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Nebula Award Winners 128

Posted by timothy from the quick-they're-handing-out-nebulae dept.
jbennetto writes: "The Nebulas are out! The winning novel is A Quantum Rose, a SF/Romance backwater-standalone in a series of six books about an interstellar conflict between human empires. The author, Catherine Asaro, is a physicist. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won best script, and Jack Williamson, Kelly Link, and Severna Park won the short fiction catagories."
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Nebula Award Winners More

Nebula Award Winners

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  • Little things (Score:5, Funny)

    by GraZZ ( 9716 ) <jack&jackmaninov,ca> on Monday April 29, 2002 @04:15PM (#3431339) Homepage Journal
    I was looking at a Nebula last night, unfortunatly the Quantum Roses were too small to see (and whenever I tried looking for them, this punk Heisenberg told me I wouldn't be able to find them....)

    I didn't even bother looking for the Hidden Dragon.

    Karma, karma, everywhere, so let's all have a drink!

    • Perhaps you should create an observation report [shallowsky.com]!

      Not my site, but pretty good reading, hit reload a couple times. 8)

    • What on earth is a "Quantum Rose" - or is it the title of a book?
    • I was looking at a Nebula last night, unfortunatly the Quantum Roses were too small to see (and whenever I tried looking for them, this punk Heisenberg told me I wouldn't be able to find them....)

      Heisenberg didn't say you couldn't find them. He said that you could either know their positions or their velocities (speed + direction), but not both.
      Let me guess: you went looking for them and for some reason chose a method that determined their velocities. :P

  • A quick check on Amazon reveals that this book is the sixth in a series. Does this book stand on its own or does it require reading the earlier books?
    • And I quote

      The winning novel is A Quantum Rose, a SF/Romance backwater-standalone in a series of six books about an interstellar conflict between human empires.

      emphasis mine.
      • more telling is this from one of the featured amazon reviews:

        "The Skolian novels can be read in any order and the Quantum Rose particularly can be read out of sequence with the planet-hopping novels."
      • Is it just me or does the cover art look like a tacky romance novel? I'm not going to argue the quality of the book without reading it, but...ick, it looks worse than the cover art from Randland (except first book, TEOTW had pretty cool-looking cover art)
  • Since when is crouching tiger, hidden dragon science fiction?
    • Maybe when people started flying and walking on bamboo shoots?

      Etc?

      • Doesn't that depend on whether the extraordinary phenomena (flying and walking on bamboo shoots) are explained by supernatural or technological forces?

      • Maybe that would be science fiction, if the use of technology allowed them to do that. Otherwise, it's fantasy.
    • It was hardly a documentary, was it?
    • fantasy, not science fiction. You didn't read the article, did you? :)

    • Re:Crouching Tiger? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Daniel Dvorkin ( 106857 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @04:48PM (#3431610) Homepage Journal
      As a SFWAn (i.e., a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) I'll answer this:

      SFWA, the organization which awards the Nebulas (and does lots of other stuff as well -- check out the Web site [sfwa.org]) is an organization for writers of both science fiction and fantasy, as the name implies. And yes, it was originally the Science Fiction Writers of America -- and then, briefly, SFFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, before we decided that changing a well-known acronym like SFWA (prounounced "sif-wa") was pointless, and held a vote to make the acronym SFWA regradless of what the actual name was -- and yes, the Nebulas have generally been dominated by science fiction at the expense of fantasy, but a) fantasy has gained a lot of ground over the last couple of decades, both critically and commercially, and it would be silly to ignore that, and b) the dramatic Nebulas (when we've awarded them -- we haven't always) have generally been a bit broader-based that the literary Nebulas, in recognition of the fact that Hollywood often turns out some really good SF/F while avoiding those labels for marketing reasons.
      • Out of curiousity, why were there only 4 films nominated? There were at least a half dozen good SF films last year that didn't even make the preliminary ballot. Seems silly to have 18 novels on prelim, narrowed to 7 on the final ballot, and 10 novellas narrowed to 5, etc, and have 4 of 4 preliminary scripts make it to the final ballot (two of which require a very broad definition of SF).

