2006 Nebula Awards 105
Embedded Geek writes "Locus is reporting on the winners of the 2006 Nebula Awards (as determined by voting by fellow SF authors). Joe Haldeman picked up the Novel award for Camouflage while Kelly Link took home both the Novella ("Magic for Beginners") and Novelette ("The Faery Handbag"). Off the printed page, Joss Whedon beat out Battlestar Galactica with his script for Serenity. You can check out the final ballot here or look at past winners here."
Meh. (Score:3)
Glad Joss Whedon got something for Serenity.
Re:Meh. (Score:5, Informative)
They are also available online:
- Magic for Beginners [sfsite.com]
- The Faery Handbag [lcrw.net]
Re:Meh. (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:Meh. (Score:1)
Re:Yeah, if by excellent you mean (Score:1)
Re:Meh. (Score:2)
Re:Meh. (Score:2)
Re:Serentiy (Score:1)
Did they grab people off the street and
say "Hey, wanna be in a movie?"
Worst acting I've ever seen.
Great visuals though.
Haldeman stories in COMICS. (Score:2, Informative)
Marvano is responsible for the artwork.
http://www.bibliotheek.haacht.be/Mijn%20afbeeldin
You know... (Score:2, Funny)
Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:4, Informative)
Reading the finalist listing though, I've seen that there is the damn fine novel 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell' by Susanna Clarke. Very amazing book, superbly written, it even has annotations in essay style, definitely a contender which I recommend to anyone interested in reading a good novel and as a fantasy genre initiation (though I would never define it as 'fantasy').
Even though I put off my judgement until I have read Camouflage, if S. Clarke lost to Haldeman, then it must be a damn fine novel indeed.
(Speaking of runners-up, John C. Wright is also quite good, his Golden Age series give some needed fresh-air to the hard-sf speculative fiction genre.)
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:4, Informative)
I recently finished reading this novel, and it was outstanding. I highly recommend it. Incidentally, it won several other awards, including the Locus Award, the 2005 World Fantasy Award, and the 2005 Hugo Award. You can find out more about it here: http://www.jonathanstrange.com/ [jonathanstrange.com]
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:2)
Thirded! Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a brilliant piece of work. The writing is great and surprisingly sinister. Felt a bit sorry for his wife, though.
Jonathon Strange etc. (Score:1, Flamebait)
Once you've finished it, and if you've acquired a taste for historical fiction with an SF&F spin, then check
Re:Jonathon Strange etc. (Score:2)
It's like he *really* wanted to write a series of books on banking in historical France, but his publisher said no, so he bulked a single volume adventure about pirates chasing alchemical treasure into three volumes by stuffing
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:2)
Why not? In my mind it's pretty clearly one half fantasy and one half alternate history.
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:1)
Agreed, great book, and it's not so much a fantasy as a normal story with a counterfactual history that involves the presence of magi
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:2)
Poorly-defined magic is just a crutch for bad writing. There's so *much* bad writing in the genre that people can't believe that anything well-written is actually "fantasy". That's not the case.
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:1)
And you're more likely to find Jonathan Lethem [barnesandnoble.com] not in a fantasy or scifi section since the fantasy does not define the narrative, it only informs it.
Perhaps you're right, that the mere presence of magic means it's a fantasy, like how the me
I'm not so sure.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Lost meets the west wing in space != good SF (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:1)
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:2)
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:1)
To show the variety of people's opinions, I recently picked up Mr. Reynold's Revelation Space. I've only stopped reading two sci-fi/fantasy books that I purchased in my life, and this one I managed to get to page 138 before I hit that realization of: "Why am I reading this?" The writing was poor, sti
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:2)
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:1)
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:2)
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:2)
Characters were utterly flat. Could the main character be any less interesting? He's a moralizing jerk who thinks he's better than everyone else, and not only does his viewpoint not evolve, we're apparently to imagine that in this far future society he's actually right!
Storyline was self inconsistent (slight spoiler): why didn't he jump? The main character is both implausibly smart and implausibly dumb, as it suits the story. His armor is also conveniently
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:1)
Re: i
Guardian (Score:2)
I find his writing style very accessible and his themes compelling. A fine author indeed.
