Space Opera Fans discussion
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March BOTM nomination thread
So this month I'll do it right :)YA pick:
by Leonie Rogers (me)Indie Pick:
by Patty Jansen because it didn't get up last month and I think it's great!
Okay ... already some entrants! Here's the book bling list ('cause it's pretty ... and a girl's gotta have her bling ... especially in the deep dark of space)READER PICK:
INDIE PICK:
YA FRIENDLY PICK:
Okay peeps! Keep 'em coming and I'll add them to my spreadsheet.
Timday wrote: "ya zoe's tale"We -just- finished up John Scalzi's foray into YA literature, Timday :-( Sorry ... a lot of our community members have just recently read Zoe's Tale. But yes, otherwise it would qualify.
Do you want to nominate something else?
Reader Pick: The Abyss Beyond Dreams: A Novel of the CommonwealthIndie Pick: 2147 (This is me, but I am reliably informed I hit the heady heights of mediocre on a good day.)
Evan wrote: "READER PICK:
INDIE PICK:
"I vote for The Exile Empire by me!
Ugh I always come up with good ideas for things to nominate and then realize they're not necessarily space opera. *eyeroll* And so much of the stuff on my to-read list is indie so none of that works for reader pick.For Reader Pick, how about Warship: Black Fleet Trilogy 1 by Joshua Dalzelle?
For some reason I was thinking it was indie but I'm looking a little closer now and maybe it's not. I still can't tell for sure.For Indie Pick, I'll nominate Nexus
, sequel to Dakiti which was Indie BOTM this past December :)
a fire upon the deep all categories :)
Exile Empire by Josh Done for Indie Pick
reader pick: Fluency by Jennifer Foehner Wells
Indie pick:
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Splinter-F...
Reader pick: Golden Son by Pierce Brown http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1444759019...
Indie pick: Exile Empire by Joshua Done
Reader pick: With the Lightnings by David Drakeindie pick: The Exile Empire by Joshua Done
Holy ... moly!!! Look at all these great nominations!Uhm ... it's after midnight here, so I'm going to come back in the morning and load all these great nominations into my spreadsheet! Wow ... I unplug for a day and KAPLOWEY!!!
Keep 'em coming in the meantime! I'll post the pretty cover-bling in the morning as soon as I get them onto my spreadsheet.
********************************************************************WHO CAN NOMINATE? Last autumn we had an influx of new members who came in to support a friend's nomination of their book. The book won the Randomizer, but alas those friends didn't stick around long enough to chat about the book they'd all nominated. This isn't fair to our active members who stop in several times a month to share their knowledge of all things sci-fi ... nor to our active author members whose books got pushed out and didn't win.
Now I know sometimes our friends want to help and get overzealous ... I wish I had more friends like that! Yay, friends! But if I notice an influx of new members who all just joined only to nominate a book, I will not count those nominations towards the Random.org randomizer for that month. Goodreads gives us all the ability to see when people joined and how active they are under the 'Members' heading for just this reason.
So hi new people! Welcome! It's nice of you to support your friend. But I'm snipping down the number of nominations from eleven to just two which I determined were made by 'active' members ... plenty to give your friend's book a fair shot to win ... but not so much it drowns out the voices of the people who make this community their home. I hope you stay and become active members. And I hope you understand.
Be epic!
Anna
**************************************************************
That's the reason I quit participating in this BOTM. They looked too much like spammers and puppets when I looked at their accounts. Too many joined Goodreads on the same day that they voted for the book. Was disappointed that they succeeded so easily.
I hope someone/people out there enjoyed 'The Time Ships.' LOve that book so much.Anyway this month I'm championing:
Reader Pick:
First Contact (In Her Name: The Last War #1)
by Michael R. Hicks
And I'm going to keep puching my indie pick:
The Kinsmen Book 1: Between Gods and Mortals by Pete Cruickshank
Okay ... first some housekeeping stuff...@E.J. - I searched the library catalog for the Warship: Black Fleet Trilogy and, alas, despite Joshua's 'best selling author' status for a previous book, Warship is unfortunately an 'Indie Pick' because he self-published it through a distributor which has not made it available in-stock to any bookstores or libraries. The spirit of READER PICK is that any reader, anywhere in the world, can easily access the book for free at a local library if they can't afford to buy it or walk into a local bookstore and find it on the shelf (I want at least ONE category that everybody can access, not just those of us living in the digital age). I couldn't find the book listed on Overdrive or LibraryThing, which is a bummer because it's the kind of book I would very much like to see nominated. I noticed you nominated your own book for Indie Pick, so I haven't swapped them out. Sorry :-( If you know Joshua Dalzelle, maybe tell him to come and join us so he can play?
