So, How's your Hugo Reading Going?

[Mr. X]

I finished the 5th nominated novel, Ken MacLeod's Learning The World, and I'd put it squarely in 5th place. Which makes my final novel rankings:

1 - Stross, Accelerando - It's certainly not perfect, but it's ambitious and entertaining. And to be perfectly honest, I'm a Stross fan.

2 - Martin, AFFC - I enjoyed this book, but I think it suffers as a standalone on account of it being a 2nd act book, with the climax of the first act having just passed and the characters are moving into their positions for the final act. I put this in second place by a very small margin.

And then there's a much larger margin to where we find:

3 - Scalzi, Old Man's War - generally well written, but most of it felt like stuff I'd read before

4 - Wilson, Spin - some neat ideas, but uninspired writing

5 - MacLeod, Learning The World - this had what could have been interesting ideas mangled by misguided, hokey delivery. Well, I found it hokey anyway.

It's out in paperback now, so shouldnt be much of a problem. Stego WAS gonna lend it to me, but since i kept Thousand-fold Thought 5 months longer then i was supposed to i guess he reconsidered I'm gonna give it a shot and pray im not to dumb to get it.

Well, I believe we are in the same city, so you could always borrow our copy.

[Ran]

Having just read Spin, I have to say I'm not as floored as I hoped I might be. It's ... okay. In the end, it feels empty to me, like the idea of the Spin was really all there was in Wilson's head and he spun out a story from there that kind of just ... meandered.

SPOILER: Spin

At one point, after being confronted by Tyler about the fact that she once fantasized that he was her helf-brother, Diane says she knows he's not E.D.'s son -- something like that. Wilson gives the distinct sense that she knows .... something about the parentages of herself, Jason, and Tyler. But ... zip, zero, nada. I'm not sure what Wilson was doing there.

Perhaps it was a red herring for the revelation towards the end that Carol had been in love with Tyler's mother? But .... that was so dryly delivered and so lacking in significance or illumination. What do we get out of that that has any larger implication for the story? I was trying to connect it up somewhere, with something, but I couldn't. It can't be a cautionary tale for Tyler and Diane -- they _know_ they love each other, while Tyler's mother never knew how her friend Carol felt about her....

Anyways, lovely idea, the Spin, and nicely drawn portrait of the varying responses from the people of the world in the aftermath ... but it is, as X-ray said, rather bland. I'd put it over OMW, simply because Wilson does put together a story that never makes me go, "No way in hell," but under AFfC and Accelerando.

Alas, haven't gotten to Macleod, but honestly, his stuff has never worked for me anyways, so I'm not too concerned. My ballot is looking like this:

GRRM

Stross

Wilson

[Edited to add: I relented and put in Scalzi]

No Award

Novella:

Kelly

Link

McDonald

Willis

No Award

Novelette:

Beagle

Waldrop

Bacigalupi

Willis

Doctorow

Short Story:

Lanagan

(undecided of the rest just yet, but will figure it out before voting closes)

[Marcelo Rebelo Firqoralas]

I'm done with Old Man's War and I found it entertaining, but very, very slight. The writing was competent and engaging, but the whole story felt simplified and somewhat clichéd. So if I were to vote for the Hugo my list would be as follows:

1. A Feast for Crows (Not as good as the rest of the series, but GRRM is still the most skilled writer of the bunch.)

2. Spin (Probably the most interesting story of the bunch, but the writing just isn't there to beat GRRM.)

3. Learning the World (Very entertaining, but also fairly light weight.)

4. Accelerando (The cool ideas just weren't enough to balance the annoying and flat characters and dialogue.)

5. Old Man's War (Fun as a YA adventure novel, but not really Hugo worthy.)

[nobodymN]

After rereading A Feasts for Crows I have to admit it's growing on me (ie Brienne's chapters are being viewed for the subtle (or not so subtle) info they give (or possibly not give), not the fact that they are entirely a bore in what is an otherwise a pretty outstanding read). It's hard not to marvel at Martin's juggling, and with that his always present feeling of immediacy. My updated thinking:

Accelerando

Learning the World

A Feast for Crows

Old Man's War

Being a gifted procrastinator, I still haven't read Spin.

[Calibandar]

The Spin by Wilson has won the Hugo Award for best novel:

http://www.locusmag.com/2006/News/08_HugoC...ellWinners.html

[Bellis]

The Spin by Wilson has won the Hugo Award for best novel:

http://www.locusmag.com/2006/News/08_HugoC...ellWinners.html

Good for Wilson, coincidentally, i just read this over the weekend, and i thought it was excellent!

Edit: I realize a lot of people thought the characters were flat. I didn't agree. Maybe because I was comparing it to the last book I read, Vellum, or to the last book I read that dealt with the same sort of near-future apocalyptic themes - Oryx and Crake. You know, I like much of Atwood's nonSF, but I could go on and on about the bad science, flat and stereotyped characters in that atrocious soapbox of a novel... and so, in comparison, Spin was a huge relief on both counts. Haven't read Accelerando yet.

