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posted by janrinok on Thursday August 23 2018, @11:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the best-page-turners dept.

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?


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by jmorris on Friday August 24 2018, @06:12AM (2 children)

    by jmorris (4844) on Friday August 24 2018, @06:12AM (#725662)

    However, I find the premises implausible.

    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?

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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 24 2018, @02:08PM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 24 2018, @02:08PM (#725804) Journal

    And you do know that Drake's The Voyage is just the Greek classics with the serial numbers lightly shaved off, right?

    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

      by jmorris (4844) on Friday August 24 2018, @05:15PM (#725920)

      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.