ShannonA
07-01-2008, 12:59 AM
We're just starting discussion of July's book, Hit or Myth, but in the meantime please vote for your favorite FOUR books for reading in August. The highest vote-getter will be the winner.
Since we've been reading some older books over the last several months, this time I've offered up the winners of the awards over the last year.
The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman
Nominee: Nebula
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2856
This is a new book about a man who accidentally discovers time travel by SF master Joe Haldeman.
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
Winner: Locus (Debut)
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2854
A ghost story that Neil Gaiman that Neil Gaiman describes as the best horror debut since Clive Barker's Damnation Game.
Making Money by Terry Pratchett
Winner: Locus (Fantasy)
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=1830
The, uh, 36th Discworld book. I'm not convinced it's particularly stand-out for the series, but it's full of Pratchett's good sense of humor and his ever better defined world (and characters).
The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson
Nominee: Nebula
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2857
A mainstream fantasy realism novel by a publisher that I've never heard of (Grand Central Station). It's about a woman entering her 50s who rediscovers the ability to find lost things.
Odyssey by Jack McDevitt
Nominee: Nebula
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2855
This is Jack McDevitt's newest novel in his "Academy"/"Monument" universe. I don't have any familiarity with it, but it looks to me like this is one of the old-fashioned Space Opera series that began to proliferate in the 1990s.
Ragamuffin by Tobias S. Buckell
Nominee: Nebula
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2858
This looks like slightly harder-edged science-fiction with a fascist government controlling the movement of humans in the far-future. It's Buckell's second book, both set in the same universe.
Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
Winner: Hugo
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2860
Set just 17 years in the future, a recovering Alzheimer's patient finds that the world has very suddenly changed around him.
Thirteen by Richard S. Morgan
Winner: Arthur C. Clarke
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2859
A novel of a genetically engineered soldier in the future, and what he does now that the super-soldier program is shut down. Winner of the British Clarke award; it was published as "Black Man" in Britain. This is a long book at 560 pages.
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
Winner: Locus (YA)
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=489
Mieville is best known for his very complex Bas-Lag books. This is comparatively a kid's book, about what exists on the other side of London, but it's got sufficient depth (and length) to be worthy of any adult's reading.
The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
Winner: Locus (SF), Nebula Awards
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2846
This is scarcely genre. It's an alternate history where the Jewish people settled in Alaska after the fall of Israel. Beyond that it's a detective novel and a story about a people about to be dislocated again. It's got beautiful writing. It's also quite long.
Since we've been reading some older books over the last several months, this time I've offered up the winners of the awards over the last year.
The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman
Nominee: Nebula
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2856
This is a new book about a man who accidentally discovers time travel by SF master Joe Haldeman.
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
Winner: Locus (Debut)
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2854
A ghost story that Neil Gaiman that Neil Gaiman describes as the best horror debut since Clive Barker's Damnation Game.
Making Money by Terry Pratchett
Winner: Locus (Fantasy)
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=1830
The, uh, 36th Discworld book. I'm not convinced it's particularly stand-out for the series, but it's full of Pratchett's good sense of humor and his ever better defined world (and characters).
The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson
Nominee: Nebula
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2857
A mainstream fantasy realism novel by a publisher that I've never heard of (Grand Central Station). It's about a woman entering her 50s who rediscovers the ability to find lost things.
Odyssey by Jack McDevitt
Nominee: Nebula
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2855
This is Jack McDevitt's newest novel in his "Academy"/"Monument" universe. I don't have any familiarity with it, but it looks to me like this is one of the old-fashioned Space Opera series that began to proliferate in the 1990s.
Ragamuffin by Tobias S. Buckell
Nominee: Nebula
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2858
This looks like slightly harder-edged science-fiction with a fascist government controlling the movement of humans in the far-future. It's Buckell's second book, both set in the same universe.
Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
Winner: Hugo
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2860
Set just 17 years in the future, a recovering Alzheimer's patient finds that the world has very suddenly changed around him.
Thirteen by Richard S. Morgan
Winner: Arthur C. Clarke
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2859
A novel of a genetically engineered soldier in the future, and what he does now that the super-soldier program is shut down. Winner of the British Clarke award; it was published as "Black Man" in Britain. This is a long book at 560 pages.
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
Winner: Locus (YA)
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=489
Mieville is best known for his very complex Bas-Lag books. This is comparatively a kid's book, about what exists on the other side of London, but it's got sufficient depth (and length) to be worthy of any adult's reading.
The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
Winner: Locus (SF), Nebula Awards
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2846
This is scarcely genre. It's an alternate history where the Jewish people settled in Alaska after the fall of Israel. Beyond that it's a detective novel and a story about a people about to be dislocated again. It's got beautiful writing. It's also quite long.