[Xray the Enforcer]

Disgusted beyond belief.

[MeanMrMustard]

The Hugo Award:

Serious business?

[Xray the Enforcer]

Depends on your tolerance for cow pie.

[Mr. X]

Disgusted beyond belief.

I wish I had Stego's post-Hugo rant on tape, so I could transcribe it in here. But that sums it up quite nicely.

[Ran]

Are you sure he ranted about it, though? As I recall, Spin was second on his ballot, and very nearly was first.

What is kind of bewildering is the fact that it was last. Its something needing much dissection, and I know Stego had some good thoughts on the matter.

[Xray the Enforcer]

Well -- he was ranting in general about the all of the results. Like, Dr. Who beating BSG? That's like voting a McDonald's hamburger as the superior meat to a dry-aged steak. It's just...laughable...and I suppose says way more about WorldCon fandom (mostly aging and heavily nostalgic) than it does about the works being voted on. (but that is a whole 'nother issue I'm not sure I want to get into here.)

As for the AFFC result -- yes. I am quite interested to hear any theories. Is it backlash against GRRM? Or against Fantasy in general, which seems to be a genre that's currently thriving when SF is churning out a lot of derivative bullshit? On any rational scale, AFFC was not the worst book on that list.

[Mr. X]

Are you sure he ranted about it, though? As I recall, Spin was second on his ballot, and very nearly was first.

It was more of a generalized Hugo rant, and I believe it was touched off by someone making a comment about how the Scalzi book should have won or something like that. That inspired a "do you know whose party this is?" beginning to the rant.

[MeanMrMustard]

What is kind of bewildering is the fact that it was last.

Not sure it's bewildering. AFFC barely got a pass here -- the ASOIAF message board. I think most of the veterans (as oppopsed to the book board newbies, whom I've never read) definitely lean toward negative feelings about it. Even though there were Hugo arguments for different books including AFFC, if a fan site isn't even close to consensus in support, it shouldn't be surprising that it falls flat in the rest of the world. Even those with AFFC first weren't very certain (again, here on the ASOIAF fan board). Of course, I'm guessing GRRM readers aren't complete fanboy homers and that's generally a good thing, but it's not exactly going to help him win this award.

[AutumnEvenings]

I didn't like The Spin at all. I didn't hate it, but I just didn't like it. I thought it had an interesting premises but the "follow through" fell short. I found all of the explanations (seriously, all of them, from what is/caused the Spin, to what were the injections, to why the frack is he in love with her anyway) very disappointing. Main problem? I really didn't care if any of them lived or died. Sort of makes me wonder why I finished reading the book.

[MeanMrMustard]

Main problem? I really didn't care if any of them lived or died.

This is one reason I gave up on Mieville's first novel (which I understand is his weakest).

[Mind Elemental]

Well, I guessed that it would have been Accelerando or Spin, leaning towards Accelerando. (I haven't read the McLeod or Spin, so I can't comment as to those, but I liked AFFC the best out of the three that I had read -- and I was in the 'ambivalent' camp!)

What has me going is Tk'tk'tk winning Best Short Story. I read that, the Resnick one, and a third, and if they were any indication, I'd have put "No Award" down. Tk'tk'tk just didn't do anything for me.

BTW, did Harlan Ellison really grope Connie Willis? :sick:

[Ran]

Indeed he did. She seemed unphased, which initially made me think that there was basically nothing wrong with that ... but later commentary suggests that she was just putting a good face on it and was extremely unhappy about it. Reading the posts there, hearsay clarifies her position as being that its just Harlan being Harlan, and she's not keen on making a fuss over it... But that's secondhand.

I don't buy the guy's claim that the con had to buy the microphone from the convention center. Maybe replace the foam head thing for it, perhaps, but the whole mike? Ridiculous to believe its true, and ridiculous if it _is_ true. Its not like he gnawed on the thing.

Re: Levine's story, it has a lot to do with his being a well-liked fan who is involved in the fan community, and possibly also due to the fact that he's from the Pacific crowd of writers.

[RaceBannon42]

I enjoyed the Hugos tremendously as an event. The byplay between Willis and Silverberg was Hilarious. Ellison is such a huge prick that I can't help but like the guy.

Now, the only nominees I'd read were AFFC and Magic for Beginners.

In all truth I expected Spin or maybe Acclernado to win. I love George, and I really liked AFFC but it certainly wasn't his best work.

Link However I thought was a shoe-in.

I thought the same for BSG

well at least Serenity won, and Morena was fucking smoking hot!

[Regina]

Does anyone have a complete break down of how the voting went? My head is spinning over the news that Feast was in last place of the five books nominated?!?!?! I hadn't heard that tidbit Saturday, and I'm in shock. Granted, in retrospect I'm glad I didn't hear that Saturday, because I was emo enough already...this sucks.

And, in other con news:

Ellison is such a huge prick that I can't help but like the guy.