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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: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday August 24 2018, @07:04PM (2 children)

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 24 2018, @07:04PM (#725978) Homepage Journal

    When a story uses a futuristic setting as a vehicle for social commentary about the present, nope, out of bounds. And there goes another huge tranche of Star Trek episodes.

    There goes H.G. Wells' The Time Machine.

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  • (Score: 2) by jmorris on Friday August 24 2018, @08:33PM (1 child)

    by jmorris (4844) on Friday August 24 2018, @08:33PM (#726011)

    Pretty much. Although the idea of time travel in it was the seed for a lot of other authors, and it is certainly a pivotal literary work, it is not itself Science Fiction. It was entirely a vehicle for social commentary on the time of the author. Science Fiction as such really hadn't been invented yet, literature was just beginning to explore "speculative fiction" and getting the ground rules established. Some of Well's other works qualify. If judged on the time it was written I'd even give Frankenstein the nod as Science Fiction, the science just didn't hold up well. Turned out we were a LOT farther from creating life than it was plausible to believe at the time she wrote the book.

    And to be honest, the number of times a time travel story has been even close to logically consistent is a very low one, even within the constraints of the particular fictional universe's concept of how time travel 'works.' Many try, almost all fail badly. Time travel in the synopsis is a huge red warning sign of major suckage to come.

    • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday September 03 2018, @11:35PM

      by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 03 2018, @11:35PM (#730030) Homepage Journal

      Verily, the rare time travel stories that get it consistent -- with whatever rules they use -- are true marvels.