Nebula Award Winners, Hugo Nominees Announced 122
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."
Hugo 2003 - Short Form Dramatic (Score:5, Interesting)
Firefly - Cancelled (and it was just getting fun)
Enterprise - Might be cancelled soon
Buffy - Wrapping up the series? (don't watch it, but recall the wife mentioning it.)
Should it be seen as a sign of the times that the nominees are all either going or gone? Makes you wonder about the intelligence of the masses. Oh wait, we already know about the intelligence of the masses.
The problem with network TV shows. (Score:5, Insightful)
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
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.
reality television (Score:2)
I think this just goes to demonstrate your point even further, that networks are only thinking short-term these days.
Is there not a single competent businessman among the bunch? A competent businessman would think long-term instead of going after sho
Re:reality television (Score:2)
Re:reality television (Score:2)
The thing is, "competent businessmen" these days are defined as those that only think about the short term. After all, that's what gets them the big bonuses, and when things start going all wahoonie-shaped, all the decision-makers can bail out with their golden parachutes and leave everyone else to die. Sacrificing short-term profits, even a little, for long-term stability and growth and an even bigger payoff ten years down the road is seen as stupid, unprofitable, irresponsible, and professional suicide.
stupid AC (Score:2)
Idiot, fucking idiot, you completely missed the fucking point! Dramas take YEARS to get large followings. If they were competent, they'd be supporting shows that had a chance of being really good, instead they go and cancel everything that isn't an instant cash infusion.
When the reality shit bombs, they will have nothing keeping them stable for year
Re:The problem with network TV shows. (Score:3, Interesting)
Vote for firefly! (Score:2)
Re:Vote for firefly! (Score:4, Informative)
The Hugo Awards are awarded by members of that year's World Science Fiction Convention, which this year is Torcon 3 [torcon3.on.ca] in Toronto.
If you just want to vote without attending the convention, you can buy a supporting membership. It's rather pricey ($40 US), but you get some other perqs. The attending membership is $185 US.
I went to the Chicago Worldcon a few years back. It was a blast! Expensive, but fun.
Mod parent up (Score:2)
Re:Hugo 2003 - Short Form Dramatic (Score:3, Interesting)
A Night in Sickbay [firsttvdrama.com] and Carbon Creek [firsttvdrama.com] are absolutely atrocious and pretty bad, respectively. Neither is a shining example of drama.
Do read the links, and note that while there is some continuity criticism that you might be willing to ignore for the sake of a Hugo (though even that should count again
Re:Hugo 2003 - Short Form Dramatic (Score:1)
Re:Hugo 2003 - Short Form Dramatic (Score:2)
I don't care if he's Hitler, his criticisms seem valid to me. I didn't browse around much more of the site, proto-sci-fi Universes don't interest me, they're a dime a dozen. I've got one myself. Until they make it to a final product I've got better things to do.
Re:Hugo 2003 - Short Form Dramatic (Score:2, Interesting)
Color Me Unsuprised (Score:2)
I don't have an opinion on Kiln People because I haven't read it and probably never will. But your review sums up my reaction to the last couple of Brin books I've read. Like many "hard" SF writers, Brin has two nasty flaws: he
Umm where's Alias? Whatever. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Umm where's Alias? Whatever. (Score:3, Insightful)
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 m
Re:Umm where's Alias? Whatever. (Score:2)
Umm. (Score:1)
American Gods (Score:1)
Re:American Gods (Score:1)
Re:American Gods (Score:2)
'awesome' ? Um don't think so. You know, when it was released and everyone was talking about it I got really enthused and went to various bookstores looking for it here (in au). Nope. No luck. Never heard of him. No sign of him on the bookshelves at all in the SF section. Finally, found a copy at a discount table in a supermarket at 1/3 normal price. Read it and ... it was ok, well written ... but as SF ? Eh. Not impressed, well not as SF novel of the year thats for sure! In fact it reminded me of R.L. Laff
Long form presentation (Score:3, Funny)
Charles Stross (Score:3, Informative)
Go Charlie! [antipope.org]
Apart from writing great science fiction Charlie writes the Linux column in the UK's Computer Shopper magazine.
is it me... (Score:1)
Don't get me wrong, i love sci-fi and fantasy. But some of the shows up for awards in the hugos, don't deserve any type of nomination or recognition. As for the nebula awards, I don't get to read much(I am too lazy, and I grew up in america so I don't know how to read), but shouldn't critical
Re:is it me... (Score:1)
Hey, with a book it makes more sense. you need a lot more time to read a book than to watch a movie. If a movie sucks, you lost 2 hours. if you try to finish a novel for 3 weeks only to find out it doest get better, well then you lost a lot more time....
