The Sword and Laser discussion
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2018 March Madness Nominations (Closed)
I'm going to go ahead and make my nomination for Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan
It's probably another futile attempt on my part to get us to read it, but here's to hoping!
It's probably another futile attempt on my part to get us to read it, but here's to hoping!

Can we nominate in this thread? Because I'm itching to nominate a certain Bob...
John (Taloni) wrote: "Sweeeeet (Cartman voice).
Can we nominate in this thread? Because I'm itching to nominate a certain Bob..."
Yes. This is the nominations thread :)
Bob is Legion..
Can we nominate in this thread? Because I'm itching to nominate a certain Bob..."
Yes. This is the nominations thread :)
Bob is Legion..

(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...)
fantastic book, mostly unknown, so even if it fails, maybe some of you will read it anyway :)

I've already read it, but it introduced me to Mary, who has truly become one of my favorite authors


Gonna be a tough tournament! That's a great one. I like Soulless too, totally different feel.
Spider Robinson is supposed to come to Worldcon this year. I hope his health holds out. He was one of the reasons I went to Westercon in 2015, but regrettably he couldn't make it then.

The Sirens of Titan - I think it's the most obviously "SF" of all his stuff and should foster much discussion.


Andre Norton (1984)
Ursula K. Le Guin (2003)
Anne McCaffrey (2005)
Connie Willis (2012)
C.J. Cherryh (2016)
Jane Yolen (2017)
S+L has read books by all except Jane Yolen. I've not read anything by Ms. Yolen, so I'll nominate one of her books published for adult readers.
Sister Light, Sister Dark, a Nebula nominee for Best Novel in 1989. It's the first of three books that are known as the Great Alta Saga.

I'd like to second this nomination.


It's probably another futile attempt on my part to get us to read it, but h..."
I will happily second this nomination!! I love this book/series!!!

A gaslamp fantasy set in Victorian London with a diverse set of main characters. What's not to love?

So many good choices already posted, but I really want to introduce people to one of my all time favourite books. Ancient Egypt and slave girl turn spy...



Absolutely enjoy the voice that Michael G. Manning puts in his books. He invests me in his characters and story. While mostly Sword there is some Laser hidden away.
Current Nominations
Just like last year I'll be periodically rolling up the nominations as we go.
FAQ:
How Many books can I nominate? One. You cannot nominate one book and second another. You cannot nominate both a Fantasy book and a Sci-Fi book. Just one book total.
Can we nominate any book we want? The only criteria is that it's a Fantasy or Sci-Fi book we haven't read. That said, it's preferable that you also nominate a book by an author we haven't read as well. Those nominations will likely have a better chance of making the final bracket.
Can I change My Nomination? Yes, but if you do so, please specify which book you are changing it from, as I'm doing this by hand.
How many books will be selected? 16 (8 Fantasy, 8 Sci-Fi)
When do nominations close? Monday, February 26th 11:59 PM PST. This will give Tom & Veronica some time to make the final bracket.
Which books will be selected? Whichever books Tom & Veronica want. They will simply use the nominations in this thread for suggestions.
How will the books be seeded? This is entirely up to Tom & Veronica. They may take into account how many people have nominated a book, but there is no guarantee.
The book I want was already nominated. You can second a nomination made by someone else, and I'll count how many people have nominated that book and sort accordingly.
No one else is nominating my book, should I change my vote to something more popular? In my opinion, you're better off just nominating a book you're interested in us reading than hoping to game the nomination system by changing your vote. Last year some of the books in the final bracket had only a single nomination, while several books with multiple nominations didn't make it.
How are the Nominations Sorted? The numbering is based on number of nominations, followed by when they moved up the list (i.e. based on post order). This number will likely not reflect the actual seeding as that will be entirely up to Tom & Veronica.
My nomination is missing/wrong! Sorry about that. I'm doing this by hand. Please post again and yell at me for missing, or not grouping it with another nomination for the same book, or marking you down for the wrong book, etc.
-----------Multiple Votes----------------
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor - 3 (John (Taloni), Jen, Dave)
Soulless by Gail Carriger - 2 (IWinkler, Melissa)
Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan - 2 (Roberator, Jann)
-----------Single Votes----------------
Walking Shadow by Clifford Royal Johns (Cory)
Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal (Scott)
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (Mike)
Red Rising by Pierce Brown (Wayne)
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson (Phil)
The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks (Dani)
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (Michele)
Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen (Mark)
The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt-Evans (Pete)
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty (Sheila Jean)
The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein (Tom)
The Wretched of Muirwood by Jeff Wheeler (Todd)
Midnight Riot aka Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (Eric)
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty (Natalie)
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley (Em)
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (James)
Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (Serena)
Jhereg by Steven Brust (Sweta)
The Sculpted Ship by K.M. O'Brien (Alex)
Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis C. Chen (Danielle)
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Dan)
Thornbear by Michael G. Manning (Marcus)
Just like last year I'll be periodically rolling up the nominations as we go.
FAQ:
How Many books can I nominate? One. You cannot nominate one book and second another. You cannot nominate both a Fantasy book and a Sci-Fi book. Just one book total.
Can we nominate any book we want? The only criteria is that it's a Fantasy or Sci-Fi book we haven't read. That said, it's preferable that you also nominate a book by an author we haven't read as well. Those nominations will likely have a better chance of making the final bracket.
Can I change My Nomination? Yes, but if you do so, please specify which book you are changing it from, as I'm doing this by hand.
How many books will be selected? 16 (8 Fantasy, 8 Sci-Fi)
When do nominations close? Monday, February 26th 11:59 PM PST. This will give Tom & Veronica some time to make the final bracket.
Which books will be selected? Whichever books Tom & Veronica want. They will simply use the nominations in this thread for suggestions.
How will the books be seeded? This is entirely up to Tom & Veronica. They may take into account how many people have nominated a book, but there is no guarantee.
The book I want was already nominated. You can second a nomination made by someone else, and I'll count how many people have nominated that book and sort accordingly.
No one else is nominating my book, should I change my vote to something more popular? In my opinion, you're better off just nominating a book you're interested in us reading than hoping to game the nomination system by changing your vote. Last year some of the books in the final bracket had only a single nomination, while several books with multiple nominations didn't make it.
How are the Nominations Sorted? The numbering is based on number of nominations, followed by when they moved up the list (i.e. based on post order). This number will likely not reflect the actual seeding as that will be entirely up to Tom & Veronica.
My nomination is missing/wrong! Sorry about that. I'm doing this by hand. Please post again and yell at me for missing, or not grouping it with another nomination for the same book, or marking you down for the wrong book, etc.
-----------Multiple Votes----------------
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor - 3 (John (Taloni), Jen, Dave)
Soulless by Gail Carriger - 2 (IWinkler, Melissa)
Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan - 2 (Roberator, Jann)
-----------Single Votes----------------
Walking Shadow by Clifford Royal Johns (Cory)
Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal (Scott)
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (Mike)
Red Rising by Pierce Brown (Wayne)
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson (Phil)
The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks (Dani)
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (Michele)
Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen (Mark)
The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt-Evans (Pete)
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty (Sheila Jean)
The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein (Tom)
The Wretched of Muirwood by Jeff Wheeler (Todd)
Midnight Riot aka Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (Eric)
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty (Natalie)
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley (Em)
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (James)
Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (Serena)
Jhereg by Steven Brust (Sweta)
The Sculpted Ship by K.M. O'Brien (Alex)
Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis C. Chen (Danielle)
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Dan)
Thornbear by Michael G. Manning (Marcus)

