Starting the Hugo game
Durn fraggle son of frim scraffle brin bran squigging plutz!
(Hey, you know what? It's fun swearing like the dad in A Christmas Story rather than picking the more-familiar, overused classic words to fume with!)
A fun little exercise has encountered a snag almost as soon as the books were out of the box. Not an insurmountable snag, mind you, just a snag.
I was tickled last month when Crash, the only nominated film I'd actually seen, won the Best Picture award at the Oscars. Then I was tickled to see Serenity, my favorite movie since I first blundered into It's A Wonderful Life in 1984, nominated for the science-fiction equivalent, the Hugo awards, which will be distributed this summer.
I know awards are silly. How can you objectively say that one brilliant work of art is better than another? You can't, in point of fact. The award really goes to the one that tickles a majority of the voters or judges - and you know how foolish majorities can be. But it's still entertaining to compare one's own preferences to those of the majority. And that's where I came up with the exercise.
When I saw the five novels that have been nominated for the Hugo, I realized that I could easily read all five of them by August and thus have an informed opinion when the winner is announced. Thusly I sent off an order to the Science Fiction Book Club for:
Learning the World - Ken Macleod
A Feast for Crows - George R.R. Martin
Old Man's War - John Scalzi
Accelerando - Charles Stross
Spin - Robert Charles Wilson
(Interesting that, in a genre dominated for so long by the Asimovs, Bears, Bovas, Bradburys, Brins and Clarkes, the Ellisons, the Heinleins and Herberts, none of the nominees has a name near the top of the alphabet.)
The box arrived a few days ago, and now I've taken step one and opened it. Minutes later, I'm swearing like Ralphie's Old Man.
There, on the inside flap of the dust jacket of Martin's book, are the fateful words: "Now, in A Feast for Crows, Martin delivers the long-awaited fourth book of his landmark series ..."
What's up with this? Do I have to read three other 750-page novels before I have a clue to what's going on in this book, which is already almost twice as long as its next-thickest competitor? I don't think so!
Martin just has to go into the exercise with points against him. I'm not going to take the bait and learn everything that's come before. The durn-bobbled thing has to stand on its own, and it has to give me a story that's worth sprawling over 750 pages, before I'm going to say, "This puppy deserves the B.W. Hugo!" And if it's incomprehensible out of context, or if I pass out from boredom because it needs a more judicious editor, I'm gonna say so.
(Then there's the fantasy versus science fiction thing. The very first word of Martin's book is "Dragons." Does that mean I'm dealing with another Tolkien wannabe rather than a "pure" science fiction story? Oh, man, does this entry have a pile of B.W. prejudices to overcome ...)
Whatever. It's going to be a fun summer, I think. The early leader, based solely on first impressions, i.e., based solely on the title: Accelerando. I have no idea what it means, but it's a cool-sounding word. It makes me want to dive in. Least-tempting title: Spin. Zzzzz, what is it, a "best-of" collection of rock-star interviews from the magazine?
Now, decisions, decisions. Do I start with the least-tempting title, the 750-page fantasy epic, or the most-tempting title?
(Hey, you know what? It's fun swearing like the dad in A Christmas Story rather than picking the more-familiar, overused classic words to fume with!)
A fun little exercise has encountered a snag almost as soon as the books were out of the box. Not an insurmountable snag, mind you, just a snag.
I was tickled last month when Crash, the only nominated film I'd actually seen, won the Best Picture award at the Oscars. Then I was tickled to see Serenity, my favorite movie since I first blundered into It's A Wonderful Life in 1984, nominated for the science-fiction equivalent, the Hugo awards, which will be distributed this summer.
I know awards are silly. How can you objectively say that one brilliant work of art is better than another? You can't, in point of fact. The award really goes to the one that tickles a majority of the voters or judges - and you know how foolish majorities can be. But it's still entertaining to compare one's own preferences to those of the majority. And that's where I came up with the exercise.
When I saw the five novels that have been nominated for the Hugo, I realized that I could easily read all five of them by August and thus have an informed opinion when the winner is announced. Thusly I sent off an order to the Science Fiction Book Club for:
Learning the World - Ken Macleod
A Feast for Crows - George R.R. Martin
Old Man's War - John Scalzi
Accelerando - Charles Stross
Spin - Robert Charles Wilson
(Interesting that, in a genre dominated for so long by the Asimovs, Bears, Bovas, Bradburys, Brins and Clarkes, the Ellisons, the Heinleins and Herberts, none of the nominees has a name near the top of the alphabet.)
The box arrived a few days ago, and now I've taken step one and opened it. Minutes later, I'm swearing like Ralphie's Old Man.
There, on the inside flap of the dust jacket of Martin's book, are the fateful words: "Now, in A Feast for Crows, Martin delivers the long-awaited fourth book of his landmark series ..."
What's up with this? Do I have to read three other 750-page novels before I have a clue to what's going on in this book, which is already almost twice as long as its next-thickest competitor? I don't think so!
Martin just has to go into the exercise with points against him. I'm not going to take the bait and learn everything that's come before. The durn-bobbled thing has to stand on its own, and it has to give me a story that's worth sprawling over 750 pages, before I'm going to say, "This puppy deserves the B.W. Hugo!" And if it's incomprehensible out of context, or if I pass out from boredom because it needs a more judicious editor, I'm gonna say so.
(Then there's the fantasy versus science fiction thing. The very first word of Martin's book is "Dragons." Does that mean I'm dealing with another Tolkien wannabe rather than a "pure" science fiction story? Oh, man, does this entry have a pile of B.W. prejudices to overcome ...)
Whatever. It's going to be a fun summer, I think. The early leader, based solely on first impressions, i.e., based solely on the title: Accelerando. I have no idea what it means, but it's a cool-sounding word. It makes me want to dive in. Least-tempting title: Spin. Zzzzz, what is it, a "best-of" collection of rock-star interviews from the magazine?
Now, decisions, decisions. Do I start with the least-tempting title, the 750-page fantasy epic, or the most-tempting title?
posted by B.W. Richardson at
11:23 AM
4 Comments:
What is it about sci-fi book series? Back in the Good Old Days, sci-fi seemed to be largely the Land of Standalone Novels, while the mystery genre was the domain for multi-novel series (quite naturally, because most detectives and cops are, well, interchangable). I suspect that many modern sci-fi writers like the series idea -- create one "universe," then pull stories out of it; saves the time of thinking up new worlds for every book. (Granted, Burroughs, Asimov and others launched series way back, but they seemed the exception.)
I've heard good things about Accelerando ... been meaning to read it myself, but I keep forgetting about it, largely due to several books awaiting a review.
With 2 of the 5 Hugo nominees also being among the finalists for the Prometheus Award, you've got a jump on reading everythng up for that award as well. :)
Happy Curmudgeon,
Actually, you're right that Stross is nominated for both a Hugo and a Prometheus this year...but for two DIFFERENT novels!
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