Nominations for the 2014 Hugo Awards opened this month, and the flexible rules regarding this process has lead to a bit of stir amongst the fantasy book reading community, as a loophole in the rules allows for the nomination of the entire Wheel of Time series.

Robert Jordan’s massive fifteen book series began in 1990, but the final book did not come out until last year.  The Hugos are organised by the World Science Fiction Society, and according to item 3.2.6 of their constitution:  “Works appearing in a series are eligible as individual works, but the series as a whole is not eligible. However, a work appearing in a number of parts shall be eligible for the year of the final part.”

This means the three and a half million word epic counts as one book as far as the Hugos are concerned.  Even better, thanks to Wheel of Time super-fan Jennifer Liang, publicity regarding this potential candidate has spread far and wide, due to an in-depth analysis on the Wheel of Time community website, DragonMount.

Not everyone who is nominating the late Robert Jordan’s epic is a fan however. Well respected book blogger Jared Shurin, wrote on his site Pornokitsch; “I’m always supportive of bureaucratic subversion and this is genuinely hilarious: a case of more rules = less sense. I don’t mind using one of my 4 nominations as a protest vote.”

A combination of genuine affection for the series and a touch of mischief may well mean that this bookshelf-crushing collection of fantasy novels gets the prestigious award.

The deadline for nominations is April 1, 07:59 British Summer Time, and to be eligible, you have to be a member of the 2013, 2014, or 2015 Worldcons. If you aren’t a member of those conventions, booking is still open for Loncon 2014 (in London, England) and Sasquan 2015 (in Washington, USA). Having tickets for both those events would give you voting rights under certain conditions. Full details can be found on the Hugo Awards website.

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