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posted by janrinok on Wednesday August 22 2018, @04:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the she-done-good dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Snotnose on Wednesday August 22 2018, @05:33PM

    by Snotnose (1623) on Wednesday August 22 2018, @05:33PM (#724759)

    First heard about it on Scalzi's website [scalzi.com], googled it, and it doesn't sound interesting. But winning 3 times in a row is an acheivement. Anyone read it? Is it any good?

    Disclaimer. A few years back I decided to read all the novels nominated for that years Hugo or Nebula awards, don't remember which. Out of about 6 novels I read 1 was ok, the rest were, well, garbage. Award winning garbage to be sure, but nothing I wanted to read. I'll be sure to get the first one from the library so, if I don't like it, I haven't wasted money on another dog.

    --
    Is anyone surprised ChatGPT got replaced by an A.I.?
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @05:42PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @05:42PM (#724762)
    • Politicized VMA's saw a ratings decline for a fith consecutive year. [deadline.com]
    • Politicized Oscars, all time low. [hollywoodreporter.com]
    • Politicized Hugo Awards, books nobody wants to read
    • (Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Wednesday August 22 2018, @06:04PM

      by suburbanitemediocrity (6844) on Wednesday August 22 2018, @06:04PM (#724776)

      * Politicized once top rated websites that no one visits anymore Alexa rank V Decrease 6408

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @07:26PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @07:26PM (#724816)

      Politics is just the aggregate actions of human opinion. Every award is political, but at least the Hugo Awards are more democratic than most http://www.thehugoawards.org/i-want-to-vote/ [thehugoawards.org]

      One might argue that the Sad Puppies just "got out the vote" as it were, and while there is some minor truth to that it doesn't really cover reality. People who were never motivated to participate were urged to spend their money to game the votes, and make no mistake their motivation was 100% political and not based on the merits of the Sad Puppy writers.

      Maybe we should just start handing out participation awards ;)

      • (Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @09:14PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @09:14PM (#724864)

        Maybe we should just start handing out participation awards ;)

        Looking through this years winners, they already did.

    • (Score: 2) by snufu on Thursday August 23 2018, @01:03AM

      by snufu (5855) on Thursday August 23 2018, @01:03AM (#724984)

      You forgot comics and video games.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday August 22 2018, @07:45PM

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Wednesday August 22 2018, @07:45PM (#724827) Journal

    When I was a teen, I was happy to assume that if it was published, it must be good. I stuck to the SF/Fantasy genre because that's what I liked. Nothing wrong with regular fiction, I just liked SF/Fantasy more. Also, I wasn't as critical, and at $1.95 to $2.50 in 1980 (I know, paperbacks used to be less than $1, even less than 50 cents in the 1960s), paperbacks did not seem expensive, so even if I didn't like a story, it was no big deal. Several horrible stories and the faster than inflation price hikes of the 1980s cured me of being too accepting. By 1990, a paperback was $4.95, and I shifted from the bookstore to the used bookstore. I moved on to other things in the mid 90s.

    I've tried many strategies for winnowing out the crap. Tried sticking to favorite authors and highly regarded authors. Tried best sellers until those Scientology scumbags fooled me. The only reason L. Ron Hubbard's very mediocre stories became #1 best sellers is them buying his books solely to boost his sales numbers. They're not the worst stuff I've ever read, but they're definitely below average. Sound familiar, like those Sad Puppies trying to manipulate the Hugo Awards?

    I've been slowly working my way through the Hugo and Nebula Award winners, and it's a pretty mixed bag. For instance, Simmon's Hyperion is good, Fall of Hyperion is okay, but the Endymion stuff, yuck, in much the same way that Star Trek V sucks. Well, only Hyperion won an award. Snow Queen is a decent story, but I wouldn't have voted to award it a Hugo. More recently, Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog is a time travel novel, and I've gotten very tired of those. Time travel (by which we mean, traveling into the past-- we're all always traveling into the future, of course) is such a huge story wrecker. Like with McCaffrey's Pern stuff with those time traveling dragons, I keep asking, why didn't they just jump back in time, over and over, and fix every mistake they ever made? Kill baby Hitler, stop the fall of the Roman Empire (if that's still thought a good idea, which maybe it isn't), and so forth. Authors keep coming up with weak limitations to restrict the power of time travel, but it's not enough. Not too thrilled with FTL travel either, but that one I can live with. FTL travel need not obey General Relativity and require going backwards in time.

