The way the Campbell Award works isn't by concensus but by voting. We read all of the nominees, recommending some and not others, discussing merits and de-merits, until we come up with a list of finalists upon which we cast our votes. Some years, the voting reflects a common favorite while in other years the result is due to a split in voting. That's the joy and pain of a juried award. At least it's not a popularity contest!
The Sturgeon Award works differently, partly because of the smaller group of jurors: They must reach concensus for all three places, and each of the jurors holds very different notions about what constitutes the best short SF of the year. They have to argue and convince one another or they'll end up with no winner. For the Campbell, no one has to convince the others, but we do our best to argue why our favorites are worthy of the Award.
So that's the process. TITAN won for a lot of reasons, and I suspect that Bova's being up for it so many times before was a part of his finally receiving the honor this year. It was fortuitous that this year, when we had a combined event with the Heinlein Centennial and we were celebrating the Golden Age, that Campbell's successor won the award named for him.
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The way the Campbell Award works isn't by concensus but by voting. We read all of the nominees, recommending some and not others, discussing merits and de-merits, until we come up with a list of finalists upon which we cast our votes. Some years, the voting reflects a common favorite while in other years the result is due to a split in voting. That's the joy and pain of a juried award. At least it's not a popularity contest!
The Sturgeon Award works differently, partly because of the smaller group of jurors: They must reach concensus for all three places, and each of the jurors holds very different notions about what constitutes the best short SF of the year. They have to argue and convince one another or they'll end up with no winner. For the Campbell, no one has to convince the others, but we do our best to argue why our favorites are worthy of the Award.
So that's the process. TITAN won for a lot of reasons, and I suspect that Bova's being up for it so many times before was a part of his finally receiving the honor this year. It was fortuitous that this year, when we had a combined event with the Heinlein Centennial and we were celebrating the Golden Age, that Campbell's successor won the award named for him.
Best,
Chris