The 2017 Hugo Awards (thehugoawards.org) 180
Dave Knott writes: The Hugo Awards, the most prestigious awards in science fiction, had their 2017 ceremony today, at WorldCon 75 in Helsinki, Finland.
The winners are:
Best Novel: The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
Best Novella: "Every Heart a Doorway" by Seanan McGuire
Best Novelette: "The Tomato Thief" by Ursula Vernon
Best Short Story: "Seasons of Glass and Iron", by Amal El-Mohtar
Best Related Work: Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016 by Ursula K Le Guin
Best Graphic Story: Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening , written by Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda
Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form): Arrival , screenplay by Eric Heisserer based on a short story by Ted Chiang, directed by Denis Villeneuve
Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): The Expanse: Leviathan Wakes , written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, directed by Terry McDonough
Best Series: The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer: Ada Palmer
This year's slate of nominees, unlike the drama surrounding the 2016 and 2015 Hugos, was less impacted by the ballot-stuffing tactics of the "Rabid Puppies", thanks to a change in the way nominees were voted for this year (including the fact no work could appear in more than one category) in an attempt to avoid tactical slate picks.
The winners are:
Best Novel: The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
Best Novella: "Every Heart a Doorway" by Seanan McGuire
Best Novelette: "The Tomato Thief" by Ursula Vernon
Best Short Story: "Seasons of Glass and Iron", by Amal El-Mohtar
Best Related Work: Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016 by Ursula K Le Guin
Best Graphic Story: Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening , written by Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda
Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form): Arrival , screenplay by Eric Heisserer based on a short story by Ted Chiang, directed by Denis Villeneuve
Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): The Expanse: Leviathan Wakes , written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, directed by Terry McDonough
Best Series: The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer: Ada Palmer
This year's slate of nominees, unlike the drama surrounding the 2016 and 2015 Hugos, was less impacted by the ballot-stuffing tactics of the "Rabid Puppies", thanks to a change in the way nominees were voted for this year (including the fact no work could appear in more than one category) in an attempt to avoid tactical slate picks.
And the trophy goes to... (Score:1)
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But where are the rippling abs? Hm perhaps I'm confusing the tingleverse with real life again.
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DNW (Score:5, Insightful)
So, it's official - the Hugo Awards have become the Harlequin Awards, much like Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame has become Pop'n Roll Hall of Fame.
That's well and fine, but it's time to drop the pretense, and make room for an award that celebrates the original art form. This doesn't.
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Re:DNW (Score:4, Informative)
Are you serious?
Re: DNW (Score:4, Informative)
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Where in the constitution of WSFS (the organization that gives the awards) is it written that Hugos must be given to works that are strictly science fiction? Indeed, the constitution [midamericon2.org] states
This specifically includes fantasy.
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Are you sure the apparent magic in the Obelisk Gate isn't advanced science? The people with it have special structures in their brains; where did they come from? The last book in the series might well explain it in more or less scientific terms.
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The Wheel of Time - tons of pure fantasy. As far back as 1968 when "The Goblin Reservation" was nominated, fantasy was allowed.
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As stated in the previous post, psionics are allowed in science fiction and even some of the best in science fiction (Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov to name a few) employed this "tool" in their writing. However, if/when they stepped into the realm of magic they definitively called that piece of work fantasy.
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Hugo Award winning novel The Left Hand of Magic has... magic.
Similarly, Hugo Award winning novel The Left Hand of Brainfart has ... brainfart.
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To a very limited degree, IIRC (Score:1)
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Yes but the Guild Navigators for example also had limited precog abilities. They basically needed them to plot ship courses across fold space.
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But again, The Goblin Reservation all of the way back in the 1970s was a nominee with magic. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has magic. The Hugos have magic, get over.
Re: DNW (Score:2)
The Hugos have recognized fantasy for decades. This is not a recent phenomenon; your tastes are just narrow.
Re: DNW (Score:2)
Nothing "current" about it. Fantasy has been recognized as part of the genre for 50-plus years: almost certainly longer than he's been alive, and maybe even longer than his parents have been alive. It's a false nostalgia for a time that jever truly existed: a fantasy, if you will.
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I've read books by Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Frederick Pohl, Jerry Pournelle, Robert Jordan, George RR Martin, Brent Weeks, Jim Butcher, Harry Harrison, Frank Herbert, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Larry Niven, David Gerrold, Anne McCaffrey, David Brin, Steven Erikson, Raymond Feist, Patrick Rothfuss, Kevin Hearne, JRR Tolkien, CS Le
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No Iain M. Banks? Shame on you.
