POLL RESULTS: Are Awards a Good Indicator of Quality?

Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
Science fiction awards season is upon us. Do you think award wins are a good indicator of quality?

RESULTS

(70 total votes)

Comments this week.

“Quality is entirely subjective, and awards tend to be given, and voted for, by people who are rather too fond of their own voices. Awards are a good measure of what other people think, and little else. They are absolutely no substitute for first-person experience.” – Paul Harper

“I voted ‘usually’ because rarely seems too harsh. Sometime, though, for current awards I do have to wonder about what the voters were thinking. For the books that won awards a long [time ago] that I didn’t enjoy, I sometimes think that they’ve aged badly or maybe I just don’t get it.” – SF Fangirl

“I usually enjoy the PKD award winners the most (who can argue with Tim Powers!) for long fiction, and let the Hugs and Nebs find me some short stuff I haven’t already read.” – platyjoe

“I try to read all nominated short fiction they’re usually very good. But sometimes I come across others that I feel wasn’t worth the time I spent to read it.” – Tony Geer

“Personally I tend to have more interest in the annual Locus and SFSite polls than either the Hugo or Nebula winners. The Hugo and Nebula finalists are usually a pretty good bunch and I usually read a few of those novels. Some great books totally miss all the awards every year as well.” – David

“You can argue this till your face turns blue. There is a lot of politics, a lot of back scratching, a lot of favoritism, nepotism and so on. But at the end of the day, the one who is holding the rocket will go down in history and there is a reason for that. Every book I read that had those words on it I put down satisfied.” – General X

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