        Neh
        • To make the preliminary ballot, any work (literary or dramatic) needs to be nominated by at least ten active members of SFWA within a year of its release date. A lot of very good stuff is nominated by fewer than ten members and thus doesn't make the prelims. (Most of what I've nominated over the last few years made it to eight or nine nominations and then missed the cut by a vote or two ... sigh.) Then what makes it from the prelim to the final ballot is determined by a vote of the membership, and of course the winner is determined from the final ballot by another organization-wide (active members only) vote. It's not a perfect system, but it works.
      • Let the fantasy writers have their own fscking award and leave the Nebulas alone. Any half-ass hack can write most of the fantasy crud out there today, but it takes some intelligence to write SF (no...not fsking SciFi...blech!). Let's face it. The proportion of fantasy titles that have any literary merit pales in comparison to SF. The only reason either of them are shoved togeather is that they are often a common interest of both authors and readers.
  • Whoa, the cover of the Quantum Rose looks like some cheesy romance novel.

    http://www.sff.net/people/asaro/quantumrose.htp

    Note for romance lovers: Get some taste. Oops, no, I meant it looks like the bad romance novels, as opposed to the, er, good ones.
    • Agree - that's a nasty looking cover and I would have walked right by it at the store. Actually looks enjoyable, perhaps a little like Lois Bujold's Vorkosigan books - which are also largely romances

      • I read the three-part excerpt in Analog last year, and it is definitely worth looking into.

        Yes, it is mostly a romance story, but there's some interesting ideas in there as well, and Asaro has a very nice writing style. She publishes regularly in Analog, and she's fast becoming one of my favourites.

        Mart

  • I'd just like to say.... (Score:5, Informative)

    by mblase ( 200735 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @04:28PM (#3431453)
    ...that in light of the current climate for authors, musicians, etc. trying to protect their copyrights online to unnecessary extremes, it's very nice to see that two of the five Nebula winners (Novella, "The Ultimate Earth", and Short Story, "The Cure for Everything") are freely available online, along with many of the non-winning nominees [sfwa.org] as well.

    It's nice to know that professional literature can still be free, even if professional music often can't.

    • "E-Piracy" (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You might be interested in this link... [sfwa.org]
    • I have nothing personal against mblase. I don't even necessarily disagree with what he/she/whatever said here.

      But I have to just butt in and say that I long for the days before every single story that got posted to Slashdot had one or more highly moderated comments like this one.

      Some people prefer to download music rather than buying CDs. Some people prefer to download movies rather than attending them or buying DVDs. Some people prefer to download books rather than buying them or borrowing them from their local library. There are evidently people out there-- although I don't mean to imply that mblase is one of them-- who believe they're entitled to free music, movies, books, and software.

      I prefer to believe that these people are in the minority. I prefer to think that the vast majority of people out there believe in working for a living. I prefer to think that most people take pride in their hard work, and reject the ethics of entitlement.

      But you wouldn't know it from reading Slashdot. Every damn day we see comments like this one: "It's nice to know that professional literature can still be free."

      How about we rephrase this comment. Will all due respect to mblase, I think what you really meant to say was: It's nice to know that these authors have been so generous and cool to release their stories for free on the Internet. They did not have to do this, but they were cool enough to do it anyway. Everybody go download them, and if you like them, buy the author's book.
      • They did not have to do this, but they were cool enough to do it anyway.

        Actually, I'm pretty sure they did have to -- when they allowed their work to be published in Asimov or the other magazines, they also allowed those magazines to publish their work online.

        It's the magazines that we have to thank for making these stories freely available, then -- not the authors, although they certainly knew it would follow publication.

  • science fiction? (Score:3, Funny)

    by tps12 ( 105590 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @04:29PM (#3431456) Homepage Journal
    I think we are at the beginning of a great increase in the popularity of science fiction.

    Never before has technology (the lingua franca of sci-fi) played such a role as it currently does, IMO. Meanwhile, the Sci-Fi Channel (could Jules Verne even have imagined such a thing in his wildest fantasies?) is among the fastest-growing cable channels on television, according to ratings.

    I'm thinking, maybe this stuff isn't just for antisocial nerds any more. Perhaps science fiction finally matters.

    It won't be long now before the Nebula awards are as popular, as talked about, as the Emmies or the Clios!

    Any thoughts?

