Battle of the Books, Spring 2012 Bracket

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:

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





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

Second Quarter of Bracket:

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





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

Third Quarter of Bracket:

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




Eric 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:

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




Saladin 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!

Battle of the Books, Winter 2012 :: Wrap-up

This concludes the Fantastic Reviews Winter 2012 Battle of the Books. Hope you enjoyed it!

Congratulations go out to Elizabeth Bear for Range of Ghosts, winner of our inaugural bracket of the 2012 Battle of the Books!

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Sixteen (16) new books were featured. These books and authors may be new to you, but after reading Aaron's descriptions and reviews, I hope some sparked your interest. I know that I, Amy, saw books that I was interested in reading.

Battles were decided on reading a sample of the book, many based on reading 25 pages or 50 pages. So if a book starts slow, it may have an uphill battle. And, of course, each judgment was subjective, based on which book the reviewer, Aaron, decided he'd rather continue reading.

Not all of the books are out now. So don't worry if you don't see them yet in your local book store. Here's a list of the books, alphabetically by author, with their publication dates.


Cat Adams, The Isis Collar (Tor) -- March 13, 2012
Elizabeth Bear, Range of Ghosts (Tor) -- March 27, 2012
Orson Scott Card, Shadows in Flight (Tor) -- January 17, 2012
Thomas K. Carpenter, Gamers (Black Moon) -- June 2011
Mark Chadbourn, Jack of Ravens (Pyr) -- March 27, 2012
David Constantine, The Pillars of Hercules (Night Shade) -- March 6, 2012
Charles de Lint, Eyes Like Leaves (Tachyon) -- February 2012
Sergey & Marina Dyachenko, The Scar (Tor) -- February 28, 2012
Andy Gavin, The Darkening Dream (Mascherato) -- January 14, 2012
Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, Sisterhood of Dune (Tor) -- January 3, 2012
Mark Hodder, Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon (Pyr) -- January 24, 2012
Stina Leicht, And Blue Skies from Pain (Night Shade) -- March 6, 2012
Nathan Long, Jane Carver of Waar (Night Shade) -- March 6, 2012
J.M. McDermott, When We Were Executioners (Night Shade) -- January 31, 2012
Ari Marmell, Thief's Covenant (Pyr) -- Febuary 14, 2012
Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Boneyards (Pyr) -- January 24, 2012


Next week we'll be announcing the bracket for the Spring 2012 Battle of the Books.

Battle of the Books, Winter 2012, Championship Round :: Eyes Like Leaves by Charles de Lint vs. Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear

The championship match of the inaugural bracket of the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books pits Eyes Like Leaves by Charles de Lint against Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear. I've read to page 200 of both books (a little more than halfway through both), and the championship of the Winter Bracket goes to the book I most want to continue reading to the end. The winner will be featured in a full review at Fantastic Reviews (we'll also try to arrange an interview with the author), and will be eligible for the overall 2012 Battle of the Books Championship at the end of the year.

Eyes Like Leaves: Tachyon trade paperback, February 2012, 313 pages, cover art by Lauren Kelly Small. Eyes Like Leaves advanced to the finals by defeating When We Were Executioners by J.M. McDermott in the first round, then The Scar by Sergey & Marina Dyachenko in the second round, and finally Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card in the semifinals.

Eyes Like Leaves is a secondary world fantasy in a land similar to ancient Ireland. The wizard Tarn and his mentor Puretongue, who have the ability to change shape, are attempting to defend their land against the forces of the Icelord, who wishes to bring an endless winter. So far, Tarn has met up with Carrie, a young woman unaware of her own magical abilities, and the two of them have been hotly pursued by various "stormkin." Meanwhile, Puretongue and another young protégé travel by sea to meet them.

Range of Ghosts: Tor hardcover, March 2012, 334 pages. Range of Ghosts got to the finals with wins over Jack of Ravens by Mark Chadbourn in the first round, then The Pillars of Hercules by David Constantine in the second round, and finally And Blue Skies from Pain by Stina Leicht in the semifinals.

