(1) WERE THEY UNDER ATTACK? Chuck Wendig launches “The Great Ewok Defense of 2017”. Make sure you never find yourself standing between Chuck’s Ewoks and a stormtrooper…
https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/849662612652662786
https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/849664359001448448
https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/849664767035944961
(2) DRAGONS FROM OUT OF TOWN. Aliette de Bodard tells about “My Favourite Dragons and How I Designed Mine” at The Book Smugglers.
It will probably not be a surprise that I love dragons — a lot of fantasy and SF readers also do! There’s something intrinsically fascinating, for me, about flying, graceful reptiles with magical powers.
You’ll notice I don’t say “reptiles that breathe fire”, and the main reason for that is that the first dragons I encountered weren’t the Western ones that needed to be killed by the likes of Saint George, but the r?ng, the Vietnamese dragons, who tend to live underwater, have deers’ antlers and a long serpentine body but generally no wings, and who are generally benevolent entities who dispense rain (or catastrophic floods if angered).
(3) REACHING FOR THE SHELF. Nicholas Whyte created a quick introduction to the Hugo Awards, which he administers for Worldcon 75.
(4) A SINGULAR SENSATION. I wasn’t able to help Jason Kehe when he asked me about Chuck Tingle – you know as much as I do — while Vox Day said on his blog he simply refused to answer questions from the media. But Tingle himself was happy to offer a quote for WIRED.com’s article “The Hidden, Wildly NSFW Scandal of the Hugo Nominations”.
Hiscock’s nomination is the work of the Rabid Puppies, a community of reactionary sci-fi/fantasy writers and fans who in 2015 sought to derail the Hugos’ big-tent evolution by stuffing the notoriously gameable ballot box with what they saw as criminally overlooked white male nominees. After the Rabid Puppies found huge success—they placed more than 50 recommendations—predecessors the Sad Puppies smuggled in a 2016 Best Short Story nominee they hoped would really tank the proceedings: Space Raptor Butt Invasion, an erotic gay sci-fi tale self-published by an unknown named Chuck Tingle.
Incredibly, though, the plan backfired. Tingle turned out to be a ridiculously lovable, possibly insane ally—or at least a very shrewd performance artist—who used his new platform to speak out against exclusion and bigotry in all their forms. In the intervening year-plus, he’s emerged as something of a cult icon, pumping out ebook after skewering ebook of wildly NSFW prose. His latest, Pounded In The Butt By My Second Hugo Award Nomination, refers to the recognition he got this year, on his own, in the Best Fan Writer category.
Here’s what the man of the hour had to say:
Chuck Tingle: hello buckaroo name of JASON thank you for writing and thank you for congrats on this way! i believe this author is put on the nominees by THE BAD DOGS BLUES as a way to prank the hugos like when they thought author name of chuck was some goof they could push around (no way buddy not this buckaroo). so it seems to be same idea as last year dont know much about it. thing is you cant just nominate some reverse twin of chuck there is only one chuck on this timeline and he is nominated as BEST FAN WRITER all by his own! this is a good way i am so proud! so long story short i hope this new author is not a reverse twin of the void but who knows i have not seen the end of this timeline branch yet.
(5) TOUGHEST CHALLENGE. At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog , Ross Johnson contends “The Best Series Hugo Is the Hardest Decision on the Ballot”.
A Best Series award makes perfect sense: when a book is part of a larger story, no matter how mind-blowing, it can be tough to judge it on its own merits—so why not take a look at series as a whole? After all, we all know SFF loves its trilogies (and its 10- to 14-book epic sagas). This is a great way to recognize a body of work, especially when the nth book of an excellent series generally has little chance of being nominated (let alone winning), but is still worthy of recognition. No one was quite sure how the nominations would shake out (could the entire Star Wars Extended Universe be considered as a singular series?), but there’s no arguing that the books on this inaugural ballot don’t seem to be entirely in the spirit of the award. There’s a wide-range of serious talent on the list, venerable classics alongside burgeoning favorites, all displaying the kind of character- and worldbuilding that can only be accomplished across multiple books.
(6) GOING TO THE WORLDCON. The Shimmer Program announced that the winners of the Worldcon 75 Attending Funding for Chinese fans offered by Storycom are Yang Sumin and Zhang Jialin (Colin). Each will get RMB 10,000 for use in attending and staffing the con. They are expected to gain experience in the Worldcon organizational work and help with future Chinese bids.
Jukka Halme, Chair of Worldcon 75 and Xia Jia, Chinese science fiction writer, selected the winners from five finalists.
There are photos and introductions to the two winners at the link.
(7) ISLAND NEWS Download Progress Report #1 for NorthAmeriCon’17, to be held in San Juan, PR from July 6-9. Lots of areas where they’re looking for staff and volunteers.
