What happens when the evolution reaches modern day?

[Jo]

As a couple of people have already asked i'm opening up the discussion on what happens when we have reached the current day in the group?

The obvious question is do we just stop or do people want to continue and start again?

There's a lot of sci-fi out there so i'm sure we could continue indefinitely but one of the things i'd like to know is, if we were to continue do people want to go back to the beginning or are there decades they would prefer to miss/ group together etc.

This time round we had one group read a month until we reached the 50s and then we moved to 2 and in fact we have been reading 4 books per decade since then. Would you want to do the same or is 2 books a month too many. The possibilities are endless!

I guess what I really want to know is do people want to continue and if so what changes would you like to see.

[Buck]

Four books a decade seems good to me, for now.

When we work our way up to the present day, or to some recent point, I suggest as an option, we could choose from a list of historically esteemed science fiction books. Here is a link to such a list: https://www.worldswithoutend.com/list... Locus Magazine's annual poll periodically includes 'all-time best' categories for novel or author. The Best SF Novel of All-Time poll was last held in 1998 and was restricted to books published before 1990.
This list is fairly short. There are others that are longer. I post this link just to show an example. I don't necessarily think this is the best list to choose from because I've already read a majority of them.

Other groups select books to read each month from a list. As I said, it's a possible option.

[Radiantflux]

I think when we reach the present day (or say 2000-2010) we bounce backwards in time. I wouldn't drag out the next few decades too much. Two months/decade for recent decades seems reasonable.

[David]

I was thinking the same thing as Radiant-- we start going backwards. Another thing we could do is choose a decade and go year by year.

I hope we continue. This is my favorite group.

[Jo]

First of all thanks for the various suggestions and I’m pleased you want to continue with the group. As we are a small group, often there are only a couple of people reading and discussing the books regularly and this can make things tricky.

If we choose a decade to read and go year by year, I do worry if it would end up being the golden age and all the books nominated would be things everybody’s already read and I don’t want to be the only person reading the books each month :-), but it is a good idea.

If we wanted to choose a topic as Buck suggested such as historically esteemed novels or authors that might work. Personally I would prefer authors and I think with the well read members in the group novels maybe more difficult.

If we go back round I’ve got no problems going backwards or returning to the beginning once we reach the modern day. My only thought is that that maybe we should do it more quickly and just read a decade in a month and in the decades where there are not so many books to choose from for example early 1900's it may be better to do 2 decades in a month.

Whatever we do I’d like to keep a choice of two books a month as hopefully then there is something for everybody to read. I think as well that I’d like to start the nominations process at the beginning of the month rather than mid-month.

As they are all good ideas the best is probably to poll the group in January with the options below.
(1) Back to the beginning
(2) Go backwards
(3) Choose a decade and go year by year
(4) Historic esteemed authors
(5) Historically esteemed novels
(6) Decade by decade but SF in translation

I will leave the thread open until the end of December in case anyone has any other ideas they would like to add.

[Buck]

This website, https://www.worldswithoutend.com/inde..., is a website of lists. It lists science fiction, fantasy, and horror books that have won or been nominated for 14 different awards and it has about two dozen 'best of' lists. I posted a link to one of those lists above, several months ago. I've now read all but a dozen of those. There are other lists I've hardly dented. All of these lists of books include the publication year, and they have ratings and reviews. It's a great resource.

I like reading science fiction, but there's a lot of trash out there. My plan is to read only good science fiction, and there's a fair amount of good stuff, some of it old, that I haven't read yet. As a group, we've hardly touched the pile of great science fiction books. We can keep going for quite a while.

[David]

Something I realized a while ago and I'm getting started doing something about it is I've read a lot of U.S. And British Science Fiction and a bit of Canadian Science Fiction. I've read little beyond that except a bit of Soviet SF. I decided I wanted to see what else is out there. I was thinking we could go decade by decade with works in translation. Just thought I'd throw one more idea out there. Or, I suppose, if you speak and read the language we picked for a particular month, you could read it in its original language.

[Jo]

David wrote: "Something I realized a while ago and I'm getting started doing something about it is I've read a lot of U.S. And British Science Fiction and a bit of Canadian Science Fiction. I've read little beyo..."

I like this idea as I like reading works in translation so i've added it to the list. By the way have you read any Stanisław Lem? If not he's really worth reading.

[Jo]

Buck wrote: "This website, https://www.worldswithoutend.com/inde..., is a website of lists. It lists science fiction, fantasy, and horror books that have won or been nominated for 14 different awards and it ..."

I totally agree, only good sci-fi is important. If this option wins then it would be great if you can suggest some lists (particularly where you still have a lot you can read).

[Josh]

We could do award winners... Hugo, Nebula, Philip K. Dick Award etc.

[Josh]

oh yeah, what Buck said

[Jo]

So this months nominations are for the year 2000 so we are nearly at modern day. Last time we got to this stage the following options were put to the vote as to what to do:

(1) Back to the beginning
(2) Go backwards
(3) Choose a decade and go year by year
(4) Historic esteemed authors
(5) Historically esteemed novels (award winners)
(6) Decade by decade but SF in translation

I'm wondering if you think it's a good idea to do the same thing or not? I guess that it's highly likely that go back to the beginning will win which brings me to my second point.

When we go back to the beginning and especially now we have been round twice the choice of book is quite limited before the 1940's. I also have the impression less people want to read the early books (maybe as they have already read them?). Normally we start with one book by Jules Verne and one by H G Wells. I was wondering that if we went back round again we should do as follows:

Pre-1900 (so here we would have Wells or Verne probably)
1900-1919
1920-1939
and then by decade from the 1940's.

[Jim]

If we're going to keep circling, I'd think we could do 1 book pre 1950's & then one per decade for quite a while. Even the 40's don't have a lot of influential authors with books. A lot of the most influential stuff were short stories & even cover art.

What about reading some of the old pulp magazines? The Internet Archive has
If magazine
https://archive.org/details/ifmagazine

Galaxy magazine
https://archive.org/details/galaxymag...

Starlog
https://archive.org/details/starlogma...

[CS]

I like Jim's suggestion. As I understand it, the cycle would be

pre-1950s

1950s

1960s, etc.

I'm against going backwards. That confuses the developmental trend we're trying to observe here. Also, a cycle going forward allows new people to come on and catch up.

[Buck]

CS wrote: "I like Jim's suggestion. As I understand it, the cycle would be

pre-1950s

1950s

1960s, etc.

I'm against going backwards. That confuses the developmental trend we're trying to observe here. Als..."

Yes. I concur. Aside from some early masters, Wells, Verne, and a couple of others, there wasn't a plethora of good stuff until after WWII, when SF came into its own

[Radiantflux]

I am happy with this as well.

[Jo]

Great then we will go with this next month. My personal hope is that when we go back to the beginning this time I won't have to read anymore Jules Verne :-)