Will this hold up as a classic?

I was recently just flipping through it and started reading a few paragraphs. I was hooked. Had to start at the beginning and read the whole damn thing. It was just as good as I remembered it being the first time.