A slow news week

Keeping with tradition my blog posts have dried up as I have gone back to work. Fortunately for me its been a slow new week, right?

In the last week alone the final nominations lists have been released for both the David Gemmell Legend Award and, probably more importantly, the Hugo Awards ballot. I will probably dedicate a post to each of these awards, but feel free to visit the official sites for the Gemmell and Hugo lists.

Very Australian

As a true patriot, and given that we have just enjoyed our annual Anzac Day commemorations, it would be remiss of me if I failed to highlight the Ditmar Awards which were presented at SwanCon in Perth over the (very) long weekend. My patriotism has never been more apparent - I haven't read a single one of the novels listed for Best Novel by an Australian writer. The winner, however, was Tansy Rayner Roberts's Power and Majesty (which I will read). And the trophy sure looks nice.

Meanwhile some of the major awards in Science fiction specifically have been announced. South African writer Lauren Beukes won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for her novel Zoo City. Mark Hodder was presented with the Philip K. Dick Award for The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack. Unsurprisingly I have not read either of these books. My Science Fiction reading has dropped off dramatically in favour of Fantasy this year.

The biggest news of the week for me landed today. George R. R. Martin has completed the manuscript of A Dance with Dragons, which will now definitely meet the July publication window. It's been a while! George posted a cryptic message on his blog - so cryptic in fact that his editor Anne Groell felt the need to assure the internet that we did in fact interpret George's message correctly.

Yes

The Locus Awards (and challenge)

Voting is open for The Locus Awards. Visit the official site to participate in selecting the best works published in the Speculative Fiction field in 2010. As with The Gemmell Award there is no restriction on who gets to vote, though the votes of Locus subscribers (like myself) count for double. Locus also has a broader focus, covering (as the banner suggests) both Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Voting closes very soon (April 15), so get in there and get your favourites recognised!

The Ranting Dragon, the site that I have been reviewing for, has been running a challenge in order to help stimulate interest in the awards. If you want some tips on where and how to cast your votes, The Ranting Dragon has compiled a list of worthy candidates - and there is an additional competition with decent prizes for those who vote.

I have put my votes in. While there will be similarities to my Gemmell votes I tried to pick books that fit with the criteria of each award. I didn't vote in every category as there are some areas I feel  I chose the following (in order of preference, which does matter):

Best Sci Fi
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willies
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald

Best Fantasy
The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (probably a more important book than Brett's, but not as enjoyable)
The Folding Knife by K. J. Parker

Best New Book
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin
Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

Reviews for all of these works are on the way, either here or over at The Ranting Dragon.

Best Magazine or Fanzine
Clarkesworld
Fantasy Magazine
Tor.com
Aurealis (the favouritism kicks in here)

Best Book Publisher
Orbit
Subterranean Press
Harper Voyager
Tor

The David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy

The Gemmell Award is one of the most accessible awards in the Speculative genre. It certainly isn't about literary quality and to an extent it's not about new ideas or subversion of genre tropes. The Gemmell Award recognises books that embody everything that is enjoyable about commercial Fantasy. I like that. I can't help it.

The main category, the actual Legend Award, honours the best Fantasy book published in the last year. There are so many incredible choices in this category - Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, City of Ruin by Mark Charan Newton, The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett, The Black Prism by Brent Weeks and The Wolf Age by James Enge. However I will probably cast my vote for The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.

The secondary category, the Morningstar Award, recognises the best debut novels of the past year. In this category I will probably cast my vote the way of N. K. Jemisin for The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (which I will review shortly). Jemisin would be a dserving winner of either category (she is also nominated for the Legend Award), but my soft spot for Sanderson will probably win out in the Legend Award. Some other notable nominees include Blake Charlton for Spellwright and Jon Sprunk for Shadow's Son.

The really good news about the Gemmell Award is that there is no specific voting qualification (such as Worldcon Membership for the Hugos). Anyone can vote. Head on over to the official site, and let me know what you choose.

Hugo Nominations Closed

Nominations for the Hugo Awards have now closed. I was fortunate as a member of Aussiecon4 last year to be elligible to participate. Here are the works I went for.

