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Hugo Award Voting Open
FortKnox writes "This is from SciFi Storm:
It's time for the Hugo Award (Best in Science Fiction) nominations and voting for 2001. You can vote if you get at least a Supporting Membership in The Millennium Philcon or ConJosé (location of worldcon). I haven't read much current SciFi (still working on some Heinlein works), but some of the /. readers might be interested in putting in their opinions."
The Hugo Award is for published works of fiction. Posting your piece anonymously to Slashdot doesn't count.
- billn
The book based on the Lord of the Rings movie is really good. If you haven't read it yet, you really should, there is a lot more stuff in it than the movie, and most of it is pretty exciting (except this dude called Tom Bombadil who is a real fruit, almost as annoying as Jar-Jar). Some guy named Tokin wrote it, and and I think it should be nominated, even though it's based on a movie.
Edith Keeler Must Die
Well, since WorldCon 2001 was in late August, and the winner of the Best Novel was "Harry Potter", and this isn't reflected on the Hugo website, I'm really getting disappointed with these awards.
The Seiun (Japanese Hugo) and the Nebula are still better representations of SF and Fantasy works, since their voting is done a little better and less of a clique setup. I mean, how does Harry Potter win over George R. R. Martin's A Storm of Swords and Robert J. Sawyer's Calculating God?
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different. -- Earl of Chesterfield
Hack Proofing Windows 2000 Server
It's fiction... and since it deals with computers I'm guessing it goes under Science.
Get your Unix fortune now!
Since originally reading here and here, the possibility of Douglas' last works coming to print, I've been checking periodically. On Jan. 9th a hit came up on Amazon for Salmon of Doubt - Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time. A quick check of Harmony Books seems to confirm it's due out in May, one year after the death of Douglas Noel Adams. There's at least cover artwork, as oppose to the last time, back in the mid-90's, or so, when I saw listing of this same book.
Speculation has been that Salmon and other bits have been harvested from DNA's computer hard drive. As much as Douglas, a tough critic of his own work, may not have wanted other eyes to see work he deemed unfit to publish, it's coming. I'll probably buy the book. Perhaps a pint of bitter, with a pleasantly nutty taste and some Dire Straits will help cope with the mixed feelings.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
*croaky voice* Aye, in my day, books were infinitely better! Plots were so strong, they not only carried the story, but water from the well, too! Characters were so real they occasionally reached out from the very pages they were bound in and poked you in the eye! These so-called 'novels' now-a-days can't hold a home-made candle to the exciting books I read in my fortunate youth! All you young whippersnappers out there should be humbled by the greatness of books you'll never get to read!!! Muahahahahahahaha!
:)
Sheesh. Some people.
But what does my opinion matter, I just vote here. It's not like I have any money or anything.
I'd like to nominate Microsoft's Living Our Values page for short fiction.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
I would disagree. As an example, if you've ever read Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars / Green Mars / Blue Mars series, you would agree that there is a great deal of plot depth. When I read these sci-fi novels, I was captivated not by the technology, but by the characters. Each one was believable with motivations, hopes, and fears and it was their interactions in the plot that made the book, not the technology.
I would also recommend that you read anything from Larry Niven. Niven has an almost magical way of wrapping a great story around a fascinating bit of science. (What was that quote about science being so advanced to a primitive technology that it is indistinguishable from magic?
I look at it like this: I use the winners of Hugos and Nebulas as starting points for my book shopping list. Winners of these go on my list - I know that if they've won an award like a Hugo they are more than a scientific manual. I've been doing this for years and have yet to be disapointed.
Just my 2 cents
Hmmm...
"You can vote if you get at least a Supporting Membership in The Millennium Philcon or ConJosé (location of worldcon)."
Presumably, if you are a member of one of these groups, you would receive notification from them that it's time to vote. So why waste the space on Slashdot alerting a bunch of people to vote on something they can't? I'll be more interested when the results of that voting has been published, but not until then.
This is analogous to posting a link to the AMPAS website when it's time to vote on the Oscars. With the exception of CleverNickname (Slashdot's token celebrity), none of us are likely to be voting for them, either.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
The award should go to Hugo Weaving for his striking portrayal of Elrond in "The Fellowship of the Ring". That, and the fact that I can't even think of any other Hugos who might deserve an award.
Maybe Hurricane Hugo, but that was a while ago.
*whisper whisper* What? Oh.
Okay, then. How about a Harry Potter book? *hides*
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Locus Magazine Best Novels of 2001
Barnes and Noble Best SF of 2001
January Magazine Best of 2001 (go down to the bottom for SF)
Borders Best SF of 2001
Amazon Best Science Fiction of 2001
Amazon Best Fantasy of 2001
Some guy's Best SF of 2001 list
An Amazon Listmania Best SF of 2001 list
It's a tiny sample, but it looks like these are clear favorites:
1. The Wooden Sea, Jonathan Carroll
2. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
3. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
And all these do well, showing up on several lists and/or ranking high where they're mentioned:
Cosmonaut Keep, Ken MacLeod
Nekropolis, Maureen McHugh
The Chronoliths, Robert Charles Wilson
Thief of Time, Terry Pratchett
Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
Personally, I haven't read enough 2001 novels to make a decent list.