MobileRead November 2012 Book Club 1st Vote

[jabberwock_11]

Originally Posted by Rizla

With all due respect, any sci-fi poll that does not include a work by Iain M. Banks is a joke. He is undoubtedly the greatest living science-fiction writer and has developed the genre the most since the greats (and deserves to be included in their number). These nominations are absurdly out-of-touch and this poll meaningless. Oh well and ho-hum.

I can't stand Ian Banks, I find his books dry and uninteresting. If his books are so important to you then maybe you should have nominated one. This is not a poll about great sci-fi, it's a vote for the book to be read by the monthly book club. The nominations are the books people want to read, not necessarily what books people think are the best ever written in the category.

[banjomike]

I've voted for Triffids. If I'd noticed that Triffids was being nominated I would have pointed out (assuming everyone doesn't know already) that there are two different version of the story available. One version available in the USA seems to have been censored or bowdlerised or something.


Minor spoiler to identify the full length version of Day of the Triffids:

Spoiler:

In the full length version immediately after our hero leaves his hospital room he meets a blind doctor.

This is a small change but it does identify the correct version. There are many more differences some of which are major changes and go some way to explain why the original movie was so crap.

[yekim54]

Originally Posted by jabberwock_11

I can't stand Ian Banks, I find his books dry and uninteresting. If his books are so important to you then maybe you should have nominated one.

Rizla did nominate one: Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks; however, it didn't get any seconds or thirds.

[Latinandgreek]

I picked Cloud Atlas because I've had it on my TBR list for a while, but it was a tough choice this month.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by yekim54

Rizla did nominate one: Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks; however, it didn't get any seconds or thirds.

I loved that book. Fantastic space opera. After reading this I tracked down every sci-fi book he'd written. They sit proudly on my bookshelf, but I've only read a few of them so far....so much to read.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

From the nomination thread...

My mistake.

[caleb72]

Bugger it, I decided to vote for my nomination. Deathworld it is. I had it on my list to read this year anyway.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by caleb72

I loved that book. Fantastic space opera. After reading this I tracked down every sci-fi book he'd written. They sit proudly on my bookshelf, but I've only read a few of them so far....so much to read.

Maybe it's because you're not American? It seems Americans generally don't like Banks. Dunno why. No offence intended to Americans, but that's what I'm seeing. Maybe it's all the semi-colons and long complex sentence structures? I'm opening myself up to a world of pain here.

Maybe it's because Banks' Culture is a communist Utopia and he railed against Bush and Blair and the war on Iraq. At the same time, Consider Phlebas rails againt Muslim extremism and oppresion of tolerance in all forms (in the form of the Idirians--they have a ship called The Fist of God #234 haha!). It begins with the quote from the Koran "Carnage is better than Idolatary." It's a bit more intelligent that books about sticking microchips up your anus and calling it the future. Duh.

How can this poll not include him when it includes Wyndhams' Triffids? Yee Gods, it was written in the fifties or something and is about killing killer plants with sea-water. Bizarre. And I like Wyndham! And Harrison? And Dick? Don't get me wrong. Dick was "a Prince among Knaves" (google the Lem Affair), but it's old material! Sci-fi has moved on. There is a new good intelligent work being done. Lets emphasize it. As I said, without it, this poll is meaningless.

Oh, yeah. If anyone is interested and hasn't read it, check out The White Mountains trilogy by John Christopher. It's old and written for kids, but way better than 90% of the tosh nominated in this poll Weeeeeee Tripods!

[Kevin8or]

*deleted*

[sun surfer]

I like our nominations. They may not be perfect, but that isn't the point. I feel like as long as there's at least a few nominations each month that interest me then the nominations are a success to me for opening my eyes to them.

Sometimes I nominate things that I love that don't ever even get seconds, but ah well, that's the way it goes sometimes. I try to take it gracefully and find the good in the other noms.

[jabberwock_11]

Book club nominations have nothing to do with nominating the best or most respected books in a particular category and everything to do with nominating what you would like to read. It is ok to enjoy reading stupid books that are wildly entertaining.

As far as Ian Banks only being accessible to people who agree to his supposed messages...well that may be a part of it for some folks, but not me. I just don't like his style His books are a long dull drag from page to page. I see them as having more in common with electronics owners manuals than entertaining novels.

I really wanted to like Ian Banks. I stumbled on the guy while researching another author. The universes that he creates sound well thought out and the novels he writes have spifftastic plot lines, but after reading through three of them I finally came to the conclusion that I would rather get dental work with dull rusty drills than read another Ian Banks novel. Seeing as only one of his novels was nominated (and did not even make the finals), I am guessing that not everyone holds him up all that high.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by jabberwock_11

Seeing as only one of his novels was nominated (and did not even make the finals), I am guessing that not everyone holds him up all that high.

It may also have been a case of too little and too late. It was nominated fairly late in the process and didn't have much detail when first nominated, so it didn't the same attention it might have gotten if it had been a detailed early nomination.

[Quake1028]

I voted for.....a book .

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Quake1028

I voted for.....a book .

What a novel idea!

[caleb72]

Well Cloud Atlas was certainly out in front - and that was without a visible vote.