Ooh, I loved King of Attolia - definitely deserving! And Devilish sounds fantastic. Now I want to hunt it down! The only one I was uncertain of, from those descriptions, was the Pfeffer - the things that made it stand out (especially "because it features a parent figure who isn't absent, incompetent, or stupid") seemed more like features that would appeal to adults rather than kids (who I don't think worry about the representations of parents in literature) and also on moral grounds (what we approve of in literature) rather than on the quality of the writing itself. I'm guessing that must just be down to the phrasing of the description, though...?
Yes!!! I'm psyched we were able to put King on the ballot. And darn, I've already given away my copy of Devilish, or I'd send it to you, 'cos I do think you'd like it.
(Hi Sharyn, thanks for stopping by! I hope we'll have a chance to meet in person at WisCon)
We (the jury) talked about the problem of traditional fantasy--which I take to mean secondary world-with-magic fantasy--and tried to include some. But we looked at very little of it and couldn't make a case for including traditional and thereby excluding one of the finalists.
Interestingly it seemed as if much of the 'traditional' fantasy we received was published either by very small presses or was self published. Though not all: some of the jury liked The Last Dragon by Silvana di Mari (originally published in Italy). I liked both Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith and Tamora Pierce's Beka Cooper a lot, too.
And I think all the jury members would be very happy to hear that Megan Whelan Turner knew her book was on the ballot.
Like Sarah, I liked some of the traditional fantasy published this last year, but there was no consensus on the jury. It seemed that any fantasy one of us liked a great deal was not liked as much by the other members, who preferred other books instead. In the end, we could only add three books, which affected our choices.
I recced a lot of books separately, just as a member of SFWA, in hopes that some of them will qualify for the ballot through the other half of the process, and I hope the other jury members (and SFWAns in general) will go out and do the same. I love the state of YA literature right now.
Comments 22
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
Reply
Reply
interesting that none of the books on the ballot are "traditional" fantasy.
Reply
We (the jury) talked about the problem of traditional fantasy--which I take to mean secondary world-with-magic fantasy--and tried to include some. But we looked at very little of it and couldn't make a case for including traditional and thereby excluding one of the finalists.
Interestingly it seemed as if much of the 'traditional' fantasy we received was published either by very small presses or was self published. Though not all: some of the jury liked The Last Dragon by Silvana di Mari (originally published in Italy). I liked both Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith and Tamora Pierce's Beka Cooper a lot, too.
And I think all the jury members would be very happy to hear that Megan Whelan Turner knew her book was on the ballot.
Reply
Reply
I recced a lot of books separately, just as a member of SFWA, in hopes that some of them will qualify for the ballot through the other half of the process, and I hope the other jury members (and SFWAns in general) will go out and do the same. I love the state of YA literature right now.
Reply
Leave a comment