[Reading Group] July 2014 Nominations/Voting

The Rogues anthology comes out later this month. It's a cross-genre piece, but there's a healthy dose of fantasy written by some of the biggest names in the genre. Oh, and it's edited by none other than George R. R. Martin.

Among the authors: Neil Gaiman, Joe Abercrombie, Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, Daniel Abraham, and GRRM himself.

 

My obligatory nomination for something pre-Tolkienian, Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy, an anthology I've had my eye on for a while that consists of loosely fantasy stories that came before, and in many cases explicitly inspired, Tolkien. Some of the authors included: George Macdonald, Andrew Lang, William Morris, H. Rider Haggard, E. Nesbit, L. Frank Baum, Lord Dunsany, William Hope Hodgson, Arthur Machen, and Austin Tappan Wright.

I'd also nominate The Weird, if it didn't kind of defy the 'light reading' theme of the month by being over 1,000 pages long.

 

I'm in an anthology that's out in a few days.

Seriously, though, I'm going to pass on July. I've had my Hugo packet through, and I want to read as much as I can of it before the voting deadline. (Need to check when that is...)

 

1. Rogues
2. Swords and Dark Magic

 

Partly based on what the availability is at my library:

1. Tales Before Tolkien
2. Dangerous Women (Rogues has a high wait list )

 

1. Dangerous Women (I want SM-Dreamer to be able to participate.)
2. The Weird

I know I've recommended The Weird before, but I didn't finish it. It's a bit unwieldy because of its size, but I liked the stories I read. As interesting as it sounds, Tales Before Tolkien isn't available at my library, so I'll have to bow out if it wins. Surprisingly, my library has the other nominated books.

 

1. Swords and Dark Magic
2. Tales Before Tolkien

I picked the first one since my best friend is often praising the work of James Enge, and he was her Classics teacher. I had a Facebook conversation with him about Aeschylus in the comments of her status update, and I really should give his writing a try.

Also, if The Weird does get voted for the month, Phil, you can send me a message and we can cut the list of stories down for a lighter reading experience. I've never read the collection as a whole, but I'm familiar enough with most of the authors that I could probably curate a palatable selection for those who don't have the time to read the whole thing (understandable).

 

Dangerous Women

 

I'll cast a vote for Swords and Dark Magic.

(Ha! You'd think I'd pick Tales Before Tolkien, but actually the selection of stories in that anthology looks to me like a really terrible representation of the "roots of modern fantasy".)

 

Since I forgot to vote for the main one I'll get my main choice a vote.

Swords and Dark Magic.