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Nebula Award Winners, Hugo Nominees Announced
CBNobi writes "The 2002 Nebula Award winners have been announced this weekend. The winner for best novel was American Gods by Neil Gaiman (reviewed here at Slashdot), and the winner for best script was LotR:The Fellowship of the Ring. The nominees for the 2003 Hugo Awards have also been announced; Episodes of Enterprise, Firefly, and Buffy are all nominated for best short form dramatic presentation, and LotR and Spirited Away are among the nominees for best long form presentation."
Hmmm,
Firefly - Cancelled (and it was just getting fun)
Enterprise - Might be cancelled soon
Buffy - Wrapping up the series? (don't watch it, but recall the wife mentioning it.)
Should it be seen as a sign of the times that the nominees are all either going or gone? Makes you wonder about the intelligence of the masses. Oh wait, we already know about the intelligence of the masses.
Unfortunately, it also says way too much about how short-sighted TV executives are nowadays.
:( ) like reality shows because reality shows have relatively low cost of production per hour. Even with its exotic locales, the best-known reality show (Survivor) is still a bargain compared to shows like the now-cancelled Firefly, the soon-to-end Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, and the potentially-cancelled Enterprise.
TV executives frequently do not like hour-long dramas due to the high cost of production per hour; they still (unfortunately for us TV viewers
The days of a network letting a show find its audience are long over. You'll never see anything like how NBC allowed Hill Street Blues to eventually become a big hit again.
That's an amusing troll; it's a little too reactionary to be convincing, however.
For what it's worth, China Miéville, who was nominated, is considerably further to the "left" than Ian McLeod; in fact Mr Miéville has stood for Parliament on behalf of a political party you would no doubt dub "sophomoric Marxist".
Not everyone subscribes to the last-man-standing-wins model of American capitalism.
I guess the Joss Whedon, Rick Berman & Brannon Braga mutual admiration society didn't leave any room for something watchable.
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
no it's really just the opposite. people treat "art" as this holy thing that isn't supposed to be something enjoyable.
Ian McLeod is Scottish, for a start. I know it seems like a subtle difference, but at least try and get it right.
Ian Mcleod is a socialist and has written some pretty intersting stuff about how the future might work if you do not accept the inevitability of near-future societies that are nation-state economies driven by Capitalism. He nails the US, because of its arch-Capitalist nature, and ironically tags the UN as behoven to the US.
I guess he got pretty fed up with seeing the future solely portrayed as a Captialist utopia, something which he disagrees with. It's nothing personal, just another point of view.
Please remain calm, there is no reason to pani... wait, where are you all going?
OK, maybe it's me, but I didn't find "American Gods" particularly enjoyable. In fact, I found it to be pretty lame. If that was the best Science Fiction novel of the year, I guess I have a better understanding of why I tend not to read much SF.
I think it was actually a fairly slow year for SF. Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Years of Rice and Salt" got good reviews, but for me it dragged - I couldn't even finish it. Maybe I'll try again. David Brin's "Kiln People" was better, but it wasn't his best.
To be honest, I think it's been a slow decade for SF. Many of the Great Ones of the genre - from Asimov to Zelazny - are gone, and the younger generation seems to still be searching for its voice.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
At 3+ hours, The Fellowship of the Ring gives new meaning to the term "long form presentation." ;-)
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
I'm glad to see the Nebula voters have voted for right-thinking, American-proud authors like Gaimain
LOL! Neil Gaiman is British.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
And IMHO, its found it in Wil McCarthy. If you haven't read The Collapsium, do so now. Reasonably hard science fiction by someone who can actually write? Sign me up!
Seriously, there's a lot of good new science fiction and space opera authors popping up recently. Some good fantasy authors too. Most are still finding their way and struggling to stand out amidst the tide of mindless Tolkien clones and talentless hacks, but they are there. And then there's older space opera/sci-fi authors, like Bujold, that're still doing good work. I think the '90s was the slow decade, and what we're seeing now is a resurgance.
As for TV, give up on the American networks already. They haven't produced anything worthwhile since Next Generation and Babylon-5, and they're not going to anytime soon. Not while they treat the viewer as an inconvenient obstacle between them and their money and use legislation instead of innovation to protect their revenue. Turn to Japan for your sci-fi TV fix, and watch shows like Crest of the Stars (and Banner of the Stars, and the other soon-to-follow sequel series), Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Gundam, Macross, and the new Ghost in the Shell TV series.
(Anime sci-fi shows named off the top of my head. There's a couple dozen other great ones you can find if you look.)
Actually, Ken McLeod wrote Cosmonaut Keep. I haven't read it, but I imagine it can't be too different in political views from his other books like Stone Canal and The Cassini Division, both of which I didn't enjoy. Ian McLeod wrote other stuff, which I've never read.
Go Charlie!
Apart from writing great science fiction Charlie writes the Linux column in the UK's Computer Shopper magazine.
The Nebula Awards are selected by the writers themselves.
