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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."
Everybody who likes SciFi should read a bit of Iain M Banks (Iain Banks (same author without the 'M') writes pretty dark, non-genre books, very good, but nothing compared to his SciFi).
Most of his SciFi books are based on 'The Culture' which is basically the human race in a few thousand years. VCool tech. and Uber-Cool Space Ship names ('Meat Fucker') is the nick-name other ships have given to one particular ship, 'cause it likes to read the minds of humans.
If you're going to read any of his books, read 'The Player of Games'. Amazing read. (Tiny spoiler...) There is a bit where the lead finds out about a very dark side to the race who he is 'Playing' with. From that point, he stops talking. Then only when he has taken apart the next few players does he speak. Iain M Banks is truely a very great under-appreciated author. READ HIM.
I'm not done with Iron Sunrise yet, so I'll refrain (but it is really really good so far). I did finish Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and found the core story was imaginative and the characters were pretty engaging. I thought Strange was actually more distant in terms of visualization than Norrell - for some reason I could picture the latter and hear his voice much more readily than the supposedly more approachable and contemporary Strange. She didn't rush the story (even at page 800) and there were not any useless passages: everything had a bearing on at least one aspect of each storyline.
One book that is not mentioned here that I highly recommend is Dan Simmons' Ilium. This was a 12-hour read - problem was, it was 12 straight hours because I couldn't put the damn thing down!!
when it rains, it gets real soggy. when it pours, i'm under the tap just _waiting_ for the joy
I believe this year marks a significant milestone in SF history. Unless I am very mistaken, this is the very first year that none of the Best Novel nominees are American. All of them are from the UK and we have representatives from Scotland, England, and Ireland. I'd vote for either Susanna Clarke or China Mieville but any of those novels are more deserving than some of the garbage that has won in recent years. I'm looking at you, "Hominids".
This just reinforces my impression that American SF is stagnant while all the real action these days is taking place across the pond. Great stuff, and I hope American authors take this as a kick in the pants to stop rehashing the same old material and start showing a little imagination.
I'm a big fan of Iain Banks, but I'm surprised to hear that The Algebraist has been nominated. Although it's well written technically, it's hardly as innovative as his Culture novels. It's a very poor book in terms of plot on the whole unlike his other sci-fi and fiction work.
I found myself questioning the space opera characters very early on. I mean a baddie with diamond teeth and red eyes! I mean really! Surely an author of his calibre can make a villain despicable beyond the all too familar plot abbreviations.
I'm disappointed that Richard Morgan didn't get a mention for Market Forces.
Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.
Will somebody atleast now start selling 'The Algebraist' in the US??
I've been waiting to get my hands on that book for a long time.
I also predict that the winner won't be American. Yeah, this is the first year that no American was nominated for best novel. 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.
Incidentally, here's a really good round-up of the best SF/Fantasy novels published last year: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.wr itten/msg/4ab6c83b0b234305
Not that you'd notice - King Rat is so similar to Neverwhere, it's ridiculous.
Yes, you are correct.
However, remember to extend this logic and not discount the quality of something just because it is popular. It's funny that a sibling post mentions The Da Vinci Code, because as soon as I had finished reading your post, I thought to myself "Someone's gonna say 'yeah like The Da Vinci code!'".
FWIW, I thought that The Da Vinci Code was a good book. Not because I believed that most of presented conspiracies and other 'facts' were true, but because, well, it's a damn good story, pure fiction or not. The current religious controversy is irrelevant as far as the story itself is concerned. Reading it was reminiscient of 'reading time' at junior school, when the teacher would relay a great adventure about a detective or similar character that was filled with excitement and danger. I read the book when it was popular yet still nothing out of the ordinary in terms of sales (i.e. before the sales explosion and the related newspaper articles, religious outcries etc.). It felt like reading a film script throughout, and I was not at all surprised when I heard Hollywood got its paws on it.
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.
To regress back to the original point, people who automatically turn their noses up at popularity annoy me just as much as those who blindly follow it. Like everything in life, it's all about balance (see my sig). And to the AC sibling: I wasn't trying to make an accusation, if you read TDVC and genuinely thought it sucked, good for you.
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
"American SF is stagnant while all the real action these days is taking place across the pond. Great stuff, and I hope American authors take this as a kick in the pants to stop rehashing the same old material and start showing a little imagination."
The problem with American SF is that it has become too commercialized. Example? Easy one. I give you "Star Trek" under Roddenberry. And then Star Trek under Berman.
The publishers have the whip hand. This has gone back at least a double decade. If trilogys are the "in", thing this year, the thing seen as marketable, then that's what they'll try to squeeze out of you. Are dragons "in". Then write about dragons.
The result is McBooks. What do you expect?
To get out from under this, you need to have made your bones. You need to be a Harry Turtledove, or an S.F. Stirling, or an author of similar stature.
The only publisher I know who doesn't stoop to this is Baen. Which is one reason Baen has developed a stable of some of the best writers in the business. Dave Drake and Eric Flint are two cases very much in point.
As for the Hugos, I've ignored them for 20 years. The people who cast the votes are the ones condiotioned to swallow the sort of crap outfits like DelRey and Tor like to churn out. So the work that captures the plaudits tends to be garbage.
Read my novel then, please -- it's old-fashioned in some ways, but also on the forefront in other ways. It's free on line, and it was published in both the US and the UK. Hugo nominations are made by the past worldcon attendees and members of the new worldcon...in Glasgow, Scottland. There's going to be a pro-Brit bias in the nominations this year.
And I like many of the newer Brit writers, but I would not call American Sf in the "doldrums."
Professor of Astronomy, Author of Spider Star & Star Dragon (Tor)
Robert Sawyer's HOMINIDS was nominated and won the Hugo when Worldcon was in Toronto (Sawyer is Canadia). Worldcon members nominate the Hugos, and there are a lot from the UK this year since the next Worldcon is in Scotland. There are many fine British writers, and probably all the novels nominated here deserve their nominations, but it doesn't mean British SF is better than American SF right now necessarily (a whole thread above). It means a few hundred people, with more UK people compared to Americans than usual, like these 5 books best. From what I've read of and about these authors, you can't go wrong here. If the next Worldcon was in the US, I'd expect several of these books to make it, but perhaps a few American books on the list -- somewhat a matter of different tastes and somewhat a matter of different distributions.
Professor of Astronomy, Author of Spider Star & Star Dragon (Tor)