2009 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Seattle, Washington.

Comments: Once again the Best Art Book category was eliminated as an independent entity and folded into the Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Book category. Once again this new supercategory seems to make little sense, throwing together wildly different works and expecting the voters to be able to meaningfully compare them one against another. Once again, this merger of categories makes little sense. Once again, I have no idea what the rationale for this merger was, or what it was intended to accomplish.

Best Science Fiction Novel
Winner:
1.   Anathem by Neal Stephenson

Other Nominees:
2.   Matter by Iain M. Banks
3.   City at the End of Time by Greg Bear
4.   Saturn's Children by Charles Stross
5.   Marsbound by Joe Haldeman
6.   Half a Crown by Jo Walton
7.   Incandescence by Greg Egan
8.   Rolling Thunder by John Varley
9.   Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams
10. House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
11. The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley
12. The January Dancer by Michael F. Flynn
13. Escapement by Jay Lake
14. Pirate Sun by Karl Schroeder
15. Flood by Stephen Baxter
16. Weaver by Stephen Baxter
17. The Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod
18. Song of Time by Ian R. MacLeod
19. The Company by K.J. Parker

Best Fantasy Novel
Winner:
1.   Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
2.   The Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick
3.   An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe
4.   The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford
5.   The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia A. McKillip
6.   An Autumn War by Daniel Abraham
7.   The Knights of the Cornerstone by James P. Blaylock
8.   The Hidden World by Paul Park
9.   Shadowbridge/Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost
10. The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
11. The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll
12. The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
13. The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak

14. Memoirs of a Master Forger by William Heaney (aka How to Make Friends with Demons by Graham Joyce)

15. The Engine's Child by Holly Phillips
16. Varanger by Cecelia Holland

Best Young Adult Book
Winner:
1.   The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Other Nominees:
2.   Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
3.   Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
4.   Nation by Terry Pratchett
5.   Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
6.   How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier
7.   Chalice by Robin McKinley
8.   Flora's Dare by Ysabeau S. Wilce
9.   The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
10. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
11. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
12. Eon: Dragoneye Reborn (aka The Two Pearls of Wisdom) by Alison Goodman
13. Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
14. Monster Blood Tattoo, Book Two: Lamplighter by D.M. Cornish

Best First Novel
Winner:

1.    Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko

Other Nominees:
2.   Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory
3.   Thunderer by Felix Gilman
4.   Black Ships by Jo Graham
5.   The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
6.   Graceling by Kristin Cashore
7.   The Painted Man (aka The Warded Man) by Peter V. Brett
8.   Last Dragon by J.M. McDermott
9.   The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski
10. The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick
11. Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst
12. The Long Look by Richard Parks
13. The Ninth Circle by Alex Bell

Best Novella
Winner:
1.   Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link

Other Nominees:

2.   The Erdmann Nexus by Nancy Kress

3.   The Tear by Ian McDonald
4.   Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman
5.   True Names by Benjamin Rosenbaum and Cory Doctorow
6.   The Word of God: Or, Holy Writ Rewritten by Thomas M. Disch
7.   The Philosopher's Stone by Brian Stableford
8.   Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key by Kage Baker
9.   Truth by Robert Reed
10. The Surfer by Kelly Link
11. The Hob Carpet by Ian R. MacLeod
12. The Man with the Golden Balloon by Robert Reed
13. The Political Prisoner by Charles Coleman Finlay
14. Mystery Hill by Alex Irvine
15. Arkfall by Carolyn Ives Gilman
16. Tenbrook of Mars by Dean McLaughlin
17. The Overseer by Albert E. Cowdrey

Best Novelette
Winner:
1.   Pump Six by Paolo Bacigalupi

Other Nominees:
2.   Shoggoths in Bloom by Elizabeth Bear

3.   The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away by Cory Doctorow

4.   The Ice War by Stephen Baxter
5.   Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel
6.   The Rabbi's Hobby by Peter S. Beagle
7.   Crystal Nights by Greg Egan
8.   The Gambler by Paolo Bacigalupi
9.   Turing's Apples by Stephen Baxter
10. Five Thrillers by Robert Reed
11. Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel by Peter S. Beagle
12. The Hour of Babel by Tim Powers
13. The Star Surgeon's Apprentice by Alastair Reynolds
14. Lost Continent by Greg Egan
15. If Angels Fight by Richard Bowes
16. Days of Wonder by Geoff Ryman
17. Conversation Hearts by John Crowley
18. The Ray-Gun: A Love Story by James Alan Gardner
19. The Tale of Junko and Sayuri by Peter S. Beagle
20. Fury by Alastair Reynolds
21. Memory Dog by Kathleen Ann Goonan
22. Radio Station St. Jack by Neal Barrett, Jr.
23. Machine Maid by Margo Lanagan
24. Special Economics by Maureen F. McHugh
25. The Dust Assassin by Ian McDonald
26. An Eligible Boy by Ian McDonald
27. An Alien Heresy by S.P. Somtow
28. Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarsköe by Garth Nix
29. Following the Pharmers by Brian Stableford

Best Short Story
Winner:

1.   Exhalation by Ted Chiang

Other Nominees:

2.   After the Coup by John Scalzi

3.   Boojim by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette
4.   The Kindness of Strangers by Nancy Kress
5.   King Pelles the Sure by Peter S. Beagle
6.   From Babel's Fall'n Glory We Fled by Michael Swanwick
7.   Private Eye by Terry Bisson
8.   26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss by Kij Johnson
9.   The Scarecrow's Boy by Michael Swanwick
10. Evil Robot Monkey by Mary Robinette Kowal
11. A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica by Catherynne M. Valente
12. The Thought War by Paul J. McAuley
13. The Goosle by Margo Lanagan
14. Fixing Hanover by Jeff VanderMeer

15. The Sky that Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue and Into the Black by Jay Lake

16. Ass-Hat Magic Spider by Scott Westerfeld
17. The Dream of Reason by Jeffrey Ford
18. Invisible Empire of Ascending Light by Ken Scholes
19. The Film-makers of Mars by Geoff Ryman
20. The House Left Empty by Robert Reed
21. Reader's Guide by Lisa Goldstein
22. Fifty Dinosaurs by Robert Reed
23. Goblin Music by Joan Aiken
24. The Seventh Expression of the Robot General by Jeffrey Ford
25. Snatch Me Another by Mercurio D. Rivera

