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The Hugo awards, being the favorite they are with SN readers, are out again!
As posted at The Vox.
The first-ever threepeat of the Hugo Awards — the prestigious, long-running fantasy awards handed out annually at WorldCon — just issued a giant rejection of right-wing gatekeeping in the struggle to diversify the world of science fiction and fantasy writing.
N.K. Jemisin's groundbreaking fantasy series the Broken Earth trilogy has won critical acclaim, been optioned for development as a TV series, and received numerous accolades from the sci-fi and fantasy community. And on August 19, it achieved yet another milestone when Jemisin became the first author in the Hugos' 65-year history to win back-to-back awards for every book in a trilogy. Jemisin won the award for Best Novel three years in a row, starting with The Fifth Season in 2016, The Obelisk Gate in 2017, and now The Stone Sky in 2018.
Meanwhile, The Verge reports:
The 2018 Hugo Awards were held last night at the World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, California. The Hugo award, voted on by members of the fan community, is considered the highest honor for science fiction and fantasy literature.
Like the previous couple of years, women almost completely swept the awards. N.K. Jemisin took home the top honor for The Stone Sky, the third installment of her Broken Earth trilogy. Other winners include Martha Wells for her first Murderbot novella All Systems Red, Suzanne Palmer for her novelette “The Secret Life of Bots,” and Rebecca Roanhorse for her short story “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™.” (Roanhorse also took home the John W. Campbell Jr. Award for Best New Writer.)
Jemisin’s win gives her a history-making hat trick: she’s won the top award for each Broken Earth installment, the first two having been for The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate. It’s a significant achievement, earned for Jemisin’s groundbreaking writing, blending of genres, and outstanding storytelling.
The complete list of nominees can be found in The Verge's story. Additional reporting can be found at the Guardian, on TOR.com, and elsewhere.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday August 22 2018, @05:17PM (13 children)
Best novel: The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
Death’s End by Cixin Liu
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palme
So which one of those was the Sad Puppies choice?
Or in any other category is fine. My point is how good were their nominees, really? And have they ever actually won anything? If not, they're just causing noise that the signal still overreaches, equivalent to a lame troll. As for everything else... might as well call party politics manipulating the system then. (Which it is, though the ethicality of having parties at all usually isn't questioned.)
This sig for rent.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday August 22 2018, @05:26PM (1 child)
Cixin Liu is good. I have no reservations about his work. He could be the next Asimov or Clarke.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @05:43PM
That's what I'm thinking. Anybody else like that out there now, or just soft mushy pretend-SF? Am still doing old SF, plenty there there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @05:46PM
Space Raptor Butt Invasion won every Hugo, forever. They just haven't realized it yet.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Wednesday August 22 2018, @06:07PM (6 children)
The only book I read by Cixin Liu is "The three body problem" and that was excellent! A bit hard to follow at times, but a great read; if his other books have the same standard, they must be good too.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by charon on Thursday August 23 2018, @01:56AM (5 children)
(Score: 1) by jelizondo on Thursday August 23 2018, @02:49AM (4 children)
Thanks for the reply. I didn't know he had written more books untl today. I quit trusting awards and most reviews as they are contaminated by money (mostly) or some sense of justice which escapes me.
I'll check the two other books.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Thursday August 23 2018, @03:56AM (3 children)
SoylentNews could inaugurate a new award. The SoylentNews SF/Fantasy Reader's Choice novel of the year?
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Thursday August 23 2018, @05:12AM (2 children)
That would be great. No f*cks given to money, gender or any other criteria except that the story is good or at the very least, that you liked it enough to vote for it.
Hey guys! bzipitidoo had a good idea! Can we get it done somehow?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by janrinok on Thursday August 23 2018, @08:06AM (1 child)
It's a great idea. Somebody give me a submission asking our community to tell us what they found to be the best SF book or film of the last year, or even the best ever, and I will publish it under the Reviews topic. Let the discussion follow.
It all starts with a submission, and that is the Community's role, not mine.
I can't promise anything of value for an 'Award' though....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @10:48AM
More people will read those books. Ain't bad for an award.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by qzm on Thursday August 23 2018, @01:55AM (2 children)
What has happened is that two DISTINCTLY different genres have been mashed together, mostly by publishers.
Science Fiction, and Fantasy.
This has an unfortunate effect.
The Fantasy fans tend to be HIGHLY anti-science, mostly because their own stories are so full of science holes (which is fine, they like fantasy, not science) that they seemingly cannot avoid hating the other 'side' in the group.
Now, the fantasy readers also tend to be a FAR more PC group - generally younger, generally more feminine, generally with much less life experience, BUT also generally with a whole lot more time on their hands.
So we end up with a situation like this - the problem here is not the Hugos being 'taken over' by a liberal view - its the Hugos being transformed from a SF award to a Fantasy award.
Almost ALL of these winners are Fantasy - sometimes wrapped up a in thin layer to make them seem more 'future like'.
It is actually quite painful for the fans of actual SF, and many of them are confused by it - but its a form of cultural appropriation - the Fantasy fans are taking by force of numbers and noise awards originally intended for SF.
the solution? The Hugos should simply be relabeled as a Fantasy fiction award.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday August 23 2018, @04:58PM
I dunno, I really liked Robert Jordan's - Wheel of Time series. Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth Series up until the last couple of chapters (maybe just the last chapter / whatever that stupid soap box he got up on was) in the last book of that series, with some 'meh on the spin offs. Also, the Stormlight Archives by Robert Sanderson. Then there's the Epic, Saga of Recluse series of books by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. As well as the "Lightbringer" series by Brent Weeks. There's also R. A. Salvatore's "The Highwayman" series of books. Just because, there's a whole load of Romance Novel + Fantasy mashups out there doesn't mean there aren't some good Fantasy Books/Series.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @09:11PM
Or, like systemd, they could fuck off and make their own award, that doesn't involve stealing someone else's and mangling it into something it wasn't intended to be.