Slashdot Mirror
2005 Hugo Nominations
COBOLgrrl writes " The 2005 Hugo Nominations have been announced. Books up for Best Novel include The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks, Iron Council by China Miéville , Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and River of Gods by Ian McDonald."
Maybe I'm just not, "in the loop", but I don't know of many online awards given. I don't like the concept of afew select people voting on who to give the prize to, I'd rather have open online voting. I'd also like to see more writing contests (again maybe I just missed them). By the way Ian McDonald is amazing.
Remember, popularity != quality. Just because something is popular doesn't prevent it from being, for example, pandering tripe.
And you know how english majors are.
In my opinion, China Melville is overrated as an author. His Perdido Street Station was the "it" book of 2001, but after I finished reading it, I couldn't help but wonder what the big deal was.
Granted, he has an excellent sense of the phantasmagoric and his worldbuilding skills are certainly impressive, but as an author, he just doesn't have the chops. His characters are almost too angst-ridden to move in a forward direction, and his plots read like a bad slasher flicks.
Take away his word processor and give him a job as a conceptual designer. Everyone will be happier in the long run.
From last summer's reading list
Finished:
Perdido Street Station - China Melville
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
The Golden Age - John C. Wright
Pattern Recognition - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
Manifold Series - Stephen Baxtor
Currently Reading:
King Rat - Neil Gaiman
Still to Go:
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
Some other Authors I follow
David Bin, Ben Bova, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Frederik Pohl.
I find the quality of my reading much better on average following Slashdot suggestions rather than randomly picking books by title and pretty covers at Barnes & Noble.
Didn't quite care for Pattern Recognition, so just one clunker for me -- maybe I just didn't get it, I wanted more of a well defined plot.
Taking inordinate pride in making through all 1130 pages of Cyrptonomicon, but after you make it past the first 300 pages you'll find yourself screaming through it.
Letter To Iran
Couldn't agree more. US science fiction has degenerated into a set of seemingly endless soap operas. A good idea and some strong characters which are maybe good for three books are recycled again and again, each installment written to the same formula, each incidental character getting their own sub-plot, each story line stretched out endlessly with no conclusion in sight.
I'm not going to name names but, apropos of nothing, I miss the days when Weber was a type of carburettor, not an anti-insomnia treatment.
Compare with the 'Culture' novels; they might all be set in the same universe, but they can stand on their own and are all very different novels.
And how about the politics? If US writers are to be believed the only choice is between high-frontier Libertidiotanism or tree-hugging eco-bleeding-heartedness. Read some Iain Banks or Ken MacLeod and you'll see more political variety than just about all US science fiction put together.
It's a real shame, because US science fiction used to be the best in the world.
Sometimes it's not clear that the Hugos are for sci-fi in all forms, not just the written form. For example take the category Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form Nominated are: Heroes Part 1 & 2 - Stargate SG-1 Not Fade Away - Angel Pilot Episode - Lost Smile Time - Angel 33 - Battlestar Galactica And of course, 33 will win, but don't get me started on being off topic.
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups. -- 0 1 My two bits
"The Hugo Award® is the leading award for excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy. The Hugos are awarded each year by the World Science Fiction Society, at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). All members are entitled to make nominations and to vote on who receives the Awards, which are presented in a public ceremony which is always one of the highlights of the Worldcon. "
And a "Harry Potter" book has won it. A "Harry Potter" film has been nominated for this year.
Peter Hamilton, Alistair Reynolds, Neal Asher and Richard Morgan haven't.
You Judge...
Lest someone else think there was an Angel episode called "Lost Smile Time," here is a possibly less inept method for listing the nominees: "Heroes" Part 1 & 2, Stargate SG-1; "Not Fade Away," Angel; Pilot Episode, Lost; "Smile Time," Angel; and "33," Battlestar Galactica.
Interesting that a book not even for sale in America was nominated. It's also interesting that the best contemporary SF is coming out of the UK these days. I hate it though because for most of these great authors you have to wait a year+ for their books to get released in the US (unless you want to go through the hassle of Amazon.co.uk. I think Ken MacLeod and Charlie Stross are the only exceptions to this in that they get published in the US first or within a month or so of coming out in the eU...but Richard Morgan, Alastair Reynolds, Ian Banks, etc... they come out at least a year earlier in the UK and then when they are released in the US you can never find them in any local bookstore - you have to order online. Why is it so hard to release a book simultaneously around the world? They're in the same damn language. Additionally, why do bookstores insist on carrying so much BAD SF. You can find 100 different books by L.Ron Hubbard, but not a single copy of anything by Alastair Reynolds. I enjoyed LOTR when I first read it, but do they really need an entire bookshelf full of 5 different editions of each book and a dozen other books analysing each book or character or whatever? Do they really need to carry everything Asimov or Clarke ever published? Do they really need to carry 5 copies each of book 1 through 57 of Wheel of Time? The SF section in bookstores is already so tiny and filled with way too much crappy fantasy, why do they cary so much shit when there is so much good SF around? I've been in several bookstores over the past few weeks - not a single copy of Ilium by Dan Simmons, not a single copy of Cassini Division by Ken MacLeod, not a single copy of The Family Trade by Charlie Stross, etc..... It just doesn't make any sense at all.
The Hugos usually aspire to be for SF (and fantasy) rather than sci-fi. That doesn't always happen, of course.
Sure, The 'Code is no Dickens, but then again I don't need to read the entire works of Shakespeare to validate my personal literary insecurities, like those cunts who love telling people that they've read War And Peace.
I haven't yet read The Da Vinci Code, but it might interest you that both Dickens and Shakespeare wrote what amounts to pop culture in their time. They're considered classics because they were both great writers and their works have stood the test of time. But at the time that they wrote, they were both firmly a part of popular culture.
Without having read the 'Code, I'd take a wild guess that it's not destined to become a classic. But that doesn't matter if you enjoy it, nor if millions enjoy it. It is what it is, and after reading what you wrote, I'm actually interested in reading it.
BTW, I'm not the sort of cunt who loves telling people that I've read War And Peace. I look down on those cunts. I'm the sort of cunt that loves telling people I've read Gravity's Rainbow. But then there are the cunts who love to tell people they've read Ulysses, and they tend to look down on cunts like me.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Note that the Hugo is voted on by Worldcon members, and Worldcon is in Scotland this year. So a substantial portion of the voters will be able to travel to Scotland for the con, and I believe several of these nominees are more well-known in the UK. They're all really good--don't get me wrong--but location is probably a factor in this list..
Err, no. I don't think the Worldcon's location has anything to do with it. Most Worldcon members live in the US even in years when the Worldcon isn't being held there. I've been a member of most Worldcons since 1987, but have only actually attended the ones in 1987, 1990, 1994, and 1995 -- this hasn't stopped me voting for the Hugos when I've been knowledgable about the nominees (and sometimes when I haven't!). There's this useful little invention called the postal system, you see...