Category Archives: HugoAwards

Redshirts

By John Scalzi

The first of the Hugo nominees that I’ve finished since the Voters Packet was announced. I’ve actually read another two of them (Blackout, by Mira Grant and The Throne Of The Crescent Moon, By Saladin Ahmed, so as the remaining ones are this, Kim Stanley Robinson’s latest – ’2312′ and yet another of Bujolds seemingly endless space opera series, that leaves me with just 2312, as I wont waste my time with ‘Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance’. I forced myself through the last one up for a hugo, enough to know its not the style (hey, the 60′s are calling!), or the tail end of a very long series I was interested in. Probably unfair to the author and her work, but hey, I’m just a random guy on the internet, right?

So, Redshirts. I really liked it – the more so after it had ended the main story and I read through the codas. Scalzi has brought a number of complex issues here and done so in such a way that they seem humorous and trivial. Its an engaging, if short read, and if Ahmed’s work had not been included, I suspect it would be my front runner (sorry Grant, but as good as that work is, the amazing newness and world building was in Feed (which I still say should have won), and Redshirts is a new take).

Its the first of his works since The God Engines that I’ve read,since I’ve not revisited ‘Old Man’s war’ since the first book. His style is no longer the same as his blog, which is good, since I read a fair amount of his blog, and had trouble switching that voice off..

New Years Resolutions 2013

So.. For general ridicule, these are my resolutions for new years. Don’t normally believe in that kind of thing myself, being more of a ‘JFDI’ kind of person, however, on the theory that putting them out there make it more likely to get done..

  • Listen to music more, podcasts less (music podcasts count here).
  • Don’t buy any more (e)Books, and read the ones I have!
  • Practice the violin at least once a week and get back to lessons by the middle of the year
  • Practice Tai Chi Chuan at least one morning in the week (hopefully with the family)
  • Finally clear out the loft in time to fit insulation before next winter..
  • Build something (perhaps more than one something) with my Raspberry Pi
  • Get out to more live events with Mrs Kript and 2.0..

I’m giving myself some exclusion on the eBooks thing already; if another Humble eBook Bundle ships (since I support the model and want to promote it), the Hugo Awards Voters Packet (might get sticky this year with other projects but..), and if any of the following release new books; Jim Butcher, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Charlie Stross, Garth Nix (but only if he releases any more ‘Mr Fitz..’ stories), David Blank-Edelman, Tom Limonchelli and possibly Cory Doctorow, Ben Aabromovitch and Peter Morwood (if her releases another in the ‘Horse Lord’ series). Oh, and any work requirements for technical books, although since we now have individual SafariOnline subscriptions, that shouldn’t be needed, right (twitch)?

Yeah, the eBooks thing doesn’t look likely does it..? ;-)

Hugo Winners 2012

Were announced over the weekend. Some surprises, mostly what I expected (not what I voted for).

Pretty much the only ones I agree with are Best Graphic Novel, Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) and sort of the Novel (Its a good book, but it was clearly going to appeal heavily to fandom in a way that overshadowed its other achievements, IMHO), the others I either don’t (which you can tell by my voting record), or I don’t feel qualified to judge..

Given how many entries Shannon McGuire had, I’m surprised she got only the Fancast win. Its the weakest out of all of them.

Nonetheless overall, I appreciate the hard work everyone put in, and as always it got me reading wider than I normally would.

Hugo 2012 Voting

Vote Submitted:

Best Novel

2 Among Others Jo Walton Tor
4 A Dance With Dragons George R. R. Martin Bantam Spectra
1 Deadline Mira Grant Orbit
5 Embassytown China Miéville Macmillan / Del Rey
3 Leviathan Wakes James S. A. Corey Orbit

Best Novella

2 Countdown Mira Grant Orbit
1 “Kiss Me Twice” Mary Robinette Kowal Asimov’s, June 2011
3 “The Man Who Bridged the Mist” Kij Johnson Asimov’s, September/October 2011
4 “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” Ken Liu Panverse 3

Best Novelette

2 “The Copenhagen Interpretation” Paul Cornell Asimov’s, July 2011
1 “Ray of Light” Brad R. Torgersen Analog, December 2011

Best Short Story

1 “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees” E. Lily Yu Clarkesworld, April 2011
3 “Movement” Nancy Fulda Escape Pod
2 “The Paper Menagerie” Ken Liu The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2011

Best Related Work

1 Wicked Girls Seanan McGuire

Best Graphic Story

1 Digger Ursula Vernon Sofawolf Press

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

1 Game of Thrones (Season 1) Created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss,

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)

1 “The Doctor’s Wife” (Doctor Who) Written by Neil Gaiman Directed by Richard Clark BBC Wales

Best Editor (Short Form)

