MobileRead December 2017 Book Club Nominations

[WT Sharpe]

MobileRead Book Club
December 2017 Nominations

Help us select the next book that the MobileRead Book Club will read for December, 2017.

The nominations will run through midnight EST November 26 or until 10 books have made the list. The poll will then be posted and will remain open for five days.

The book selection category for November is Fantasy.

In order for a book to be included in the poll it needs THREE NOMINATIONS (original nomination, a second and a third).

How Does This Work?
The Mobile Read Book Club (MRBC) is an informal club that requires nothing of you. Each month a book is selected by polling. On the 20th of that month a discussion thread is started for the book. If you want to participate feel free. There is no need to "join" or sign up. All are welcome.

How Does a Book Get Selected?
Each book that is nominated will be listed in a poll at the end of the nomination period. The book that polls the most votes will be the official selection.

How Many Nominations Can I Make?
Each participant has 3 nominations. You can nominate a new book for consideration or nominate (second, third) one that has already been nominated by another person.

How Do I Nominate a Book?
Please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a book, please try to provide an abstract to the book so others may consider their level of interest.

How Do I Know What Has Been Nominated?
Just follow the thread. This message will be updated with the status of the nominations as often as I can. If one is missed, please just post a message with a multi-quote of the 3 nominations and it will be added to the list ASAP.

When is the Poll?
The poll thread will open at the end of the nomination period, or once there have been 10 books with 3 nominations each. At that time a link to the initial poll thread will be posted here and this thread will be closed.

The floor is open to nominations. Please comment if you discover a nomination is not available as an ebook in your area.


Official choices with three nominations each:

(1) Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll
Goodreads | Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | USF/Lit2Go Audiobooks: S&B / S&B Concluded

Spoiler:

This is a hard work to classify. It has fantasy, it has humor, it has philosophy, some parts are nice for children, some parts contain more "grown-up" thoughts. Nevertheless, the style and imagination of Carroll is evident throughout the book. It is also surprising how he manages to touch so many subjects of interest today, quotes and situations can be found to illustrate relativity, evolution, topology, emergent intelligence, self-referencing... It's, in my opinion, a very pleasant work to read and a nice discovery.

The book is fully illustrated with the 92 original illustrations by Harry Furniss, which account for the large size of the file (I preferred to keep the images rather high-quality).

(2) Green Rider by Kristen Britan
Goodreads | Amazon US / Kobo US / Overdrive
Print Length: 483 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

On her long journey home from school after a fight which will surely lead to her expulsion, Karigan G'ladheon ponders her future as she trudges through the immense forest called Green Cloak. But her thoughts are interrupted by the clattering of hooves as a galloping horse bursts from the woods, the rider slumped over his mount's neck, impaled by two black-shafted arrows. As the young man lies dying on the road, he tells Karigan that he is a Green Rider, one of the legendary messengers of the king, and that he bears a "life and death" message for King Zachary. He begs Karigan to carry his message, warning her not to read it, and when she reluctantly agrees, he makes her swear on his sword to complete his mission "for love of country." As he bestows upon her the golden winged-horse brooch which is the symbol of his office, he whispers on his dying breath, "Beware the shadow man..."

Karigan's promise changes her life forever. Pursued by unknown assassins, following a path only her horse seems to know, and accompanied by the silent specter of the original messenger, she herself becomes a legendary Green Rider. Caught up in a world of deadly danger and complex magic, compelled by forces she cannot understand, Karigan is hounded by dark beings bent on seeing that the message, and its reluctant carrier, never reach their destination.

(3) Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber
Goodreads
Print Length: 254 pages

Spoiler:

The award-winning sword and sorcery classic that introduced Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, from a Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

First in the influential fan-favorite series, Swords and Deviltry collects four fantastical adventure stories from Fritz Leiber, the author who coined the phrase "sword and sorcery" and helped birth an entire genre.

[I]From Goodreadsj[bI]

For the first time-the story of how the greatest heroes in fantastic literature first met.

'The two thieves had themselves been robbed by two youths, who eyed each other suspiciously over the sprawled, senseless bodies.

