Series Discussions

[rune]

Good to see that people enjoyed the series discussions and already wanting to vote again

Here are the Guidelines again for Voting -

Guidelines -

Can nominate up to 2 series

Must be Fantasy (if this takes off another project for Sci-Fi series can be started )

The series with the most votes wins.




Nominated so far -

"The Coldfire Trilogy" by CS Friedman and
"The Fionavar Tapestry" by Guy Gavriel Kay

My Nominations -

I'll keep with the ones I nominated the first time

Banned and the Bannished - James Clemens
The Last Rune - Mark Anthony

 

[Brys]

I'll nominate the Banned and Banished series as well by James Clemens - not because I like it, but because I would like to find out why it's so well regarded.

 

[Tikal]

i'll second, or third that motion

 

[GOLLUM]

How do folks feel about the August discussions. I've not read any of the books picked so couldnt contribute. But was it worth doing, did you all enjoy chatting about the ones picked?


Biggest question - shall we do it again?

I thought the discussions were quite interesting albiet they went a little off tangent after a while (Guilty as charged M' Lord.. ) as perhaps a month is a fairly lengthy period to discuss a particular book and author. Having said that I actually found it an education to read the posts members were writing though, as other books by the same author or those authors writing along similar themes were also discussed there e.g. Sword and Sorcery pioneer authors in the Fritz Lieber thread.

Ok, I'd like to nominate Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry, one of the early fantasy series I read in the mid 80s and still happily recall. Just a little worried if a gets the go ahead how many others have read this series other than finvarre LOL!..

Another thought perhaps we could have 2 threads going each month, one that is selected by the voting system here and another perhaps nominated by Rune that's likely to have been read by a number of members only as a way to try to include more people in the dicussions, just a suggestion although I can see obvious arguments against this..

 

[Mark Robson]

Of the series mentioned, I've only read Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry, but I'm not sure how much of it I'd recall if quizzed!

 

[Rosemary]

Your not the only one Mark! I do recall enjoying the Finovar Tapestry but that's about all.
Perhaps we should have a quick re-read so that we can join in the discussion.

 

[finvarre]

I'll have to reread the series as well. That is, I remember it of course, but I like rereading my fav series and this (discussing it here) would be a good excuse hehe !

BTW, I think that discussing 2 series simultaneously is a great idea, especially because there's more chance more people would join in the discussion. So we could choose 2 series, or maybe, Rune, you could start an alternative thread about SF series? Just a thought...

 

[rune]

Various ideas coming through here, so wanting to clarify them a bit.

1 - To have two series discussions going in a month.

I'm more than happy to choose the highest 2 series chosen by those that have nominated each month.
It was suggested that I could possible choose one of these two series per month. I dont think I should get to choose a series each month for discussion, because there seems to be plenty of times I'm reading series that not a lot of others are. I'm not really the best judge on what is popular - well I dont think I am.

2 - Having a seperate Sci-Fi series discussion nominations. That seems fine to me. Only problem is that I dont read Sci-Fi and would find it difficult to motivate this one.
Is there anyone who reads a lot of Sci-Fi that would like to run the Sci-Fi discussion series each month.

So we have a couple of choices I feel.-

* Have 2 fantasy series discussions a month
or

* Have 1 fantasy series discussion and 1 Sci-fi series discussion

 

[GOLLUM]

So we have a couple of choices I feel.-

* Have 2 fantasy series discussions a month
or

* Have 1 fantasy series discussion and 1 Sci-fi series discussion

I'd say the second option is probably on balance the better choice, depends as you say if a moderator can be found to manage this discussion thread otherwise it'll have to be Option one I suppose. Must be someone out there whose a big Sci Fi fan willing to run with this...

 

[Culhwch]

I missed out on the first round but I'll again vote for The Last Rune, by Mark Anthony.

So what's the timeframe here? Votes are tallied at the end of the month, a winner declared and then the discussion starts immediately? Is there no waiting period for those of us who haven't read the series to, well, read the series? It might be a little unwieldy, but perhaps voting could go two months in advance. Maybe at the end of this month, the series with the most votes is discussed in September, and the series with the second most votes is pencilled in for October, with votes for a November series running through September...

Or maybe that's a really bad idea: just gave myself a headache working that all out...

 

[rune]

I missed out on the first round but I'll again vote for The Last Rune, by Mark Anthony.

So what's the timeframe here? Votes are tallied at the end of the month, a winner declared and then the discussion starts immediately? Is there no waiting period for those of us who haven't read the series to, well, read the series? It might be a little unwieldy, but perhaps voting could go two months in advance. Maybe at the end of this month, the series with the most votes is discussed in September, and the series with the second most votes is pencilled in for October, with votes for a November series running through September...

