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We’ve tallied your responses to the Tor.com 2011 Readers’ Choice Awards as of 5:00 PM EST, Thursday, January 12 and the Novels category has really come to life!

Here are the top novels as of 5 PM Thursday:

  1. The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (41 votes)
  2. The All-Pro by Scott Sigler (34 votes)
  3. The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson (26 votes)
  4. Embassytown by China Mieville (23 votes)
  5. The Seventh Throne by Stephen Zimmer (20 votes)
  6. Among Others by Jo Walton (15 votes)
  7. A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin (15 votes)
  8. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (14 votes)
  9. Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi (9 votes)
  10. The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie (7 votes)

A challenger approaches! On Tuesday, dark horse Stephen Zimmer shot to the front on a campaign involving friends and fans, but Wednesday finds him unseated due to a similar approach by author Scott Sigler. (But will he make it to the endzone???)

It’s exciting to see pockets of fans mobilizing for their favorite books, although neither have been able to touch The Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss’s latest installment in his Kingkiller Chronicles, which has sailed confidently on its own steam to the top of the list. (Jo Walton unpacks the huge Patrick Rothfuss novels every Thursday on Tor.com.)

But are the placings of these novels legitimate?

The short answer is: yes. We’ve been checking for sockpuppeting from the very start and while we’ve found a couple blips of it so far (j’accuse!) so far the vast majority (99%+) of your votes are considered legitimate. Tallies are updated as discrepancies are found, and we’ll be double-checking the votes once the awards are closed, as well, to make sure we get everything right.

A fun thing about the second day’s voting was that enough votes came in to give us a picture of the 11-20 Best Novels of 2011:

11.  Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (7 votes)
12.  Osama by Lavie Tidhar (7 votes)
13.  Ghost Story by Jim Butcher (7 votes)
14.  Rift Walker by Clay & Susan Griffith (7 votes)
15.  The Crippled God by Steven Erikson (6 votes)
16.  Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente (6 votes)
17.  The Magician King by Lev Grossman (5 votes)
18.  Reamde by Neal Stephenson (5 votes)
19.  Snuff by Terry Pratchett (5 votes)
20.  11.22.63 by Stephen King (5 votes)

There’s some nice variation going on down here, but wait until you see Best Cover.


The Best Book Cover votes break down as follows:

  1. The Seventh Throne by Stephen Zimmer, cover by Matthew Perry (12 votes)
  2. Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente, cover by Beth White, design by Peter Lutjen (8 votes)
  3. The All-Pro by Scott Sigler, cover designed by Donna Mugavero (6 votes)
  4. Rift Walker by Clay & Susan Griffith, cover by Chris McGrath, design by Grace M. Conti-Zilsberger (4 votes)
  5. Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey, cover by Daniel Dociu (3 votes)
  6. Blood Divided by Kevin James Breaux, cover by Dan Dos Santos, design by Kevin James Breaux (3 votes)
  7. opens in a new windowMy Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland, cover by Dan Dos Santos (3 votes) – See how the cover to White Trash Zombie was made.

Six more titles got two votes each while 40 more titles got one vote each. For the most part, fan campaigns to vote for one book continue to rope in the cover art without any considered selection, although we began to see that changing in the second day of voting, most notably in the selection of the cover for Deathless, which received more votes than the book itself.

(You can read an excerpt from Deathless here. Or look at how the cover to Deathless was created.)


If You Want Me To Vote For Covers, Show Me Covers: It’s very possible that covers from this past year just aren’t coming to mind for readers, though, so we’ve started gathering a few galleries for you to peruse. Just like our novel and short fiction lists, these are by no means complete. Mostly they’re there to jog one’s memory.

We’ll be updating the main voting post as more come in.


The Best Short Fiction votes break down as follows:

  1. “An Island Sojourn” by Stephen Zimmer (appearing in Dreams of Steam) – 8 votes
  2. Awakening of Evarun, Part 1″ by Tom Barczak – 7 votes
  3. “Absinthe Fish” by M. David Blake (appearing in Bull Spec) – 5 votes
  4. The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City(appearing on Tor.com) – 4 votes
  5. Ghost Hedgehog by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (appearing on Tor.com) – 3 votes

None can stop him! Stephen Zimmer retains the top spot for the second day, but John Scalzi is stirring from his slumber and bears a close watch. (You know what else bears a close watch? Bears.)


The Best Comic votes continue to be a mile wide and an inch deep. A fan campaign for Across Thin Ice by Tess Graman and Gavet Teagan has produced 14 votes for that title but all others shuffle along with two or three votes. We’re starting to see a lot of titles from DC Comics’ New 52 begin to flood the arena, though. (If you’re not familiar, check out Tim Callahan’s damn near heroic coverage of the New DC Universe.)


And that’s the second day’s results! Lots more expansion is to come, we’re sure, so keep an eye on the Tor.com Readers’ Choice Awards index for updates.

Oh yes, a reminder: No insulting the votes of others, please. If you’ve noticed your comment has been pruned, that’s most likely the reason why.

Haven’t voted yet? Head on over to the Readers’ Choice Awards voting post. That’s the only place votes are being counted.


Stubby the Rocket is the mascot of Tor.com and the often random voice of its staff. The Matrix was wrong. There is most definitely a spoon.

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