2007 Clarke Award Nominees

Location: Sci-Fi London at the Apollo Piccadilly Circus in London, United Kingdom.

Comments: As I get to the more recent Clarke Award years, one would think that I would be more familiar with the authors and works that have been nominated. After all, these are books that have been published in the very recent past by authors who are often my contemporaries. And yet, in most cases I haven't read anything by the authors who are nominated for the recent awards, or if I have it has been short fiction that I haven't mentally connected to the author in question. The landscape of recent science fiction is so vast, that even someone like me, who reads books at a rate of more than a hundred per year, simply can't keep up with all of it.

Winner
Nova Swing by M. John Harrison

Shortlist
End of the World Blues by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Gradisil by Adam Roberts
Hav by Jan Morris
Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet
Streaking by Brian Stableford

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 2006
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2008

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Biased Opinions

This is the list of all of the Biased Opinion posts that I have written. I call them biased opinions because I make no pretense of being an unbiased observer. I have certain leanings on various subjects that are informed by my education, background, and other factors. I think most Congress people are incompetent at their primary job of dealing with the Federal budget. I think creationists are idiots, and that actual science is mostly correct. I think that women should be treated as equals. I think copyright holders should generally have their property rights respected. And so on. If you are looking for some sort of detached "objective" analysis on a subject, this isn't the place to get it. If you are looking for the opinion of a reasonably well-educated and fairly experienced government appropriations lawyer and science fiction aficionado, you've come knocking on the correct door.

03/01/19: The Destructiveness of Voting Slates in Book Awards
11/14/18: I'm Done With Twitter
07/08/18: The Wailing Ignorance of the Star Wars Fanboys
09/28/16: Stopping Harassment After the Fact Just Isn't Good Enough
09/13/16: 2016 Hugo Awards Post Mortem
02/25/16: Why Sad Puppy Complaints Aren't Taken Seriously
08/25/15: 2015 Hugo Awards Post Mortem
04/16/15: No, You Probably Can't Separate a Work from Its Author
04/07/15: Sad Puppy Falsehoods, Tantrums, and Failures
04/02/15: Another Sad Puppy Fails History

03/08/15: The Empty Complaints of a Sad Puppy

02/26/15: Inventing a Science Fiction Past to Complain About the Science Fiction Present

02/10/15: Gender and the Hugo Awards
10/09/14: The Screaming Temper Tantrum of "GamerGate"
02/05/14: 22 Responses to 22 Creationist Questions
09/05/13: Value Does Not Exist
06/19/13: There Are No Fake Geek Girls, Only Jerk Geek Guys
06/09/13: Unkillable Characters
02/12/13: Lena Dunham and Aphrodite
02/05/13: A Good Man Steps Down and a Vile Lump of Crap Runs to Take His Place
11/23/12: A Rant About Holiday Posts
10/04/12: Typing With a Splint On Is Slow, Plus Thoughts About Public Television
03/01/11: The Top Ten Science Fiction Television Shows
02/25/11: Senator Reid Chases a Red Herring, Ignores His Actual Responsibilities
01/20/11: Cyberpunk, Neuromancer, Brooke Taylor, and Facebook
12/27/10: Margaret Atwood Makes a Fool Out of Herself, Again
12/06/10: A Defense of (and Farewell to) Confidentiality
11/22/10: Dairy Goat Journal Does the Right Thing
11/18/10: Real Trials Sometimes Result in Acquittals
11/17/10: An Open Letter to Judith Griggs
11/13/10: Thomas Jefferson, Still Not on the Side of Religion in Government
11/10/10: Was Dairy Goat Journal Simply Not Paying Attention This Week?
11/10/10: The United States Is Not Built on a Religious Foundation
11/09/10: Cooks Source Just Doesn't Get It
11/08/10: A Senator Lies to You and Me
11/04/10: Cooks Source, Judith Griggs, and Copyright
11/03/10: Marsha Blackburn and the Federal Budget
10/20/10: Glen Beck Reaches for the Stupid, and Succeeds
10/18/10: Watching Sister Wives and Wondering
01/30/09: Nitpicking Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings
09/16/08: Not All Opinions Matter
08/25/08: What Is a Sport?
08/24/08: Olympic Fraud and Disillusionment
05/07/08: No Squid Faced Aliens Need Apply
05/07/08: Been a While
02/05/08: Taxes

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2007 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: A year after the Alan Moore graphic novel V for Vendetta was inducted into the Hall of Fame, the film version of the story was given a special award by the Libertarian Futurist Society. As I have said before, this sort of ad hoc method of honoring current works that are not novels seems to me to be indicative of the limitations of the Prometheus Awards as they stand today. Quite simply, while the Hall of Fame permits the Prometheus Awards to honor works of fiction from the past no matter the medium they appeared in, the only way for the Prometheus awards to honor current works of fiction that are not novels is to give them a special award. The frequency with which special awards have been handed out in recent years appears to indicate that the Prometheus Awards may be due for an overhaul.

Best Novel

Winner:

Glasshouse by Charles Stross

Other Nominees:

Empire by Orson Scott Card

The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
Harbingers by F. Paul Wilson
Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge

Hall of Fame

Winner:

(tie) It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

(tie) True Names by Vernor Vinge

Other Nominees:
Animal Farm by George Orwell
As Easy as A.B.C. by Rudyard Kipling
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King) by J.R.R. Tolkien

Special Award

Winner:

V for Vendetta directed by James McTeigue, screenplay by Larry and David Wachowski

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 2006
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2008

Book Award Reviews     Home