Sunday, October 31, 2004

2004 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, Tempe, Arizona.

Comments: Between 2001 and 2003, Peter Jackson created a movie trilogy out of one of the foundational works of fantasy fiction. I mention this because during this time frame, the World Fantasy Awards didn't. Despite the film trilogy storming the world as a fantasy phenomenon, the World Fantasy Awards let them pass by without recognizing a single individual responsible for its production. Well, until this year, when they deigned to bestow a Best Artist nomination on John Howe and Alan Lee, who combined to produce much of the conceptual artwork for the movies.

From a certain perspective, this lack of recognition is to be expected. Unlike the Hugo Awards, the World Fantasy Awards have no category for Best Dramatic Presentation, which means that filmed fantasy goes essentially unrecognized by the World Fantasy Awards. Given the fact that the history of filmed fantasy is even more embarrassing than the history of filmed science fiction, this is somewhat understandable, but by the time the Lord of the Rings movies were being filmed, it seems to have become a significant oversight. At the very least, the World Fantasy Awards could have dusted off the Special Convention Award and handed it to someone associated with the production of the movies. There is something to be said for keeping an award a means of recognizing purely literary works, but if one hopes to be regarded as the fantasy equivalent of the Hugo Awards, as the World Fantasy Awards have always maintained that they want to be, then ignoring the filmed fantasy fiction that is being produced is a serious flaw.

Best Novel

Winner:
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

Other Nominees:
The Etched City by K.J. Bishop
Fudoki by Kij Johnson
The Light Ages by Ian R. MacLeod
Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer

Best Novella

Winner:
A Crowd of Bone by Greer Gilman

Other Nominees:
Dancing Men by Glen Hirshberg
The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford
Exorcising Angels by Simon Clark and Tim Lebbon
The Hortlak by Kelly Link

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
Don Ysidro by Bruce Holland Rogers

Other Nominees:
Ancestor Money by Maureen F. McHugh
Circle of Cats by Charles de Lint
Gus Dreams of Biting the Mailman by Alex Irvine
O One by Chris Roberson

Best Anthology

Winner:
Strange Tales edited by Rosalie Parker

Other Nominees:
The Dark: New Ghost Stories edited by Ellen Datlow
Gathering the Bones edited by Jack Dann, Dennis Etchison, and Ramsey Campbell
The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Mark Roberts
Trampoline: An Anthology edited by Kelly Link

Best Collection

Winner:
Bibliomancy by Elizabeth Hand

Other Nominees:
Ghosts of Yesterday by Jack Cady
GRRM: A RRetrospective by George R.R. Martin
More Tomorrow & Other Stories by Michael Marshall Smith
The Two Sams: Ghost Stories by Glen Hirshberg

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
Stephen King
Gahan Wilson

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
(tie) Donato Giancola
(tie) Jason Van Hollander

Other Nominees:
John Jude Palencar
John Picacio

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
Peter Crowther

Other Nominees:
John Howe and Alan Lee
Kelly Link and Gavin Grant
Sharyn November
David Pringle
Sean Wallace

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker

Other Nominees:
Deborah Layne and Jay Lake
Paul Miller
Dave Truesdale
Rodger Turner, Neil Walsh, and Wayne MacLaurin

Go to previous year's nominees: 2003
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2005

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