    • Lots of people like science fiction. What makes someone a nerd is when they like sci-fi/fantasy better than they like reality.
    • I don't want to make any insinuations, but just because the Sci-Fi channel is growing in popularity, doesn't mean it's not still for nerds. Look at how popular soap operas are, and (true or not, I'm not qualified to say) there is an impression that their audience is mostly lonely old ladies and disaffected housewives. Sad to say, this *might* just mean there's a growing number of people who aren't able to connect socially with each other.

      That said, I enjoy science fiction, and I'm reasonably happy with my social life.

    • How much of SciFi's increased audience is due to shows like John Edwards? It's "Fi", but it's definitely not "Sci".
      • Yeah, that steaming pile of goo is a real "crossover" show. I wish John Edwards would cross back over to Oxygen or Lifetime where his target audience hangs out.

        Of course, the Sci-Fi channel nowadays has about as much to do with SF as MTV has to do with music now.

    • Re:science fiction? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Nehemiah S. ( 69069 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @04:48PM (#3431613)
      Never before has technology (the lingua franca of sci-fi) played such a role as it currently does, IMO.

      Robert Heinlein wrote an editorial to John Campbell@Astounding/Analog to this effect circa 1956. It's pretty much been the staple belief of SF fans and writers everywhere, for as long as SF has been published -- with the publication of this series/book/etc, SF will be taken seriously. Next year, people will notice us.

      Unfortunately, it hasn't happened, for reasons which probably say more about the people that DON'T take it seriously than it says about anything intrinsic to the genre. There is such an incredible canvas of ideas available to the SF writer, so many ways to interpret or define the human experience that simply are not available to the standard ho-hum fictioneer; I think the general publics ignorance of SF is one of the great tragedies of our age.

      Well, maybe next year.

      Then again, the fact that the SFWA gave tripe like "Crouching Tiger" a major award makes me a bit ashamed to think these things...

      Rev. Neh
      • Try reading some nice "mainstream" books once in a while. I don't mean bestseller/landfill category, but a genuinely good book. The thing you probably will notice that the characters have, well, character.

        When you compare this to the usual cut&paste stats in a genre book.. Ouch. Sometimes even genre/mainstream titles by the same writer show that. Try "The Crow road" by Iain M. Banks, you'd hardly believe it was written by the same person as those Culture books. I suppose you have to write a story around your people if you don't have utopia/dystopia/whatever to distract the reader.

        There are some very nice SF titles I have read. Usually, but not always, the story could be rewritten in contemporary setting without too much difficulty. Okay, so the 7 samurais was a samurai movie which was inspired by westerns.. And the few good men (or something like that!) was inspired by the 7 samurais.. So you can take the story and stick it into another setting, nothing new in that!

        In my opinion, SF setting is more likely to hurt a book rather than help it.
        • um....no.

          the magnificent seven (the western) was a remake of the seven samurai, not the other way around.


          Kurosawa did his share of retelling stories (he remade several shakespearean plays as stories about feudal japan), in this case it was his story that was the foundation of the westerns.

          • True, Seven Samurai was not a remake of The Magnificent Seven, but Kurosawa did acknowledge the general influence of Hollywood westerns.
            • Kurosawa did acknowledge the general influence of Hollywood westerns.

              It seems worth pointing out that Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns were inspired by Kurosawa's work. "A Fistful of Dollars" is a direct adaptation of "Yojimbo".

              So, yes, Kurosawa was definitely influenced by earlier Hollywood westerns. But, in turns of trading influence, one could argue that he gave more than he got.
        • Try reading some nice "mainstream" books once in a while. I don't mean bestseller/landfill category, but a genuinely good book. The thing you probably will notice that the characters have, well, character.
          "Try reading a real book" is the staple of most of the anti-science fiction crowd. It doesn't make any sense, but it makes for good sound-bites.

          The fact of the matter is that every genre has a mix of good and bad writing. The more popular the genre the lower that signal-to-noise ratio will be. This does not mean that a genre which is popular has fewer good authors, just that it will have more bad ones.

          Science fiction has produced some phenominal authors who stand out in a crowd of authors from any genre. It has also produced it's share of popular purveyors of trash.

