Beyond Reality discussion
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Hi Everyone,I think I first joined the Beyond Reality group when it was originally set up as a spin-off from the Fantasy Books group to offer a Science Fiction version of the Book-of-the-month (although we then seemed to acquire the fantasy version after a while as well) which was a long time ago (2001, apparently), it might even have been before Yahoo took over egroups. Yahoo was good at the time but I agree with others that Goodreads does look like a better site now.
Mod
Hello, I was just browsing through some books on Goodreads and saw a link to this site. I've been a member of Goodreads for a little over a year. My genre of choice is fantasy, but I also enjoy science fiction, horror/supernatural, and historical fiction.
HI, I am a member of the yahoo group but not particularly active there in spite of really liking the discussions I did manage to read. Hoping real life will stop intruding on the fun stuff so I can spend some time here! I am new here, but this looks like a great site, thanks for introducing me to it!
Candi
Hi, Kerry here from the Yahoo Group. I'm just getting myself set up on Good Reads and I'm glad to be back with the group.
Hi, I'm a lurker from the Yahoo group and only joined goodreads to follow this comm. I'm excited to be here and it looks great. I'm looking forward to reading some new books.Ceria
Hey all! I noticed that two people that I had friended joined this group recently and had to check it out. Glad I did. I won't be posting too often yet as am still getting my garden up and running for the season, but you will be seeing more of me later when I've had more time to read!
Stefan wrote: "All good suggestions, but make sure to read A Game of Thrones (by George R.R. Martin) before Clash of Kings!Oops! I meant to suggest the first one in the series.
Mod
I joined this group yesterday, and wanted to introduce myself. My name is Mark Adderley. I was born in Crewe, England, but married an American lady and now live in the States. I'm an English professor--I'm in Missouri right now, but am moving to Wyoming in about three weeks. I'm also the author of a novel, The Hawk and the Wolf, the first part in a series called the Matter of Britain (see my website at www.markadderley.net). 
Hi Everyone,I'm new to GR and am still figuring everything out. One of my more active friends on GR, after I commented on one of her reads sent me here.(Sandi - thanks Sandi) It was a book from the series/omnibus - Vorkosigan's Game by Lois McMaster Bujold. Unfortuneately I am a bit lost and can't figure out which book to start from. Any sugestions?
As for me I loved scifi/fanatasy as a kid and have been reading a bunch of young adult recently and would like to be connected to some readers reading adult of the same genre. I have a couple of the books that the group is reading, and have read on my shelves so I believe this will be a good place to start.
I definitely like your guidelines here on this site. I've seen some nasty stuff even from moderators here on GR. Also Stefan your rating system is great. I would love to use it. :)
Mod
Welcome to the group! I hope you'll enjoy it here.
Regarding the reading order for the Vorkosigan books, take a look at the first post in this discussion.
Stefan
Thanks Stefan. I now see why I had difficulty figuring out the sequence. :) Looking forward to everyone's thought and opinions.
Greetings all!. Big reader - sci-fi, fantasy, just about everything, but love the sci-fi and fantasy. Reading can really pass the time when deployed far from home. New to GR - a friend pointed me towards the site and I really enjoy it.Cheers!
Hey Sandi - Thanks for the referal to the group. :)
Hi, I've been reading the groups old posts over the last day and I'm pretty impressed. You guys have had some great discussions. Yet it was your group bookshelf that finally convinced me to join. So many wonderful books, many of my favorites, and so many that I wish I had time to read! Looking forward to reading and discussing with everyone!
I love it when I find a group that inspires me to read new things - this group looks just like what I need right now! I'll be adding to my massive To-Read list & joining in on some of the great Group Reads you have coming up!
Mod
Wow 20 new members! Welcome to the other new members.Well here goes. Living in the AZ desert where the temps in summer reach 116 degrees gives me plenty of indoor time to read. I love books, researching them has become even as much fun as reading them. Since joining goodread in Feb I have now over 400 books on my tbr list and it is ever growing. I loved Sci-fi and fantasy as a kid but have not read much as an adult. I needed a great place to come for some good referals, the book stores just don't give you the personal recommendations that you get here. More about me is linked on my profile in the form of my new blog. I also welcome new friends here on goodreads. :)
I live in Kentucky. I read Science Fiction. I began reading science fiction in the 1970's. Space opera is okay; but I prefer stories and character studies oriented toward social, psychological or philosophical change. I like the past reading list of this group, so I thought I'd give it a try. I've been in goodreads for 2 years now, but this is my first group.
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Kathi wrote: "I didn't want to start a new topic just for this, but I did want to thank Stefan & the other mods for doing such a great job with our group, organizing the discussions and the folders, and keeping ..."I second that!
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I'm not very good at introducing myself. Actually, I'm not really good at the whole people thing. :) But since Stefan asked:I'm a reviewer over at www.fantasyliterature.com and also an aspiring writer. Therefore the only I do more than read is write. I've been reading fantasy since around the age of 9 and writing it since about 12. Recently I've begun to branch, tentatively, into things like sci fi. I have Aspergers Syndrome and am not, as I said above, all that good at the people thing, which is why it's taken me so long to pipe up.
But I'll try. :)
Welcome Beth. And I follow Fantasy Lit on Twitter. :)
Mod
Welcome Beth!I like Fantasy Literature blog as well and will keep and eye out for your reviews. :)
Mod
I love the Fantasy Literature website too - it's basically my first resource when looking up info or reviews about fantasy. I'm really proud about having been accepted as a reviewer there recently!
Hello, I recently joined GoodReads and found this group. Looks interesting, I hope I can join in some future book discussions.