Best Collection
Winner:

1.   Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi

Other Nominees:

2.   The Best of Michael Swanwick by Michael Swanwick

3.   Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
4.   The Drowned Life by Jeffrey Ford
5.   The Best of Lucius Shepard by Lucius Shepard
6.   Dark Integers and Other Stories by Greg Egan
7.   H.P. Lovecraft: The Fiction by H.P. Lovecraft
8.   Nano Comes to Clifford Falls and Other Stories by Nancy Kress
9.   Other Worlds, Better Lives: A Howard Waldrop Reader by Howard Waldrop
10. The Wall of America by Thomas M. Disch
11. The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories by John Kessel
12. The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives by James P. Blaylock
13. The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories by Joan Aiken
14. Long Walks, Last Flights, and Other Strange Journeys by Ken Scholes
15. Works of Art by James Blish
16. Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters by John Langan
17. The Wreck of the Godspeed and Other Stories by James Patrick Kelly
18. The Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum

19. Gateway to Paradise: The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, Volume Six by Jack Williamson

20. The Autopsy and Other Tales by Michael Shea
21. Ten Sigmas and Other Unlikelihoods by Paul Melko

Best Anthology
Winner:

1.   The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-fifth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois

Other Nominees:

2.   The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: Twenty-first Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant

3.   Galactic Empires edited by Gardner Dozois
4.   Eclipse Two edited by Jonathan Strahan
5.   The Starry Rift edited by Jonathan Strahan
6.   Fast Forward 2 edited by Lou Anders
7.   Fast Ships, Black Sails edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
8.   Steampunk edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
9.   Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams
10. The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow
11. The New Weird edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
12. Year's Best SF 13 edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
13. Sideways in Crime edited by Lou Anders
14. The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two edited by George Mann

15. Extraordinary Engines: The Definitive Steampunk Anthology edited by Nick Gevers

16. The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Two edited by Jonathan Strahan

17. Poe's Children: The New Horror edited by Peter Straub
18. Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy edited by William Schafer
19. A Science Fiction Omnibus edited by Brian W. Aldiss
20. Clockwork Phoenix edited by Mike Allen
21. A Book of Wizards edited by Marvin Kaye

22. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume Nineteen edited by Stephen Jones

23. Year's Best Fantasy 8 edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
24. Dreaming Again edited by Jack Dann

Best Nonfiction, Art, Related, or Reference Book
Winner:

1.   Coraline: The Graphic Novel by Neil Gaiman, adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell

Other Nominees:

2.   Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner

3.   Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn
4.   What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid
5.   Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan

6.   Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman by Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden, and Stephen R. Bissette

7.   The Vorkosigan Companion: The Universe of Lois McMaster Bujold edited by Lillian Stewart Carl and John Helfers

8.   H. Beam Piper: A Biography by John F. Carr

9.   A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft edited by Jerad Walters

10. The Worlds of Jack Williamson: A Centennial Tribute 1908-2008 edited by Stephen Haffner

11. An Unofficial Companion to the Novels of Terry Pratchett edited by Andrew M. Butler

12. Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton by J.G. Ballard

13. Lexicon Urthus: A Dictionary for the Urth Cycle, Second Edition by Michael Andre-Driussi

14. The Paintings of J. Allen St. John: Grand Master of Fantasy by Stephen D. Korshak

15. The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia by Laura Miller
16. Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography by Jeffrey Marks
17. Paint or Pixel: The Digital Divide in Illustration Art edited by Jane Frank

Best Editor
Winner:
1.   Ellen Datlow

Other Nominees:
2.   Gardner Dozois
3.   Gordon van Gelder
4.   David G. Hartwell
5.   Jonathan Strahan
6.   Patrick Nielsen Hayden
7.   Lou Anders
8.   Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
9.   Sheila Williams
10. Peter Crowther
11. Jim Baen
12. Gavin Grant and Kelly Link
13. Stanley Schmidt
14. Terri Windling
15. William Schafer
16. Shawna McCarthy
17. (tie) Teresa Nielsen Hayden
      (tie) Martin H. Greenberg
19. Toni Weisskopf
20. Ginjer Buchanan
21. Beth Meacham
22. Andy Cox
23. Sharyn November

Best Magazine
Winner:
1.   Fantasy & Science Fiction

Other Nominees:
2.   Asimov's
3.   Analog
4.   Subterranean
5.   Realms of Fantasy
6.   Interzone
7.   Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
8.   The New York Review of Science Fiction
9.   Clarkesworld Magazine
10. Strange Horizons
11. Weird Tales
12. SF Site
13. Jim Baen's Universe
14. Ansible
15. Postscripts
16. SF Weekly
17. Electric Velocipede
18. Cemetery Dance
19. Fantasy Magazine
20. Black Gate
21. The Internet Review of Science Fiction
22. SFRevu

Best Book Publisher or Imprint
Winner:
1.   Tor

Other Nominees:
2.   Subterranean Press
3.   Night Shade Books
4.   Baen
5.   Ace
6.   Del Rey
7.   Gollancz
8.   Bantam Spectra
9.   Pyr
10. PS Publishing
11. DAW
12. Orbit
13. NESFA Press
14. Small Beer Press
15. Tachyon
16. Eos
17. Golden Gryphon
18. Roc
19. St. Martin's
20. Firebird
21. Solaris
22. SF Book Club
23. Arkham House

Best Artist
Winner:
1.   Michael Whelan

Other Nominees:
2.   Bob Eggleton
3.   John Picacio
4.   Shaun Tan
5.   Charles Vess
6.   Stephan Martiniere
7.   Dave McKean
8.   Donato Giancola
9.   Kinuko Y. Craft
10. Thomas Canty
11. Frank Frazetta
12. John Jude Palencar
13. Jim Burns
14. Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon
15. J.K. Potter
16. Vincent Di Fate
17. Don Maitz
18. Boris Vallejo
19. Michael Kaluta
20. Frank Wu
21. Tom Kidd
22. Yoshitaka Amano
23. Julie Bell

Go to previous year's nominees: 2008
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2010

Book Award Reviews     Home

2009 Clarke Award Nominees

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

Comments: I've said this before, but the 2009 slate of Clarke Award nominees will make me say it again: The volume of excellent science fiction being produced in recent years has simply been overwhelming. On this ballot I am partial to Neal Stephenson's book Anathem, but that's mostly because I like Stephenson's work. Being perfectly honest, all of the books on this list would have been worthy winners of the award, and probably would have been shoo-in's to win if they had been nominated in earlier decades.