Range of Ghosts is the first volume of an epic trilogy in a setting inspired by the ancient Mongol Empire. Our hero Temur is in exile, after his brother was on the losing side of a war of succession against their uncle, but the uncle still wants Temur dead. Ghosts summoned by a sorcerer working for the uncle have abducted Temur's lover, and he has traveled to the "Range of Ghosts" to retrieve her. He is destined to meet up with Samarkar, a woman who has willingly undergone surgery leaving her barren, so she can train to be a wizard.

The Battle: I judge the Winter 2012 Battle of the Books a great success, because it resulted in me finding two excellent novels, both of which I highly recommend. Charles de Lint has long been one of the finest fantasists around, and Elizabeth Bear has joined him at the pinnacle of the genre.

Both Eyes Like Leaves and Range of Ghosts are exquisitely written throughout. Through the first three rounds, I've given numerous examples of the wonderful prose in both books -- click on the links above to read those samples. The sheer strength of the authors' writing has carried these two books to the finals. Because the quality of prose is so strong in both books, this battle will come down to which novel's story works best for me, now that I'm deeper into both books.

Both have engaging storylines, with appealing yet flawed main characters. I am enjoying both of them very much, and plan to finish them both. But, forced to choose, I must say that one of them is a bit more compelling to me, and I would be a bit more distraught if you pried it out of my fingers before I could finish. I think the difference comes down to two things.

First, while in Eyes Like Leaves, Charles de Lint makes effective use of Irish landscape and history and mythology, such as druids and shape-shifters, these are all story elements that are quite familiar to fantasy readers. Likewise, the evil lord seeking to bring an endless winter is a well-worn fantasy trope. It is to de Lint's credit that he combines these elements skillfully enough that the story never feels tired or derivative.

However, Range of Ghosts offers the more original fantasy world. I believe the main narrative is loosely based on the life of Timur, aka Tamerlane (1370-1405), but Elizabeth Bear has used his story as a springboard to create a unique landscape filled with unusual and fascinating fantasy elements. To take one of many examples, I love the way the moons in the night sky represent the heirs to the empire's throne, with a moon disappearing any time one of the emperor's descendants is killed -- and then suddenly all the moons disappear in favor of the single moon we know, when Temur crosses over the border to a neighboring land. Nearly every chapter has an interesting and unusual element like that.

Second, in Eyes Like Leaves, I love the main narrative thread involving Tarn and Carrie. There is a very nice sequence in the second hundred pages, for instance, where they have to shapeshift into the form of evil creatures to evade their pursuers, but then Tarn starts to lose himself in the role. But the sequences from the point of view of Puretongue and various side characters -- there are a surprising number of POV shifts in the second hundred pages -- are less compelling to me. In those other sequences, I was always anxious to get back to Tarn and Carrie.

There are no sections in Range of Ghosts that I feel any desire to hurry through. Over the second hundred pages, the novice female wizard Samarkar has emerged as just as important and engaging a character as Temur, with an interesting backstory. The sections from her point of view feature less action than Temur's, but they are equally absorbing. I'm also very interested in the glimpses of al-Sepehr, the dark sorcerer doing Temur's uncle's bidding, but clearly pursuing his own agenda. He is an intriguing, three-dimensional villain (or apparent villain), something that Eyes Like Leaves lacks.

Congratulations to Elizabeth Bear on a remarkable effort. I am confident that this time next year, Range of Ghosts will be on a very short list of my favorite novels of 2012. It is a most worthy winner in our inaugural bracket of the 2012 Battle of the Books.

THE WINNER: RANGE OF GHOSTS by Elizabeth Bear

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by to check out the Battle of the Books, and especially to the many participating authors who have commented here or blogged, tweeted, etc. about the contest.

If you've enjoyed this new format, you'll be happy to know that the review copies continue to pour in. We already have our next 16 books, and we will announce the bracket for the Spring 2012 Battle of the Books next week.

Battle of the Books, Winter 2012, Second Semifinal :: And Blue Skies from Pain by Stina Leicht vs. Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear

Our second Battle of the Books semifinal matches And Blue Skies from Pain by Stina Leicht against Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear. Whichever book I most want to continue reading after the first 100 pages will advance to the championship round.

And Blue Skies from Pain: Night Shade trade paperback, March 2012, 359 pages, cover art by Min Yum. And Blue Skies from Pain got here with wins in the first round over Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Boneyards and in the second round over Ari Marmell's Thief's Covenant.

