Last Chance to Write in Votes

This poll is going up Monday, with or without more nominations!

So we're just about ready to fire up the Stand Alone Science Fiction book poll.  I have enough write in submissions to do a full poll.  In fact, I actually have a few too many, and I'm going to have to cull a few.

This makes me a sad panda.

"Chris," you ask, "why does this make you a sad panda?"

Good question!  I'm so glad you asked.  I will explicate the reason for my disconsolate state of ailuropoda melanoleuca...ism.

In a magical wonderful fairy world of unicorn rainbogasms and nymph threesomes, there would be some books that would win.  Not just win on a technicality, but really, actually win.  They would get onto the poll because they had multiple nominations.  I would cull the list of those titles that only got one nomination.  (Or you know, as long as I'm going with the pipe dream, I'm going to go ahead and ask for those titles that only managed to get double digit nominations.)  It is clear which titles deserve to get into the poll, and no one loses on a technicality.

Sadly, pretty much every title got only a single nomination.  None of the write ins even got seconded.  This forces me to cull the list with the previously mentioned criteria like "who wrote in sooner rather than later" and "who replied directly on the blog page instead of on the G+ or Facebook pages" (where I cross post my blog).   I know I said that would be a criteria if I ended up with ties, but when it's a fifteen way tie for last place, it feels a little...sad pandaish.

I hate to see so many books culled on technicalities.

So I'd really really love to get a few more write ins from you all, especially if they are to second some of the excellent books that have already been nominated.  Even if you nominated your own book, feel free to go through and commend the wisdom of other people's choices.

So there has been some confusion and I've gotten some questions about the "stand alone" criteria  It doesn't mean it CAN'T be part of a larger body of works; it means that it can be fully appreciated as a work without needing the context of the book before it and without leaving the story unfinished.  For example Star Wars could stand alone as a story without its sequels or prequels, but The Empire Strikes Back is considerably easier to follow if you have seen Star Wars and obviously isn't concluded at its end.  Many books have been written as a single book and later added to or are desecrate enough that they act as stand alone books.  Dune would easily stand alone as a single story even though like eighty multi-generational sequels came afterward.  The Hunger Games could be a stand alone book since the last two bottles of the trilogy were clearly written after the success of the first.  The Fellowship of the Rings would not be.  (Though The Hobbit could.) Any of The Chronicles of Narnia could stand alone.  Mostly though if you feel like it could stand alone, go ahead and nominate it.  I trust your judgement.  If you thought Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone stood alone I would accept that, and if you thought it didn't, I would accept that too.