Winner
Song of Time by Ian R. MacLeod

Shortlist
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper
Martin Martin's on the Other Side by Mark Wernham
The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 2008
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2010

Book Award Reviews     Home

2009 Nebula Award Nominees

Location: Los Angeles, California.

Comments: 2009 was a good year for female authors. The year saw two of my favorite authors - Ursula K. Le Guin and Catherine Asaro, both win Nebula Awards, and also saw Nina Kiriki Hoffman pick up an award as well. The Andre Norton Award went to Ysabeau Wilce. One might think that with four of the six available awards going to works authored by women, that this was a very good year for gender equity.

And for the most part, one would be correct. Most of the award categories had fields of nominees that were more or less evenly balanced between the sexes, with women gaining a very slight edge overall. The field of Andre Norton nominees was dominated by female writers. On the other hand, while Le Guin won the Nebula for Best Novel, she did so against an entirely male field of other nominees and there were no writers among those nominated for the Best Script Award. On the whole, however, 2009 indicates just how far the Nebula Awards had come from the almost exclusively boys' club of the 1960s and 1970s, to being a much more representative and inclusive honor.

Best Novel

Winner:
Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
Brasyl by Ian McDonald
Cauldron by Jack McDevitt
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Making Money by Terry Pratchett
Superpowers by David J. Schwartz

Best Novella

Winner:

The Spacetime Pool by Catherine Asaro

Other Nominees:
Dangerous Space by Kelley Eskridge
Dark Heaven by Gregory Benford
The Duke In His Castle by Vera Nazarian
The Political Prisoner by Charles Coleman Finlay

Best Novelette

Winner:

Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel

Other Nominees:
Baby Doll by Johanna Sinisalo, translated by David Hackston
Dark Rooms by Lisa Goldstein
If Angels Fight by Richard Bowes
Kaleidoscope by K.D. Wentworth
Night Wind by Mary Rosenblum
The Ray-Gun: A Love Story by James Alan Gardner

Best Short Story

Winner:
Trophy Wives by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Other Nominees:
26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss by Kij Johnson
The Button Bin by Mike Allen
Don't Stop by James Patrick Kelly
The Dreaming Wind by Jeffrey Ford
Mars: A Traveler's Guide by Ruth Nestvold
The Tomb Wife by Gwyneth Jones

Best Script

Winner:

WALL-E by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, and Peter Docter

Other Nominees:
The Dark Knight by Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, and David S. Goyer
Stargate Atlantis: The Shrine by Brad Wright

Andre Norton Award

Winner:

Flora's Dare by Ysabeau S. Wilce

Other Nominees:
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Monster Blood Tattoo, Book Two: Lamplighter by D.M. Cornish
Savvy by Ingrid Law

Go to previous year's nominees: 2008
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2010

Book Award Reviews     Home

Biased Opinion - Nitpicking Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings

I first saw all three Lord of the Rings movies in their theatrical release. Every year, for three years, the Christmas gift I looked forward to was the Special Extended Edition DVD of each movie. Before I go any further, I must emphasize that I like the Peter Jackson movies. They are better than anything a fan could have hoped to expect, and certainly leaps and bounds better than the Bakshi or Rankin Bass animated movies.

Even so, when recently rewatching them after not having seen them for about a year, I became convinced that, as good as they are, the movies should have been much better. Elements that I mentally glossed over in my mind jumped to the forefront when seen again. This, and the following posts, are the result of the observations I made while watching the extended editions of the movies, and listening to the various commentary tracks on them (for the record, there are four commentary tracks on each movie).

Note: All of my comments relate to the Special Extended Edition DVD versions of the movies The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.

My first nitpick applies to all three films, although it isn't so much a Lord of the Rings nitpick as it is a general complaint about movie making. I am referring to the phenomenon I think can be best described as Hollywood Armor - specifically, the fact that on screen, armor provides absolutely no protection against anything at all. In all of the Lord of the Rings movies this is true as well - armor is little more than decorative clothing that doubles as a uniform.

This lack of protection manifests itself in many ways in the film - armored arms are cut off with ease, arrows pierce every armored chest (I believe that every arrow fired in the movies kills someone, no matter how much protection they are wearing). There is only one scene I can remember in the trilogy in which armor actually protects someone, and I suspect that is because the scene is drawn directly from the original books - when Frodo is stabbed by the cave troll in Moria and is saved by his mithril shirt. But I think that three scenes illustrate just how useless armor is in the Lord of the Rings:

1. The first is quite short, part of a much larger battle sequence in fact. In The Return of the King, after the forces of Mordor have battered down the gates of Minas Tirith and are flooding into the city, a wild melee takes place as poorly armored orcs take on the city's soldiers who are clad in what appears to be plate armor. I say "what appears" because it seems to be made of tinfoil. Orcs armed with wooden clubs batter the defenders into submission. In the silliest part of the fight, an orc grabs a guardsman and bites him on the shoulder. His plate armored shoulder. From the resulting pained expression on the soldier's face, apparently orcs can bite through steel.

2. In the climatic battle scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn manhandles a helmed Uruk, bashing his head against a stone pillar. Or rather, bashing his helmet against a pillar. Apparently, Uruk helmets provide no protection against blows to the head, as the Uruk immediately collapses, apparently knocked out.

3. And in the silliest scene: When Eomer is banished by Wormtongue in The Two Towers, some of Wormtongue's henchmen grab the hero and rough him up, by punching him in his mail armored midsection. This is just ridiculous - punching an armored person in the stomach won't hurt them in the slightest, and will just injure your hand. So, in the scene, does Eomer smirk as the henchmen howl in pain from their broken fingers? No, he doubles over, since his armor provides no protection at all, even against unarmed attackers. The real stupidity of this scene derives from the fact that it could have been easily changed to make sense: the hoodlums could have hit Eomer in his unarmored face, or menaced him with knives or swords. But no. We have a typical, boring, and ultimately stupid roughing up sequence reminiscent of a B grade mafia movie.

