New Leaf Nominations for October 2018 • Out of This World: Otherwhence

[gmw]

I second this: Mary Rose by Geoffrey Girard, based on J. M. Barrie's play of the same name.

I am intrigued by both the description and the fact that it's based on a J.M. Barrie play.

[darryl]

I'm going to nominate "Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card. It is actually a sequel to the much more publicised Ender's Game (which, like many other Science Fiction books, was used as the basis for a not very good movie). Speaker for the Dead stands alone and in my view is probably Card's best work, at least of those I have read.

It is a very different book from Ender's Game and has many themes worthy of discussion. It is not hard science fiction, but uses the setting to examine many issues. Humanity, ashamed at having wiped out the first alien species it encountered (in Ender's Game) now has to deal with a second. Is this an opportunity for redemption? Or for a repeat? Have any lessons been learned? When the aliens kill the main "Xenologer" sent to study them how will humanity react? Or is history condemned to repeat itself? A very thought provoking book which ranks high amongst my favourites.

In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: The Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War.

Now, long years later, a second alien race has been discovered, but again the aliens' ways are strange and frightening...again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery...and the truth.

Speaker for the Dead, the second novel in Orson Scott Card's Ender Quintet, is the winner of the 1986 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1987 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Amazon AU: $12.99
Amazon US: $ 8.99
Amazon UK: £ 5.99
Amazon CA: $ 5.99

Kobo US is also $8.99, and as the book seems to be an agency title I expect it will be available in these 4 countries at these prices. The books is also readily available from libraries and in paper.

[darryl]

I'm going to second The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. I haven't read it and it looks quite interesting.

I'm also going to second GMW's nomination, Against the Fall of Night. Ralph, I also liked your suggestion of the Legacy of Heorot and would have seconded that instead, but I think that availability in at least the major English speaking countries is important, even if a bit difficult.

Ralph. I also intend to second (or third) your selection also if nothing I prefer comes along in the next day or so.

[gmw]

darryl, you only get three tickets in the nomination process (see here), so with one nomination and two seconds you have used all your tickets.

P.S. Legacy of Heorot was my suggestion. It doesn't matter, just saying. I think it's a fun read, and less technical/sci-fi-ie than a lot of other sci-fi (even others by the same authors). If its availability had been better I think it might have made a nice compromise for this theme.

[darryl]

@gmw. Thanks for pointing that out. I guess I won't be supporting Ralph after all.

Sorry I mixed you up with Ralph. It was indeed a good suggestion.

[issybird]

There's two days left for nominations.

[orlok]

I'll second A Head Full of Ghosts and third Mary Rose. Both sound like something I'd enjoy.

[astrangerhere]

I will use two of my three tickets to second and third, respectively, The Canterville Ghost and Invisible Cities.

[Dngrsone]

Of the series, I think Speaker for the Dead is the best. I will second it.

[CRussel]

I'll third The Canterville Ghost. It's Oscar Wilde, so should be good, and the price and length will make it an easy acquisition and read.

I'll also third The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August . This got excellent reviews and the Audible book was nominated for an Audie award, so that should be good as well. And it's inexpensive, a not inconsiderable consideration.

[issybird]

Just for giggles, I'm going to nominate The Big Over Easy (Nursery Crime #1) by Jasper Fforde.

From Goodreads:

It's Easter in Reading—a bad time for eggs—and no one can remember the last sunny day. Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, minor baronet, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. All the evidence points to his ex-wife, who has conveniently shot herself.

But Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his assistant Mary Mary remain unconvinced, a sentiment not shared with their superiors at the Reading Police Department, who are still smarting over their failure to convict the Three Pigs of murdering Mr. Wolff. Before long Jack and Mary find themselves grappling with a sinister plot involving cross-border money laundering, bullion smuggling, problems with beanstalks, titans seeking asylum, and the cut and thrust world of international chiropody.

And on top of all that, the JellyMan is coming to town . . .

Amazon US $4.99 | Amazon UK £0.99 | Amazon AU $12.99 | Amazon CA $4.99 (for some reason, Amazon CA isn't letting me search, but I verified the price at Kobo CA

383 pages

[Bookpossum]

I love Jasper Fforde and wish I had another vote left to support this one. Great fun!

I'm going to break with protocol here to express my disquiet that we could have on our list a book by Orson Scott Card. I knew nothing about him, but when I looked him up, I find that he apparently speaks out publicly and frequently against homosexuals, calling them deviants and dysfunctional. I don't believe our Club should support such a person.

I hope it doesn't get supported and go to the vote.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

I love Jasper Fforde and wish I had another vote left to support this one. Great fun!

I'm going to break with protocol here to express my disquiet that we could have on our list a book by Orson Scott Card. I knew nothing about him, but when I looked him up, I find that he apparently speaks out publicly and frequently against homosexuals, calling them deviants and dysfunctional. I don't believe our Club should support such a person.

I hope it doesn't get supported and go to the vote.

Whatever sort of views he may or may not hold he writes some great books and this is one of them. If you don't want to read it you deprive only yourself. Should we now burn all books by authors who are against homosexuality?

If you feel it is relevant and are at all interested in what Card did and didn't say about homosexuality I had a quick look after seeing your post and came across this quite lengthy article:

Orson Scott Card and Homosexuality

A brief quote:

“Because I took a public position in 2008 opposing any attempt by government to redefine marriage, especially by anti-democratic and unconstitutional means, I have been targeted as a “homophobe” by the Inquisition of Political Correctness. If such a charge were really true, they would have had no trouble finding evidence of it in my life and work. But because the opposite is true — I think no ill of and wish no harm to homosexuals, individually or as a group — they have to manufacture evidence by simply lying about what my fiction contains.

Even if Card is a complete bigot the fact is that sometimes the worst people produce great things. This should not be a subject for discussion here.

[issybird]

Let's have this be the end of this discussion, please. Each side has had a post and that's sufficient. Anyone who wants is welcome to start a thread on the topic in P&R, but it's done here, if for no other reason than I'm quite sure no minds will be changed.

[issybird]

Jasper Fforde as in The Big Over Easy is most amusing and 99p is really cheap! (It's also available at OverDrive, i.e. free, if that's an option.) And certainly a place that's different. Just in case we want something fun to change things up.

C'mon, there are still some nominations out there!