In And Blue Skies from Pain (title from Pink Floyd) and its prequel, Of Blood and Honey, the Catholic Church has been engaged in a centuries-long battle with fallen angels and other supernatural creatures. In Northern Ireland in the 1970's, our characters are working to forge a peace between the Church and the shapeshifting Fianna. In the first 50 pages, our protagonist Liam, the son of a mortal and one of the Fianna, agreed to be tested to help the Catholic warrior-priests determine if he has a soul. But in the next 50 pages, things go awry, as a group of the priest-warriors beat Liam senseless for no apparent reason. Liam's friend, Father Murray, believes the soldiers were under the influence of the Fallen, and he tries to persuade Liam not to abandon the peace process.

Range of Ghosts: Tor hardcover, March 2012, 334 pages. Range of Ghosts reached the semifinals by defeating Jack of Ravens by Mark Chadbourn in the first round and The Pillars of Hercules by David Constantine (aka David J. Williams?) in the second round.

Range of Ghosts is epic fantasy in a setting inspired by the ancient Mongol Empire. The first 50 pages introduced us to our hero Temur, who barely survived the fighting in a war of succession that Temur's late brother lost to their uncle. Temur has gone into exile, befriending some of the other survivors of the fighting, but he is pursued by ghosts summoned by a powerful sorcerer in his uncle's employ. In the next 50 pages, we see much more of another key character, Samarkar, a woman who has willingly undergone surgery leaving her barren, in order to train as a sorcerer, if she proves to have the requisite magical ability. Meanwhile, Temur has survived the fight with the ghosts, but they have abducted his young lover, and he undertakes a quest to rescue her from the mountainous region called the Range of Ghosts. (Thankfully, it doesn't take him many pages to get there -- this is not a travelogue quest fantasy.)

The Battle: Stina Leicht is a new author who finds herself in the Battle of the Books semifinals with three heavyweights of the genre: Elizabeth Bear, Charles de Lint, and Orson Scott Card. But she acquits herself very nicely with And Blue Skies from Pain. I am highly impressed with her confidence in telling this story. This is a book about werewolf-like creatures that she manages to make feel very fresh, a story with a protagonist who is rough around the edges and yet most sympathetic, a story convincingly set in Ireland even though Leicht is an American living in Texas.

On the strength of these 100 pages, I'll be nominating Stina Leicht for the Campbell Award for best new author, and if you have a ballot you should too. (As an aside, there are many interesting new writers in the field today, and I strongly encourage more people to nominate for the Campbell. Start with Stina Leicht, and then name four other new writers who have impressed you. If you can't think of four others, then check out the Writertopia list of Campbell-eligible authors. And if you happen to notice that I'm also on that list, under my pretentious full name Van Aaron Hughes, well, that's cool too.)

The bad news for Leicht is she has run into a juggernaut in Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear. This book combines fantasy storytelling at the level of George R.R. Martin with an Eastern flavor that puts me in mind of Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven. The plotting and characterization is first-rate, and then you add to that the setpieces, which remind you why you first became a fantasy reader, for that sense of the magical. Here, for instance, is a monk with failing eyesight, tending to the numberless dead from the war of succession that triggered our story:

But he was not so blind yet that he could not see the color and motion as another butterfly flitted past--this one brilliant orange--then another, and another, and one more, until they filled the air with a tumult of wings so thick one could hear them whispering and smell their dusty scent. His fingertips crept to his lips and pressed there, as if to hold the exclamation in.

The butterflies swirled around him, shimmering changeable colors like rare jewels: blues and golds and greens and vermilions, pearl-whites, purples verging on blacks, reds like the heartsblood that twined slender vines up the steppe grass to wave above it, throwing its bright heads high into the ceaseless wind. He felt the brush of their wings. He breathed between his fingers so as not to inhale one.

If the monk had been able to see from the perspective of a falcon or one of the black birds to which he commended the dead, he would have known that each butterfly flitted into existence over the lips of a dead man or boy or occasional woman. That each one then beat wings to gain altitude and joined the general migration.

I know this kind of beautiful yet tragic imagery will stay with me long after I put this book down.

