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Nomination number sixteen is Offworld by Robin Parrish (Bethany House).
Genre.
Adult science fantasy/thriller
Description.
- Christopher Burke and his crew of NASA astronauts are the first human beings to walk on the surface of Mars. Their return to Earth was supposed to be a momentous day. But a surprise is waiting for them there that’s beyond imagining.
Safe after a treacherous landing in Florida, the crew emerges to find the unthinkable: every man, woman, child, and animal has vanished without a trace.
It’s not a dream.
It’s not a trick.
It’s real.
Alone now on their home planet, the crew sets out to discover the extraordinary secret behind the disappearance of mankind. And whether or not everyone can be brought back.
But they may not be as alone as they thought.
What others are saying:
- Overall, this is a great novel. Parrish has put together an interesting concept and has done it well. The book also gives some interesting insight to what would happen if everyone on the planet suddenly disappeared. The maintaining of structures, food, and cars are all something I never would have thought about, but Parrish gives careful detail to. More importantly, he paid attention to the psychology of returning to and living in an empty world. This is a book worth finding and I will be on the lookout for more from Robin Parrish.
- Patricia at Christianbook.com
Learn More.
Read an excerpt
View book trailer
Read CSFF Blog Tour articles – see complete list of links
Read reviews of Offworld at Title Trakk and Bloggin’ Outloud
Read interviews with Robin Parrish at ComicBookJesus and Examiner.com
Obtain a copy of Offworld
from Bethany House Publishers
from Amazon
from Barnes & Noble
from Christianbook.com
Other Formats.
Kindle edition
Look for or request a copy at a bookstore near you (ISBN# 978-0764206061)
Ask your local library to order a copy.
I had forgotten that PollDaddy not only creates polls but it allows for surveys as well. I think the survey might answer a lot of the concerns voiced in our last discussion.
I’ve made a practice survey for those interested. I’d love to have feedback on things like requiring a name and email address as well as adding second and third choices, so if you have a minute, would you mind taking this non-survey survey?
BTW, I was thinking the second and third choices could either be weighted, or they could factor in if there is no clear winner.
I’m also thinking we should have a first round and a final round, with just the top three finalists on that last survey.
What else should be included?
Do you think the survey will eliminate some of the concerns about cheating?
So here it is: The Practice Readers Choice Survey for the 2009 Clive Staples Award for Christian Speculative Fiction.
The idea to create an award for Christian speculative fiction came about two years ago when the Christy Awards omitted the speculative category. After considerable discussion here and at Speculative Faith, we settled on the Clive Staples Award as the name for this reader-initiated recognition of top Christian speculative fiction.
For the last two years we collected nominations, using the same guidelines as the Christy Awards. However, in both years, the actual awarding of a winner bogged down because we have no sponsor, no agreement with publishers to provide judges with books, and no judges.
The most serious problem was this latter issue. While I say “no judges,” that’s not completely accurate. We had a handful of people who volunteered to help judge, but no one who volunteered to head up the judging—requesting books, sending them out to judges, tabulating judge sheets and/or spearheading discussions to arrive at a consensus regarding finalists.
Beyond that, we agreed the award, if it was to carry any significance, would need finalist judges of some standing. I preferred someone outside the publishing business to avoid the appearance of partiality, but well informed about speculative fiction. Unfortunately, the people I contacted for that role declined to take part.
So where does that leave the award? Is it over before it actually began?
I’m thinking, this may be the kind of thing that needs to build momentum, to gain in popularity, and thus garner more support as a result. So my current thought is, why not start with a reader award? Not only do readers nominate but readers vote for the three books they want to see in the finals. Then maybe those volunteer judges, if they are still willing to participate, can pick a winner. Or readers can vote again between the three finalists.
We’d need to conduct this contest over several months to get the word out and to give readers time to check out the nominations they haven’t yet read.
We’d have to set some ground rules in an effort to curtail popularity voting (I haven’t read his book, but I sure like so-and-so, so I’ll happily vote for his novel). I can’t think of a way to eliminate that sort of thing completely, but if the award becomes linked with “readers” right from the start, it might alleviate campaigning among non-readers.
Some time ago I set up a site for the award as a kind of home base, but with no activity, there’s been no real reason to send people there. If you’d like to take a look at it, go to the Clive Staples Award for Christian Speculative Fiction.
Since WordPress and PollDaddy make it so easy to include polls, I’m thinking it would be easiest if I started a series of polls to get your feedback. I’ll also need your help passing the word on to anyone else you know who has interest in this genre and particularly in creating this award. Let me know what questions you have, and we can find out what others are thinking about any number of subjects related to making this award work. If there’s still interest in doing so. Which actually is the first question.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
