Category Archives: awards

a bunch of hugos

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I’ve read lots of science fiction over the years, or speculative fiction, or fantasy, or other things that sort of look like those things. I’ve realised recently that in my 50s I am increasingly seeking out award winners to purchase and read. As a librarian I am supportive of loaning and lending; folk reading books and passing them on to others. Whereas I collect and acquire, I own and I retain, I hold and I cherish. I have occasionally loaned books to others and sometimes get them back, occasionally I realise years later that there are some I don’t get back.

On to award winners. I have tended to read them incidentally, as I have come across them in my meanderings through bookshops: physically and digitally. I have read things I’ve loved that haven’t won awards, and not loved some award winners. Yet award winners tend to be at least interesting, perhaps a step in a different direction. There are some I’ve skipped eg Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book as they concern alternate histories which I’m not fond of, yet I have read alternate histories by others such as Dick’s The Man in the High Castle.

Below is a list of all the winners of the Hugo awards which I tend to regard as one of the top awards, along with the Nebula, Locus, Aurealis, Philip K Dick, and others. Anyway I thought it’d be interesting to go through each and list the ones I read and owned. A different sort of list to circulate. For each book listed I have added 2 of 3 symbols such:

  • + I own
  • $ I own fancy edition – usually Easton Press or Folio Society or Subterranean or Suntup or Centipede or Grim Oak etc
  • # read – have I actually read the bloody thing.

I’ve included one of the Retro Hugos which were awarded much later to fill missing years. Of those I gather, only one has been awarded post 1953 when the awards themselves began – as that’s a Bradbury I can’t help but include it.

  • 1953 The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
  • 1954 $# Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury [retro hugo]
  • 1955 They’d Rather Be Right (also known as The Forever Machine) by Mark Clifton & Frank Riley
  • 1956 Double Star Robert A Heinlein
  • 1958 The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
  • 1959 $# A Case of Conscience by James Blish [beat Heinlein’s Have Space Suit Will Travel]
  • 1960 $# Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein
  • 1961 +# A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M Miller
  • 1962 $# Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heinlein
  • 1963 $# The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick
  • 1964 +# Way Station by Clifford D Simak [also known as Here Gather the Stars]
  • 1965 +# The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber
  • 1966 $# [joint winner] Dune by Frank Herbert [I own multiple editions: basic omnibus, Easton Press, Folio Society, eventually Centipede Press I hope]
  • 1966 [joint winner] The Immortal by Roger Zelazny [also known as …And Call Me Conrad]
  • 1967 The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
  • 1968 Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
  • 1969 $ Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
  • 1970 $ The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin [I’ve read so many of her’s yet still it waits]
  • 1971 +# Ringworld by Larry Niven [Centipede Press are planning to release a special edition]
  • 1972 To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer [used to see it the shops and never quite bought it]
  • 1973 The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
  • 1974 +# Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke
  • 1975 $# The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin [this was the first of her’s I read]
  • 1976 The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
  • 1977 Where Late the Sweet Birds Sing by Kate Wilhelm [not read much by her but have read some of a 2 volume collection of her short stories from Centipede Press]
  • 1978 +# Gateway by Frederik Pohl
  • 1979 +# Dreamsnake by Vonda N McIntyre [she wrote a bunch of star trek novels which is I came across her initially]
  • 1980 The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C Clarke
  • 1981 The Snow Queen by Joan D Vinge
  • 1982 Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh
  • 1983 +# Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov [been a long time since I read his Foundation series but I tend to feel this is a weaker entry]
  • 1984 + Startide Rising by David Brin [also meant to read it and read others of his]
  • 1985 +# Neuromancer by William Gibson [I can’t afford the special editions of this one]
  • 1986 $# Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card [love it and have read it several times, hate the politics of the author]
  • 1987 +# Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card [I anticipate getting the fancy edition in a few weeks]
  • 1988 The Uplift War by David Brin
  • 1989 Cyteen by CJ Cherryh [never read her adnd was alas never attracted by the blurbs – perhaps I need to try her hugos at least]
  • 1990 Hyperion by Dan Simmons
  • 1991 +# The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
  • 1992 +# Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
  • 1993 +# [joint winner] A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
  • 1993 [joint winner] Doomsday Book by Connie Willis [I recently skipped the SubPress edition of this as I’m nostly not interested in alternate histories]
  • 1994 Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • 1995 +# Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold
  • 1996 The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
  • 1997 Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • 1998 Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
  • 1999 To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
  • 2000 A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
  • 2001 +# Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
  • 2002 +# American Gods by Neil Gaiman [if anything I s’pose I’m disappointed he didn’t get a hugo for Sandman]
  • 2003 Hominids by Robert J Sawyer
  • 2004 Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
  • 2005 ?# Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke [? as I can no longer find my paperback; I suspect I loaned it to someone long ago. Currently tempted to replace with a fancy edition]
  • 2006 Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
  • 2007 Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
  • 2008 The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
  • 2009 $# The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman [possibly one of my favourite Gaiman books]
  • 2010 $# [joint winner] The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi [I only read it recently and then bought the fancy edition]
  • 2010 $ [joint winner] The City & The City by China Mieville
  • 2011 Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis
  • 2012 Among Others by Jo Walton
  • 2013 Redshirts by John Scalzi [I have read others by him but not this one yet]
  • 2014 Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie [had an opportunity in the last week to buy the fancy version of the trilogy but passed as I bought a trilogy by Jemisin – see below]
  • 2015 $# The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu; translated by Ken Liu
  • 2016 $ The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin [Book 1 of first trilogy ever for all 3 books to get a hugo; managed to find fancy set with matching numbers this week]
  • 2017 $ The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin [Book 2 of first trilogy to win hugo]
  • 2018 $ The Stone Sky by NK Jemisin [Book 3 of first trilogy to win hugo]
  • 2019 The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
  • 2020 A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

