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calimacI was a bad boy; I did not nominate for the Hugos this year. This is bad because I've long believed that thinness in the nomination process is the Hugos' biggest weakness, and also because while I believe you shouldn't vote unless you know all the nominees in a category, you should nominate whatever you know and like even if your general awareness of the category is weak. Others will do the same, and it'll balance out.
Time, then, for me to reveal my ignorance of the current field.
Novels? I sort of skimmed my way through Spin. I found that the epic events going on at an astrophysical level in this book were sufficiently intriguing that they drowned out any interest I might have had in the personal lives of three characters whom I'd never heard of before. In context their individual problems seemed kind of bathetic. I've had this reaction to other books, and it convinces me I'm not really a natural reader of this kind of story. GRR Martin - well, someday maybe I'll get around to this giant series of his. Ars longa, vita brevis; certainly ars longa. John Scalzi - I enjoyed Agent to the Stars a great deal, but early exposure to Heinlein beat out of me any interest in military SF. Maybe Scalzi did an outstanding job of it with Old Man's War, but I'm not in a hurry to find out. I was a little disappointed to learn that the title is misleading: this war isn't being fought by old men, but by old minds in rejuvenated young bodies. Well, where's the fun in that? If we're gonna have an old man's war, I want to see real geezers out there carting artillery around! The other two I only know the authors' names.
Short fiction? We stopped subscribing to any of the magazines a few years ago. I didn't even know Peter Beagle had published a novelette. I've only read two of these 15 stories, and I'm trying to get the titles to remind me of their content. It's not the stories' fault: my brain is full. I'm sure they were good, and if the publishers follow recent precedent and put them all up for free on the web, that'll be jim dandy as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I'll read them all then.
Related book? Ooh, no art books this year. I grabbed the Langford at Potlatch and had a great time with it, trying but not quite succeeding at following the author's admonition not to read too many of the columns at once. I've heard of all the other books, would like to read them all, but have seen none.
DP? I saw two of the five films, LWW and Serenity, more through obligation than because I'd heard them to be good. The latter was OK, but was too hell-bent on 1) repeating the plot of the last TV show episode; 2) answering questions that should have been left slightly mysterious; 3) turning River into Vampire-Slayer-fu; to be really good. No interest at all in the other films. I've seen none of the short items, and indeed my exceedingly slim knowledge of Doctor Who comes entirely to a halt after Tom Baker.
Pro Editor, Pro Artist? The usual. A lot of good, hard-working people. Cheers.
Semiprozine and fan categories? At last, categories where I know most of the nominees. Haven't seen Interzone in years and let my Locus sub run out, but I read the other three semiprozines regularly. I've read all the fanzines at one time or another, especially thanks to the web, though I only get two of them in the mail, Chunga and F770. And I know the work of all the fanwriter and fan artist nominees, which is not always the case.
Campbell? Well, 3 or 4 of the names sound familiar.
Time, then, for me to reveal my ignorance of the current field.
Novels? I sort of skimmed my way through Spin. I found that the epic events going on at an astrophysical level in this book were sufficiently intriguing that they drowned out any interest I might have had in the personal lives of three characters whom I'd never heard of before. In context their individual problems seemed kind of bathetic. I've had this reaction to other books, and it convinces me I'm not really a natural reader of this kind of story. GRR Martin - well, someday maybe I'll get around to this giant series of his. Ars longa, vita brevis; certainly ars longa. John Scalzi - I enjoyed Agent to the Stars a great deal, but early exposure to Heinlein beat out of me any interest in military SF. Maybe Scalzi did an outstanding job of it with Old Man's War, but I'm not in a hurry to find out. I was a little disappointed to learn that the title is misleading: this war isn't being fought by old men, but by old minds in rejuvenated young bodies. Well, where's the fun in that? If we're gonna have an old man's war, I want to see real geezers out there carting artillery around! The other two I only know the authors' names.
Short fiction? We stopped subscribing to any of the magazines a few years ago. I didn't even know Peter Beagle had published a novelette. I've only read two of these 15 stories, and I'm trying to get the titles to remind me of their content. It's not the stories' fault: my brain is full. I'm sure they were good, and if the publishers follow recent precedent and put them all up for free on the web, that'll be jim dandy as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I'll read them all then.
Related book? Ooh, no art books this year. I grabbed the Langford at Potlatch and had a great time with it, trying but not quite succeeding at following the author's admonition not to read too many of the columns at once. I've heard of all the other books, would like to read them all, but have seen none.
DP? I saw two of the five films, LWW and Serenity, more through obligation than because I'd heard them to be good. The latter was OK, but was too hell-bent on 1) repeating the plot of the last TV show episode; 2) answering questions that should have been left slightly mysterious; 3) turning River into Vampire-Slayer-fu; to be really good. No interest at all in the other films. I've seen none of the short items, and indeed my exceedingly slim knowledge of Doctor Who comes entirely to a halt after Tom Baker.
Pro Editor, Pro Artist? The usual. A lot of good, hard-working people. Cheers.
Semiprozine and fan categories? At last, categories where I know most of the nominees. Haven't seen Interzone in years and let my Locus sub run out, but I read the other three semiprozines regularly. I've read all the fanzines at one time or another, especially thanks to the web, though I only get two of them in the mail, Chunga and F770. And I know the work of all the fanwriter and fan artist nominees, which is not always the case.
Campbell? Well, 3 or 4 of the names sound familiar.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-22 09:09 pm (UTC)