Fafhrd said: 'Our motives for being here seem identical.' 'Surely, they must be!' the Mouser answered curtly, fiercely eyeing his huge, potential foe.

Fafhrd glanced down at the belts and money-pouches of the fallen thieves. Then he looked up at the Mouser with an honest, open, ingenuous smile.

'Sixty-sixty?' he suggested.

Thus was born the most improbable relationship in the whole history of swords and sorceries.

(4) The Magic City by Edith Nesbit
Goodreads |
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub / Kindle
Print Length: 212 pages

Spoiler:

When young Philip Haldane and his new step-sister Lucy (whom he resents) are magically transported to a magic city (created by Philip from odds and ends from about the house), they find themselves on an incredible enchanted adventure complete with talking dogs, winged horses, ancient buildings and magic islands. How Philip and Lucy come to forge a friendship and work together to save the Magic City from impending disaster makes for a riveting, entrancing story.

From Goodreads:

Philip Haldane builds a play city out of odds and ends that comes to life, when his beloved sister Helen marries Lucy's father. But the nurse tears down the city and traps Lucy. Peter, The Deliverer, must perform seven valorous deeds, opposed by the Pretenderette, a mysterious veiled woman who wants to be Queen. Noah builds an ark and adventures abound.

• Nominations are now closed. •

[WT Sharpe]

Please note that as we talked about in the Discussion/Suggestion Thread, the discussion is going back to starting on the 20th of the month.

All nominations:

*** Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber [John F, Dazrin, CRussel]
Goodreads
Print Length: 254 pages

Spoiler:

The award-winning sword and sorcery classic that introduced Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, from a Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

First in the influential fan-favorite series, Swords and Deviltry collects four fantastical adventure stories from Fritz Leiber, the author who coined the phrase "sword and sorcery" and helped birth an entire genre.

[I]From Goodreadsj[bI]

For the first time-the story of how the greatest heroes in fantastic literature first met.

'The two thieves had themselves been robbed by two youths, who eyed each other suspiciously over the sprawled, senseless bodies.

Fafhrd said: 'Our motives for being here seem identical.' 'Surely, they must be!' the Mouser answered curtly, fiercely eyeing his huge, potential foe.

Fafhrd glanced down at the belts and money-pouches of the fallen thieves. Then he looked up at the Mouser with an honest, open, ingenuous smile.

'Sixty-sixty?' he suggested.

Thus was born the most improbable relationship in the whole history of swords and sorceries.

*** Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll [issybird, astrangerhere, Luffy]
Goodreads | Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub | USF/Lit2Go Audiobooks: S&B / S&B Concluded
Print Length: 309 pages

Spoiler:

From jellby:

This is a hard work to classify. It has fantasy, it has humor, it has philosophy, some parts are nice for children, some parts contain more "grown-up" thoughts. Nevertheless, the style and imagination of Carroll is evident throughout the book. It is also surprising how he manages to touch so many subjects of interest today, quotes and situations can be found to illustrate relativity, evolution, topology, emergent intelligence, self-referencing... It's, in my opinion, a very pleasant work to read and a nice discovery.

The book is fully illustrated with the 92 original illustrations by Harry Furniss, which account for the large size of the file (I preferred to keep the images rather high-quality).

* The Book of Dust, Volume One, La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman [John F]
Goodreads
Print Length: 464 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

The much-anticipated new work from the author of The Golden Compass is coming at last!

Renowned storyteller Philip Pullman returns to the parallel world of Lyra Belacqua and His Dark Materials for a thrilling and epic adventure in which daemons, alethiometers, and the Magisterium all play a part.

The Book of Dust will be a work in three parts, like His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass).

The title and cover of this first story will remain under wraps until a later date, but it can be revealed that the book is set ten years before The Golden Compass and centers on the much-loved character Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon.

Philip Pullman offers these tantalizing details: “I’ve always wanted to tell the story of how Lyra came to be living at Jordan College, and in thinking about it, I discovered a long story that began when she was a baby and will end when she’s grown up. This volume and the next will cover two parts of Lyra’s life: starting at the beginning of her story and returning to her twenty years later. As for the third and final part, my lips are sealed.

