Hot off the Eastercon grapevine (via SMS, how quaint), Science Fiction Awards Watch has the full list of winners:
- Best Novel: The Night Sessions, Ken MacLeod
- Best Short Fiction: “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
- Best Non-Fiction: Rhetorics of Fantasy, Farah Mendlesohn
- Best Artwork: Cover of Subterfuge (ed. Ian Whates), Andy Bigwood
So, none of the ones I voted for won. However the proportional voting system used often seems to mean that everyone’s second favourite wins.
My votes went to The Gone-Away World, Little Lost Robot and the cover of Flood. I haven’t read any of the non-fiction books, but would refuse to read the winner due to it having the word Fantasy in the title.
So am I completely out of touch with the rest of the BSFA members? Only the full breakdown of voting statistics will tell.
would refuse to read the winner due to it having the word Fantasy in the title.
I would say this is a mistake; both on the count that I think you're wrong to be dismissive of fantasy en masse, and on the count that I think Rhetorics contains a lot of insights worth taking on board about reading in general, as well as reading fantasy in particular.
To be honest, the thought of reading a book which takes a critical look at fantasy is probably the perfect storm of things I dislike. It sounds terribly dull.
I don't have enough time to read what I want anyway, so it's much easier to make opiniated sweeping comments like "I don't read fantasy".