MobileRead January 2015 Special Run-Off Vote

[WT Sharpe]

January 2015 Mobile Read Book Club Special Run-Off Vote

Since this month's vote resulted in a four-way tie, we are having a Special Run-Off Vote between the two leading candidates. I will not vote in this poll unless my vote is needed to break a tie. This poll will be open for 3 days, and all MobileRead members are invited to participate. This is a visible, multiple-choice poll.

We will start the discussion thread for this book on January 20th. Please select from the following Four* Choices:

• Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Amazon US

Spoiler:

In one of Robert Heinlein's most controversial bestsellers, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the Universe--and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against mankind's most frightening enemy.

• The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Spoiler:

The Time Traveler, a dreamer obsessed with traveling through time, builds himself a time machine and, much to his surprise, travels over 800,000 years into the future. He lands in the year 802701: the world has been transformed by a society living in apparent harmony and bliss, but as the Traveler stays in the future he discovers a hidden barbaric and depraved subterranean class. Wells' transparent commentary on the capitalist society was an instant bestseller and launched the time-travel genre.

• To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Tie for 2nd place)
Amazon Ca / Amazon UK / Amazon US / Angus & Robertson / B&N / Google Play / Kobo US / Overdrive

Spoiler:

Harper Lee's Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as an e-book.

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father-a crusading local lawyer-risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

• The Iron King by Maurice Druon
Amazon US / Kobo CA / Kobo US / Overdrive

Spoiler:

Goodreads blurb:

The Iron King – Philip the Fair – is as cold and silent, as handsome and unblinking as a statue. He governs his realm with an iron hand, but he cannot rule his own family: his sons are weak and their wives adulterous; while his red-blooded daughter Isabella is unhappily married to an English king who prefers the company of men.

A web of scandal, murder and intrigue is weaving itself around the Iron King; but his downfall will come from an unexpected quarter. Bent on the persecution of the rich and powerful Knights Templar, Philip sentences Grand Master Jacques de Molay to be burned at the stake, thus drawing down upon himself a curse that will destroy his entire dynasty

Originally published in 1955 in French.

* Since the first vote produced a 4-way tie for second, this poll has more than the normal two choices.

So this was an easy vote. Only one book that I could work up any interest in reading. After briefly doing some research I was almost put off by comparison of The Iron King to Game of Thrones.

[JSWolf]

We need more votes for The Time Machine. It's a very good book. In fact, the best of the ones in the poll.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

So this was an easy vote. Only one book that I could work up any interest in reading. After briefly doing some research I was almost put off by comparison of The Iron King to Game of Thrones.

Don't worry about that. I'm not sure your objection to Game of Thrones but this isn't fantasy. I will say though that as I read it, it was obvious how much Druon influenced Martin.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Don't worry about that. I'm not sure your objection to Game of Thrones but this isn't fantasy. I will say though that as I read it, it was obvious how much Druon influenced Martin.

Isn't that how it always goes. Authors who came before having an influence on those who come later. Just look at the covers for E.R. Eddison's books and then look at some of the pics in "The Never Ending Story" and you can see that the one had some influence on the other.

[readerlover]

I've read The Time Machine and I loved it!

[WT Sharpe]

Oh, my! We have a winner! The Iron King by Maurice Druon it is. See you all next year for the discussion.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Oh, my! We have a winner! The Iron King by Maurice Druon it is. See you all next year for the discussion.

May the best book win and the best book did not win. As far as the writing goes, the best books are The Time Machine and To Kill a Mockingbird.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

May the best book win and the best book did not win. As far as the writing goes, the best books are The Time Machine and To Kill a Mockingbird.

But The Iron King is the only book a lot of us haven't read.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Phogg

But The Iron King is the only book a lot of us haven't read.

And it's one I'm not going to read.

[caleb72]

Yay! I was hoping it would be The Iron King.
Start your engines....

[din155]

Even though I missed to vote in special run off, I am happy iron king won.

[Nyssa]

The more I look at it, the more interesting The Iron King seems. Unfortunately its floundering - well its in 4th out of 17 so I guess thats not floundering exactly - in the poll I set up to help determine how I start the new year.

I plan to read it anyway, it just won't be first.