So now we know. You (more than ten thousand of you!) have voted and have let us know your favourite ten titles from the fifty we put forward to celebrate the first fifty years of the Gollancz genre list.
Drawing up that list of fifty titles; juggling notions of best and favourite; negotiating the sometimes complicated publishing history of certain titles (for example the fifty titles had to be in print now); trying to represent every aspect of a broad range of publishing was a fascinating, sometimes difficult exercise. No selection can please everyone because no selection is perfect. But putting those fifty titles to a public vote in order to discover which were our readers’ favourite books had the unique value of letting you tell us what you loved from that selection.
That over 10,000 people were engaged enough with a particular title to take the trouble to vote was, itself, hugely exciting for us. This speaks volumes for how the genre connects with its readers. The passion that genre authors are able to engender in their readers is a testament to not just the imagination of the authors but to the imaginations of you, the readers. It suggests that in a world where questions are being asked about the long term future of reading and books, SF and Fantasy are in rude health. That ten wonderful authors then lined up to provide us with new introductions for their favourite books indicates that established authors retain the passion they found as readers.
Some of your choices we could have predicted, some of them were wonderful surprises. Some of us saw our favourite titles ignored (but for a title to be a favourite title it has to appeal very strongly and that personal appeal can be off putting for another person so ‘them’s the breaks’), but looking at the final list it can’t be denied that each of the titles chosen by you has manifest and numerous qualities. What we love about the list is that the winners aren’t only crowd pleasers. In amongst the big commercial titles there are titles of quiet power, others that provide the reader with real challenges. But what the list of top ten titles does do is represent a broad range of what the genre can do. Not bad for a list of personal favourites.
So thank you for supporting this project and for helping us to celebrate 50 years of genre publishing.
You can find out more at Gollancz50.com
Simon Spanton
Deputy Publishing Director
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