Next official book selction to Stephenson or not to Stephenson...

[Tom, Supreme Laser]

So we need a next book.... We probably won't kick it off next week, since we have the super-secret Ta... I mean unannounced novelist interview. And then on Wednesday we're getting together at the Swedish-American Hall (which now that Swedish means awesome according to iOS auto-correct will be even more fun) for Neal Stephenson's appearance and kick-off of Reamde.

So the question is thus: Shall we read Reamde since it's new and a new Neal Stephenson book is always a time of great awesome discussion (like GRR Martin). Or was Anathem enough for you people, and you'd rather we veer off into a different direction?

Come forth and make your voice heard. Our glorious dictator Veronica will hear your cries while she sits on her comfy bench and eats mexican food!

[Sean]

I think book clubs should be about trying new things, so we should avoid repeating the same authors.

[toria (vikz writes)]

On the author hand it might be good to read different books from one author to compare how they've progressed.

[Jlawrence, S&L Moderator]

I'm torn. My laziness votes for Reamde since I love it when the club aligns with something I'll be reading anyway, and, beyond laziness, I'm sure the book would encourage interesting discussion.

But my bookclubs-should-encourage-variety sense votes with Sean. I'll go with whatever the majority (er, I mean Autarch Veronica) decides.

If we don't do Reamde, it'd make sense for us to read Tad Williams, given the non-secret secret thing...

[Joe]

I'm on the lazy side of things. I am already going to read Reamde, and really won't have time to read something else with the club considering the length of that book.

[Nicolai]

I wasn't there when you guys read the first Stephensen book and also wanted to check out Readme. So I vote for going that direction.

[toria (vikz writes)]

Nicolai wrote: "I wasn't there when you guys read the first Stephensen book and also wanted to check out Readme. So I vote for going that direction."

I vote that we read stephenson

[terpkristin]

Is Reamde more of a sci-fi? I think we're due for a fantasy book. ;) How 'bout something by Tad Williams? ;)

I think that it might be unfair to people to do Reamde, especially considering the travesty that was Anathem.

But if it is Reamde, I'll definitely reading along, so maybe my vote is useless anyway...

[Michael]

I didn't read Anathem, or any other NS book, so Reamde would be a good chance to get into it. But it's not on Audible! *gasp*

[Tamahome]

I thought we aleady picked Ready Player One and Stand On Zanzibar. :)

[Anne]

I'm reading it anyway, but I'm kinda leaning toward reading something else by a different author. I like how we alternate between sci-fi and fantasy, although I don't need it to be a strict rule.

Tad Williams seems like a good idea. I guess I could find a few other suggestion, but between REAMDE and Tad Williams we already have good choices.

Maybe do a poll? I'm not sure how good the response rate is, but at least you can't say that people couldn't take a vote.

(Has it been enough time, so I can pimp The Gone-Away World again?)

[Poly]

How about REAMDE and an alternate/alternates? It seems REAMDE is also gonna be about as long as Anathem.

[Tom, Supreme Laser]

Given the mixed feelings I think xenphi has the answer. Alternate choice just to acknowledge that so many of us will in fact read it.

In that case, I'm for Ready Player One, and then we go full Sword for the next choice.

[Anne]

Ooooh, I love it when both picks are something that I want to read anyway. Makes my life so much easier. Although on the other hand, I also like when the book club "makes" me read something I wouldn't have picked.

I guess I just like reading a lot.

[Anne]

xenphi wrote: "How about REAMDE and an alternate/alternates? It seems REAMDE is also gonna be about as long as Anathem."

I guess it's about as long but from a very subjective standpoint it feels a lot shorter. Not sure if that's true for everyone, or makes any difference, but I'm kind of breezing through it.

[Kris]

I support the Reamde and alternate idea...

[Tamahome]

Israel wrote: "I am with Tom on delaying a full Sword until next time. With two books, how about the second book be an older one that falls outside hard Sword or Laser. Storm Front anyone?"

That's Urban Sword.

[Kris]

Tamahome wrote: "Israel wrote: "I am with Tom on delaying a full Sword until next time. With two books, how about the second book be an older one that falls outside hard Sword or Laser. Storm Front an..."

That sounds like a great pub...

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

So then we'd have an official selection, an alternate selection that was already an unofficial alternate read, and one more unofficial alternate read? I'm in. :)

Is the Swedish Hall thing tied to S&L? If so, I think we should say yes to Stephenson, and then yes to Williams for our next sword. If not, I'd say we've read him before and we probably don't want to get into a pattern of too many new (read: expensive) books in a row.

[Jlawrence, S&L Moderator]

Jenny wrote: Is the Swedish Hall thing tied to S&L?

The Sept. 21 Stephenson reading at the SF Swedish Hall is doubling as another S&L get-together.

There's apparently $12 seats still available (you don't get a copy of the book, which is why they're so much cheaper than the regular tickets), but we'll also go someplace to eat or drink afterward so people can meet even if they don't want to go to the reading.

Yeah, I agree with the scheme of Reamde as primary choice, Ready Player One as alt, and a TW-leaning Sword choice for next book (just now I have to finish the unofficial alternate Stand on Zanzibar ;)).

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Jlawrence wrote: "Yeah, I agree with the scheme of Reamde as primary choice, Ready Player One as alt, and a TW-leaning Sword choice for next book (just now I have to finish the unofficial alternate Stand on Zanzibar ;))."
That will continue at least through next week. ;)

[AndrewP]

Tad Williams would be a good choice, but unfortunately I think you would have to pick from one of his 4 stand alone novels. All of the good ones are part of one series or another and they are more like gigantic books that happen to be published in multiple volumes.
Having said that, Memory, Sorrow and Thorn would make a great sword read, but it's about 2,500+ pages in total.

