One of the best things about the new Gemmell Award is how Debbie Millier and her cohorts have managed to grab the attention of the mainstream media. Their inaugural presentation has garnered at least two mentions in the Guardian Book Blog. Earlier today I put up a post at SF Awards Watch in reaction to learning that the Gemmell drew in over 10,000 voters from 75 countries. I now learn from Sam Jordison that the actual total was only just shy of 11,000 voters. The Gemmell is a real popular vote award. If you have view on that, please comment over at SFAW.

Sam’s article, however, is all about the public respectability of fantasy. Eschewing the traditional fannish route of claiming that fantasy fans might be nerdy, but at least they are better that furries, he went instead for the international reach of the award. And he’s right, that is indeed admirable. Sam also noted:

Sceptics could suggest that fantasy is easier to translate since its readers aren’t so bothered about quality writing.

And I have to admit that I was worried that Sapkowski’s book might not win because the translation is so bad. The fact that he did win could be explained by lack of refinement by the readers, but it could also mean that the readers could see the fine book struggling to be seen beneath the leaden English. Or possibly they read the original Polish edition, or the Spanish or French translations.

The point about epic fantasy (and the Gemmell is an award for epic fantasy) is that it is a genre, much like romance or westerns or mysteries. If you get hung up on things like the predictable plot lines and silly character names you’ll never like any of it. But if, like Sapkowski, you take that generic structure and use it to make interesting points about macho attitudes, imperialism, terrorism and so forth then you can still produce something well worth reading.