World Fantasy Award Finalists Announced--Gone Trad?

Locus has posted the list of World Fantasy Award finalists. There are many fine selections here--including much deserved praise for John Klima's efforts--but I can't help but note a lack of daring on the part of the judges. This continues a trend, in my opinion, within core genre, toward the more conservative. Here, for example, is the list of best novels:

Fangland, John Marks (Penguin)
The Gospel of the Knife, Will Shetterly (Tor)
The Servants, Michael Marshall Smith (Earthling Publications)
Territory, Emma Bull (Tor)
Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada; Roc)

Territory is one of my favorites from last year, and I'm happy to see it on the list. I also think the others are solid, solid novels. But I'd put Michael Cisco's The Traitor up against any one of them. Or Ekaterina Sedia's A Secret History of Moscow. Or Hal Duncan's Ink. Or, perhaps most criminally, Dan Simmons' The Terror, a novel that in scope and execution dwarfs everything just mentioned. David Anthony Durham's Acacia is missing from the list. Nor does the intricate second volume of Catherynne M. Valente's Orphan's Tales, In the Cities of Spice and Coin, get any love. Great novels by Daniel Abraham, Nalo Hopkinson, John Crowley, and Paul Park also apparently didn't strike the judges the right way. Or Patrick Rothfuss. Just for example.

Granted, the final ballot includes voter choices as well, but the judges have the ability to add a sixth or even seventh choice to a category in cases where they don't agree with those voted-in choices. In the major categories, however, there are only five finalists this year.

Another striking omission is the lack of any content from online sources. With online magazines now providing some of the strongest and most original fiction, this seems somewhat reactionary. Or an oversight.

It's hard to complain when the job of judging is so thankless, but I do find some of these choices puzzling. The great thing, though, is you get to make your own lists. If there's something that I've mentioned or is on the ballot and you haven't read it, pick it up. Let us know what you think of it. Be your own judge.