Fifth Annual BSCreview Book Tournament – Schedule and List

March Madness is here, and so is the annual BSCreview Best-of-the-year-before Book Tournament.  The contestants this year were chosen as the 64 titles published for the first time in the year of our empire 2010 that the editorial we thought were most worthy of inclusion in our lists.  Certain parameters applied:  the books are those primarily considered SFF titles; we did not allow duplicate entries from the same author*; we excluded anthologies except collections with only one author; we excluded titles published elsewhere than the US that have a US release in 2011. 

This year our tournament format is changing.  We are running the voting strictly here on the front page and strictly by polling; there will be threads in the forum designated for discussion of each round of the tournament, but they will not impact the outcome directly.  We will leave the polls open until 24 hours before the next round for that bracket opens (so this will vary from round to round and possibly match to match).  The match winner will be determined by the number of votes–transparency is the name of our game.

Schedule of events:

• Round 1 (32 matches):  1 bracket each day on 3/17, 3/18, 3/21, and 3/22 
• Round 2 (16 matches):  1 bracket each day of 3/24, 3/25, 3/28 and 3/29
• Round 3 (8 matches): 2 brackets each day 4/1 and 4/4
• Round 4 (4 matches) – Quarter-finals, for control of each bracket: 2 on Thursday 4/7 and 2 on Friday, 4/8
• Round 5 (2 matches) – Semi-finals, bracket winners play off:  Tuesday 4/12
• Round 6 - Consolation: Friday 4/15 (voting will close Thursday 4/21); Finals Monday, 4/18 (voting will close Friday 4/22)

And now for the part you’ve all been waiting for–who made it onto the list?

Middle Earth Bracket**

1. Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia McKillip
2. Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis
3. Bone Palace by Amanda Downum
4. Cold Magic by Kate Elliot
5. Dreadnought by Cherie Priest
6. Folding Knife by K.J. Parker
7. House on Durrow Street by Galen Beckett 
8. Jade Man’s Skin by Daniel Fox
9. Machinery of Light by David J. Williams
10. Native Star by M.K. Hobson
11. Ruling Sea by Robert V. Redick
12. Shadowheart by Tad Williams
13. Stealing Fire by Jo Graham
14. Terminal State by Jeff Somers
15. Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn
16. Wolfsangel by M.D. Lachlan

Forgotten Realms Bracket

1. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Graham-Smith
2. Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
3. Blackout/All clearby Connie Willis
4. Changes by Jim Butcher
5. Dervish House by Ian McDonald
6. Gauntlgrym: Neverwinter, Book I by R.A. Salvatore
7. Geosynchron by David Louis Edelman
8. I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
9. Kraken by China Mieville
10. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
11. Prince of Storms by Kay Kenyon
12. Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard
13. Sorcerer’s House by Gene Wolfe
14. Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder
15. Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
16. Wild Hunt by Margaret Ronald

Malazan Empire Bracket

1. A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
2. Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews
3. Black Prism by Brent Weeks
4. Changeless by Gail Carriger
5. Corvus by Paul Kearney
6. Echo by Jack McDevitt
7. Geist by Philippa Ballantine
8. Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin 
9. Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey
10. Midnight Mayor, or, the Inauguration of Matthew Swift by Kate Griffin
11. Passion Play by Beth Bernobich
12. Salute the Dark by Adrian Tchaikovsky
13. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
14. Stone Wielder by Ian Cameron Esslemont
15. Way of Kings by Brandon sanderson 
16. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

Westeros Bracket

1. An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire
2. Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
3. Blood Cross by Faith Hunter 
4. Chill by Elizabeth Bear
5. Dog Blood by David Moody
6. From Hell with Love by Simon R. Green
7. Habitation of the Blessed by Catherynne M. Valente
8. Imager’s Intrigue by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
9. Leviathan Wept and Other Stories by Daniel Abraham
10. Namaah’s Curse by Jacqueline Carey
11. Prospero in Hell by L. Jagi Lamplighter
12. Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
13. Spirit Lens by Carol Berg
14. Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
15. War of the Dwarves by Markus Heitz
16. Wizard Squared by K. E. Mills

The specific match-ups for each bracket will be revealed when the bracket opens for voting, along with a specific designation of which match winners will play off in the next round.  So check back on Thursday for the opening round of the Fifth Annual BSC Book Tournament…and let the games begin! 

* with the exception of Brandon Sanderson finishing Robert Jordan’s work on Towers of Midnight; given that it is based on Jordan’s notes and not Sanderson’s direction for the story, we felt Jordan deserved primary authorship

**Bracket names do not imply a correlation between the work which generated that world and the books in its division; seed numbers do not imply strength of work