Post by Hermes on Oct 7, 2017 11:44:20 GMT -5
(In this forum because the Hugos are mainly about written fiction, though they do cover films and TV as well.)
Since at least two people were interested in my 667er article about the Hugo controversies, I thought I should bring you up to date on the outcome. Results are here:
www.thehugoawards.org/2017/08/2017-hugo-awards-announced/
Part 1.
Several results were both expected and deserved.
Arrival was widely seen as the best SF movie of the year. It seems to be generally agreed that it is nothing like the story by Ted Chiang on which it is based, but it's also agreed that Chiang's story was unfilmable.
In Related Work, the win for Ursula K. le Guin's collected essays was a great result; now the the Golden Age greats are all gone, I think she is undoubtedly the most distinguished SF writer in English living today. She is also the author of Kit Snicket's favourite book. It was an honour to take part in voting this award to someone whose books I (yes, I, Hermes) enjoyed as a child. (I was in fact a bit surprised both by how close the margin was and by the nearest challenger - I'm sure Carrie Fisher was an excellent person, but I didn't find her book that impressive.)
In Best Series, Lois Bujold is perhaps not quite as distinguished as Le Guin, but her series is very widely respected (though, weirdly, not published in the UK), and got the award off to a good start. (Set in space, culture clash, coming of age, family conflicts - though that doesn't really describe it, any more than 'orphans escaping from a villain' describes ASOUE.)
In Best New Writer, Ada Palmer has made a great splash, and it was always to be expected that she would win. Her work, set in a flawed utopia, is very interesting, and I would say it is very worth reading, though some aspects of it (especially to do with genders) are quite controversial.
Since at least two people were interested in my 667er article about the Hugo controversies, I thought I should bring you up to date on the outcome. Results are here:
www.thehugoawards.org/2017/08/2017-hugo-awards-announced/
Part 1.
Several results were both expected and deserved.
Arrival was widely seen as the best SF movie of the year. It seems to be generally agreed that it is nothing like the story by Ted Chiang on which it is based, but it's also agreed that Chiang's story was unfilmable.
In Related Work, the win for Ursula K. le Guin's collected essays was a great result; now the the Golden Age greats are all gone, I think she is undoubtedly the most distinguished SF writer in English living today. She is also the author of Kit Snicket's favourite book. It was an honour to take part in voting this award to someone whose books I (yes, I, Hermes) enjoyed as a child. (I was in fact a bit surprised both by how close the margin was and by the nearest challenger - I'm sure Carrie Fisher was an excellent person, but I didn't find her book that impressive.)
In Best Series, Lois Bujold is perhaps not quite as distinguished as Le Guin, but her series is very widely respected (though, weirdly, not published in the UK), and got the award off to a good start. (Set in space, culture clash, coming of age, family conflicts - though that doesn't really describe it, any more than 'orphans escaping from a villain' describes ASOUE.)
In Best New Writer, Ada Palmer has made a great splash, and it was always to be expected that she would win. Her work, set in a flawed utopia, is very interesting, and I would say it is very worth reading, though some aspects of it (especially to do with genders) are quite controversial.