Re:Haldeman deserves it for sure... (Score:2)
"Ted sensibly didn't bring out the marijuana until after the last day's work. One time we indulged rather more than we should have, and everyone else was overcome by the traditional "munchies" and swarmed down to the local ice cream joint, but I went upstairs to my typewriter to see what kind of writing I would do, profoundly bent. The story just poured out of me, incredibly fast and sm
camouflage (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:camouflage (Score:2)
Second, was the story corrected at some point or something? I
Re:camouflage (Score:2)
Rich
I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:5, Interesting)
I haven't seen Wright's fantasy anywhere (despite living in Virginia about an hour from his home), although I'd buy it based on the wonderful Golden Age, so I can't speak to it.
At least to me the only entry on that list worthy of the award is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, but I suspect it's simply too strange for most of the folks to vote for. But it's everything an award like this *should* recognize- beautiful world building, wonderful characters and a prose style that really sets the tone for a different world. (I can't remember the last piece of fiction with laugh-out-loud footnotes). It's not an easy read, but it's a *great* read nonetheless.
There's simply so many other good books published in the last year to have this list. If you want fantasy, where's The Prince of Nothing series? I don't know if Banks' The Algebraist is eligible since it was published in England earlier, but even though it's not Banks' best it still outclasses almost the entire list. Olympos wasn't perfect, but again should have been up there.
Too strange? (Score:2)
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:4, Insightful)
And in this sentence, we have everything I dislike about literary criticism in a nutshell.
Not everything that's easy to read is good, of course; most of what's easy to read is crap. But pretty much everything that's hard to read is crap, because if you have to struggle to read it, then its other qualities just don't matter.
The critical world has pushed for almost a century now the idea that good writing has to be difficult -- which has led to a glut of truly awful, highly praised mainstream fiction, and the marginalization of good storytellers into genre fiction. Folks, the writers who created the literary canon of the 19th century and before weren't trying to show off their distinctive prose style. (For the great stylists, that was just what came naturally.) They were telling stories, and they wanted lots of people to read those stories.
Now, I haven't read Norrell, but people whose judgement I trust have told me that it's exactly the kind of pretentious crap that has ruined mainstream writing and is now invading SF, thickly layered language games that distract the reader from any virtues the story itself might have. In contrast, Haldeman's prose is always elegant and concise. I voted for Camouflage, and I'm glad it won; it's not his best ever (I'd say that's actually All My Sins Remembered, not The Forever War, as good as that was) but it's very good stuff.
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:2)
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:1)
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:4, Insightful)
Reading a textbook that's challenging and not fun may be worthwhile if it teaches you some valuable skill. Reading (or even worse, writing) "literature" that's a struggle to get through is not "worth doing". It's merely pretending that you're doing something worthwhile - it's neither entertaining nor valuable; it's just stupid.
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:2)
Hey, both should be readable. If a textbook is difficult it should be because of the subject matter, not because the author wanted to preen as the next James Joyce. Anyone who writes a textbook that reads like Finnegan's Wake or Gravity's Rainbow should go to Nerd Hell where all the coffee is decaf and all the operating systems are Windows ME.
Textbooks fall within your argument just as well as novels do.
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:3, Insightful)
I certainly plan on reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell after the recomendations here, and can't speak for it in particular, but I agree with Daniel's sentiment. The foundation of good writing is suspension of disbelief, and anything that detracts from becoming absorbed in a work harms its effectiveness. I don't expect authors to write to a grade-school level, and I don't mind having to look up a word every now and then. But when I am constantly having to reread sentences or passages bec
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:1)
Some novels aspire to be more t
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:1)
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:2)
Of course complex language can be a pleasure in itself - read Finnegan's Wake or At Swim Two Birds.
But all this is academic where JS&N is concerned as the novel isn't difficult to read at all!
Challenging... (Score:2)
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:2)
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:1)
Although I disagree on dhalgren. I've read it too many times to count over the last 20 years. I love that book but I understand why people don't like it. I just meant that his prose is gorgeous and concise.
