The Numbers Are In: It's Huxley, Stoker, and Bakker

Last week, after an initial round of suggestions, I held a runoff vote for the three fan-chosen authors I would add to the monthly talks in the Worlds of Speculative Fiction series for 2019.

The seven authors in the run-off were:  Bram Stoker, Thomas Ligoti, Stephen Donaldson, Katherine Kurtz, Aldous Huxley, Robert Jordan, and R Scott. Bakker.

Patreon supporters of my work got one additional vote.  Everyone who voted was allowed to choose up to three authors. There were 51 votes total in the runoff.

The big winner was Aldous Huxley, with 29 votes.  So, he will go into the October slot.  We'll be looking at his dystopian/utopian novels Brave New World, Ape and Essence, and Island.  We'll likely also discuss some of his essays as well, including The Perennial Philosophy.

Bram Stoker was the clear second place, with 19 votes.  He'll be in the November slot for the series.  We will, of course, be discussing his novel Dracula, his collection of short stories Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories, and his later novels The Lady of the Shroud and the Lair of the White Worm.

Third place was a little closer. R. Scott Bakker got 13 votes. Thomas Ligotti and Robert Jordan each got 10 votes, so either of them could easily have slipped into that number 3 slot.  Next December, we'll be discussing his Prince of Nothing series of novels, The Darkness That Comes Before, The Warrior-Prophet, and The Thousandfold Thought.

We now have the entire lineup for 2019 established.  Here it is:

• January – Edgar Allen Poe’s Uncanny Universe 
• February - G.K. Chesterton’s Novels of Rebellion and Intrigue 
• March - Mary Shelley’s Modern Worlds 
• April – Lewis Carroll’s Fantastical Lands 
• May – Tanith Lee’s Flat Earth 
• June – Piers Anthony’s Xanth Novels 
• July – Gordon Dickson’s Childe Cycle Novels 
• August – August Derleth’s Universe of the Cthulhu Mythos 
• September – Karl Edward Wagner’s Ancient World of Kane 
• October – Aldous Huxley’s Utopias and Dystopias 
• November – Bram Stoker’s World of Gothic Horror 
• December – R. Scott Bakker’s Prince of Nothing Series

Remember that we have a FREE open-access online course for the series, where you can watch the videos, access resources and links, find out any news about the ongoing series, and interact with others about the series, the authors, and the books.