Ideas for 2019 Group Challenges

[[deleted user]]

The year is running out of runway, so it's time to start thinking about setting up our Group Reading Challenges for 2019. (I know everyone's busy with the end of year holidays, but not coincidentally the new year starts right after. :)

(For those who haven't participated before, our Group Challenges let you set a reading goal for yourself to read a certain number of books that fit the criteria of that Challenge. It's a SF&F-oriented complement to the Goodreads Annual Reading Challenge. Because each Challenge lets you set your own goal for the number of books you want to read, it's a form of self motivation, not a competition.)

Last year we had thirteen year-long Challenges:


The 2018 Group Challenges

  The SF&F 2018 Reading Challenge 41 participants, 32 active, 12 completed.

  The SF&F 2018 BINGO Challenge 25 participants, 19 active, 12 completed.
(See comments on 2019 BINGO Card ideas below.)

  The SF&F 2018 Explorer Challenge 12 participants, 11 active, 7 completed.

  The SF&F 2018 Female Author Challenge 12 participants, 9 active, 5 completed.

  The SF&F 2018 Awards Challenge 10 participants, 4 active, 2 completed.

  The SF&F 2018 Discussion Challenge 8 participants, 5 active, 2 completed.

  The SF&F 2018 Stand-Alone Novel Challenge 7 participants, 6 active, 5 completed.

  The SF&F 2018 Short Story Challenge 5 participants, 5 active, 3 completed.

  The SF&F 2018 Series Completist Challenge 7 participants, 7 active, 4 completed.

  The SF&F 2018 Graphic Novel Challenge 3 participants, 3 active, 3 completed.

  The SF&F 2018 Historian Challenge 3 participants, 3 active, 2 completed.

  The SF&F 2018 Geographic Setting Challenge 2 participants, 2 active, 1 completed.

  The SF&F 2018 Geographic Author Challenge 2 participants, 2 active, 1 completed.

* You can see all our past & present SF&HF Group Challenges here.

In 2018, the general SF&F Reading Challenge was the most popular, with 41 members The BINGO Challenge was 2nd most popular with 25 participants.


So, what do people think about new Group Challenges for our sci-fi and fantasy genre in 2018?

In the past we tried some shorter challenge lasting 3 months & 6 months, though they were less popular than the full-year challenges. There's no reason other than tradition that a challenge has to last a calendar year, or begin at the start of a year. (Shorter Challenges might be more focused, and also let new members join in more easily, though there is nothing to stop anyone from joining in mid-Challenge, since you set your own goal. An annual challenge matches the Goodreads Reading Challenge.)

So, any new ideas for 2019? Without any new suggestions, I'll probably just create the same 13 challenges as last year, because I have no imagination. Do people want something else? Some groups seem to do challenges such as books with a title starting with each letter of the alphabet (the goal presumably being 26 books, assuming it's in English language group.) Or Challenges to read books by authors in different states or countries.

Please share your thoughts below!

[[deleted user]]

Ideas for 2019 BINGO Card

A related question, what would people like for the 2019 BINGO Challenge card?

Last year's card was:


Other than shuffling the squares, what should we drop and what should we replace it with?

For reference, last year we had the following suggestions, not all of which fit on a 5x5 card**....

Space Opera
Epic Fantasy
Something featuring Dragons
Something featuring Aliens
Something featuring Angels, Demons, and/or Gods
Urban Fantasy (Fantasy in Modern World)
Military SF/F
Time Travel
Robots and/or AIs
Apocalyptic / Dystopian
Cyberpunk
Steampunk
Bio-SciFi
Climate SF
Near Future
SF/F Mystery
SF/F Romance
Parallel Worlds
Debut SF/F Novel*
Stand-alone Novel*
New-to-you-author*
Award Winning SF/F*
Genre-blender (both SF & Fantasy elements)
YA
SF&F Anthology*
Pre-20th Century SF/F*
Graphic SF/F Novel*
Humor
SF/F Translated from other than English
Set in a real, non-English-speaking country
Non-human protagonist
Female protagonist
Male protagonist
Female Author*
Male Author
LGBTQ Author
Author of Color
Made into a TV show or movie
Published between 1900-1970 (or similar date)
Published in the 21st century
By a favorite author
Social Sci-Fi
Hard Sci-Fi
High Fantasy
Alternative form - a poem, song, script, essay

* = There's also a Group Challenge for that category

** = Does anyone know why the center square is "Free"?

Edits: Added "High Fantasy", "Alternate Form"

[Angie]

I really liked most of the categories on the 2018 card.

