Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Battle of the Books, Spring 2012 Bracket

battle books
Elizabeth Bear's Range of Ghosts is in the record books as our Winter 2012 champion, but the review copies keep pouring in, so . . .



Welcome to the Spring 2012 Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books!

For more about why we decided to do a Battle of the Books, click here. For all the rules, click here.

We've received 16 more contenders, selected four "seeded" books -- the four we are most looking forward to out of this group (marked with asterisks) -- placed one seeded book in each quarter of the bracket, and then filled in the rest of the Spring 2012 bracket randomly. Here are your matchups.

First Quarter of Bracket:

ForbiddenTempestSyrie & Ryan M. James, Forbidden (HarperTeen, Jan)
vs.
Julie Cross, Tempest (Macmillan Audio / St. Martin's, Jan)





Hell TrainGreatshadowChristopher Fowler, Hell Train*** (Solaris, Jan)
vs.
James Maxey, Greatshadow (Solaris, Feb)




Second Quarter of Bracket:

Night Sessions thumbnailDemi-MondeKen MacLeod, The Night Sessions*** (Pyr, Apr)
vs.
Rod Rees, The Demi-Monde: Winter (William Morrow, Jan)





FacelessShadow's Master thumbnailSimon Bestwick, The Faceless (Solaris, Feb)
vs.
Jon Sprunk, Shadow's Master (Pyr, Apr)




Third Quarter of Bracket:

Flame AlphabetBurning ManBen Marcus, The Flame Alphabet*** (Alfred A. Knopf, Jan)
vs.
Mark Chadbourn, The Burning Man (Pyr, Apr)




Everyone LovesStolen BrideEric G. Wilson, Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Feb)
vs.
Tony Hays, The Stolen Bride (Tor/Forge, Apr)



Fourth Quarter of Bracket:

Man from Primrose LaneBlood OceanJames Renner, The Man from Primrose Lane (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Mar)
vs.
Weston Ochse, Blood Ocean (Abaddon, Feb)




Throne of the Crescent MoonRevealing EdenSaladin Ahmed, Throne of the Crescent Moon*** (DAW, Feb)
vs.
Victoria Foyt, Revealing Eden (Sand Dollar, Jan)




To see the whole bracket, click here.

Some notes on the field:
-- A couple of the books are tricky to classify, but by my best count, 3 of the books are science fiction, 4 high fantasy, 4 contemporary fantasy, 3 horror, and 2 miscellaneous. (The miscellaneous books are a non-fiction book that looked of interest to readers of horror and dystopian fiction, and a mystery book with an Arthurian setting that we thought would appeal to fantasy readers.)
-- This is a more male-dominated field than the Winter Bracket, with 13 books by men, 2 by women, and 1 mother-and-son collaboration.
-- Solaris decided to join the Battle of the Books fun, which is why we have more horror this time. This bracket include 3 books from Solaris, 3 from Pyr, 2 from Farrar Straus & Giroux, and 1 each from Tor/Forge, HarperCollins, William Morrow, Alfred A. Knopf, Abaddon, DAW, Sand Dollar, and Macmillan Audio (our first audiobook submission).
-- This time only 2 of the books are sequels: Jon Sprunk's Shadow's Master and Mark Chadbourn's The Burning Man.

We will begin announcing first round results on Tuesday, March 6. Good luck to all the entrants!

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