Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

It's time to start thinking about setting up our Group Reading Challenges for 2018. (I know everyone's busy with the end of year holidays, but not coincidentally the new year starts right after. :)

(For those who haven't participated before, our Group Challenges let you set a reading goal for yourself to read a certain number of books that fit the criteria of that Challenge. It's a SF&F-oriented complement to the Goodreads Annual Reading Challenge. Because each Challenge lets you set your own goal for the number of books you want to read, it's a form of self motivation, not a competition.)

Last year we had six year-long Challenges and three half-year Challenges we added at midyear:

The SF&F 2017 Reading Challenge
Set yourself a goal for reading Science Fiction and Fantasy books in 2016.

The SF&F 2017 Discussion Challenge
Set yourself a goal for reading Science Fiction and Fantasy selected by our group for discussion in 2016. Join the conversations!

The SF&F 2017 Explorer Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read SF&F books by authors you've never read before. Explore new worlds, find new favorites!

The SF&F 2017 Awards Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read SF&F books which have won awards, such as the Hugo and Nebula, or any other award.

The SF&F 2017 Graphic Novel Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read SF&F Graphic Novels.

The SF&F 2017 Short Works Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read short stories, novella, and anthologies.

The 2017 SF&F Historian Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read old, pre-1950 SF&F (or a date of your choice).

The 2017 SF&F Geographic Setting Bingo Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read works set in a variety of places.

The 2017 SF&F Geographic Author Bingo Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read works by authors from different locales.

The 2017 SF&F Female Author Challenge
Set yourself a goal to read SF&F works by female authors.


* You can see all our past & present SF&HF Group Challenges here.

In 2017, the general SF&F Reading Challenge was the most popular, with 62 members signing up (46 actually marked books as belonging to the challenge, and 19 actually completing their challenge goal so far – there's still a week left to finish up!) The Explorer Challenge was 2nd most popular with 19 participants, the Awards Challenge had 12 participants, the Discussion Challenge had 11, the Awards Challenge had 12 participants, and the Graphic Novel challenge had 7. The Short Stories Challenge was the least popular with only 4 participants.

Do folks want to continue the three half-years challenges on a full-year basis?

So, what do people think about new Group Challenges for our sci-fi and fantasy genre in 2018?

In the past we tried some shorter challenge lasting 3 months & 6 months, though they were less popular than the full-year challenges. There's no reason other than tradition that a challenge has to last a calendar year, or begin at the start of a year. (Shorter Challenges might be more focused, and also let new members join in more easily, though there is nothing to stop anyone from joining in mid-Challenge, since you set your own goal. An annual challenge matches the Goodreads Reading Challenge.)

So, any new ideas for 2018? Without any new suggestions, I'll probably just create the same nine challenges as last year, because I have no imagination. Do people want something else? Some groups seem to do challenges such as books with a title starting with each letter of the alphabet (the goal presumably being 26 books, assuming it's in English language group.) Or Challenges to read books by authors in different states or countries.

Please share your thoughts below!

Rather than having so many different challenge types, I would recommend having the general challenge (since that was popular) and then a challenge with a variety of categories. These could be very broad categories such as decade of publication. Another option that I think could be fun would be a bingo-type challenge such as the Catching Up On Classics group is doing. Categories could include “book published before 1900”, “book by an author you’ve never read”, “Hugo/Nebula award winner”, “book by a female author”, etc.

The Historian challenge may be can be extended since from 1970 and prior.

Is it possible to have a stand alone challenge? To discourage me to start reading new series and complete old ones haha

Speaking of which, maybe a clean up series challenge? We only count the last book of a completed series.

I definitely want to rejoin the female authors and explorer challenges next year. I fail my short work challenge (so far) this year but still want to do it again.

Erin wrote: "Another option that I think could be fun would be a bingo-type challenge such as the Catching Up On Classics group is doing. ..."

So, do you want to design a Bingo card for us? Now accepting input.


Silvana wrote: "Speaking of which, maybe a clean up series challenge? We only count the last book of a completed series. ..."

We have a Series Challenge??

Silvana wrote: "Is it possible to have a stand alone challenge? To discourage me to start reading new series and complete old ones.."

You mean a challenge to read books that Stand Alone and aren't part of a series. Sure.

Silvana wrote: "The Historian challenge may be can be extended since from 1970 and prior...."

The full description of the History Challenge says "pick your own date". Adding it to the comments will let others know how far back you want to read.

