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."

Comments

At last, Iain M Banks gets a bit of recognition

[daveed]

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.

Re:At last, Iain M Banks gets a bit of recognition

[PxM]

Even though he wasn't nominated for a Culture novel, I agree with the parent that his writing kicks ass. I suggest his essay, A Few Notes on the Culture, as quick intro about it. IMO, the best book is Excession but all of his Culture novels are amazing. They detail life in a post-scarcity ("money is a sign of poverty") civilization which is utopian by many standards. When many sci-fi books show AI as being human level sophonts (Star Wars, Asimov, etc) Banks has his AIs operating orders of magnitude above humans yet he still makes humans feel like an important part of the universe. Of all the science fiction I've read, the universe created by Banks is by far the coolest.

I haven't read the novel in question, but if his Culture books are any indication of this novel's quality, it will be just as amazing and worthy of the Hugo.

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Re:At last, Iain M Banks gets a bit of recognition

[Wyatt Earp]

Books and the setting are great. His is the only Sci-Fi I read these days.

Some notes/corrections to your post.

The Culture is NOT the human race. The Humanoids in the Culture are from across this Galaxy, but if they've made contact with Humanity on Earth is alluded to in a post-scrip to one of the early Culture novels. Basicly Humanoids that can inter-breed are widespread across the Galaxy, a reason for this is alcohol, mentioned while a character was drunk and in jest.

There are many species in Culture, a large percentage of them are humanoid with various differences, but mostly like us.

AI have been given full rights in Culture and it's late shards, on a sliding scale of rights vs. sentience.

Player of Games is a good start for the setting, Extension I liked the least.

Totally unsolicted review

[dlasley]

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!!

A Hugo First: The British Invasion

[Justinian II]

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.

Predictions, etc.

[Pikathulhu]

A friend and I routinely bet on Hugo winners. Three months ago, I bet that Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell would win the Hugo for best novel in 2004. I'm glad to see it made the nominee list, and knowing the other novels, I still think JS&MN will win. It's fantasy, but that's OK under Hugo rules, and no other SF/Fantasy novel got 1/10th as many favorable reviews last year. If you enjoy fantasy, Jane Austen, and Neil Gaiman, then you'll definitely like it too.

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