THE WINNER: RANGE OF GHOSTS by Elizabeth Bear

Range of Ghosts proceeds to the championship round, to take on Eyes Like Leaves by Charles de Lint.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Winter 2012, First Semifinal :: Eyes Like Leaves by Charles de Lint vs. Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card

The first semifinal contest in the 2012 Battle of the Books, Winter Bracket pits Eyes Like Leaves by Charles de Lint against Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card. The winner will be the book I most want to continue reading after finishing the first 100 pages.

Eyes Like Leaves: Tachyon trade paperback, February 2012, 313 pages, cover art by Lauren Kelly Small. Eyes Like Leaves got here with wins in the first round over When We Were Executioners by J.M. McDermott and the second round over The Scar by Sergey & Marina Dyachenko.

Eyes Like Leaves is set in a fantasy version of ancient Ireland. The first 50 pages introduced us to the wizard Tarn and his mentor Puretongue, whose magical abilities include shape-shifting. Tarn has been sent to find Carrie, a young woman key somehow to defending the land from the "Icelord," who seeks to undo the longstanding balance with the Summerlord and bring an endless winter. At the end of the first 50 pages, Tarn had to transform into a dragon to defeat the wolves and "stormkin" chasing Carrie. This has utterly exhausted him, and now Carrie and the nomadic family of tinkers that has taken her in must defend themselves while Tarn is incapacitated.

Shadows in Flight: Tor hardcover, January 2012, 237 pages, cover art by John Harris / Macmillan audio, 7 hours, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki and cast. Shadows in Flight reached the second round by defeating Thomas K. Carpenter's Gamers in the first round and Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson in the second round.

Shadows in Flight is the newest entry in the Ender universe. Ender's old friend Bean nears an untimely death from the runaway growth that is a side effect of the genetic manipulation that made him so brilliant. He has traveled on a near-lightspeed spaceship with his three children who share his condition, in hopes that a cure would be found on Earth in their absence, but to no avail. The first 50 pages focused on the terrible stress on their family from the disappointment and isolation. The next 50 pages turn outward, as they spot a huge spacecraft which they believe to be a slow Formic ship, a bugger hive sent into deep space before the war between Formics and humans. They stop to investigate.

The Battle: Asking which of these two books I most want to continue reading is rather academic -- I am going to finish them both, and nobody's going to stop me. But a winner must be declared . . .

Shadows in Flight is smoothly written, with a nice pace and good dialogue and characterization, albeit not quite to the level of Card's finest work, such as Speaker for the Dead and "Unaccompanied Sonata." I think Card made a good choice introducing another ship for Bean and his children to encounter; we needed an additional story element or the family tensions would have become tedious. But I'm not crazy about having the alien craft be a bugger ship. It doesn't add up -- the hive queens can all communicate anywhere telepathically, and Ender's hive queen in Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide was very clear that she was the only one left after the war. More importantly, bringing the Formics back into the story makes this book feel like a rehash of previous volumes.

A synopsis of the plot of Eyes Like Leaves through 100 pages may sound unspectacular, but by his gift with language de Lint is turning it into a most memorable story. For instance, in the section I've just read, Tarn's energy (or "taw") is badly depleted from his battle as a dragon, and Carrie must discover the magical ability she didn't know she had to help him:

She tried to relax, to remember the sensation when Kinn and Fenne had been playing their music, tried to recapture that instant when the music had changed into something different, deeper. Still music, still present, but quiet as an in-held breath, expectant, interwoven with wonder. . . .

She started, drew a quick breath, then it was thick upon her, a magic-filled quickening of her senses, a deep stillness, old and rounded, sharply new.

She focused on Tarn's features and saw his weakness with a piercing insight. It was though she could see through the pale flesh to the spirit inside--a spirit thinned and weakened, bruised and weary. It was her first deepseeing and though she didn't have a name for what she was doing, she understood how it worked. She leaned closer still, cupped Tarn's face in her hands, and breathed his name into the silence.

