KWBC: Selection for June - A Shadow in Summer

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Which book should we read in June 2013?

Poll ended at Mon May 27, 2013 7:21 am

A Shadow in Summer - Daniel Abraham
2
50%
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
1
25%
Who Fears Death - Nnedi Okorafor
1
25%
The Quantum Thief - Hannu Rajaniemi
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 4

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KWBC: Selection for June - A Shadow in Summer

Post by I'm Murrin »

The Kevin's Watch Book Club has voted to read Daniel Abraham's A Shadow in Summer in June.

Here are the nominations:

A Shadow in Summer (The Long Price Quartet) - Daniel Abraham
The powerful city-state of Saraykeht is a bastion of peace and culture, a major center of commerce and trade. Its economy depends on the power of the captive spirit, Seedless, an andat bound to the poet-sorcerer Heshai for life. Enter the Galts, a juggernaut of an empire committed to laying waste to all lands with their ferocious army. Saraykeht, though, has always been too strong for the Galts to attack, but now they see an opportunity. If they can dispose of Heshai, Seedless's bonded poet-sorcerer, Seedless will perish and the entire city will fall. With secret forces inside the city, the Galts prepare to enact their terrible plan.

In the middle is Otah, a simple laborer with a complex past. Recruited to act as a bodyguard for his girlfriend's boss at a secret meeting, he inadvertently learns of the Galtish plot. Otah finds himself as the sole hope of Saraykeht, either he stops the Galts, or the whole city and everyone in it perishes forever.
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
The best-known of Shirley Jackson's novels, and the inspiration for writers such as Neil Gaiman and Stephen King, The Haunting of Hill House is an immaculate examination of how fear can make us our own worst enemy.

Four seekers have arrived at the rambling old pile known as Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of psychic phenomena; Theodora, his lovely and light-hearted assistant; Luke, the adventurous future inheritor of the estate; and Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman with a dark past. As they begin to cope with chilling, horrifying occurrences beyond their control or understanding, they cannot possibly know what lies ahead. For Hill House is gathering its powers - and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
Who Fears Death - Nnedi Okorafor
(I found a shorter synopsis!)
An award-winning literary author presents her first foray into supernatural fantasy with a novel of post- apocalyptic Africa. In a far future, post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, genocide plagues one region. The aggressors, the Nuru, have decided to follow the Great Book and exterminate the Okeke. But when the only surviving member of a slain Okeke village is brutally raped, she manages to escape, wandering farther into the desert. She gives birth to a baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand and instinctively knows that her daughter is different. She names her daughter Onyesonwu, which means "Who Fears Death?" in an ancient African tongue. Reared under the tutelage of a mysterious and traditional shaman, Onyesonwu discovers her magical destiny-to end the genocide of her people. The journey to fulfill her destiny will force her to grapple with nature, tradition, history, true love, the spiritual mysteries of her culture-and eventually death itself.
The Quantum Thief - Hannu Rajaniemi
Jean le Flambeur gets up in the morning and has to kill himself before his other self can kill him first. Just another day in the Dilemma Prison. Rescued by the mysterious Mieli and her flirtatious spacecraft, Jean is taken to the Oubliette, the Moving City of Mars, where time is a currency, memories are treasures, and a moon-turned-singularity lights the night. Meanwhile, investigator Isidore Beautrelet, called in to investigate the murder of a chocolatier, finds himself on the trail of an arch-criminal, a man named le Flambeur....

Indeed, in his many lives, the entity called Jean le Flambeur has been a thief, a confidence artist, a posthuman mind-burgler, and more. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his deeds are known throughout the Heterarchy, from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of Mars. In his last exploit, he managed the supreme feat of hiding the truth about himself from the one person in the solar system hardest to hide from: himself. Now he has the chance to regain himself in all his power—in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed.
This poll will close on the 27th of May; the chosen book will be discussed at the end of June.
Last edited by I'm Murrin on Mon Jun 17, 2013 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by ussusimiel »

You'll never guess what I voted for! :lol:

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Post by I'm Murrin »

Looks like your vote might win it at this rate. ;)
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Post by sgt.null »

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson

Stephen has mentioned Jackson many times in interviews and such. time to see what he likes so much...
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Re: KWBC: Selection for June - A Shadow in Summer

Post by Linna Heartbooger »

I'm Murrin wrote:The Kevin's Watch Book Club has voted to read Daniel Abraham's A Shadow in Summer in June.
8O Woooo!
"People without hope not only don't write novels, but what is more to the point, they don't read them.
They don't take long looks at anything, because they lack the courage.
The way to despair is to refuse to have any kind of experience, and the novel, of course, is a way to have experience."
-Flannery O'Connor

"In spite of much that militates against quietness there are people who still read books. They are the people who keep me going."
-Elisabeth Elliot, Preface, "A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael"
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