(8) FIRST CLUB. Joshua Sky sold this article to Mayim Bialik of Big Bang Theory for her site, Grok Nation. It’s about the origins of science fiction fandom: “The Scienceers: Where Science Fiction Clubs Began”.
All my life I’ve been a fan of science fiction, but I never knew much about the history of the field, nor did the majority of die-hard fans that I encountered. How could we – who could instantly recall every detail from our favorite comic books and every line of dialogue from Star Wars or Back to the Future – love something so much and know so little about its origins?
Last year, I found the answer when I was given a handful of wonderful out-of-print books chronicling the rich history of science fiction and fandom, including The Way the Future Was by Frederik Pohl, The Futurians by Damon Knight and The Immortal Storm by Sam Moskowitz. In their pages, I learned about the fascinating beginnings of fandom, which was mired in political warfare between overzealous teenagers, where clubs would form and disintegrate overnight. What I found most interesting, was an account of the first science fiction club ever established, called The Scienceers. It was founded in New York, on December 11th, 1929. Nearly 90 years ago. The first president of the club was a young African-American man named Warren Fitzgerald, and the first club meetings were held in his home….
File 770 took a look at that topic in 2014 from a different angle — “Early Science Fiction Clubs: Your Mileage May Vary” and “The Planet: One Last Landing” – and The Scienceers won the verdict of “first club” then, too.
(9) ALLIANCE FINALISTS. Realm Makers has announced the shortlist for the 2017 Alliance Award, the site’s new Readers Choice award for speculative fiction novel by a Christian author.
A Branch of Silver, A Branch of Gold Anne Elisabeth Stengl A Time To Rise Nadine Brandes ‘sccelerant Ronie Kendig Bellanok Ralene Burke Black Tiger Sara Baysinger Darkened Hope J. L. Mbewe Defy Tricia Mingerink Domino Kia Heavey King’s Folly Jill Williamson New Name A.C. Williams Rebirth Amy Brock McNew Saint Death Mike Duran Samara’s Peril Jaye L. Knight Scarlet Moon S.D. Grimm Siren’s Song Mary Weber Songkeeper Gillian Bronte Adams Star Realms: Rescue Run Jon Del Arroz Tainted Morgan Busse The Shattered Vigil Patrick W. Carr Unblemished Sara Ella
(10) HEALTH SETBACK. Eric Flint told about his latest medical problems in a public Facebook post.
Well, there’s been a glitch in my serene and inexorable progress toward eradicating my cancer. I developed an abscess at the site where the pancreas drain came out of my abdomen from the splenectomy. (Nasty damn thing! Painful as hell, too.) So I had to go back into the hospital for five days while the doctors drained it and pumped me full of antibiotics. I’m now on a home IV antibiotic regimen.
In the meantime, my oncologists suspended the chemotherapy regimen until the 20th. Chemo depresses the immune system so you really don’t want to pile it on top of an active infection. (That’s probably why I developed the abscess in the first place, in fact.) I’d just finished the third cycle, so what’s essentially happening is that we’re suspending one cycle and will resume the fourth cycle right when the fifth one would have originally started…
(11) TODAY IN HISTORY
- April 6, 1968 — Stanley’s Kubrick’s science-fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey makes its debut in movie theaters.
Trivial Trivia: In Kubrick’s next movie, Clockwork Orange, there is a scene in the record store where the LP for 2001 is displayed.
(12) RICKLES OBIT. Famous comedian Don Rickles (1926-2017) passed away today at the age of 90. His genre work included The Twilight Zone, “Mr. Dingle, the Strong” (1961), X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, both The Addams Family and The Munsters, The Wild, Wild, West, I Dream of Jeannie, and Tales from the Crypt. Late in life he voiced Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story film series.
(13) DO YOU HAVE THESE? James Davis Nicoll is back with “Twenty Core Epic Fantasies Every True SF Fan Should Have On Their Shelves”
As with the two previous core lists, here are twenty epic fantasies chosen entirely on the basis of merit and significance to the field. No implication is intended that these are the only twenty books you should consider.
I agree that was wise to say, since he omits the first three authors whose names I’d expect to see on such a list. On the other hand, if not for Nicoll’s list I would have remained unaware that Kara Dalkey (someone I knew at LASFS 40 years ago) has written a well-regarded fantasy.
(14) WHITEWASHING. Steven Barnes shares “Ten Thoughts on Whitewashing”. Here are the first five.
The whitewashing controversy is pretty simple at its core:
- if a character’s race is changed toward yours, you will tend to be sanguine with it. If it is changed away from yours, you will tend to object. If you have control of the property, you will choose changes toward you, on average.