    Another problem is that SF is especially vulnerable to becoming dated. Lot of 1950s and 1960s stuff takes the pseudoscience of paranormal abilities way too seriously. Arthur C. Clarke even apologized for that in a forward he wrote for his classic work Childhood's End. Going way back to Jules Verne, arguably the first SF author, we have the notion of riding a balloon all the way to the Moon. Back then, people really did not know that the Moon was far, far, far above the Earth's atmosphere. Today we know ballooning to the Moon is ridiculous. Still a lot of fun reads.

    Finally, much SF suffers from a massive and deliberate blind spot concerning copyright and ownership. So many stories implicitly or explicitly assume that copyright will still be much the same in the future as it is now. There's the Star Trek episode, "I, Mudd". Hyperion does it. At conventions, I've grilled authors on this issue, and without exception, they all staunchly supported copyright. Mercedes Lackey intimated that I was an idiot. Piers Anthony flatly stated that he does not agree with me on copyright, saying it's the only protection authors have. Cory Doctorow is not among the authors I have quizzed about copyright, but from what I hear, I think he'd understand. I find that very disappointing. I really hoped some authors, particularly those writing in the SF genre, would evince a more enlightened view of copyright. Nope! They can't see past their fear that copyright is their lifeblood and must be protected at all costs, even the cost of making their SF writing ridiculously archaic whenever it touches upon that subject. So, I don't see why I should read such bad SF. Fantasy is more generally afflicted with ownership thinking. Like, seems so many magical items just can't be stolen, or magically won't work as well or even at all for the thieves. For example, the Elfstones of Shannara, the Palantirs in Lord of the Rings as well as in some respects the Rings of Power themselves, the Deathly Hallows in the Harry Potter stories, the white gold ring in the Thomas Covenant Chronicles, the sword Stormbringer in the Elric of Melnibone series, the Orb of Aldur in the Belgariad, and many more. Well, those last two are sentient objects that latch onto special people, but still, a very strong trend. Fits so very well with the stock fantasy government, medieval style monarchy.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Wednesday August 22 2018, @07:45PM (13 children)

    by bradley13 (3053) on Wednesday August 22 2018, @07:45PM (#724828) Homepage Journal

    I used to take the Hugo awards, and all the nominees, as solid recommendations. About 15-20 years ago, the general quality of the nominees and winners started to decline. For the past 10 years or so, I look at them as authors to be avoided.

    I haven't read Jemisin's novels, but I did suffer through an excerpt of the first one. Word salad. She claims that it is science fiction, but there's no science to be found. She took a story, placed it in the future, and that's it. The futuristic elements make no sense. One tidbit I remember from the excerpt I read: hundreds of years in the future, with no maintenance whatsoever, asphalt roads remain in perfect condition. That kind of inaccuracy would be acceptable in otherwise decent space opera, but the writing itself is just dreadful. I honestly don't think the author knows basic grammar.

    So why did she win the Hugo? Because she's a minority woman. It is no coincidence at all that nearly all of the winning authors are women, and a great many are minorities and/or non-heterosexuals. Today, the Hugos are all about progressive politics. This last round of awards, with Jemisin winnin an unprecedented third time? The Hugos have proven their utter irrelevance. Pay them no mind. Surely other awards will be founded, to honor well-written books regardless of their author's gender, race, or sexual orientation.

    --
    Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
    • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Wednesday August 22 2018, @09:02PM (3 children)

      by meustrus (4961) on Wednesday August 22 2018, @09:02PM (#724858)

      You say the Hugos got bad between 10 and 20 years ago. Do you assert that they have been dominated by "progressive politics" for that long? Or could something else be responsible for the shift in Science Fiction that you find distasteful?

      --
      If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
      • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @09:07PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @09:07PM (#724860)

        African American transexual woman wins three years in a row. What further evidence do you need?

        • (Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @11:01PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @11:01PM (#724927)

          Maybe she didn't win *because* she was black, but because she overcame the handicap of being educated in black American school system. In SJW America, only the best lose.

        • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Thursday August 23 2018, @01:46PM

          by meustrus (4961) on Thursday August 23 2018, @01:46PM (#725200)

          How about even one single sentence criticizing her work instead of her identity?