The lack of usefulness of armor in the movies extends to shields as well. For example, the Uruk-Hai and other orcs often carry shields. But they don't seem to actually use them as protective devices - Uruk shields are used as weapons or snowboards more often than they are used as protection. The Rohirrim seem to have figured the uselessness of shields out though, since they carry them to the Battle of Pelennor Fields, but leave them hanging off their saddles. (One wonders why they bothered to weight their horses down with heavy equipment they obviously considered useless). Often, you see characters carrying shields in a fencing stance, with their shield behind their bodies, so they can have a range of motion to parry with their sword. Note to Hollywood fight coordinators: When a character carries a shield, he should use that to block incoming attacks, not his sword.

Once again, shields prove useful (in a limited sense) exactly once, and for the same reason armor proved useful once - when Eowyn confronts the Witch-King, she grabs a shield and it protects her from one blow of the Nazgul's giant flail. I strongly suspect that if Tolkien had not explicitly written the shield smashing element into that battle, Eowyn would not have bothered with this sort of protection.

The Lord of the Rings movies aren't the only offenders in this area - the full plate armor worn by the knights in Excalibur proves to be surprisingly ineffective. The Normans in the Robin of Sherwood BBC series universally wear mail armor and carry shields, both of which prove to be entirely useless when it comes to actually protecting them.

This is a Hollywood trope that needs to die, and die soon. Quit putting characters in armor and then treating it like they were wearing sweaters or sheets of aluminum foil. If someone carries a shield, they should treat it as more than a cumbersome bashing tool. These sorts of silly fight conventions just make movies look stupid, and pull the viewer out of the action with their ridiculousness. Just stop it. Stop it now.

Biased Opinions     Home

2008 Campbell Award Nominees

Location: Campbell Conference Awards Banquet at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.

Comments: In 2008, Kathleen Ann Goonan became only the third woman to ever win the Campbell Award. I know that I may sound like a broken record at times, but this track record is kind of ridiculous. Here we are, in the twenty-first century, and the list of nominees for this year only had four nominees written by female authors out of fourteen total nominees. Not only that, the slate of nominees is ridiculously white - there were only two works nominated whose author was not white. The end result is a ballot that is very male and very white. And in 2008, this is simply embarrassing.

Best Novel

Winner:

In War Times by Kathleen Ann Goonan

Second Place:

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

Third Place:

The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod

Finalists:

Axis by Robert Charles Wilson

Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff
Brasyl by Ian McDonald
Deadstock by Jeffrey Thomas
HARM by Brian W. Aldiss
Mainspring by Jay Lake
The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper
The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson
Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer
Time's Child by Rebecca Ore
Zig Zag by Jose Carlos Somoza

Go to previous year's nominees: 2007
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2009

Book Award Reviews     Home

2008 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: The Prometheus Award Hall of Fame is, and always has been, something of an odd duck. The nominees are usually an almost random grab-bag ranging from classic works of fiction that tangentially touch upon themes dear to the hearts of libertarians, to recent works published by authors who are idolized by the members of the Libertarian Futurist Society, plus an assortment of works that don't fit into this axis, many of which seem to be present merely to give the award some intellectual heft. In 2008, the nominees were all classic works that feature passing mentions of libertarian-like sentiments, but which, in many cases, don't really seem to support the libertarian ideology. I can understand wanting to have authors like T.H. White and J.R.R. Tolkien on a libertarian award's list of honorees. It gives a certain amount of respectability to have works by such authors listed with the other works that have been honored. But the honor rings hollow when their works don't really espouse the libertarian ideology.

Best Novel

Winner:

(tie) The Gladiator by Harry Turtledove

(tie) Ha'Penny by Jo Walton

Other Nominees:

The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod

Fleet of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
Ragamuffin by Tobias S. Buckell

Hall of Fame

Winner:

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Other Nominees:
As Easy as A.B.C. by Rudyard Kipling

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

The Once and Future King by T.H. White
That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

Go to previous year's nominees: 2007
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2009

Book Award Reviews     Home

2008 Clarke Award Nominees

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

Comments: You can often discern the concerns of an era by looking at the science fiction that its authors produce. The 2008 Clarke Awards were focused on militarism, as reflected in Richard Morgan's novel Black Man, terrorism as reflected in Ken MacLeod's novel The Execution Channel, and fear of nuclear holocaust, as reflected in Stephen Baxter's The H-Bomb Girl. The unifying theme of the genre fiction that appears on this year's ballot appears to be fear of our neighbors and fear of our own creations. Science fiction has always had an undercurrent of fear of technology and fear of the other, starting with Frankenstein, and that undercurrent rises and falls seemingly in time with the mood of the society around it, and in 2008, the mood of the society was decidedly fearful and that is reflected in the fiction that was produced.

Winner
Black Man by Richard Morgan

Shortlist
The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall
The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod
The H-Bomb Girl by Stephen Baxter
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
The Red Men by Matthew de Abaitua

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 2007
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2009

Book Award Reviews     Home

2008 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, Calgary, Alberta.

Comments: Even though there are still serious gender disparity issues displayed in the 2008 slate of World Fantasy Award nominees, I'm going to skip by that to point out an even more troubling issue that isn't as readily apparent at first glance: This list of nominees is very white. Looking through the list, I can't identify a single nominee who isn't white. Having such a pale shade of nominees seems to be something of a tradition for the World Fantasy Awards, but by 2008 all-white nominee lists should have been a somewhat awkward piece of historical trivia. Sure, every now and then someone like Nalo Hopkinson would get a nomination, and might even win an award, but on the whole the minority nominees have been vastly outnumbered by their lily white competition to an entirely embarrassing degree, even at this late date.

