Although any number of SF awards are regularly showered upon authors of a futuristic bent, it has been the case for some time that Fantasy awards have been seriously lacking.
Step forward Deborah Millar and Stan Nichols, who are keen to bring the genre to a wider audience, and get people talking about the very best of each year’s Fantasy releases. Deborah and Stan successfully laid on the second year of this award with sponsorship from French publisher Bragelonne and SFX magazine.
The good news is that the DGLA received more votes this year, from over 60 countries, proving that there is a real passion for Fantasy literature, despite tales of doom about print media in general.
The World Cup may have put a dent in the number of attendees this year, but that didn’t stop those present from having a good time. James Barclay was particularly entertaining as he haggled and entreated the audience to part with their cash for some rather excellent auction prizes. However, while the auctions provided some entertainment, it was the awards that we were holding our breath for.
Pierre Pevel, who didn’t let a small thing like a language barrier stop him from being completely charming and very funny, picked up the Morningstar award, for best Fantasy newcomer. His book, The Cardinal’s Blades is his first to be translated into English, and pits swashbuckling musketeers against cunning dragons. The cover was also shortlisted for the Ravensheart award. It was good to see a translated book pick up an award in a genre thoroughly dominated by English-speaking countries.
Competition was stiff for the Ravensheart award, which celebrates gorgeous cover art. Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie won, with its simple yet striking map and sword by Didier Graffet and Dave Senior. Perhaps this will put a nail in the coffin of the ‘cloaked individual with dagger’ that adorns too many Fantasy novels these days.
A nice surprise was in for Graham McNeil, author of Empire from Black Library books. Graham was resplendent in his kilt for the presentation and was delighted to win the Legend Award for the year’s best Fantasy novel. Being a keen Gemmell fan himself, Graham was incredibly grateful to his voters and pleased to have won.
Graham walked away with a ‘Snaga’ – a replica battle-axe to regular folks. The awards were made by Raven Armoury, who specialise in heavy metal of the forged kind.
The rest of the night was spent chatting to people like Gillian Redfearn (Joe Abercrombie’s editor) about why Altered Carbon is so great, and Julie Crisp (Senior editor at Tor) about how more people should read Perdido Street Station by China Miéville. Then a decidedly un-Fantastic (but still fantastic) chat with Joe Abercrombie, who is thoroughly addicted to Red Dead Redemption, and discussing ‘does it really matter which console you have when you can have both?’ Well, quite Joe.
All in all the David Gemmell Legend Awards was a great night that deserves more attention in forthcoming years. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners. Den Patrick
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