- To this end, if you are group X, you will put X’s into makeup to resemble Y’s so you can control the image systems and keep the money circulating in your own communities. When that stops working, you’ll change the back-stories. It all achieves the same result, and other X’s will support any change you make.
- The changers will not be honest about the fact that they simply preferred the change. They will blame the audience, the lack of actors, the material, another country. Anything but themselves.
- The audience prefers it too, but also will not take responsibility. It is the creators, the material, other people. Never them.
- As this is what is really going on, and everybody does it, you can remove this entire issue from the table and ask instead: what kind of world do we want? I can answer this for myself: I want a world where art reflects the world as it is. Not “politically correct” but “demographically correct” which, we can see, translates into “economically correct.” But #1 continues to dominate far too often, corrupting the creative process (thank God!) and creating under-performing movies and television and outright bombs.
(15) TOR LOVE. The xkcd cartoon “Security Advice” became the most-clicked link from File 770 yesterday after Darren Garrison commented, “Well, it looks like Randal Monroe is part of the Tor cabal.” Read it and you’ll understand why.
(16) ALL ABOARD. Jump on Matt Lambros’ “Los Angeles Lost Theatre Tour”.
On Saturday July 1, I’ll be co-leading tours through seven of Los Angeles’s Lost Theatres as part of the Afterglow event at the Theatre Historical Society of America’s 2017 Conclave.
Starting at 10AM, we’ll be going to The Variety Arts, the Leimert/Vision, the Rialto, the Raymond, the Uptown and the Westlake. Photography is allowed, and I’ll be conducting short demonstrations and answering any questions you may have about architectural photography.
(17) BATGIRL. “Hope Larson discusses and signs Batgirl Vol. 1: Beyond Burnside (Rebirth)” at Vroman’s in Pasadena on April 12.
Spinning out of DC UNIVERSE: REBIRTH comes the newest adventures of Batgirl in BATGIRL VOL. 1: BEYOND BURNSIDE! New York Times best-selling creators Hope Larson (A Wrinkle in Time) takes one of Gotham’s greatest heroes on a whirlwind world tour in BATGIRL VOL. 1: BEYOND BURNSIDE. Barbara Gordon’s heart belongs to Burnside, the ultra-hip Gotham City neighborhood. But some threats are bigger than Burnside. And when those threats come calling, Batgirl will answer! When Babs plans a trip to train with the greatest fighters in the Far East, she has no idea her vigilante life will follow her. Lethal warriors are out to take her down, each bearing the mysterious mark of “The Student.” And where there are Students, there must also be…a Teacher. As part of the epic Rebirth launch, Batgirl Vol. 1: Beyond Burnside is a perfect jumping-on point to start reading about Batgirl and her action-packed, crime-fighting adventures! (DC Comics)
(18) BESTER TV EPISODE. “Mr. Lucifer,” story and teleplay by Alfred Bester, can be seen on YouTube. Broadcast in glorious b&w in four parts on ALCOA Premiere Theater, starring Fred Astaire and Elizabeth Montgomery, on November 1, 1962.
In addition to “Mr. Lucifer,” Astaire played several other characters. Music by a much younger John “Johnny” Williams.
Links to parts 2-4 listed on upper right side of page.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Darrah Chavey, Darren Garrison, Cat Eldridge, Andrew Porter, and JJ for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day m.c. simon milligan.]
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I may be dense but I still don’t get how the xkcd comic relates to TOR.
I strongly recommend Aliette de Bodard’s HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS. I think its better than its predecessor (which I liked plenty enough to begin with) in every regard.
(4) A SINGULAR SENSATION.
Love is real! And Dr. Chuck Tingle’s new site is wonderful.
(10) HEALTH SETBACK
Best wishes to Eric Flint. Cancer sucks.
(13) DO YOU HAVE THESE?
I have read some of these. *adds more books to Mt TBR*…
@rochrist: “Only read content published through tor.com” is a nod to TOR.
@rochrist. If you look carefully at the comic, the comic suggests as part of a security protocol only getting content only through TOR.com
rochrist on April 6, 2017 at 5:53 pm said:
Read down the list: fourth or fifth item from the bottom.
@rochrist: Read line 10 of the security advice.
Bester wrote the best half-hour Nero Wolfe radio adventure. It sold me on the series. None of the others were up to the standard of that one show, but it was a high bar to meet, and I like them anyway.
“This is a scrolll-ing pix-el. A SCROLL-ING PIX-EL!”
(13) That’s a tremendous list that includes some of my absolute favourites and some that I respect rather than adore. And yes, my To Read list has also now got just that little bit longer. Grrrrr.
[godstalk]
@Soon Lee —
You beat me to it! Everyone should check it out if they haven’t seen it already — it’s pretty hilarious. Seems like the pups still haven’t learned how to register domains….. LOL.