Some categories from the list that weren't on the card last year are:

Published between 1900-1970 (or similar date)
Cyberpunk
SF/F Mystery (but I can count that for genre-bender, so...)

[Angie]

I also like the idea of a Hard Sci-Fi or a High Fantasy bingo square.

[Cat]

Re: Group Challenges. Seeing as I was one of the two participants for the geographic author challenge and I'm not planning on doing it again next year... is it worth continuing it?

Re: Bingo Challenge. I think it'd be good to change up some of the categories just to keep things fresh. I'm not sure what I'd take out or put in, but I particularly liked the specific ones like 'featuring a non-human protagonist' and the 'set in...'. I liked having to hunt down the specific ones.
Also I interpreted the FREE square - as you can put any book in that category. It's a free pass.

[Andrea]

So what about some of these switchups

Features a Dragon => Features a Unicorn
Steampunk => Cyberpunk
Robot/AI => Features an Alien
Female Author => Some other neglected group (of colour, Asian, LGBTQ, etc) Could do similar thing with Female Protagonist if we want another matching pair.

Those 4 are the perfect ones to switch up each year I think, focus on a different Fantasy/SF "construct", can cycle through the different "punks", and make sure we cover different minority groups

Now for others...

Hmm, I could see replacing the Fairy Tale fantasy with High Fantasy (e.g. different fantasy types). Don't think we need Urban Fantasy with both the Genre-blender and the Modern World slots

I was going to suggest replacing Near Future with Hard SF, but near future SF is almost always Hard no? Because it almost always focuses on tech, and since it's near future, it has to be realistic tech within our reach. And Near Future Fantasy is near non-existent.

Maybe Standalone with Complete a Series? Though I kind of like Standalone since I feel those are becoming an endangered species, especially in Fantasy. But the other would encourage people to make it to the end of the series group read ;)

Is there another kind of alternate media to replace Graphic Novel? Maybe audio-book?

Some I think we should definitely keep since they can expand one's horizons so to speak
- New to you author since that's always good to experience
- Genre-blender since it makes you touch on other genres
- Anthology since we shouldn't neglect the short story
- Award winner since presumably they were good

I also liked the Pre-1918 slot, but maybe it's a bit too challenging? I wouldn't go past 1940 or so though, try to keep it to the real originals and trail-blazers, to see where our modern day novels came from. I'm fine with keeping 1918 too, to up the challenge, there's a lot of stuff that's otherwise been forgotten. I'll be reading Beowulf this year because stories like that inspired Tolkien to write LotR.

[[deleted user]]

Angie wrote: "Published between 1900-1970 (or similar date)
..."

Do you have a specific similar date in mind, or is 1900-1970 a fit. Or would 1900-1940 be more of a challenge?

[[deleted user]]

Andrea wrote: "So what about some of these switchups

Features a Dragon => Features a Unicorn..."

Featuring a Pooka!

[Angie]

G33z3r wrote: "Angie wrote: "Published between 1900-1970 (or similar date)
..."

Do you have a specific similar date in mind, or is 1900-1970 a fit. Or would 1900-1940 be more of a challenge?"

Either one. I have a laundry list of classic sci-fi to get to. I could make either one work.

[Angie]

To piggy-back on the comments above:

I agree with Cat about the definition of FREE space. I use it to slot in a book of my choosing that doesn't fit in anywhere else.

I agree with Andrea that these should be kept:

- New to you author
- Genre-blender
- Anthology
- Award winner

Looking at my read list for next year, I'd like to suggest "Alternative form - a poem, song, script, essay" from the list. I've been meaning to get to R.U.R. I was also looking at a couple of other plays/scripts, too.