stuff I haven’t read

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There is a fun meme going round, #iconfessineverread (Con, Rachel and others) and I had fully intended this post to be in similar vein but I seem to have rambled on instead :) Perhaps I will try and list some books I should have read but haven’t, in another post.

It’s fair to say that beyond what was required for school I have read little of the literary canon. I have on occasion dipped my toe into literary waters and at one stage I was at least trying to read Booker winners. That’s mostly a fail these days. Yet what I did read I enjoyed including Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam. McEwan I particularly liked as he managed to write interesting, intelligent books that were also short :) I haven’t read of his in years either including Atonement which everyone tells me I should read.

A lot of my reading has been more what is termed “genre reading”. Truckloads of science fiction, not to mention thrillers. Later I “diversified” into fantasy and other things. These days I read a mix of SF, fantasy, graphic novels and of course gaming. I’d argue that the games I like to play generally reflect a story telling approach and could be included in a list of “stuff I read”. I’ve recently finished Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, and it was split into sections labelled chapters to chart the plot progression. This worked for me and it felt like I progressed through a story of the classic 3 act approach, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think it even had a prologue and an epilogue.

I’ve not been particularly keen on writers’ festivals or conventions either. I’ve been to the odd event at the Sydney Writers’ Festival but mostly skip it. On the other hand, the few times I’ve gone I’ve usually run into people I know in the crowd and had engaging catch ups. Despite my fondness of SF, I’ve never been fond of SF conventions either and usually skip them too. Looking back I think it would have been nice to have got involved in a book club at least. I’ve had friends who’ve been in clubs for years and enjoy the continuing engagement with a group of familiar faces.

This week in fact I have started a book I should have read years ago, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. I have no excuse, I even bought the hardcover when it was first published. Disappointingly even though it’s the first edition, it’s the 8th printing. I have had a look around and it seems there was a very nice edition published some years ago by Hill House. Unfortunately it’s also a little expensive.

a slow five

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I struggled to put 5 things together that weren’t just slide shows of interesting images but managed to find a few things to include:

 

tassie spoils

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tasmanian wine and whiskyA few weeks ago we popped down to Tassie for a long weekend and amongst other things we, or mostly I, tasted quite a few whiskies and spent evenings in the Nant bar and the Lark bar. We actually visited the Lark bar a couple of times as it had a really good atmosphere and had many Tassie whiskies available as well as Lark, whereas Nant only had Nant from Tassie plus a good range of international whiskies.

