John M. Ford

Ford is, I believe, a criminally under known author. The Dragon Waiting won him the World Fantasy Award. He has also written amongst other Heat and Fusion and Stories a collection of short stories, and The Last Hot Time, which is simply an amazing contemporay fantasy. I met Mr. Ford at this year's Boskone. He is also a local Minnesota resident like a slew of other talented fantasy authors. If you are looking for something new to read, you could dop far worse than picking up some of Mr. Ford's work.

Ender's Game

Winner of the Hugo and the Nebula Ender's game has become a Sci-Fi classic. Many people dislike Card because of his political and religious views, but I prefer to keep an authors works separate from his beliefs.

Ender's Game was originally written as a short story and later expanded into a novel. It follows the sory of Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, a boy of 6 years, who is mankind's last hope to lead them against the "Bugger" threat. It is a moving and at times very sad story of what one little boys is put through for the good of the world. The book also includes one of the coolest names ever, Mazer Rackham. At about 320 pages its not overlong, and was a fun easy read, while still doing a tremedous job of exporing Ender's character. Card wrote a series of sequels to this book as well as a spin off written from the viewpoint of a supporting character.

9 out of 10

The Salmon of Doubt.

I finished listening to the audio book of The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams yesterday on my walk. I'm of two minds concerning it. I always have reservations about publishing unfinished materials following a great author's death. This book is no exception. I have not read the print version. Narration by Stephen Fry and Simon Jones.

The Salmon of Doubt was Adams working title for his last novel. He had intentions of making it a Dirk Gently novel, as well as a HHGTTG novel. In the end it hadn't really evolved into either, while having elements of both. The actual story however was, in my opinion, the weakest part of the book. Probably 2/3's of the books consists of friends eulogizing Douglas, as well as a hodge podge of Adam's musings, columns, and anecdotes.

The eulogies are bittersweet of course. You can feel the love his friends had for the man and their palpable sense of loss. The various columns, anecdotes, and unconnected musings, were the best part of the book. Many times I found myself laughing out loud while listening, as Douglas related his bizarre plans or expounded on his love of computers. He debated philosophy and theology. My favorite part is where he details the history of science and divides it into the four ages of sand.

My this work is extremely disjointed and the actually story is cobbled together and unfinished, this is a must read, or even better listen for any fan of Adams. The rough nature and incompleteness of the work are the reason for the lowered score.

7 out of 10

The Bronze Canticles

A big thanks to Pat at Pat's Fantasy Hotlist and the folks at Warner Books for the signed copies of the Bronze Canticles, by Tracy and Laura Hickman. Pat is generous enought to work with publishers and offer periodic giveaway contests.

A Shadow in Summer

I finished A Shadow in Summer this past weekend. I thought it was a very good debut novel for Abraham. In some was it has a lot of familiar plot elements typical to fantasy, but the presentation of those elements was very unique. The setting has a definite Asian vibe to it

Strengths:
The introduction of the poets and andat. The andat are demi-god like spirits that are bound into corporeal form by poets in the crafting of their poem. Each poem is unique and reflects the personality of the poet, which is mirrored in the personality of the andat.

Communication: Abraham, in addition to verbal, gives us a secondary form of communication, in the form of poses. I series of forms and gestures designed to show mood, as well as ask and answer simple questions, and relate position such as student to master, etc.

weaknesses: Characters. While the main characters had depth, none of them were all that memorable. Otah is probably the most interesting. The andat Seedless was also fairly interesting.

I enjoyed the book , and that's key for me. Although ASiS only the first book in a four book series, it feels like a complete story. In some ways that's great, The sub-story is completed. In another way there is no cliffhanger, It didn't leave me immediately wondering when the next installment was due.

7.5 out of 10

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.