          Try "The Crow road" by Iain M. Banks, you'd hardly believe it was written by the same person as those Culture books. I suppose you have to write a story around your people if you don't have utopia/dystopia/whatever to distract the reader.
          *snicker* you should try using someone else to gather your examples from. Try reading Ian Banks' "Feersum Endjinn" which is most assuredly science fiction, and IMHO, of the highest order (though some of the narative style is a little gimmicky, which you can get from the title itself).
          There are some very nice SF titles I have read. Usually, but not always, the story could be rewritten in contemporary setting without too much difficulty.
          You are correct to some degree. The question is: can the author get his/her point across easier if the example of a certain technology is used, or the reader can detach from the core idea because of an alien culture (e.g. The Left Hand of Darkness)?

          Also at question is this: could the author have come up with the story otherwise, or was speculation key in the process of creating the story? It's a bit of a chicken and egg problem.

        • Try "The Crow road" by Iain M. Banks, you'd hardly believe it was written by the same person as those Culture books.

          While Crow Road is probably my favorite Banks novel, I'd like to poin out that Inversions is one of his SF works and the general characterization is of a very good quality. It's just not there in the Culture novels. Well, it is.. But it's the ships!!

      • Re:science fiction? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by kubrick ( 27291 )
        Yes, but I have always appreciated the 'speculative fiction' attitude that the best SF has. In that vein, once speculation becomes mainstream, SF is obliged to go further afield, looking at more outlandish possibilities or literary forms... SF defines itself by its difference from 'normal' work (as a field, anyway, even if individual authors write stuff that could be classed as, e.g., neo-noir detective fiction (much of cyberpunk)).

        Authors like Disch and Vonnegut managed to cross over quite successfully (and others tried and failed, e.g. PKD, although I quite like his 'mainstream' novels -- as if anything he wrote could ever be considered normal :)

        (It's too early and pre-coffee in the morning for me to take these ideas any further, or back up any of my assertions, but I would at least try to if I weren't feeling this misanthropic at the moment. Sorry. :)
    • I think we are at the beginning of a great increase in the popularity of science fiction.

      Yes, and don't forget to thank the sexy stars of sci-fi like Jeri Rian, Jessica Alba, and even Traci Lords to help promote the genre.

    • I wasn't aware of the fact that the Nebula awards accepted nominations for works of historical fantasy in addition to sci-fi, but Crouching Tiger is clearly an example of the former.

      Incidentally, I got a nice chuckle out of jbennetto making a snide comment about the "Romance" nature of the Best Novel winner, while ignoring the fact that Crouching Tiger is clearly a love story.

      • Incidentally, I got a nice chuckle out of jbennetto making a snide comment about the "Romance" nature of the Best Novel winner, while ignoring the fact that Crouching Tiger is clearly a love story.

        I think there is a pretty glaring difference between writing about love, which is a human emotion (rather, the human emotion), and writing in the "Romance" genre, which is, well, a genre. The two are not necessarily coincident, and I would argue that they are almost completely disjoint. :)

  • The Cure for Everything (Score:3, Interesting)

    by CmdrSanity ( 531251 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @04:32PM (#3431486) Homepage
    How how how did this story win? I have a copy of it on my shelf and have read it three times. I think it's an average story but every time I read it, the plot flaws become more glaring. In fact, I once took a science-fiction writing course instructed by Joe Haldeman and we spent about 20 minutes just discussing inadequacies in this story's plot development. So what I want to know, sincerely, is if any of you Slashdotter's have read this short, then what were your impressions and what makes it an award winner? The reason I ask is that after spending time analyzing the techinical flaws of the story, it came as a shock to see it praised so highly. If this piece isn't highly successful on a technical level, what parts compensate and what makes it so enjoyable?
    • I've read a novel by Severna Park, and I am also puzzled as to how anything written by that person could get an award. I suppose the Nebulas are really just political gesturing by now, so we shouldn't have expected anything else from them.

    • Re:The Cure for Everything (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You can read it here [scifi.com].
    • Just read it, can't say it impressed me at all. I didn't believe they were speaking in halting Portuguese at the end, no real payoff at the end with the story. In the final third she decides she's going to go get that guy and that's exactly what happens, no twists or surprises.

      Could you elaborate on the plot flaws, and what did Haldeman have to say about it?
      • I'm working from 4 month old memory but here are the major points of what we discussed over 20 minutes.

