Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Seems our first series read is going well so far, so let's give a second one a try.

Note that if your nomination is selected by the group, we'll be expecting you to take the lead in the discussion, so be sure you'll be able to not just invest the time in reading the books, but also to keep the discussions going each month. This doesn't mean you have to cancel your vacation plans so you can be there for a specific month's discussion, but don't drop out halfway through!

Some guidelines in selecting a series, but feel free to ignore, these aren't hard rules and the voting will ultimately decide:

- Don't pick a series that is too long, we risk losing participants along the way, either due to loss of interest in the series or just people naturally leaving the group (hard to replace with newcomers since they will have to catch up on previous books). Can try to suggest a "sub" series (e.g. Amber splits naturally into two sets of 5, Shanara/Valdermar have sub-trilogies, etc). We can also run out of stuff to discuss if the next installment is really just "more of the same".

- Pick a series that is already completed, bit of a disappointment to invest 6 months of reading not to find out how it ends.

- Try to avoid series with really long books. We already read two books a month, squeezing in a third can be hard.

Nominations will be open through Monday, November 19, when I'll collect the nominees and post a poll so members can choose among them. Giving a little extra time since picking a good discussion series is a bit harder than picking one book :)

Feel free to discuss nominations options and request opinions as to whether they are good options or not. You do not need to have already read your nomination but that makes it hard for you to know if the quality goes downhill part way though, as we know some series sometimes do.

If anyone wants inspiration and also have some pre-existing feedback on series popularity, here was our original discussion on the topic Group read & discussion of a SF/F Series?

Note that the second half of Amber is still available as an option

I think that Amber books worked quite well because they were so short and easy to read. But, it might be nice to change things up.

I'll re-nominate Harry Potter because I always enjoy re-reading it. And contemplate what other series I think would be good.
We did Mistborn trilogy awhile back didn't we? Or at least one of those books?
What about Assassin's Apprentice?

Is Mistborn good if someone hasn't read anything else in Sanderson's worlds (never mind, only Elantris is before it, easy enough to catch up). Assassin's is Hobb's first in the Elderlings world so that's good.

Actually having "fat" book trilogies might not be bad, sure lots of intense reading for three months but then we can either take a month or two off, or put in some of the anthology/short stories before starting a new series. Interesting idea. I was kind of envisioning trying to get through the entire Wheel of Time or Stephen Erikson's Malazan was a bit daunting :)

BTW, that said, if anyone wants a break and delay the series read to Feb to have an anthology read in Jan just say so, I'll count those votes and compare against the number of people that generally participate in a group discussion to see if we get a good percentage.

And talking of shorts made me think, if a series includes some shorts/novellas we can also consider reading those as part of the series read. Obviously depends on their availability, don't want to buy 10 anthologies just to get the 10 individual stories, but sometimes they are free to download.

I'll nominate Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. There are 5 books starting with Furies of Calderon. I read it when it first came out in 2011 & liked it. I've been wanting to reread it. I like it better than his Harry Dresden series for some reason.

I'd read the Codex Alera books again.

So far I'm liking all the suggestions and nominations, I have the Codex Alera series and keep meaning to reading them but always something else comes up :) I also want to read his Steampunk series but he's only written one of those so far.

I tried to follow along with the Ber read but somehow was always behind....so I’ll probably take January off to finish up 2018 reading

Andrea wrote: "S I also want to read his [Buttcher's] Steampunk series ..."

Not much of a series. I read The Aeronaut's Windlass back in 2015, and still waiting on book two. I did like it, but I'm a total sucker for "flying sailing ships." Combines nautical fiction with flying! Waaay cooler than dirigibles. :)

Cat wrote: "We did Mistborn trilogy awhile back didn't we? Or at least one of those books?..."

We read the first book, Mistborn: The Final Empire just back in February. (It felt wrong to just read one, so I, at least, went ahead and read the other/next two. While each book has an ending, the trilogy is really an integrated story.)


Andrea wrote: "Is Mistborn good if someone hasn't read anything else in Sanderson's worlds ? ..."

Really, all of Sanderson's series stand alone, they only connect to that "Cosmere" thing in his head and with a few little Easter Eggs he's tossed into more recent works.

