More Neil

American Gods won the Hugo, Nebula, Stoker, and Locus awards for best novel on 2002.

Neil Gaiman

Neil, who lives near the Twin Cities, had a signing at Dreamhaven this past winter. My Friend Ro and I attended this event. I would say that over 200 people showed up. It was quite a turnout. Neil read an exceprt from his novel Anansi Boys. He was very friendly, and outgoing, and even after spending several hours signing for people, he was extremely nice and courteous whenmy turn came.

The item pictured is his hugo winning short story, A Study in Emerald, published in poster form. Its a very neat piece, and I have it framed and hanging on my library wall.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Awards

Do you ever read dust jackets on books and in the authors bio it lists different awards their work has won? Ever wonder what the hell those awards were? Yeah, me too.

So here is a list of the major literary awards for speculative fiction. Most of the major awards are given in mulitple categories such as Best Novel, Best Novella, and Best Short Story.

Pulitzer : Named for Joseph Pulitzer, this is not a speculative fiction award, but a much broader award given in the realms of journalism, letters, and music. Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventure's of Kavalier and Clay won the award in 2001

Hugo : Named in honor of Hugo Gernsback, is the Science Fiction Achievement Award. They are awarded every year at Worldcon, in a number of categories.

Campbell : Named in honor of John W. Campbell, this award is also given out at Worldcon and is given to the best new writer.

Nebula : Awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. It is awarded for several categories similar to the Hugo. The Bradbury award for Screnewriting is also awarded at the Nebula banquet.

World Fantasy Award : Awarded at World Fantasy Con for excellence in fantasy writing and art. The WFA is sometimes called the Lovecraft Award, or the "Howie," since the trophy is a wonderfully gloomy and cadaverous Gahan Wilson bust of H.P. Lovecraft

Stoker : The Horror Writer's Association presents the Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement, named in honor of Bram Stoker, author of the seminal horror work, Dracula.

Clarke : Named for Arthur C. Clarke, The Clarke Award is awarded every year to the best science fiction novel which received its first British publication during the previous calendar year.


Philip K. Dick : The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States.

Tiptree : The James Tiptree, Jr. Award, an annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender.

Locus : The Locus Awards are presented to winners of Locus Magazine's annual readers' poll, which was established in the early '70s specifically to provide recommendations and suggestions to Hugo Awards voters.


Thanks to

Where I found much of this information.

Charles Stross

Charles Stross is relatively new to the speculative fiction scene. But boy is he prolific, and has he made his prescence known. In just a few short years, he has become the darling of the Hugos. He won Best novella in 2005 for The Concrete Jungle, and he is nominated this year for Accelerando, which is near the top of my to be read pile. I have however read the two novels so far released in The Merchant Princes series. The series takes 2 parts Zelazny and one part Puzo and combines them in a delightful and entertaining amalgam. The Merchant Princes consists so far of The Family Trade, The Hidden Family, and the soon to be released, The Clan Corporate

I got the pleasure of meeting Mr. Stross at this year's Boskone. Unfortunately I didn't arrive in time to stand him up for drinks like the rest of my friends. perhaps the next con.

George R.R. Martin

Martin is my favorite author, and A Storm of Swords is my favorite book. I got George to sign this for me at Conquest 2005 in Kansas City. A whole group of his fans who name themselves the Brotherhood without Banners, usually turns up at any convention that George appears at, and Conquest had a bumper crop. I got to meet many of the people I had talked with online from the ASOIAF message board. One traditon of the BwB, usually reserved for worldcons, is that George Knights them. But first he sends them on a quest. Our quest in KC was to bring back burnt ends. Normally not a difficult propostion in the BBQ capital of the midwest, but we did not receive the quest until 1AM, when all reputable BBQ joints were closed. The stay out of dumpster comment was a jab at part of our attempt to find burnt ends.

