Nebula Award Winners, Hugo Nominees Announced

CBNobi writes "The 2002 Nebula Award winners have been announced this weekend. The winner for best novel was American Gods by Neil Gaiman (reviewed here at Slashdot), and the winner for best script was LotR:The Fellowship of the Ring. The nominees for the 2003 Hugo Awards have also been announced; Episodes of Enterprise, Firefly, and Buffy are all nominated for best short form dramatic presentation, and LotR and Spirited Away are among the nominees for best long form presentation."

The problem with network TV shows.

[MtViewGuy]

Unfortunately, it also says way too much about how short-sighted TV executives are nowadays.

TV executives frequently do not like hour-long dramas due to the high cost of production per hour; they still (unfortunately for us TV viewers :( ) like reality shows because reality shows have relatively low cost of production per hour. Even with its exotic locales, the best-known reality show (Survivor) is still a bargain compared to shows like the now-cancelled Firefly, the soon-to-end Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, and the potentially-cancelled Enterprise.

The days of a network letting a show find its audience are long over. You'll never see anything like how NBC allowed Hill Street Blues to eventually become a big hit again.

Umm where's Alias? Whatever.

[Kibo]

I guess the Joss Whedon, Rick Berman & Brannon Braga mutual admiration society didn't leave any room for something watchable.

Re:Newflash

[andy666]

no it's really just the opposite. people treat "art" as this holy thing that isn't supposed to be something enjoyable.

Re:Newflash

[bsartist]

I think it was actually a fairly slow year for SF. Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Years of Rice and Salt" got good reviews, but for me it dragged - I couldn't even finish it. Maybe I'll try again. David Brin's "Kiln People" was better, but it wasn't his best.

To be honest, I think it's been a slow decade for SF. Many of the Great Ones of the genre - from Asimov to Zelazny - are gone, and the younger generation seems to still be searching for its voice.

Re:I'm glad Ian McLeod didn't read anything

[bsartist]

I'm glad to see the Nebula voters have voted for right-thinking, American-proud authors like Gaimain

LOL! Neil Gaiman is British.

Farscape and Others Forgotten

[derrickh]

Enterprise gets 2 nominations and Whedon gets 3?
How about dumping the Trek spinoffs and put a couple of episodes of Farscape in. I'll put 'Prayer' up agaist 'Night in SickBay' any day of the week. And 'Carbon Creek' pales up against 'Kansas'.

Also, this shows you how important mindshare is. By many peoples account, Firefly was a show with potential, but it wasn't really good yet. But Whedon's name on it made people believe that it has to be great and deserves an award.

Solaris was easily the most 'sci-fi' movie of the year but Spiderman gets a nod instead?

D

Re:Umm where's Alias? Whatever.

[Jerf]

I'd have a hard time calling Alias sci-fi. The only sci-fi aspects (rather then fairly realistic and current science) are the Rambaldi storylines, and given what we've seen so far, I'm more inclined to call that fantasy then sci-fi.

It's a hard call because that storyline is so small and not-well exposited (to keep it mysterious) that you can't get a "feel" for it. I call it fantasy because right now the artifacts are basically working like magic, returning life to long-dead things and so on.

I admit that my current #1 theory to explain Rambaldi is that he is indeed a space alien who couldn't or wouldn't go home, but that's my theory, not official show theory. ;-)

bah!

[Ender Ryan]

I put down Cosmonaut Keep. It was just ridiculously silly and blatantly attacking America. I myself strongly criticize America, my home, because it is deserving of a lot of criticism with freedoms being abridged recklessly by some. But that book was ridiculous, and McLeod's socialist ideas were... juvenile.

Re:Greg Bear

[RickHunter]

I'd disagree about Eon, though that's most likely me getting fed up with cold-war-era sci-fi at about the time I read it. Some interesting ideas, but I think the writing quality was poor. I agree about avoiding Anvil of Stars - avoid, avoid, avoid! Slant is also pretty bad, it reads like an attempt to jump onto the nanotech/biotech bandwagon of the time. Songs of Earth and Power was amazing, but its really fantasy, not sci-fi. Still, its a great story, with some very interesting ideas.

Bear's amazing when he allows himself to be himself. (Songs, Moving Mars) When he tries to jump on a trend (Anvil, Slant), he sucks.