Soon Lee already linked it, but I’ll unabashedly present it again: http://www.stixhiscock.com/
(13) Spirit Gate – Kate Elliot – If I had not already donated my copy to the world, I’d willingly surrender it to someone that wants to complete their collection of this list. I wouldn’t call it a core anything.
And it’s a bit soon to call The Fifth Season a “core epic fantasy”. The series isn’t done! It might rank up there, but shouldn’t the series be finished before it gets this kind of praise?
Anyone have a link for the other two “core” lists? There might be something more enticing there.
Regards,
Dann
Oops….click
@OGH re @13: I’m surprised you didn’t know Dalkey was writing; she has several books out, including one in Windling’s retold-fairytales series. Granted, I first knew of her as a fan artist (The Fantasy Showcase Tarot, which got me up at oh-dark-hundred to oversee printing 3+ hours away) and bass player — but that was a long time ago.
13) I’ve read thirteen of them….
Chip Hitchcock on April 6, 2017 at 7:46 pm said:
which made me pull it out to see which card she did. (Six of Cups.)
(1) He’s not wrong. They were good at killing.
(4) It must really annoy the Teddy Boys that we took Chuck to our hearts since he turned out to be one of us. Bad dogs blues lose, love is real. Love his new site — they screwed that up 2 years in a row? That’s a special kind of incompetent. “crying about ethics in basement dwelling” indeed. Fight the void, ignore devilmen, learn the way of the buckaroo. Who will Chuck send as his representative this year, and will they be wearing a fabulous dress?
Also, Chuck’s stories are competently written, which is more than anyone can say for Teddy or JCW’s. And what is it with Teddy and dino sodomy? Is it a safe space for him to fantasize about his wanting forcible penetration, because there aren’t any dinosaurs? Well, I won’t harsh his kink, but I ain’t voting it a literary award, either.
(5) Easiest for me — I’ve read ’em all, which is the only category on the ballot for which that’s true!
(4) Chuck Tingle is rapidly becoming my hero. I suspect I know his identity, but I’m probably wrong.
(8) Knight’s Futurians is available in epub format for $4 on Amazon, FYI. Just picked it up.
(10) I wish the best for Mr. Flint. Fuck cancer. Now that I’m approaching my mid-40s, I am really starting to feel that exclamation from the bottom of my heart.
(13) I’ve read four of them.
Dann – from what I’ve seen, the shtick with these particular “essential” lists is that they are not necessarily essential, but are examples of highly-regarded works that are women- and/or LGBTQ-friendly. That’s an unsatisfying summary, but kind of gets to the point, I think. The lists are a gentle jab at “essential” lists that completely ignore women and minorities. At least, that’s what I’ve taken from it. This list was the one I’ve read most sparsely from, of all of them. I’m a little angry about it because of that, as I already have more than enough books on my TBR list.
I filter purely on the basis of quality and if it happens the result has one or two more women than men, why should that aspect be any more worthy of note than all the lists dominated by men? When you think about it, if women face more barriers to publication than men (being told, for example, that publishers will not buy hard sf by women), surely that must mean it is possible the bell curve of quality for women centers to the right of the bell curve for men because they have to be better to be published at all.
[5] If I were voting this year, I’d have a tough time with Best Series…
THE CRAFT SEQUENCE – I’ve read two of them and own all of them, thanks to that great Amazon deal. But while I loved the world building in the first one, I didn’t really warm to any of the characters. The plot and situations were interesting, but none of the characters grabbed me. When I got around to the second one, I had the same reaction — great world, interesting conflict, but I wish I liked the characters more. I’ll read more, and I can understand why people like them as much as they do, but I wish I felt more engaged by them.
THE EXPANSE – haven’t read any of them, but I hear good things about them and have friends who work on the show. Still, can’t judge.
OCTOBER DAYE – I read the first one, and it was fine, as urban fantasies go, but while it kept me turning pages it didn’t make me want to read on. I’ll try more at some point, but I want more humanity to it, more of a sense that there’s something more than craft to it. It felt like it was perfectly solid genre material, but not something that reached for more.
RIVERS OF LONDON – I’ve read all of them, I’ve read the comic book spinoffs, I like them a lot. I seem to get lost in the plot somewhere, every volume, or maybe I’m just not reading them carefully enough. But I’m always glad to get a new one, and I’m definitely engaged by the characters. Still, they feel like comfort reading to me, like, again, perfectly good genre fantasy, and I think award winners should go beyond that.
TEMERAIRE – Loved the first one. Liked the second one. Felt like the third one was going through the motions, like I was reading someone’s account of their RPG session. Started the fourth one, never finished it. So at that point I decided I was just wasn’t the right reader for Novik. Then UPROOTED came out and people raved about it, so I read it and liked it a lot. So I think it was just that Temeraire had a great setting and cool set-up stuff, but the actual story didn’t hold me.