1 John Joseph Adams
2 Jonathan Strahan

Best Editor (Long Form)

2 Patrick Nielsen Hayden
1 Betsy Wollheim

Best Professional Artist

2 Michael Komarck
1 John Picacio

Best Fanzine

1 SF Signal John DeNardo

Best Fan Artist

1 Randall Munroe

Best Fancast

3 The Coode Street Podcast Jonathan Strahan & Gary K. Wolfe
2 SF Signal Podcast John DeNardo and JP Frantz, produced by Patrick Hester
SF Squeecast Lynne M. Thomas, Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, Elizabeth Bear, and Catherynne M. Valente
1 StarShipSofa Tony C. Smith

The John W. Campbell Award

2 Mur Lafferty 1st year of eligibility
3 Brad R. Torgersen 2nd year of eligibility
1 E. Lily Yu 1st year of eligibility

Hugo Nominees 2012 – Best Graphic Story

Rather than review each individually, this is a roundup post, as I didn’t finish them all.
In fact, the only one I finished was “The Unwritten (Volume 4): Leviathan” created by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, although I’m likely to come back to and finish “Digger” by Ursula Vernon.

The biggest problem I had with reading these were that they are all (with the exception of Digger), the middle of a series, and make little sense read on their own.
I also only really liked the artistic style of The Unwritten and Digger. The former was more classic graphic novel, the latter delightfully whimsical and odd; reminding me of early TMNT. While all of Digger appears to be included in the Voters packet, making the reading a lot more comprehensive, it did make my heart sink when I started it, to see there were over 800 pages – even of art that’s a lot of reading! The rest were around 250 pages, although by that time my fatigue had well and truly set in.

I think I’m done with the Hugo’s now; I’ll review the art, but try and assemble my vote for as much as I feel I’m informed on. The Best Related Work category, for example, I’ve only reviewed two items from, but I know I won’t get the time to read the rest and I know I’m going to want to vote for the McGuire Filk, partly because I want to encourage that kind of think into the Voters Packet!

And yes, I was up early today, wasn’t I.. ;-(

What We Found

by Geoff Ryman

Hugo Novelette Nominee 2012.

OK, so I said the last story was depressing. Reading these two in succession nearly tipped me over the edge!

Ostensibly a story about scientific discovery, this was also a story about madness and deprivation in an African family.
The two were unrelated, and could have been set separately with different characters. I’m probably missing something, but I didn’t see any parallels between the two apart from some fairly clumsy ones I can’t reveal without spoiling the plot (such as it is).

I admit, I have an issue with Authors writing about other cultures they’ve not spent a lot of time in. I read that Ryman has traveled in Africa, and the story certainly has verisimilitude and is plausible. I guess I have more time for a protagonist encountering cultures (which may be portrayed inaccurately) than I do for stories where the Author isn’t an indigenous member of the culture. Absurd, given that most sci-fi and fantasy cultures fall into that category, I know.

Anyway, that’s the last of the fiction (OK, apart from the periodicals, and I’ve already admitted to myself I wont get time to read them this year; didn;t last year either.. I don’t know how, other than making even more time for reading, which will be tricky, I can mange it next year). I’m going to give the Graphic Novels a try, but as the first one is 800 pages, I doubt I’ll read enough to be happy casting a vote..

Six Months, Three Days

by Charlie Jane Anders

Hugo Novelette Nominee 2012

This was an interesting exploration of precognition, but boy was it depressing! I like the setup of two people with different types of precognition meeting up, and how it might work out, even leading into questions of free will vs determinism, as I suppose all good stories dealing with knowledge of the future must.

Ultimately though, I found it so bleak I didn’t enjoy it. I know that makes me shallow, but YMMV as they say.

Ray of Light

by Brad R. Torgersen

Hugo Novelette 2012 Nominee

This, on the other hand, sucked me in from the start, and I read it (admittedly short compared to the others so far) in one sitting.
Lots of interesting ideas here, begging to be explored further.
So far this is hands down my recommendation so far for this category.

Fields of Gold

by Rachel Swirsky

Hugo Novelette 2012 Nominee

This might as well have been subtitled, ‘people I don’t care about and never will’.
I normally like Swirsky’ work, but this left me cold. I just couldn’t see the point; my loss, I guess!

The Copenhagen Interpretation

by Paul Cornell

Hugo Novelette 2012 nominee.

I have bad deja vu with this; I swear I read it years ago. The work initially annoyed me in some of the made up words and terms; of course this happens all the time, but it jarred here for some reason I can’t put my finger on. There are definitely points to recommend, but I’m hoping the other stories speak to me more, as this was too space opera-y even for me.

Hopefully onto the home stretch now; I just need to finish the novelettes to be able to put my votes together; I’ll never be able to read all the submissions but I knew that going in!