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I've read the first 4 and plan to read the series only because I like to read crappy books once a year or so
the expanse books are full of flat and dull characters. plot driven and a lot of the books reuse the same plot, attack the enemy base. and of course the final battle is full of plot ammo, plot life and enough the winner almost dies to fill up a dozen pages of tripe.
bad solution to real problem (Score:5, Insightful)
This whole Hugo Awards flap is so hilarious yet so sad. It's the perfect case of a bad solution to a real problem.
I agree the scifi status quo was sexist, puerile, over-dense, plotless garbage. Something needed to change.
-simultaneously-
I also agree that there has been an over-correction almost as extreme as the original problem!
Both are true.
The original problem was sexist garbage scifi but the solution is not to promote insipid non-scifi fluff.
Re: bad solution to real problem (Score:2)
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As for this years, I've only read Seanan McGuire's novella, and she well and truly deserved an award for it. She's got a few more in the series as free downloads.
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Yeah the whole "slate" thing was egregious and embarassing to behold such pettiness.
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Almost like the people doing the bad/sad puppies thing were just as bad as the initial sexism, and then the overcorrection towards SJ type subjects
agree.
"You're very clever, hugo awards, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's overcorrections all the way down!"
Re:DNW (Score:4, Insightful)
The stated purpose of the Hugo awards is an award meant to reflect what the majority of sci-fi fans thought was good. The SMOFinati decided to play gatekeepers which means their award is now nothing more then a bunch of sad old people(Average WorldCon attendance age has to be pushing what, 50 years old now?) telling others to get off their lawn.
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The stated purpose of the Hugo awards is an award meant to reflect what the majority of sci-fi fans thought was good.
Yes, and that's why some sick sad puppies deliberately stuffing ballot boxes in order to try to make it look less like people are reading sci-fi about stuff they don't like fucked it all up last year. They didn't want people to know that people thought that stuff was good, so they mounted a concerted effort to stop others from finding out.
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Do you have any evidence that apart from the Puppy surge there is a change in the average age of the non-attending members from the attending?
Re:DNW (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone who thinks the Hugo award for best novel is not based on merit hasn't actually read Jemisin's work.
Not for lack of trying.
It's just not the genre of book I can get through. Much like if I go to a rock concert, and the opening band is rap or country, I'm not going to stay for the performance. It may be great for those who like this kind of thing, but it's really not what I can like.
There are plenty of female authors that are good, even when they border on too much interpersonal stuff. C.J. Cherryh, Alice Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr.)[*] and Andre Norton spring to mind. But they don't come off as just using the genre to either get a message across or to give romance a new veneer; they are universe builders. Their "what if"s are credible. Their work stands on its own without having to anchor it in a specific modern human culture and zeitgeist.
That's the kind of quality I expect from a Hugo winner.
[*]: "Brightness Falls from the Air" is one of the three most cherished novels in all of my book cases.
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There are plenty of female authors that are good, even when they border on too much interpersonal stuff.
That's what I love about CJ Cherryh. And actually, what I love about Kim Stanley Robinson, who isn't even a woman. I mention them together because the last two books I read were Regenesis and New York 2140 and both of these books are more about interpersonal relationships than they are about anything else. But they're still both science fiction...
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It's unfortunate, but "Obelisk Gate" really does deserve that Hugo. It wasn't to your taste, but it is a very good book, and many people thought so.
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Agreed. There are examples of both good and bad. Could be an example of trying to find your market or niche, and pandering to a group to sell books.
One of the worst I ever read was Heris Serrano by Elizabeth Moon. However I see looking up the details she was nominated for a Hugo back in 1997...
Plenty of good ones out there, Left Hand of Darkness etc...
I'd also agree that some of the older greats also had some pretty ridiculous male protagonists... Bova and Heinlein come to mind. One could argue that they mi
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Anyone who thinks the Hugo award for best novel is not based on merit hasn't actually read Jemisin's work.
That all depends on how you define merit, and how you apply that to science fiction.
Personally I would have voted for something enjoyably crazy like Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, before I'd vote for some social consciousness ecodrama premised on a world dealing with the impact of climate change (gag).
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Jemisin's work, although probably well written and compelling (I have not read the book), is absolutely not science fiction.
I would not dismiss it for that, but her previous book, The Fifth Season, I tried to write, but tossed it away halfway through as just being literally terrible, in my opinion. To me, it read like formula writing at its worst.
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The Fifth Season, I tried to write, but tossed it away halfway through as just being literally terrible, in my opinion.
That should be "write a review of".
I failed. That doesn't happen often with award winning books - even if I don't like the story, there is usually something to take notes of, that's new and unique.
