Group Reads Book 9

Let's get the ball rolling for the next group read!

For those new to the group, you get to nominate up to five books, all of which are put together into a large list. After a week or two, we get to second one book (and the book can not be a book you initially nominated). After another week or two, the top five go to an online poll, everyone voting for one book, and the winner of the poll is the next book to be read by the group.

The only condition regarding nominated books (except that the book being from the genre of SF) is that every book should be widely available in Europe and America as paperback editions.

Looks like I peeked in at just the right time. For what it's worth, two are old favorites of mine and the other three I apparently need some impetus to get around to.

Clifford Simak's City
R.C. Wilson's Darwinia
Gregory Benford's Artifact
Walter Miller's A Canticle for Liebowitz
Asimov's Nemesis

Galileo's Dream. Kim Stanley Robinson
Ark, Stephen Baxter
Roadside Picnic, Strugatsky Brothers
The Quiet War, Paul J McAuley
The Dosadi Experiment or The Jesus Incident, Frank Herbert (either - would like to reread both one day, but I don't mind which of the two)

Good suggestions Ian.

Ark is a sequel - and I don't know if it is in ordinary paperback yet.
Galileo's Dream isn't out in ordinary paperback yet (I bought and read it as a hardcover).

How about -

Emissaries From The Dead by Adam-Troy Castro which was the co-winner of the PKD Award in 2009. It is out in paperback and so is cheap and should be easy to get hold of.

My TBR list of science fiction is over 500 titles long, so I went to http://www.random.org/integers/ to narrow it down to a certain letter. Twenty-two was my number so here are my nominations for titles that start with the letter "V":

Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter
Variable Star by Robert A. Heinlein
Vinland the Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Visitor by Sherri S. Tepper

...and I guess for a fifth, though many have already read this one...

Old Man's War by John Scalzi

(my nominations are all available in mass-market paperback)

#4 Damn. Then I meant Flood.

By the time we make a decision, Galileo's Dream could well be availalbe in paperback :-)

City, Clifford Simak
Darwinia, R.C. Wilson
Artifact, Gregory Benford
A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller Jr.
Nemesis, Asimov's
Galileo's Dream, Kim Stanley Robinson
Flood, Stephen Baxter
Roadside Picnic, Strugatsky Brothers
The Quiet War, Paul J McAuley
The Dosadi Experiment, Frank Herbert
The Jesus Incident, Frank Herbert
Emissaries From The Dead, Adam-Troy Castro
Vacuum Diagrams, Stephen Baxter
Variable Star, Robert A. Heinlein
Vinland the Dream, Kim Stanley Robinson
The Visitor, Sherri S. Tepper
Old Man's War, John Scalzi

Some interesting nominations here.

Isn't Vinland the Dream a short story collection? Mind you, so is Vacuum Diagrams.

Variable Star is one of the few Heinleins I've never read - and from when I've heard it's better than many of his other books.

Yes both Vinland The Dream and Vacuum Diagrams are collections.

However I think it is perfectly admissible to suggest and vote for collections (and even anthologies) for the group read. Although I would think that discussion may be a bit fractured with people wanting to talk about different stories.

I don't see any reason why short story collections should not be included in the selection process... unless I hear objections otherwise.

>8 iansales: Spider Robinson completed the posthumously published Variable Star. LibraryThing reviews are mostly positive, so I should have added both authors when I nominated the book.

Ah. It was Double Star then, I was thinking of. Not doing very well so far on this thread... I must admit I'm not too keen on literary necrophilia, and I'm hard-pressed to think of an example of book finished by another hand after the death of the author which turned out good...

>12 iansales: I liked Donnerjack finished up for Zelazny by Lindskold.

Seconding The Jesus Incident and Vinland The Dream.

Adding Gather, Darkness!...not for its greatness but for a nudge to re-read.

Nomations:

Paul Melko's Singularity Ring
Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep
Walter Jon Williams' Implied Spaces
Edgar Rice Burrough's A Princess of Mars
Dan Simmons' Hyperion

Hyperion might be a bit cliche and already read by some people, but I haven't yet, and it is a very easy book to find in libraries and bookstores.