There's a huge break between the original Mistborn trilogy and his recent continuation.

throne of glass possibly??? it is young adult but it gets quite dark towards the end. currently rereading the series myself and think it would make a fun group series read. it has 7 books plus a novella collection which gives background information. havent read all the books since it only finished late last month

I'm in college so definitely won't be able to commit to a series.
Juliet McKenna or Elizabeth Moon have some great series.

I'm interested in reading quite a few of these series - Codex Alera and Throne of Glass would be new to me :) (and my nominations were ones that I'll read over and over and over again happily)

How about The Books of the South of The Black Company series, which consists of:
The Silver Spike
Shadow Games
Dreams of Steel

Silvana wrote: "How about The Books of the South of The Black Company series, which consists of:
The Silver Spike
Shadow Games
Dreams of Steel"

Does it matter if you've read books 1-3 or not? I have 1-3...and based on covers I think I have 6-7 (both used book store finds) I'm sure I saw them in my library. I wouldn't have time to cram in the first 3 books before a mid-January start though :)

Sort of related fact, Tor.com had book 1 as their monthly giveaway a few months back.

Hmm I think just based on the reviews, you still need to read book 1-3.

Ok so far I think I have the following actual nominations, the number is how many books, not counting novellas/shorts, are in the series. I left out the Cursed Child from Harry Potter since it was already a group read and not part of the core series:

Cat - Mistborn (3)
Jim - Codex Alera (6)
Bryce - Throne of Glass (7)
Silvana - The Books of the South (3)
Rachel - Young Miles (3)
Laura - Terra Ignota (3 with #4 forthcoming)
RJ (formerly known as Randy) - Narnia (6 since we're already reading one)

And just suggestions/ideas
- Harry Potter (7)
- Farseer's Trilogy (3)
- Maybe something by Juliet McKenna or Elizabeth Moon (e.g. Vatta's War)

I;ve been thinking of reading some of the /miles Vorkosigan books : so maybe....the first.../i haven;t read them so I don't know...

The ones in the young miles omnibus; The Warrior's Apprentice, the mountains of mourning,and The Vor game

Rachel wrote: "I;ve been thinking of reading some of the /miles Vorkosigan books : so maybe....the first.../i haven;t read them so I don't know...
The ones in the young miles omnibus; The Warrior's Apprentice, t..."

We discussed Bujold's first Vorkosigan novel, Shards of Honor, last October. (in fact, you participated :) That's before the birth of Miles Vorkosigan, who is the main character of almost all of the other novels; a sort of "how I met your mother." :)

The Young Miles omnibus is a good collection. The Warrior's Apprentice is the first Miles novel, and The Vor Game the 3rd, with "The Mountains of Mourning" an intermediary novella. It does skip Miles novel Brothers in Arms and non-Miles novel Ethan of Athos (as well as a couple of non-Miles novella, such as "Falling Free"), but the omissions don't hurt the continuity. (To do the whole series would be a multi-year commitment.)

Andrea wrote: "- Maybe something by Juliet McKenna or Elizabeth Moon ..."

Silvana proposed Moon's Trading in Danger as a buddy read, the first of a good 5-novel Vatta's War space opera series. (Moon's fantasy Paksenarion Saga (Sheepfarmer's Daughter, etc.) is still on-going, but we could just do the initial trilogy to put some bounds on it.

Book of the South covers books 3.5 to 5 as I listed. I won't have time to reread books 1-3 but if many wants to do the two trilogies back to back I could join the second one.

Jim wrote: "I'll nominate Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. There are 5 books starting with Furies of Calderon. ..."

I've been meaning to read this (though I lost interest in Harry Dresden after 3 books.) Goodreads says it's 6 books, though.

6 books? Oh well, old memory. It misfires occasionally.
;)

I liked Vatta's War & haven't read it in quite a while. It's a quick read like the Codex Alera.

G33z3r, I also lost interest in the Dresden books. I made it through the 6th since my SIL likes it a lot, but the copy editing in that was so bad I couldn't go on. Recently I started the series again except in audio format, but I haven't wanted to start the second book. I like the short stories occasionally. Neat world in many ways, but too many weird rules that are just convenient to keeping Harry miserable. Codex Alera is much faster paced & has a definite end, so I liked it better.

Rachel wrote: "I;ve been thinking of reading some of the /miles Vorkosigan books : so maybe....the first.../i haven;t read them so I don't know...

The ones in the young miles omnibus; The Warrior's Apprentice, t..."