So you want some kind of review/award system to see the gems of the genere, but if "conventional" media either ignores or geekifies all the stuff, you need special awards.
HEy, it only
Re:is it me... (Score:1)
As for genre descrimination, I think that would be taken care of somewhat if awards were done in a similar fashion to dog shows. each genre as its awa
Re:American Gods - Highly Overrated (Score:2, Informative)
I thought it was a brilliant book that demanded a lot and gave a lot back. Also Ghodammned funny.
Re:American Gods - Highly Overrated (Score:1)
Re:American Gods - Highly Overrated (Score:1)
Farscape and Others Forgotten (Score:4, Insightful)
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:Farscape and Others Forgotten (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, Firefly was already quite good in its first season. The acting and writing was very good, and the crew really had excellent chemistry. It is true that the show did not really have a strong plot (it was just starting to get into the main story), but the characters were already well defined and joy to watch. There was a good amount of mystery that definitely added to the enjoyment. Unfortunately, we will never get to see where they were going.
I have over the years watched less and less television due to the poor quality of the nearly every show until Firefly came along. I did not watch it because of Whedon. I had very little experience with any of his shows, and being somewhat anit-vampires, his name was actually more of a detriment in my mind (misguided or not). I watched the show because I was hoping to find a good sci-fi show that I could really get into, and I did. In my mind, the quality of the show had little to do with names but rather the care put into the dialog, the attention to detail (no sound in space), and the incredible acting and chemistry (especially for a first season). Its really too bad that Firefly is gone for good.
Re:Farscape and Others Forgotten (Score:2)
Re:Farscape and Others Forgotten (Score:1)
If you don't join and vote, you have zero right to bitch about it.
You don't even have to buy a full membership and fly to those cities, you can just buy a simple voting membership.
I feel really old :-( (Score:5, Interesting)
But my dilemma is this, I've read all Sci-Fi/Fantasy from Asimov, Niven, Vance, but have not yet finished all the works of the old masters.
Can any younger (or at least more flexible) Slashdot reader suggest a few authors that they've read and liked? I don't want to get into serials right now, perhaps something that is sort of standalone would be better as an introduction to a new author, I think.
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:2)
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1)
Speaker for the dead (the second in the Enders series) is my favorite. It starts slow, methodically laying out the backstory, but crescendos into a very satisfying ending. I think Card's discussion of a network that could be considered an intelligent "alien" lifeform
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:3, Informative)
David Drake - Great Military SF.
Jerry Pournelle - But I'm sure he is one of the "others".
John Ringro - I just started on some of his stuff and he is *good*.
Neal Stephenson - Great just plain great.
David Brin, Greg Bear,
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1)
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1)
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:2)
Robert Forward. (Classic hard SF with new technology.)
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:2)
Orson Scott Card - some of the more interesting books I have read (pastwatch, ender's game, homecoming series)
Iain (M.) Banks - Banks is in my opinion one of the most underated writers of the day. With (sci-fi) or without (reg. fiction) the 'M.' his books are very good. Particulaly Excession, Player of Games, and The Crow Road, and The Wasp Factory.
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:3, Informative)
I'm not sure what you call old scifi. I put in that category authors not because I think their stories looks like watching 2001, but because I grew knowing them so I don't remember when I first read something from them. In that category I put maybe modern writers like Greg Bear, Samuel Delany, Daniel Keyes, John Brunner or Alfred Bester, and all of them have good books.
For a list of what I have
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1)
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1)
Neil Gaman - More fantasy than sci-fi, but intelligent and very entertaining. Start with "Stardust". It's a quick read, and even my wife enjoyed it
Bruce Sterling - He's not exactly new, but definitely more recent than Asimov and Niven. "Schismatrix" is a impressive and original piece of sci-fi.
Neil Stephenson - Stephenson has b
My take on Stephenson's work (Score:3, Informative)
Zodiac was pretty good. Strong narrative, some good characters. You can see the emergence of some geek-friendly themes. It lacks the absolute truckloads of storytelling talent he lavishes on subsequent books, but for many writers this would be their best book ever.
