BFS Awards
justifiedsinner
Posted 2013-06-18 10:49 AM (#5295)
Subject: BFS Awards



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I notice the BFS (August Derleth) nominations are out.
On their website it calls this their Horror award nom. They also have a Fantasy award called the Robert Holdstock due you have any intention of covering this. The Hold stock seems more appropriate for followers of fantasy books.
The Noms are:

Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)

Blood and Feathers, Lou Morgan (Solaris)
The Brides of Rollrock Island, Margo Lanagan (David Fickling Books)
Railsea, China Miville (Macmillan)
Red Country, Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz)
Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce (Gollancz)

Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award)

The Drowning Girl, Caitlin R. Kiernan (Roc)
The Kind Folk, Ramsey Campbell (PS Publishing)
Last Days, Adam Nevill (Macmillan)
Silent Voices, Gary McMahon (Solaris)
Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce (Gollancz)
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2013-06-18 10:55 AM (#5296 - in reply to #5295)
Subject: Re: BFS Awards



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To answer my own question the Holdstock award seems to have been started in 2012 when Among Others won. It does seem odd that an organization with Fantasy in it's name has up 'til now concentrated on Horror.
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2013-06-18 11:02 AM (#5297 - in reply to #5295)
Subject: Re: BFS Awards



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Actually it seems odder. According to their website Among Others won the Holdstock while The Ritual won the Derleth - you have both winning the Derleth. Also it says that in 2011 there was no winner while you have Sam Stone's Demon Dance.
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Administrator
Posted 2013-06-18 11:51 AM (#5298 - in reply to #5297)
Subject: Re: BFS Awards



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Yeah, the BFS is a big hot mess that we're still trying to wrap our brains around.  They have successfully managed to confuse everyone with their bizarre changes and new award names etc.  I mean, really?  The same book is up for both Horror and Fantasy?  What was the point of the split catgories?  What if it wins both?

I envy those sites that can just report the results.  We have to re-tool the entire award page to account for rules that don't seem to make any sense.  What do we do with the years of history we already have?  Those are a mix of fantasy and horror and science fiction.  If we split off from here and call the existing years the Derleth (horror) and create a new award for Holdstock going forward we'll end up with a bunch of fantasy and SF books that were nominated for a horror award - A Feast for Crows, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and The Scar (along with many others) are clearly fantasy books while the British Fantasy Society gave the 1995 award to Only Forward which is straight up science fiction.

It's probably too late in the day to expect the BFS to make any sense at all but this is just a cluster-frak for us to deal with.  Perhaps they should change their name to The British Speculative Fiction Society (BSFS).  We could all refer to it as the "BS Fiction Society"

We'll figure something out soonish.

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justifiedsinner
Posted 2013-06-18 1:03 PM (#5299 - in reply to #5295)
Subject: Re: BFS Awards



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BS Fiction - love it!
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DrNefario
Posted 2013-06-18 1:57 PM (#5300 - in reply to #5295)
Subject: Re: BFS Awards



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There was a minor scandal in 2011, when the winner had close ties to many of the organisers. I think that's why it was eventually refused, and why the 2012 reorganisation happened.
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Administrator
Posted 2013-06-18 2:01 PM (#5301 - in reply to #5300)
Subject: Re: BFS Awards



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DrNefario - 2013-06-18 1:57 PM There was a minor scandal in 2011, when the winner had close ties to many of the organisers. I think that's why it was eventually refused, and why the 2012 reorganisation happened.

I remember the scandal and that the author volunteered to return the prize but I was not aware that they accepted it back and just left it as no award given.  I guess I'll have to update our list.

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