Best Novel

Winner:
Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay

Other Nominees:
Fangland by John Marks
The Gospel of the Knife by Will Shetterly
The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith
Territory by Emma Bull

Best Novella

Winner:
Illyria by Elizabeth Hand

Other Nominees:
Cold Snap by Kim Newman
The Master Miller's Tale by Ian R. MacLeod
The Mermaids by Robert Edric
Stars Seen through Stone by Lucius Shepard

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
Singing of Mount Abora by Theodora Goss

Other Nominees:
The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics by Daniel Abraham
The Church on the Island by Simon Kurt Unsworth
Damned If You Don't by Robert Shearman

The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change by Kij Johnson

Best Anthology

Winner:

Inferno edited by Ellen Datlow

Other Nominees:
The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Five Strokes to Midnight edited by Gary A. Braunbeck and Hank Schwaeble
Logorrhea edited by John Klima
Wizards edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois

Best Collection

Winner:

Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman

Other Nominees:
Dagger Key and Other Stories by Lucius Shepard
Hart & Boot & Other Stories by Tim Pratt
Plots and Misadventures by Stephen Gallagher
Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages
The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club by Kim Newman

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon
Patricia A. McKillip

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Edward Miller

Other Nominees:
Ruan Jia
Mikko Kinnunen
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
Peter Crowther

Other Nominees:
Allison Baker and Chris Roberson
Alan Beatts and Jude Feldman
Jeremy Lassen and Jason Williams
Shawna McCarthy
Gordon van Gelder

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
Midori Snyder and Terri Windling

Other Nominees:
G.S. Evans and Alice Whittenburg
Stephen Jones
John Klima
Rosalie Parker and Raymond Russell

Go to previous year's nominees: 2007
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2009

Book Award Reviews     Home

2008 WSFA Small Press Awards

Location: CapClave in Rockville, Maryland.

Comments: One of the more interesting things about the WSFA Small Press Award is that is is judged anonymously - before the stories on the short list are given over to the members of WSFA to read and vote upon, the names of the authors of the stories and the publications in which the stories appeared in are removed. This means that particular authors or publications gain no benefit from any name recognition that might boost their standing, leaving the writing itself as the sole guide for the voters.

The net result of the WSFA voting system is to make it is quite possible for a lesser-known author to beat out an established "name" in the genre. In 2008, this was demonstrated quite handily as relatively new writer Tom Doyle won the award over a strong field that included works by established industry stalwarts Elizabeth Bear and Jeff VanderMeer.

WSFA Small Press Award

Winner:

The Wizard of Macatawa by Tom Doyle (reviewed in The Wizard of Macatawa and Other Stories)

Other Nominees:
Bufo Rex by Erik Amundsen
Orm the Beautiful by Elizabeth Bear
Harry the Crow by John Kratman
Mask of the Ferret by Ken Pick and Alan Loewen
The Third Bear by Jeff VanderMeer

Go to previous year's nominees: 2007
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2009

Book Award Reviews     Home

Biased Opinion - Not All Opinions Matter

It seems to have become an article of faith in many places that all opinions, no matter how loony, must be considered. On internet boards especially, one seems to be expected to respond to the most ridiculously silly opinions offered, simply on the basis that someone holds such an opinion. If you ignore them, you are accused of ducking the issue, or the other party declares that such a non-response is evidence that their views are valid, or some similar accusation. It has become accepted that one must spend time and effort responding even the most outlandish claims.

This is, to put it bluntly, simply idiotic.

All opinions are not made equal. All opinions do not deserve respect. In point of fact, some opinions deserve little more than derision and scorn. Specifically, I am referring to uninformed opinions. An opinion announced that is based upon no actual knowledge on the part of the speaker is worth exactly nothing. (I believe that it was Harlan Ellison who said, "[y]ou are not entitled to your opinion, you are entitled to your informed opinion. If you are not informed on the subject, then your opinion counts for nothing.") I don't think this should need to be said, but apparently it does. If you show up at a discussion, and offer up an opinion on a subject you know nothing about, you should probably expect to be ridiculed. And you deserve to be.

So, why does this matter? Well, with respect to science fiction, it comes up a lot. Many people assert that they don't like science fiction. When asked what science fiction they have been exposed to, the answer is usually "Star Wars" (or "Star Trek"), and often not even that. The answer to that is that they have demonstrated, at most that they don't like Star Wars, not that they don't like science fiction (that's okay, I don't much like The Matrix, I still like science fiction though). Recently, while being interviewed concerning his role in a production of MacBeth, Patrick Stewart was chided by the Newsweek interviewer about attracting weird Trekkies to the theatre. Unlike what happens most of the time, Stewart asked the interviewer how many Trekkies he'd actually met. The interviewer was unable to identify any. Stewart asked him to explain why Trekkies and Star Trek are weird. Rather than try to talk his way out of his now shockingly exposed ignorance, the interviewer terminated the interview and ran an unflattering article about Stewart.

Opinions are also frequently aired by people seeking to distance their "good" production from "bad" science fiction. It is currently in vogue for actors to talk about their new science fiction series as if it were a significant break from science fiction of the past. I believe it was Katee Sackhoff who said that Battlestar Galactica wasn't like other science fiction because it had characters and plot. It is treated by most media as being so apparent that science fiction is usually devoid of such things that the obvious follow-up question "What science fiction programs are you referring to as lacking in such elements" was never asked. I suppose that neither Katee nor her interviewer had ever heard of Babylon 5, or Farscape (read review), or Firefly, or Blade Runner, or The Matrix, or 2001 and on and on, many of which had an actor at some point try to argue that their show wasn't like all those "bad" science fiction shows because it broke new dramatic ground and has characters and plot. I am curious to see the next actor who forgets Katee's statements about Battlestar Galactica and claims their new show is great because it isn't like all those old, trashy characterless and plotless shows that came before.

This sort of ignorance on parade is not new. I remember a short-lived series called Earth 2. In the hype leading up to the series, much was made of the fact that they weren't going to use veteran science fiction writers for the show. They were going "break new ground" and show those silly people living in the science fiction ghetto what real writing was like. Earth 2 would be innovative and great, with plot, characters, and new ideas. What really happened was this: because they had no knowledge of the genre they were entering, the writers and producers of the show rehashed ideas that had been old in science fiction books, movies, and television years or even decades before. Instead of being innovative, the show was the same tired old cliches (many of them done worse than they had already been done before), and didn't even know it. By not knowing the genre they expressed their opinions on, the makers of Earth 2 simply embarrassed themselves.

So, the next time someone says "I don't like science fiction", ask them to back up their statements. Ask if they have read any. Most people will say "no". In this case, the question becomes, how they would come to a conclusion that they didn't like something they had never tried. And the truly sad thing about these sorts of opinions is that most people have read and enjoyed science fiction, without even knowing it. But they expect science fiction to be what they have been told it is - ray guns, funny aliens with tentacles, robots, and exploding spaceships.

When I find someone who is adamant about their dislike of science fiction, I try to find out what they have read or seen. I ask them about Flowers for Algernon, about Frankenstein, about 1984, about Brave New World, about The Road. I ask them about The Left Hand of Darkness. I then point out that all of these are science fiction and see if they might want to revise their uninformed opinion to an informed one.

