Working For The Mandroid's 2012 Science Fiction Reader Challenge

So back when I was in University at Trent, oh maybe eight years ago, I decided that it would be fun to take a English and Cultural Studies crossover course specializing in Science Fiction. After all, I loved Star Wars, and Star Trek and Lexx and Farscape. What could possibly go wrong?

Let me sum that up for you in a word: "plenty". Turns out that the stuff that I love on TV is called "sci-fi" and God help you if you ever refer to written science fiction as such. Like a disgruntled old man or ornery toddler, it will accept either "Science Fiction" or "SF" thank you ever so much.

So when I heard about this challenge over on Unabridged Andra's, I wasn't going to click the link. I wasn't going to check this out. But then I just had to see what all of the fuss was about ... And I think I may have found one of the most interesting and creative 2012 reading challenges I've seen yet.

What's The Challenge?

Read twelve science fiction books over the course of 2012. Sounds easy, right? Well, that's before the heat gets turned up and this is thrown at you:

There are twelve different categories of science fiction, or science fiction related challenges that you need to complete in order to win.

-- YA / MG Science Fiction
-- Adult Science Fiction
-- Hugo Winner
-- Science Fiction Classic -- Pre-1950
-- Science Fiction Modern Classic -- 1951 - 1992
-- Steampunk
-- Robot / Android / Cyborg
-- Spaceships / Aliens
-- Time Travel / Parallel History / Alternate Universe
-- Apocolyptic / Dystopia / Utopia
-- Cyberpunk
-- Mad Scientist / Genetic Testing / Environmental Disaster

And here are the rules, straight from Working For The Mandroid:

1. The challenge begins January 1, 2012 and runs through December 31, 2012. Books started before January 1 don't count towards the challenge. Re-reads do count, but a new review must be written. Any format of book counts - hard copy, audiobook, e-book - we're not picky.

2. A review has to be written and posted for each book in the challenge. If you don't have a blog, they can be posted on Goodreads, LibraryThing, Amazon, Shelfari, Facebook, anywhere else book reviews are accepted and can be linked to.

3. Any books read for another challenge that fit into a category here can count towards this one. One book, however, cannot fill multiple categories in this challenge. For example, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game technically fits into at least four of the categories. It can only count for one though.

4. A post will be set up on Working for the Mandroid beginning January 1 for participants to add their review links. I personally will put up a post at the end of each month to track my own progress. That's where you can comment, brag and/or complain about how impossible it is to get through Dune.*

5. At the end of the year, I will put all the people who signed up for the challenge and finished 6 of the 12 categories in a contest for a not yet determined prize. Those who finish all 12 of the categories will be entered into a different,better contest. Additional contests throughout the year might also become available depending on participation of readers and availability of prizes. Note: The more participants, the more likely I can get some science fiction friendly sponsors, the more contests.

So, am I nervous? Absolutely! Is this going to be a challenge? Yes. But it's high time that I put my rather ackward experience with science fiction behind me and the point of a challenge is for it to be challenging, so here we go!

Feeling brave? Why don't you join me and sign up!