Semi-relatedly, Charles Stross is fretting about near-future sf again: “Put yourself in the shoes of an SF author trying to construct an accurate (or at least believable) scenario for the USA in 2019. Imagine you are constructing your future-USA in 2006, then again in 2007, and finally now, with talk of $700Bn bailouts and nationalization of banks in the background. Each of those projections is going to come out looking different.” To which my response is, largely, so what?
In the Guardian, Christopher Brookmyre enjoyed Anathem, Stephanie Merritt wasn’t impressed by The Gargoyle, and Peter F Hamilton talks about sex: ‘”I’ve got a friend who writes a lot of chick lit. Compared to what goes into that genre we’re absolute puritans, yet the reaction you get is ‘Oh my God, it’s a sex scene,’” he says. Sex is a tiny part of his books.’ I promise, it’s not the quantity I have problems with. Except in Misspent Youth. (Oh, and he does talk about other things as well.)
It is now possible for any and all to vote in the SFX Awards. Deadline is 28th of October, although the eligibility period seems to cover all of 2008 …
There’s definitely stuff in the SFX awards that came out at the back end of 2007 (Stardust, Beowulf, SJA, etc.).
Also, their awards are full of FAIL because they will not let you vote without voting in every category. Since I cannot vote in Best Videogame (having not played any new ones in 2008), and refuse to vote for sexiest man or woman in sf (on the grounds that it panders to those attitudes that caused me to give up reading SFX in the first place), I shan’t be voting at all.
Argh, now I have to choose between The Gone-Away World and Anathem!
The suggested drop-downs are pretty weird. Looks like they made a list of shows and then picked an actor from each, which explains why they suggest only one of the Winchesters, and seem to think Milo Ventimiglia is a serious candidate for Best Actor. And why is the Orange Box, which contains three new games and two re-releases, suggested as one option?
I always assumed the sexiest man and woman award were included because they make really good space-fillers when you get to print twenty pages of pictures instead of articles. I might suggest fictional characters for those categories.
September 29, 2008 at 9:29 am
There’s definitely stuff in the SFX awards that came out at the back end of 2007 (Stardust, Beowulf, SJA, etc.).
Also, their awards are full of FAIL because they will not let you vote without voting in every category. Since I cannot vote in Best Videogame (having not played any new ones in 2008), and refuse to vote for sexiest man or woman in sf (on the grounds that it panders to those attitudes that caused me to give up reading SFX in the first place), I shan’t be voting at all.
September 29, 2008 at 10:00 am
You have to put text in each box. I don’t think it says anywhere that said text has to be a serious vote …
September 29, 2008 at 11:04 am
Argh, now I have to choose between The Gone-Away World and Anathem!
The suggested drop-downs are pretty weird. Looks like they made a list of shows and then picked an actor from each, which explains why they suggest only one of the Winchesters, and seem to think Milo Ventimiglia is a serious candidate for Best Actor. And why is the Orange Box, which contains three new games and two re-releases, suggested as one option?
I always assumed the sexiest man and woman award were included because they make really good space-fillers when you get to print twenty pages of pictures instead of articles. I might suggest fictional characters for those categories.