Biased Opinions     Home

Biased Opinion - What Is a Sport?

The other day, I had the Olympics on, and NBC was showing the team synchronized swimming event (I know, but no other channels were carrying any Olympic coverage, so I was stuck with that). I was not paying a whole lot of attention, when my 10 year old son came upstairs from the basement and asked what I was watching. "The Olympics" I said. He studied the screen for about ten seconds of the Spanish women whipping their legs about in the air, and pronounced "That isn't a sport."

There has been a lot of controversy this Olympics about subjective sports. Of course, there is always a lot of controversy about them - that seems to be inherent to such endeavors. And the Olympics seem to breed these silly things: synchronized diving appears to be the most recent. The silly nature of a lot of these sports has spawned reactions, such as the "Real Medal Count" tallies in the media, and within the sports themselves, ever desperate attempts to somehow make the scoring systems less subjective and open to abuse.

The list of purely subjective sports in the Olympics is long, and getting longer. The original, 1896 Olympics only had one: gymnastics. All the others appear to have descended, in some way from gymnastics (like diving, developed when gymnasts practicing their routines would dive into water). A possibly incomplete count of those currently in the Olympics is: Gymnastics, diving, rhythmic gymnastics, figure skating, ice dancing, dressage, synchronized swimming, >synchronized diving, half pipe snowboarding and other freestyle skiing or snowboarding events. Further, there are several subjective sports knocking on the door, trying to get in are such things as ballroom dancing, skateboarding, and other "X games" type events. So, what is a sport?

One may ask, as an initial question, why does it matter? Shouldn't we just decide if something is a good competition and add it to the roster? Well, the IOC doesn't see things that way. The IOC has imposed limits on how many sports can be in the Olympics - no more than 28 sports for a total of no more than 301 events, and a limit of 10,500 athletes. These definitions are not always adhered to - the 10,500 athlete limit has been ignored for the most part, and the definition of what a single "sport" is is so loose as to be meaningless (for example, synchronized swimming is part of aquatics, which means that to get rid of it, using the IOC rules, you would have to eliminate the swimming races as well, which is silly; rhythmic gymnastics is also protected, by being part of the "gymnastics" sport). But the 301 even limit is pretty much strictly adhered to. The upshot of this is that to add a sport, one has to get rid of an existing sport. So, if you want rugby, or golf, or now, baseball, you have to axe something that is currently on the roster.

This is stupid. The mammoth stupidity of this sort of "limit" is simply almost indescribable. It does a good job of demonstrating the paucity of the IOCs vision of the Olympics. Rather than providing a world stage for sports, they simply want to have a select few so the games will be "manageable". The given reason for the limits is this: the games are expensive to run, and adding more events means that poor cities in poor countries won't have a shot at hosting the games. Okay, that could be a problem. On the other hand, there are numerous ways of overcoming this without putting an artificial limit on inclusion. (How did they come up with the limit you ask? It appears that they simply decided to freeze the Olympics in place as they were when they made the decision. Good thing they didn't freeze it in 1896, then we'd have nothing but track and field, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling). For example, allow cities or smaller countries to submit joint bids, the Beijing Olympics weren't really held entirely within Beijing anyway. But no. We have to limit the games, so we can have sports beg to stay. And really, if rhythmic gymnastics is in the Olympics, why isn't ballroom dancing in? What makes it distinctively different so that one is a sport and one is not?

Further, it is my opinion that many of the sports, like rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming cheapen the games and devalue the medals earned in events like the marathon and the triathlon. A friend of mine has what could be called the "make-up" standard, which is this: if it would be unthinkable to compete in an event without your make-up, then the event isn't a sport. And while I disagree with the standard, that, to me, sums up why these events devalue the objective athletic competitions. When you are concerned with how pretty you are when competing, then you aren't an athlete (and, in my opinion, most of the so-called athletes who are in such sports are far less attractive than those in the objective sports: Kerri Walsh, Misty May-Treanor, Muna Lee and so on are all much more attractive to my eyes).

So, finally, what is a sport? In my opinion, the definition of what is not a sport boils down to this: if any part of the sport is dependent upon whether you have pointed your toes, straightened your arms completely, or kept your legs together properly, then you aren't competing in a sport. Yes, I know, this eliminates pretty much all of the subjective sports, and that's the point. Pointy toes are not sports. What is that I hear from the peanut gallery? These are difficult and require lots of skill? Sure they do. I won't argue with you there. But it takes more than effort and skill to make something a sport. Here are some other activities that require either effort or skill, or both: ballet dancing, construction work, guitar playing, ditch digging, chess, and auto repair. None of them are sports. Neither is diving. Things can be hard and not be a sport. Deal with it.

Some people have come up with the "real medal count", eliminating what they believe are the subjective sports - and have tossed out boxing, tae kwon do, judo and wrestling too. I disagree with that assessment because I believe those sports can be salvaged. Yes, boxing and tae kwon do have had significant scoring controversies (and those questioning the scoring in those events are, in my opinion, justified), but if fencing can come up with a neutral electronic scoring system, then those sports can too. Wrestling and judo are a harder call, because there is no way to come up with an electronic scoring system for them, but they have objective rules concerning what should and should not score, so I think they could be handled fairly, and thus get to stay on a probationary basis.

If I were somehow made king of the world, I would dump all the "pointy-toe" sports from the Olympics. Synchronized swimming? Gone. Diving? No more. Half-pipe? See ya. And so on. I would be magnanimous - artistic gymnasts and divers in individual events in previous Olympic contests can keep their medals. Medals earned by synchronized swimmers, synchronized divers, rhythmic gymnasts and so on? I'd revoke all of those retroactively. But that's just me. And it's unlikely that I will ever be king of the world.

But the serious note is this: The IOC has created an artificial situation with an arbitrary limit. Then it has added obnoxiously corrupt subjective sports in the Olympics and kept out things like rugby (and kicked out baseball) because of that artificial standard. Are these really the guys who should be running the centerpiece world sporting event? I don't think so.

Biased Opinions     Home

Biased Opinion - Olympic Fraud and Disillusionment

I love the Olympics. At least I used to. I'm not so sure any more.

