Nominations for October 2024 Group Read

[Dan]

Let's pick up to two nominations in the weird fiction genre for October 2024's group read. Please, no non-fiction for this occasion. We have that covered by other means. And again, please, no sole authors of a work who might be the sole author of another novel we have read in the past year. That still leaves us lots of good choices to choose from. Weird is such a rich genre!

[Dan]

It has been years since we read a Jeff VanderMeer novel. And I really liked his Annihilation when we read it in the group some time back. How about City of Saints and Madmen? It's 704 pages long, believe it or not. Guess I'm up for some serious reading this Fall.

[Dan]

For the members who like to be on the bleeding edge of modernity and what's happening today in their reading, the latest issue of Weirdbook, published earlier this year, has some of the finest authors currently writing in our beloved genre. That's right. I'm nominating the unrated (in GoodReads) so far, and unreviewed latest edition: Weirdbook #47. Will Weird ever become more popular as a genre so that great anthologies like this one don't sit for six months read by virtually no one?

This issue contains:
THERAPOSA, by Jessica S J Brown
THE DRAGONS OF THE NIGHT, by Darrell Schweitzer
IT STARTS NOW, by Lorenzo Crescentini
UNDERHEAD, by Charles Wilkinson
BYE, BYE, CUBBY, by Franklyn Searight
DIMENSIONS OF SCALE, by John R. Fultz
A DEAD MAN’S TALE, by Adrian Cole
RETURN TO SENDER: ARMSTRONG-9, by Samson Stormcrow Hayes
BUTTERFLIES AND MOONBEAMS, by Kenneth Bykerk
HEX ON THE BEACH, by Bryce Beattie
FERAL, by Joe Arcara
SIGYN HANTA AND BRONWYN DULCEA SPERANZA, by Patrick S. Baker
EGO URN, by Eddie D. Moore
SWEET HONEY IN THE BONES, by Matt Thompson
NIGHT SHIFT, by Cynthia Ward
THE HORROR FROM THE STARS, by Steve Dilks
BELLICO AND THE HUSKS OF THE “HEAVENSENT”, by Richard Toogood
DON’T OPEN YOUR EYES, by Taylor Grant
THE IRON LAW, by David C. Smith

You may remember, we read an Adrian Cole story in Lin Carter's Simrana Cycle earlier this year, "An Unfamiliar Familiar" (2018), and really enjoyed it.

[Nicolai Alexander]

Can I nominate The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson again? That would be nice :)

[Dan]

Nicolai Alexander wrote: "Can I nominate The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson again? That would be nice :)"

Sure! These ten tales look well-selected. Hodgson wrote before weird fiction was really a genre, but he wrote well-regarded proto-weird. I believe I have read only the first three previously. Sea monster attacks ship. They were okay; short and painless; lots of tentacles.

[Nicolai Alexander]

Good times!

[Nicolai Alexander]

You could probably just add Tales of the Dying Earth again too? :)

[Dan]

But I only get two nominations too. Besides, I'll probably have finished reading it by October. Not sure though. It's really a collection of four short if densely written novels and I just finished the first one.

[Nicolai Alexander]

Put it on hold! When you finish the current novel :)

[Dan]

The second and third novel get the highest of the four ratings if you look at the books individually. I suspect it's because they feature a character named Cugel the Clever. He seems popular.

I notice you have an open nomination. Will it be your second nomination?

[Nicolai Alexander]

Yes!