Nebula Awards musing
So, Mike Resnick asked me to do an essay for Nebula Awards Showcase 2007, which will be the next volume in SFWA's annual series of anthologies. It's been a while since I did such an essay (I had one in the volume that came out in 1994), and so I thought I should just get a flavor of what these books are like lately by reading the Amazon.com reviews. And I stumbled on this 2,500-word essay, which is (as I write this, anyway), the first of three reviews shown of Nebula Awards Showcase 2005. I'm referring to the review entitled "There Isn't a Science Fiction Writers of America Anymore" posted December 17, 2005, by Antinomian, from Estonia.
I don't necessarily agree with the review, and it's certainly not politically correct -- but it's as thoughtful and entertaining an essay about science fiction as I've read of late.
Posted by Rob on Friday, May 05, 2006
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4 comments
4 Comments:
It was a very interesting essay, and not just for the obvious anger. I agree, science fiction is getting harder and harder to find. All too often it's swamped by fantasy. I think that's a real pity, because much as I enjoy fantasy, SF is my first love.
Very interestingly, Joe Haldeman's hard-SF novel Camouflage -- which had been serialized in Analog -- won the Nebula for best novel last night, beating the fantay Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which had been a juggernaut in other awards, taking the Hugo, the World Fantasy, and the Locus Awards.
I agree with most of that essay. The SF awards no longer have any currency with me. (Except maybe the PKD.) As a book buyer, they now mean as much to me as a Grammy. That is, nothing.
And I used to hold the Hugo in higher regard than the Pulitzer.
I actually think the decline of the Hugo started in earnest when Calculating God lost to Harry Potter. The Nebula, a couple of years prior.
Until SF gets a new award - for SF- I'll be basing my libraries on the Seiun.
Somtimes there has to be a venue for new kinds of writing. I am not sure who this will impugn, but I suspect that the writer of that essay is an engineering type. If the real charge is that there is too much of a humanities bent to the "winners" of nebulas of late; I dunno, maybe this is what he is getting at? I can only agree with his rant to the extent that mainstream literature seems to be so anti - technological, I personally crave the reality that science can bring to the discussion when telling a story. Myself, I fell asleep during the first Lord of the Rings movie. That can't be good can it?
May 11/06
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