Through 50 pages, Tarn was already an excellent protagonist and the tinkers were a nice group of side characters; now in these scenes, Carrie emerges as an interesting figure as well. Meanwhile, de Lint also shows us Tarn's state as an exhausted shape-shifter from his point of view:

In the deepest holds of Tarn's taw, he was all the shapes he had ever worn. He was a multitude of configurations that watched each other with eyes of gold and grey and mauve--those that had eyes. They were distanced, one from the other, but in that distancing, there was a sense of elusive oneness, a unity that drifted just beyond remembrance, beyond recognition.

They were each Tarn, but each was unconscious of their former unity.

. . . And those eyes watched, each the other, watched, seeking the memory of that forgotten singleness, watched with eyes familiar, eyes that echoed the struggle to remember, eyes like the autumn leaves of the mythic stonewood tree--gold and grey and mauve.

From this taste of how de Lint conveys his tale, hopefully you can see that my summary--that Carrie discovers her magical ability in order to help Tarn--doesn't do the story justice.

The only fault I found in Eyes Like Leaves through the first two rounds was that the good-versus-evil conflict was lacking nuance. In the latest section, de Lint has addressed that by giving us a glimpse of the tension among the evil forces. They are not blindly following the Icelord, but rather bowing to his power at the moment, while some harbor long-term hopes of overthrowing him. I am interested to see how the dynamics on the bad guys' side play out, and I very much want to watch Carrie's continued development and her interactions with Tarn.

THE WINNER: EYES LIKE LEAVES by Charles de Lint

Eyes Like Leaves advances to the championship round, to face either And Blue Skies from Pain by Stina Leicht or Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear. We'll post the winner of that semifinal round tomorrow, then the championship on Thursday.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Winter 2012 :: Final Four

We are down to the Final Four in the Winter 2012 Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books:

Eyes Like Leaves by Charles de Lint vs. Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card

And Blue Skies from Pain by Stina Leicht vs. Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear

A huge thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in this tournament. Hits at the blog are way up over the past month, and at least half the authors of books in the tournament commented on it at our blog or their own or at Facebook or Twitter. We're very glad folks seem to enjoy this new format. We know we're having a blast, and plan to continue with this format for the foreseeable future. We already have 14 books for the next bracket, so we'll be announcing our Spring Bracket shortly after the current Winter Bracket concludes. Authors and publicists, if you want your book included, you can find the rules and an address to send your book here.

As for the rest of this bracket, we will announce the Charles de Lint / Orson Scott Card winner on Monday, the Elizabeth Bear / Stina Leicht contest on Tuesday, and then crown a champion on Thursday, February 16.

Looking over the bracket, we have discovered a lot more good than bad. While not every book has been to my (Aaron's) tastes, they are all very capably written, including the two self-published books. The books I had to drop out in the second round were so good that we are considering doing full reviews of a couple of them -- or maybe even following up with a consolation bracket.

I am a bit surprised that the four books we named as the "seeded" books at the outset all ended up advancing to the Final Four -- I was expecting more upsets than that. But I suspect that has a lot to do with the composition of this particular bracket. It wasn't that hard to anticipate that Charles de Lint or Elizabeth Bear might come up with a pretty fair book. It looks like our next bracket will have fewer "big names," and thus should be harder to predict.

As with the March Madness tournament, the upside of not having a lot of upsets is that the Final Four features a very high level of competition. Charles de Lint, Orson Scott Card, Elizabeth Bear, and Stina Leicht? Who couldn't find something they enjoyed reading out of that group? Don't forget to check back next week when we announce the results!

Battle of the Books, Winter 2012, Second Round :: Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear vs. The Pillars of Hercules by David Constantine

Our final second round match in the Winter 2012 Battle of the Books pits Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear against The Pillars of Hercules by David Constantine. Whichever book I most want to continue reading after 50 pages will grab the last spot in the semifinals.

Range of Ghosts: Tor hardcover, March 2012, 334 pages. Range of Ghosts got here by defeating Jack of Ravens by Mark Chadbourn in the first round.

Range of Ghosts is epic fantasy in a land very similar to the ancient Mongol Empire. Our hero Temur was gravely wounded fighting for his brother in a war of succession against their uncle. In the first 25 pages, we saw Temur head into exile along with other survivors of the fighting, but as a potential rival for the throne, his uncle still wants Temur dead and has called on a powerful sorcerer to eliminate him. In the second 25 pages, we see Temur befriend some of his fellow travelers, as dark forces close in on him. Meanwhile, in a city not yet affected by the fighting, we meet a woman named Samarkar, who has willingly undergone surgery leaving her barren, so that she may train to be a sorcerer.