>14 richardderus:

I believe that, as per the rules in the opening post, we're only supposed to second one nomination.

#15, We've already done A Fire Upon the Deep*. You might want to choose another book instead.

* gah - stupid touchstones - it won't find "A Fire Upon the Deep", but it will find "Fire Upon the Deep"... and then displays the correct title, "A Fire Upon the Deep".

>17 iansales:

Yeah, I was puzzling over that touchstone inconsistency myself, heh.

Alright then, I'll nominated Infoquake by David Louis Edelman in place of "A Fire Upon the Deep."

the execution channel - Ken Macleod
neuropath - Bakker
anathem Stephenson . in mass market now.
the jennifer morgue Stross - very funny

Hmmm...I'll second The Jesus Incident only.

I'm still around, but with 5 noms per person, and several interesting options already, I'm just going to wait for the seconding phase this time. :-)

Let's try waiting until all nominations are in before we second books this time, and see how that works out. And we only second a single book from the list.

Nominated so far:

Anathem; Neal Stephenson
Artifact; Gregory Benford
A Canticle for Liebowitz; Walter M. Miller Jr.
City; Clifford Simak
Darwinia; R.C. Wilson
Dosadi Experiment; Frank Herbert
Emissaries From The Dead; Adam-Troy Castro
Execution Channel - Ken Macleod
Flood; Stephen Baxter
Galileo's Dream; Kim Stanley Robinson
Gather, Darkness; Fritz Leiber
Hyperion; Dan Simmons
Implied Spaces; Walter Jon Williams
Infoquake; David Louis Edelman
Jennifer Morgue; Charles Stross
Jesus Incident, Frank Herbert
Nemesis; Isaac Asimov
Neuropath; Scott Bakker
Old Man's War; John Scalzi
Princess of Mars; Edgar Rice Burrough
Quiet War; Paul J McAuley
Roadside Picnic; Strugatsky Brothers
Singularity Ring; Paul Melko
Vacuum Diagrams; Stephen Baxter
Variable Star; Robert A. Heinlein
Vinland the Dream; Kim Stanley Robinson
Visitor; Sherri S. Tepper

Let me know if I have missed anything. Except "Fire Upon The Deep". We've already read that, as IanSales mentioned (feel free to add your thoughts to the thread, Einhorn303).

Seeing as though we have had no nominations over the last few days, I presume that everyone has had amplie opportunity to nominate the books they wanted to, so let's move on to the seconding stage.

I will second "Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatsky Brothers. There's also a movie adaptation of this, with the screenplay written by the same brothers, which would make for an interesting comparison.

#23 yes, "Stalker", directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It's an excellent film.

I think I will second Emissaries from the Dead.

I second Gather, Darkness by Fritz Leiber

I'll second The Quiet War by Paul McAuley

I'll also second Emissaries from the Dead

I'd like to second Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson.

(And point out that the spelling is Singularity's Ring, not Singularity Ring)

Books nominated more than once:

(3) Emissaries From The Dead; Adam-Troy Castro
(2) Darwinia; R.C. Wilson
(2) Gather, Darkness; Fritz Leiber
(2) Roadside Picnic; Strugatsky Brothers
(2) Quiet War; Paul J McAuley

Books nominated once:

Anathem; Neal Stephenson
Artifact; Gregory Benford
A Canticle for Liebowitz; Walter M. Miller Jr.
City; Clifford Simak
Dosadi Experiment; Frank Herbert
Anathem; Neal Stephenson
Artifact; Gregory Benford
A Canticle for Liebowitz; Walter M. Miller Jr.
City; Clifford Simak
Darwinia; R.C. Wilson
Dosadi Experiment; Frank Herbert
Emissaries From The Dead; Adam-Troy Castro
Execution Channel - Ken Macleod
Flood; Stephen Baxter
Galileo's Dream; Kim Stanley Robinson
Gather, Darkness; Fritz Leiber
Hyperion; Dan Simmons
Implied Spaces; Walter Jon Williams
Infoquake; David Louis Edelman
Jennifer Morgue; Charles Stross
Jesus Incident, Frank Herbert
Nemesis; Isaac Asimov
Neuropath; Scott Bakker
Old Man's War; John Scalzi
Princess of Mars; Edgar Rice Burrough
Roadside Picnic; Strugatsky Brothers
Singularity Ring; Paul Melko
Vacuum Diagrams; Stephen Baxter
Variable Star; Robert A. Heinlein
Vinland the Dream; Kim Stanley Robinson
Visitor; Sherri S. Tepper