“So, second: is it a prequel? Is it a sequel? It’s neither. In fact, The Book of Dust is . . . an ‘equel’. It doesn’t stand before or after His Dark Materials, but beside it. It’s a different story, but there are settings that readers of His Dark Materials will recognize, and characters they’ve met before. Also, of course, there are some characters who are new to us, including an ordinary boy (a boy we have glimpsed in an earlier part of Lyra’s story, if we were paying attention) who, with Lyra, is caught up in a terrifying adventure that takes him into a new world.

“Third: why return to Lyra’s world? Dust. Questions about that mysterious and troubling substance were already causing strife ten years before His Dark Materials, and at the center of The Book of Dust is the struggle between a despotic and totalitarian organization, which wants to stifle speculation and inquiry, and those who believe thought and speech should be free. The idea of Dust suffused His Dark Materials. Little by little through that story the idea of what Dust was became clearer and clearer, but I always wanted to return to it and discover more.”

The books of the His Dark Materials trilogy were showered with praise, and the Cincinnati Enquirer proclaimed, “Pullman has created the last great fantasy masterpiece of the twentieth century.” With The Book of Dust, Philip Pullman embarks on an equally grand adventure, sure to be hailed as the first great fantasy masterpiece of the twenty-first century.

*** Green Rider by Kristen Britan [JSWolf, CRussel, Dazrin]
Goodreads | Amazon US / Kobo US / Overdrive
Print Length: 483 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

On her long journey home from school after a fight which will surely lead to her expulsion, Karigan G'ladheon ponders her future as she trudges through the immense forest called Green Cloak. But her thoughts are interrupted by the clattering of hooves as a galloping horse bursts from the woods, the rider slumped over his mount's neck, impaled by two black-shafted arrows. As the young man lies dying on the road, he tells Karigan that he is a Green Rider, one of the legendary messengers of the king, and that he bears a "life and death" message for King Zachary. He begs Karigan to carry his message, warning her not to read it, and when she reluctantly agrees, he makes her swear on his sword to complete his mission "for love of country." As he bestows upon her the golden winged-horse brooch which is the symbol of his office, he whispers on his dying breath, "Beware the shadow man..."

Karigan's promise changes her life forever. Pursued by unknown assassins, following a path only her horse seems to know, and accompanied by the silent specter of the original messenger, she herself becomes a legendary Green Rider. Caught up in a world of deadly danger and complex magic, compelled by forces she cannot understand, Karigan is hounded by dark beings bent on seeing that the message, and its reluctant carrier, never reach their destination.

* Carousel Tides by Sharon Lee [CRussel]
Goodreads | Amazon US / Baen / Kobo US
Print Length: 432 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

Carousel Tides pulls you into the chill foggy reality of peeling-paint sand-grit coastal Maine outside of tourist season and then hands you something else -- the hidden world lurking in shadows or under the land's surface or just offshore, where black dogs hunt the night and selkies toss unpleasant truths over their shoulders before diving into the next wave. In the center of this, Kate Archer tends and guards one of the spookiest carousels this side of Ray Bradbury and wonders what has happened to her grandmother. The old woman sent her a letter, left papers deeding over the carousel and old house and the Land (meaning much more than property), and vanished, telling the spirits of the land and sea that she expected to be back before the turning of the year.

Now March has come and gone and Kate must return from self-exile to take up powers and responsibilities she has renounced, or dying will be the least of her problems . . .

Sharon Lee weaves fantasy into reality so deftly that you scarcely notice when you slip across the edge. And once you're there, the story's own magic won't let you turn back from the strong characters, deep mysteries, and even deeper danger.

--James A. Hetley, author of Dragon's Eye, Dragon's Teeth, and Dragon's Bones.

*** The Magic City by Edith Nesbit [issybird, Dazrin, JSWolf]
Goodreads |
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub / Kindle
Print Length: 212 pages

Spoiler:

When young Philip Haldane and his new step-sister Lucy (whom he resents) are magically transported to a magic city (created by Philip from odds and ends from about the house), they find themselves on an incredible enchanted adventure complete with talking dogs, winged horses, ancient buildings and magic islands. How Philip and Lucy come to forge a friendship and work together to save the Magic City from impending disaster makes for a riveting, entrancing story.

