Next Meeting
2010-09-09 at 7:00pm
2009 Nebula Award Winners Announced
2010-05-21
Last weekend on the 15th the 2009 Nebula Award winners were announced.
The winners were:
Novel:- The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
- The Women of Nell Gwynne's by Kage Baker
- "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster published in Interzone 2/09
- "Spar" by Kij Johnson published in Clarkesworld 10/09
- District 9 by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
- The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente (www.catherynnemvalente.com)
I've been eying The Windup Girl to read for a bit now, it looks like an interesting book. Aside from that I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Moon was far and away a better movie than District 9 was.
2009 Shirley Jackson Award Shortlist
2010-04-30
Named in honor of Shirley Jackson, most well known as the author of the always disturbing short story The Lottery the awards were first handed out last year at Readercon 20 in Burlington, Massachusetts. They are to be awarded in recognition of an outstanding achievement in horror, psychological suspense, and dark fantasy fiction.
Novels:- Last Days, Brian Evenson (Underland)
- The Red Tree- Caitlin R. Kiernan
- Big Machine- Victor LaValle
- The Owl Killers- Karen Maitland
- White is for Witching- Helen Oyeyemi
- The Little Stranger- Sarah Waters
- Midnight Picnic- Nick Antosca
- Shrike- Quentin S. Crisp
- "Sea-Hearts"- Margo Lanagan -
- The Witnesses are Gone- Joel Lane-
- The Language of Dying- Sarah Pinborough
- Vardoger- Stephen Volk
- "Catch Hell"- Laird Barron )
- The Night Cache- Andy Duncan
- "each thing i show you is a piece of my death"- Gemma Files & Stephen J. Barringer
- "Lonegan's Luck"- Stephen Graham Jones
- "Morality"- Stephen King
- "The Crevasse"- Dale Bailey & Nathan Ballingrud
- "Strappado"_ Laird Barron
- "Faces"- Aimee Bender
- "The Jacaranda Smile"- Gemma Files
- "The Pelican Bar"- Karen Joy Fowler
- "Procedure in Plain Air"- Jonathan Lethem
- Fugue State- Brian Evenson
- Zoo- Otsuichi
- There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales- Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
- Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical- Robert Shearman
- Tunneling to the Center of the Earth- Kevin Wilson
- Everland and Other Stories- Paul Witcover
- Lovecraft Unbound- Ellen Datlow, ed.
- Poe- Ellen Datlow, ed.
- British Invasion- Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon, & James A. Moore, eds.
- Apparitions- Michael Kelly, ed.
- Exotic Gothic 3- Danel Olson, ed.
2010 Clarke Award Winner Announced
2010-04-28
With the announcement of this year's Arthur C. Clarke award winner China Mieville has won for an unprecedented third time with the novel The City & The City.
For a very nice writeup on the winning book and author head over here.
The 2009 Bram Stoker Award Winners
2010-03-31
The Horror Writer's Association announded the winners of the 2009 Bram Stoker awards last weekend at the World Horror Convention in Brighton, England. The award is presented yearly to recognize superior achivement in the horror genre, not to recognize a 'best of' like many other awards. In addition to this year's winners they also recognized Brian Lumley and William F. Nolan, awarding them with lifetime acchivement 'Stokers'.
- Superior Achievement in a Novel:
Audrey's Door by Sarah Langan
- Superior Achievement in a First Novel:
Damnable by Hank Schwaeble
- Superior Achievement in Long Fiction:
The Lucid Dreaming by Lisa Morton
- Superior Achievement in Short Fiction:
In the Porches of My Ears by Norman Prentiss
- Superior Achievement in an Anthology:
He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson edited by Christopher Conlon
- Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection:
A Taste of Tenderloin by Gene O'Neill
- Superior Achievement in Non-fiction:
Writers Workshop of Horror by Michael Knost
- Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection:
Chimeric Machines by Lucy A. Snyder
2010 Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist
2010-03-30
The Arthur C. Clarke award is presented yearly to celebrate the finest science fiction novel published in Britian the previous year. The wining novel is picked by a jury panel from a shortlist of six eligable novels. This year's winner will be announced at the SCI-FI LONDON Film Festival on April 28th and this year's eligible novels are:
- Spirit by Gwyneth Jones
- The City & The City by China Mieville
- Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts
- Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
- Far North by Marcel Theroux
- Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding
2009 Prometheus Award Nominees
2010-03-23
I never knew there was a group out there called the Libertarian Futerist Society. They exist though, and they yearly give out the Prometheus Award which honors that year's novel which best 'examines the meaning of freedom'. Prior award winners run the gamut from Poul Anderson (The Stars are Also Fire - 1995) to Sir Terry Pratchett (Night Watch - 2003).
- Hidden Empire - Orson Scott Card
The sequel to Card's "Empire" (also a Prometheus finalist) covers the emergence of an imperial president and the role of voluntary action in saving human lives.
- Makers - Cory Doctorow
An inspiring story of entrepreneurial competition in the near future. The story makes Schumpeter's creative destruction visible, and shows how even the poorest can be helped by competition and invention.
- The Unincorporated Man - Dani and Eytan Kollin
This novel explores the idea that education and personal development could be funded by allowing investors to take a share of one's future income. The story takes a strong position that liberty is important and worth fighting for, and the characters spend their time pushing for different conceptions of what freedom is.
- Liberating Atlantis - Harry Turtledov
The third book in Turtledove's Atlantis trilogy illustrates why people of all colors should be treated equally, and shows slaves in an alternate history demonstrating their humanity by fighting for their rights.
- The United States of Atlantis - Harry Turtledove
The second book in Turtledove's Atlantis trilogy covers his alternate colonies' revolution to free themselves from the British crown.
So the award is really more for the presentation of the idea than it is the actual quality of the work, though I'm sure that factors into the mix, but the idea's most important. Interesting.
You can read the full press release here.
2009 Nebula award Nominations
2010-02-19
Among the six novels up for the award are China Mieville's The City & The City as well as our April book Cherie Priest's Boneshaker. I've reprinted the list of nominees here and provided links to valid and available online copies of the story wherever possible.
Novels:- The City & The City - China Mieville
- Boneshaker - Cherie Priest
- The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
- The Love We Share Without Knowing - Christopher Barzak
- Flesh and Fire - Laura Anne Gilman
- Finch - Jeff VanderMeer
- Act One - Nancy Kress (link to partial story)
- Arkfall - Carolyn Ives Gilman
- Shambling Towards Hiroshima - James Morrow
- Sublimation Angels - Jason Sanford
- The God Engines - John Scalzi
- The Women of Nell Gwynne's - Kage Baker
- A Memory of Wind - Rachel Swirsky
- Divining Light - Ted Kosmatka
- I Needs Must Part, the Policeman Said - Richard Bowes
- Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast - Eugie Foster
- The Gambler - Paolo Bacigalupi
- Vinegar Peace, or, the Wrong-Way Used-Adult Orphanage - Michael Bishop
- Bridesicle - Will McIntosh
- Going Deep - James Patrick Kelly
- Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela - Saladin Ahmed
- I Remember the Future - Michael A. Burstein
- Non-Zero Probabilities - N.K. Jemisin
- Spar - Kij Johnson
For a full listing of all award nominees, including the Ray Bradbury Award and Andre Norton Award nominees visit the Nebula Awards homepage.
The Locus 2009 Recommended Reading List
2010-02-02
Locus Magazine just made their 2009 Recommended Reading List available online. Everything there's really solid work and it certainly did a good job of adding to my list of books to read. I heartily recommend everyone swing on by and check it out.