[Andrea]

Angie wrote: "Looking at my read list for next year, I'd like to suggest "Alternative form - a poem, song, script, essay" from the list. I've been meaning to get to R.U.R. I was also looking at a couple of other plays/scripts, too."

Maybe that'd be a replacement for the graphic novel?

[[deleted user]]

Andrea wrote: "Maybe that'd be a replacement for the graphic novel?..."

Or subsume Graphic Novel as an alternate form?

[Andrea]

G33z3r wrote: "Andrea wrote: "Maybe that'd be a replacement for the graphic novel?..."

Or subsume Graphic Novel as an alternate form?"

That would work too, since I was thinking that poem/play/essay could actually be kind of hard. After all I'm only now aware of a SF/F play that doesn't involve the Harry Potter world :)

[Angie]

G33z3r wrote: "Andrea wrote: "Maybe that'd be a replacement for the graphic novel?..."

Or subsume Graphic Novel as an alternate form?"

I think that would be the best option. It would allow people to stretch boundaries and check out plays, scripts/teleplays, essays, poetry, etc. But it would also preserve the option to do a graphic novel if the member can't find a suitable option in one of the other formats.

[[deleted user]]

Angie wrote: "I think that would be the best option. It would allow people to stretch boundaries and check out plays, scripts/teleplays, essays, poetry, etc. But it would also preserve the option to do a graphic novel if the member can't find a suitable option in one of the other formats...."

Since the challenge is to set a goal, if a member doesn't think a graphic novel is hard enough to merit a square, they're free to disregard that option.

Andrea wrote: "That would work too, since I was thinking that poem/play/essay could actually be kind of hard. After all I'm only now aware of a SF/F play that doesn't involve the Harry Potter world :) ..."

R.U.R is a true classic, in that it introduced the word "robot."

Mary Chase's play Harvey can fill either the "alternate form/play" square or "story featuring a pooka". ;)

I guess people will have to make their own decision on how long a poem must be to take the square. Homeric epics? Please, not Beowolf.

Maybe I'll go for play and poem and essay and graphic novel. :)

[Andrea]

G33z3r wrote: "Since the challenge is to set a goal, if a member doesn't think a graphic novel is hard enough to merit a square, they're free to disregard that option."

That's something to consider to, nothings says you need to complete all the slots, you set a goal for the number of slots you want to fill. So I'm good either way to include graphic novel or make it more challenging and just limit it to a "play". We can then open up a recommendation thread where we can get suggestions from each other.

I think I pointed out in another thread that this is called a "challenge" if all the slots were easy then it wouldn't be much fun trying to find things that fit. So some can be easy yet expand your horizons (read new author) but others should be a little more obscure.

[Rosemary]

I like the idea of including an audio book - you don't have to buy one, since most libraries have audio books available to "borrow".

[[deleted user]]

Rosemary wrote: "I like the idea of including an audio book - you don't have to buy one, since most libraries have audio books available to "borrow"."

Are you thinking as another "alternate form" or as a square by itself?

[Rosemary]

I was thinking as a square by itself, maybe including any form of audio book (cassette, CD or MP3/Audible).

[Cat]

G33z3r wrote: "Rosemary wrote: "I like the idea of including an audio book - you don't have to buy one, since most libraries have audio books available to "borrow"."

Are you thinking as another "alternate form" ..."

I would probably class it as an alternate form with the others...

[Andrea]

Cat wrote: "G33z3r wrote: "Rosemary wrote: "I like the idea of including an audio book - you don't have to buy one, since most libraries have audio books available to "borrow"."

Are you thinking as another "a..."

Would watching a movie count as 3 alternate medias? It's has a screenplay, so the written format is different. It visual kind of like a graphic novel and has audio content like an audio-book. I just watched the most recent Fantastic Beasts movie which has a screenplay book associated with it but instead of reading the book I listened/watched it :) Of course it won't count for next year anyway, ah well.

