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)
—
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.
