SciFi and Fantasy eBook Club discussion

After discussing this earlier in May, we're going to try something new - A group read of a trilogy of books starting in July. To do this then, I thought I'd just open nominations wide open for this first round. So this can be either a fantasy or a science fiction series. Unlike our other books, these will be moderated discussions

This is one book a month for three months - so a trilogy is the prefered size. But we have talked about 3-books from a larger series. (my thought there is that if that's what's voted on, then that's what everyone wants to read, so that'll be a fun read).

I'll create a separare folder for these conversations, unless you want to do them in the regular, monthly conversations - I'm good either way.


Here are my guidelines I thought up, we can refine them as we go along:

1. One Series a quarter; 3-books selected. If there are more than three books in the series, the three are selected before voting begins (So, maybe the first 3 of the Ender Quintet, let's say).
2. The series can include a book previously selected as a monthly selection (because, why not read the entire series?)
3. The Nominator is also the leader; unless other arrangements are made (always give an opening for extenuating circumstances)
4. Fantasy or Science Fiction; ebooks, of course.


So, make your series nominations and we'll see if this works out ... :)


Seconded Trilogies
Crystal Singer, Killashandra and Crystal Line by Anne McCaffrey - Brenda
Dies the Fire, The Protector's War and A Meeting at Corvallis by S.M. Stirling - Geoffrey
The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings by Joe Ambercrombie - Andrea
The Fighter King, A Vow to Sophia and The Fighter Queen by John Bowers - Al
Dragonsinger, Dragonsong and Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey - Clare


Nominated Trilogies
The Magicians' Guild, The Novice and The High Lord by Trudi Canavan - Maria
The Black Company, Shadows Linger, and The White Rose by Glen Cook - Paul
VALIS, The Divine Invasion and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K. Dick - Greg
The Last Dragonslayer, The Song of the Quarkbeast and The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde - Joella
Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin and Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb - Michael

I'm going to start this off with nominating the original trilogy in S.M. Stirling's Emberverse: Dies the Fire, The Protector's War and A Meeting at Corvallis.

We read the first book March 2013 but I've read this particular trilogy 5 or 6 times since it was first published.

There are so many books that I would love to nominate for this! Narrowing it down is hard, but I'll nominate The Magicians' Guild, The Novice, and The High Lord by Trudi Canavan.

Hmm, how about Annals of the Black Company which is The Black Company, Shadows Linger, and The White Rose.

Are the author restrictions on for Trilogies? I'm aching to reread the VALIS Trilogy.

I'd like to read the chronicles of Kazam by Jasper Fforde. The first book is The Last Dragonslayer which is followed by a Song of the Quarkbeast. I know the third is out but I do not have it yet and don't recall the title.

I don't have any nominations however I wanted to just add that I think this is a brilliant idea!

While I'd like to join in I have too many reading and reviewing commitments, few of which are trilogies at present. I wouldn't have time in other words.

A great trilogy is Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, about terraforming the red planet. All your nominations above are fantasy to some degree.

Help! I can't decide!!!!!!

Okay....okay....here goes.....

Crystal Singer, Killashandra, Crystal Line by Anne McCaffrey.

I second the trilogy Crystal Singer ... by Anne McCaffrey.

Do these have to be available in hard copy? I'd like to nominate something that's only in eBook format, but not sure about the rules:

The main trilogy in John Bower's Fighter Queen saga:
-The Fighter King
-A Vow to Sophia
-The Fighter Queen
or if you prefer fantasy:
The Land Behind the Veil trilogy by Kriss Erickson:
-Brownbird's Luck
-Journey to Brodantia
-Inner Unicorn
Christal Singer is a good series too, but I liked the first book best; the others seemed "forced", like McCaffrey was trying to make a story when she wasn't moved by her muse.

Greg wrote: "Are the author restrictions on for Trilogies? I'm aching to reread the VALIS Trilogy."

I'm thinking, No - Unless someone really objects.

Clare wrote: "A great trilogy is Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, about terraforming the red planet. All your nominations above are fantasy to some degree. "

I thought about using that one as my nomination but there is so much in them that I thought preparing a conversation about Red Mars by July would be too much work. But, once this first one is successful, I'm thinking about nominating this one for an Oct,Nov & Dec read ....

Al wrote: "Do these have to be available in hard copy? I'd like to nominate something that's only in eBook format, but not sure about the rules"

e-book only is fine .... although I'm sure some in the group read paper versions, we're primarily an ebook club. So which of the two do you prefer?

Clare wrote: "A great trilogy is Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, about terraforming the red planet."

I also pondered nominating Robinson, but his Science in the Capital Trilogy. What held me back was that I've never read them and didn't want to commit to moderating three unknown books. There are no rules against it, I suppose, but nonetheless I felt compelled to stick with a trilogy I knew.

Science in the Capitol is a great series and touches on things like freegans and other niches in our culture that most don't get into. It would spawn some interesting conversations but it's one I would also want some time to prepare for.

As an aside, I love the response to this after only one day we have 6 nominated trilogies. There are more fantasy than science fiction but we'll see if that changes. I like the list so far.

I'll second the Emberverse trilogy. I never read the second and third books.

