Conference noted::sf

    "The Vor Game" was the best novel?  I haven't read it, but surely
    there was something by a bigger name author up last year.  Does
    anyone know what the nominees were?  /jlr

Re .1

>    "The Vor Game" was the best novel?  I haven't read it, but surely
>    there was something by a bigger name author up last year.  Does
>    anyone know what the nominees were?  /jlr

Surely the idea of the Hugo award is to give it to the best novel of
the year, not the author with the biggest name.

Off the top of my head, the other nominees:

THE QUIET POOLS by Michael Kube-McDowell
THE FALL OF HYPERION by Dan Simmons

...and I've forgotten the other two, though EARTH by Brin may be one of
them.  My apologies.

				Andrew

    The other nominees for Best Novel were
    	_The Quiet Pools_, Michael P. Kube-McDowell
    	_The Fall of Hyperion_, Dan Simmons
    	_Earth_, David Brin
    	_Queen of Angels_, Greg Bear
    
    (I read 4 of them a few weeks before the voting deadline, and one (_Fall
    of Hyperion_) last year.  My money was on _Queen of Angels_, with _Fall
    of Hyperion_ a close second.  FWIW, _The Vor Game_ was the shortest of
    the five.)
    
    >Mark

    >"The Vor Game" was the best novel?  I haven't read it
    
    Aha, you gave yourself away.  First, READ IT!!!  Then, collect and read
    the rest of the Miles Vorkosigan books, and you'll understand....  I'll
    guarantee you won't be disappointed!
    
    Lois McMaster Bojold _IS_ a big-name author, where have you been?
    
    Willie

    I've read one or two of the Miles Vorkosigan stories although not
    a whole novel.  They were good reads, but nothing outstanding. 
    Her characters are engaging, but she's working the same old
    interstellar-trading/colonizing scenario that's been a staple for
    fifty years.  She's a good author, but best of the year?
    
    Maybe.  This looks like a pretty weak line-up.  "Earth" was
    interminably didactic, "Queen of Angels" had some nice nanotech
    but took forever to get anywhere, "Fall of Hyperion" had a
    silly villain, and I haven't read "The
    Quiet Pools".  In this company perhaps a merely good read becomes
    best of the year.
    
    /jlr

    I think this demonstrates a _real_ problem on the part of the Hugo
    Awards.
    
    "VOR" was a pretty good book, as were all of the rest of the books
    nominated.  The Hugo's have pretty much turned into a popularity
    contest or a vote based on name-recognition.  I feel the reason that
    "VOR" won the Hugo was the massive publicity campaign that Baen put
    into MacMaster-Bujold's books over the space of the past 4 or 5 months. 
    Baen was present at every SF con handing out free copies of their
    books.  The titles varied, but at every con I attended, "VOR" was one
    of the titles.
    
    Further evidence of this can be found in the BEST ARTIST, BEST
    SEMI-PROZINE, BEST FAN ARTIST, BEST PROFESSIONAL EDITOR, BEST FANZINE
    and BEST FAN WRITER awards.  While some people do actually read EVERY
    publication ever printed on SF, most just vote on name recognition and
    who has won in the past.  I agree with the BEST PROFESSIONAL EDITOR
    award going to Gardner Dozoir.  From the speeches at the Hugos from the
    Novellette, Novella, and Short Story winners, Gardner was intrumental
    in the publishing of the stories and suggested changes.  But the other
    catagories, BEST ARTIST in particular.  Michael Whelan is a pretty good
    artist.  His work is not the absolute best I have ever seen and I think
    that some of the works of the other artists nominated (David Cherry,
    Don Maitz et al.) are far far better than anything that Whelan has put
    out in years.
    
    Personally, I think that the Hugo should be changed in one of two ways. 
    Either everyone needs to be nominated for a specific work like the
    literary awards are, or there needs to be an ineligibility clause
    placed in the balloting.  Such as if you win the Hugo in 1991, you are
    ineligible in 1991, or even through to 1992.
    
    Just rambling...

    Well, you can't take the Hugos too seriously, the percentage of the SF
    readers on the planet who get to vote on them is pretty small.  Maybe
    there should be a requirement that in order to vote for best novel, you
    should have to have read _EVERY_ novel published in that year? 
    Actually best novel should probably be picked by largest sales volume
    or something...
    
