March Madness 2019 - Round 2 (Voting Ended March 12th)

[Rob, Roberator]

The Bracket is set!


Voting for round 2 will be March 6th 12:01AM EST - March 12th 11:59PM EST

See below for the round breakdown with links to each poll

Sword Bracket

Sword Match 1:
(1) Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan

vs.

(8) The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

Vote Here

Sword Match 2:

(4) Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

vs.

(5) Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

Vote Here


Laser Match 1:

(2) The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

vs.

(7) Nexus by Ramez Naam

Vote Here

Laser Match 2:

(3) The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

vs.

(6) After Atlas by Emma Newman

Vote Here

[Rob, Roberator]

Well I don't like my chances for Theft of Swords making it out of this round, despite its landslide victory in round 1.

Poppy War has had a lot of buzz this last year too. I actually own the book and haven't read it, but I can't vote against my own nomination!

I feel like all of these are going to be close, except maybe Martian Chronicles.

[Melanie]

I did not like Poppy War. 1. It was too long. 2. The tone changes drastically 2/3 of the way into to book from coming of age, training to let's see how gross we can make war seem.

Y'all should choose Theft of Swords.

[David H.]

Poppy War is shorter than Theft of Swords... (540 versus 650 pages). Plus, war IS gross.

[Rob, Roberator]

Theft of Swords is actually a 2 book omnibus: The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha

You can no longer get them individually.

[Anne]

Rob wrote: "I feel like all of these are going to be close, except maybe Martian Chronicles."

I don't know, I've already read The Martian Chronicles and After Atlas seems pretty interesting, so I wouldn't bet on it. The lazy part of me wanted to vote for books I already read so I could sit this one out and focus on all the other new stuff I want to read, but somehow I don't want to be *that* person.

[Trike]

David wrote: "Poppy War is shorter than Theft of Swords... (540 versus 650 pages). Plus, war IS gross."

Theft of Swords is a super fast read, though. It is propulsive and flows easily.

[Joanna]

Rob wrote: "You can no longer get them individually."

…unless you happen to be Polish and subscribe to Storytel. ;-)
They are releasing the whole series in original volumes. First one is already there, second will be tomorrow.

[Jessica]

Wow, each one I voted for won this round! A complete reversal from last year. Let's see what round 2 brings...

[Jessica]

Actually, I've read 2 out of the 4 sword picks and am halfway through another one of them at the moment.

[Rob, Roberator]

Anne wrote: "Rob wrote: "I feel like all of these are going to be close, except maybe Martian Chronicles."

I don't know, I've already read The Martian Chronicles and After Atlas se..."

Yeah. I'm not betting. Just a guess. My guess about which vote was a blow-out was in round 1 was totally wrong...

[Dara]

Gotta vote for The Poppy War because I already own it.

I'm pleased that my nomination (Nexus) made it to the second round. Don't think it will go further but I'm still hoping!

[Matt]

Definitely voted with my wallet here. Voted for books I already own I haven't read yet...

[Rick]

From what I've read of Poppy War... meh. No. Tired of 'abused/downtrodden kid trained to be super badass' stuff plus from the description and reviews I've read there's a lot of 'let's make things gross because...' So... rob... One more vote for your pick :)

[Stephen]

I am still hoping for a Red Sister win, as it would set up a cool contrast between that book and Harry Potter. Poppy War is great from my humble opinion but I still went TOS.

[Melanie]

David wrote: "Poppy War is shorter than Theft of Swords... (540 versus 650 pages). Plus, war IS gross."

My argument isn't that war is not gross, it's that the author tricked me. I expect books with explicit content to warn me earlier than 2/3 of the way through a really long book.

[Rob, Roberator]

I loved Red Sister..but there can be only one, so I'll keep voting for Theft of Swords as long as it survives..

[Tina]

Rick wrote: "From what I've read of Poppy War... meh. No. Tired of 'abused/downtrodden kid trained to be super badass' stuff plus from the description and reviews I've read there's a lot of 'let's make things g..."

Agree.

[Sheila Jean]

Theft of Swords all the way. (cuz reasons and my longer post didn't get saved) *edit, I've read the entire remaining Sword bracket, and this is the one I want to read again.*

If you appreciate trigger warnings R.F. Kuang has this on her website regarding The Poppy War: on the necessity of brutality: why i went there

[Melissa]

Sheila Jean wrote: "Theft of Swords all the way. (cuz reasons and my longer post didn't get saved) *edit, I've read the entire remaining Sword bracket, and this is the one I want to read again.*

If you appreciate tri..."

