SF Signal: 1975 Do-Over Reading Project

1975 Do-Over Reading Project

JP and I are embarking on a "1975 Do-Over" reading project. (Seeing as how we were both under 10 years old at the time, it seemed like a good place to start. That, and the selection contains no mid-series titles or books we disliked.)

We will be reading all of the best novel nominees for the 1975 Hugo and 1975 Nebula awards. If anyone wants in, let us know. The plan is for each reader to review each book and, when we are finished, see if anyone got robbed. The whole project should take at least a couple of months. Stay tuned.

The nominees are:

1975 HUGO AWARD NOMINEES FOR BEST NOVEL

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hugo Winner)

Fire Time by Poul Anderson

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick

The Inverted World by Christopher Priest

The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

1975 NEBULA AWARD NOMINEES FOR BEST NOVEL

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (Nebula Winner)

334 by Thomas M. Disch

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick

The Godwhale by T. J. Bass

That's a total of 7 unique titles. Shouldn't be too difficult, eh?

Well, I have to say The Mote in God's Eye is a really good book. Its sequal, however, not so good. Its decent, but not up to MiGE. And, MiGE has that old skool space opera feel to it.

Posted by jp on Wednesday February 09, 2005 at 3:50 PM

Yeah, I guess some logistics would be helpful. Originally, it was planned as a local group thing, but there?s no reason why you can?t play along at home.

For Local Participants
I already own the majority of the books, I will purchase the rest. We read different titles simultaneously - you already are able to post reviews.

For Remote Participants
You?ll have to purchase the books yourself. I?m sure you are web-savvy enough to know how to get any out of print ones. (just in case, try abebooks ) For reviews, we usually follow a consistent format. See SF Signal?s Book Review section for details. [UPDATE] Post the review on your own website and link back to it from here.

Happy Reading!

Posted by John on Wednesday February 09, 2005 at 3:57 PM

You guys know this is a great idea, right?

I thought I might play along too, but only one of those (The Dispossessed) is available at Fictionwise. Just goes to show you how how and cold I run, that that mere fact makes me throw in the towel.

Posted by Mervius on Wednesday February 09, 2005 at 4:41 PM

Uh John? If we join in on this do we have to read "The Dispossessed" and "Flow My Tears" twice since they are on both lists? Just checking . . .

-Rich (Hatebird) "I'm not a hater!"

Posted by Rich on Thursday February 10, 2005 at 12:47 PM

The rest of us don't have to read those titles twice, but you do, Rich.

Logistics update: JP had a more reaonable idea. Remote reviewers can post to their own site (a rating on a 5-star scale would be nice) and link back to it via the comment trail for this post. This spreads the work out a bit. When completed, we'll tally results and have the winners.

Posted by John on Thursday February 10, 2005 at 1:10 PM

Well, I haven't posted an update to the 2004 list in a while, nor have I started my 2005 list yet, but I'll be continuing the short a day project. I enjoyed it so much (other than the typing up summaries, which is where I'm dragging in the '04 list!) that I'll do it again.

I may join you in this project as well. The Godwhale? Man, was that a flash in the pan? I haven't heard of that--or the author--in quite a long time!

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Monday February 21, 2005 at 2:46 PM

Yeah, I'm kind of missing the short-story-a-day thing. I'm doing way less reading this year, both short stories and novels too.

We'd be glad to have you on board the project. If you choose, you can post your review on your G2E2B site and add a comment here back to that review.

Posted by John on Monday February 21, 2005 at 3:09 PM