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This Year's Hugo Nominees Chosen
wrinkledshirt writes "They've announced this year's nominees for the Hugo Awards. Wonder who the next Asimov, Brin, Gibson or [shudder] Rowling is going to be? Find out at Conjose."
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This is very worrying - I recognise just two names on those lists. Ursula LeGuin and Vernor Vinge. .)
The ones I knew are dying off (Zelazny, Herbert, Asimov, Heinlein . .
Mielipiteet omiani - Opinions personal, facts suspect.
Anyways, Harry Potter is very entertaining, despite its main-stream nature. One can hardly argue that the books are for childeren due to the use of Magic and Witchcraft. These are clearly meant for adults, although i would let, and I understand why childeren love them so much.
Bringing irony to the Slash-masses
She's a good author. An experience reader can easily see that, hell her coninuing plots are better then any ST episode. I figure
A)wrinkled shirt never read any and is trying to be cool, or
B)Did read it, but is in such need of attention that going againse popular things is his equivelant of waving his arms in the air and going "look at me".
Jusat because you don't like a book, doesn't mean its not a good book, and just because a book is geared to someone young, doesn't mean its not a good book.
You may not like them, but they are technically sound. by that I mean structure, continuity, plot.
The Hobbit was written for children.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Anyway we can put him in? Definately one of the best . What an unfortunate departure.. our hearts will always be with Adams.
geek page at KY speaks
* New website didn't know about
* A bunch of writers that other people like that I haven't been exposed to yet
Time to head down to the speciality SF bookshop tommorow and check them out (Galaxy, in Sydney Aus)
The biggest problem of Fantasy / Science Fiction at the moment is that people find one writer / style and refuse to read outside it. At it's worst these leads to Bookracks of Star Wars, Star Trek and other licensed works, while new authors cannot get into the 30-foot space that's reserved for "authors that perform"
Don't complain that you don't know the authors, just think of them as favorite authors you don't know about yet.
The bar in question is "The Guildford Arms" in Edinburgh, yours trully features in that sequence under his own name
The reason for this mess is that the SF writing field in Scotland is very small, and the number of Scottish SF writers who have an interest in weird politics and extropianism is even smaller.
I read a fair amount of SF and try to keep up with the latest scribes. I'm pleased to see so many names I recognize, but it was very disappointing to not see certain others, particularly Robert Reed, Lucius Shepard, and William Sanders. Ah well, maybe they'll produce something more worthy this year. The movie selections were just awful, all kids' stuff (but I gotta say I loved Shrek). And yes, I agree with the fellow who suggested that if you think LOTR was high-achievement literature then you need to get out more.
And when will one of those ceremonies finally give Olaf Stapledon the award he deserves ? I swear, he gets more imagination in three pages than most of our contemporaries get in three volumes.
Btw, if Greg Bear's stuff gets any worse I'm gonna have to write another letter...
Plus, the cover art is usually pretty cool
One thing that bothers me about science fiction and fantasy books is the cover art. Very often, it is a picture of the main character holding a weapon or something similarly tacky. Covers like these are one of the reasons why many people do not take speculative fiction seriously. They take one look at the cover and go, "Come on, that's supposed to have insight on the human condition? Riiiight."
For example, Hyperion by Dan Simmons was a fantastic read. John Keats, Chaucer, William Gibson, Philip K. Dick, etc. it's all in there. But what do we get on the cover? A picture of a monster covered with metal spikes.
There are exceptions, and lately it seems publishers are getting the right idea in this area. Neil Gaiman's American Gods has a wonderful cover, in which you don't actually see any gods. It's just a picture of a dark, lonely road, with lightning in the sky. It conveys the right feeling. Another example is Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon-- all black with a sort of cryptic symbol. Imagine if the publishers decided to put a picture of US marines shooting at enemy planes.