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December’s Poll and Genre selection for the Future

Hello, readers!

 

I don’t know about you all, but this is my favorite time of year. The weather is finally cooler, the rain is coming far more often, and it’s the perfect time to curl up and read with a good book.

 

Except I was totally one of the only people who didn’t even finish the first half of the book for our last meeting. My bad!

 

Anyway, I don’t have much to say this time around. Please vote below for our December book. We’ve got a variety of options which span the sci-fi genre in a few directions. Since it’s such a vast genre, we can do two months (either in a row or split, depending on what you’d prefer) so that we can cover more.

 

Since it’s harder for us to pin down, I’ve I’ve also put up a poll for genres. You can vote for up to three of them, and we will go from there. You will find book summaries and both polls below.

 

Surface Detail (Culture #9) by Iain M. Banks

 

These don’t need to be read in order.

 

It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters. It begins with a murder. It will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself. Lededje Y’breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price. To put things right she will need the help of the Culture. Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual.

 

With the assistance of one of its most powerful – and arguably deranged – warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on.

 

A brutal, far-reaching war is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead and it’s about to erupt into reality. It started in the realm of the Real & that is where it will end. It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the center of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether.

 

A Fire Upon the Deep (Zones of Thought #1) by Vernor Vinge

 

Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind’s potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these “regions of thought,” but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence.

 

Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.

 

Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1) by Pierce Brown

 

“I live for the dream that my children will be born free,” she says. “That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.”

 

“I live for you,” I say sadly.

 

Eo kisses my cheek. “Then you must live for more.”

 

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

 

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

 

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

 

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies… even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

 

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet  by Becky Chambers

 

Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space-and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe-in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.

 

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

 

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

 

Book Poll

 

What book shall we read for December?

  • Surface Detail (Culture #9) by Iain M. Banks (31%, 5 Votes)
  • Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1) by Pierce Brown (25%, 4 Votes)
  • The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers (25%, 4 Votes)
  • A Fire Upon the Deep (Zones of Thought #1) by Vernor Vinge (19%, 3 Votes)

Total Voters: 16

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Genre Poll

 

What genres are you interested in reading over the next few months? (Choose 3)

  • Thriller (18%, 8 Votes)
  • Memoir/Biography/Autobiography (13%, 6 Votes)
  • Paranoid Fiction (13%, 6 Votes)
  • Contemporary Fiction (11%, 5 Votes)
  • Nonfiction (11%, 5 Votes)
  • Sci-Fi (11%, 5 Votes)
  • Romance (9%, 4 Votes)
  • Speculative Fiction (9%, 4 Votes)
  • Self Help (2%, 1 Votes)
  • Other Genre (Put it in the book submissions channel) (2%, 1 Votes)
  • Horror (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 15

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