From Goodreads:

Philip Haldane builds a play city out of odds and ends that comes to life, when his beloved sister Helen marries Lucy's father. But the nurse tears down the city and traps Lucy. Peter, The Deliverer, must perform seven valorous deeds, opposed by the Pretenderette, a mysterious veiled woman who wants to be Queen. Noah builds an ark and adventures abound.

** The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany [drofgnal, issybird]
Goodreads
Print Length: 203 pages

Spoiler:

From Amazon:

All fantasy and horror fans owe it to themselves to read Lord Dunsany (1878-1957). The sword & sorcery genre was born in his early stories, and high fantasy was indelibly transformed by his novels. His profound influence on 20th-century fantastic fiction is visible in authors as dissimilar as Neil Gaiman, H.P. Lovecraft, and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Lord Dunsany's best-known novel is The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924), wherein the men of Erl desire to be "ruled by a magic lord," and the lord's heir, Alveric, ventures into Elfland to win the king's daughter, Lirazel. Their story does not progress as a reader weaned on the diluted milk of formulaic fantasy would expect; and the novel's unique journeys and events are matched by Dunsany's rich and lyrical prose and by his contagious intoxication with the magic and marvels of both Elfland and our own world. --Cynthia Ward

• Nominations are now closed. •

[John F]

I'll nominate Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber

The award-winning sword and sorcery classic that introduced Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, from a Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy.
First in the influential fan-favorite series, Swords and Deviltry collects four fantastical adventure stories from Fritz Leiber, the author who coined the phrase "sword and sorcery" and helped birth an entire genre.

Available at libraries everywhere.*

[issybird]

Given December, when people are short of both time and money, I'm nominating Sylvie and Bruno, by Lewis Carroll. No, I'd never heard of it either, but I found it in the Patricia Clark Library and it's both short and free and sounds intriguing.

Here's the description from jellby, who uploaded it:

This is a hard work to classify. It has fantasy, it has humor, it has philosophy, some parts are nice for children, some parts contain more "grown-up" thoughts. Nevertheless, the style and imagination of Carroll is evident throughout the book. It is also surprising how he manages to touch so many subjects of interest today, quotes and situations can be found to illustrate relativity, evolution, topology, emergent intelligence, self-referencing... It's, in my opinion, a very pleasant work to read and a nice discovery.

The book is fully illustrated with the 92 original illustrations by Harry Furniss, which account for the large size of the file (I preferred to keep the images rather high-quality).

Sylvie and Bruno epub

[John F]

I'll nominate The Book of Dust, Volume One, La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman.

Philip Pullman returns to the parallel world of his groundbreaking novel The Golden Compass to expand on the story of Lyra, "one of fantasy's most indelible characters." (The New York Times Magazine)

Available at libraries everywhere (although there may be a long wait list.)*

[JSWolf]

I'll nominate Green Rider by Kristen Britan.

On her long journey home from school after a fight that will surely lead to her expulsion, Karigan G'ladheon ponders her uncertain future. As she trudges through the immense Green Cloak forest, her thoughts are interrupted by the clattering of hooves, as a galloping horse bursts from the woods.

The rider is slumped over his mount's neck, impaled by two black-shafted arrows. As the young man lies dying on the road, he tells Karigan he is a Green Rider, one of the legendary messengers of the king of Sacoridia.

Before he dies, he begs Karigan to deliver the “life and death” message he bears to King Zachary. When she reluctantly he agrees, he makes her swear on his sword to complete his mission, whispering with his dying breath, "Beware the shadow man...".

Taking on the golden-winged horse brooch that is the symbol of the Green Riders, Karigan is swept into a world of deadly danger and complex magic, her life forever changed. Compelled by forces she cannot understand, Karigan is accompanied by the silent specter of the fallen messenger and hounded by dark beings bent on seeing that the message, and its reluctant carrier, never reach their destination.

