The Awards for 2007 have been announced and can be seen here. Alas, I have to remain as only a shortlisted author yet again. (How many times is one a bridesmaid before they say you’ll never be a bride? I think I have already surpassed the number!!)
Joking aside, many thanks once again to the Aurealis team – and they were mighty quick this year with getting the results posted, which I appreciate. They have even put up the judges’ comments. (If there were any comments for last year’s results, I never saw them anywhere.)
Here’s what they said about Song of the Shiver Barrens:
“Both the second and third books in this series were nominated this year, and the judges rated both highly. However, this one made the shortlist as it was a much stronger book, perhaps because it finalised the trilogy, but also because of the nature of the relationship between the characters. The plot was powerful and the fantasy stylish,and the writing was highly polished and engaging.”
Nice, eh? I am delighted. And I had good company. Here’s the overall comment on the fantasy novels:
“The quality of work nominated in 2007 was generally of a very high standard. The major publishing houses are producing quality novels in the fantasy genre. However this standard was not consistently maintained by smaller publishers, self publishers and the vanity publisher books.”…………“We could easily have had ten books on the shortlist and a further six or seven honourable mentions, and of course the debate for the winner was fierce as so many books had standout qualities.”
Once again, my thanks to all those involved in the Awards, to Orbit Books for their support of the Awards, and my congratulations to all those winners in all categories.
Australia’s spec fic is alive and well!!
Yes, it was good that they put up the judges’ comments, and I was pleased they said such nice things about your work. 🙂
Then again, I read the ‘excerpted’ bit from the Lian Hearn novel on amazon.co.uk … and I’m hoping it was a condensed (abridged) version of the text and not the original; because otherwise I’m at a loss to see quite how the judges’ eulogies about writing style apply. Oh well. Maybe I’ve fallen so far behind now that I’ve become a dinosaur. :S
it finalised the trilogy??
Ah, Ru, even Homer nods…
Cheryl, judges can get away with that *grin*…
It’s like any other contest, Glenda – it all depends on which entry that particular bunch of judges was able to agree on on that particular day. On another day, with other judges, you could well have won. You, or Karen, or Jenny, or maybe someone else from the short list. When they’re looking at the eight or ten best books published in the genre for the year, how can they definitively decide which is really and truly the best?
I was terribly disappointed for you but one day, it will be your turn, I’ll bet:-)
Congrats on the short listing and the positive comment from the judges anyway, Glenda. I don’t think last year’s judges ever produced a report – at least, I never saw one. Perhaps that was partly because some of their decisions were considered a little contentious!
The choice of winners is usually extremely dependent on judges’ personal taste, or so I hear. I was pleased that the judges’ reports this year gave some criteria as a basis for their choices.