Quote:
Originally Posted by Doonge
I'm not at all a big sci-fi reader, so my opinion is just an uneducated one.
In the previous post related to the Hugos, people were saying almost nobody reads all the books, and usually vote for the few books they have read and enjoyed. That was presented as the usual behavior. Maybe a bit disappointing if you are an idealist that thinks you should read all the books before voting, but not particulary uncommon nor bad.
I think a "No Awards" epidemic has to be the result of political infighting amongst sci-fi readers. Probably because of the recent emotional turmoil around it, because of the advertisement made around it from the puppies.
So, I think those who explain away this event as a rationale move against the "bad quality" of the books presented are doing to in bad faith.
(I have read none of them books).
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Speaking as someone who has tried to read the Puppy authors, voting 'No Award' when presented with a slate of them is the most rational response.
It's great that many different kinds of authors can make a living writing many different kinds of things. But are all of them Hugo worthy? No. The authors that were nominated from a politically-driven slate were of a lower quality and it showed. If you look around, most of the people who attempted honest reviews are saying similar things.
Just because someone loves a book doesn't mean it's the greatest thing in sci-fi for that year. Some people obviously have trouble dealing with the idea that not everyone likes what they like (see also: GamersGate) and occasionally those people get together and throw a fit.
The genuine concerns about Hugo legitimacy - which come up every so often and have been addressed repeatedly - were totally drowned out by a bunch of whining. The whining got a bunch of bad writing nominated, and Hugo voters soundly rejected both the bad writing and the rationale behind nominating it. It would be great to have an actual adult conversation about the nature of popularity contests, but that's not what the Puppies want and it's not what they pushed for.