The Challenge Factory discussion

Nominate books for the next group read here!

Rules:
Must be under 350 pgs
Must be under $10
Must have been published more than 6 months ago


You may nominate one book for the monthly category: Sci-fi . Nominations are open through the 7th of January.

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

Official nomination:
Mickey7 by Edward Ashton

I was going to suggest The Echo Wife, but it's a buck over budget. 😕

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

Nominations are now closed and we are ready to vote. The nominees are listed below with a blurb about each book. Once you have decided on your favorite, click on the voting link and let us know. The top book will be read and discussed next month as a group.

VOTE HERE

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
225 pgs

Kindle: $7.99
Hoopla: audiobook available with membership


Synopsis:
The three laws of Robotics:
1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
2) A robot must obey orders givein to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

With these three, simple directives, Isaac Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when he formulated the laws governing their behavior. In I, Robot, Asimov chronicles the development of the robot through a series of interlinked stories: from its primitive origins in the present to its ultimate perfection in the not-so-distant future--a future in which humanity itself may be rendered obsolete.

Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-read robots, and robots with a sense of humor. Of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world--all told with the dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction that has become Asmiov's trademark.

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
253 pgs

Kindle: 9.99
Hoopla: audiobook with membership
Scribd: audiobook with membership

Synopsis:
I’m embarrassed, still, by how long it took me to notice. Everything was right there in the open, right there in front of me, but it still took me so long to see the person I had married.

It took me so long to hate him.

Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be.

And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband.

Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up.

Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
241 pgs

Kindle: 4.99
Hoopla: ebook & audiobook with membership
Scribd: ebook with membership


Synopsis:
Just as readers have been transfixed by the stories, characters, and deeper meanings of Lewis's timeless tales in The Chronicles of Narnia, most find this same allure in his classic Space Trilogy. In these fantasy stories for adults, we encounter, once again, magical creatures, a world of wonders, epic battles, and revelations of transcendent truths.

Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel in C. S. Lewis's classic science fiction trilogy. It tells the adventure of Dr. Ransom, a Cambridge academic, who is abducted and taken on a spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra, which he knows as Mars. His captors are plotting to plunder the planet's treasures and plan to offer Ransom as a sacrifice to the creatures who live there. Ransom discovers he has come from the "silent planet"—Earth—whose tragic story is known throughout the universe!

The winner is