We also did a gourmet food tour of Bruny Island including cheese and whisky. The final stop was the House of Whisky and the included tasting was Nant however there was plenty of time so I was able to do a flight of four tastings including:

The Sullivan’s Cove was definitely my favourite, however the Overeem was a close second. Alas, or luckily, the Sullivan’s Cove was not available for sale as it’s really expensive these days. The guy did however give me the empty box as they had about 20 empty boxes out the back. I don’t recall being particularly fond of the Trapper’s but really liked the Mackay’s.

As part of the Bruny Island trip, we had lunch and tastings at the Bruny Island winery and they make some rather yummy pinot noir so I picked up a bottle of their standard and their reserve. The final item in the picture is a colourful owl I picked up at the Salamanca markets.

rambling about eurovision

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It used to be that thing that I loved taking the piss out of and now it’s morphed into something more. Someone asked that very question the other day, “Aussies like taking the piss out of Eurovision, why do we want to win?” To which I responded: a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B.

There is that sense of inclusion in something bigger, perhaps another layer of the Oz isolationist mindset and wanting to be part of Europe in other ways. There’s been a long history of looking to the Northern Hemisphere for influences. Either way, Oz audiences have been watching eurovision for a very long time and have some sense of connection one way or another.

Watching eurovision is an annual event and in our household we’ve been counting down for months. We watched the semifinal replays and got up in time to watch the live final at 5am. I thought only sportsball fans did that sort of thing. Being able to vote for real is a strange joy of its own.

It feels a bit weird to be part of a competing nation, the idea of a one off seemed fun; competing in eurovision has a certain novelty value. In 2015 I was a bit meh, and particularly so with our chosen act. But the act grew on me, as did the idea of participating. To actually be part of this thing on the other side of the world gave it new meaning.

I was excited to see Oz do well yet at the same amused that in a scoring system that reflects European politics, and that playoff of nation states, somehow Oz came out well and finished 5th. There was a sense in 2015 that was reinforced in 2016 that Oz is a safe country for competing European nations to vote for and removes difficulties around voting for and against their neighbours.

In 2016, the scoring went to the final gasp. I was actually tense. Oz came first on the jury vote and it got scarier and tenser as the final audience votes were awarded and it was clear that Oz was remaining on top. Winning raised other questions of where do we host it? Would it be in Sydney? …or a friendly European nation? Not to mention a surreal sense of winning something that we never expected to win.

The voting went down to the final two and only then, with the final score did we know whether we were first or second. Ultimately we were pipped on 511 by Ukraine on 534.

Not much in it at all. Still feels a wee bit odd but in a good way.

a bit of news

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There seems to be a bunch of announcements of late including news just to hand that the 2008 Booker has been awarded to Indian born Aravind Adiga for his novel, The White Tiger. Also this week, AC/DC are releasing a new album that sounds like all their other ones, though one scribe reckoned it was their best since Back in Black. On top of all this good news, Metallica’s new one, Death Magnetic, picked up a good review in the weekend SMH.

“deliberately barren”

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The annual Ernie awards (2007 being the 15th year) were announced last night, and emerging from a strong field, was the eventual winner, Senator Bill Heffernan, for his comment that Julia Gillard was unfit for leadership as she was “deliberately barren“. The Ernies, while mostly going to blokes, have on occasion gone to women too, for comments unhelpful to the sisterhood, such as Blanche D’Alpuget for saying “I do” with Bob Hawke.

After 15 years, they’ve compiled some of the best examples into a book, The Ernies Book: 1000 terrible things Australian men have said about women, that goes on sale this month. As part of the launch the authors are participating in a debate at Gleebooks on 21 Nov, on the age old topic: “Are Australian men still male chauvinist pigs?” :-)