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."
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.
As an English major, I agree. With everything. Blindly. Because I have no idea what I'm talking about. But as a pretentious snob, if it's popular I say it has to be pandering tripe. I mean, most people want their books to be like TV. They want it to be a sort of entertainment that's passive; that is, they don't have to engage themselves with the work. Good books, independent of genre, are often overlooked because they don't appeal to a wide audience. Now, this isn't completely true. There are a lot of great books that are widely read and enjoyed, but for the msot part, the publishing industry is an entertainment industry no different from all the others. Now, since I've been repetitive and offtopic, I'll go RTFA.
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 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