@Joshua Done - You nominated Gateway by Brian Dorsey as INDIE PICK, but we read Gateway as a group back in October of 2014 so it's not eligible to be read again any time soon. Sorry :-( Also, your own book, The Exile Empire, would be considered an INDIE PICK because it's not widely available enough to constitute a READER PICK. I have moved your nomination over into the INDIE PICK category to replace Gateway. You are welcome to still nominate another READER PICK if you like?
@Timday - we just finished reading the entire Zones of Thought series by Vernor Vinge as a group a couple of months ago (November 2014), so alas, A Fire Upon the Deep is disqualified. Sorry :-( You are welcome to suggest another nomination? The Fire Upon the Deep discussion thread is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Okay ... here's the Book Cover Bling! [*so pretty, so pretty...*]
READER PICK:
INDIE PICK:
YA FRIENDLY PICK:
*Just a note about Ender's Game ... it fails under the recently published prong of the 'current YA' requirement, but if there is a recent TV or movie about it, then it will be allowed. Ender's Game is the foundation of 99% of current YA dystopia popular amongst young people and technically 'current' again due to the recent movie.
Okay peeps! Your Borg Queen likes cover bling! Keep 'em coming ... buy a raffle ticket, throw your hat into the ring!
Reader Pick
by Alastair ReynoldsIndie Pick
by Mark CooperYA Friendly
by Karl Schroeder
Anna wrote: "Okay ... first some housekeeping stuff...@E.J. - I searched the library catalog for the Warship: Black Fleet Trilogy and, alas, despite Joshua's 'best selling author' status for a previous book, ..."
Ah snap lol okay - I could have sworn it was indie but then when I saw the "USA Today bestselling author!" I thought maybe it had taken off and become available in more places. To Dalzelle's credit, it's one of the first books that pops up when you Google "space opera books."
Also I was noticing all the random new people joining to vote for Exile Empire too so I'm glad that got addressed...
Let's try this again. I'll second the vote for Golden Son
for Reader Pick!
For YA Friendly: Lockstep is on my amazon wishlist. Will probably get in the next 2 weeks. Indie Pick: More people should read Nexus. I am a broken record.
Still thinking up ideas for the other ones.
How about
for reader pick? Just realised I hadn't nominated one :)
I'd like to nominate for
Indie Pick.
I think would work for Indie if it has not been done yet.Reader pick I will back up Fluency!
I'd like to second Pete's choice but I'm calling it my Indie pick because I had to special order it and my library wouldn't buy it - "First Contact" (In Her Name: The Last War #1) by Michael R. HicksFor my YA pick, I loved "Golden Son" by Pierce Brown even though there was a lot of violence in there.
For my Readers Pick, I'm going with "The Enceladus Crisis" (Book #2 of the Daedulus series) by Michael J. Martinez. I loved the quirky steampunk alternate history storyline and the characters were cool. Book three "The Venusian Gambit" will be out later this year.
Thanks for all the other great suggestions I will put in my to be read list.
Normalene
I'll be unoriginal and second the votes for Golden Son as Reader Pick, Nexus as Indie Pick, and Ender's Game for YA Pick
Catching up with my cover bling! Okay ... a few of you went back and back-filled a nomination, so if I missed it, holler! If I disqualify a book for some reason, I will always say why.@Ken - I'd noticed the other influx, but we were getting a general influx of new readers overall at that time, so I decided not to pounce on it because I was hoping the newbies would stick around. They didn't ... so this time I made an executive decision. It's just people who mean well, but don't realize how it upsets the balance of a little community such as ours.
@Normalene - Golden Son doesn't qualify for a YA-Friendly pick because it stars an 18-year-old who gets recruited as a spy. To be young adult it has to be written starring a 12-17 year old protagonist who addresses space as a teen. It's an awesome book, I hear, that many teens might enjoy going on to read. But it's not written FOR them. It's written for adults. If you want to swap out your Reader Pick for it, you are welcome to do so.