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:5, Informative)
To my amazement, no-one has mentioned Vernor Vinge yet. His last two novels, _A Fire Upon The Deep_ and _A Deepness In The Sky_ are absolutely superb. They both won both Hugo and Nebula, iirc.
Another author I like is Greg Egan. Try _Diaspora_ and/or _Permutation City_. His ideas are way out there, but always very interesting.
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1)
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:3, Informative)
First, you should check out the Internet Top 100 SF/Fantasy List [geocities.com], which does contain many of the classics you've read, but also has a lot of newer authors you haven't read. It also usually has a number of classics from authors such as Lem and Strugatsky that you may not know.
I agree with most of the suggestions given in this thread so far. I'd also suggest looking into: "Diaspora", Greg Egan; "A Fire Upon The Deep", Vernor Vinge; The Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe.
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:2)
Give Wil McCarthy's The Collapsium a try. It reads very much like Niven and Asimov at their best. You might also like some of David Weber's stand-alone books (Path of the Fury, The Apocalypse Troll). Greg Bear might interest you, though one must be careful - some of his books are great, while others are absolutely terrible. I found Moving Mars to be one of the best, having both interesting ideas and good writing. You might also like Timothy Zahn's Manta's Gift or Angelmass - again, they have a similar feel
Re:Greg Bear (Score:3, Insightful)
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
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:2)
Remember, this is the age where excruciatingly bad D&D novels are popular and are considered to be 'fantasy' instead of 'product placement ads'. With a few exceptions (George R. R. Martin comes to mind) the 'oldies but goodies' are pretty much still the best the market h
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1)
1. Orson Scott Card - I have to plan on not sleeping when I purchase one of his books, I just read them until they are done to the exclusion of all else.
2. Neil Gaiman - American Gods is well worth the time.
3. Tim Powers - nearly always a new story
4. Tonya Huff - mental junk-food but the good kind
5. Laurell K. Hamilton - Ann Rice with what is usually a different story every book
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:2)
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. One of the best ways to discover new, good authors is to check out awards lists and award nominees. I've been reading SF since the late sixties, and most of my favorite new authors I've discovered in the last quarter century or so have come off of award nominee lists. Of course, I proba
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1)
David Weber, the "Honor Harrington" series. Excellent military s-f, do not miss it.
Sherri Tepper ("Gate to Women's Country" is quite apropos right now, and I really liked "Fresco." But these may be too feminist for some)
C.S. Friedman--brilliant! Especially "This Alien Shore."
Elizabeth Moon, "Deed of Paksenarrion" is very good, but long (and you can hear the dice rolling in the background from time to time in book one), and th
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1)
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1)
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1)
Then again no one has mentioned Kilgore Trout in any of all this name dropping.
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1)
Despite its many problems, I also like Amazon for this stuff. I bought most of my classic SF from them and the "recommendations" they offered introduced me to a lot of the writers suggested by others here. I also like to look at the lists at Amazon especially ones that include my favorite books and try to read the other stuff in the lists.
In additio
Re:I feel really old :-( (Score:1)
I also like his short stories.
However I am biased as I have known him since I was a little kid hiding under my partents tables at various sci-fi con dealer rooms.
Re:Buffy is like Jar-Jar... (Score:1)
hugo nomination (Score:3, Interesting)
FYI: SF's Trade Paper (Score:5, Informative)
It also has a disturbingly complete necrology [locusmag.com] of recently deceased members of the SF community. It seems like every other headline is "So & so dies," but that's to be expected with all the graying pulp era artists, writers, and fans.
lotr or spirited away... (Score:2)
And Nemesis isn't up for one. How strange. (ha.)
Contratulations Richard! (Score:1)
<blatant plug>
If any Sci-Fi or Horror fans visit Chicago, come to Twilight Tales [twilighttales.com] on Monday night for Chicago's longest running (10 years) genre specific reading group.
</blantant plug>
Ursula K. Le Guin wins Grand Master Status (Score:2)
Michael Swanwick (Score:1)
Looks like Michael Swanwick got a lot of nominations this year. I hope he picks up a Hugo or two, he's a great underrated writer.
Check out Stations of the Tide if you haven't read any of his stuff yet. Great book, very much in the vein of The Void Captian's Tale by Norman Spinrad.
