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What fiction book should we start January 1, 2017?

Assist us in selecting our upcoming FICTION book for group discussion in this forum. A minimum of 5 posts is required to participate here!
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Chris OConnor

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What fiction book should we start January 1, 2017?

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What fiction book should we start January 1, 2017?

Let's hear some suggestions for our next fiction book. And please read the suggestions other people make. Comment if you like their suggestion.
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Chris OConnor

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Re: What fiction book should we start January 1, 2017?

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My fiction suggestion is the first book in an amazing fantasy series by the late Joel Rosenberg.

The Sleeping Dragon (The Guardians of the Flame Book 1)

Seven college students meet for another night of role-playing games, where they will be cast as wizard, warrior, cleric, or thief. However, their conniving gamemaster has something entirely new planned for them. The seven gamers are cast into an alternate world of magic, fire-breathing dragons – and a quasi-medieval culture with slavery. The only way back to Earth is through a dragon-guarded Gate Between Worlds, about which little is known.

The five men and two women face tough challenges – simple survival in a harsh environment as well as finding the mysterious Gate to bring them home. Publishers Weekly praised this series for its “energy, wit, and a strong moral sensibility.”

The first novel in Joel Rosenberg’s bestselling Guardians of the Flame series:

GUARDIANS OF THE FLAME
The Sleeping Dragon (#1)
The Sword and The Chain (#2)
The Silver Crown (#3)
The Heir Apparent (#4)
The Warrior Lives (#5)
Road to Ehvenor (#6)
The Road Home (#7)
Not Exactly the Three Musketeers (#8)
Not Quite Scaramouche (#9)
Not Really the Prisoner of Zenda (#10)

“A major star in the fantasy firmament.” 
- Mike Resnick, author of SANTIAGO and STALKING THE UNICORN



“One of the leading lights in fantasy.” 
- William R. Forstchen, author of ONE SECOND AFTER and ONE YEAR AFTER

“One of the few writers I deliberately seek out . . . His splendid stories are intricate and fast-paced and exciting.”
- Dennis L. McKiernan, author of VOYAGE OF THE FOX RIDER

“If I see a book with Joel Rosenberg’s name on it, I buy it . . . His plots are fast-moving, meticulously crafted . . . his works are page-turners from first to last.”
- S.M. Stirling, author of MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA

“Joel Rosenberg writes fantasy rich with intelligent humor and gritty, well-researched detail.”
- Janny Wurts

“Joel Rosenberg is one of the emerging talents in our field today!”
- Raymond E. Feist

Joel Rosenberg (1954-2011) was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and was raised in eastern North Dakota and northern Connecticut. He attended the University of Connecticut, where he met and married Felicia Herman.

Joel's occupations, before settling down to writing full-time, have run the usual gamut, including driving a truck, caring for the institutionalized retarded, bookkeeping, gambling, motel desk-clerking, and a two-week stint of passing himself off as a head chef.

Joel grew up reading Robert A. Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp, Gordon R. Dickson and Rafael Sabatini, and found himself becoming a writer pretty much as a natural outcome of such early influences. His fantasy series include the New York Times bestselling “Guardians of the Flame” series, “Keepers of the Hidden Ways” series, “D’Shai” novels and two “Mordred’s Heirs” novels. He is survived by his wife Felicia and their daughters Judy and Rachel.
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weaselsatwork
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Re: What fiction book should we start January 1, 2017?

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I want to suggest The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine. A family gathers for the death of a patriarch, and stories of the family's past emerge and blend with stories of the Middle East and memories of the Lebanese civil war. This book received excellent reviews, several of which you can see on the below page. Cheers!

https://www.amazon.com/Hakawati-Rabih-A ... s=hakawati
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Chris OConnor

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Re: What fiction book should we start January 1, 2017?

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Thank you for the suggestion, weaselatwork. Are you in any way related to or affiliated with the author or publisher?
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Re: What fiction book should we start January 1, 2017?

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Although it came out in 2005, I would suggest "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. While a little tricky to read, and possibly to organize for discussion, I am finding it a fascinating read. I understand a movie was made of this book, but I have not seen it.
Love what you do, and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. -Ray Bradbury

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it. -Robert A. Heinlein
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Chris OConnor

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Re: What fiction book should we start January 1, 2017?

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I just bought "The Sleeping Dragon" on audio book from Audible.com just because it is easier to listen to books than read books while in a cast. Also, it sure is enjoyable to lay down in bed at night and end my day with a good audio book novel. My Amazon Echo reads the book out loud to me.

"The Book Thief" has great reviews so thank you for that suggestion Cattleman!
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Re: What fiction book should we start January 1, 2017?

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Just like any other family every political family has it's own share scandalous secrets just waiting to be unveiled. Governor Walt Rucker and his right hand Don had been heavily guarding a closet packed with skeletons for years, but when his son Ray, the golden boy of the family gets tangled up in a love triangle with his cousin Shawn and his fiancé, the bodacious and boldly smart Mckayla Stevens, Shawn concocts a revenge plot against them that quickly begins to spiral out of control.
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Re: What fiction book should we start January 1, 2017?

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Responding to Chris' question about The Hakawati (I hope I'm doing that in the right place!): no, I am not affiliated with the book, author or publisher. I read another book by Alameddine (An Unnecessary Woman) and although I don't recommend it as one's first Alameddine (as I would not recommend Wagner for one's first opera), it gave me a taste of his immense talent. He lives in the U.S., but is of Lebanese Druze descent. His works are big-hearted, illuminating and riveting.

Very sorry to hear about that arm. Sheesh. Hope it's better soon.
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DWill

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Re: What fiction book should we start January 1, 2017?

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The two novels I read by Britain's Martin Amis made most other contemporary fiction seem pale and timid by comparison (not that I'm an authority on modern fiction). His prose is kind of raw and startling at times, and he has a fascination for sex, violence, and extreme characters; yet there is a moral center to his work as well. The titles of the books were Yellow Dog and Lionel Abso. Amis has written a whole bunch of fiction, though, and in looking for advice on what might be his best, I came across somebody named Christine Spines, who recommends these two:

London Fields
This comic cautionary tale also concerns itself with the corrosive effects of consumption and the illusion of unfettered power. Amis, an outspoken anti-nuke activist, pours all his (well-founded) doomsday paranoia into this allegory about a mystery novelist wrestling with how to kill of his young femme fatale as the real world around him hurtles closer to potential nuclear oblivion, thanks to the combustible combination of global warming and a stockpile of bombs. This bold and audacious book showcases the vitality of Amis’ storytelling and demands the reader’s attention with the urgency and familiarity of its implied warnings.

Time’s Arrow
Nearly a decade before Christopher Nolan’s low-budget neo-noir “Memento” blew minds with its end-to-beginning narrative, Amis reverse-engineered this portrait of an elderly anti-hero who grows younger over the course of the book. The story begins at his death bed and back-tracks through his years as a misanthropic working stiff struggling with anxiety and addiction to his time spent as Joseph Mengele’s assistant in Auschwitz, to boyhood and, ultimately, ending in innocence – where we all begin. "Time’s Arrow" captures Amis at his most nihilistic and somehow affectingly humane.

Some might know: Amis' dad was Kingsley Amis, author of the famous Lucky Jim (which I must find the time to read sometime!). Anyhow, I highly recommend this author for both entertainment and literary value.
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Re: What fiction book should we start January 1, 2017?

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Both books sound enticing, DWill, with Time's Arrow being slightly more appealing to me than London Fields. I'm too concerned with real nuclear oblivion to find amusement in reading a novel about the risks of it happening.
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