THE VORKOSIGAN SAGA – read THE WARRIOR’S APPRENTICE, didn’t like it. Felt like the author was stacking the deck in favor of the lead character, then telling us the lead character was a genius, rather than having him actually feel smart. More recently I’ve read all the Penric books and two of the Chalions, and liked those quite a bit, so I guess I’ll stick to Bujold’s fantasy worlds, at least for now.
*
So if I had to pick one to vote for, the series I like the best of the nominees is RIVERS OF LONDON, but I think of it as engaging commercial fiction, fun stuff, but I want more from a Hugo winner. I want something as cool as Grossman’s MAGICIANS trilogy, or de Lint’s NEWFORD books, or Peter S. Beagle’s Joe Farrell stories (sadly, not long enough) or Zelazny’s AMBER (first set) or DISCWORLD or HITCHHIKER’S or EARTHSEA. I want something that feels like the peak of the mountain, not the very pleasant and comfortable suburbs.
Nothing wrong with the suburbs; I just want to think that awards are for the stuff that goes beyond, that reaches for more and achieves it.
@James – I didn’t mean to presume. your first list seemed to be sort of “we’ve seen the usual suspects a million times, here are some less-celebrated, equally important works by less-prominent demographics.” And the other two seemed to follow suit.
@Kurt – I feel similar about the Rivers of London series. I’ve only read the first one. I found it very fun, but definitely comfort reading. I loved it – reminded me of some of the earlier Hellblazer comics, when Constantine was mucking about with the caravanners (travelers? hippies).
@Kurt: You might try skipping forward to the third October Daye book. There is a fairly strong consensus that the first one is below the level of the others.
Ain’t nothing wrong with comfort reading.
If you like stuff what feels like Constantine, Mike Carey’s Felix Castor series does that even more. There’s something indefatigably rational about Peter Grant that I like; he’s trying to be smart about the stuff he gets caught up in, while Constantine tends toward fatalism and cynicism.
In regards to best series — I don’t understand how anyone can look at a series that contains FOUR Hugo-winning stories (three novels, one novella) and not say that it’s the best series in that bunch. Seriously.
Well, if the third is where the series picks up, skipping ahead would only mean skipping one book. I expect I’ll read them in order at least that far, and if I’m still not feeling it by book three, I’ll feel justified in stopping.
There are always people who don’t have the same tastes as the mainstream of any group. So I think it’s easy to understand how someone could judge differently.
If you’re asking for someone to predict the winner, though, that’d be the odds-on favorite.
@Kurt: Yes on Best Series!
I’ve read less than you have, but the series I’ve sampled have been “eh” reads — fun, light, didn’t engage me. I didn’t continue on any of them , and don’t really want to spend my Hugo reading time on them. Nor does this encourage me to try the remaining series on the ballot :-/
It kind of feels like Best Series is poised to be the Best Dramatic Presentation of books — primarily a nod to mega-popular stuff. Mega-popular stuff can be excellent, but I’m not enthusiastic about this as an award category.
@Kurt Busiek —
Sure. But if we start saying that four Hugo wins aren’t a huge indicator of the overall quality of a series, then the Hugo award really doesn’t mean anything. And then why do we even bother?
@Kurt Busiek: While I won’t blame anyone for bouncing off a long series after a single book, the Vorkosigan books have gone a long way and to many different places since then (TWA was, IIIRC Bujold’s second novel). Depending on your tastes, you might like Memory or Komarr better. Or if you want a smaller sample, the novella The Mountains of Mourning.
To me, one of the big selling points for the Vorkosigan Saga is the huge diversity in plotting and the issues it considers, and the way that characterisation has evolved slowly but steadily.
@Dann:
Twenty Core Spaces Operas
Twenty Core SF Books
Contrarius:
It doesn’t, on an individual basis. It represents a group judgment.
So “Most other voters like this the most” just doesn’t translate to “I must therefore also think it is the best.” Given Bujold’s other awards, it certainly suggests that Hugo voters as a group will likely be consistent, and pick the Vorkosigan Saga. But that doesn’t mean each and every individual voter will agree. Just that more of them probably will than will pick any specific one of the others.
Because objective truth isn’t the aim of awards.
Karl-Johan:
I may try another, at some point. The fantasy books are winning me over to Bujold as a writer. But TWA didn’t just make me not interested, I actively disliked it. So it’ll take a while to get past that.
@Standback —
I’ve read at least one book in all six of the nominated series, and at least two books in five of them.