Overdrive: https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=green+rider+kristen
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/green-rider-1
Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Green-Rider-K.../dp/B001JKV95U

If you cannot get it from Overdrive, it's only $2.99 (US).

[CRussel]

I'll second Green Rider. It's a bit longer than I'd absolutely like to suggest, but none-the-less a good choice. At $2.99 it's inexpensive enough, and there is a good Audible version for those who prefer to listen rather than read.

(Full disclosure -- I've already read this once, and several later volumes in the series, though it lost steam for me and I gave up on it ultimately. But enjoyed this book quite a bit.)

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by John F

I'll nominate The Book of Dust, Volume One, La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman.


Available at libraries everywhere (although there may be a long wait list.)*

One I'll eventually read, John, but too expensive for the club and no hope at the library. There are already 20 people waiting per copy at my provincial library. Hopeless for here.

[CRussel]

I'll nominate Carousel Tides by Sharon Lee. This is somewhere between an urban fantasy and pure fantasy, set on the Maine Coast. A truly delightful book that I'll highly recommend. It's available DRM-Free from all the usual sources but NO library versions, from what I can tell. OTOH, it's only $6.99 from Amazon, Kobo, Baen and others, and fully couponable at Kobo.
Baen Description:

Kate Archer left home years ago, swearing that she would die before she returned to Maine. As plans go, it was a pretty good one — simple and straightforward. Not quite fast enough, though. Before she can quite manage the dying part, Kate gets notice that her grandmother is missing, leaving the carousel that is the family business untended. And in Archers Beach, that means ‘way more trouble than just a foreclosure.

432 pages, a bit high, but it's an excellent read so goes quickly. Highly recommended.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CRussel

One I'll eventually read, John, but too expensive for the club and no hope at the library. There are already 20 people waiting per copy at my provincial library. Hopeless for here.

Another problem is it is part of a series and it's not book one and we've not read all of the proceeding books. and it is not self-contained or stand-alone.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I'll second Green Rider. It's a bit longer than I'd absolutely like to suggest, but none-the-less a good choice. At $2.99 it's inexpensive enough, and there is a good Audible version for those who prefer to listen rather than read.

Green Rider is 385 ADE pages long once you remove any excess stuff from the eBook (which I've done).

[John F]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Another problem is it is part of a series and it's not book one and we've not read all of the proceeding books. and it is not self-contained or stand-alone.

There are no "preceding books". It is a prequel, as in the first book in the timeline. I'm reading it, and it seems self-contained to me. And those who have read the Golden Compass (and enjoyed it) will probably find it interesting.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

There are no "preceding books". It is a prequel, as in the first book in the timeline. I'm reading it, and it seems self-contained to me. And those who have read the Golden Compass (and enjoyed it) will probably find it interesting.

And remember, some people prefer to read in published order. Are you 100% sure there are no spoilers? Some prequels are actually not meant to be read before the other books in a series. This is not a one book fits all situation with this book.

[issybird]

I'm going to nominate a children's book, The Magic City, by Edith Nesbit, which is in the public domain. I've read several of Nesbit's children's books and I think they're enchanting; I haven't read this one. I don't know if anyone was a fan of Edward Eager's magic novels as a child, but his Knight's Castle was a mash-up of this book and Ivanhoe.

Free at the Patricia Clark Memorial Library as uploaded by the marvelous GrannyGrump. From her description:

When young Philip Haldane and his new step-sister Lucy (whom he resents) are magically transported to a magic city (created by Philip from odds and ends from about the house), they find themselves on an incredible enchanted adventure complete with talking dogs, winged horses, ancient buildings and magic islands. How Philip and Lucy come to forge a friendship and work together to save the Magic City from impending disaster makes for a riveting, entrancing story.

PCML Kindle ePub

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by issybird

Given December, when people are short of both time and money, I'm nominating Sylvie and Bruno, by Lewis Carroll. No, I'd never heard of it either, but I found it in the Patricia Clark Library and it's both short and free and sounds intriguing.

Here's the description from jellby, who uploaded it:



Sylvie and Bruno epub

I'll second this. I always want to read more out of the MR Library, but never know where to start. Also, free is nice since it is Christmas present purchasing season.