Harry Potter wins the Hugo!

Cafe Society
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Just was informed that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won the Hugo Award (and yes, before anyone asks, the rules for the Hugo Award specifically allow for works of fantasy, not just SF.)

I’m a little surprised by the choice (it’s the fourth book in a series, it’s explicitly fantasy, which, despite being allowed by the rules doesn’t usually do well, and it’s marketed as a “young adult” book which also are allowed but tend not to do well in the Hugos), but not at all upset as I really, really liked Goblet. I didn’t vote this year, but if I had, I’d have been torn between Goblet and Martin’s A Storm of Swords. I enjoyed Goblet far more than A Bath of Blood…er A Storm of Swords which was wonderful but not fun. If I’m being honest, Storm features better prose, IMHO. I might also have voted for MacLeod, but I read all MacLeod’s books in one lump and I’m far too brain-dead (having been driving for about 9 hours today) to remember which one The Sky Road was.

For those interested, the nominees were:
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
The Sky Road by Ken MacLeod
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer

And if anyone cares, the actual vote tallies are here and it looked like Potter just whumped the competition by getting nearly double the votes of the next runner up (Sawyer).

I haven’t read the Hopkinson or Sawyer one (my dad read the Sawyer and thought it very good, but with a weak ending…which is typical for Sawyer, again IMHO :))

Anyway, I figured that it’d be fun to second guess the vote (a time-honored tradition), but can we please skip the “'twasn’t SCIENCE-fiction, shouldn’t 've been nominated in the first place.” part of the discussion? :wink:

Fenris, going to bed.

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I have mixed feelings… I love the series and I love what it’s doing for children right now, but that particular book had a few too many problems for me. I just read it out loud to my sister, and noticed a LOT of sloppy editing that I didn’t notice when I read it to myself. Big plot holes, too. I could really see a special series award, or a lifetime achievement award, or something, later, but not an award for that specific book. What’s going to happen now, Harry’s going to win the Hugo every year there’s a new book out? (lotsa fans out there, you know!)