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2003 Hugo Award Winners Announced
securitas writes "For those that follow these sorts of things, the 2003 Hugo Award Winners list has been released (PDF). Robert Sawyer's 'Homonids' won Best Novel, fan favorite Neil Gaiman won Best Novella for 'Coraline', Geoffery A. Landis won Best Short Story for 'Falling Onto Mars', Buffy the Vampire Slayer's 'Conversations with Dead People' won Best Short Form Dramatic Presentation and predictably 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' won Best Long Form Dramatic Presentation. You can get all the details at the Torcon 2003 Hugo Awards section."
I've read a bunch of Sawyer's books (his present-day/near-present-day sci-fi) and they do not dissapoint. I found it funny that I spotted Hominids in the store the other day and picked it up, and now I hear it won the Hugo :)
Heh... he's also Canadian! Yay Canada!
I don't think it's the same people giving themselves awards. The Hugos are awarded by the membership of the World Science-Fiction Convetion (http://www.worldcon.org/). Yes, many authors are members, but the bulk are just fen. So the awards are given by a few thousand people active in the SF fan community.
That said, yes, it's not particularly scientific or democratic. But that's what the award means - WorldCon thinks this book is the best. If you aren't happy with the selections, you can do what I did this year. I purchased a relatively inexpensive associate (non-attending) membership which allowed me to vote for the Hugos, and I'll be able to nominate for next year's awards too.
Of course none of the entries I voted for won. Too bad, because Kiln People rocked.
According to what I read on the site, Hugos are given to both science fiction and fantasy. It's just that apparently lots of previous noms were mostly sci-fi, which is completely not their problem if the pendulum decides to swing the other way for a while.
I don't even follow the details behind the Hugo awards, but 2 minutes of reading unearths Section 3.2.1: "Unless otherwise specified, Hugo Awards are given for work in the field of science fiction or fantasy..."
In general, SF derives from existing scientfic concepts. It's not as if authors are sitting around and think "Hey, you know what'd be cool? Some kinda energy source from little tiny particles called atoms smashing into each other!"
Nope. Instead they're sitting around thinking things like, "Hey, you know what'd be cool? Satellites that orbit the earth at such an altitude that they make one complete rotation per day. You could probably put a radio or TV transmitter on one of those and broadcast to half the globe!"
And voila, shortly thereafter we had communications satellites.
(The concept of the geosynchronous communications satellite was first invented by Arthur C. Clarke, famous science fiction author.)
Hm... maybe because the Hugo is not just a science fiction award. You may recall that the Lord of the Rings "trilogy" was nominated for a best series award or something of that nature (incidentally, it was beaten by Asimov's Foundation series).
I'll copy a link given above that's useful in clarifying the award... http://www.torcon3.org/ballots/hugoWSFS.html
The lines between SciFi and Fantasy are not always clear, and if LoTR is valid for a Hugo, then it isn't going to dilute the meaning of the Hugo any more if we nominate fantasy. There's always been a division between hard and soft science fiction (or between Science Fiction and SciFi, according to some people).
Just look at the difference between Harlan Ellison and Isaac Asimov. Oh, and guess which one has won more Hugos.
True. Pleasantville, The Truman Show and Harry Potter also got nominations in the past, despite not being science fiction.
If they don't make some adjustments, it will be the "Latest Hip Subculture Genre Awards".
I think a lot of this stuff may be winning on name recognition alone rather than on whether or not it meets basic criteria of deserving an award.
Does no-one bother to educate themselves before they post? This comes up every year. The Hugo is not just a "science fiction" award. The most cursory checking would have revealed this fact. From the WSFS constitution:
"Unless otherwise specified, Hugo Awards are given for work in the field of science fiction or fantasy appearing for the first time during the previous calendar year."
Got that? "Work in the field of science fiction or fantasy". Can we please stop with the "but that isn't science fiction!" stuff now?
That said, _Hominids_ is a truly awful book and as a winner is an embarrassment to all involved in the Hugo process.
_Hominids_ is the first book of a Neanderthal trilogy, where Neanderthals on an alternate earth, where Homo sapiens died out instead, use a quantum computer which opens a portal to our world.
The other two books, _Humans_ and _Hybrids_, are now both available. _Humans_ and _Hominids_ are paperbacks and _Hybrids_ *just* came out in hardcover.
If you enjoy good science fiction, read all three. And hopefully _Humans_ or _Hybrids_ makes the ballot again next year (both published first in 2003).
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different. -- Earl of Chesterfield
James P. Hogan is a Veliskovskian True Believer and this is showing through more and more in his newer writings. There are also quite a few believers in the Singularity (aka Rapture of the Nerds) who are writing SF and furthermore getting it published although since its the sort of thing Slashdot readers dream about it's probably not a cult but a "common interest".