- I have a plan, and the plan is this: I’m going to read one of the short fiction Hugo nominees each week, and post about it here in the hopes of sparking a discussion like that about “Divining Light“. I’m going to start with the novelettes, since they’re all online; I’ll post a reminder about whichever story I’m reading on Friday, and the discussion post on Sunday afternoon, since that seemed to work well before. Feel free to play along at home.
- Events! This week’s BSFA London meeting will be a panel discussion of the BSFA Award nominees. With Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Alastair Reynolds and Adam Roberts. Also, in two weeks, the Royal Institution has a discussion about the science in science fiction
- Moar awards, part one: Some of you may have noticed pingbacks from Starship Sofa, indicating that you can now listen to audio versions of three of the BSFA Award short fiction nominees: “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang; “Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment” by M. Rickert; and “Little Lost Robot” by Paul McAuley
- Other Clarke award bits: Sam Jordison in the Guardian books blog; an interview with Tom Hunter; and a photo of the judges (for those who may be curious)
- Hugo nominees reactions: Locus Online analysis; Abigail; Best Graphic Story is broken; not enough fantasy; too much YA?; and John Scalzi on reading entrails
- The Beeb does the mind-meld thing, asking how sf moves with the times; responses from Ken MacLeod, Paul Cornell, Iain Banks and Ian Watson
- James Enge on the Nebula short fiction nominees: short stories, novelettes and novellas
- A very interesting post about The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- The Frank Collymore Literary Endowment, for unpublished Barbabos writers, has gone to the author of a fantasy novel
- Jonathan Strahan is reading through a list of the all time top 40 sf/f short stories, starting with “That Only a Mother” by Judith Merrill
- An interview with Sarah Hall
- Jenny Turner on Twilight and Breaking Dawn, in the LRB
- Abigail Nussbaum reviews the pilot of Kings
- Adam Roberts on The Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod
- Paul Raven on Mind Over Ship by David Marusek
- Nic Clarke on The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas and Graceling by Kristin Cashore
- Graham Sleight on Ursula K Le Guin’s Yesterday’s Tomorrows
- M John Harrison on The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman
- Another response to Adam Roberts’ review of Incandescence
- Reviews of Xiaolu Guo’s UFO In Her Eyes: one, two, three, four, five
- And old news, but: a New Crobuzon role-playing game?
It is interesting that the Westeros faction seems to think An Autumn War by Daniel Abraham is the obvious fantasy omission from the Hugos.
Are you surprised, or is that another kind of interesting? The Long Price Quartet has been notching up a fair amount of acclaim from all quarters, after all. It’s certainly on my TBR for this year, given that the last volume is out soon.
I’m surprised and not displeased. I hadn’t realised it was picking up wide acclaim. I read the first one and thought it nice enough, although it didn’t particularly make me want to pick up A Betrayal in Winter. Better than a lot of the toss out there though.
And I’ve just read that Tor.com YA thread. Oh dear.
Mark me down as a fan who identifies with sf more than f, and sees An Autumn War‘s absence as an obvious oversight.
The discussion on Resnick’s dreadful ‘Article of Faith’ should make for interesting reading…