Also ... First Contact is one of those rare beasts that could qualify as either a Reader or an Indie Pick. He's pretty well read, but he did it all 100% on his own dime. That one has been added to the till.
@Pete - you just keep sticking that in there :-) One of these days, you're going to hit the megabucks ... and then ???
*
Okay ... here's the updated Book Cover Bling!
READER PICK:
INDIE PICK:
YA FRIENDLY PICK:
Keep 'em coming!!! Only another day, and then we pick the winners (is this a leap year? No ... no leap year ... gotta remember that :-)
There really is some lovely bling isn't there?
Anna wrote: "Keep 'em coming!!! Only another day, and then we pick the winners (is this a leap year? No ... no leap year ... gotta remember that :-)"If it helps leap years are always the same as Olympic games years. I know this sadly because I was born on the 29th of Feb. I am 8 3/4 this year!
For the Young Adult Friendly Pick, I nominate my own book The Acolytes of Crane.
Thank you for your consideration.
Anna wrote: "Ken - I'd noticed the other influx, but we were getting a general influx of new readers overall at that time, so I decided not to pounce on it because I was hoping the newbies would stick around. They didn't ... so this time I made an executive decision. It's just people who mean well, but don't realize how it upsets the balance of a little community such as ours...."
I can see that. At the time, though, for me it seemed a little too blatant. Now knowing how you saw it, no harm done.
I can see that. At the time, though, for me it seemed a little too blatant. Now knowing how you saw it, no harm done.
I would like to go with Rendezvous with RamaFor indie pick, I think The Zoastra Affair sounds interesting.
For YA, I'd like to see Lockstep
@ Ken - the Borg Queen's first imperative is to grow the collective so we can broadcast it's awesomeness to the world :-)*
Getting down to the wire here :-) Here's the latest Book Cover Bling!
READER PICK:
INDIE PICK:
YA FRIENDLY PICK:
We're getting down to the wire!!! Short month this month... I'm gonna go send out a group email and
If the nominations are still on, this one's then for an indie pick.
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Space Opera Fans
Books mentioned in this topic
Shadow of the Storm (other topics)Fate of the Kinunir (other topics)
Falaha's Journey: A Spacegirl's Account in Three Movements (other topics)
Rendezvous with Rama (other topics)
The Abyss Beyond Dreams (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Alastair Reynolds (other topics)Brian Dorsey (other topics)
Carol Van Natta (other topics)
Guy S. Stanton III (other topics)
Leonie Rogers (other topics)
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It's that time of the month where YOU all nominate what books we'll be reading in March as Group Reads!
We have the following categories open for nomination:
READER PICK - this is for a widely available, mass market book that comes in paperback and ebook on at least 3 distribution platforms and the library Overdrive catalog. Kindle Unlimited 'exclusive' books are specifically disqualified [*sorry, kids, your Borg Queen is a Nook girl!*]
INDIE PICK - this is for an independently published book or legacy author who is now independently publishing their backlist after many years out of print. Kindle-only books are okay. Authors are permitted to nominate their own books.
YOUNG ADULT FRIENDLY PICK - who says sci-fi is the genre of white-haired old men with advanced engineering degrees? Uh-uh ... the YA-friendly pick is something our MODERN YOUNG PEOPLE want to read. Must be published after 1995 (or the subject of a current movie/tv series). Must star a protagonist age 12-17. Must have a space element (i.e., no dystopia). This is the pick that will make you look AWESOME and COOL when you are able to casually drop discussion of this book into conversations with the young people in your life. Here's your chance to indoctrinate young people into your geeky interests and turn them away from the sparkly vampires! Can be a mass-market book or an indie pick. Authors can nominate their own book.
Drop your NOMINATIONS for READER, INDIE and YOUNG ADULT FRIENDLY pick into the nomination thread below! Remember ... one man ... one vote PER CATEGORY.
And last but not least, for our Series Pick we'll continue on with Book 2 of the Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie, Ancillary Sword, so reserve that puppy on your local inter-Library loan!
Be epic!
Anna Erishkigal
SOF Borg Queen