The Hugo Awards are awarded by members of that year's World Science Fiction Convention, which this year is Torcon 3 in Toronto.
If you just want to vote without attending the convention, you can buy a supporting membership. It's rather pricey ($40 US), but you get some other perqs. The attending membership is $185 US.
I went to the Chicago Worldcon a few years back. It was a blast! Expensive, but fun.
Enterprise gets 2 nominations and Whedon gets 3?
How about dumping the Trek spinoffs and put a couple of episodes of Farscape in. I'll put 'Prayer' up agaist 'Night in SickBay' any day of the week. And 'Carbon Creek' pales up against 'Kansas'.
Also, this shows you how important mindshare is. By many peoples account, Firefly was a show with potential, but it wasn't really good yet. But Whedon's name on it made people believe that it has to be great and deserves an award.
Solaris was easily the most 'sci-fi' movie of the year but Spiderman gets a nod instead?
D
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One relatively new author that I like is Alastair Reynolds. He is a scientist who works for the ESA currently and he is a reasonably good writer too. However, he is British and his books are generally released about a year earlier in the UK than in the US. His first two books "Revalation Space" and "Chasm City" are reasonably easy to find in the US. His third book "Redemption Ark" should be out in June in the US.
Impersonating Tycho from Penny Arcade since before there was a PA.
I'd have a hard time calling Alias sci-fi. The only sci-fi aspects (rather then fairly realistic and current science) are the Rambaldi storylines, and given what we've seen so far, I'm more inclined to call that fantasy then sci-fi.
;-)
It's a hard call because that storyline is so small and not-well exposited (to keep it mysterious) that you can't get a "feel" for it. I call it fantasy because right now the artifacts are basically working like magic, returning life to long-dead things and so on.
I admit that my current #1 theory to explain Rambaldi is that he is indeed a space alien who couldn't or wouldn't go home, but that's my theory, not official show theory.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
But my dilemma is this, I've read all Sci-Fi/Fantasy from Asimov, Niven, Vance, but have not yet finished all the works of the old masters.
Can any younger (or at least more flexible) Slashdot reader suggest a few authors that they've read and liked? I don't want to get into serials right now, perhaps something that is sort of standalone would be better as an introduction to a new author, I think.
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I thought it was a brilliant book that demanded a lot and gave a lot back. Also Ghodammned funny.
ha! hey there -- so my husband and pals read slashdot regularly and one of his buddies messaged me in SILC to tell me about this post. all you people who hasn't read SF since the old greats should read my book (it's a finalist for best related book). it's called better to have loved: the life of judith merril. she was my grandmother, known as the little mother of science fiction. more info
It also has a disturbingly complete necrology of recently deceased members of the SF community. It seems like every other headline is "So & so dies," but that's to be expected with all the graying pulp era artists, writers, and fans.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
One caveat with Stephenson - "Big U" is an interesting attempt to satarize a behemoth of a university, probably his first book. He hadn't developed his amazing chops yet. I worship the man, but I think he'd agree this is not worth the time.
Zodiac was pretty good. Strong narrative, some good characters. You can see the emergence of some geek-friendly themes. It lacks the absolute truckloads of storytelling talent he lavishes on subsequent books, but for many writers this would be their best book ever.
Snow Crash was AMAZING. Has the aforementioned truckloads. Very funny, surprising consistency all the way through. Nothing sacrificed for a laugh, but many of them fit. And a fine backdrop of whimsical neurolinguistic mysticism driving it. Great characters. Absolutely great. Each is hip - or wants to be - in a different way. It's male dominated, but there is a very strong female character that feels real, like the author has actually met a female in person. Even minor characters are fully fleshed out in a few deft strokes.
Diamond Age - AMAZING Very good at pulling heartstrings, fascinating look at nanotach. More of a "realistic" feel than Snow Crash. (Neither good nor bad in itself, but some readers might find S.C. too enjoyable/easy)
Cryptonomicon - awesome. Staggering. (Especially if you have to carry it a long way) This is a more complex narrative, with two sets of characters in two time periods. Amazingly, they fit together and not just at a tangent point. It is rich with historical insight, and it has tons of stuff for those who get a hard-on for computer security.
On a side note - I may have spotted him at Norwescon this weekend. Not really sure. I happened to be raving about him at the time and may have invoked him.
I'd disagree about Eon, though that's most likely me getting fed up with cold-war-era sci-fi at about the time I read it. Some interesting ideas, but I think the writing quality was poor. I agree about avoiding Anvil of Stars - avoid, avoid, avoid! Slant is also pretty bad, it reads like an attempt to jump onto the nanotech/biotech bandwagon of the time. Songs of Earth and Power was amazing, but its really fantasy, not sci-fi. Still, its a great story, with some very interesting ideas.
Bear's amazing when he allows himself to be himself. (Songs, Moving Mars) When he tries to jump on a trend (Anvil, Slant), he sucks.