Ever wondered what would happen if some of the best sci-fi and fantasy books squared off in a tournament to see who reigns supreme?

Well then, it’s your lucky day. I thought it would be fun to do a series of posts in conjunction with the NCAA “March Madness” Tournament, but with books. Because that’s awesome. 😀

I’m pleased the announce the commencement of the Book Championship Tournament. I’ve picked eight books and series from science fiction and eight from fantasy. The matchups are set, the players (characters) are ready. The tension builds.

Now it’s up to you, the fans, to determine the outcome.

Here’s the bracket.

I tried to make selections that are popular and well-known because this doesn’t really work unless people have read the books (imagine that 😉 ). Of course, any list of favorites is arbitrary, so I’m sorry if one of your favorites didn’t end up in the bracket. With any series’ you see, I attempted to pick ones that are completed, thus the glaring absence of such epics as Stormlight Archive and the Kingkiller Chronicles.

A quick rundown of the matchups and links in case you’re not familiar with some of the contestants.

Note: some are individual books, while most are the entire series.

Fantasy

Harry Potter vs. Discworld

Sword of Shannara vs. Narnia

Mistborn vs. Wheel of Time

Eragon vs. Lord of the Rings

Science Fiction

Hunger Games vs. Wrinkle in Time

Fahrenheit 451 vs. Ender’s Game

Divergent vs. Foundation

Reckoners vs. Dune

Starting today, you’ll have through next Monday to cast your votes. I’ll post the outcome, along with a summary of how each matchup went down, on Wednesday, along with the updated bracket, and then the cycle will repeat for each round after that.

The exception is the final round. Instead of waiting until Wednesday, I’m going to post that on Monday to coincide with the NCAA Championship game on April 4. For the final round, you’ll have Wednesday through Saturday to cast your votes.

I’ve created a Book Championship Tournament group on Facebook, where all the voting will take place, and where you can find a rundown of how the process will work.

I hope to post update snippets on social media. For every post related to this tournament, I’ll be using #BookBracket2016, so search for that to stay in the loop.

Are you ready?

Then let’s have some fun! 😀