Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

I thought I would move the "has anyone ever read anything by .....?" thread over here and ask about Robin McKinley. She was selected as the 39th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

From WWE with GR book links added:
"Robin McKinley has won various awards and citations for her writing, including the Newbery Medal for The Hero and the Crown and a Newbery Honor for The Blue Sword. Her other books include Sunshine; the New York Times bestseller Spindle's End; two novel-length retellings of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast and Rose Daughter; and a retelling of the Robin Hood legend, The Outlaws of Sherwood. She lives with her husband, the English writer Peter Dickinson."

I've never heard of her myself, but maybe I'm just not seeing her impact. But with older male authors like George RR Martin, Kim Stanley Robinson, & David Brin not recognized, I have to wonder if they are overreaching to achieve gender balance, this being the 4th female in a row & 6th in 8 years to be recognized. I don't deny that women were under-recognized in the past, but this award is dedicated to LIVING authors & these older masters could die off anytime. Heck, I think NK Jemisin would be a better choice, she's certainly accomplished enough.

While looking at this, I read that C L Moore, an early member of the SFWA, was actually nominated to be the first female to be elected a Grand Master, at some point before Andre Norton's election in 1984. Moore had retired as a member, as she was suffering from Alzheimer's. Her husband requested that they withdraw the nomination because the award & ceremony would have been confusing & upsetting to her, given the progress of her disease. She passed away in 1987.

I wanted to say that I haven't read anything by her, but I've checked and actually, I read Sunshine by her less than a year ago! I rated it only 2 stars, my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I must admit I have never heard the name of this author before ^^'.

I’m afraid I’m not familiar with her work, either. I’ve seen online comments from people who like it very much.

I read a few of Robin McKinley's earlier works, bbut have not returned

Gabi wrote: "I must admit I have never heard the name of this author before ^^'."

Same!

Based on these comments, I don't understand her selection, unless it's as I said above. I felt the same way somewhat with the selection of Mercedes Lackey last year, but at least I'd heard of her. This is the first Grand Master I've never even heard of.

I'm familiar with Robin McKinley, I once got a few ebooks of hers in a Humble Bundle featuring women SFF writers (she was featured alongside Octavia Butler, Jane Yolen, and a few others). I read the first chapter of Sunshine but never finished it, not because I wasn't interested but because other things continually pop up. She does seem like a pre-YA YA fantasy author though. I think she was more popular in the 80s and 90s, but I don't think her popularity has lasted. I never, ever see her books in bookstores.

I don't know if a grand master title is warranted, but definitely agree that KSR and GRRM should receive one.

I guess to minimize the bias that is always present in awards/halls of fame and the like, there should be pre-set criteria, but right now I ain't sure which plus selecting is biased as well, so...

I mean, it's SFWA, it's overflowing with bias and in-crowd shenanigans.

I've never read Mercedes Lackey, but the way SFWA treated her as a guest of honor last year was shameful.

I have wondered about KSR’s relations with SFWA. To me he’s the most obvious Grand Master out there.

I read a couple Robyn McKinly books as a teen in the 00’s. I had a good time with them but they weren’t favorites. She only writes YA to my knowledge. It is an odd choice imo, but idk. Maybe she has contributed a lot to the genre in other ways? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Stephen wrote: "I have wondered about KSR’s relations with SFWA. To me he’s the most obvious Grand Master out there."

Like him or not, GRRM is well-deserving too. He's won multiple Hugos & other awards dating back to the 70's, and that's not even talking about GoT, or his television forays. Huge, diverse body of work. I highly recommend reading Sandkings, his 1979 novelette that won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. That was the vehicle for my discovery of GRRM, and led me into GoT when I recognized his name on the first book.

I agree that GRRM is a major figure and deserves the Grand Master designation. I just don’t rank him as highly as KSR, who for me is on a whole other level. I have read some of GRRM’s famous short fiction. With respect to Sandkings, I found on a reread a few years ago that I didn’t care for it as much as I had previously. Just the disagreeableness of the characters and situation. Quite a story though for all that.

I wonder if GRRM's near-Rowling levels of success has riled the SFWA community a little bit. I know a lot of fandom resents him. His performance as the host of the 2020 Hugos did a lot of damage to his good standing, too. But in terms of his career, I'm inclined to agree that he deserves that recognition.

I think both KSR and GRRM should be recognized, they are GMs in my book so to speak. At the same time, one should ask what is the main goal of such a lifelong award? Both above-mentioned are well-recognized in terms of sales so do they really need another dust-collector on their award shelf... so maybe a description of GM should be changed to an underappreciated person, whose life work affected SFFH as a genre or fandom...

True. I guess I was thinking it actually mattered lol. I played competitive chess as a teenager, and I still play casually, so I think of the Grand Master title as meaningful in that context. The fact that the award is limited to living authors & only one per year, many authors would naturally be overlooked or never honored anyway.