[Cat]

Andrea wrote: "Cat wrote: "G33z3r wrote: "Rosemary wrote: "I like the idea of including an audio book - you don't have to buy one, since most libraries have audio books available to "borrow"."

Are you thinking a..."

Oh gosh, I wonder how far you could go with that - what's the most alternative formats for the one story?!
Seriously though, I think the format that you engage with is the one that counts, not all the different forms it comes in. Otherwise if you read a book that happened to have an audiobook, you could count it as two.

[Andrea]

Cat wrote: "Seriously though, I think the format that you engage with is the one that counts, not all the different forms it comes in. Otherwise if you read a book that happened to have an audiobook, you could count it as two. "

Not sure they count as separate things in GR though so you couldn't get away with that, the challenge would only see it as 1 entry.

[NekroRider]

For the challenges, I'd love to see the Female Author Challenge back again mostly because I was planning to participate in 2019 and make a more concerted effort to read/discover more women fantasy authors.

I'm wondering if you're trying to change things up with new challenge ideas, if something like reading X number of books in a particular SFF sub-genre would work, or reading X number of books that include a particular type of fantasy creature, theme/trope/story line.

Anyway, next year I'm thinking I'll ditch the main SFF Reading Challenge since I don't have much trouble at all in beating my initial targets and then wind up upping my target...plus SFF makes up most of my reading anyway so not much of a challenge lol

Instead will hopefully do the Female Author Challenge, maybe Bingo again and maybe one other depending.

[[deleted user]]

NekroRider wrote: "I'm wondering if you're trying to change things up with new challenge ideas, if something like reading X number of books in a particular SFF sub-genre would work, or reading X number of books that include a particular type of fantasy creature, theme/trope/story line. ..."

Definitely interested in new ideas, especially for Challenges, since we can have as many as people want (in contrast, there are only 24 squares on the BINGO card.) Are there specific sub-genre you'd like to see? Or fantasy creature? Or is it a name-your-own sub-genre challenge (a bit like the geography challenges, where each participant gets to decide if the unit is continents, counties, states, planets,....)

[[deleted user]]

I made a 1st draft of the 2019 BINGO card....



No, I didn't go with featuring a Dragon, a Unicorn, or a Pooka.

Comments, objections, changes, spelling errors...?

[Angie]

G33z3r wrote: "I made a 1st draft of the 2019 BINGO card....





No, I didn't got with featuring a Dragon, a Unicorn, or a Pooka.

Comments, objections, changes, spelling errors...?"

I like it! Some exciting possibilities. I love seeing some different categories, some of which will push me a little bit.

I guess Pookas can always be used for the Free Space. :)

[Laura]

Wow, some of those look rather difficult... this should be interesting :)

[[deleted user]]

I thought "non-human protagonist" and "featuring an alien" might be a little too similar (the former being a bit more broad.)

I went with 1950, splitting the difference between last year's 1918 and the suggested 1970.

It occurred to me that while "talking animals" sounds very specific to fantasy, it could also embrace "uplift SF" (such as last year's Children of Time group read. (also, Pookas! :)

Cli-Fi / Cyberpunk replaced Steampunk/Gaslight, with the drawback that it almost has to be SciFi, while Gaslight embraced fantasy, too — but it seems to me SciFi simply has more sub-genres than Fantasy.

The "complete series" could be a real challenge. Following the group series discussion of Codex Alera (6 books in all) would do it. So would any trilogy. (I'm looking at the Long Price Quartet myself as something I've been meaning to get to for awhile.)

[Andrea]

G33z3r wrote: "I thought "non-human protagonist" and "featuring an alien" might be a little too similar (the former being a bit more broad.)"

Although you did keep both spots, did you intend to change the alien one to something else? Just checking, I don't mind either way since I can do one as Fantasy and the other of course has to be SF.

I got the Cyberpunk/VR sharing a slot but Cli-fi too? Just curious as to that combo :)

I'm sure lots of people have series they've aleady started, I assumed that square to count as reading the last book of the series (i.e you "completed" a series as opposed to having read a "complete" series)...or were you thinking you need to start/end the series in the same year? There are duologies out there too so a full series could be just two books :) Either way I have plans to read several complete series next year so I'm good.

