June Group Read Nominations Thread

[Anna]

Greetings Space Opera Fans!

It's that time of the month to nominate what space opera books we'd like to read as a group in June. Here in the north, spring is warming up for summer, while our friends in the south are beginning to hunker down and put on their sweaters.

Up this month we have the following categories:

READER PICK: Dead trees is where it's at for the Reader Pick, which should be widely available in both paperback and ebook at most chain bookstores and public libraries. Books can't be exclusive to Kindle Unlimited since we're a global community.

INDIE PICK: This is for those newer, edgier books where the author has to do it all. Books that have been published by a micropress that helps you upload the thing, but YOU otherwise do the work and marking are okay, or if you got your backlist back, still qualify.

YOUNG ADULT FRIENDLY PICK: This is where YOU guys help me indoctrinate set a good example for my teenagers and hook them up with good books that won't make them roll their eyes. That means: Must be written FOR a young adult and STAR a young adult protagonist (age 17 or less) and not have been published any earlier than the year 2000 AD (yeah, I know you all think Heinlein is young adult, but the Y2K kids think he's sooooo 1966).


(If the cover looks like THIS, it won't appeal to a 2016 teen)

Since it's hard to find purely space opera YA books, any sci-fi book that has a strong space or space-yearning element will probably be acceptable. Gotta still have spaceships and aliens.

Drop your nomination into the thread below and, on the first of the month (or so), we'll spin it through Random.org to pick three brand new group reads.

Be epic!

Anna Erishkigal
SOF Borg Queen

P.S. - drive-by spam nominations not allowed, so if you're not an active member, we reserve the right to disqualify anything fishy.

[Jonathan]

Reader pick: I hate this book, and feel it unfair I should be the only one to suffer so

Is indie? It's not published by one of the big companies.

[Kirsten]

Gee thanks (I think) Jonathan for wanting to share...

[Amy]

If I may offer up the Omnibus of the first three volumes in my Cadicle series. It is indie and also YA-friendly.

Cadicle Omnibus

[Tom]

I'd like to offer Timberwolf to the Indie gods. https://www.amazon.com/Timberwolf-Tom... thank you!

[Stephen]

I recently finished Three Days Breathing by Mike Maguire, and would recommend it for the indie pick. I'd love to hear what other people think of it!

[Mary]

Let's see. For General, I nominate
The January Dancer by Michael Flynn

For Indie
Torchship by Karl K. Gallagher

for YA
Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis

[Jonathan]

Kirsten *Dogs Welcome - People Tolerated" wrote: "Gee thanks (I think) Jonathan for wanting to share..."

You can't say I'm selfish :)

[Jonathan]

I hope the Paradox series by Rachel Bach gets the series read when it comes up for vote again. I'll gladly reread it.

[Leonie]

Here I go again :) I'm sure one day this one will come up in the picks!

Indie Pick:

YA Pick:

[Steph]

For the reader pick: Space Captain Smith - highly recommended if you like British humour.

[R.]

If I may nominate myself again, something I don't do every time to give other writers a chance, Run from the Stars is available.

[Gaines]

I'm thinking the group may already have read this, but in case it hasn't, I'd love to read The Reality Dysfunction.

[Terry]

I would second Leonie's pick of Patty Jansen's novel. If we second stuff here.

[Rion]

Readers pick: Been meaning to try out some of Jack McDevitt's work, so how about A Talent for War seems very Space Operish.

And I'll second Torchship for indie.

[Fiannawolf]

Indie: The Ember War by Richard Fox

Reader: A Soldier's Duty (Theirs Not to Reason Why, #1) by Jean Johnson *I am a broken fiddle for this book.

YA: *in progress

*Lots of fun nominations too: Still have some on my amazon wishlist. Oh and Lazarus is indeeeeeeeed very tropey, I have seen this before twilight zone.

[E.J.]

Indie:

Reader:

YA: (not strictly space opera, but still aliens, space travel, and categorized here on GR as YA)

[Veronica]

I'll offer up my STAR CRUISE: OUTBREAK for the indie pick again. . But if it's not sufficiently Space Opera, I totally understand!

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Reader: The Agent Gambit . This is a two book collection, and the first one is free as ebook Agent of Change. Excellent space opera.

Indy: Temporary Duty . I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and while the ending did wrap things up nicely I still wish the author had lived to finish a sequel.

[Les]

I second Renegade (The Spiral Wars #1) by Joel Shepherd for Indie pick. I've just started it, and it's shaping up very nicely indeed.

[AndrewP]

I would like to recommend by Rob Buckman as the INDIE pick.

He recently did a Q & A that you can find here:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/4410...

[Kirsten]

Getting pretty close! June's about ready to "bust all over"

[Jonathan]

Les wrote: "

I second Renegade (The Spiral Wars #1) by Joel Shepherd for Indie pick. I've just started it, and it's shaping up very nicely indeed."

Cool looking cover. I'll nominate for Indie as well, since I'm pretty sure the other one isn't Indie.

[Anna]

Just catching up now guys! This thread is now closed, I'll post the winners :-)