I read the link and I get why she went there but...WOW

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

I want to see a Theft of Swords v The Martian Chronicles final

The 3 time loser against the 4 time loser

I think we should read both at some stage. They are both great books. In very different ways.

[Shad]

Tassie Dave wrote: "I want to see a Theft of Swords v The Martian Chronicles final

The 3 time loser against the 4 time loser

I think we should read both at some stage. They are both grea..."

I was thinking the same thing, the Susan Lucci of Sword against the Susan Lucci of Laser!

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Shad wrote: "Tassie Dave wrote: "the Susan Lucci of Sword against the Susan Lucci of Laser! "

or the Buffalo Bills v Peter O'Toole

Susan Lucci eventually won ;-)

[Bryan]

I am more interested to see if a Laser book can win again this year or will the Swords slice there way to victory!

[Tina]

Sheila Jean wrote: "Theft of Swords all the way. (cuz reasons and my longer post didn't get saved) *edit, I've read the entire remaining Sword bracket, and this is the one I want to read again.*

If you appreciate tri..."

Thanks for posting that.

[Rob, Roberator]

Tassie Dave wrote: "Shad wrote: "Tassie Dave wrote: "the Susan Lucci of Sword against the Susan Lucci of Laser! "

or the Buffalo Bills v Peter O'Toole

Susan Lucci eventually won ;-)"

Man Dave, I'm a Bills fan too. Why do you have to be so mean!

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Dara wrote: "I'm pleased that my nomination (Nexus) made it to the second round. Don't think it will go further but I'm still hoping!"

I was gutted to have to vote against it in the last round. This time it was an easy pick. :)

[Shad]

Tassie Dave wrote: "Shad wrote: "Tassie Dave wrote: "the Susan Lucci of Sword against the Susan Lucci of Laser! "

or the Buffalo Bills v Peter O'Toole

Susan Lucci eventually won ;-)"
I figure both of them will be picks eventually. If nothing else, Tom will probably pick Martian Chronicles as a dictatorial pick. Then, when Rob's mad grab for power is done, he will pick Theft of Swords.

[Joyce]

What I find interesting is that only about 100 out of 23,000 people in the group are voting. Of course that is assuming the same people voted in all the bracket choices.

[Emma]

Rob wrote: "Theft of Swords is actually a 2 book omnibus: The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha

You can no longer get them individually."

Sooooo two books for the price of one? I'd call that a steal. :)

[Rick]

Joyce wrote: "What I find interesting is that only about 100 out of 23,000 people in the group are voting. Of course that is assuming the same people voted in all the bracket choices."

I've always assumed that most of the 23k people never look at GR after signing up. I mean, look at the posts here. It's really about a dozen of us plus the odd person who delurks here and there.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Rob wrote: "Man Dave, I'm a Bills fan too. Why do you have to be so mean!"

I'm a Bengals fan. They haven't won a Super bowl yet either ;-)

[Rob, Roberator]

Voting participation in round 1 was closer to 300 than 100. That is down by about 50 from last year.


But yeah the participation on Goodreads had always been low. Hell, they have over 500 patrons and not even all of them are participating.

[Rebecca]

Sheila Jean wrote: "Theft of Swords all the way. (cuz reasons and my longer post didn't get saved) *edit, I've read the entire remaining Sword bracket, and this is the one I want to read again.*

If you appreciate tri..."

Thank you for the link, I really appreciate having that context for the book. (Putting the rest of my comment behind spoiler tags, because I feel like this could technically be spoilery for the book, although not more so than the link is) (view spoiler)[I think she's very right in her reasoning here. I just listened to an episode of a history podcast that discusses the Rape of Nanjing, and previously it was something I had maybe heard referenced to vaguely, and didn't know anything about. For instance, I had no idea it was actually relatively recent history, the name to me would have conjured something from a more conquest-y era. The podcaster also talked about how there is a lot of denial around the event, and it's obvious that it is still a very painful thing that a lot of the world (including myself) is still relatively unaware of. Our WWII education focuses heavily on Europe (still very important to learn, I will not deny that) and not much on east Asia, aside from Pearl Harbor bringing in the US). That said, this could be very understandably difficult to read, and she does tell you to not pick up the book if it is going to be too much for you (hide spoiler)]

[Tom, Supreme Laser]

OK we've got one super blowout right now, one dead even tie, and the other two are within 20 or so votes. All over the place!