    Personally, I voted for The Vor Game and Whelan, so I'm pleased!  :+)
    
    Willie

    re -.1
    
    Not to poke at your decision about Artist or anything, but why Whelan? 
    As far as I can tell, his artwork has deteriorated over the past four
    years and the younger talent is getting much better (evidenced by the
    displays in the art show).
    
    BTW, I voted for VOR Games, too.

I voted for Michael Kube-McDowell's The Quiet Pools, then Earth, then Queen of
Angels.  I enjoyed all three books.  All the books had flaws, but none severe
enough to get behind Noah Ward.

I also enjoyed the VOR Game, have just bought Barrayar (sp?), the latest, and
have read all of them except one which is out of print but which is expected to
be reissued later this fall to capitalize on the popularity of the others.  BUT,
I don't think this book falls into the same category as the three above.  It's
light entertainment with an SF backdrop, but it ain't SF.  Fun but trivial.

I also did something petty: I didn't read Fall of Hyperion, but I put it after
Noah Ward.  That's because I still haven't gotten over the anger I felt at the
"end" of Hyperion.  I bought the second book, and it's sitting on my shelf, but
I wouldn't vote for an award on the second half of the first half I did read.

So this award disappointed me.

I didn't vote for artist because I didn't feel I had seen enough of the recent
work.  Haven't been in many art shows in the past year.  Similarly, I didn't
vote on the short fiction categories because I haven't read enough of the
magazines last year and didn't have time to read the nominees this summer.

I really oppose voting on brand-name recognition, characterizing this failing
on my own part as "petty", above.

Another award that disappointed me was Julia Ecklar's getting the Campbell
award.  She is a filker, so I am familiar her and her work, and is a talented
storyteller, tunesmith and performer.  HOWEVER, the only book of hers which I
have read was the Kobayashi Maru, and that was a really insulting experience.

The Chekov sequence read like notes from a badly run AD&D campaign, and the
Sulu sequence was a direct but trivializing rip-off of the song "Cranes Over
Hiroshima", by Fred Small.  She didn't even try to file the serial number (644)
off.  The book was really 4 short stories in a common frame.

If Julia has other published non-musical work, I haven't seen or even heard of
it.  Perhaps in the magazines I didn't read?  Short stories seem to be her
forte.  This is the only other category where I put someone behind Noah Ward.

Julia really deserves awards for her work, and has received them, but not this
one.  For example, the Pegasus award (a filk award given at the Ohio Valley
Filk Fest (aka OVFF)) is not as well known as the Hugo, but comes from an
appropriate audience.

Flame off.

						-- Spencer

Re .8

Michael Whelan won 14 or 15 Hugos now and is obviously extremely popular with
the fans (fen).  He took himself out of running a year way back when and he
should probably do so again.  It's really disappointing in the Chesley award
(the ASFA's awards) that he won the "Achievement Award" rather than Jim Gurney
(the Dinotopia guy).  At least Don Maitz co-won the Chesley's "Best Hardcover"
with him.

Personally I think he still produces some of the best works (e.g. Lord Shonto?'s
Garden), but the newer artists, especially David Cherry, are improving a great
deal.  Unfortunately, I think Maitz and Whelan have peaked. 

    RE .10
    
    Even with the fans at the convention.  Christianson's "The
    Storytelling" winning the best in show award did my heart good.

Hello, world of sf fans.
I'm writting from France. Presently, I'm reading a Dan SIMMON's book
named 'Hyperion'. And, in the last page, I see that it is the HUGO award
of the year. His sequel will be 'Fall of Hyperion'. 
Is it true or Hyperion has just been nominated to the Hugo award?

Somewhere in Paris.
Your sf fan friend.

Pierre. 

    
    Check the topic on 1990 Hugo Awards, it did win one.  Also I started a
    topic 893 on both books, I loved them both!!
    
    Some people complain that Simmons stole too much from other writers,
    although said they liked the book anyway; I believe I'm still waiting
    to hear where Kassad was pilfered from since he was one of my favorite
    characters!
    
    If you haven't finished "Hyperion" yet, you'd better get "Fall of
    Hyperion", quick!  because otherwise "Hyperion" will leave you hanging
    pretty bad!
    
    Helen
    Somewhere in NC