Or maybe that's a really bad idea: just gave myself a headache working that all out...

I think you have a valid point about giving people more time to read books in a series. Saying that, I feel that most people will vote for a series they have either read or in the process of reading.

So what are the thoughts for voting for a series two months in advance?

 

[rune]

I'd say the second option is probably on balance the better choice, depends as you say if a moderator can be found to manage this discussion thread otherwise it'll have to be Option one I suppose. Must be someone out there whose a big Sci Fi fan willing to run with this...

I'll wait and see if anyone comes forward and offers to run a Sci-Fi series discussion thread

 

[rune]

Voted for so far


Nominated so far -

"The Coldfire Trilogy" by CS Friedman and - 1 vote

"The Fionavar Tapestry" by Guy Gavriel Kay – 2 votes- (3 members mentioned this series as one they had read, but didn’t make it clear if they were voting for it)

Banned and the Bannished - James Clemens – 3 votes


The Last Rune - Mark Anthony – 2 votes

 

[GOLLUM]

So what are the thoughts for voting for a series two months in advance?

I think it's an excellent suggestion as well as being quite a practical one. Even for those who've read the book or are in the process of reading it at the point of voting it's not likely people will forget the main points of a story in a month or two following completion. As long as the dicussion threads are done on a monthly basis concurrently with the 2 month advance voting thread, so there's no gap as it were from month to month as far as having something to discuss goes.

I suspect the finovar series probably has more than 2 members votes but then again I'm biased...

 

[rune]

I will let this months votes go onto the end of August, but not start the discussion start until September. And in September start the nominations for November voting.

 

[GOLLUM]

Um YES but then what happens to October??

For what its worth this is how I'd do it omitting an October discussion thread this time around at least for the fantasy discussion. Basically each new vote thread/session will contain 2 fantasy series nominations:

Sep 1: Voting Thread for November AND December created, whilst books from August vote are discussed on seperate threads.
Sep 30th: Voting for November closes.
Oct 1: N/A we continue discussing August books BUT begin Jan 2006 voting.
Oct 15: Voting for December closes.
Oct 31: Voting for Jan 2006 closes.
Nov 1: Voting Thread for Feb 2006 created whilst books from Nov vote are discussed on seperate threads.
Nov 30: Voting for Feb 2006 closes.
Dec 1: Voting Thread for Mar 2006 created, whilst books from December vote are discussed on seperate threads.
Dec 31: Voting for Mar 2006 closes.
Jan 1 2006: Voting Thread for Apr 2006 created, whilst books from January vote are discussed on seperate threads.
Jan 31: Voting for Apr 2006 closes.
Feb 1: Voting Thread for May 2006 created, whilst books from February vote are discussed on seperate threads.
Feb 28: Voting for May 2006 closes.
Mar 1: Voting Thread for June 2006 created, whilst books from Mar vote are discussed on seperate threads.
Mar 31: Voting for June 2006 closes.
etc....

This method if adhered to will provide members especially from Jan 1 2006 consistently 2 months notice to have read or reread a particular book prior to the beginning of the monthly discussion of that book.

It may be a little complicated but if you do the maths, not very hard to coordinate actually. If the Sci Fi discussion is up and runnnig then simply 2 vote threads will be created at the start of each month 1 for a Sci Fi series the other for a Fantasy series....

 

[rune]

Sorry Goll I found your routine a little confusing, and I also realised I made a mistake in my last post.

We are currently nominating. At the end of August nominations there should be a winner for October's discussion.

In September we will then be voting for November nomination. And then after that it will just roll on in sequence.

So in September there will be no new discussion threads, so people can continue (if they wish) to post in the last nominated threads

 

[GOLLUM]

OK then I didn't know about the October setup so we'll stick with your plan.

 

[rune]

Voted for so far
Only got a few more days left for voting this month. These are the nominations so far. Remember whichever two series with the highest votes win and will be discussed in October.


Nominated so far -

"The Coldfire Trilogy" by CS Friedman and - 1 vote

"The Fionavar Tapestry" by Guy Gavriel Kay – 2 votes- (3 members mentioned this series as one they had read, but didn’t make it clear if they were voting for it)

Banned and the Bannished - James Clemens – 3 votes


The Last Rune - Mark Anthony – 2 votes

 

[rune]

Looks like The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay is the fantasy series we will be discussing in October

So members have until October to read or re-read the books in this series