[Kevin]

I think we should read a different book, especially one that is new, just came out. The reason is because some people may not want to buy the book, so they get their books from the library. It may take them sometimes to get their book that way, so it excludes them from the discussion all together.

[Mathew]

"Ready player 1" has my vote. Then the next book has to be for the sword.

[Joyce]

Reamde is an okay choice but I really didn't like Anathem. But I did love Diamond Age and Neverwhere.

If anyone one wants to do up a poll I'm interested in putting in the following
Dhampir which is a classic fantasy setting but with vampires so that would be a good sword choice.WebMagefor a sort of laser choice.

Tad Williams would be a good choice. How about City of Golden Shadow

[Deborah]

I started reading Reamde today.

[Lepton]

I have yet to finish a Neal Stephenson novel that is not Anathem and that was on audiobook. Bought paperback of Cryptonomicon. Didn't finish it. Bought paperback of The Diamond Age. Didn't finish it. If Reamde is as long as those novels, I doubt I will ever read this new novel.

Something else other than Reamde would be preferable.

[Deborah]

It's 1042 pages.

[Officer_Friendly]

I need to make a confession..... I'm not a big fan of Neal Stephenson... I read Snow Crash and was sincerely uminpressed. So I'm happy to wait to read one his books

[Kevin]

Joyce wrote: "Reamde is an okay choice but I really didn't like Anathem. But I did love Diamond Age and Neverwhere.

If anyone one wants to do up a poll I'm interested in putting in the following
[book:Dhampir|4..."

I second that.

[Kevin]

Deborah wrote: "It's 1042 pages."

Wow, that is really long.

[Kevin]

I'm not a book fan of Neal Stephenson. The only two books that I loved by him are his fiction books, The Big U and Zodiac.

[Sandi]

I absolutely loved Snow Crash. It's absolutely brilliant and one of the few books I've read more than once. (There are just way too many books to spend a lot of time re-reading.) I thought Zodiac was pretty good too. However, I just took a look at my currently reading shelf and realized that I started Anathem a year ago yesterday and still have nearly 100 pages to read. I feel guilty and read a couple of pages here and there, but I've really stopped caring. I had the same problem with Quicksilver. I gave up on that one with 120 pages to go. It's not that I disliked it, it just went on too long.

So, my vote is "no" for Reamde. It sounds good, but I just don't want to take another chance on Stephenson.

[Tamahome]

I think we should pick the whole Baroque Cycle for the next book.

[Sandi]

Tamahome wrote: "I think we should pick the whole Baroque Cycle for the next book."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Don]

I'm a slow reader. So I consider carefully before starting 500+ pages. And I'm not a big fan of alternate picks for the same reason. I am still waiting to listen to the Flash Forward wrap up - almost there.

I was hoping for Ready Player One.

[Kate]

I had a look (and a lift) of Reamde in the bookshop yesterday and there's just no way I'm hauling around a book that big again so soon after Dance with Dragons.

[Anne]

Based on all the comments and teh fact that the book club already read a Stephenson book I'd vote for reading something else. Ready Player One seems a nice choice for me.

I'll be reading REAMDE anyway and be up for some discussion on the board, though.

[Pupsi]

I agree with Anne, as the book club as already recently read a Stephenson book and alternative author would be good. I have not read a Tad Williams so would not mind this as a pick.

As another suggestion if a fantasy book seems to be the next in the cycle and based on some comments about chosing an older book. I would like to recommend either Waylander or Druss by David Gemmell. These are older books by a now late British author (which have not had a massive exposure on S&L so far). It is not a hard / long read.

[Been]

Well I've been meaning to try one of Neil Stephenson's book for a while, so this works for me. AND I'm planning on reading Ready Player One too, so that's good too. So I suppose what I'm saying is "Oh what the hell, let's just read it all!".

[kvon]

I can get Ready Player One at my library, so I'd like to read that. I'm still in the middle of Dance with Dragons.

[Sean]

Vernor Vinge's next book in the Zones of Thought universe comes out next month, so maybe we could try A Fire Upon the Deep (the story of a computer virus that operates on a galactic level and can destroy whole civilizations) or A Deepness in the Sky (a cautionary tale on not reading the documentation for critical elements of your IT infrastructure -- with giant talking spiders).

[Tamahome]

Sffaudio will be discussing Vinge's Rainbows End with Prof. Eric Rabkin this weekend. I like it now that I got over the 66% hump.

[Jay]

Israel wrote: "I am with Tom on delaying a full Sword until next time. With two books, how about the second book be an older one that falls outside hard Sword or Laser. Storm Front anyone?"

+1 on Storm Front. Butcher has a lot of great books. Another suggestion for urban sword: Blood Engines.

[Jason]

Just do Ready Player One. Everyone's already reading it, and it's a quick read, unlike a thousand pages of Reamde.

[Tom, Supreme Laser]

Started reading Reamde and it is NOT starting out like a cyberpunk novel. Very different from Anathem and Baroque Cycle too. I feel this will be more of a mainstream novel with a Cryptonomicon like twist.

[Anne]

Tom wrote: "Started reading Reamde and it is NOT starting out like a cyberpunk novel. Very different from Anathem and Baroque Cycle too. I feel this will be more of a mainstream novel with a Cryptonomicon li..."

Yes, that's my feeling, too. I wrote about on Google+ or somewhere. The whole novel is very accessible and doesn't feel really weird at all. Which is, you know, weird for a Stephenson book.