American Gods question (Score:1)
Ted Chiang declined Hugo nomination? (Score:1)
Re:I'm glad Ian McLeod didn't read anything (Score:3, Interesting)
That's an amusing troll; it's a little too reactionary to be convincing, however.
For what it's worth, China Miéville, who was nominated, is considerably further to the "left" than Ian McLeod; in fact Mr Miéville has stood for Parliament on behalf of a political party you would no doubt dub "sophomoric Marxist".
Not everyone subscribes to the last-man-standing-wins model of American capitalism.
Re:I'm glad Ian McLeod didn't read anything (Score:2)
So in the original sense of the word, those who subscribe to the last-man-standing-wins model of American capitalism are "idiotes," or private people unconcerned with civic responsibility.
Re:I'm glad Ian McLeod didn't read anything (Score:2)
Yes, my hauling out the ancient Greek definition of the word "idiot" in this case is a variation of the old "I'm rubber, you're glue" argument, but it fits the situation. You were being infantile, I was infantile right back, but it sounded smart, unlike you're original insult, which sounded, well, idiotic.
Re:I'm glad Ian McLeod didn't read anything (Score:1)
I hope this is a troll.
"Americans bad. Capitalism bad. Socialism good. Drugs good. High technology cool, but the best technology (computers and aerospace) is American. Don't ask us to reconcile that." - you seriously can't think of what sort of people might subscribe to these views?
"I'm glad to see the Nebula voters have voted for right-thinking, American-proud authors like Gaimain, and avoided socialist anti-American clap-trap like McLeod[.]" Sorry, have I missed something, do the Klan and NRA write sc
Re:I'm glad Ian McLeod didn't read anything (Score:4, Interesting)
Ian Mcleod is a socialist and has written some pretty intersting stuff about how the future might work if you do not accept the inevitability of near-future societies that are nation-state economies driven by Capitalism. He nails the US, because of its arch-Capitalist nature, and ironically tags the UN as behoven to the US.
I guess he got pretty fed up with seeing the future solely portrayed as a Captialist utopia, something which he disagrees with. It's nothing personal, just another point of view.
bah! (Score:3, Insightful)
I should clarify (Score:1)
Yah shunt've messed with Clan McLeod, boyo (Score:1)
Re:I'm glad Ian McLeod didn't read anything (Score:4, Insightful)
LOL! Neil Gaiman is British.
Re:I'm glad Ian McLeod didn't read anything (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Newflash (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Newflash (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Newflash (Score:4, Insightful)
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:Newflash (Score:4, Interesting)
And IMHO, its found it in Wil McCarthy. If you haven't read The Collapsium, do so now. Reasonably hard science fiction by someone who can actually write? Sign me up!
Seriously, there's a lot of good new science fiction and space opera authors popping up recently. Some good fantasy authors too. Most are still finding their way and struggling to stand out amidst the tide of mindless Tolkien clones and talentless hacks, but they are there. And then there's older space opera/sci-fi authors, like Bujold, that're still doing good work. I think the '90s was the slow decade, and what we're seeing now is a resurgance.
As for TV, give up on the American networks already. They haven't produced anything worthwhile since Next Generation and Babylon-5, and they're not going to anytime soon. Not while they treat the viewer as an inconvenient obstacle between them and their money and use legislation instead of innovation to protect their revenue. Turn to Japan for your sci-fi TV fix, and watch shows like Crest of the Stars (and Banner of the Stars, and the other soon-to-follow sequel series), Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Gundam, Macross, and the new Ghost in the Shell TV series.
(Anime sci-fi shows named off the top of my head. There's a couple dozen other great ones you can find if you look.)
Re:Newflash (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Newflash (more anime) (Score:1)
Re:Newflash (more anime) (Score:2)
Been watching that, but I didn't mention it here. Its more steampunk or fantasy than science fiction so far. There are others that are borderline sci-fi, but they tend to be more "X in space". (Stellvia, for example, feels a lot like Azumanga in space.)
Re:Newflash (Score:2)
There should be an award for "Best Publishing Innovation of the Year."
SB
New (sorta) Zelazny! (Score:2)
Pretty clearly a Zelanzy plot with Lindskold doing all of the writing, but it wasn't bad overall. (It helps that I like Chinese mythos stuff, even if this wasn't very Chinese.)
Let me also second Aliaster Renyolds as someone picking up the slack: Revelation Space and Chasm City aren't bad at all.