          --
          If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @09:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @09:17PM (#724866)

      From the first book in the trilogy:

      Perhaps I can help without spoilers. I belong to a small book club, and one member chose this for our last read. It was universally disliked, for being over-long for its limited plot, and for having two unexplained features, one of which was serious enough to be considered a deus ex machina. The person who chose the book apologized, and agreed, but he had the advantage of having read all three books of the trilogy. The anomalies were explained in the other two. Even he thought that the trilogy should have been condensed into a single book. As to the book winning one of many Hugos awarded each year, I can only say that the awards, like many given by a single coherent group, are often political (e.g Nobel prizes, Oscars). The author's photo on the inside page probably reveals the political goal, which, while extremely worthy, doesn't necessarily result in the best book winning an award.Nigelrg (talk) 23:43, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

      I guess one way to win 3 awards is to drag the book out over 3 installments. Note that they were released in subsequent years.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by RandomFactor on Wednesday August 22 2018, @10:29PM (3 children)

      by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 22 2018, @10:29PM (#724910) Journal

      Sounds like the Oscars and Emmys. Those are basically a flat list of "avoid at all costs" with only quite rare exceptions.

      --
      В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
      • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @10:57PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @10:57PM (#724925)

        Unless you are a SJW, in which case coonchick scifi might appeal to you.

      • (Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday August 23 2018, @07:06PM (1 child)

        by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Thursday August 23 2018, @07:06PM (#725353) Journal

        So true, it's very hard for a white guy's movie or TV show to win an Oscar or an Emmy. The Emmys are all politics, that's why, despite nominations, The Apprentice never won -- even though it should have many times over. Absolutely horrendous, folks. RIGGED!!!!

        • (Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday August 23 2018, @08:40PM

          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Thursday August 23 2018, @08:40PM (#725394) Journal

          (cont) I got screwed out of an Emmy in 2015. Everybody thought I was going to win it. In fact, when they announced the winner, I stood up before the winner was announced. And I started walking for the Emmy. And then they announced the most boring show on television, The Amazing Race. Piece of crap. Which is worse and which is more dishonest – the #Oscars [twitter.com] or the Emmys?

    • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday August 23 2018, @02:20AM (3 children)

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Thursday August 23 2018, @02:20AM (#725020) Journal

      I'm curious, what do you consider good SF? Heinlein? Maybe Asimov? Niven? What's the most recent work you rate highly?

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @03:20AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @03:20AM (#725041)

        can't speak for bradley13, but:

        - anything by John Scalzi
        - Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon series, also Black Man
        - Charles Stross -- the Laundry and Merchant Princes series

        all relatively recent, all pretty freakin' awesome, all "real sci-fi" in my book (grew up in the 80s reading Asimov, P.K.Dick, Heinlein, etc.).

        Anything else out there in the "if you liked the above, you might also..." category?

        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Webweasel on Thursday August 23 2018, @08:58AM

          by Webweasel (567) on Thursday August 23 2018, @08:58AM (#725119) Homepage Journal

          Charles Stross is awesome, accellerando is one of my favorite books.

          --
          Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
        • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday August 23 2018, @04:17PM

          by Freeman (732) on Thursday August 23 2018, @04:17PM (#725253) Journal

          I watched the new series called Altered Carbon on Netflix. I may have to take a look, if the books are even better.

          --
          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: 4, Informative) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday August 22 2018, @11:52PM (2 children)

    by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Wednesday August 22 2018, @11:52PM (#724943) Journal

    The first-ever threepeat...

    No. No. Nope. Sorry, but just... NO.

    "Threepeat" is not a word. Stopped reading there.

    Oh, and if you're feeling like, "Oh yeah! Language changes buster! Even when it's freakin' stupid and sound like something Buffy the Vampire Slayer would say as a joke. Deal with it!"

    No, nope. Not in this case. Why? Because "threepeat" is a registered trademark. Seriously (look it up!) -- the word is licensed by the NBA and legally that trademark still stands. It's BS intellectual property nonsense.

    Don't use "threepeat." EVER.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @12:20AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @12:20AM (#724956)

      Agreed, only front holes [dailycaller.com] use words like that.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @04:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @04:11PM (#725251)

      If I remember correctly, it isn't registered by the NBA, but by Pat Reilly, who was the coach of the LA Lakers at the time. "Threepeat" was commonly used in the media and he copyrighted it, or trademarked it (or whatever the hell it is to lock up a word or phrase) so that he could make and sell championship merchandise. That was in the 90s, wasn't it?

  • (Score: 2) by aim on Friday August 24 2018, @02:41PM

    by aim (6322) on Friday August 24 2018, @02:41PM (#725820)

    See subject - which of these books fall into the category of hard science fiction?

    I'm not very interested in other categories, so...

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