The name of this website was inspired by the Beyond Reality discussion group, which has been around for almost two decades in various forms and which I’ve been managing for more than half of that time. The group is currently housed at GoodReads (a site I waste an incredible amount of time on) and has over 1,300 members. Because this site’s name took its inspiration from the group, I try to post monthly updates about the group here, including our Books of the Month, our series discussions, and any other special events like giveaways or author visits. (At least: I used to do this, but somehow forgot to put the actual posts together for the past six months.)

Please consider this an invitation to join us, if you’re interested in SF&F book discussion. And if book discussions aren’t your thing, maybe you’ll find some additional book recommendations in this monthly feature!

Beyond Reality‘s Books of the Month for December are:

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks for fantasy: My thoughts: confession time! I haven’t read this yet. I haven’t read anything by Weeks yet. I’ve heard many good things about this book, but somehow it just slipped right by me. Unfortunately, due to my workload right now, it’s unlikely that I’ll get to it this month.

Lord Valentine’s Castle by Robert Silverberg for SF: My thoughts: I’ve read several things by Silverberg, including Dying Inside, one of my all-time favorite genre novels. I haven’t read this book yet, though, and once again, it’s unlikely I’ll get to it by the end of the month, putting me first in line for a “Bad List Daddy” mark on my record.

Meanwhile, our ongoing series discussion of David Weber’s Honor Harrington series is still going strong. Now, I have to confess that I’m a little fuzzy on the details here, because we seem to have moved from the core series (which I’m vaguely familiar with) into the spin-offs (which I really don’t know). In either case, we’re currently on Storm from the Shadows, and on the 15th of the month we’re switching to Torch of Freedom. I haven’t been participating in this discussion for a while now, partly because I wasn’t entirely blown away by the first book in this series (thought it was entertaining, but not good enough to read another dozen books) and partly because I simply lack the time. Bad List Daddy and all that.

And that’s it for this quick look about what we’re doing at the Beyond Reality discussion group. If you’re interested in participating in any of these book or short story discussions, please drop by the group!

For completion’s sake, here are the books we covered since my last “Meanwhile at the Discussion Group” post back in June:

Fantasy: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente, The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin, A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny, and The Black Company by Glen Cook.

Science Fiction: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks, Grass by Sheri S. Tepper, and The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester.