This is the official I want to be a judge thread using a tentative list of books and categories for our multiple awards. Please reply if you want to read/judge one of these categories. All you have to do to be a judge is read one of these books and post a rating using our rating system in the Watchtower. PM me with any questions.

Best Series
Legend of the Guardian King by Karen Hancock
Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker (Princess)
Circle Series by Ted Dekker (Timotheus) - This is the 4-in-1 version after the fourth book Green was added.
Song of Albion by Stephen Lawhead

Best Series (YA)
The Dragon Keeper Chronicles by Donita K. Paul
The Door Within Trilogy by Wayne Thomas Batson (Princess)
Dragons in Our Midst by Bryan Davis (Princess)
The Lost Books by Ted Dekker
The Dragon King Trilogy by Stephen Lawhead (Princess)
The Auralia Thread Series by Jeff Overstreet

Best Series Intro
Auralia's Colors by Jeff Overstreet
Hero, Second Class by Mitchell Bonds
Skin Map by Stephen Lawhead
Starlighter by Bryan Davis
The Serpent Kings by James Somers (Timotheus)

Best Series Intro (YA)
The Curse of the Spider King by Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper (Princess)
By Darkness Hid by Jill Williamson

Standalone:
Supernatural Thriller
The Sending by Matt Koceich
Fantasy
Summa Elvetica by Theo Beale (May actually be a Intro to Series book)
The Muse by Fred Warren (Splashdown books, view here

Best Series Intro (SF)
A Star Curiously Singing by Kerr Nietz
Perditions Gate by James Somers
The Personified Project R. E. Bartlett (Timotheus)
Starfire by Stuart Vaughn Stockton (Sir Emeth)
The Word Reclaimed by Steve Rzasa
Faith Awakened by Grace Bridges
Alpha Redemption by P.A. Baines

I would like to be a judge for the best series intro category (and if we do an SF).

I can also judge the series category (not YA). And if we don't have enough, the standalone, though I would like more books in that category.

I'll have to ask my parents about it, but I would love to judge.

I would rather judge a YA category, and it doesn't matter which one. The series would probably work better, because I've read all of those before, except the one by Stephen Lawhead. (I'm assuming I would need to read all of the series again.)

But if I did judge the YA series, I would need some help. That's a lot of books.

I'd like to do Best Series Intro Sci-fi. If it's okay to do two then I would also Best Series YA.

I've already read most of those, which is pretty cool. I just might do Best Series Intro, so that I have an excuse to get Starlighter and Auralia's Colors.

I think I can cover the Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker. I will confirm with you as soon as I can because I will have to buy those books. Thanks for opening this up to us.

We can be flexible with the books we judge so you don't have to reread or buy any books you aren't interested in. We could just pick the books you want to read and then make sure every book has been read and judged by at least two people. The average of their votes becomes the vote for that book based on our rating system. This would open it up to any member who even just wants to read one book. Every book that is read and judged by two people is eligible for the award in their category. This would solve the issue of not having to buy and read a lot of books, though people can read as many as they want.

Does this make sense?

I like that idea. With a simple, consistent rating system it could work well.

I like it too.
If we wanted to rate books that we had read already, should we reread them? Or could we just skim them to make sure we remember everything?

Thanks, Tim! That changes my approach.

I will judge everything in Best Series Intro Sci-Fi. Depending on the costs of those books (I'll check later today.) I will do the following, favored by first to last.

Summa Elvetica.
The Skin Map.

I'll see how much time I have after those. If I still have reading time, I'll check The Dragon King Trilogy out of my library. (They own all copies.)

Most of the books I've left out can be found at my library or in my personal collection. If you need another person on those books, I can see if I can read them.

I've been debating about this. On the one hand, as long as you think you can accurately judge according to our rating system, it should be fine. It seems like it would be better to read the book knowing what the rating system asks to look for, than to try and rate it afterwards. On the other hand, I can't help but wonder if time separated from having read it would affect your rating either positively or negatively. Also, I was thinking of asking for examples from the text for each category that you rate, and if you rate a book you've already read, it may be hard to find examples to support your ratings. (I'll add this idea to that thread so we can discuss it there)

In order not to insult the intelligence of our judges, I'll leave this decision up to the individual. If you can accurately rate and provide examples for your ratings, then I'd say it's ok to rate books you've already read.

As soon as we're settled on the ratings system, you may begin judging. I'll post your name next to books you've agreed to judge. What do you guys think about not having more than two people reading a book/series until the other books in its category have two representatives?

Okay, sounds good. I'll read them again, for craft instead of enjoyment, like you said in the other thread.

I can take The Circle Trilogy, The Door Within Trilogy, Dragons in Our Midst, The Dragon King Trilogy, and The Curse of the Spider King. I'd like to take By Darkness Hid too, but I don't have that one, and my library doesn't either; so I'll have to ask my parents if I can buy it. (I'm a fast reader, so I can handle 15 books in a year. )

Should we mark who has which books on the list?

I'll probably judge one or two series plus a few single books once I figure out which ones are open.

What should we do about the Circle Trilogy? Ted Dekker wrote a fourth, Green and then released an alternative ending with all four in one book (The link to get this title is here. I'll leave it up to the judges to pick whatever they want, then as per our guidelines any book with at least two ratings is considered. I just wanted to let you all know that there are three versions of this book.

I was pretty sure the Circle wasn't a trilogy... but I didn't want to say anything.

Yeah, thanks for your patience with me on that one. Originally it was a trilogy, and then when I tried typing Circle Quadrilogy...I didn't know what to put. So they call it The Circle Series now. I guess that sounds better than Quadrilogy

Tim,

I want to let you know that I have purchased everything accept for Perdition's Gate. I decided not to purchase it. (Nothing against the book.)

So you have all the Intro SF books, Summa Elvetica and Skin Map? That's awesome! I can't wait to see your reviews. I just purchased Personifid Project. I might try and read all of those as well.

No worries on Perdition's Gate. I just put it on there as a courtesy. Like I said, you guys weed out the bad books by not reading them. Read whatever strikes your fancy.

Originally I said to limit two people per book until we get them all covered, but what do you guys think? I said that to make sure books were included, but if you don't want to read them, then there's no sense in including them, right? That would mean read whatever you want and those left without reviews aren't qualified.

Eternity Falls and The Tenth Crusader have to be on the sci-fi lists. (They are standalone, but in a series.) Along with the Darktrench Saga.

Hey guys. I see the 'Song of Albion' series doesn't have a judge... how many books are in that series? My library has two or three of them...

Also how long have judges got to read the books? Just want to make sure before I put my hand up so I won't let you all down.

Just the three.

I think we have all year.

Oh ok! I was thinking it had be done this month or something.

Before I put my name down for them though, I sometimes pick up a book to read and I find things in them I am not comfortable with and I put them down. I'm guessing if I put my name down to judge the 'Song of Albion' series, I would be required to finish them all regardless of content, am I right? Sorry, I must sound really fussy, but I thought it would be best to ask.

That is a good question. We would not want to require you to read something you do not feel comfortable with. I would say that if you get to some content that makes you put it down, go ahead and put it down. Then when you rate it, give it a -2 on Content, and don't rate the others (since you didn't finish it). Depending on what it was, we might get someone else to read it through and rate it fully.

Alright, that sounds good. Thanks so much Sir Emeth.

Do please put me down to read the 'Song of Albion' trilogy!

OK Jay, I'll add those.

Bushmaid, the "deadline" is Dec 1, but that may stretch a bit if people get a little behind. Song of Albion is 3 books.

So... should I start reading?

Yep. You posted on the ratings thread that you agreed so you
are good to go.

How is everyone doing on books to read for the award? Neil of Erk and I posted our ratings of a few books in the Watchtower, but we are pretty far behind so far. I'm curious if there is anything I can do to explain for those who may be confused about how to participate. I've found the rating system to be fairly easy to complete without taking notes while reading.

Also, Auralia's Colors has been mentioned as a potential winner for the Fantasy Series Award and I wanted to share a way for you to get the fourth book free. The Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is giving the fourth book away in May. Amazon has a reader saying the synopsis on the fourth book makes it so you don't have to have read the others in order to know what's going on. Myself, I am going to try and read the first three before this book is given away on the CSFF tour.

I also just bought the 4-in-1 Circle Series book by Ted Dekker to get the alternate ending to Green, the fourth book. That would give us at least 2 adult fantasy series books.

Anyone else interested in helping read in this category? How about a Stephen Lawhead series?

I need to go through and read all the posts so far, but I may help read.

I was just about to say that the Auralia's Colors series seemed like a good one. I have read the fourth book, and I'm going to try to read the others soon.

I have also read the Circle Series and think it would be good.

*is off to read the rest of the posts*

The threads on this award may confuse you because of how things have changed. I made a landmark post to update people and give them a summary of the Book Award as it stands right now. Just click on "Book Award" in my signature. Also, check out the rating system and see if you can rate the books you read (Aurilia's Colors and Circle Series) because those are both eligible. Thank you so much for considering this project.

Ok, thanks.

I'll try to do the Circle Trilogy(or series, whatever you need), The Lost Books, and Auralia's Colors (I may end up reviewing the series if I get to them all this year, but I do have quite the list of books to read). If I get the Skin Map from Booksneeze I can submit ratings for that as well if needed.

Awesome! I am going to read the 4-in-1 Circle Series and Princess of the King is going to read the Trilogy version, so whichever you want to read. I wold recommend the 4-in-1 version because it has the Green book's new ending, which is supposed to be better. Whatever you can read is greatly appreciated.

Ah, cool, I hadn't heard that. Green was okay, but I wasn't a big fan of the ending, personally. I may have to get this 4-in-1 book after all.

I forgot to check before I mentioned it, and it looks like the library only has two of the Lost Books, so it looks like I won't be able to read those after all.

You can still read the Lost Books if you want. There is an intro to series category. Also, the 4-in-1 w/Green's new ending was made because of the backlash about Green's original ending, so you should like it.

Are all the judges ready for this, or is this no longer in the works?

*archives *