Thanks for the spelling fix, Einhorn.

Galileo's Dream; Kim Stanley Robinson - not w/ a huge amount of enthusiasm. I've read a fair number already and the Benford, Simak, Leiber, Herbert, & Baxter left me cold. haven't read this Tepper - I like some of her stuff so maybe...I liked Darwinia a lot - but not enough to buy another copy as i gave mine away. But anything but Heinlein...or Asimov

AH haven't read that particular McAuley and i generally like his stuff.

I'll second Asimov's Nemesis.

Having just about finished rewatching Babylon 5, I'm in the mood to continue the space station theme.

Seconding The Jesus Incident.

Latest update:

Books nominated more than once:

(3) Emissaries From The Dead; Adam-Troy Castro
(2) Darwinia; R.C. Wilson
(2) Galileo's Dream; Kim Stanley Robinson
(2) Gather, Darkness; Fritz Leiber
(2) Jesus Incident, Frank Herbert
(2) Nemesis; Isaac Asimov
(2) Roadside Picnic; Strugatsky Brothers
(2) Quiet War; Paul J McAuley

Books nominated once:

Anathem; Neal Stephenson
Artifact; Gregory Benford
A Canticle for Liebowitz; Walter M. Miller Jr.
City; Clifford Simak
Dosadi Experiment; Frank Herbert
Anathem; Neal Stephenson
Artifact; Gregory Benford
A Canticle for Liebowitz; Walter M. Miller Jr.
City; Clifford Simak
Darwinia; R.C. Wilson
Dosadi Experiment; Frank Herbert
Emissaries From The Dead; Adam-Troy Castro
Execution Channel - Ken Macleod
Flood; Stephen Baxter
Gather, Darkness; Fritz Leiber
Hyperion; Dan Simmons
Implied Spaces; Walter Jon Williams
Infoquake; David Louis Edelman
Jennifer Morgue; Charles Stross
Neuropath; Scott Bakker
Old Man's War; John Scalzi
Princess of Mars; Edgar Rice Burrough
Roadside Picnic; Strugatsky Brothers
Singularity Ring; Paul Melko
Vacuum Diagrams; Stephen Baxter
Variable Star; Robert A. Heinlein
Vinland the Dream; Kim Stanley Robinson
Visitor; Sherri S. Tepper

Keep the votes coming in!

I would like to second A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller.
--BJ

Seconding Emissaries From The Dead by Adam-Troy Castro.

I'll second Galileo's Dream

>33 rojse: rojse...not to be a bitch...Gather, Darkness! has two noms (see #29 above) and you mention City by Simak twice, possibly accidentally...*wince* I sound like such a priggish schoolmarm! But I'd really like to see the Leiber make it to the finals.

I've changed my vote from "Roadside Picnic" to "Jesus Incident".

In a related note, I would like to run the poll at the end of this week with any books that get more than two votes (which, hopefully, will end up with approximately five books to vote on).

