Comments on: The value of science fiction awards

By: » Angry career reviewers, penitent genre bloggers, the Salami Award, and more » Velcro City Tourist Board » Blog Archive

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 20:27:33 +0000

[...] reminds me, I wrote an essay ages back about the value of genre fiction awards, and it’s probably high time I looked at it again in the light of the huge amount I’ve [...]

By: Sean Wright

Sean Wright — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 20:58:40 +0000

Neil – how can you live with that kind of contradiction?

By: Conversations « Torque Control

Conversations « Torque Control — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 08:36:29 +0000

[...] It’s the week after Worldcon, so of course there has been discussion about Hugo voting trends, how the awards should be reformed, and what the value of awards is, anyway. And as a result of the Best Editor split, there’s now a wiki of sf editors. [...]

By: Neal Asher

Neal Asher — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 13:22:13 +0000

After being published by Macmillan I took more notice of awards and started buying books on the award shortlists. I found the experience disappointing and now rather regard those lists, along with the criticisms of many self-styled SF academics, as a guide to what I should avoid. It seems the label ‘literature� has become more important than entertainment to those who judge these things. My old method of choosing books by seeing if they are ‘my sort of thing’ – as yourself – now seems a lot better. Of course, this does not apply to any shortlists my books might appear in�

By: John DeNardo

John DeNardo — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 13:05:49 +0000

I agree…My own reading experiences with award-winning sf books are hit-and-miss. In no way are they in perfect alignment with my tastes. Since I tend to read a larger number of sf books than the average consumer, If I only read award-winners – and for the sake of argument, let’s only consider Hugos and Nebulas – I would soon run out of stuff to read. So, for me, award-wins are nice, but have little affect reading choices.

I would think Joe Consumer is a bit different, though. He’s the guy looking for guidance on what to read. He reads maybe 6 – 10 books a year and doesn’t want to waste time on the dregs. He will use the “Award-Winner” marketing blurb as a beacon to “the good stuff” and then (probably) judge the rest of the field on it: “This is the best they have to offer?”

Then there are those who make it their goal to read all the award-winners. That’s not a bad reading project. It’s more appealing to me (who has not read all the award-winners) way more than watching all the Academy Award-winning movies – which makes no comparative sense, I know. Maybe that’s the sf fanboy in me coming to the fore.

So, award wins do matter to the reader, methinks, depending on who that reader is.