Re:DNW (Score:4, Insightful)
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Please read Every Heart a Doorway by McGuire, and tell me where the concern is for equality, justice, trans alien rights, and minorities. I suppose you can take "murder is wrong" as relating to justice, but I don't see any of the others.
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Equality, justice, trans-alien rights, and minorities? Her protagonists are aristocrats, one from an egalitarian place which attempts to brainwash her into returning after she leaves. Justice isn't absent, but is in rather short supply. Aliens are absent (unless you count the highly genetically modified Cetagandan haut, who are antagonists); there are transgender characters but the only one given much treatment changes her sex only so she can
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I see, are you officially one of the sick/sad puppies, or are you ashamed that you are?
The ones that won deserved the awards. You don't like that, start your own award.
We created the Hugo, we decide. (And I've been active in sf fandom probably longer than you've been alive, kid.)
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I see, are you officially one of the sick/sad puppies, or are you ashamed that you are?
This is not an answerable question. It's on par with "Are you a wife beater, or are you ashamed that you are?"
We created the Hugo, we decide.
Except that it's not the ones that created the Hugo that decide. It's whoever ponies up the admission fee.
Re:The Hugos Have Always Honored Fantasy (Score:5, Insightful)
Your comment shows that you don't know much about the Hugo Awards. They have been awarded to works of science fiction and fantasy since their inception in 1953. Go read the WSFS Constitution (the rules for the awards). It makes this crystal clear.
Your comment shows a lack of reading comprehension. Read my post again and tell me where I say anything about fantasy.
It's formula dreck vetted for social acceptability that I object to, whether it's fantasy or science fiction. I want the radical stuff. The "out there" stuff. Ignoring borders. Going out there, because it's speculative fiction, not a party handbook in prose form.
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In which case, I'd suggest that you read Jemisin's last two Hugo winners, along with McGuire's "Every Heart a Doorway". They don't seem to pay attention to borders.
Haven't these awards been taken over? (Score:3, Insightful)
Last I heard these awards are more about diversity and virtue signaling than any kind of merit.
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Yep. The actual supposed "take over" was by groups trying to push for more actual science fiction - with an emphasis on science - over the more recent "science fiction" where it's less science and more "fantasy set in the future." This got reframed by SJWs since it turned out most of the fantasy-pretending-to-be-scifi were written by women. They pretended it was really an "attack on women" and an "attack on minorities" despite the fact that it was really a push to make science fiction awards be for - well,
Re:Haven't these awards been taken over? (Score:5, Informative)
. A conference in Vegas becomes a showdown between Owen Pitt and the staff of Monster Hunter International with an ancient god, one that could turn Sin City into a literal hell on earth.
Yeah, ancient gods are so so sci-fi. Moving on, when Torgensen ran the Sad Puppies he explicitly said that it was because "popular" works were being passed over in favor of "literary" works or works with political messages http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-hugo-awards-were-always-political-now-theyre-only-1695721604 [gizmodo.com]. Note that that doesn't say anything about whether it is fantasy or scifi. The Rabid Puppies meanwhile explicitly tried to be more extreme and to deliberately nominate "right-wing" sci-fi or simply ruin the Hugos. As Vox Day https://www.wired.com/2015/08/won-science-fictions-hugo-awards-matters/ [wired.com] said:
“I wanted to leave a big smoking hole where the Hugo Awards were,” he told me before the winners were announced. “All this has ever been is a giant Fuck You—one massive gesture of contempt.”
Moreover, the idea that the Hugos classically focused on science fiction that was less fantasy is simply not true. "The Graveyard Book" won in 2009, Bujold's "Paladin of Souls" won in 2004, "American Gods" won in 2002, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" won in 2001, and if one looks at nominations rather than winners, fantasy novels have frequently been nominated, going back at least to "Too Many Magicians" in 1967 and Dragonquest in 1972, and Book of Skulls in 1973. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel [wikipedia.org]. And that's just in the Best Novel category. Similar remarks apply to the other categories.
The Book of Skulls was by Silverberg (Score:1)
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As much as I hate even thinking about Vox Day, you'd have to be very short-sighted to not see he played it like a fiddle; having the works he advocated being No Awarded on grounds that he advocated them was exactly his plan.
If that was his plan, then he won nothing aside from showing that with enough people he can sabotage an awards process. Whoop-de-doo, he got nothing aside from throwing a spanner into the works in 2016. He made no point, he has no ground on which to claim victory.
The problem is those "gestures of contempt" get you nothing, nothing long term except for disregard from anyone outside of your little enclave. Being a troll does not c
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Nobody has written any decent real SF since Iain Banks died.
