Story of the Year

On our first four birthdays, we did a “Story of the Year” poll (or, to use a much better name coined by Simon Guerrier which we wish we’d thought of ourselves, “Top of the Pulps”) to find our readers’ favourite tie-in release of the previous 12 months.

It was won by four Star Trek novels – David Mack’s Gods of Night and Rise Like Lions, Una McCormack’s The Never-Ending Sacrifice, and Dayton Ward’s Paths of Disharmony.

Here are the full results:

Year 1 (2008-2009)
1. Gods of Night by David Mack (Star Trek)
2. The Eyeless by Lance Parkin (Doctor Who)
3. Good Queen, I Queen, Bad Queen, You Queen by Terri Osborne (Doctor Who)
4. A Gutted World by Keith R.A. DeCandido (Star Trek)
5. Greater than the Sum by Christopher L. Bennett (Star Trek)
6. Wet Work by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore (The 4400)
7. The Raincloud Man by Eddie Robson (Doctor Who)
8. The Prisoner’s Dilemma by Simon Guerrier (Doctor Who)
9. Brotherhood of the Daleks by Alan Barnes (Doctor Who)
10. Almost Perfect by James Goss (Torchwood)
(Blog posts: Nominations, Vote, Results)

Year 2 (2009-2010)
1. The Never-Ending Sacrifice by Una McCormack (Star Trek)
2. In the Shadows by Joseph Lidster (Torchwood)
3. Heart of the Dragon by Keith R.A. DeCandido (Supernatural)
4. The Final Chapter by Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook (Doctor Who)
5. D’Argo’s Lament by Keith R.A. DeCandido (Farscape)
6. The Road by Simon Guerrier (Being Human)
7. Losing the Peace by William Leisner (Star Trek)
8. Precipice by David Mack (Star Trek)
9. The Angel of Scutari by Paul Sutton (Doctor Who)
10. Prisoner of the Daleks by Trevor Baxendale (Doctor Who)
(Blog posts: Nominations, Vote, Results)

Year 3 (2010-2011)
1. Paths of Disharmony by Dayton Ward (Star Trek)
2. Solitaire by John Dorney (Doctor Who)
3. The King’s Dragon by Una McCormack (Doctor Who)
4. Red Sky at Morning by Keith R.A. DeCandido and Rockne S. O’Bannon (Farscape)
5. Lucie Miller by Nicholas Briggs (Doctor Who)
6. Nuclear Time by Oli Smith (Doctor Who)
7. A Death in the Family by Steven Hall (Doctor Who)
8. Zero Sum Game by David Mack (Star Trek)
9. Special Features by John Dorney (Doctor Who)
10. Haunted by Scott Tipton (Angel)
(Blog posts: Nominations, Vote, Results, Trophies)

Year 4 (2011-2012)
1. Rise Like Lions by David Mack (Star Trek)
2. Watching the Clock by Christopher L. Bennett (Star Trek)
3. House of the Dead by James Goss (Torchwood)
4. The First Wave by Simon Guerrier (Doctor Who)
5. Darth Plagueis by James Luceno (Star Wars)
6. Children of the Storm by Kirsten Beyer (Star Trek)
7. Borrowed Time by Naomi Alderman (Doctor Who)
8. The Cold Equations by Simon Guerrier (Doctor Who)
9. To the Death by Nicholas Briggs (Doctor Who)
10. Choices of One by Timothy Zahn (Star Wars)
(Blog posts: Nominations, Vote, Results, Trophies)

Story of the Year was great fun, and we’re really proud of it, but it was also incredibly time-consuming, stressful, and costly to run efficiently and oversee fairly. After four attempts, we felt like it was never going to be as good as we wanted it to be, so on our fifth birthday we did something else instead.