What I love about this collection is how the speculative premise is not the point in and of itself, but rather a way to look at the characters and their struggles. I doubt this book will be picked, but read it if you have a chance.

I'll second this one.

Check out this book on Goodreads: The Traveller (Fourth Realm, #1) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8..."
I read the first 2, it was trippy. Is the third book out?



Second that. I also would love to re-read Jhereg, and a whole bunch of these other nominations sound great too.

The list is looking really strong this year. I see so many books that I’d love to read.
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Books mentioned in this topic
Job: A Comedy of Justice (other topics)The Sirens of Titan (other topics)
Brave New World (other topics)
Speaker for the Dead (other topics)
The Thousandfold Thought (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Anne McCaffrey (other topics)Robert A. Heinlein (other topics)
Orson Scott Card (other topics)
Margaret Atwood (other topics)
Aldous Huxley (other topics)
More...
I've gotten permission from our benevolent leaders to change things up a bit this year. Due to the timing of the tournament and the general tendency to alternate Sword and Laser picks our last two tournaments have been exclusively Sword picks. There have been people asking we do Laser picks instead.
This year however we'll be doing BOTH. There will be 8 Sword picks, and 8 Laser picks selected by our benevolent leaders based on suggestions in this thread and a super secret criteria of their own making for seeding etc.
We'll have 4 rounds of voting. Rounds 1-3 will take us from 8 Sword books and 8 Laser books down to 1 of each that will go head to head for our to be our pick for April.
Post your nomination below.
Nomination FAQ
How Many books can I nominate? One. You cannot nominate one book and second another. You cannot nominate both a Fantasy book and a Sci-Fi book. Just ONE book total. If you mention more than one, I'm going to pick one. Likely the first one you mention. Please be CLEAR about your nomination.
Can we nominate any book we want? The only criteria is that it's a Fantasy or Sci-Fi book we haven't read. That said, it's preferable that you also nominate a book by an author we haven't read as well. Those nominations will likely have a better chance of making the final bracket.
Also, Please see this Note from Tom
Can I change My Nomination? Yes, but if you do so, please specify which book you are changing it from, as I'm doing this by hand.
How many books will be selected? 16 (8 Fantasy, 8 Sci-Fi)
When do nominations close? Monday, February 26th 11:59 PM PST. This will give Tom & Veronica some time to make the final bracket.
Which books will be selected? Whichever books Tom & Veronica want. They will simply use the nominations in this thread for suggestions.
How will the books be seeded? This is entirely up to Tom & Veronica. They may take into account how many people have nominated a book, but there is no guarantee.
The book I want was already nominated. You can second a nomination made by someone else, and I'll count how many people have nominated that book and sort accordingly.
No one else is nominating my book, should I change my vote to something more popular? In my opinion, you're better off just nominating a book you're interested in us reading than hoping to game the nomination system by changing your vote. Last year some of the books in the final bracket had only a single nomination, while several books with multiple nominations didn't make it.
How are the Nominations Sorted? The numbering is based on number of nominations, followed by when they moved up the list (i.e. based on post order). This number will likely not reflect the actual seeding as that will be entirely up to Tom & Veronica.
My nomination is missing/wrong! Sorry about that. I'm doing this by hand. Please post again and yell at me for missing, or not grouping it with another nomination for the same book, or marking you down for the wrong book, etc. If you're not clear about your nomination (or you nominate 2) I may add the "wrong" book. Please be sure you're clear, and I can fix it.