Comments on: An Aside | The David Gemmell Legend Award shortlist announced

By: Peter V Brett :: Peephole In My Skull

Peter V Brett :: Peephole In My Skull — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:24:37 +0000

[...] Legend Award was released, and I’m not on it. Some SF blogs, like Speculative Horizons and A Dribble of Ink feel I was robbed, but I’m really not surprised I didn’t make it. The award is a [...]

By: Dark Wolf

Dark Wolf — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:10:50 +0000

I am pleased to see Andrzej Sapkowski on the shortlist. I personally liked “The Last Wish” and I believe that he has great potential. Although I haven’t read yet “Blood of Elves” it is closer to the top of my TBR list.

By: David

David — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:51:22 +0000

Why reward strong selling authors with more publicity? That’s just stupid. At least with some awards it puts a spotlight on those who could do with more – think World Fantasy.

And it’s not a multitude of fans – it’s whichever author has the most organised internet fanbase. Think this through – it’s an internet poll. The genre will not benefit from this. It isn’t going to be the ‘best’ book.

I bet Gemmell would have hated this.

By: Jayden

Jayden — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:32:15 +0000

There is one big flaw with The Painted Man (The Warded Man) that might have had a big hand in the lack of votes for it.

I’m from Germany. And while all the other books I read for this award were out in paperback in time for the voting, The Painted Man wasn’t until last Monday. I pre-ordered it. I read it up to now and am sad, too, that it’s not on the shortlist. But still, if I had read it in time, I’d still have given my vote for Brent Week’s The Way of Shadows. Personally, he’s my favourite for the next round too.

The hardcover, nice to look at as it is, is 1) pretty unwieldy to carry around and 2) very expensive (at least it was here). I, for one, didn’t have the budget to get all the books I got in hardcover. Which sucks, I know, but I prefer my paperbacks.

Just an idea on the side.
Also, I’ve been following the award since November, and I love it. Honestly. I guess there are problems there, but it’s a nice try to get the fan base to comment. Also, it is a great way to stock up my to-read pile (which is, admitted, way too big already, but can it ever be too big?).
I’m just sad to see Jim C. Hines’ Goblin War gone *chuckles*

By: Alexander Field

Alexander Field — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:27:45 +0000

I think it will be very interesting to see how a fully public vote will go. This is the first time to my knowledge that an award such as this has been open to the public – and that’s huge. Yeah, it’s gonna skew toward readers online, but perhaps next year they could market it or publicize it more and broader participation.

As far as I can tell, another award for a fantasy or science fiction author is another way for great work to get noticed – and this can only be a good thing!

By: Liviu

Liviu — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:52:40 +0000

Any award is a poll – of the members, of the judges…

I do not see why the judgment of a 4-5 people panel is more relevant than of a multitude of fans.

Think of a panel force fed on novels until they blurry one into another. Adam Roberts had a great post on that, showing why juried awards are a “sham” too, if you want to put it that way

The shortlist does not contain quite a few bestsellers and “popular” authors, so I kind of disagree strongly that it’s a sham and I hope it prospers.

Regarding Blood of Elves – I was underwhelmed by Last Wish, but I will give this one a chance since in (traditional, “honest”, not weird/fantastic) fantasy, short stories are very hard to do, so Last Wish had that excuse; let’s see how the novel is

I miss The Ten Thousand and Painted Man too, but I will vote happily for Way of Shadows since I thought the Night Angel series one of the best new debuts, with the “good” outweighing by far the occasional cheesiness

By: Janet

Janet — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:08:02 +0000

I have to admit, this makes me skeptical too. On the other hand, plenty of complaints can be made about adjudicated contests too. Having said that, I would still accept an award if one were shoved in my direction. Inconsistent? Yes. Sorry.

Congratulations to the finalists.

By: James (Speculative Horizons)

James (Speculative Horizons) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:35:43 +0000

What David said.

And Sapkowski is huge in Poland and Eastern Europe, so perhaps this helped him. Didn’t think much of his first book that Gollancz put out.

By: edifanob

edifanob — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:35:15 +0000

I read several comments on several blogs in the meantime. Like you a lot of people – including myself – miss THE PAINTED MAN on the shortlist. I know there is a lot of criticism but please give the award a chance to establish which means let’s see what will happen in the next years.

By: David

David — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:42:20 +0000

Well don’t rule out those who have maybe other ways, subscribers to author newsletters,etc. There’s many ways to skew this.

By: aidan

aidan — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:19:16 +0000

Indeed. I won’t argue that there aren’t problems with the execution (probably major ones, really). But the inclusion of an author like Andrzej Sapkowski, who’s a Polish author with little-to-no web presence in North America, shows some potential for the award.

By: David

David — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:10:20 +0000

There’s a lot of fuss for what is basically an online poll. This isn’t in the spirit of Gemmell, and it’s going to be won by the author with the biggest online presence. This award is a sham.