Lost civilization...wow, interesting one. Also the one set in a non Western country/culture.

I've definitely read talking animal SF before (even A Fire on the Deep would count with the canine like aliens)

And you're going to force me to read something published next year!!! I almost never read a book the year it's published since I've started waiting for series to be completed before starting them, but I'm sure something will get nominated by the group to help me out with that! Oh, I know one I'm waiting to have published and will read right away, so I'm good :)

Eager to get started planning these out, I know exactly what to put for some of them, others going to need some work...but I'll plan to do the whole card. If I could nearly achieve that using just dragon books, I should have no problems succeeding if I don't force a unicorn restriction on this new card!

[[deleted user]]

Andrea wrote: "G33z3r wrote: "I thought "non-human protagonist" and "featuring an alien" might be a little too similar (the former being a bit more broad.)"

Although you did keep both spots, did you intend to change the alien..."

I was looking for another idea to replace the alien. (One that was neither a unicorn nor pooka :) Or something that isn't even in the "featuring a ——" structure.


Andrea wrote: "I got the Cyberpunk/VR sharing a slot but Cli-fi too? Just curious as to that combo :)..."

I agree, but I didn't want to give CliFi its own square, too, since I think the card is already weighed toward SciFi.


Andrea wrote: "I'm sure lots of people have series they've aleady started, I assumed that square to count as reading the last book of the series (i.e you "completed" a series as opposed to having read a "complete" series)...or were you thinking you need to start/end the series in the same year?..."

As with all challenges, they're flexible according to how the challengee wishes to interpret it. :)



Andrea wrote: "And you're going to force me to read something published next year!!! I almost never read a book the year it's published..."

I think someone wrote earlier, "this is called a 'challenge,' if all the slots were easy then it wouldn't be much fun trying to find things that fit." ;)

[Angie]

I'm barely more awake than I was when I commented last night, but I'll try to make some more specific comments, because "yay good card" was probably not helpful. :)

I like the "SF/F set in Non-Western Country or Culture" category, as I feel like I need to read more diverse books.

"Lost Civilization Found" is a cool one. I had to do some research last night to figure that one out. I like it! I think I'm going to do At the Mountains of Madness.

"SF/F First Published in 2019" - I need a push to read newer stuff, so yay. I added a few great titles to my list last night and discovered that an author I like is releasing something new.

"Cli-Fi, Cyberpunk, or VR" - I like that cli-fi does not have its own square, lol. I mean, I could make it work, but I love the fact that I can do cyberpunk here.

"SF/F Alternate Form" - I've already got some good play/script options for this one, so I think I'll do one of those.

And I think "Non-Human Protagonist" works really well for fantasy. My mind didn't even go to aliens there... I think of The Last Unicorn and The Golem and the Jinni.

I did a little digging last night and found good options for all the squares as the card stands now.

[Andrea]

G33z3r wrote: "I think someone wrote earlier, "this is called a 'challenge,' if all the slots were easy then it wouldn't be much fun trying to find things that fit.."

*cough* Someone did indeed say that, and there are a few squares that do make for a nice challenge for me in particular, even if I already solved the 2019 one.

However, before I worry about some of them, I need to figure out which slots I've already got covered. While doing some house cleaning for Christmas I already put aside a bunch of books that looked like good candidates to read next year so I may already have better coverage than I realize! Just at a quick glance I've got about 15 of them.

I'm super excited to get started on this already! Though I'd better hurry up and finish that last book for this year's challenge first...

[Cat]

I feel like it's reasonably well weighted - I mean there are a few that are seem specifically sci-fi, but you could easily get most of the others with fantasy. And as someone who needs to read more sci-fi, that's probably a good thing!

[[deleted user]]

Concerning Challenges, the only concrete suggestion was removing the "Author Geographic Challenge", since one of the only two members to sign up last year isn't going to next year. (I'll leave the Setting Geographic Challenge, though it only has two adherents.)