I'd be interested in this myself, now that I started the series I'd like to continue and was planning at some point during the year to nominate one of the books as a classic read (FYI, as the person running this vote I won't be voting except as tie-breaker so my interest in suggestions may not count for much).

Silvana wrote: "Book of the South covers books 3.5 to 5 as I listed. I won't have time to reread books 1-3 but if many wants to do the two trilogies back to back I could join the second one."

If you remember it well enough, no one said you had to literally read a book at the exact same time as the group discussion to be allowed to participate in the discussion. I had read Watership Down one December and it got nominated a few months later, I didn't re-read it but I could still participate in the discussions.

Since the person doing the nominating also needs to drive the discussion, I'll leave it up to you, do you remember enough of the first 3 to participate in the discussion without the re-read? Or do you stick with books 3-6 only? :) Let me know and I'll put down your final decision.

G33z3r wrote: "I've been meaning to read this (though I lost interest in Harry Dresden after 3 books.)"

I'm still reading them but it's a general flaw in a "monster of the day" kind of episodic series that doesn't have a set start/end. Also each book needs to outdo the previous one by making an even bigger badder monster than the previous (after all Dresden should learn and get stronger as he goes) which means he's now doing ridiculous battles with gods and cosmic demons and things, there aren't any bigger/badder things anymore. Maybe that's one reason Butcher is getting stuck with getting the next book out.

Andrea, I'll stick to book 3.5 to 5 only.

I thought someone was thinking about nominating the Narnia books?

Ok perfect, updated my tracking post with everything up to this point.

BTW G33z3r, feel free to make a nomination of your own, you don't get many chance to do so and I'm the mod on reserve this time around :)

Regarding Vorkosigan : I figure if they put them together in that order in an omnibus then it must be an author approved order 😊

Also it seems like this is one series where chronological order is better than publication order??

Rachel wrote: "Regarding Vorkosigan : I figure if they put them together in that order in an omnibus then it must be an author approved order 😊

Also it seems like this is one series where chronological order is ..."

I found that reading the first omnibus sat well with me, even though I usually go publishing order. Don't expect any difference with the second (plus my library only has omnibuses so I'd feel silly reading part of it, bringing it back, then reading the rest later)

I liked rereading the Vorkosigan books in chronological order. I have the paperbacks. The one with 3 short stories in it have stickies in them as do the books telling me when to read them. I can't say it made a huge difference, though. Excellent series.

I'd recommend the Honor Harrington series by David Weber, but it goes on too long for a group read plus it has a bunch of off shoot series. It's good, but his info dumps get old, especially when he uses the same one in several books. The main stories are great, though.

Maybe it's already been done, but I was interested in reading Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series; especially if she does actually publish the fourth next year, it could be nice to read the other three :)

The Mistborn Trilogy is on my to-read list though, so that would be fine as well.

Jim wrote: "I'd recommend the Honor Harrington series by David Weber, but it goes on too long for a group read plus it has a bunch of off shoot series. It's good, but his info dumps get old, especially when he uses the same one in several books...."

For awhile he was putting a lot of that in a "briefing" rather than finding new ways to wedge the exposition into the story. Weber's dilemma is he wants to create a space-faring environment that offers tactical opportunities, similar to his inspiration of Napoleonic era sea combat. To do that, he's created more complex than most set of starship technologies, which requires explanation if the reader is to appreciate the combat tactics. But, yeah, the series is huge and would need a boundary if a group series discussion.

G33z3r wrote: "Jim wrote: "I'll nominate Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. There are 5 books starting with Furies of Calderon. ..."

I've been meaning to read this (though I lost inter..."

It is six books. I have them all and love, love them!

These may be too long, but I'll nominate S. M. Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time series. It's three books--lots of history mixed with fantasy. Island in the Sea of Time , On the Oceans of Eternity, Against the Tide of Years

Andrea wrote: "BTW G33z3r, feel free to make a nomination of your own, you don't get many chance to do so and I'm the mod on reserve this time..."

