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2004 Hugo Awards Presented at Noreascon
Best Novel: Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold
Novella: The Cookie Monster, Vernor Vinge
Novellette: Legions in Time, Michael Swanwick
Short Story: A Study in Emerald, Neil Gaiman
Related Book: The Chesley Awards for
Science
Fiction and Fantasy Art: A Retrospective, John Grant, Elizabeth L.
Humphrey,
and Pamela D. Scoville
Professional Editor: Gardner Dozois
Professional Artist: Bob Eggleton
and Pamela D. Scoville
Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Lord of the
Rings:
The Return of the King
Dramatic Presentation, Short Form:
Gollum's Acceptance Speech at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards
Semiprozine: Locus
Fanzine: Emerald City
Fan Writer: Dave Langford
Fan Artist: Frank Wu
Campbell Award: Jay Lake
Special Noreascon Four Committee Award: Erwin Strauss, aka Filthy Pierre
Would it be so hard to explain in one little sentence what those award are about?
:)
One little sentence
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
The 1953 Retrospective Hugo Award Winners
Best Novel - Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Best Novella - "A Case of Conscience" by James Blish
Best Novelette - "Earthman, Come Home" by James Blish
Best Short Story - "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke
Best Related Book - Conquest of the Moon by Wernher von Braun, Fred L. Whipple & Willy Ley
Best Professional Editor - John W. Campbell, Jr.
Best Professional Artist - Chesley Bonestell
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form - The War of the Worlds
Best Fanzine - Slant, Walter Willis, ed.; James White, art editor
Best Fan Writer - Bob Tucker
My first WorldCon was San Jose in 2002. I was lucky enough to have a friend there who could show me the ropes - Cheryl Morgan, editor of Emerald City. If you're not familiar with her work, check out www.emcit.com. Her reviews are honest (often brutally so) and entertaining.
No, these would be awards for books and stories published during calendar 2003. Then you have nominations, then voting and vote-counting, so it's September of the next year before the winners are announced.
http://www.analogsf.com/0406/cookiemonster.shtml
:)
Yeah. Finally a topic where my sig fits
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
For the lazy, here is a link to the video.
t ml
http://www.theonering.net/staticnews/1054890864.h
Lois Bujold's best work is the Lord Vorkosigan series. She won a Hugo for one of those in 1992. But she has to pay the rent, so she cranks out those fantasy novels. The Vorkosigan series is too complex and unsettling for many readers.
mods.. maybe you should read? couple of comments up
***********
The 1953 Retrospective Hugo Award Winners
*
Best Novel - Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Best Novella - "A Case of Conscience" by James Blish
Best Novelette - "Earthman, Come Home" by James Blish
*
oh and to add something new.. the nominees for best novel:**Best Novel of 1953 (113 ballots)
* The Caves of Steel -- Isaac Asimov (Galaxy, Oct.-Dec. 1953)
* Fahrenheit 451 -- Ray Bradbury (Ballantine)
* Childhood's End -- Arthur C. Clarke (Ballantine)
* Mission of Gravity -- Hal Clement (Astounding, April-July 1953)
* More than Human -- Theodore Sturgeon (Ballantine)
***
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Neil Gaiman's winning short story is up on his site, if anyone cares to read it. It's quite good, particularly if you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes, Cthulu mythology, or both.
--- Bwah?
I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
The Cookie Monster, Vernor Vinge: This is an interesting and technically complex story. It's plausible and well-told, but it really lacks character development IMHO. Guess the competition was thin in the "novella" category or the tech talk swayed the fans.
"Legions in Time", Michael Swanwick: This one rocked. The main characters were believable, the time travel was done well, the bad guys were really evil, and the resolution was... interesting. Only real faults are that the ending feels a bit too much like a Deus Ex Machina, and Nadine was never really explained. Read this one if you can.
"A Study in Emerald", Neil Gaiman: Hmm. Gaiman's a good storyteller, but he bit off more than he could chew here. It's difficult to write a good Sherlock Holmes pastiche, it's difficult to write a good H.P. Lovecraft pastiche, and it's even more difficult to write a story that combines elements of both. Plus, if you haven't read much Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or H.P. Lovecraft, you won't get all the references. Gaiman almost made it work.
Give a monkey a brain and he'll swear he's the center of the universe.
Well. I guess Venor Vinge would be a giant if he wrote JUST a LITTLE more novels.
Orson scott card will be remembered.
I guess Dan Simmons, too.
And Niven. A bit older, but still after 53...
The problem is that all those people regarded as "giants" have written their books over a very long time. You cant just say that there arent really great rookies around the last few years because they may need another 20 years to build their place in the world of SF
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
Hugo Gernsback, who founded "Amazing Stories" in 1926, was arguably the most important Editor in Science Fiction History, although John Campbell is neck-and-neck with Hugo, and has his own award, which is co-presented with the Hugo at the same World Science Fiction Conventions. It's instructive to put The Hugo Awards in context with all the other awards given to Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and related books, stories, and films of 2003, and other years of the decade. See: Best Books of 2003 although that page loads slowly, as it reviews many nominated books, short fiction, films, TV and other things of our decade. It's embedded in a site that comes up in the Top 5 according to Google and Yahoo for keyword "science fiction."
Connie Willis is a very tallented writer, having written excellent novels as well as some incredible short stories.
Of course by the time the 2053 Hugo awards come out we'll know exactly who the "giants" were in 2003. It seems a bit silly to think that there aren't writers as good today as there were 50 years ago. We might not see a Shakespeare every generation but there are plenty of good stories and authors to write them.