Of the half year challenges, I think the female authors one was the best/most popular and could be made a full year challenge.

G33z3r wrote: "Erin wrote: "Another option that I think could be fun would be a bingo-type challenge such as the Catching Up On Classics group is doing. ..."

So, do you want to design a Bingo card for us? Now ac..."

I would be happy to if that would be of interest. :)

@Geezer: We do not have a series challenge but I suggest to have a clean-up or unfinished-series challenge instead. Let's say I put three as target then I would be able to finish it if I manage to finish three series (doesn't matter when I start the first book). The books for input in the challenge list are the last books only of each series.

As for the Historical challenge, you are correct I forgot about that.

Silvana wrote: "@Geezer: We do not have a series challenge but I suggest to have a clean-up or unfinished-series challenge instead. Let's say I put three as target then I would be able to finish it if I manage to finish three series (doesn't matter when I start the first book). ..."

Ah, I see. So, a "Completist Challenge". Sounds good. (I bet Andrea signs up :)

There are some interesting grey areas there. E.g., before this year I would have said I'd finished the Vatta's War, Powder Mage & Craft Sequence series. Thanks to 2017 revisits by the authors, I can now finish them all over again! :)

I'm new to the group, but I love the idea of a general bingo challenge as mentioned above. I also hope we have a Historian challenge again, because my personal challenge for next year is to read classic sci-fi and fantasy that I have not yet experienced.

I like the idea of them being year-long.

If you like older sci-fi you might find archive.org interesting. Play around with the search and the button on the left of the page. When looking at an individual item, scroll to the bottom of the page where it has links to similar items.

https://archive.org/details/pulpficti...

Bill wrote: "If you like older sci-fi you might find archive.org interesting. Play around with the search and the button on the left of the page. When looking at an individual item, scroll to the bottom of the ..."

Are you proposing a Reading Challenge related to the Internet Archive? How would that work?

G33z3r wrote: "Ah, I see. So, a "Completist Challenge". Sounds good. (I bet Andrea signs up :)"

Next year maybe, actually almost certainly since I've left a bunch hanging this year that I'll have to put on hold for my dragons :) Though technically I'm reading Pern to complete it, the rest are series I haven't started yet, not sure it counts if you start and finish in the same year? Otherwise it would be a reading challenge of 1, and given it's 26 books to get to the last one not sure I'll even manage that! It would be a worthy achievement though, on the other hand pretty lame to say I couldn't even achieve that single goal :)

I never know what to put in the these challenges since I change my mind almost weekly as to what I'll read next. And this year my overall reading challenge was skewed by my reading 30 mangas which only take a couple hours each. At least the short stories were balanced by book omnibuses so was keeping a more realistic count of actual books :)

My Internet Archive post was in response to Angie's interest in historical sci-fi.

An Internet Archive challenge would be interesting, but I only like simple challenges. So if the challenge was: "how many magazines or books from Internet Archive do you plan to read this year", I would participate. I also have a large science fiction magazine collection which would be interesting to read before I toss them.

Andrea, I think any series completed within 2018 should count.

OK, I'm seeing a desire to add:
- Bingo Challenge (card TBD)
- Completist Challenge
- Stand-alone Challenge

So, let's get serious about a Bingo Card, 'cause we've got only 2 weeks left to nail this down. I think we need 24 categories to fill out the card (the center square being a freebie).

Some ideas:
Space Opera
Epic Fantasy
Something featuring Dragons
Something featuring Aliens
Something featuring Angels, Demons, and/or Gods
Something featuring Pooka
Urban Fantasy
Military SF/F
Time Travel
SF/F with letter "Y" in title
Robots and/or AIs
Apocalyptic
Cyberpunk
Steampunk
Biopunk (punk optional)
Climate SF
SF/F Mystery
SF/F Romance
Parallel Worlds
Debut SF/F Novel*
Stand-alone Novel*
The Middle book of a 7-book series
Hugo Award Winning SF/F*
Nebula Award Winning SF/F*
Genre-blender (both SF & Fantasy elements)
Something published in April
SF&F YA
SF&F Anthology*
Pre-20th Century SF/F*
Graphic SF/F Novel*
SF/F Humor
SF/F Translated from other than English
SF/F set in a real, non-English-speaking country
SF/F whose title begins, "The Girl....."
SF/F with title of the form, "The ----'s Daughter"
Non-human protagonist
Female protagonist
Male protagonist
Female Author*
Male Author
LGBTQ Author
Author of Color

* Matches another Challenge ?