I like baseball, but pretty much only to the extent that I will play it if the opportunity arises (and in that case, I'm usually playing softball, not baseball), or to the extent that I am participating in a fantasy baseball league. I will watch football or basketball, but usually only if the Hoos are playing. But ever since I was a kid watching guys run around a track in Montreal, or slide down a bobsled run in Innsbruck, I've always felt the allure of Olympic sports. They always seemed to have a different aura about them - perhaps it was just that they happened only once every four years, as opposed to the hum-drum regularity of professional sports games. perhaps it was that the sports were so varied and different. I don't know.

I remember watching the Lake Placid Olympics and noticing the first wedge of hypocrisy in the rules - athletes from western nations were held to a strict amateur code, usually struggling to make ends meet, while athletes from behind the Iron Curtain were, essentially, professionals paid for their athletic skills. I remember asking my father about this, and it was one of the first questions I posed that he had no answer for. It wasn't his fault. He didn't make the rules. He couldn't be expected to justify their stupidity.

But, looking back, that was the first real indication I can remember that the IOC was a corrupt and ineffectual organization. Things like the allegations of corruption surrounding the original Salt Lake City bids and the skating judging fiasco, the allegations of gambling influence at the Seoul games, the doping scandals that have grown every games, and the mess that gymnastics always is simply make this clearer with every scandal.

And now it is pretty clear that the Chinese gymnastics federation cheated by using ineligible gymnasts, specifically He Kexin, Deng Lilin, and Yang Yilen. Whether you agree with the age limit rules or not, violating them and using ineligible athletes is cheating. The evidence of this cheating keeps piling up. And the response from the IOC on this simply confirms, once and for all, that the IOC, and possibly the modern Olympics, are past their sell by date.

The first thing about this scandal is that it is clear that the Chinese government is really not good at covering their tracks. I'm guessing that they are so used to controlling the media, and having their pronouncements accepted at face value that they have simply been unable to comprehend that some people would go back and double check what they said. They certainly didn't expect people to go onto their websites and dig up older versions of their published materials to contradict the official line.

However, the Chinese have had a willing accomplice to their fraud in the IOC. First, the IOC tried to sweep it under the rug and hoped it would go away. That might have worked thirty years ago when media outlets were few, and a week old sports story would fade off the wire. But now? Not a chance. Then the IOC tried to dodge responsibility saying that it was up to the gymnastics federation to decide (which makes one wonder what the IOC actually exists for, if it isn't to run and police the Olympic games). Then it decided to use the silliest investigative technique one could imagine:

Policeman: Hello, did you rob that bank over there? I have two witnesses that say it was you and videotape of you pointing a gun at the bank teller.

Masked man: No, it wasn't me. I had an appointment elsewhere. I'll go get my date book and let you look at it, umm, tomorrow.

Policeman: That's good enough for me. As long as your documents say otherwise, that videotape must be some sort of mistake.

Silly, isn't it? But that's basically the nature of the IOC investigation. Now, the IOC has made noises about "not wanting to offend the Chinese", but that just seems to illustrate the inherent corruption here. If the Chinese didn't manipulate their gymnasts' ages, then they wouldn't be offended - most athletes from other countries have been extraordinarily open about things like testing, many even volunteering for additional tests just to demonstrate their innocence and willingness to cooperate. But China? To even suggest that the Chinese might have cheated, even with piles of evidence that they did, is somehow too insulting to consider. And that's because the IOC is desperate to pretend that there are no problems with the Beijing games because, I think, they have been stung by the very legitimate criticism that Beijing should have never been awarded the games to begin with.

And, in many ways, that's the fundamental issue here. The IOC should have known better. Getting a big prize doesn't make a police state become more open, more liberal, and more tolerant. Getting a big prize just legitimizes a police state and gives it a platform to engage in propaganda. It did in 1938, it did in 1980, and it did in 2008. The Chinese government, rather than opening up and becoming more tolerant, has used the "security" concerns of the games to crack down in Tibet, arrest thousands of people, and basically tighten up security and suppress dissent. The Chinese prettied up Beijing for the games, and tried to combat their horrific pollution, but essentially this amounted to building a giant Potemkin village for the television cameras. And the IOC looks like the corrupt, clueless gang that they actually are. To me, it highlights the true ineffectiveness of the IOC - they don't dare offend anyone, because they, like an abused child who craves the abusers love, they are desperate for countries like China to "be part of the Olympic movement". And China knows this, so they make veiled threats, effectively acting like a spoiled child on the playground who threatens to take his ball and go home unless he can break the rules. But scandals like this only serve to show that the "Olympic movement" is hollow and meaningless

As an aside, can we finally put the whole "Eastern harmony with nature" thing to rest? It should be clear to anyone who paid any attention to the run up to the games that China is a cesspit with levels of pollution almost incomprehensible to Americans. I remember watching one of the bike races, and having the commentators note that although it had rained and cut down on the humidity, the rain was so polluted that it made the roads oily and slick. Think about that for a moment. Then think about how the Chinese banned half the cars in Beijing from driving, closed down dozens of factories, and had to desperately scrub rivers to get them clean enough for boating events. If that's the result of Eastern wisdom, spare me any of that kind of advice.

If the IOC were a real organization, with a real concern for the Olympics, they would aggressively pursue the allegations that the Chinese cheated and used ineligible athletes. If the Chinese didn't, then they will have done their job, and China will be vindicated and the world will be assured that the Olympics are well-run. If China did field ineligible athletes, then a drastic solution will have to be found - because falsifying several passports and birth certificates is not an athlete cheating, but rather an organized conspiracy to cheat by an entire sporting federation. (By the way, doesn't it seem pathetic that China would feel the need to cheat to win. It makes the Chinese sporting federation look childish and insecure that they would do something like this). The only solution is to punish the entire federation. It would not be enough to strip the ineligible athletes of their medals, for the same reason that it isn't enough to simply have monopolists or those who defraud the government pay simple damages (and instead they pay treble damages). The only real sanction that would achieve the effect of showing the IOC isn't a weak and toothless caretaker of the Olympics would be to strip all Chinese gymnasts at the 2008 games of their medals, and ban China from international gymnastics competition until after the 2012 games. Effectively, this would be the equivalent of the NCAA giving a corrupt football program the "death penalty".

It won't happen, of course. Rogge will make noises about fairness. He will dissemble in public. The IOC will accept forged documents from the Chinese. And the IOC will declare that no cheating occurred. And then they will wonder why people aren't enthused about the games any more.

Biased Opinions     Home

2008 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Mythcon XXXVIX in New Britain, Connecticut.

