Well another Hugo Awards has come and gone and the WorldCon convention (this edition in Kansas City called MidAmericon II) ends today after proving that the entrenched powers that be would rather eject legitimate members from their proceedings than allow any dissenting opinions.<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t review the whole event (see story at link https:\/\/voxday.blogspot.com\/2016\/08\/truesdale-expelled-from-worldcon.html ) but the gist of it is that a well known editor of an on-line sf review site (Dave Truesdale of Tangent Online) was expelled from the convention because during his moderation of a panel on short stories he read a statement that blamed the current impoverished state of sf\/f short story sales on the unpopularity of social justice themes. Apparently Mr. Truesdale has an audio recording of the proceedings and when he makes it available it is sure to be enlightening and highly entertaining.<\/p>\n
But I think it is painfully obvious at this point that WorldCon and the Hugos are irredeemable. I applaud the efforts of the Sad Puppies to open up the membership to a wider audience (and I celebrate the constructive destruction that allowed Space Raptor Butt Invasion to find immortality as a best short story finalist (well done Rabid Puppies)). I even see that continued efforts to influence the nominating and voting outcomes could improve the results of future Hugos above the present dismal pool.<\/p>\n
But what I am much more interested in is whether the new Dragon Awards (associated with the Dragon Con organization) will better reflect the tastes and reading choices of the wider science fiction and fantasy public. The fact that voting is free should guarantee a larger voting pool. Of course that\u2019s no guarantee of perfect representation but it\u2019s sure easier to get people to vote for free than having to plunk down $40 or $50 to do the same.<\/p>\n
Right off the bat, an award that has both Jim Butcher and Larry Correia competing for best fantasy novel has got my attention. The Dragon Con takes place during the Labor Day Weekend. It\u2019s just a couple of weeks until we\u2019ll know whether these awards will provide a more representative measure of the broader taste in science fiction and fantasy. If it resembles the results of this year\u2019s Hugos then I think that tells me that the great majority of sf&f readers just don\u2019t care about awards at all and depend on reviews and word of mouth to select their reading material. Either way it will be an interesting data point.<\/p>\n
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