Hugo Award Nominee Recommendations

Evidence of Angels explores the world of unseen guardians who offer hope and comfort in times of need. This journey begins with Suza Scalora's reflections in the wake of a loved one's death and explores her feelings of hopelessness after suffering such a profound loss. When a mysterious man points her to a book on angels, Suza rediscovers everyday miracles in the most unexpected of places.

"In this imaginative full-color tome, New York City photographer and spiritualist Suza Scalora (whose previous works include The Fairies and The Witches and Wizards of Oberin) teams with scribe Francesa Lia Block to present otherworldly angelic vignettes that evoke a synthesis of Maxfield Parrish and Odilon Redon, seen through the kaleidoscope lens of J.M.W. Turner." - Renaissance

"Scalora, with Block, has crafted an alluring book for anyone who hopes angels are real... Big, glossy pages introduce such spirits as the Angel of Peace, Angel of Sorrow, and Angel of Courage, each depicted as winged, humanlike forms made abstract by lush sunbursts and vivid smudges, as if each were seen through a crystal..." -Booklist

You can also visit her website myth.com for more about Evidence of Angels, as well as her other books The Fairies and The Witches and WIzards of Oberin.

The Windup Girl (2009)
Written by: Paolo Bacigalupi
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 359 (Hardcover)

The premise: this isn't one I can explain easily, so let's go to BN.com: Noted short story writer Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories) proves equally adept at novel length in this grim but beautifully written tale of Bangkok struggling for survival in a post-oil era of rising sea levels and out-of-control mutation. Capt. Jaidee Rojjanasukchai of the Thai Environment Ministry fights desperately to protect his beloved nation from foreign influences. Factory manager Anderson Lake covertly searches for new and useful mutations for a hated Western agribusiness. Aging Chinese immigrant Tan Hock Seng lives by his wits while looking for one last score. Emiko, the titular despised but impossibly seductive product of Japanese genetic engineering, works in a brothel until she accidentally triggers a civil war.

I should note one thing: this book takes place in the same city as "Yellow Card Man" and features two of the same characters, though the windup girl herself was merely window dressing in the short story.

My Rating

Worth the Cash: The Windup Girl is a very solid SF debut. It's not perfect, but it should come to no surprise to those familiar with his short stories that Bacigalupi has potential, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does in future novels. Technically speaking, he's an excellent writer. I think his short stories tend to pack a bigger punch, but I will say The Windup Girl will knock you off your feet if you aren't paying attention. And you NEED to pay attention. This is no fast read. It's complex and intense and requires the reader's full attention. I can't stress enough just how rich the world-building is, and how much the characters are a part of their environment. Everything is harsh and sharp at the edges, and it's not a world you want to live in. To be honest, after reading this and the short story "Yellow Card Man" (which I'd recommend reading before the novel. You can find it in Pump Six and Other Stories), I don't want to return to this place. That's a compliment in its own way, but it's also telling: after this book, you feel like you've lived it, and it's such a harsh, desperate environment that you don't want to return. Hopefully, Bacigalupi's future novels will introduce us to new, yet equally harsh, worlds and give us yet more to stew over. I hear there's a YA novel on the horizon, which I ridiculously look forward to.

I would recommend to readers NOT familiar with Bacigalupi's work to start with his short stories. There's a few reasons for this: while his writing is VERY excellent and he can world-build like nobody's business, overall he's a dark and somewhat misanthropic writer. The short stories will give you a sampling of this, which will tell you whether or not you want devote the time to a novel. So start with Pump Six and Other Stories (which gives you "The Calorie Man" and "Yellow Card Man," both useful prerequisites for The Windup Girl), and if you enjoy Bacigalupi's work, then picking up the debut novel is a must.

Review style: stream of conscious. In terms of spoilers, I'm not going to spoil the BIG parts of the story in terms of climax and ending, but there are some things I want to discuss about a certain character's journey that could be considered a spoiler by some, even though it gives nothing away about the plot itself. Clear as mud? Good.

If you're interested in the full review, simply click the link below to go to my journal. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)

REVIEW: Paolo Bacigalupi's THE WINDUP GIRL

Happy Reading!

ALSO!!!: October's Book Club selection at calico_reaction is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Interested in participating? Click here to find out how!

For your recommendation consideration. Kite is set in Earth orbit...hard sci-fi with a human (and virtual human!) touch. Mason Dash is a working stiff operator of the space "street" sweeper of the title, just looking to finish a shift. Sheila is his beautiful virtual stowaway. Dash investigates a space station hijacking while Sheila embarks on her own adventure inside the Kite systems, where a tyrant entity threatens to seize the ship then expand beyond it. Then comes Troy, humankind's first alien contact, who has more in common with Dash than not, including a a fondness for Sheila. Troy is not pleased, and  only Kite and crew stand between Earth and destruction.