The list, as it currently stands (corrected, thanks to Richardderus)

(4) Emissaries From The Dead; Adam-Troy Castro
(3) Galileo's Dream; Kim Stanley Robinson
(3) Jesus Incident, Frank Herbert

(2) A Canticle for Liebowitz; Walter M. Miller Jr.
(2) Darwinia; R.C. Wilson
(2) Gather, Darkness; Fritz Leiber
(2) Nemesis; Isaac Asimov
(2) Roadside Picnic; Strugatsky Brothers
(2) Quiet War; Paul J McAuley

Anathem; Neal Stephenson
Artifact; Gregory Benford
City; Clifford Simak
Darwinia; R.C. Wilson
Dosadi Experiment; Frank Herbert
Emissaries From The Dead; Adam-Troy Castro
Execution Channel - Ken Macleod
Flood; Stephen Baxter
Hyperion; Dan Simmons
Implied Spaces; Walter Jon Williams
Infoquake; David Louis Edelman
Jennifer Morgue; Charles Stross
Neuropath; Scott Bakker
Old Man's War; John Scalzi
Princess of Mars; Edgar Rice Burrough
Roadside Picnic; Strugatsky Brothers
Singularity Ring; Paul Melko
Vacuum Diagrams; Stephen Baxter
Variable Star; Robert A. Heinlein
Vinland the Dream; Kim Stanley Robinson
Visitor; Sherri S. Tepper

ok, if it is time to tighten up, I've always wanted to read Darwinia, so even tho I seconded Quiet War (which I want to read also), I'll withdraw my 2nd for Quiet War and third Darwinia.

(4) Emissaries From The Dead; Adam-Troy Castro
(3) Galileo's Dream; Kim Stanley Robinson
(3) Jesus Incident, Frank Herbert
(3) Darwinia; R.C. Wilson

(2) A Canticle for Liebowitz; Walter M. Miller Jr.
(2) Gather, Darkness; Fritz Leiber
(2) Nemesis; Isaac Asimov

Anathem; Neal Stephenson
Artifact; Gregory Benford
City; Clifford Simak
Darwinia; R.C. Wilson
Dosadi Experiment; Frank Herbert
Emissaries From The Dead; Adam-Troy Castro
Execution Channel - Ken Macleod
Flood; Stephen Baxter
Hyperion; Dan Simmons
Implied Spaces; Walter Jon Williams
Infoquake; David Louis Edelman
Jennifer Morgue; Charles Stross
Neuropath; Scott Bakker
Old Man's War; John Scalzi
Princess of Mars; Edgar Rice Burrough
Roadside Picnic; Strugatsky Brothers
Singularity Ring; Paul Melko
Vacuum Diagrams; Stephen Baxter
Variable Star; Robert A. Heinlein
Vinland the Dream; Kim Stanley Robinson
Visitor; Sherri S. Tepper

Oh, what the h, I'll withdraw my second from Nemisis and put it towards Gather, Darkness instead. I do enjoy good post-apocolyptic tales.

The added bonus, is that if it wins, it will force me to dig in and clean up this disaster that's been this way in a corner of my library for over two months now...
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/9073/img0243sm.jpg

It would be a big project. Leiber's book is in one of the layers below the level of the picture. /shudder

Just picked up a used copy of Old Man's War during my volunteer shift in my local library's Friends of the Library bookstore. I was kind and didn't shift my vote tosecond this book. It starts out rather engagingly.

#41

What happened there?

Didn't you like one of the books on those shelves or something?

Remember that scene in the Library from The Mummy? My computer table is to the left of the picture. One day I got up, turned around to leave, tripped on a cord, leaned on the first bookcase unintentionally, and watched it tip over and then hit the next one, tipping it over.

To give you an idea of the volume of books, these were my SF paperback section and they are Ikea Billy bookcases with two extra shelves to make them paperback height. Then, I have them at 90 degrees from the wall without their backs, in order to be able to double use the shelves, once from each side.

I need to dig in and reshelve all this, I really do. I will anchor them in some way in the future. I have some ideas for braces connecting them together from the tops of the bookcases.

I'm surprised the bookcases didn't break..

>41 GwenH: Wow. Your cleaning service deserves hazard pay. Truly scary disaster!

I'll give myself time and a half! I was thinking more onerous than scary...but clearly I haven't been paying myself enough. It doesn't help that its in a back corner of an upstairs room and I apparantly have an ability to ignore chaos while working on the computer.