My personal opinions:
Craft Sequence (1 book) — As others have said, great worldbuilding and ideas, not so much with the characters I’d care about.
Expanse (2 books) — Loved the first book to death, enjoyed the second but wasn’t blown away.
October Daye (5 books) — I’m a big UF fan so I’ve read several of these, but I can’t say they really blew my mind. I will say that they’re more inventive than a lot of UF, and perhaps darker? I was not a huge fan of the MC or the romance in this series, though I don’t mind romance in general.
Rivers of London (4 books) — I love these. In my mind, very effective and imaginative UF. And it doesn’t hurt one bit that the narrator in the audio version is a perfect fit for the MC, and extremely talented (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith)
Temeraire (2 books) — I love Novik’s narrative voice, and I’m a dragon fan. But somehow the plotting of book 2 didn’t make me anxious to move on to book 3.
Vorkosigan (all the books, all the time, anywhere, multiple reads) — This series is what got me into audiobooks in a big way. I used to haunt our local used bookstores for these. There’s a reason the books have won so many Hugos — they’re a great blend of character and idea. Also another perfect match of character with narrator (Grover Gardner), who has done all of them. This is one of only three series in which I’ve read every book (including both actual reading and listening) more than once.
@Kurt Busiek —
If your peer group (in this case Hugo voters — people who are serious about sff) tell you four times that they think the stories in a series are the best quality of any in their category produced that year, don’t you think you might want to take their consistent opinions into account? Personally, I think the success of this series represents a pretty striking and consistent consensus — and since I respect the people who produced that consensus, I’m surprised by the thought that anyone would think of blithely ignoring it.
And no, I don’t mean that everyone should “like” the series on a personal level. For instance, I don’t much “like” Picasso, but I recognize that people who know a lot about art regard him as a genius, and I respect their opinion.
Take their opinions into account? Sure. Say “that it’s the best series in that bunch”? Maybe not.
Aside from the fact that taking those opinions into account doesn’t mean agreeing with them, this is a different comparison. What if you thought the four award-winning works deserved those awards, but other books in the series weren’t so good, and as a result the series taken overall wasn’t as good as another series? What if you think the works were up against weak competition those years, and the other series it’s up against now are much stronger? What if, even taking your peers’ judgment into account, you still don’t agree?
Stacking up a series of wins is an impressive thing. But even if the Vorkosigan Saga wins the Best Series Hugo, I bet it won’t be close to unanimous, so lots of voters will have picked something else, even taking previous wins into account. It’s human nature that in matters like this, lots of people will not agree with the consensus, because they’re picking what they think is best, not what their peers thought was best most often.
Do you respect their opinion to the point that you wouldn’t vote for someone you liked better, and wouldn’t understand why anyone else wouldn’t do the same?
And disagreeing with a consensus, even a strong consensus, doesn’t require “blithely ignoring it.” You can consider it, weigh it, think it over and still reach a different conclusion.
Ruler of the Pixelgram
The Pixel Out of Scrolls (by M.G. Filecraft?)
@Kurt Busiek
My roommate liked Shards of Honor and loved Barrayar, but hated Miles and The Warriors Apprentice with the heat of 1000 suns. She hasn’t read any books in the Vorkosiverse until the latest one, because it’s about Cordelia. She liked it better than I did. But I read Warrior’s Apprentice without realizing it was a sequel to Shards of Honor because I picked them up at the library shortly after TWA first came out in paperback. I didn’t even notice the author’s name until the character names were familiar. So I started with her earlier less well-written books and just enjoyed them more as her writing improved. But I haven’t reread Shards or TWA very often, and I reread Barrayar and then Mirror Dance through Civil Campaign often, though Mirror Dance is a lot darker so less often on it. If you decide to try again, the novella Mountains of Mourning is great or one of those four. I’m not a big fan of Cryoburn, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance or Diplomatic Immunity. GJ&RQ was better than any of those, but YMMV.
@Mike Glyer, followed the link back to B&N and read entire article. Saw your comment there. I read that statement exactly as you did and wondered when he was going to talk about what was wrong with the series.
I bounced off the first October Daye book, My roommate has read the first three. She says they’re well-written but depressing so she stopped there. She also stopped st the third book in the Temeraire series.
I haven’t tried any of the other series at all.
Regarding Ewoks, has anyone tried the podcast I Was There Too?
In the ROTJ episode Matt Gorley interviews the actor who played two of the Ewoks about working on the show. Talk about taking your life in your hands. Another favorite episode was his interview with Clancy Brown about Shawshank Redemption, but they also touch on Highlander and Buckaroo Banzai. It just occurred to me that I could have nominated a specific episode in the best related category. Maybe next year. I recommend it to all podcast listeners.
