Please post all discussion of the challenge as a whole here.

Sorry to spam the message board! But this way all the discussion threads are set up in advance, and hopefully there'll be a bit more back-and-forth with the threads being focused on the categories rather than just by date. :)

I like it! Besides, maybe if we spam the message boards more people will join in!

I like it as well.  Some of the categories are going to be a bit like a scavenger hunt to fill, which is always fun.  Hopefully, that'll promote plenty of discussion as well.

I forgot how to find the banners for the new year challenges... Can someone remind me? Thanks.

Amy's lovely banners are in this thread:  2012 Challenge Sig Pics

Great banners...thanks for pointing me to the right thread and Thank You, Amy for some fun ones to choose from.

Hello! Newly returning to PBS and new to this room... looks like a good place to say hi? HI everyone! I found and posted in the challenge thread itself, and look forward to getting to know you all and chatting! YAY, thanks for having me!

Hello there and welcome!  The more, the merrier, especially when it comes to chatting.

Thank you! I whole-heartedly agree. In fact, about 75% of the reason for my PBS return is simply chatting about whatever it is we are reading. I need the homeschool curricula of course, but the interaction is what makes the waiting worth it. ;-)

Thought I'd mention two books I read in 2008 by Bruce Boxleitner that would fall into our Weird Western category...

Book #1 Frontier Earth 

Book #2 Frontier Earth: Searcher (Frontier Earth) 

My rating for these were 3 stars...average... but actually in retrospect I think they were innovative and pretty good.

Cheers!

Love this unique category PhoenixFalls!

Fern T.: LOL, thanks! And make sure you drop those Weird Western suggestions off in the Dark Fantasy & Horror thread!

Do YA books count for this one? I hadn't really thought I'd read a full 20 fantasies this year, but if I can count what I read with the kids for school then I'm sure I will. ;-)

YA counts fine, so do graphic novels; I think the only pseudo-rule we have is that it has to be 100 pages. . . but there's wiggle room even in that one, if necessary.

Great! Thanks so much! I'm having a hard time coming up with titles in a pre-planning format, so I think I'll just fill them in as I read them and decide where they fit best. :) Thanks for answering!

Okay, I found a few books that I have and have been wanting to read that I'm sure fit into the fantasy genre but I'm not entirely sure where in the challenge they will fit. Any help appreciated! I've decided to do the light version of the challenge, and picked the High Fantasy, Fantasy in the Mainstream, Science Fantasy categories and then the Main Character division. (I figure I can fill that one in with anything that doesn't fit in the top ones, or where I end up with doubles.) It's kind of hard to place these before you read them if you aren't entirely sure exactly what they are about! LOL!

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, by Robert C. O'Brien (Always had this one figured for a kids' book, but really want to read it!)

From the Two Rivers, by Robert Jordan (Figured out that it's actually the first half of the first book, usually found titled The Eye of the World, but I don't think it's edited any/much. I have book 10 and need to test out the series - The Wheel of Time - to see if I should hunt for the rest of them.)

And my son received all 5 books in the Percy Jackson series for Christmas... which is handy because I'd like to read them too! ;-) They don't all have to fit the challenge, but I'm sure the first one at least will and I'd love places for any of the rest of them that work.

Also, I plan to read the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye. It's the Christian fiction series that opens with the rapture. I've read the first 9 before, so I may only count books 10,11, and 12... but I haven't decided. It's been 9 years since I read them. If any of these will place that would be excellent!

Thanks for any help!

I'm not sure I would like them now, but I really liked Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh as a kid.  I didn't care for Rasco as much.  They could fit into "a world with no magic", "traditional fantasy element is explained scientifically" (talking/intelligent animals) or "protagonist who is a parent" categories. 

The Wheel of Timeseries in general could fit the "multiple protagonists",  "world with magic", "set entirely in a secondary world", "heroic fantasy" (I think... it might be kingdom fantasy, I don't recall), "quest plot" (at least for some of them), and I think there's one that focuses enough on Rand and the females that you could use "magic-user as a protagonist".  Just as a hint, you might want to only get a couple of the books at a time.  I liked the first two or three books then rapidly lost interest as the series progressed.  Many others though love the series all the way to the extremely massive end.

Left Behind, I'm sure, would be allegorical.  And no idea at all on Percy Jackson. 

Percy Jackson could fit in the Main Character section- multiple Protagonists because if I recall correctly there are several of them in the first book.

Wow, thanks for all the help!

I picked up The Silmarillion  at the library today so I'm starting with Tolkien! WOOT! Good place to start, if I do say so myself. ;-)

Well, I caved and posted my list.  I did not do that well in the challenge last year, so I'll try for the light one and we'll see where we end up.  Mostly I enjoy reading about what all these different categories are - I'm pretty good at classifying books that I've already read, and not so good at picking books that I haven't read to fit into these categories.  But I'm also determined to get through some of the older books on my TBR, so maybe that will help.  Thanks for doing this again!

I'd like to try reading China Mieville.

I'm looking for a recommendation, which one of his books is the best?

I can't say "best" but I really disliked Perdido Street Station.  I normally read 3-4 books per week, but two weeks of intermittent reading and another week of reading nothing but that, and I barely made it to page 100 before giving up.  I think a couple other people gave up on it last year too.  Of course, just as many others finished it and liked it, so obviously opinions vary. 

I haven't read any of his fantasy -- I've run into a lot of people that found it too dismal/dark, which turned me off. But I really liked The City and the City (which is a mystery, though with a spec fic twist) and I outright loved Embassytown (which is straight SF). He's work though -- dense writing, and he throws you into the middle of really bizarre scenarios and expects you to keep up. ;)

Thanks for feedback on China Mieville. Anyone else who has a thought please chime in...