Only one square per book? (I.e., reading a space opera involving a war with aliens doesn't get your three squares?)

Good list so far, G33z3r.

My first thoughts are that these three are a little too specific:

SF/F whose title begins, "The Girl....."
SF/F with title of the form, "The ----'s Daughter"
Something featuring Pooka

For the Pooka one, maybe it could be "Something featuring a Mythological Creature"

Some other possibilities:

Published between 1900-1970 (or similar date)
Published in the 21st century
New-to-you-author
By a favorite author
Made a TV show or movie
Near Future
Social Sci-Fi
Hard Sci-Fi
From a designated list (like this, for example)

When I've done Bingo in other groups, it's always been one square per book. I'd be fine with either, though.

G33z3r wrote: "Something published in April..."

Perhaps a little bit too specific.

Christmas-themed?
SF-F book with title starting with K? (or any other less common letter)

Angie wrote: "My first thoughts are that these three are a little too specific:..."

Yeah, I was being tongue in cheek for a few of those (that and the "published in April" & "Letter Y".) Just to see if anyone was reading :)

Pookas are my favorite mythological creatures. I watched Harvey at an impressionable age, and ever since I've wanted a 6' tall invisible rabbit for a drinking buddy.

" I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it."

My daughter rescued a rabbit recently & had to name it Harvey due to the movie. This is a girl who was born in the late 80s. I raised her right!
;)

I really like the idea of a bingo challenge - it gives you a structure without being too confining.

Bingo sounds like it could be a cool idea. Have seen the idea floating around here on other sites but still not quite sure how it works? Do you just tag them under a bingo shelf or something like that?

NekroRider wrote: "Bingo sounds like it could be a cool idea. Have seen the idea floating around here on other sites but still not quite sure how it works? Do you just tag them under a bingo shelf or something like that..."

My current draft of the Bingo Card (comments welcome.)


You can complete the challenge by reading books matching 4 or 5 categories in a line (row, column, diagonal. You get the middle box free, because it's tradition.) You can also go for a "full house" by filling in the entire card (all 24 categories.) Each book can count for at most one box (so reading a pre-1918 space opera with an alien PoV by a female author doesn't get you three boxes.)

Unlike traditional Bingo, we all play with the same card.

Like all our reading challenges, this is a self-motivational tool, not a competition.

For all Goodreads group reading challenges, you provide a unique shelf name when you sign up for the challenge. (I usually use names like "sff-2018-bingo-challenge" or "sff-2018-award-challenge", so I can keep them straight on my shelf lists.) A book is tallied against your challenge goal when you mark it "read", place it on that challenge's shelf, and give it a "date read" within the time limit of the challenge (which will be Jan 1, 2018 through Dec 31, 2018 in this case.)

I’m interested but have never tried to do challenges with set up shelf - I might need guidance- I’m only 40 shouldn’t I still be tach-savvy?!

G33z3r wrote: "NekroRider wrote: "Bingo sounds like it could be a cool idea. Have seen the idea floating around here on other sites but still not quite sure how it works? Do you just tag them under a bingo shelf ..."

Good looking card! I like the categories.

G33z3r wrote: "NekroRider wrote: "Bingo sounds like it could be a cool idea. Have seen the idea floating around here on other sites but still not quite sure how it works? Do you just tag them under a bingo shelf ..."

Ah ok, wasn't sure if tracking the challenge worked the same way as the other challenges since there's also the card. Good to know! Think the categories in that draft look good.

NekroRider wrote: "Ah ok, wasn't sure if tracking the challenge worked the same way as the other challenges since there's also the card...."

Tracking the card is beyond the capabilities of Goodread's Group Challenge. As with some of our other challenges, e.g. the Geographic Challenges, you have to keep track yourself of which countries you've checked off with which books. (I suggest adding your own comment to the Challenge itself as you go, but that's not necessary.)

E.g., you could read Infomocracy, place it on your sff-2018-bingo-challenge shelf (whatever you choose to call it(, and add a comment to your challenge entry to the effect, "Female Author = Infomocracy".

Normally I don't do these challenges other than the GR book count since my reading plans change so much during the year, but I really like this bingo challenge. It doesn't lock you into any particular thing since its got so much variety. I look forward to seeing how much I can cover using just dragon books and whatever other books come up as group reads.