Apropos of nothing, has anyone read Bester’s lesser-known works? I loved The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination so I felt that I had really scored when I found three other novels of his at a used bookstore. Until I read them and found that each features an adult male paired off with a young teen female romantically. It totally squicked me out.
Re: the Vorkosigan Saga & Hugos.
I think that a significant factor in the multiple Hugo wins is the series structure: unlike Lord of the Rings, which is one book split into three volumes, the Vorkosigan books are stand-alone volumes. Couple that with high quality writing, and it’s no surprise to me that individual volumes have got Hugo love. Hugo voters don’t have to have read previous volumes to love & vote for the one currently a finalist.
+1 for “Mountains of Mourning” as an excellent stand-alone to see if it’s worth your while reading more, especially if you’ve already read “Warrior’s Apprentice”.
@World Weary
There’s honestly not much worth reading in Bester’s later work even if you can ignore the squicky relationships. Some combination of failing to develop as a writer and alcoholism, I think. (“When he died… after a long period of ill health, he willed his house and literary estate to his bartender.” – SF Encyclopedia. And there’s a fuzzy quality to his writing that I recognise from the lesser work of Fritz Lieber and R A Lafferty.)
My wild-ass prediction is a steamroller win by the Vorkisigan saga, particularly once second preferences come into play. Essentially I think that even if people have a favourite among the newer series, it’ll be a solid second or third choice for many of them.
There will certainly be people who have bounced off early Miles – if I hadn’t read early Miles as a teen he might not have gone down as well – but then there’s the Cordelia books that may have a slightly different fanbase, and those who took to the later more mature Miles.
(Well, ‘mature’ is relative for the character of Miles, but you know what I mean)
It’s also likely to be my personal #1 (so the above may be biased!) followed by either Rivers of London or the Craft (roughly speaking, better characters vs better world building) but I need to try The Expanse properly to be sure. I’ve read a couple of Toby Daye and got “like but not love” out of them, but will try a couple more seeing as they’re very easy reading anyway.
My thoughts on the Best Series finalists:
This is literally the only category in which not a single work I nominated became a finalist. Taste varies!
The Vorkosigan Saga (have read all ~17 books): While being a fan of Bujold and the Vorkosigan Saga, I have never considered all of it the Greatest Thing Ever That Should Win All The Awards the way many seem to — but some of it is; see below. Much of it is fun popcorn adventure, admittedly well-written and memorable, and there’s nothing at all wrong with that (obviously I like it!), but I think there’s better stuff out there. And a couple of the more recent entries have been actively Not Good. HOWEVER, all that being said, there are several entries in the series that I do consider to be great, award-worthy science fiction — the Shards of Honor/Barrayar subduology, and A Civil Campaign. Are three books I consider absolute classics enough for me to want to hand the award to a ~17 book series? Well, probably, especially given what it’s up against. I’d be pretty happy with a win for Bujold. Striking gold three times in the course of a series with a pretty good baseline level of quality is absolutely an impressive achievement. Of all the finalist series, this is the one I came closest to nominating, and might have in a different mood.
The Craft Sequence (read all 5 books): The first book of the Craft Sequence blew me away. Three Parts Dead was, to me, Ancillary Justice level, The Fifth Season level work. Absolutely award worthy. I have been waiting and waiting since then for the series to get back to that level, and it never has. There was a sharp drop-off in quality from the first book out to Two Serpents Rise, which I actively disliked. They’ve slowly been getting better since then, and Last First Snow in particular was a solid piece of writing. But they’ve never hit it out of the park again. Is one mind-blowing book out of five enough? Tough call compared to Bujold’s three, since that’s about the same average hit rate. Still, I think I’d give Bujold a slight edge here. I’d still be happy with a Gladstone win, but I’d consider it to basically be a win for Three Parts Dead, and I’d rather the award went to multiple books I love than just one.
Temeraire (read 2 books): Thought these were fun popcorn reads, but nothing more than that. Enjoyed the first two well enough, but felt no real motivation to read further. I quite admired Uprooted, however, and thought it very impressive. But that’s not in this series. If Temeraire wins, I will shrug and say there’s no accounting for taste.
October Daye (read 1 book): Found the first book entirely unmemorable. Could not understand why I was supposed to care about the main character. I’ve read books by McGuire since that I quite liked (such as Indexing and Sparrow Hill Road) and others that I found similarly unmemorable (such as Discount Armageddon). I would probably be willing to give October Daye a second chance on the strength of the “later books are better” people, but I’m dubious. Dubious, I say! Nonetheless, I’ll say the jury’s still out on how I’d feel about a win for this one.