BEST NOVEL
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N. K. Jemisin
Bitter Seeds - Ian Tregillis
The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson (I doubt this will even make the final ballot, it's probably more mainstream than the kind of books I think win Hugo Awards, but I wanted to show my support)

BEST RELATED WORK
Writing Excuses Season 4 (my favourite podcast, officially elligible this year)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY
Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel - Howard Tayler

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - LONG FORM
Inception

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - SHORT FORM
I didn't actually nominate, but I hope Fringe is recognised. I've really started to like that show!

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM
Lou Anders

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM
Jonathan Strahan

THE JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER
Dan Wells (his debut was I am Not a Serial Killer)
N. K. Jemisin (I have a huge soft spot for Wells but I think Jemisin should win)
Ian Tregillis

My responses obviously indicate my Fantasy bias and my love for the Writing Excuses crew.

I didn't nominate in every category, because even though I am a big fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy literature I just don't know enough to cover every category. I can't see anyone other than industry professionals and super-dedicated life long fans knowing enough to address everything from 'Best Fan Artist' to 'Best Semiprozine' I do hope that once I see the final nominations I will be able to read enough of the material to be an informed voter. I wasn't the most informed nominator.

If you are one of the chosen few who read the blog, why not reply and let me know what you nominated (or would have nominated if you were elligible).

Aurealis Awards Announced

The finalists for the Aurealis Awards (Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards) have been announced. The awards of most interest to me are of course those for Fantasy and Science Fiction Novel:

Fantasy Novel

The Silence of Medair, Andrea K Höst

Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson
Stormlord Rising, Glenda Larke
Heart's Blood, Juliet Marillier
Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts

Science Fiction Novel
Song of Scarabaeous, Sara Creasy
Mirror Space, Marianne de Pierres
Transformation Space, Marianne de Pierres

Apparently not a big year for Australian Science Fiction! The bad news is that I have read precisely zero of these books. Time to get my patriotic act together.

For those who wish to see the entire list, including other categories (horror, short story, children's book, etc.) here is a link to the official Aurealis press release: LINK

Nebula Nominees Announced (get your alliteration here)

The nominees for the Nebula Awards have been announced. A full list can be seen in many places, including here. For those who aren't familiar with the Nebulas this is the place to start your reading.

My current Nebula record stands at 1 nominated work read (which I will review in full shortly)... 2 if I'm allowed to count a novella. I best get cracking, because in spite of being an infinite improvement on last year it is still a miserable effort.

The City and The City (by China Miéville) wins the World Fantasy Award

One of the great disappointments of my trip to Aussiecon 4 (Worldcon) in September was the fact that I had to leave before the Hugo Awards Ceremony. I find awards pretty exciting, especially when I am invested in some way in the candidates, so I was eager to find out who would win the 2010 World Fantasy Award at the recent World Fantasy Convention. China Miéville continued on his winning way with The City and The City (full review) taking out Best Novel.

For those unfamiliar with the major awards in the speculative fiction field, here is a brief explanation of the biggest ones:

The Hugo Awards (which cover many more categories than simply Best Novel) are nominated and voted by for fans who are attending or supporting members of Worldcon. The breadth of voters means that the Hugo favours ‘popular’ works, though that doesn’t prevent the Hugos from claiming to be the most prestigious awards in the field.

The Nebula Awards are considered professional awards as they are determined by the members of the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America). In spite of the name, membership, voting and eligibility to win are not restricted to Americans.

The World Fantasy Awards are given for fewer categories than the Hugo especially, and are decided by a panel of judges (notable professionals in the field). For this reason the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, somewhat like the Nebula, will often be awarded to books that are critically acclaimed but not necessarily widely read or known.

Interestingly, both the Hugo and Nebula Awards can be presented to Science Fiction or Fantasy stories. As the name implies, the World Fantasy Award is restricted to Fantasy. There is some controversy about this fact in fan circles, since the fandom of Science Fiction and Fantasy tend to intersect.

It stands to reason that the two best (at least most awarded) Speculative Fiction releases of the past year are Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl (Nebula Winner - which is still on my ‘to read’ list) and China Miéville’s The City and The City), which most fans seem to agree deserved to share the Hugo Award for Best Novel.