Check the first 2 chapters online here: Kite: a Novel in Earth Orbit

Thanks and enjoy.

Bill S

Web: www.InfinityBound.com

FB: BillShears16

 

 

As far as I can tell, this video was posted to YouTube the same day that Watchmen premiered in theatres:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w

If Watchmen is a deconstruction of the superhero genre, "Saturday Morning Watchmen" is a deconstruction of the deconstruction. And it's just so jaw-dropping funny.

This may seem like an obvious recommendation, but it was not obvious to me  -  and in fact, the quality of the film really surprised me.

I was/am not familiar with the comic series, and had no expectation about this film.  (Actually, I thought it was going to be yet another inane comic book adaptation).

I was very surprised.  Plot was interesting, and different.  Acting was very good, at times excellent.  Cinematography was outstanding.  Special effects also good.  Violence was a bit more than I care for, but in concert with the scope of the film.  Little touches throughout the movie (which I won't mention as you'll pick them up) added to the interest.  Soundtrack music was outstanding.

This was (surprisingly to me) an extremely entertaining and well done movie.  So much so that I watched it a second time a week later, something I never do, to make sure I had caught all the nuances - and enjoyed it the second time as well.

I highly recommend this film for consideration.

Here's a shout-out for tonight's episode of CSI, about murder at a pseudo-Star Trek convention. Very entertaining, and not at all demeaning to Trekkies. And Liz Vassey, who plays lab tech Wendy Simms... wow!

Consider it for the 2010 Dramatic Presentation Short Form Hugo.

For Best Novel in 2010, I would like to recommend Rampant by Diana Peterfreund.

As I write this, Rampant won't be on the shelves for another week. You can read the first 80 or so pages online, at the publisher's website:

http://browseinside.harperteen.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061490002

I really don't want to mention anything else.

This is Diana Peterfreund's fifth published book, but her first in SF/Fantasy, so she is also eligible for the Campbell Award.

Yep, it's a very overdue administrative update.

The old tags are Z'ed to sort them to the bottom. The new tags are created, as are the 2011 tags (the "Z" system seems to work nicely and upon review adding the 2011 tags didn't appear to make things difficult to use).

No, there are no "2009" tags. If you missed the discussion last year, we're realigning the years associated with the tags to match the dates on the statues being given out. Therefore:

The works published/shown this year (2009) are eligible for 2010 Hugo Awards. That's what the statues say, that's what we're using. Use the 2010 tags to identify works you are encountering now that are now eligible for next year's awards.

Oh, and remember, please check out the community profile for rules and instructions that will help you, and everybody else using the community, get the most out of these recommendations.

The Hugo Awards for 2010 will be given at the 68th World Science Fiction Convention, AussieCon4 in Melbourne, September 2-6, 2010.

Here are the category tags for the 2010 Hugo Awards:

• 2010-novel-hugo
• 2010-novella-hugo
• 2010-novelette-hugo
• 2010-short-story-hugo
• 2010-related-book-hugo
• 2010-dramatic-presentation-long-hugo
• 2010-dramatic-presentation-short-hugo
• 2010-graphic-story-hugo
• 2010-editor-long-hugo
• 2010-editor-short-hugo
• 2010-professional-artist-hugo
• 2010-semiprozine-hugo
• 2010-fanzine-hugo
• 2010-fan-writer-hugo
• 2010-fan-artist-hugo
• 2010-additional-hugo
• 2010-campbell-award

As of this posting, AussieCon4 has not yet announced whether or not they will have an additional category, nor have they posted the nomination or voting deadlines. Updates will be posted when the announcements are made.

To tag a recommendation:

It's easiest to tag your recommendation after you've posted it. This will allow you to pick from the tag list and avoid possible typos.

If you're posting from the web interface, after you've clicked the "update journal" button, LiveJournal will display a page with a series of options. Click on "Edit this entry's tags" to go to the tag selection page.

If you're posting from a client, it's easiest to add your tag from the web. Open your new recommendation (your client might even pop up a button to do this). In the "action" items at the top there's a little "tag" shaped icon that reads "tag." Click on it to go to the tag selection page.

Paul Cornell just posted his recommendations for comics.

Originally posted on his LJ, paulcornell2 , and cross-posted here with permission. I'm just putting the list up, the post itself includes commentary and comments and his blog is just generally worth taking a look at so I encourage you to wander over there as well.

