[Reading Group] May 2014 VOTING OPEN

[Philip Overby]

It may be super, super early for this, but I wanted to go ahead and get it up now so we'll have plenty of time for people to chime in. So far we've had the following themes:

February: fantasy with advanced technology (Prince of Thorns)
March: fantasy with dungeons or dragons (His Majesty's Dragon)
April: fantasy classics (Swordspoint)

For May, I'd like to offer some suggestions. You can of course put forward your own suggestions for a theme if you'd like. Here are some ideas:

1. Classics again? Since classics can cover a lot of ground, we could go this route again, but try to make it more specific. Perhaps like early 20th century classics, or something like that? (1900-1940s?)

2. Award winners-Books that won awards such as the Hugo, the Campbell Award, etc.

3. Non-native English speaker fantasy: I suggested this last month, but I still think this could be a good theme. Find some translations or some such of good fantasy from around the world.

4. Urban fantasy: Anything that might be categorized as urban fantasy.

5. Dark fantasy: Anything that might be categorized as dark fantasy.

6. New and exciting authors: Books from authors who had their fantasy writing debuts in 2013-2014

You can agree with any of these or suggest your own below.

Note: once the theme is decided, I'll change this to a nomination thread and then ultimately to a voting thread so we don't have multiple threads all over the place.

I figure let's give until April 6th to decide on a theme, April 13th to get nominations in, and April 20th to choose the book for May. Stagger it a bit so we have plenty of time to make choices.

OK, please get your thoughts in if you plan on reading in May!

 

[Philip Overby]

OK, I'm going to go ahead and make my vote and hope other people get on board later on. I know this is still pretty early, but I wanted to go ahead and get some ideas floating around since the Reading Group has kind of slowed down with I believe a lot of people not finishing His Majesty's Dragon. I apologize that I didn't stay on the ball with that one, but I'm just finding it difficult to finish at the moment. I'm happy with the April pick so far as I think it's really good, but I want to make sure we can keep the group going with picks everyone is pretty happy with.

So my vote for the theme for May is: dark fantasy. I'm going to go with this definition of what dark fantasy is:

Dark fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy which can refer to literary, artistic and filmic works that combine fantasy with elements of horror. The term can be used broadly to refer to fantastical works that have a dark, gloomy atmosphere or a sense of horror and dread.[1]

Get your votes in for a different theme if you're interested in trying something else. You can also suggest your own ideas as well.

 

[Ankari]

A new suggestion:

Books set in a RPG world.

These can include any Warhammer: 40K, D&D, Shadowrunner, Dragon Age, World of Warcraft, and Everquest settings.

Thoughts?

 

[Philip Overby]

I'm cool with that as well. I was actually going to suggest that, but I couldn't think of how to word it. I was going to say "shared world" but that didn't make sense for some reason. I would love to read some Warhammer books. I have one called Runefang here at my house I've been wanting to read for a while.

If others are on board, I'd be happy with that since I could still nominate lots of dark fantasy books. Hell, that is where "grimdark" came from originally anyway.

(I still don't get grimdark, honestly. A lot of what I read is labeled as such, but to me it basically just means "gritty fantasy." I guess if it works for some people, whatever. )

 

[Steerpike]

For CL Werner, the Witch Hunter books are probably better. For Warhammer, either the Felix and Gotrek books or Nathan Long's Blackheart books are good. Or Long's Ulrika the Vampire books (though since Ulrika is a spin-off of Felix and Gotrek it makes some sense to read those first). For WH40K, anything by Dan Abnett.

 

[Ophiucha]

I'd love to read more new fantasy, but I also don't really have the money to buy a book that's still in hardcover and has a $18 Kindle price, you know? As for shared world, the only problem I could see with that is reader accessibility - a lot of them require you have some knowledge of the series before you read. Certainly all of the video game ones I've read, particularly from Bioware. There's also a quality control issue, but I'd hope nominations would weed out the best of them.

 

[Philip Overby]

I thought the same thing about both of those issues.

1. New books are expensive and many people may not want to spend that much. (Although I agree, I'd like to try some new books)
2. Shared world stories do sort of require some knowledge of the world in some cases, but not always. I've read Warhammer and Dragonlance books before and I didn't feel like I needed any knowledge of the world as each book does a good job immersing (for the most part).

Maybe just doing an open theme might be best? That way people can just nominate whatever they want. If more people chime in, we can decide on what works best. I don't want anyone to skip out on a month because they don't like the theme.

 

[Ankari]

I'm still behind the shared world theme. It's interesting to see how authors write within a confined (a better word may be preconceived) setting.

There are many good books from such settings. The ones from WotC tend to be average if not outright good.

 

[Philip Overby]

So not sure if we have a theme hammered down yet, so maybe it would be better to just have it open to whatever? That would allow people to nominate whatever they felt like. Since we haven't done this yet, it might be worth trying because I feel like we'd get more nominations that way. As it stands, we're only getting a handful of nominations from the same people.

Thoughts on an open theme for May to see how it turns out?

 

[Ankari]

Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon

Peter V Brett's The Warded Man

Daniel Abraham's A Shadow in Summer

 

[Philip Overby]

Ankari: I guess your above post means you're fine with an open theme?

It works for me as I have all three of the books you nominated. I'm actually more likely to vote for a book I already have for May as I bought two books for March and April, so if I can, I'd prefer to read something I already have.

Let's just go ahead and go with an open theme then.

Here are some nominations from me:

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (because I've never read any Gaiman)

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Two of these I already own. Please wait for others to nominate and then you can offer up more books later on. Let's aim for April 13th to get nominations in.

 

[ACSmyth]

I'm good with any of yours, Philip, since I own all of them and haven't read any. I've broken my "no buying for now" rule to get Swordspoint, so I could do with clearing some backlog this month.

 

[Ophiucha]

Deathless, by Catherynne M. Valente

The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner

The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold

 

[Kaellpae]

I couldn't find an origin thread, but is the reading group open to anyone or do I need to announce my interest?

 

[ACSmyth]

I just jumped in, Kaellpae. Never occurred to me that there might be a protocol.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

It's open to all members. Hop in, read, & participate.

 

[Kaellpae]

I shall join in. I don't have any suggestions as of yet, but I'll definitely vote on the finalists.

 

[Philip Overby]

OK, let's try to get any last nominations in this weekend and I'll open up voting next week. We'll close voting by April 19th, so make sure to get your votes in before then. Try to pick a book you really want to read or are curious about. Maybe we'll get one month where everyone likes the book that's chosen (although I like the widely different viewpoints )

 

[Kaellpae]

How do we cast our vote? Is a poll made, or do we just say the one or two we want?

 

[Philip Overby]

I'll open up the vote this weekend if there are no other nominations. All you have to do is vote for the three books you're most interested in reading. Then I'll tally up the votes and we'll have our official pick for May.

I'm giving a couple of more days in case there are any last minute nominations.