NekroRider suggested (I think) some sub-genre challenges, like "Time Travel Challenge" and "Werewolf Challenge", I suppose, but there are so many possibilities I'll need more specific wants to set them up....

Or, maybe I'll make a "Sub-Genre Challenge," and each chalengee can pick which sub-genre they want. (E.g., SF/F with Unicorns, or SF/F with Pooka.)

[[deleted user]]

Cat wrote: "I feel like it's reasonably well weighted - I mean there are a few that are seem specifically sci-fi, but you could easily get most of the others with fantasy...."

Angie wrote: "I'm barely more awake than I was when I commented last night, but I'll try to make some more specific comments, because "yay good card" was probably not helpful. :)..."

I'd really like to ditch the Alien. Not that I have anything against little green men, but it's very scifi-specific.

I could put "Military SF/F" back. Fans of David Weber and Brian McClellan can be equally served.

Or, how about "SF/F during a Journey." Lord of the Rings and The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet can be equally appropriate.

?

[Angie]

G33z3r wrote: "Concerning Challenges, the only concrete suggestion was removing the "Author Geographic Challenge", since one of the only two members to sign up last year isn't going to next year. (I'll leave the ..."

I like the idea of a sub-genre challenge and would probably enter that.

I definitely want to see the Short Story and Stand Alone categories continue.

[Andrea]

Angie wrote: "I definitely want to see the Short Story and Stand Alone categories continue"

Anthology is still there so short story is covered. The alternate format could maybe also cover "magazine"?

Military SF/F is an easy match this year what with our February classic.

The "on a journey" one kind of overlaps with epic fantasy which usually involves a quest/journey.

There are only 2 clear SF ones more than clear Fantasy ones, but that's stretching the gods/angel/demons to include SF but it's a lot more fantasy weighted, as is the talking animal one. I think in the end it's balanced well enough. But I'm good with the military one being put back in. Or standalone since I've got several of those :) I also have one that features an alien in my pile so in the end I'm good with any of those options.

[Angie]

Andrea wrote: "Anthology is still there so short story is covered. The alternate format could maybe also cover "magazine"?"

Oh, no I meant for the non-bingo challenges. I like the Bingo card as is--I think it's well-balanced between SF and F. I was just saying that I'd like to see the non-bingo categories of Short Story and Stand-Alone (the ones listed in the first post) continue.

[Angie]

G33z3r wrote: " I'd really like to ditch the Alien. Not that I have anything against little green men, but it's very scifi-specific.

I could put "Military SF/F" back. Fans of David Weber and Brian McClellan can be equally served.

Or, how about "SF/F during a Journey." Lord of the Rings and The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet can be equally appropriate."

I could take or leave Military SF/F. If you put it back, I could easily fill it, but I don't need it or anything.

The journey one would be fine. I'm good with the card as is, and I think it's well-balanced. Like Andrea pointed out, there are a couple of squares that are very fantasy-weighted.

But if you want to swap out aliens with journey or something like that, that's cool too. I read both SF and fantasy, so I'm good either way. I just want to plan, so I can request stuff from the library. :)

[[deleted user]]

Well, I guess I'll leave the alien alone. So far the "final" card will be the same as the draft above.

[[deleted user]]

Angie wrote: "I like the idea of a sub-genre challenge and would probably enter that...."

OK, that's a sale.

[NekroRider]

G33z3r wrote: "NekroRider wrote: "I'm wondering if you're trying to change things up with new challenge ideas, if something like reading X number of books in a particular SFF sub-genre would work, or reading X nu..."

First of all just wanna say I like the new Bingo card! It has a cool mix of themes and boxes!

Second to follow up on my previous comment, what I was thinking was x number of a SFF subgenre that a person might not have read much of in the past. For example x number of Gunpowder Fantasy, Time Travel, Sword & Sorcery, Fantasy of Manners, Afrofuturism, Hard Sci-Fi etc I liked what you recommended about making it "choose your own" like the Geography Challenge. But maybe similar to the geography challenge also provide some examples/ideas within the description or something like that?

[Andrea]

Looks like it's time to shake up the BINGO card for next year, as well as review our other challenges.