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:2)
Do yourself a favor and try it. I put it as the clear winner because of one thing: it has believable *people*, not cardboard cutouts. Strange and Norrell aren't very likeable, but they are believeable, and that puts the bo
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:2)
I wouldn't describe it as a difficult read at all. It certainly doesn't worry about excluding those with limited english skills or fifteen second attention spans, but difficult makes it sound as if you have to make an effort to read it. The opposite is true. Goes down like chocolate!
As to word games, the book is absolutely poetic! In the hands of someone else, the plot could still be compelling, but the atmosphere and the writing are pleasure in and of themself. If you don't appreciate a well-drawn atmo
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:1)
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:2)
The Golden Age and *really* bad books (Score:2)
That said, if
Re:The Golden Age and *really* bad books (Score:2)
Re:I wonder about the Nebulas (Score:2)
But I have to disagree about Pratchett: he's still getting better, (but don't read decide based on Monstrous Regiment.)
opinions are like... (Score:2)
Opinions are like noses--most people have one, but some are more snotty than others!
I strongly disagree with you about Haldeman and McDevitt--all writers have ups and downs, but Camouflage was one of Haldeman's best in years. And McDevitt keeps steadily getting better and better; in the last coupl
Re:opinions are like... (Score:2)
HEADLINE ALERT: some random guy on slashdot disagrees with a large collection of professional writers on the art and aesthetics of writing--obviously the writers are wrong, and the random slashdot guy is right!
Who said I'm right? It's obvious from the discussion that people have different tastes. Personally, I think this was a weak ballot that left off a lot of good stuff. Judging by comments, it seems that some people agree with me, others don't. Ah well.
And McDevitt keeps steadily getting better a
Met Joe (and Jack) (Score:1)
ok I'm stupid what's the difference between... (Score:5, Informative)
From:
http://www.sfwa.org/awards/faq.htm#6 [sfwa.org]
* Novel -- 40,000 words or more
* Novella -- 17,500-39,999 words
* Novelette -- 7,500-17,499 words
* Short Story -- 7,499 words or fewer
* Script -- a professionally produced audio, radio, television, motion picture, multimedia, or theatrical script
Re:ok I'm stupid what's the difference between... (Score:2)
Re:ok I'm stupid what's the difference between... (Score:1)
Re:This award is bogus... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:This award is bogus... (Score:1)
The Nebulous Awards (Score:5, Funny)
Best Whatever - Whats-his-name
Best Ya Know - That one guy
Top Thingamajig - Some hot chick
Honorable Mention - Whoever
Kelly Link (Score:4, Interesting)
For the uninitiated, I like to describe her as a sort of "female Neil Gaiman" for her similar fairy-tale sensibilities. But really I find her writing much more mature and abstract.
Her first short story collection, Stranger Things Happen, is now available as a free download [lcrw.net] under the Creative Commons.
This is the problem with having only americans (Score:1)
Re:This is the problem with having only americans (Score:1)
Re:Charles Stross.... (Score:2)
Re:Charles Stross.... (Score:2)
Serenity (Score:2)
Then... once in a blue moon... I'll see a movie... and after the movie has ended... I MUST go and see it again!
Serenity was this last scenario.
I have to tell ya, It's been a L O N G time since I have seen a movie that I have enjoyed this much!
Serenity ROCKS
"Camouflage"? (Score:1)
But Camouflage was a major letdown. The first half is quite good, and contains some really interesting speculation about alien worlds and beings. Then the book dissolves into an ordinary thriller with overlong, meaningless passages à la Ludlum, without the trills. It just feels like padding.
All in all, a bit of a lazy effort.
YMMV, of course.
Olrik
Re:Bring me up to date (Score:2)
Hopefully you'll enjoy this small selection.
Re:Uhhhhh .... (Score:2)
about SGI enterinng Chapter 11. The article that
I responded to seemed in the wrong place and this
has mysteriously drifted into the Nebula thread.
Buggy software or I'm on drugs, take your pick.