Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

Hunchback Jack wrote:

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It's "Peter Davison". If you're going to name-drop, at least get the name right, Keith!

HBJ

inhuien wrote:3 decades ago it would have been the Dr. Who actor boasting about meeting the author of DUNE.

Sev wrote:Something is seriously wrong in the world of literary SF - because Keith has just been nominated in the Best Novel Category for a Hugo Award for his newest Seven Sucks book. What the Fuck?!

Sev wrote:Something is seriously wrong in the world of literary SF - because Keith has just been nominated in the Best Novel Category for a Hugo Award for his newest Seven Sucks book. What the Fuck?!

the many authors on the SP3 slate who have never before received even a single Hugo award nomination, including venerable greats like Kevin J. Anderson — the long slighting of one of the field’s titans has finally ended!

Ampoliros wrote:But hey, Big Bang Theory is the most popular comedy on TV right now, its not surprising KJA was nominated for a Hugo.

Look, we all have favorites, books and stories and writers we like. Some get recognized, some do not. And tastes differ.

I want the Hugo Awards to go to GREAT work. Work worthy to stand besides LORD OF LIGHT and THE DEMOLISHED MAN and THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS. There are lots of writers who have spent decades in the field and published dozens, even hundreds, of books, without ever rising above the level of mediocrity. You don't get a Hugo for longevity or number of books published.

Now, obviously, you admire the work of Kevin J. Anderson and Lee Modesitt and think they are writing Hugo-calibre stuff. Others may not... not because of "prejudice" or "campaigning," but because they are not taken by the work. Myself, I am far more outraged that Gene Wolfe has never won a Hugo, that Howard Waldrop has never won one, that Chad Oliver and Algis Budrys lived and died without winning one. Jack Vance won a couple, but if it were up to me, he'd have won twenty.

Point simply being, we all have favorites who get overlooked.

As for tie-ins, we will have to disagree. I don't think tie-ins SHOULD win Hugos. They are work-for-hire gigs, and they are lesser work. Part of the writer's art, especially in SF and fantasy, is worldbuilding. And character is the soul of all fiction. A tie-in writer has his world and characters handed to him. He tells a story, but he is not creating, not in the same way as a writer who starts from a blank sheet of paper.

Amd boy, you guys really hate REDSHIRTS. I don't understand that. It's just the kind of fun adventure story that I thought the Puppies wanted more of. Are you judging the work, or the author? Is it Scalzi's writing you hate, or his politics?

Omphalos wrote:If myself from ten years ago heard me saying this now, I am sure I would sock myself in the jaw. But man, oh man SF literature really, really sucks these days. Most of it is absolutely unreadable.

Hunchback Jack wrote:

Omphalos wrote:If myself from ten years ago heard me saying this now, I am sure I would sock myself in the jaw. But man, oh man SF literature really, really sucks these days. Most of it is absolutely unreadable.

To be honest, I'm not reading that much SF these days - at least not new SF - but there is some readable stuff out there that's not too old. Gibson's The Peripheral was quite good. The Martian by Andy Weir and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline were both fun reads, and well-written. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi had some great ideas, although the storytelling itself was lacking, I thought. I'll probably read his new one out later this year.

Right now I'm reading Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds, but I guess that's 10 years old, now. But it's meaty SF goodness.

But yeah, good SF is definitely thinner on the ground these days. It's sad that KJAs by-the-numbers space opera could get a look-in for the Hufos, but I'm not that surprised.

HBJ

Hunchback Jack wrote:The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi had some great ideas, although the storytelling itself was lacking, I thought.
Right now I'm reading Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds, but I guess that's 10 years old, now. But it's meaty SF goodness.

But yeah, good SF is definitely thinner on the ground these days. It's sad that KJAs by-the-numbers space opera could get a look-in for the Hufos, but I'm not that surprised.

HBJ