Quicksilver wins Arthur C. Clarke Award

The winner for the 2004 Arthur C. Clarke Award has been announced as Neal Stephenson for his novel QUICKSILVER. [Via Write Hemisphere]. Well that might be a bit controversial, because even though Neal Stephenson insists that he writes SF, an epic, rambling, historical novel is not what many people consider Science Fiction. Not even sure about that myself. But then again it is a great book, and similar arguments could be made against previous winners. The most important thing is to recognise great books I think.
UPDATE: Some photos from the event [Via BoingBoing]