Peter Grant (read 1 book): Bounced off the narrative voice of the main character SO HARD. Could not stand him. Just couldn’t. I will be mildly irritated if this one wins, but I understand this is a much-loved series and I am in the minority. But for my magical-mysteries-in-London-subgenre fix, I’ll stick with Paul Cornell or Maureen Johnson or (especially) Kate Griffin.
The Expanse (read 0 books): Very much liked the TV series, although it took a few episodes for it to grow on me, and there were definitely characters whose arcs I was more interested in following than others. First book is already on the TBR pile, although my spouse has claimed it first. Was a big fan of The Dagger And The Coin series written by one of the authors (in fact, it was one of my nominees). So my feelings about this one are yet to be determined!
My gut tells me it will be Vorkosigan, because this IS ranked choice voting, and the strong fanbase for McGuire’s work in the Hugo electorate will not give her a knockout win, which is what she’d need. Once past that first round and second and third choices come into play, the Vorkosigan series, due to length and longevity, is far and away the most likely that a voter has read a volume of, and at the very least has heard of.
@World Weary: I think Bester gets weirdly self-indulgent at novel length, so his better novels tend to be his earlier ones, when he couldn’t get away with that so much. (His early mainstream novel The Rat Race, also known as Who He?, remains something of a personal favourite of mine.)
I’d say, though, that his short stories are better value, on the whole. Besides the two classics, the other ones I’ve read are The Deceivers (bitty and silly, and let’s not even talk about the stereotyping), Extro aka The Computer Connection (strong ideas weakly developed) and Golem 100 (which is just a mess.)
Not reading coherently. /sleep-sta…
(1) With hindsight, the Ewoks were the first really bad example of the “aliens built out of racist tropes” problem that people complained about in The Phantom Menace. The trouble with homage to old-time pulp is that, as with Lovecraft, you need to think carefully about what you’re homage-ing.
(5) I’m pleased to see my gloomy prediction was wrong and there are a respectable number of women on the Best Series shortlist. I’m not sure I’m particularly enthused about what I’ve read of the actual works, but that seems to be personal thing:
“The Craft Sequence” – I read the first two of these, liked the setting, and thought the writing got much better between “Three Parts Dead” and “Two Serpents Rise”, which is a good sign for the start of a series. Unfortunately Gladstone’s inexplicable sympathy for his parasitic gods – and the implicit argument for “caring capitalism” administered by the sort of benign aristocracy imagined by people who’ve never really paid attention to history – irritated me enough that I couldn’t read any more.
“The Expanse” – I read the first of these when it came out and don’t honestly remember much beyond a vague sense of disappointment. I think I may have come to it with the wrong expectations – I thought I was reading a standalone space opera that would arrive somewhere by the end of the book.
“Rivers of London” – I’ve read three of these, I think, and one of the bonus short stories. They’re… fine, I guess? I think my problem is that I’m not convinced by their portrayal of London or of the police – it’s all a bit safe plastic theme park.
“The Vorkosigan Saga” – I hesitate to say it, but I’ve read half a dozen Bujolds and for me she’s the absolute definition of ‘adequate’. I’m aware I’m in the minority about that, though.
@Steve Wright: I think The Computer Connection is a little better than that. There’s some beautifully visualized world there. Lots of vibrant, realistic decay. I still recall the protagonist grabbing for (and missing) a rare Nixon nickel, among other moments.
I think Nicoll is stretching the concept of ‘epic fantasy’ somewhat. Of those I have read:
The Fifth Season – still reads like science fiction to me, but if you take the author’s word that it’s fantasy, I still wouldn’t call it epic.
Ash – definitely science fiction.
The Interior Life – OK, it certainly includes an epic fantasy. If you take the author’s word on this one, the book as a whole is realistic fiction. But she may be wrong.
I grant that Riddlemaster is centrally epic fantasy and Chalion is within the limits of the genre.
Of ones I haven’t read but know something about, I’d wonder about The Secret Country (portal fantasy) and Kushiel (fantasy alternate history with bondage).
13: Well, I”m a true science fiction fan, not a fantasy fan, so let’s see–I have an ebook of The Fifth Season but haven’t read it yet. Don’t recognize ever even having heard of the other 19 titles, and only recognized the names of 6 of the other authors.
In addition to what others have said: As I understand it, the point of the “Best series” category is that series are creatures of their own. I think it is entirely reasonable to say that for example Temeraire have a better series-long story arch, even if some Vorkosigan books are better any of the Temeraire books.
@Johan P
I think that’s a very good point, although personally I would claim that Miles has a strong character arc throughout the main series, and there’s a wider “Barrayar meets the modern galaxy” arc through the whole thing. I can certainly see the argument for something like Temeraire that has a more consistent straight line arc running through it.
(On a tangent, I’ve been wondering to what extent the Penric stories are LMB doing a Miles-esque arc again but with some lessons she’s learned since then)