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His death was a tragic loss. It makes me sad when I think I'm never going to read another new Bank's sci fi. Fortunately there's still a couple of his fiction novels that I haven't read yet.
Alastair Reynolds comes close, however, and what he writes, for the most part, counts as 'decent real SF'.
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I tried to like Reynolds. I really did. But he just falls short IMO.
In any case, it isn't surprising that non SF dominated the Hugo Awards (yet again) - there really aren't any great SF authors out there doing real SF.
I have to say though, I don't think Jemesin's work is that notable either.
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Yes, I'm re-reading Surface Detail right now and it's astonishing -- others would have made an entire career out of what Banks stuffed into one novel.
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Yes hence some of that stuff on the list related to "Vox" and the vanity press he was associated with (and a large faction of mostly unread authors upset that nobody was reading their stuff from that press).
The fucking slate - a "how to vote card". Kind of obvious isn't it. A list of stuff to vote for whether you've read it or not.
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Last I heard these awards are more about diversity and virtue signaling than any kind of merit.
The list of winners tells the story. Only two white males on it, and both were paired with women or minorities. The Hugos are about as welcoming to cis white males these days as a Birmingham lunch counter was to blacks in the 1950's. And you can bet it'll be the same next year. Once the SJW cancer sets in, there is no cure.
If an Asminov, Bradbury, or Fredrick Pohl started out today they wouldn't even get published, much less have a chance at winning an award.
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No, you petty fascist. We, the fans, decided what *we* liked. Just because your racist and sexist biases overcomes what you learned about literature in school, which you either ignored or have forgotten, doesn't mean that the rest of us don't appreciate a good story and good writing.
Poor wittle snowflake SIW (social injustice warrior), can't reed gude.
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I remember the good old days, when only men, like James Tiptree, Jr., won Hugo awards.
Re:Haven't these awards been taken over? (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember the good old days, when only men, like James Tiptree, Jr., won Hugo awards.
Great writers like Alice Sheldon and Andre Norton won based on the quality of their work, not the quality of their feminism. When reading their works you didn't get the feeling that this could be written in any setting, and that Sci-Fi or Fantasy was just used as a prop. They didn't just write paint-by-number books with their political message popping up in all kinds of weird contexts where it didn't further their story. They wrote worlds.
Most of today's crowd of writers (to be polite) are narrow-minded formula writers who wouldn't know how to write a world or jump out of the preconceived notion of what they should write. It's as embarrassing as autotune singers.
Expanse narrow minded formula? (Score:2)
Go down that list of winners and name one that matches that description.
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Okay, I'll give you one example. Consider McGuire's "Every Heart a Doorway", which won the Hugo and, in my opinion, well deserved it. Please explain to me how it lacks in world-building. Please explain the formula McGuire followed. Please explain where it was something McGuire should write. Please explain the narrow-mindedness and the politics.
McGuire usually writes pretty standard urban fantasy, which I consider very well done. Every so often, her mind seems to jump a track and we get something un
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You're a little late to this conversation. Were you busy yesterday at the march in Charlottesville?
Re: Haven't these awards been taken over? (Score:1)
Re:Haven't these awards been taken over? (Score:5, Insightful)
A person does not have to be right-wing to be opposed to leftist politics.
Nor to equate short-sighted shallow politics with either right or left.
I'm a socialist and feminist (as in equal opportunities and gender blindness), but will call shit when I see it. What the social justice[*] side does here is harming their cause for a quick circle jerk orgasm, harming an artform that has been extremely liberal and forward thinking by forcing pre-digested well-censored crap down the auidences' throats. What good is it killing a genre that brought us so many masterpieces of unfettered thinking?
[*] Whenever anyone speaks of "justice", you can be certain that justice is the farthest thing from their mind. Baser instincts like revenge and egotism are invariably at play.
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Perhaps it's actually a mistake to be overly reliant on the concept of left/right spectrum politics as an accurate conceptualization of the dynamics of human interaction.
Maybe. Those of us who are in the shrinking pool of moderates are annoyed at being labeled "right-wingers" by the far left and "left-wingers" (and worse) by the far right. Polarization sucks, identity politics sucks, insisting that you have to be in an extremist camp sucks.
the last of the classic masters (Score:2, Interesting)
Best Related Work: Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016 by Ursula K Le Guin
It's nice to see that Le Guin is still at it. She is among the last of the "classic" sci-fi and fantasy masters left alive, after Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Heinlein, JRR Tolkien, and the other greats of that era have passed away.
To be sure there are many fantastic modern authors, but Le Guin's work stands head and shoulders above most who have come since. JK Rowling? You are no Ursula Le Guin.
