Congratulations to the winners of the 2014/2015 David Gemmell Awards. Although I wasn’t able to make it this year, I’m told the evening – hosted at Nine Worlds Geekfest – was absolutely awesome.
Here’s a reminded of who picked up what:
RAVENHEART AWARD (Best cover art)
Sam Green for Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz)
MORNINGSTAR AWARD (Best debut)
The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Stavely (Pan Macmillan/Tor UK)
LEGEND AWARD (Best novel)
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz)
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This is the second time Brandon Sanderson has won the award and I guess this will raise a few more questions about whether the public voting system works… Sanderson’s book is, in my opinion, the best on the list, but I know others have disputed it. The problem with a public voting system is that an author like Sanderson who has an insane social media following has more loyal fans happy to click a ‘this book is awesome’ button than one who isn’t all that active on social media. The argument is whether this is fair in the sense that it isn’t ‘the best book’ necessarily winning, but the author with the best ability to convince fans to vote for him/her. The argument against is, of course – he/she has lots of loyal fans for a reason!
In total 17,059 votes were cast in the first round (longlists) and 19,700 in the second (shortlists). This meant that the Gemmell Awards broke their standing record and ended up with a total of 36,759 votes, which is rather impressive and quite a victory for the Epic Fantasy genre.
Congratulations to the artist and authors who won.
Jennie Ivins
Richard Marpole
Epic Fantasy? I thought the Gemmell Awards are for Heroic Fantasy?
These subgenre names make no sense. ^^
I think the Gemell Awards may be the only awards where I’ve consistently read multiple nominees. And I’ve managed a t least one of the winners for every year other than the first. 🙂
Hate to nit-pick, but the image you have under Ravenheart is, I believe, the Michael Whelan cover.
I feel like the ‘popularity contest’ aspect is fair enough if you recognise that’s what the award is about, but I feel like it’s less fair if all of Sanderson’s fans also just voted for his cover, which I don’t think is the best. Maybe they honestly thought it was, but this is something everybody can judge without even purchasing the work it would be a shame if the author’s or book’s popularity influenced the cover vote as well.