The Salt Must Flow

First things first: I need to thank Vox Day for linking to my last post.  The response has been great, and I hope I gained some more readers out of it, and shall endeavor to continue in that quality of post.

For today's post, I must thank Escape Velocity for drawing my attention to this article via Twitter. You need not read it, it's prime fisk material, so original will be in italics, my response in bold.

The inaugural Dragon Awards have taken place at DragonCon, with fifteen works of science fiction and fantasy across the fields of literature, comics, film, television, and gaming being honored with fiery-red trophies.

Good start you've got, that is wholly accurate.

 
The Dragon Awards claim to offer “a true reflection of the works that are genuinely most beloved by the core audience,” while a report from The Verge states that the results “highlight the populist side of science fiction and fantasy.” However, a closer look reveals that the winners reflect a rather more specific side.

Are you bad at English? Are you offended that someone, somewhere thinks you have lousy taste in books? Newsflash: they're right.

Since they were first announced earlier this year, the Dragon Awards caught the eyes of the Sad and Rabid Puppies campaigns, which were initiated to influence the works chosen for Worldcon’s Hugo Awards

Conflating lies. There was no campaign aspect from the ones running the groups during nomination time, and the Sad Puppies campaign said very little about it.

The Dragon Awards’ voting process is conducted through a simple online poll open to anyone with an e-mail address, and the rules state that it is acceptable for authors to campaign for votes; all in all, the new awards were the perfect fit for the strategies used by the Puppy campaigns.

These are the same tactics used by you and yours behind closed doors. Mr. Martin admitted that this year. Stop lying about it being one sided; we prefer to be open and honest about it.

Four of the seven novel categories were won by pro-Puppy authors. Son of the Black Sword, by Sad Puppies founder Larry Correia, was named Best Fantasy Novel; John C. Wright’s Somewhither: A Tale of the Unwithering Realm took the prize for Best Science Fiction Novel; Brian Niemeier’s Souldancer won the Best Horror Novel award; and Nick Cole’s Ctrl Alt Revolt! went away with the trophy for Best Apocalyptic Novel.

Another accurate chunk. Why do you keep returning to lies?  Facts win out over feelings.

Most of these authors made specific attempts to rally Puppy supporters in their directions.  

 Most? That's four guys you don't like out of fifteen categories. 

Correia made multiple blog posts encouraging his “wrongfan” readers to vote

Six posts from Larry is hardly a campaign. One of those times is only mentioning that it exists and is free to nominate and vote. Try harder.

Wright stated that “your votes that were unwelcome at the World Con are most welcome at Dragon Con,”

Is he wrong? And how is this a campaign? Explain to me how a word implying a long concerted effort applies here. Please, show me how I'm stupid.
 
and Niemeier gave his book away for free so as to attract voters.

What's your point? There's no packet, and no fee for the process. It's perfectly within the rules to enable an educated voting pool by making your work more available.  Oh, right. You prefer low information voting.


Outside of Puppy circles, the award for Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel went to Hell’s Foundations Quiver by David Weber

Yes, he's not a Puppy. He also isn't one of yours, just because Tor publishes one of his series. Baen has his more popular works. They even have their own conventions(two!) with a new award.

Naomi Novik’s League of Dragons was named Best Alternate History Novel

Yeah, I'm surprised Turtledove didn't win. Likely her only shot at it, as the series is done.

and the late Terry Pratchett won a posthumous award for Best Young Adult or Middle Grade Novel thanks to his book The Shepherd’s Crown.

Yeah, not a puppy. Not an SJW either. He was a pretty talented author. RIP, Sir Terry.


It is worth noting that a few of the novels not written by pro-Puppy authors still enjoyed support from the Puppy campaigns.

 Wait, you mean we don't live in echo chambers like you? 

During the voting period, Rabid Puppies founder Vox Day posted a list of his personal picks, which, in terms of the novel categories, almost exactly tally up with the eventual winners; the only difference is that his Best Young Adult choice was Changeling’s Island by Dave Freer rather than the Pratchett book. In the case of Naomi Novik, Day was forced to begrudgingly admit that she is a good writer even while labeling her an “SJW-lite.”

Gee, maybe he's more in touch with reality and the populace than you are. I mean, what kind of bigot holds up an opponent as an example of good work?


One result of this campaigning is that novels with which the Sad Puppies were generally unfamiliar appear to have been at a disadvantage.

 Maybe the Sad and Rabid Puppies reflect poplar tastes better than you. Nah, you're an "English transgirl". You clearly know reality and good writing. Or is that World of Darkness fanfic?

This is most evident in the category for horror fiction, a genre in which the Puppies have previously shown little interest.  . The winning novel, Souldancer, currently has just eight reviews on Amazon and three on Goodreads; any award handed to it clearly does not reflect “the works that are genuinely most beloved by the core audience” or “the populist side of science fiction and fantasy.”It would seem that Souldancer succeeded in beating out more popular horror nominees, such as Christina Henry’s Alice, merely because its author is pro-Puppy.

Yes, we all trust reviews, do we? Maybe some of us realize how active your type is at disemployment. Maybe we were busy reading books. At any rate, it's not your crappy pastiche of urban fantasy, faerie tales, and WoD fanfic that you love.

Outside of the novel categories, Sad Puppy influence is harder to discern.

Just say Puppy. You're already conflating the two groups, simplify so you won't be lying as badly.


The comic and moving image awards went to works that have also been honoured at the Hugos in recent years: 

Another correct statement. Keep going.

Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and her artistic team, was named Best Comic Book

More truth; can you keep it up? By the way, you don't need that comma. We'll talk later about how crappy most hero books are these days.

Neil Gaiman and J. H. Williams III’s The Sandman: Overture took Best Graphic Novel 

True, and a well constructed statement. Congratulations.

 the title of Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series went to Game of Thrones; and The Martian was voted Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie.
 
 As Vox Day stated, if he'd been campaigning, Deadpool would've won movie. I'm proud you stayed honest here, though.


Finally, unlike the Hugos, the Dragon Awards recognize gaming. Bethesda Softworks’ Fallout franchise won big, with Fallout 4 winning in the PC/Console Game category and Fallout Shelter taking the Mobile Game prize.

 And?


In the tabletop gaming categories, Pandemic: Legacy was the choice for Board Game while the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game got the prize in the (frankly rather cluttered) category of Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures/Collectible Card/Role Playing Game

Wait. Did you not only state facts, but an opinion I agree with? I'm stunned; I may never recover.  But, there might be reasons for it; minis games and CCGs tend to die fast without a tournament scene, and RPGs have to contend with the twin collosi of D&D and Pathfinder.

Will future iterations of the Dragon Awards remain dominated by the Sad Puppies circle, or will the awards will attract a broader voting base?

Ah, you're back to your bad assumptions, I see. Wait until we have nominating and voting data; then you can perhaps call it that. Keep in mind it's the first year.


If the latter, we are left with the question of whether the Dragons will continue to honor self-published and niche authors or begin to lean more towards juggernauts such as Stephen King, George R. R. Martin, and Neil Gaiman.

Yes, because Hugh Howley and Andy Weir were picked up by big publishers right away. Big publishing editors would've kept The Martian out of print, and thus, out of Hollywood. Your gatekeepers like crap and hate good stories.


When you play Social Justice, the world loses.