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In Science Fiction, some awards have become almost meaningless as they came to be dominated by interests other than the pure enjoyment of a truly good story. The Hugo Awards, for example, have descended into a left/right catfight. They have become as meaningless as a Nobel Peace Prize.
Some, like yours truly, have entirely stopped reading about awards after getting burned once too many times and rely almost entirely on word of mouth or serendipity to find new authors and worthwhile books.
Our recent discussion of "The winners of the 2018 Hugo Awards" brought the idea (from bzipitidoo) that perhaps Soylent News could do a better job of pointing out new works of Science Fiction that could be of interest to soylentils and janrinok supported the idea, going so far as offering a kidney to the best author. (I think he's British, so he might have meant a kidney pie. [Not true, but funny])
Mind you, we would need to separate Science Fiction from Sci-Fi, Fantasy and other genres that have been mishmashed into one by most publishers and awards organizations.
So what do you think? What is the best new author/book in Science Fiction?
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday August 24 2018, @05:12AM (4 children)
Does The Mote in God's Eye count as military? If you want more explicitly and wholly military SF, I've read Starship Troopers, Ender's Game, Stirling and Drake's The General series, Drake's The Voyage, A Hymn Before Battle (because it was in the Baen free library), and Saberhagen's Berserker, and I did find all of them at least somewhat enjoyable reads. I've been meaning to get around to The Forever War.
As statements intended to warn readers of the horrors of war, they're fine. However, I find the premises implausible. The idea that we'll bump up against hostile space faring aliens, get into a fight that's dramatic and desperate, and yet we eventually manage to come out on top, strikes me as extremely improbable. Oh, and of course the aliens are the evil aggressors who deserve to lose. It's such an obvious sop to our wistful desire to feel that we're special. We are still very young. A 10k year old civilization with delusions of martial glory (that's us) would be at most a bothersome baby to a million year old alien civilization that could be at least a Type II. To a Type III civilization, we'd be less than a mosquito. The only fight that is likely to be close to equal is a fight with ourselves-- a rebellion or a civil war. Some of those stories are of course internecine fights.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jmorris on Friday August 24 2018, @06:12AM (2 children)
After mentioning _Mote in God's Eye_ you say that? Do you realize how HARD they worked to carefully rig the story to permit a first contact situation where humans could win and it not be ridiculous? They carefully had them locked into a star system where they couldn't discover the technology to escape from so it was plausible they could be an old race more advanced than us yet not have already spread across the galaxy. Then they rigged the plot in several other ways to make it possible to beat them but the final result was not certain even at the end of the book. They were explicitly aware of the problems with other first contact / war with aliens stories and wrote the book as an exploration of the problem.
And you do know that Drake's The Voyage is just the Greek classics with the serial numbers lightly shaved off, right?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 24 2018, @02:08PM (1 child)
Those of us who read the forwards, afterwards, prologues, commentaries, and assorted other addendums to books are well aware that Drake has re-written many famous stories, battles, and epics. ;^) The man is as honest as he is entertaining.
(Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Friday August 24 2018, @05:15PM
Point being that taking any broader message about conflict with aliens from that book is a real stretch since the aliens are also just Greek mythology with the serial numbers lightly sanded down. Fun read, not science fiction by any stretch.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 24 2018, @02:05PM
Given your titles, it seems that like myself, you've read a heckuva lot of books that are dated now. Have you read Laumer's Bolo books? They are notable, in that, the aliens aren't exactly the evil aggressors. If I remember correctly, there are about a half dozen alien races. We kicked ass on a couple of them, we made peace with a couple - then we met an empire. They weren't bad guys, so much, as they were warriors, much as we are. They miscalculated, we miscalculated, each called the other's bluff, and it turned into lots and lots of shooting. The more shooting took place, the deeper the hatred. Eventually, each side goes for the "Armageddon option", and both civilizations are destroyed. The dark ages close in on both of us. Except - one set of refugees meets another set from the other side on one world, and come to an understanding. Another set of refugees ran long enough and far enough to escape the final collapse.
The story is actually pretty plausible, if you only accept interstellar travel. :^)
Of course, in the final analysis, we are both sides in the story . . .