The Apolyton Science Fiction Book Club: May Nominations

[JohnT]

Don't forget Aprils book, Enders Game, by Orson Scott Card.

This month's book is Asimov's Foundation. Please join in!

This club doesn't have many rules, but what there are pretty much involve nominations and voting:

1. You must have read the book you are nominating.
2. Please nominate only 1 book, as to allow others' selections to be listed.
3. The books must be science fiction.
4. Last months runner up will automatically be nominated. The person who nominated last months runner up can nominate another book if they desire, without effecting the runner up's nomination.

It would also be appreciated if you could link to a good description (Amazon, sfsite.com, whatever) of the book.

On March 15th (or so), I will post a thread listing the nominations with a multiple-choice poll which will allow you to select up to three (3) books. The poll will be timed to end at the end of the month, and the winner will be the book we read for May. If there is a tie, I make the decision as to which book to read.

My selection this month is going to be Hal Clements Half Life, Tor Books (2000). Usually I post a quip from Amazon.com, but the fact is everybody who has ever read this book has missed the point. Clement is a true hard science fiction writer, far more so than Asimov or Clarke (or even Niven) - this is a man who literally writes novels about gravity and metallurgy.

Half Life is no different. But what everybody misses is that it is also a story about sociology and the impact of a law designed to boost the scientific method. Anyway, the book is set a few centuries in the future, after a long period where the biomass of the entire planet decreases at the rate consistant of a half-life of every 63 years (i.e. after 126 years you had 1/4 of the biomass of year 0). A ship of extremely ill but highly trained people go to Titan to see if they can find out where the life processes on Earth are breaking down.

I do hope this one is selected.

Edit: Added rule four upon advice from St. Leo. I also saw where in last months thread, Slowwhand nominated The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein. So that book is considered a May nominee as well.

Is there any way we can weigh the votes?

[St Leo]

Are we carrying forward April's runner-up into May?

[Static Universe]

Philip K. Dick's The Man In The High Castle.

Blurb from Amazon:

It's America in 1962--where slavery is legal and the few surviving Jews hide anxiously under assumed names. All because some twenty years earlier America lost a war--and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan. This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel set in a parallel universe is the work that established **** as a legendary science fiction author.

This novel was written almost completely under the influence of the I Ching and dexedrine. Very interesting. Not the kind of alternate universe novel you would expect.

[Jon Miller]

Merchanter's luck by cherryh

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

no, make that downbelow station

same author

Jon Miller

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
no, make that downbelow station

Both great books, but Cyteen is considered her masterpiece, set in the same universe. I think the trilogy is available in one volume now (although it is really one book and the publisher made her break it up).

[Ramo]

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

Amazon blurb:

To Say Nothing of the Dog is a comedy of manners, a comedy of errors, time travel, a touch of romance, and Victorian history lessons; all with a wit so sharp it could skewer Oscar Wilde himself.

Connie Willis sets her protagonist Ned Henry on a time-travel induced goose chase through Victorian England for an obscure artifact known as the Bishop's Bird Stump. Originating from the late 21st Century, when the use and laws of time travel are well established, Mr. Henry is nevertheless poorly prepped for the culture shock he experiences. He must interpret a set of instructions he doesn't remember receiving in order to replace something that was taken from its timeline so that history doesn't self-destruct into chaos 60 years later...and do so while never revealing his ignorance of Stilton spoons and the correct way to refer to a pregnant cat in the presence of ladies (that would be never). Along the way are several literary tributes and thoughtful debates on the nature of history: character or unseen forces? ...to say nothing of a plethora of gut-wrenching hilarity.

To Say Nothing of the Dog manages to draw from several literary genres without watering down its verbal potency or losing focus of the essentially sci fi plot. And although it won a Hugo award in 1999, this book will not alienate readers who are not normally into science fiction in general (the publisher persists to this day in classifying it as general fiction). In fact, I will have no trouble recommending To Say Nothing of the Dog to my charmingly '50's mom as well as to a trekker friend.

[korn469]

i nominate the postman, simply because i'm a fan of post apocolytic fiction

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Static23


Both great books, but Cyteen is considered her masterpiece, set in the same universe. I think the trilogy is available in one volume now (although it is really one book and the publisher made her break it up).

cyteen is my favorite also

maybe I shoudl recommend that oen, I just have read it recently, have not read the other two recently

Jon Miller
(I ahve read almost everything she has ever written)

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Ramo
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

Amazon blurb:

it was ok (read last summer) but not as strong as the Doomsday Book

Jon Miller

[Ramo]

I haven't read that one. I really ought to get around to it.

[Case]

Originally posted by korn469
i nominate the postman, simply because i'm a fan of post apocolytic fiction

Just about everything by David Brin is worth reading IMO

[Tattila the Hun]

The cat trough the wall, by Heinlein, i believe.

[laurentius]

The Hyperion Saga, by Dan Simmons

[JohnT]

Originally posted by St Leo
Are we carrying forward April's runner-up into May?

You know, I never thought about that, but it is a good idea.

Reread the first post.