Books You Should Consider Nominating For The Clive Staples Award
I’m grateful to Becky Minor, Realm Makers, and The Faith and Fantasy Alliance for taking the lead in organizing and running this year’s Clive Staples Award. Because the winner will be announced in August, the timetable for all things connected to the award has been compressed.
Consequently, nominations for the award and the first round of reader-choice voting are one and the same! It’s vital, then, that readers get involved in the process now. There won’t be a long list of books compiled from nominations for you to pick from. Rather, voting begins now. Your participation not only puts a book (or books) up for consideration but is a vote for it (or them) to make the list of semi-finalists.
I thought maybe this week we could “think out loud” and mention books that we consider award worthy. It’s easy to overlook books we read back in January 2014, so reminding each other of the books we like, seems in order.
So here are some titles (alphabetized) that have caught my attention, either because I read them, have heard good things about them, wish I could read them, think they look intriguing, or I’ve read something else by the author. (The links will take you to our library where you can read a description, see the book cover, find a link to Amazon, read any comments or reviews posted here at Spec Faith. I’m only sorry we don’t have them all in the library.)
A Draw of Kings (The Staff and the Sword, Volume 3) by Patrick Carr
A Time to Die (Out of Time Book 1) by Nadine Brandes
Cloak of the Light: Wars of the Realm, Book 1 by Chuck Black
Deluge (River of Time Series, Volume 5) by Lisa T. Bergren
Exiles: Realms of the Infinite, Book One by R. J. Larson
Godless by James Dobson and Kurt Bruner
Hacker (Outlaw Chronicles) by Ted Dekker
Jupiter Winds by C. J. Darlington
Merlin’s Nightmare (The Merlin Spiral) by Robert Treskillard
Of the Persecuted (Legends of the Woodlands, Volume 1) by Angie Brashear
Orphan’s Song (Songkeeper Chronicles Series) by Gillian Bronte Adams
Rebels (The Safe Lands, Book 3) by Jill Williamson
Revolutionary (Anomaly) by Krista McGee
Search for the Shadow Key (Dreamtreaders, Book 2)) by Wayne Thomas Batson
Shadow Hand (Tales of Goldstone Wood) by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Storm Siren (The Storm Siren Trilogy, Book 1) by Mary Weber
The Fatal Tree (Bright Empires Book 5) by Stephen Lawhead
The Princess Spy (Fairy Tale Romance Series) by Melanie Dickerson
The Sands of Ethryn (The Gates of Heaven Series) by C. S. Lakin
The War of Swords (The Legends of Karac Tor) (Volume 5) by D. Barkley Briggs
The Warden And The Wolf King (Wingfeather Saga, Book 4) by Andrew Peterson
The Word Changers by Ashlee Willis
Two Renegade Realms (Realm Walkers, Book 2) by Donita Paul
Clearly, if you look at the most recent additions to the Spec Faith library, you can see this list is just a starter. The goal, of course, is to find the best of the best, so we’re looking for you to nominate/vote on the CSA survey for three books you believe are a cut above the rest.
To help others vote, if you would like to mention a Christian speculative novel or novels published in 2014 that you think others might want to consider, please add them in the comments.
One more thing. Not only does the CSA honor the best books, it helps readers to know what books other readers think are the best. So consider the CSA semifinalists to be a handy-dandy “to be read” list tailor made for readers of Christian speculative fiction.
I’m slightly confused … I went to the survey last week and it was a poll with a bunch of books listed, now it’s a “fill in the three blanks”. Did it change and start over? If so, do I have to fill it out again?
And thanks for the mention!
-Robert
Robert, as I understand it, your votes counted so you don’t have to re-vote. It did change to a survey because Becky Minor’s original intent was that whenever a new book that wasn’t on the nomination list was added, it would show up, giving voters the option of selecting it. Except, the poll didn’t cooperate. The new titles weren’t showing up. (You must have been one of the very first voters, Robert. Becky caught that within minutes of the post going live). So the option was to go to the survey and have each person do a “write in” vote/nomination.
After this first phase finishes, then the semifinalists will be picked, and we’ll vote again. Finalists will go to the judges.
Becky
Anne Elisabeth Stengl also released another book in 2014–GOLDEN DAUGHTER.
Thank you, Hannah. I wasn’t sure when the release date was. Good book for voters to consider nominating.
Becky
Wow — of these 23 titles, I’ve read 14 of them! Good list — I had forgotten about some of them.
Thanks, Carol. It’s easy to forget about the books that came out early in the year. You are a prolific reader/reviewer!
If you think of others, please, please add them because this post is truly designed to get readers thinking.
Becky
Looks like some good books here….lots to add to the “to read” list, thanks.
Thanks, Lisa. Be sure to stay tuned when the finalists are announced. I suspect books other than the ones that intrigue me will make that list. You might want to subscribe to the Clive Staples Award site to get the announcement when it comes out. https://clivestaplesaward.wordpress.com/
Becky