        1. Maria could not work in the Amazon as pure albinos are extremely sensitive to sunlight. Skin cancer is the number 1 cause of death for albinos and it affects a majority of them.
        2. (related to point 1) It is too convenient that Maria just happens run into the only man on the planet capable of having her child.
        3. Maria lets the tribe be taken away too easily. As a result, her sudden urge to chase them down is jarring. From one sentence to the next she seems to change her mind.
        4. Maria gets into the secret compund too easily. How did she know to bring wire cutters and there just happens to be an embankment that allows easy access to the building. Also there are no guards watching over the most valuable genetic stock ever encountered.
        5. Why do Maria and The Cure almost immediatly have sex? It is especially strange since he regards her as some kind of demi-goddess.
        6. Logistics of driving a jeep through the dense jungle for several hours without running out of fuel.
        7. The tribe, which has been isolated in the jungle for thousands of years, speaks near-perfect Portuguese.

        Overall the story suffered from too many instance of "it-just-so-happened-that" sydrome, in which the plot always supplies an easy path for the character to follow.

    • Whaddya mean? It's got everything!
      • An anti-intellectual property undertone
      • An environmentally friendly message
      • Vague post-apocalyptic references
      • The threat of the heroine giving birth to mutants
      • pr0n in the last paragraph
      • endless stubbing out of cigarettes

      What more could a chain-smoking, Slashdot-reading, slightly left of Green, sex-starved geek monster movie fan need in a story?
    • I read "May Be Some Time" and i think Brenda Clough was ripped off. She was amazing reproducing the "turn of the last century" voice of the protagonist. i really thought i was seeing through the eyes of a officer the British Empire. If she did anything inaccurately, she made him too PC. Voice, concept, plot, characterization were all first rate.

      (Poling's postulate of the Past: if you ever meet a person from the past, you'll think, "that barbarian" while s/he's thinking, "that flake.")
    • This is one of the worst short stories I've ever read.

  • In other awards... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Corporate Drone ( 316880 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @04:38PM (#3431536)
    the Microsoft legal team wins in this year's "best technical fiction" category for their work on the remedy phase of the monopoly trial...

  • Sometimes, when someone is recommending a book to me, I'll ask, "Does it have trees, grass and (egad) flowers on the cover?"

    Call it a stupid prejudice but if ever there was cover art that would turn me away, Quantum Rose has it [sff.net].

    When I'm looking at it, I'm thinking Nora Roberts [amazon.com] crossed Gone With the Wind and the Lord of the Rings?

    My eyes!!! My eyes!!!

  • Jack Williamson (Score:4, Informative)

    by Some Pig! ( 103985 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @05:11PM (#3431774)
    Jack Williamson, one of the winners, is 94 years old today. Warmest congratulations!
  • Interesting that in Amazon's user ratings this novel winning the Nebula gets 4 of 5 stars while five of this same author's other books get 4.5 of 5. Does that mean one of those will be next year's winner? Or simply that, as usual, the critics and the public have different opinions?

  • Drat... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by belgin ( 111046 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @05:14PM (#3431787) Homepage
    I was rather hoping that George R. R. Martin's _A Storm of Swords_ would win. However, I haven't read _A Quantum Rose_, so I can't compare it yet.

    Anybody here read both of these books? If so, could you tell me what aspects of _A Quantum Rose_ really distinguished themselves and how it would compare to Martin's character-driven "realism"?

    Thanks.
    • Martin will never win, because people don't like their main characters to die out all time ;)
      I love his Game of Thrones series ;)
      • I would have voted for Storm of Swords as well except that it's always been my impression that the Nebula favors science fiction and the Hugo favors fantasy. Not that this is always true but it seems like this break between the two awards is the norm.

        As far as the fact that the main characters have a shorter existence than those red-shirted Star Trek guys, I personally find it refreshing. Having said this, a friend were talking over lunch last week and were trying to figure out if anyone will still be left alive when Winter is supposed to arrive in later volumes.
      • I was just about to comment on that! This guy kills more main characters than ANY author I have ever read!!!! EVERY fscking novel he kills of 3 or 4 and introduces a few more, those guys play a big role until the middle of the next novel, when he kills all of them off!! The story is told really well and all, but for crying out loud! How many damn people can DIE before it becomes hopeless to continue the novel because no one can relate to any of the characters?!

