[Reading Group) March 2014 VOTING NOW OPEN

[Philip Overby]

I'm opening voting early because I suppose no one else is going to nominate anything. So let's go with the choices we have. If you want to view more about the nominations, you can check here: http://mythicscribes.com/forums/novels-stories/11010-%5Breading-group%5D-march-2014-nominations.html

The theme of March was "dungeons and dragons." This means books that either have some kind of exploring or adventuring slant, or one that features dragons prominently.

Below are the books available for voting. Please choose your top 2. The first one is your first choice, and the second is your alternate choice. If the voting comes to a stalemate, I may put the ones with the most votes up for another vote.

1. Dragondoom by Dennis McKiernan
2. The Legend of Eli Monpress by Rachel Aaron
3. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
4. A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
5. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
6. The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick
7. Dragon Weather by Lawrence Watt-Evans
8. Dragon Slayer by William King (Warhammer novel)
9. The Dragon and the George by Gordon D. Dickson

So these are your choices. Please make two choices, one your first pick and one an alternate and we'll go from there.

Voting will officially close on February 21st, to give people time to buy the book and start reading it before March. Get your votes in!

Note: Please only vote if you plan to participate in the discussions.

 

[Ankari]

My choices:

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

Dragon Slayer by William King (Warhammer novel) (I've never read a Warhammer novel)

 

[Steerpike]

I will go with Dragondoom. Recently reissued and I'm planning to read it regardless. Also, completely different from the type of fantasy we just read. I'm not really set on a second choice. Maybe Swansick since he is on my list.

 

[Philip Overby]

From what I understand, Dragon Slayer is a Gotrek and Felix novel. I've read some of one of them (Troll Slayer and Skavenslayer, I think) and they're pretty fun books. Gotrek is crazed dwarf and Felix is his more controlled companion. Kind of an odd couple kind of deal.

I've read and loved The Last Wish, although some people may not like it because it's "too traditional." For me, it's a perfect mix of traditional fantasy mixed with some new kind of ideas. I'm a huge fan of monster hunter stories in general (and I write them) so I really enjoyed the book. It is actually a series of short stories though, so it's not technically a novel.

My choices are the following:

1. A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
2. Dragondoom by Dennis McKiernan

I chose the first one because I've actually started reading it and I'm enjoying it more than I expected I would. The second one because Steerpike recommends it highly and I've never read anything by McKiernan so I'd like to give a new (meaning one I haven't read) author a try.

 

[Gryphos]

1. His Majesty's Dragon
2. A Natural History of Dragons

 

[Ophiucha]

1. His Majesty's Dragon
2. The Iron Dragon's Daughter

I had to cross the border like four times this month, so I didn't partake, but aside from a bit of dental surgery I'm free all of March. Plus I already own like half of the suggested books, so...

 

[Philip Overby]

So it looks like His Majesty's Dragon is the only one that has two "number 1" votes.

Of course we don't have to do it that way. We could do a tie-breaker of sorts as well.

Here are the three books that got two votes period:

1. Dragondoom
2. His Majesty's Dragon
3. A Natural History of Dragons

So if we can, let's have each of us that have voted pick one of these to break the tie.

 

[Steerpike]

Of those three I will go for...wait for it...Dragondoom.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I trust the taste of the voters so I'm down with whatever.

 

[Ophiucha]

His Majesty's Dragon, of those three.

 

[Philip Overby]

Of the three, I'm going to go with His Majesty's Dragon. It was between that and Dragondoom, which I still want to read. I really like A Natural History of Dragons so far, but I'm not sure how others will feel about it. His Majesty's Dragon was my third choice anyway and I've been wanting to read Naomi Novik for a long time. Let's see what others say and I'll post a new thread about March's read by this weekend.

For April, I was wondering if having an "open" month would be good? That means it wouldn't be themed, just suggest any books you want. So if the book you want to really read doesn't get picked for March, you can nominate it again in April.

 

[Gryphos]

His Majesty's Dragon

 

[Steerpike]

I read about half of this book a few years ago. I'll give it another shot. Though for a book club, I'd prefer novels that stand alone as opposed to starting a trilogy (or longer series) with each new month. I'm not sure if this is part of a series in the LotR sense (i.e. the book doesn't stand alone very well), or whether it is part of a series in the Dresden Files sense (i.e. each book tells a complete story in and of itself).

 

[Ophiucha]

For Temeraire, I seem to recall that the first book has a relatively complete arc and story to it. You could stop after the first one and be satisfied with the character arcs, but you couldn't pick up the third book in the series without having read the first two, certainly.

 

[Philip Overby]

I think it's going to be hard to find standalone books due to the propensity for fantasy authors to write series. However, for April maybe I can make that one of the guidelines: the book has to be standalone.

From what I gather, His Majesty's Dragon is certainly a lot different than Prince of Thorns. That's what I hope we can manage. I don't want too many books that are really similar. I don't so much mind starting a book in a series as long as it's good.

So if we don't get any more votes, it looks like His Majesty's Dragon will be the pick. I'll make an official announcement tomorrow.