MinDonner Posted September 7, 2006 Share Posted September 7, 2006 Am I the only person to have read Scar Night? I'd definitely put Lies of Locke Lamora up there at one, but I'd be tempted to put Scar Night by Alan Campbell at two, and then the Thousandfold Thought. It seems sort of a shame to me that Scar Night came out this year - it was hugely original, well written and easily one of the best books released so far in 2006 - but it's going to be in competition with TLOLL and Thousandfold Thought, and not that many people seem to have read it. Scar Night didn't get anything like the push it deserved from the publishers, which is a damn shame - it's not doing too badly though, maybe the word-of-mouth recommendations are starting to filter through. I'd still put LoLL at #1, but if SN even gets nominated I'll be happy. There was a thread about it a while back but it fizzled out; Scott Lynch is a fan though and has been pimping it in interviews, so if that's not enough recommendation I don't know what is! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G Vico Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 I just read Singing My Sister Down and wasn't all that impressed. Worth reading if it showed up in an anthology but, eh... If that's the best of the lot, I'm seriously considering digging up an old post from the archives and submitting it for best SF short story next year. Are short stories just not such a thing anymore? Any odd thing Phillip K. Dick wrote could have one an award in a year like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeanMrMustard Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 Vico, way to steal one of my posts (again). It's flattering, but there's no need to continue doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G Vico Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 Vico, way to steal one of my posts (again). It's flattering, but there's no need to continue doing it. 3M, I only copy from the best. Consider it an homage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 Someone's created an interesting LJ community for Hugo recommendations in preparation for next year's nominations. Its a chance to start touting novels, stories, and other such things for consideration. They've cleverly created a tagging system that Technorati will look out for, so that when we're closer to nomination time people can easily find and review the recommendations. If it sounds interesting to you, check it out here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koth Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 I just have a question about the Hugo award. On the list of best novels, there is only one from the Fantasy genre, and all the rest are Science Fiction. Is this usual? I'm not really into science fiction, but I'm a huge fan of fantasy. In all honesty, I always thougth the Hugo award was for the best Science Fiction novel, because whenever I've seen books with "Hugo Award Winner" on them, they've always been Science Fiction books. Where's the Fantasy love? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 Pretty much absent and certainly actively trying to be ignored The Nebula Award leans very heavily to SF as well I'm afraid. For Fantasy award you could check out the Locus Award, the World Fantasy Award ( though their choices tend to be one-sided IMO), The Mythopoeic award, the British Fantasy award and some of the national Fantasy awards like Aurealis awards ( Australia) and the Aurora awards ( Canada). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koth Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 So that leads into my second question. Why do they lump the two genres together? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 Because there's always been a lot of connection between SF, fantasy, and a lot of other genres. This led Harlan Ellison and others, for example, insisting that SF should stand for 'speculative fiction', which would cover SF and fantasy quite nicely. This has not been widely adopted, but the idea is still there. The WSFS constitution, which governs the Hugos, explicitly states "science fiction or fantasy" as eligible works in the various fiction categories. Now, the fact that there's rarely more than one or two fantasy novels in the list is not that big of a deal when you consider that over the last six years, four winners have been fantasy novels -- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (with ASoS in second place behind it), American Gods, The Paladin of Souls[/], and (just last year) Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Fantasy has definitely come into its own at the Hugos, AFfC's last place finish nothwithstanding. And in fact, both this year and last, the total of fantasy books up for best novel would have gone up by one: last year, Terry Pratchett withdrew a fantasy book from consideration that otherwise would have been on the shortlist (he didn't want the stress), and this year Neil Gaiman withdrew a fantasy book that also would otherwise have been shortlisted (he wanted to give others a chance, knowing that his fanbase is now such that he'll tend to win when he gets on the ballot). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padraig Posted September 11, 2006 Share Posted September 11, 2006 Wow...that's very noble of Gaiman. I've been meaning to ask why he withdrew the novel. Although IIRC, he only came second when nominations were counted. But he has his "Big One" already. It will be interesting to see what happens to aDwD. Ignoring quality for now, it will get a boost just for having the most popular characters back (e.g. Tyrion and Dany). But as others have mentioned, there are numerous other negatives to overcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted September 11, 2006 Share Posted September 11, 2006 He was like third or fourth in total nominations. But once it's plain that he's in the shortlist, a lot of votes go his way anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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