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2007 Hugo Award Winners Announced

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the come-on-down dept.

jX writes "This year's Hugo Award Winners have been announced at the recently launched Hugo Award official website. Some winners that should be familiar to any well read/watched geek are Vernor Vinge for Best Novel, Doctor Who for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form), and last years hit movie Pan's Labyrinth for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. Of course, a complete list of this year's nominees and winners is also available."

8 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Rainbows End by savala · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I read Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End last year, and wrote the following about it:

    I expected it to be good, but it's gone way far above and beyond any expectations I harboured. Everything it did, it did perfectly right. The people living this story have become gloriously real, the story captivated me more and more with each passing chapter (building up to an awesome conclusion), there were real emotions, chillingly shocking and yet hopeful visions of the future as it could be, and through it all, the sense that everything in this book was written by someone who really knows what he's talking about.

    The technology predictions in this book won't stand the test of time. Two years from now they'll still be valid, but five years from now they'll already be decidedly quaint. Still, as someone very famous once said, science fiction isn't about the future, it's about the present. And I think there's very few people who understand the present as well as Vinge does. And I can pretty much guarantee that even when the technology predictions are considered not just quaint but hilariously outdated, this book will still be read and enjoyed - simply because it's an awesome book with an awesome story.

    You're looking at the clear winner of next year's Hugo and Nebula Awards.

    Ok, so I was wrong about the Nebula. Can't win them all. :)

    I can also highly recommend this book to everyone here at slashdot. It's the kind of book most of us will be able to relate to. A book by a geek who understands not only technology, but also the social implications thereof.

  2. Blink! by radarsat1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I thought "Blink" was by far the best Dr. Who episode this season.. can't believe it wasn't listed there.
    Anyways, are they really canceling this show after next season?? I do hope it continues.

    1. Re:Blink! by SpooForBrains · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you liked the episode, be sure to read "What I Did on My Holidays" by Sally Sparrow, the short story on which the episode was based. It was a favourite in our house before the episode was made - the kids really loved it.

      --
      "The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
  3. They need some new categories. by foniksonik · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There should be:

    Best Video Game - Console/PC

    Best Video Game - Web

    Best Machina - Short

    Best Machina - Long

    Best Interactive - Website

    Best Interactive - Microsite

    Essentially there are a lot more formats available for Sci-Fi/Fantasy creative works than there used to be. Let's give those people awards for their contributions.

    --
    A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  4. Re:Pan's Labyrinth by Briareos · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Am I the only one to think that every movie that was nominated besides Pan's Labyrinth was a lot better and should've won instead?

    In my book, Pan's Labyrinth was a jumbled, incoherent mess of a story that ultimately went nowhere. Sorry, but WW2 war stories and that kind of fairy tale fantasy just don't mix well, and Pan's Labyrinth was hopping from being one to the other all the time and in the end fell flat on both accounts.

    All the other movies at least told their story well, but when I watched Pan's Labyrinth in the cinema it was just one big "Huh?" distributed over 2 hours. Granted, it wasn't "Night Watch" *shudder* bad, but bad nonetheless... :(

    (And scary? What the freak was scary about it?)

    np: Señor Coconut Y Su Conjunto - Showroom Dummies (Cha-Cha-Cha) (El Baile Alemán)

    --

    "I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole

  5. Re:Pan's Labyrinth by Don_dumb · · Score: 3, Insightful

    British, as much as we scorn at American culture, we aren't much better. If at all.

    --
    If this were really happening, what would you think?
  6. Re:Pan's Labyrinth by Don_dumb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Am I the only one to think that every movie that was nominated besides Pan's Labyrinth was a lot better and should've won instead?

    In my book, Pan's Labyrinth was a jumbled, incoherent mess of a story that ultimately went nowhere. Sorry, but WW2 war stories and that kind of fairy tale fantasy just don't mix well, and Pan's Labyrinth was hopping from being one to the other all the time and in the end fell flat on both accounts.
    You're not thinking at all, it was about the Spanish civil war, not WW2. So I would assert that the film was intellectually above you. I am not going to explain why the two stories make sense together because that would spoil the film for those who are just reading this thread. But I suggest you read the imdb.com summaries.
    --
    If this were really happening, what would you think?
  7. Re:Pan's Labyrinth by cygnusx · · Score: 2, Insightful

    > Spanish is my native language, maybe that's why I was able to follow the movie from beginning to end, it was like poetry.

    I don't speak Spanish and my only other Spanish-language film has been Y Tu Mama Tambien, but I can tell you that you didn't need to understand Spanish to get the poetry of Pan's Labyrinth.

    For the first ten minutes I thought it was going to be a Narnia-wannabe, and then I realized that this fairy-tale was fucked up, and I saw what the director was doing counterposing the equally fucked up real world against the fairy tale (note: this film doesn't do PG-13 action scenes. You *will* feel disturbed watching some of the real world action unless you are borderline psycho.) Still, it was a fairy tale, I reasoned, and happily waited for the happy ending. It never came. Or did it? The fairy tale did end happily after all -- the princess went back to her father and lived happily ever after. How the viewer chooses to understand this is his own business, but the cognitive dissonance created in this film is par excellence.

    And oh -- the sparingly used monsters in this film are *way* more intense than the relatively bland CGI creatures being turned out by Hollywood (see for example Narnia and now The Golden Compass).

    And this doesn't even begin to cover the talented actors, especially Ivana Baquero, and the excellent music.

    I do realize this film isn't for everyone -- it requires the viewer to connect emotionally with the characters on-screen. But the director makes it really, really easy to do this given the quality of the work.