No, cheesy franchise books are not generally up for awards. You know why? Because they’re cheesy franchise books, and let’s not even pretend that their burger-flipping reputation is entirely undeserved. Face it, guys: For every Traitor, there are a half-dozen Darksabers. (I’ve paid for most of them. In hardcover.) And half the time, particularly in this franchise, the subtleties of Great Book Z might not work for a reader who lacks extensive knowledge of Crappy Trilogies X and Y.
I’m not even saying that genre award winners are necessarily great literature (I’ve been bored to tears by at least as many as I’ve enjoyed; Pretty much the same as Star Wars, come to think of it) but it’s an entirely different kind of playing field.
And lest we forget, hardcore fans of the sort that inhabit TFN’s Lit forum are not exactly the most unbiased of creatures.
By the by, the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers have their own awards, and Karen Miller is currently up for one for Wild Space.
Hear, hear!
Perspective can be so tricky; especially when surrounded by other obsessives.
But yes, we must deal with reality.
Hey, I’m still boggling that there are people out there who only read Star Wars books.
Yeah, the things make up an embarrassing percentage of my own book collection, but there aren’t a whole lot I’d recommend to anyone not already an obsessed fan.