Battle of the Books, Bracket Five

Announcing Bracket Five of the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books!

This is our fifth bracket of the 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.

Aaron reviewed and judged the Winter, Spring and Fall brackets of the Battle of the Books, won by Elizabeth Bear, James Renner, and Paolo Bacigulupi. Amy reviewed and judged the Summer bracket won by Ian Tregillis. This new group of contenders in Bracket Five will be reviewed and judged by Aaron. (Amy pulled together and formatted all the book cover graphics.)

We've received sixteen (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 bracket randomly.  Here are your matchups.

First Quarter of Bracket:


Trish J. MacGregor
Ghost Key
(Tor)
vs.
Terry Cooper
Kangazang! Star Stuff
(Candy Jar)


China Miéville
Railsea***
(Del Rey)
vs.
Nick Marsh
The Express Diaries
(Innsmouth House)

Second Quarter of Bracket:


Dave Duncan
Wildcatter
(Edge)
vs.
Keith Brooke
Harmony***
(Solaris)


Laird Barron
The Croning
(Night Shade)
vs.
Alyson Noël
Fated
(St. Martin's)

Third Quarter of Bracket:


K.A. Bedford
Paradox Resolution
(Edge)
vs.
Liane Merciel
Nightglass
(Paizo)


Eric Brown
The Devil's Nebula
(Abaddon)
vs.
Steve Rasnic Tem
Deadfall Hotel
(Solaris)***

Fourth Quarter of Bracket:


Tim Pratt
City of the Fallen Sky
(Paizo)
vs.
James Enge
A Guile of Dragons
(Pyr)

Jane Rogers
The Testament of Jessie Lamb
(HarperCollins)***
vs.
Phillipa Bornikova
This Case is Gonna Kill Me
(Tor)

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Some notes on the field:
-- Several of the books are difficult to classify, but by my best count 6 are science fiction, 3 contemporary fantasy, 4 high fantasy, 1 historical fantasy, and 2 horror.
-- The field is comprised of eleven men and five women; no collaborations this time.
-- The contestants include 2 books from Tor, 2 from Solaris, 2 from Edge, 2 from Paizo, and 1 each from established publishers Abaddon, Del Rey, HarperCollins, Night Shade, Pyr, and St. Martin's, and small publishers Candy Jar and Innsmouth House.
-- 2 of the books appear to be direct sequels, 2 books are obviously the start of series, 2 are Pathfinder Tales related to the roleplaying game, and the rest appear to be original.

Best of luck to all the competitors!