The Pillars of Hercules: Night Shade trade paperback, March 2012, 387 pages, cover art by Daren Bader. The Pillars of Hercules reached the second round with a first-round win over Andy Gavin's The Darkening Dream. I suggested at the time that David Constantine is a pseudonym of science fiction author David J. Williams, but so far no one has come forward to confirm or deny this.

The Pillars of Hercules is fantasy/alternate history set around 330 B.C. A huge conflict is brewing, one that never happened in our world, between Alexander the Great and a powerful Athenian empire. Both sides have access to magic and advanced technology not available in our timeline. In the first 25 pages, Alexander defeated a vast Athenian fleet to seize control of Egypt, while our mercenary heroes Matthias and Lugorix managed to escape in a turbine-powered boat with a mysterious Persian princess. In the next 25 pages, the refugees arrive in Athens, while Alexander makes a pilgrimage across the Egyptian desert to see an oracle. We do not get to see this meeting onstage, suggesting Constantine is holding back something critical that Alexander has learned.

The Battle: Posting results in the first round, the challenge was not to sound too negative about books I disliked, since after only 25 pages I hadn't really given them a fair chance. In the second round, I find the challenge is to explain dropping out a book after 50 pages even though it's really good, just because the book it's up against happens to be really, really good.

The first 50 pages of The Pillars of Hercules are really good. This alternate version of ancient Greece and Persia is most interesting, and I love the descriptions of ancient Greek cities and navies even more impressive than the ones in our history. (Although you have to be careful picking through what's historically accurate and what's augmented -- reading of Athenian merchants unloading ships with cranes I assumed this was an anachronism, but further research tells me they actually used cranes in ancient Greece.) A massive conflict is brewing, driven by Alexander's ambitions. It feels like the sort of good-versus-evil battle familiar in epic fantasy, but was Alexander really evil? Although I haven't gotten terribly attached to any of the characters so far, the banter between Matthias and Lugorix is amusing.

The first 50 pages of Range of Ghosts are amazing. I read through every passage twice, once as a reader, marveling in the story, and imagery and language; once as an aspiring writer, trying to figure out how I could write like that (short answer: ain't gonna happen).

To start with, Bear shows a marvelous flair for introducing the fantastic elements of her story. Here, for instance, is the sorcerer al-Sepehr with his book of dark spells:

A book. Or what could have been the ghost of a book, perhaps -- its covers translucent gray, marked with letters white as bone; its binding rings silver; and every transparent page within etched with the gorgeous serpentine cursive letters and diamond-shaped accents of the dialect of ancient Erem.

The glass covers chimed softly as al-Sepehr drew on a kidskin glove and opened them with infinite care. Some of the page edges were chipped, and he was too well acquainted with the illness that followed when he let this dire old thing taste his blood. One by one, he turned the crystal leaves, watching as transparent letters cut in transparent pages caught the sunlight.

Every word twisted in his head and made his eyes ache and burn. He found the page he wanted and settled down to study the spell inscribed therein.

To raise the enemy's dead and bind them to your bidding.

Temur will have to faced these raised dead, including the ghost of his own brother.

All the non-fantastic elements of Range of Ghosts are just as good. The scenery and different cultures in the story are fascinating, with a very different flavor than most epic fantasy. Samarkar is an intriguing character, a woman who does not seem power-hungry, yet she gave up a position in high society for power. Temur is an extremely likeable young man -- he gets a love scene that is very beautifully written, but also downright hot, because we are so happy to see something nice happen to him. But the scene ends on a bittersweet note, as one of the moons in the night sky flares out, indicating that another of Temur's relatives has died.

Where is all this headed? Will Temur decide to try to reclaim the throne from his uncle? Will he find an ally in Samarkar? Let me say for the record: I don't care. Wherever Elizabeth Bear decides to take this story, I want to go there with her.

THE WINNER: RANGE OF GHOSTS by Elizabeth Bear

Range of Ghosts advances to the semifinals, to face And Blue Skies from Pain by Stina Leicht.

To see the whole bracket, click here.