Legend Needs Focus?
January 2nd, 2009 by Editors
The David Gemmell Legend Award has scarcely entered its first full year and already someone is calling for a radical overhaul. Darren Turpin at The Genre Files says:
Personally I think there’s an argument for re-focusing the award on fantasy novels that are either published in the UK or written by UK-based authors.
Turpin makes a good argument for a certain type of award – something that would parallel the Arthur C Clarke Award but be for fantasy rather than SF. On the other hand, is the Legend the right award to do this? The Clarke is a high profile award focused on the literary end of SF and judged by a panel of experts, much like the Booker and other top literary awards. One of the purposes of the Legend Award is to celebrate the life and work of David Gemmell, who was a hugely popular writer, but who was rather less popular with critics than with the public. All things considered, perhaps it is best to keep the Legend as the sort of award that Gemmell himself might deservedly have won.
Hmm. There was me thinking I was musing aloud on expanding the award’s marketing potential rather than calling for any radical overhaul… but still. Fair point re: Gemmell’s own niche in the market.
Just dropping by to say that because of comments on this site I ran out and got David Gemmell’s Legend. Being a fan of the genre, I can’t believe he’d escaped my notice. It’s a great discovery. Thanks!