Geoffrey wrote: "Al wrote: "Do these have to be available in hard copy? I'd like to nominate something that's only in eBook format, but not sure about the rules"

e-book only is fine .... although I'm sure some in the group read paper versions, we're primarily an ebook club. So which of the two do you prefer? "

I personally prefer the Bowers' series, but it's got a lot of sex in it, so I don't know how that will fly with this group (don't know how many minors we have). The Erickson fantasy is rated "G" and should offend no one.

I would like to nominate Joe Abercrombie's trilogy The First Law Trilogy: The Blade Itself; Before They Are Hanged; and Last Argument of Kings

Greg wrote: "Clare wrote: "A great trilogy is Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, about terraforming the red planet."

I also pondered nominating Robinson, but his Science in the Capital Trilogy. What held me ..."

If you like dozens of sub-plots, and dozens of minor characters, neither of which carry forward the story, then you might enjoy KSR's Mars series. I thought it was rubbish, fwiw. Got through Red Mars fine enough, then started to struggle with Blue (or is Green next?), and found the second half such a slog I gave up on the third. I just don't like soft sci-fi, in this case, where "Mars" is merely the backdrop of another story.

However, I also could not finish Revelation Space by A. Reynolds, who has a similar voice to K.S. Robinson (imo).

Al wrote: "I personally prefer the Bowers' series, but it's got a lot of sex in it, so I don't know how that will fly with this group (don't know how many minors we have). The Erickson fantasy is rated "G" and should offend no one. "

Then Let's go with your preference - we've read books with adult themes before and I think our only minors I've seen are old enough to know what's what - it's not like we have any 8 year olds hanging out....

I'll second The First Law Trilogy by Abercrombie.

Haven't read it, but have been noticing good comments about it.

Geoffrey wrote: "Al wrote: "I personally prefer the Bowers' series, but it's got a lot of sex in it, so I don't know how that will fly with this group (don't know how many minors we have). The Erickson fantasy is r..."

I'll officially second the motion on the Fighter Queen saga (Rated "R") if enough people want to read it.

Al wrote: "Geoffrey wrote: "Al wrote: "I personally prefer the Bowers' series, but it's got a lot of sex in it, so I don't know how that will fly with this group (don't know how many minors we have). The Eric..."

I just saw an ad from Bowers' publisher. The first book in the series (The Fighter King) is on sale for $.99. I think it's been on sale for a while. I think they're using it as a loss-leader for the entire series. That might help those, like me, who are on a tight budget.

I'd like to nominate The Farseer Trilogy - I keep hearing good thing about it.

Clare wrote: "What about the Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey;
Dragonsinger, Dragonsong and Dragondrums."

I haven't read any of her dragon books in forever. I'll second this.

Ooooo....two Anne McCaffrey series.

I like Dragonriders, too. Thought Crystalsinger would be a nice change up, though.

Michael wrote: "I'd like to nominate The Farseer Trilogy - I keep hearing good thing about it."

It's really good, but I've already used my second.

Anybody?

I got a wild hair and put all 10 into the poll. so your wish is my command. :)

:)

I would have nominated the Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey (Dragonsinger etc.) but I could not find an ebook edition. Can one be found?

I believe Amazon has it.

It's in the poll if you want to vote for it.:)

I looked specifically on amazon and they don't have it in ebook format.

Oooo...I take that back.
Must have been thinking of Dragonriders.
Dragonsong etc...isn't on kindle.

Donna and I Discussed this and Farseer and First Law are neck and neck in the run off. Obviously, members want to read both. So, we'll do both. The only questions now are: Who goes first and do we do two fantasies back to back or insert a Science fiction in the middle?

For the first question, Andreea and Michael get to decide since they will moderate. One will be this upcoming quarter - July, Aug and Sept. The other will either be Oct, Nov, Dec or first thing in the new year.

For the second question, tell me your thoughts here. do we alternate genres or do two fantasies back to back? This one is up to the entire group to decide ... if we decide on a science fiction in between, we'll do nominations sometime in August, otherwise we'll wait until early Nov.....

I'm really happy either to go first or to defer to Andreea (ladies first?).

One thing to flag is that I'm not going to be able to mod anything much in Oct / Nov / Dec - work goes crazy at the end of the year. Happy to pick up again in January which may play rather nicely into the whole SF-insertion idea.

I'm good with alternating fantasy/SF and doing an SF series next. In fact, I have a couple I want to nominate.

I think alternating goes well with how we do the monthly book selections.

I prefer science fiction so alternating sounds good, but it seems like there is a strong lean towards fantasy in the group and I'd be OK with letting the polls decide each quarter even though I'd probably skip fantasy selections.

Hi all, I'm all for alternating. I'm a big fan of both fantasy and SF and read them side by side. For the trilogy, as my workload is pretty uniform throughout the year, I can let Michael go first with Farseer and pick up at any time later (Oct if we do the trilogies back to back or Jan if we insert SF)

Just to be all-informed before making a decision....

Robin Hobb's new book Fool's Assassin, which is the first in a new trilogy featuring the farseer characters, is released in August :)

Given that, I would prefer reading Farseer first, myself....just sayin'

Good Point, Maggie. I wasn't aware of the new trilogy. I think that may decide who gets firsties right there.

So, are we good with:

Q3: Farseer with Michael
Q4: Science Fiction Series to be determined around August
Q1: First Law with Andreea

Works for me.

Sounds good.