Hobbit

Been a little while, so an update.

In case you haven't read on the Forums, I REALLY enjoyed the inaugural David Gemmell Legend Awards in London on Friday. I've written pretty much all I wanted to say there, but simply lots of great people there, a nicely done ceremony and a fabulous venue.

I do think that it's going to continue onwards and upwards. I hope David would've enjoyed it, I rather think he would.

Afterwards there's been some interesting comments. Damien Walter thinks that the wrong books were chosen.

Sam Jordison's been quite surprised by the thoughtful responses to his article defending the Fantasy fan, written after the DGLA.

Not only that but it seems to have opened his eyes to the range of Fantasy out there. Like any genre, there are books out there that repeat the same old tropes - elves, dragons dwarves, magical tokens of power - and that's fine, they have their place. They are the comfort food of the genre, and some want no more than that.

Then there are the books that make you think that challenge your ideas, culture and attitudes. They're also great, but you might not want to read them all the time.

The genre is many things to many people, just as crime fiction is or cookery. It is wrong sometimes to look at one (usually it's Tolkien) and claim the whole genres like that.

Sadly people do.

Mark