Hello, I'm Peregrine, living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I see that the group is working through the Vorkosigan series. I haven't read any of those; I just now got Shards of Honor from the library. As soon as I'm done The Lies of Locke Lamora, I'll read Shards. I split my reading between SF/F, classics, and queer reads, with a few mysteries, histories, and new works thrown in for variety. A question I have that's not in the FAQ thread: Where are the old book discussions? I'm wanting to do some serious catch-up reading, and even if I've missed the main discussion, it's satisfying to read the posts and add my bit. Glad to be here.
Welcome Bjorn. Oops - Looks like your welcome got lost in the thread. :)
Welcome Peregrine.
I am really enjoying the Vorkosigan series but sadly am a bit behind the group. Its an easy and fun read.
If you check on the front page for the group all the discussions should be listed there.
Hello all - I'm interested in everyone's thoughts on the books this month. I'm currently reading The Painter Knight and am about halfway through. I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would, and I'm enjoying it far more than the first in the series. Anyway, lifelong fantasy and science fiction reader, currently in Portland, Oregon USA. Glad to be here!
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I have this series on my shelf but have not read anything by this author. Will be interested to see what you think. What didn't you like about the first book in the series?
Kathi wrote: "Lynne wrote: "I'm currently reading The Painter Knight and am about halfway through. I'm enjoying it a lot more than I tho..."I have this series on my shelf but have not read anything by this author. Will be interested to see what you think. What didn't you like about the first book in the series?"
The first book (which is standalone, as are all the books in this series) seemed to take forever to get off the ground. Once it did, though, I did enjoy it.
This second book, however, I got into from the start. It just seems a better book, overall -- more complete and interesting plot, more complex and human characters, and so on. I love the author's characterization - she does really well at making you hear and see and understand each character as an individual (and not a mish-mash or a stereotype, for example).
This whole series is also interesting in that it levels out gender without resorting to politics or theory and so on. For example, both males and females are "princes" (not "princes" and "princesses"), and men and women are equally understood in this world as full players, whether they are rulers or warriors or artisans or priests and so on. Yet, men remain men and women remain women. It took me a short time to get into it, but once I did it flows quite naturally.
I would say this is traditional fantasy with good story and an interesting twist.
Hi Samuel and welcome to Beyond Reality. In answer to your question on how best to participate, there are a number of ways!Firstly, introduce yourself here -
Then perhaps browse our recent book of the month discussions to see if there any comments you'd like to add.
We invite you to pick up copies of our November selections and join the current discussions when you can - several members are still reading at this stage!
Please participate in our polls. Registering your opinion on our book of the month selections helps us construct our Hall of Fame (and Hall of Shame).
Around the middle of the month we will start taking nominations for our February selections. If there is something you've always wanted to read with a group, throw your nomination into the ring. We vote on our selections as a group.
Happy Reading!
Sam, here. I was invited to goodreads by one of your members, Jody. Now that I've retired (more or less), I think I'm going to have more time to write, which is what I love to do, as well as create art, especially in PhotoShop these days. I enjoy poetry, too. I play the piano and the guitar. I wrote a book about a nice guy who wonders if he should volunteer to be the devil of a certain planet, since the real one didn't show up. He thinks one is needed, because there's no death, and the planet is filling up with people. It has a lot of science in it, but because of the religious philosophy, I don't know what genre to pick for it.
Hi everyone,I was born in 1952 and exposed to the Ace Doubles and Perry Rhodan novels in the early 1970's. Being a slow reader and with not a lot of SFF books at the local library and on very low income I read mostly Marvel comic books for much of the 1970's and early 1980's. I read 2-6 books/year the 1980's and 1990's but it wasn't until this decade did I catch the full time reading bug. I think this was due to the lack of SFF on TV and I had a bit more of a disposable income. I now special order SFF books from my book store and over the last 4 years or so buy a book/week. Drives my wife nuts hehehe, she's not a reader unfortunately. My favorite authors though are Clifford D Simak, James P Hogan, C.S. Freidman, Piers Anthony, Robert J. Sawyer, Margret Weise, C.J Cherryh, Elizabeth Haydon, Julie C. Czernada, William King and others.
Nice group and I hope to make some friends here
My Blog
Mod
Hi Jim. Welcome to the group. We share a lot of favourites.
Hi all!My name is Simon, born in 1980 from Wellington, New Zealand but currently residing in London, United Kingdom.
I accidentally happened upon this group by searching for The City and the City, and I love the idea of an online reading group - not sure why I hadn't thought to look before!
The two most appealing aspects are the monthly reads, as well as the veritable wealth of new books to read! I'm very limited in my scope of authors - I tend to find someone I like and read a lot of their work.
Current favourites are China Mieville, Robin Hobb, Steph Swainston, Justina Robson and my most recent find, Joe Abercrombie!
Anyway, look forward to getting involved in the discussions, meeting some new people and discovering some great new authors and books!
Welcome Simon, we look forward to seeing you participate in our discussions. You've arrived just in time to vote in our polls for February's Books of the Month!
Hello all,Looks like a great group. I'll put in a nomination for Feb in a sec.
Been reading sci-fi since my first "real" book, a BookMobile paperback edition of "War of the Worlds". Hooked every since. Second borrow was Time Machine. What a start. I tend toward the sciency sci-fi though not HARD-and-fast on that definition.
I write some too.
Thanks.
Bill
There's still time to vote for the February choices, though, Bill, and there's lots to choose from. And nice to have you aboard.
Beyond Reality
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Good to know, Sandi, thanks!