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I'm reading The Left Hand of Darkness. If this is what passes for being head and shoulders above most, I'm glad I only paid a few cents for it at a yard sale.
It's a decent book, and the storyline keeps moving, but I'm trying to find what would make it both a Hugo and Nebula award winner.
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It's a decent book, and the storyline keeps moving, but I'm trying to find what would make it both a Hugo and Nebula award winner.
For me, it's a beautifully written novel with a classic 'what if?' premise that, like most of the best SF, takes a sideways look at contemporary issues, set in a vivid and compelling world. But not everyone has the same taste. Looking at the list of joint Hugo/Nebula winners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] I see plenty of favourites like Dune, Rendezvous with Rama, The Forever War, American Gods and The Windup Girl, not to mention Le Guin's The Dispossessed. But I'm baffled by the inclusion of Ender's Ga
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Having not read Enders Game in decades I can see how some of his complaints are valid but some of them are just silly or wrong. Peter wasn't just ambitious, he was a sociopath. Ender while being smart it was really more important that he was a leader and masterful at strategy and tactics. He was also being selected and groomed for his predilection to finish a fight with some measure of finality, though this wasn't something he was really conscious of and probably simply a result of circumstances. In the end
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Stephen R. Donaldson is still at it.
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But he's best known for writing fantasy... really depressing fantasy
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If you don't like his really depressing fantasy, don't worry. He has written really depressing science fiction and detective stories also.
Ghostbusters bested Rogue One and Stranger Things (Score:5, Interesting)
That's right, the Ghostbuster remake got more votes than Rogue One and Stranger Things in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form category:
1.- Arrival,
2.- Deadpool,
3.- Ghostbusters,
4.- Hidden Figures,
5.- Rogue One,
6.- Stranger Things season one.
I mean, WTF.
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When progressivism is the point, you've done it wrong.
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Good example.
This whole Hugo Awards flap is so hilarious yet so sad. It's the perfect case of a bad solution to a real problem.
I agree scifi was sexist, puerile, over-dense, and plotless.
-simultaneously-
I also agree that there has been an over-correction almost as extreme as the original problem!
Both are true.
The original problem was sexist garbage scifi but the soluti
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Re:Ghostbusters bested Rogue One and Stranger Thin (Score:4, Insightful)
Yay! Arrival won! Let's hear it for deus ex machina time travel/knowledge, garbage sci-fi!
Let's not forget that the Nebula Awards abide (Score:2)
Description fail (Score:3, Insightful)
The Hugo is not the most prestigious award for Sci Fi. I would put the Nebula Award way ahead of it. In fact, over the last few years the Hugo Award has become meaningless.
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While I agree that the Nebula Award is better because sci-fi/fantasy authors due the voting, many of the same books are nominated
“Every Heart a Doorway” by Seanan McGuire, won both a Nebula and Hugo
"The Obelisk Gate" was a finalist for best novel
"Seasons of Glass and Iron” by Amal El-Mohtar, won both a Nebula and a Hugo
"Arrival" written by Eric Heisserer, won both a Hugo and Nebula
So either the exclusive club of Sci-fi/Fantasy authors has been compromised or the Hugos are not far off. My
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Nebula is a award for writers, BY writers, to recognize good writing.
Alas, the Nebula awards have changed too, with publishers no longer daring to be daring. It's become more about who and social justice there too. Provocative writers of the past like Chip Delaney, Alice Sheldon, Norman Spinrad and Harlan Ellison would not pass the filter of what's politically acceptable.
Chip Delaney (Score:1)
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Delaney is an awesome writer and an awesome person, based on the one time I saw him. He's not a black activist writer, but a black activist and black[*] writer. And feminist. But it never stopped him from writing a good story, that could well go against his Earthen viewpoints if the story called for it. And it certainly didn't make him PC. :)
His stories stand on their own without having to place him in any "special considerations due" group, nor explain his works by the time they were written in.
[*]: I
Small minded reactions (Score:1)
Usually i don't care much for fantasy yet I was impressed by predecessor The Fifth Season. Very well written, interesting and original. The Obelisk Gate was a well constructed bridge novel towards the soon to appear final volume. It doesn't make sense to read it on its own, it does expand on the first book.
I read 2 other books on the shortlist which were good too. From the 3, All the birds in the s
I wondered about the voting. (Score:3)
Since everyone will have a different opinion about what is crap, what would probably work better than having an award system is something like what Booklamp [lifewire.com] attempted to be. Perhaps a search tool for book related social media could help.
awards aside (Score:1)
So it's that time of year... (Score:1)
When George R. R. Martin writes something.