        Kintanon
  • To any SFWA and/or WSFS members out there, when the next nominating cycle rolls around, please be sure to consider Lucuis Shepard's review of 'The Time Machine' [electricstory.com]. It's the best SF short story I've read in about five years!
  • One of the original nominees was Declare [amazon.com] by Tim Powers. A fantastic book, combining Noah's Ark, the French Resistance, the British Secret Service, and ancient Arabian folklore in a breakneck action tale in Powers' trademark "Hard Fantasy" style.

    Unfortuntely, Tim had had a limited edition of the book published in 2000 and was thus ruled ineligible by the SFWA [sfwa.org]. I know for a fact from a class I took from Tim in September that he had high hopes for the Nebula. It shows how much class he has that he accepted the decision graciously and stated that the rules were completely fair.

    While all the nominees are great works, you really owe it to yourself to try to dig up a copy of Declare and read it for yourself.

  • Its like if somebody asked a committee "what would you title a mix between science fiction and romance?" Anyways could be agood book never read it. But its fun judging a book without even seeing its cover :)

    • Re:"Quantum Rose" is a really cheesy title (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Broccolist ( 52333 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:39PM (#3432765)
      If you had seen the ghastly cover [sff.net] you would've liked it even less.

      And egads! That excerpt!

      Unease prickled Kamoj. She treaded water, her hair floating in swirls around her body, wrapping her slender waist and then letting go. Her reflection showed a young woman with black curls framing a heart-shaped face. She had dark eyes, as did most people in Argali, though hers were larger than usual, with long lashes that at the moment sparkled with drops of water.

      Ugh! Augh! This stuff won an award? It's so bad it makes me wince.

      I couldn't have done worse if I had made a special effort to be cliche. Describing someone with a reflection? "Heart-shaped face?" And that "at the moment," as though intentionally placed to break rhythm. I hadn't realized the Nebula people were so tasteless.

    • Cat Asaro is generally a pretty decent writer, but by the fourth one I was starting to get bored of the concepts involved (especially the "mandatory sadist" sub-race. I haven't read this one but it's nice to see her get something for once. (Don't knock SF-romance crossovers until you've tried one.)
  • Speaking of the Nebulas, science fiction writer George Alec Effinger, who won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for "Schrodinger's Kitten, died Saturday, at age 55, way too young. Effinger was also known for a series of "Islamic cyberpunk" novels that started with When Gravity Fails (and which remained unfinished at the time of his death), and the humorous "Maureen Birnbaum" series of parodies. And my friend and fellow Turkey Citizen.



    Though Slashdot didn't feel a need to post the obituary, you can find my remembrance of him here: http://www.sfwa.org/news/effinger.htm [sfwa.org].

    • Man, that is so messed up, he was one of my favorites, ever since reading his early novels like Wolves of Memory when I was a kid. (We apparently had a really hip librarian in my small town, now that I think about it.)

      When Gravity Fails, and the other two from that series were some of my favorite s-f books, and I'd been looking forward to there eventually being more of them. Anyone here who's looking for literate, intelligent, often mordantly funny science fiction books to read would do well to look for his.

      I don't guess I have anything to say about it except thanks for mentioning it here, I wouldn't have known otherwise, and now... now I can feel appropriately sad about it. Damn.
  • I spent the last few hours reading through most of the excerpts that are available for the finalists in the novel category. The only one I didn't read was for Storm of Swords. In general, I was very disappointed in the quality of the material that made it to the finals, which makes the selection of Quantum Rose semi-understandable. However, Eternity's End was much better at least by the excerpt. There seemed to be some inherent conflict in the the story. And beyond getting used to the description of flying the spaceship, the read was pretty good. In terms of sci-fi, I would have chosen this novel over anything else that I had read.

    In searching for the possible reason why Quantum Rose had done so well, I went back to the preliminary award ballot. On it was a book I very much enjoyed entitled Calculating God by Robert Sawyer. This book was better than anything that I read in the excerpts from the books in the finals.

    I admit that I am very picky when it comes to what I read and like, but the excerpts were very disappointing. For example, the Crossing Mars excerpt had nothing in it which would make me want to read the book. The sentence structure was plain and the plot just didn't interest me at all from what was available. I can only imagine that something happens which requires the crew of the spaceship to end up exploring more of Mars than they intended, but none of that was evident in what was available.

    I hope that next year's nominees give me a lot more to look forward to.

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