[Adam]

Delurking....I find myself visiting here daily, reading what is being written and participating from time to time. I come to wallflower and occasionally you all draw me out into the conversation. For that I am always grateful. Now I return to my regularly scheduled lurking.

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Adam wrote: "I come to wallflower and occasionally you all draw me out into the conversation"

I find that adorable - lurkers are totally welcome! I love this group.

[Tom, Supreme Laser]

The current vote differentials are 30, 10, 14 and 52

[terpkristin]

Most but not all of the books I wanted to read lost in round 1. Also, in this round, 2 books I want to read are up against eachother. This does not bode well, but does seem like it will continue a trend of disliking or at best being ambivalent about a poll pick.

[Pat]

Sad, but not surprised, to see Black Leopard, Red Wolf go down in the first round. Looks like I'm going to have to back Theft of Swords the whole way

[Christos]

I think The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is going to win this year. Everyone loves a good Groundhogs Day story

[William]

Christos wrote: "I think The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is going to win this year. Everyone loves a good Groundhogs Day story"

I recently read it - A quality read I thought, one that I think made me really think about a few things. I'd be happy if it won.

I'm pretty happy with the whole list - though I wasn't a fan of Planetfall so I'm not so keen on After Atlas, the sequel - still I may be surprised.

That said, my current choice out of those that have made it to this round is The Martian Chronicles. It's one that I've felt I should read since I was about 14...yet never got around to. I don't have high hopes on it's chances, as any book older than a decade seems to be met by grumbling in some quarters, but I like reading the "influencers" and spotting how they shaped the books we read today.

[Sweta]

Melanie wrote: "I did not like Poppy War. 1. It was too long. 2. The tone changes drastically 2/3 of the way into to book from coming of age, training to let's see how gross we can make war seem.

Y'all should ch..."

Ugh agreed. No idea why people love Poppy War so much. It was way too long and weirdly, almost obsessively over-the-top gory in the last third. I get war is gory and I understand why the author did it, but the sudden switch was weird and other parts felt overly simplified and shortened to account for the long gore. No contest there for me, but I have a feeling Poppy War will be winning anyway.

[Iain]

I hope After Atlas loses.. don’t want to have to read two books....nominating the second book of a sequence, who does that....

[Brendan]

The over the top gore in Poppy War was recounting an actual historical event (minus the magic).

[Rick]

Brendan wrote: "The over the top gore in Poppy War was recounting an actual historical event (minus the magic)."

We know. But go read the synopsis on this site for it and tell me... does it make you think you're getting into a hyper-gory depiction of the depravity of war?

My vote went the other way mostly because I'm just done with the doewntrodden kid is secretly the best in the world at X and discovers it at Magic School Type X. It's why I'm not excited about Red Sister either.

[William]

Iain wrote: "I hope After Atlas loses.. don’t want to have to read two books....nominating the second book of a sequence, who does that...."

After having read book 1 and the description of book 2, it really sounds like a totally stand alone story, just in the same universe.

[Stephen]

All the books in the Planetfall series are short. I did the audio versions which come in at the 9 to 12 hour range. I was happy to nominate Emma Newman in the Best Series Category for the Hugo.
The Poppy War included the historical event termed the Nanjing Massacre. The section is hard emotionally, but GRRM did the same thing.
Mark Lawrence is an author we need to read I believe because he runs an interesting contest called the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. You can read about it here:
http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/2...
I nominated Mark Lawrence and his blog for Best Fan Writer in that Hugo category, plus his follow up to Red Sister, last year's Grey Sister in Best Novel category. If you like Arya, you will like Nona.

[Tom, Supreme Laser]

As we get close to the end of Round 2 I have to say these are much stronger victories than last week. The winning books are winning by decent margins in most cases though no total blowouts, IMHO. That means the semifinals will likely be TIGHT!

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Ooooooooooooooooooh! Excitement!

I have my guesses about which are winning. Wonder if I'm right.