Audio Books

Formerly know as books on tape, audio books are in my opinion vastly under appreciated. My first use of audio books was back in college. My brother and I drove out to Colorado for spring break, and we listened to Mario Puzo's the Sicilian. I discovered that listening to a book really helps the drive go faster. After college, I had a job selling windows and siding. This involved up to 5 hours driving a day, sometimes even more. I lived across the road from the library, and I made good use of it. I listed to most of Tom Clancy's books. I discovered Roger Zelazny's world of Amber. It made the drive home at 10 pm after having 2 no shows and a no sale in the evening much more bearable.

Now one of the downsides of audio books was the sheer amount of media required. A good sized book can have over 20 hours of audio easily. A Storm of Swords is pushing 50 hours. On a 90 minute tape that's one hell of a lot of tapes. On a 75 minute CD that's 40 of them. Needless to say that become unwieldly. It also leads to abridgments, which in most cases I view as an abomination. But in the last several years with the rise of the I-pod and other hard drive based mp3 players full 1200 page translations of books became much more feasible. Audible dot com is a good seller of digital audio books, the main drawback being is they are in a proprietary format and therefore wont work with all players. Its a massive undertaking to convert them to the more accessible mp3 format.

Anyway, despite the drawbacks, I'm a huge fan. If I'm driving anywhere more than 30 minutes or so I put a book on. I listen when I walk the dog, or go jogging. While audio books will never replace the love I have for sitting down with a hard bound book, They definitely have their place.

Harlan Ellison & John Picacio

Last Sunday Dreamhaven had in Ellison and Picacio for a signing. I took the opportunity to get my copy of Dangerous Visions signed by both of them. John, was an incredibly nice guy, and Harlan... well he was entertaining. Glad I got the chance to meet both of them.

Catching up on what I've read this year.

I'm not always a fast reader. A book that doesnt draw me in can take me several weeks to finish, But normally I'm pretty stubborn , so I will get stuck and fall behind. But here is a brief recap of what I have read this year.

TheWarrior-Prophet by R Scott Bakker 9.5 out of 10.
An amazing book One of the best I've ever read. Scott took it up a big notch from TDTCB

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erickson. 6.5/10
I don't get the love. Erickson could be churning out D&D books

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold 8/10
Fun read, Fun Plot, Nice characters, nothing ground breaking but very solid

The Dragon Waiting by John M Ford. 9/10
Great book, Great idea, ending left me a bit empty, but a brilliant alternate history overall

The Thousandfold Thought by R Scott Bakker. 9/10
Loved it. Left me wanting more. Love the desrciptions of the battling schoolmen.

Dune by Frank Herbert. 8.5/10
A classic of the genre. Its 40 years old and it holds up amazingly well. The number of todays authors who were influence by this is remarkable. At times though it reads like a book on ecology, and it loses me slightly there.

Supreme Power HC. J. Michael Strazynski 9/10
This is a hard cover compliation of the first 12 issues of the comic book in Marvel's Max line. JMS can write a really good comic. He takes the alternate world Squadron supreme and reimagines it in a refreshing way. The characters are esentially modeled after DC's JLA , Hyperion= Superman, Doc. Spectum=Green Lantern, Nighthawk=Batman . Most of the Heros are not all that heroic. If you are a fan of the tights and capes crowd this is a must read.

Shadow Twin by Gardner Dozios, George RR Martin, and Danial Abraham. 7/10
This is really only a Novella about 100 pages in lenght. But its a book in its own right so I'm counting it as a full book. :pIt was interesting. I've always been more of a fantasy fan than of Sci Fi. The story takes place on another planet colonied by humans, mostly Latin americans. and The Main character, Ramon discovers aliens while out prospecting. From there is where the story becomes interesting. There is one outstanding plot twist which makes the whole story. I guess as someone who doesnt rerad much short work nor sci fi, it wasnt really my element, I'd rate it as solid but not spectacular.

What will this Blog be?

I have decided I will use this blog to chart my reading and book collecting hobby.
I will include brief reviews of books when I complete them, as well as update additions to my collection. Unfortunely for my schedule the later is adding up much quicker than the former.

New Blog

Hello, I'm not sure what I'm planning on doing with this blog yet.
I will decided eventually.