Comments: Under the rules of the Mythopoeic Awards works of scholarship in both the Inklings Studies category and Myth and Fantasy Studies category are eligible for a period of three years after they have been published. This means that works can, and often are, nominated to the final list several years in a row. Given this regular recurrence of titles on the finalist lists, I am convinced that this rule exists to make sure that there is a reasonably fleshed out set of finalist lists every year, as otherwise it would seem that there would be a paucity of nominees, especially in the Inklings Studies category.

Best Adult Fantasy Literature

Winner:

Orphan's Tales series (In the Night Garden and In the Cities of Coin and Spice) by Catherynne M. Valente

Other Nominees:

Chronicles of Chaos series (Orphans of Chaos, Fugitives of Chaos, and Titans of Chaos) by John C. Wright

In the Forest of Forgetting by Theodora Goss
The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson
Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay

Best Children's Fantasy Literature

Winner:

Harry Potter series (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) by J.K. Rowling

Other Nominees:

Dussie by Nancy Springer

The New Policeman by Kate Thompson
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

Modern Tale of Faerie series (Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie, and Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale) by Holly Black

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:

The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Pavlac Glyer, appendix by David Bratman

Other Nominees:

The History of the Hobbit (Part One, Mr Baggins and Part Two, Return to Bag-End by John D. Rateliff

Interrupted Music: The Making of Tolkien's Mythology by Verlyn Flieger
Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-Earth by Marjorie Burns

The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary by Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, and Edmund Weiner

Myth and Fantasy Studies

Winner:

The Shadow-Walkers: Jacob Grimm's Mythology of the Monstrous edited by T.A. Shippey

Other Nominees:

Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children's Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper by Charles Butler

From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths by Heather O'Donoghue

The Lure of the Vampire: Gender, Fiction and Fandom from Bram Stoker to Buffy by Milly Williamson

Oz in Perspective: Magic and Myth in the Frank L. Baum Books by Richard Carl Tuerk

Go to previous year's nominees: 2007
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2009

Book Award Reviews     Home

2008 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: Denvention 3 in Denver, Colorado.

Comments: In 2008, the alternate history novel The Yiddish Policeman's Union won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. The novel, which posits that the United States established a refuge for Jews fleeing Europe in Alaska in 1941, has no science fiction element other than the changed course of history. I like alternate history, and writers like Harry Turtledove are among my favorite authors, but alternate history, without more, is simply not science fiction. And it seems like a shame to waste an award aimed at honoring science fiction and fantasy upon a book that is simply not within those genres. I don't dislike The Yiddish Policeman's Union, I just don't think it should have won the Hugo Award over the various actual science fiction novels that were nominated against it.

In other categories, a Neil Gaiman property returned to the Hugo winner's circle as the movie adaptation of Stardust won the Best Long Form Dramatic Presentation category, and Doctor Who continued its domination of the Short Form category with a win for its episode Blink. Doctor Who dominated the category, garnering a second nomination for its two part story Human Nature and The Family of Blood, while the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood took up one of the remaining three nomination slots with its episode Captain Jack Harkness. I've said this before, but having a single property dominate an award category the way Doctor Who has dominated the Short Form Dramatic Presentation Hugo is not healthy, either for the award, or for televised science fiction.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

Other Finalists:
Brasyl by Ian McDonald
Halting State by Charles Stross
The Last Colony by John Scalzi
Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer

Best Novella

Winner:

All Seated on the Ground by Connie Willis

Other Finalists:
The Fountain of Age by Nancy Kress
Memorare by Gene Wolfe
Recovering Apollo 8 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Stars Seen Through Stone by Lucius Shepard

Best Novelette

Winner:

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate by Ted Chiang

Other Finalists:
The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics by Daniel Abraham
Dark Integers by Greg Egan
Finisterra by David Moles
Glory by Greg Egan

Best Short Story

Winner:

Tideline by Elizabeth Bear

Other Finalists:
Distant Replay by Mike Resnick
Last Contact by Stephen Baxter
A Small Room in Koboldtown by Michael Swanwick
Who's Afraid of Wolf 359? by Ken MacLeod

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work

Winner:

Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction by Jeff Prucher

Other Finalists:
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
Breakfast in the Ruins: Science Fiction in the Last Millennium by Barry N. Malzberg

The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Pavlac Glyer

Emshwiller: Infinity x Two by Luis Ortiz

Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form

Winner:
Stardust

Other Finalists:
Enchanted
The Golden Compass
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Heroes, Season 1

Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form

Winner:
Doctor Who: Blink

Other Finalists:
Battlestar Galactica: Razor
Doctor Who: Human Nature and The Family of Blood
Star Trek New Voyages: World Enough and Time
Torchwood: Captain Jack Harkness

Best Professional Editor: Short Form

Winner:
Gordon van Gelder

Other Finalists:
Ellen Datlow
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Sheila Williams

Best Professional Editor: Long Form

Winner;
David G. Hartwell

Other Finalists:
Lou Anders
Ginjer Buchanan
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Beth Meacham

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Stephan Martiniere

Other Finalists:
Bob Eggleton
Phil Foglio
John Harris
John Picacio
Shaun Tan

Best Semi-Prozine

Winner:

Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, and Liza Groen Trombi

Other Finalists:
Ansible edited by Dave Langford
Helix SF edited by William Sanders and Lawrence Watt-Evans
Interzone edited by Andy Cox

The New York Review of Science Fiction edited by Kathryn Cramer, Kristine Dikeman, David G. Hartwell, and Kevin J. Maroney

Best Fanzine

Winner:

File 770 edited by Mike Glyer

Other Finalists:
Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
Challenger edited by Guy H. Lillian, III
Drink Tank edited by Chris Garcia
Plokta edited by Steve Davies, Alison Scott, and Mike Scott

Best Fan Writer

Winner:

John Scalzi

Other Finalists:
Chris Garcia
Dave Langford
Cheryl Morgan
Steven H Silver

Best Fan Artist

Winner:

Brad Foster

Other Finalists:
Teddy Harvia
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles
Taral Wayne

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
Mary Robinette Kowal

Other Finalists:
Joe Abercrombie
Jon Armstrong
David Anthony Durham
David Louis Edelman
Scott Lynch

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's finalists: 2007
Go to subsequent year's finalists: 2009

2008 Hugo Longlist     Book Award Reviews     Home