I'd be happy with finally reading Codex Alera (since Jim nominated it, I assume that means he'll be a participant) or even re-reading Young Miles or Black Company (since I've read the 1st trilogy, the South makes sense for me; not sure how practical it would be for those who haven't read 1-3.) The goal is to reach a consensus that will involve the largest number of participants. Polls are a flawed approximation of that (ranked polls would be better). No sense having a first round in which every nominee gets one vote. :)

Some groups do seconds to help judge interest before votes .... some you get one second but I’ve also seen none. More work for mod tho

Rachel wrote: "Some groups do seconds to help judge interest before votes .... some you get one second but I’ve also seen none. More work for mod tho"

Since a series read is a big investment, maybe I'll do something like that next time (in fact we did that the first time, maybe that worked better?) where people can nominate multiple series but also express interest in other people's nominations and I'll collect the ones with the most "interest" votes and setup a poll with a max of 3-5 so that we don't split the vote as much.

Also, if you see your nomination has no hope to win and you see something else you like near the forefront, you can always change your vote towards the end of the poll.

And of course, there's always the runoff poll if needed.

Andrea wrote: "maybe I'll do something like that next time (in fact we did that the first time, maybe that worked better?)..."

I think it did work well last time. All this discussion is giving me is too many new series that I want to read! I almost don't want to read my own nominations! In fact I think I'll leave Mistborn as a nomination and retract my other suggestions.

Cat wrote: "Andrea wrote: "maybe I'll do something like that next time (in fact we did that the first time, maybe that worked better?)..."

I think it did work well last time. All this discussion is giving me ..."

I was definitely interested in Harry...but then I'm interested in all of them with only minor personal objections to some :) Updated with Mistborn, I put it down as 3 books since 4 onwards seems to be called Mistborn: The Alloy Era, though let me know if you intended to include those.

@Randy - just saw your post, do you want to nominate Narnia since no one else has? I'll be reading them regardless so you've got my interest vote (though not my real vote unless I'm tie-breaking and not promises then since there's at least one other series I'm reading whether it wins or not too).

I will say as someone who has read the series before, they should be good for a series read since there is a fair amount of differences between each book to discuss (The Horse and his Boy is particularly different from the rest), and of course like with Amber, they are short and easy to squeeze into a busy schedule.

Andrea wrote: "@Randy - just saw your post, do you want to nominate Narnia since no one else has? I'll be reading them regardless so you've got my interest vote (though not my real vote unless I'm tie-breaking an..."

Remember The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is scheduled as our December Classic read, so that would already have a head start as a series...

Andrea wrote: Updated with Mistborn, I put it down as 3 books since 4 onwards seems to be called ..."

Yep, just the first three thanks. I have read the next one The Alloy of Law and it gets a weird Western-cowboy vibe... and it's almost completely unrelated to the original trilogy

Cat : so you think, so you think....

It becomes a lot more related.....

Andrea wrote: "@Randy - just saw your post, do you want to nominate Narnia since no one else has? I'll be reading them regardless so you've got my interest vote (though not my real vote unless I'm tie-breaking an..."

Yes I will nominate it.

RJ wrote: : ... "

OMG, you changed your user name!

Universe re-indexing... please wait....

Narnia is now on the list. In a way I hope I don't have to do any tie-breaking since it's going to be hard to pick

G33z3r wrote: "RJ wrote: : ... "

OMG, you changed your user name!

Universe re-indexing... please wait...."

There's a couple other Randys in this and other groups I'm in and I know it's a problem when I can't remember if I posted a comment or another Randy did. There have actually been some amusing mixups before, such as the time someone told me: "I liked your horror book list" and I really wanted to reply "yeah I liked yours too," of course having no idea what she was talking about. No other RJs though, hence the switch.

I was also going to change my profile pic to Stan Lee temporarily in honor of his passing but I decided that would just be too much along with the screen name change. If this was the original Star Trek series, it would have overloaded the computer and set fire to the bridge.

Andrea wrote: "Narnia is now on the list. In a way I hope I don't have to do any tie-breaking since it's going to be hard to pick"

There's no way this is going to get settled without a runoff poll. That is, unless we draw a circle on the ground and give everyone a knife...
;-)

RJ wrote: "I was also going to change my profile pic to Stan Lee temporarily in honor of his passing but I decided that would just be too much along with the screen name change...."

I did see you do that and it really was confusing! I had to go and check what books you were reading to try and figure out if it was really you!

Rachel wrote: "Cat : so you think, so you think....

It becomes a lot more related....."

Does it still stick with the cowboy vibe? Because I really struggled with it and haven't been bothered to try and pick up the series again... But you're making me curious.

(For the record, Andrea my nomination stays at original 3)