EDIT: Well, crap. I keep messing up the lj-cut and can't figure out why, so here are the titles. Check his LJ for the proper list with reviews and links

( List )

Does anyone have any recommendations so that I can start reading for next year's nominations?

Cheryl Morgan says:

"I would love to see some of my Australian friends on the ballot next year, but in order to make that happen people have to start reading them. I can wholeheartedly recommend":

• Bruce Gillespie's Steam Engine Time


• Terry Frost's Paleo-Cinema Podcast


• Alisa Krasnostein's AS if!

Torchwood - Children of Earth - not really sure if the whole thing for long form, or the fourth episode for short form, but I loved it. It was dark and gritty, it kept me glued to the screen for 5 hours, and like all good science fiction asked some really tough questions and admitted there were no easy answers. It may well be the end of Torchwood, but if so they're going out with style.

Voting closed on July 3.  New tags for the new year?

This was looking like a terrific candidate when Cartoon Network started showing it last year, but they stopped at 10 episodes. This year, they swear they're going to show the entire series, and on the current schedule, they'll finish it just before the end of the year.

The story so far, since it's episode 5 this weekend: Moribito is set (so far) in vaguely Chinese-looking kingdom of Shin-Yogo. Prince Chagum, second in line to the throne, has been possessed by what the astrologers believe to be a water demon that was banished at the time of the kingdom's founding, and that the only way to banish it again is for the emperor to kill the prince. The Second Queen, Chagum's mother, has charged Balsa the spearwoman to hide him to save his life. Chagum's death has been faked in order to give him and Balsa cover to escape. Meanwhile, Shuga the astrologer, Chagum's ex-tutor, has begun checking into some old writings for more information on the nature of the demon.

At the end of the last episode, Balsa and Chagum had taken refuge in the hut of Balsa's friend Tanda, a yaku (shaman), while Balsa recovered from a fight with some of the emperor's elite guards, who had been sent to retrieve Chagum. Just as everyone was getting caught up on events so far, in bursts Madam Torogai, a powerful yaku, babbling something about an egg...

For all the genre movies being made these days, hard science fiction films are still rare. Intelligent ones, rarer still. I had to go out of my way to see Moon (the nearest theater playing it was an hour's drive away), and it was well worth the trip.

The plot is, by sf standards, basic. Sam Bell is the only human resident of a moon-based automated mining station. He's only a couple of weeks from the end of his three year contract, when there's an accident. And then . . . well, anything more would be a spoiler.

Thanks to a smart script by Nathan Parker (especially noteworthy these days for having the courage to leave some things up to the viewer to figure out), solid direction by Duncan Jones, and a truly outstanding performance by Sam Rockwell, Moon succeeds almost completely. Does the science work? I honestly don't know enough to say for sure, but I was able to suspend disbelief while watching. There are a couple of fairly minor questions that remain unanswered. But overall, I recommend searching it out.

This sad, sweet, brilliant story was read by Ellen at her Guest of Honor reading at Wiscon and appears in the chapbook "What Remains" issued by Aqueduct Press for the convention. (It also contains a couple of lively stories by Geoff Ryman, Wiscon's other GoH, and interviews with Geoff and Ellen.) I don't know if the chapbook can be ordered from Aqueduct, or if this story can be obtained anywhere else, but it's worth tracking down!

ETA: I find myself unable to properly tag this entry "2009-short-story-hugo" or even to remove the incorrect "2008-short-story-hugo" tag. Help?

A movie which is way, way better than its Tomatometer rating. (Looking at some random negative reviews, the main complaints from the reviewers are that it contains Nicholas Cage and genre elements.)

WORLD SCIENCE FICTION SOCIETY
http://www.thehugoawards.org/
Contact: info@TheHugoAwards.org

Release Date: April 8, 2009

HUGO AWARD LOGO DESIGN CONTEST ANNOUNCED

The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) has announced a contest for a design for an official logo for the Hugo Awards. The Hugo Awards honor the best in written and dramatized science fiction and fantasy, as well as other categories, and are the highest honors in the field of science fiction and fantasy. While the streamlined rocket that is a common feature of the Hugo Award trophy is well known within the field of science fiction and fantasy, there has never been an official logo suitable for designating that a work is a Hugo Award winner. WSFS, through its Hugo Awards Marketing Committee, is soliciting designs for such a logo, which would be suitable for use in the publishing and film/television industries, and in solidifying the Hugo Awards "brand."

The contest is open to individual designers. Full submission guidelines are available on the Hugo Awards web site at http://www.thehugoawards.org/logocontest.htm.( Contest Details )

Today's the day! Get those ballots in before 23:59 Pacific Time in English or in French!