You certainly HAVEN'T been paying yourself enough! Onerous clean-up, but the conditions that LED to the clean-up give me fantods to think about...unbraced, backless bookshelves with a good-sized spinney's-worth of pulped trees on 'em...*fans self*

Well....I'm going to brace them now, and it's not like I was sleeping within their tip over range or anything....darn things were all shelved in order too....

sorry, rojse, for derailing your nice book selection thread.

darn things were all shelved in order too....

Oh my GOD! I can't keep the seventy or so books in the "get to me soon" stacks in order! This deserves a Bibliophibian's Day of Mourning! I need to find the black crepe....

I love the bookshelves and what a brilliant idea to use them from both directions. Mine are all double-shelved so that I have to pull out the first layer to see the second. I like your idea better.
--BJ

By the way, how long will we have to vote? I will be leaving town Saturday until the following Saturday. Will I need to try to find a computer somewhere?
--BJ
Feb. 27th - Mar 6th.

It's a good idea until they fall over...

Most bookshelves aren't stable enough to be used like that without some sort of bracing.

"Most bookshelves aren't stable enough to be used like that without some sort of bracing."

The Ikea Billie bookcases are actually surprising stable, although they definitely aren't as stable without the back on. It's possible to push on a side and cause it to lean. However, they did just fine through two medium (but brief) earthquakes. I literally had to fall into them for them to topple over.

This SF section has two rows of two bookcases and I now plan to to connect the bookcases in each row to each other and to put a "beam" over the top connecting each bookcase to one in the other row. That should allow for all manner of disturbances without them going over.

(4) Emissaries From The Dead; Adam-Troy Castro
(3) Galileo's Dream; Kim Stanley Robinson
(3) Jesus Incident, Frank Herbert
(3) Darwinia; R.C. Wilson
(3) Gather, Darkness; Fritz Leiber
(2) A Canticle for Liebowitz; Walter M. Miller Jr.

Anathem; Neal Stephenson
Artifact; Gregory Benford
City; Clifford Simak
Darwinia; R.C. Wilson
Dosadi Experiment; Frank Herbert
Emissaries From The Dead; Adam-Troy Castro
Execution Channel - Ken Macleod
Flood; Stephen Baxter
Hyperion; Dan Simmons
Implied Spaces; Walter Jon Williams
Infoquake; David Louis Edelman
Jennifer Morgue; Charles Stross
Nemesis; Isaac Asimov
Neuropath; Scott Bakker
Old Man's War; John Scalzi
Princess of Mars; Edgar Rice Burrough
Roadside Picnic; Strugatsky Brothers
Singularity Ring; Paul Melko
Vacuum Diagrams; Stephen Baxter
Variable Star; Robert A. Heinlein
Vinland the Dream; Kim Stanley Robinson
Visitor; Sherri S. Tepper

#49

Not a problem - your collection of books is even more disorganised than mine!

#52

I'll do a poll up now, then. I see no reason why not to include six books, either - five is only an approximate number, after all.

The poll is created, and it is here:

http://www.vizu.com/poll-vote.html?n=201527

Have at it!

Thanks!
--BJ

Wow. Good results so far!

Seems to be quite a spread. Except for poor old Frank...

well...took the modest effort to read up on "emissaries" and as both a new author and from brief reviews and precises - really seemed worth a vote.

#60

Herbert never got much recognition for work outside of the Dune series, did he?

I agree with Bob--Emissaries sounds interesting. I've read the Miller, Leiber, and Herbert already, although it's been a while for the latter two. I reread the Miller about 4 or 5 years ago--definitely a book that made a big impact upon my teenage self!

Well, it looks like "Emissaries from the Dead" is the winner.

But in saying this I know that everyone who lay in wait for such a proclamation will now vote for "Gather, Darkness".

if they vote for anything else...it had better be Galileo's Dream as i just checked it out of the library yesterday ;-).

i didn't think Dune held up all that well upon rereading many years after the initial immersion. A great book for teens, however.

#66

An argument about the merits of Dune and series (and the bastardised prequels) would make for an interesting discussion. But there's one about that on "Science Fiction Fans" already.

So, is the poll closed? Are we all a-Castro-ing?

I won't closed the polls, but it does look like, based on current trends, that we most likely will read "Emissaries from the Dead".

And I like the fact that twenty-seven people have voted for this - I'm certain it is our best poll vote so far.

When do we call the poll closed and the tally final? It's been holding at 28 for a few days now, and I don't remember a prestated duration.

#68 Gather Darkness has rallied for a tie. Now 29 votes total.

Whenever I think we have found a winner, enough people decides to vote for the second-place getter just to prove me wrong. At least it shows that everyone cares about what book is being read next, I suppose.

Well, here is the runoff poll:

http://www.vizu.com/poll-vote.html?n=202527

Is there a set time for the run-off poll to end?

Wow! Fritzl's getting trounced! Leiber Party supporters to the polls!

I'm voting for "Emissaries from the Dead" in the run-off poll, but only because I know I'll be able to actually get a hold of a copy. I know it's in stock at my local book store, whereas finding an old 1943 book would be tougher.

I wouldn't let availability put you off - Gather Darkness is available in Kindle, hardcover and a paperback from Wildside Press according to amazon. There are also tons of mass-market paperbacks available on the second-hand market as the book as been reprinted multiple times since it was first published.

On Amazon.com, it looks like the used book priced for Gather Darkness starts at $0.01 for a used copy. Old and obscure might be tough, but there seems to be plenty of copies of Leiber's book kicking around. Additionally, both books are available from libraries near me, and presumably from many other libraries as well.

I would vote that in the future, if we ever have a tie, we make both books the next two in the reading list and we arbitrarily choose one to go first - I think the voting is taking longer than reading both books would be!

>77 GwenH: What Gwen said.

I picked up Darwinia at the local library this Saturday and it is a great read so far. Alas, Gather Darkness and Emmissaries is not carried (too old and too young I guess) and doesn't appear to be available from the local interlibrary system. Emmissaries looks pretty interesting tho, but it is also the first in a series.

#73

No set time limit.

#77, 78

An interesting idea - who agrees with the idea? Any books that tie both become our next read -"Emissaries" or "Darkness" would be our next read, and the one not selected would be the read after that? Or perhaps we could start two reads at the same time -"Group Reads Book 9" and "Group Reads Book 10"? Opinions, thoughts or suggestions?

#80 parallel reads is an interesting idea.

Looks like this time around there's looking to be a clearcut winner. However, it's holding at about half the votes of the first time around, so anything could suddenly happen.

I'd rather not do parallel reads because I'm already reading other stuff. ONE more book I could manage, but would prefer not to have to juggle two more.

Just fyi..i've just about finished Galileo's Dream. As SF it's very weak. As a historical novel about the life and times of Galileo, it's fascinating.

Did the group ever decide on the next group read? If so, please let the list know as I would like to join if it isn't too late. Thanks.

Did the group ever decide on the next group read? If so, please let the list know as I would like to join if it isn't too late. Thanks.

The current book is Emissaries from the Dead by Adam-Troy Castro.

... and there is still plenty of time to get the book, read it and join in the discussion.

I haven't picked up a copy yet. Will do next week.

I just ordered a copy from amazon, which should arrive early next week. Are people enjoying it? From reading the descriptions and reviews, it sounds like something that could be either really brilliant or really a flop - curious as to initial reactions. But, I am on-board!

It was a very quick read for me and pretty good for a first novel. Not brilliant but nowhere near a flop.

Perhaps we could discuss perceptions of the book on the "Emissaries for the Dead" thread.

Well, the Borders nearest me doesn't carry it. The big one in the valley may have it; I'll check tomorrow.

You still have a Borders?

There still seem to be Borders here in California. There has been a gradual decline in locations of bookstores in general - we had a very large Barnes and Noble close recently, the one that I tended to like the most, unfortunately. But some of the smaller things like Borders Express have been slipping away and I think Waldenbooks may be gone completely.

They've all shut in the UK.