Category: Hugo
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Hugo Best Novel Reviews 2007: The Final Chapter
To finish the unofficial [Hugo](http://www.nippon2007.us/hugo_nominees.php)-week on this blog, a recap of my thoughts on the five nominees for [Best Novel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel). The five nominees (with a link to my review) are: * [*Temeraire*](http://www.exasperatedcalculator.com/archives/2007/03/hugo-review-temeraire/) by Naomi Novik * [*Glasshouse*](http://www.exasperatedcalculator.com/archives/2007/04/hugo-review-glasshouse/) by Charles Stross * [*Rainbows End*](http://www.exasperatedcalculator.com/archives/2007/05/hugo-review-rainbows-end-by-vernor-vinge/) by Vernor Vinge * [*Eifelheim*](http://www.exasperatedcalculator.com/archives/2007/07/hugo-review-eifelheim/) by Michael Flynn * [*Blindsight*](http://www.exasperatedcalculator.com/archives/2007/07/hugo-review-blindsight/) by Peter…
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Has the tone of SF changed?
Just recently I found myself listening to a reading of [*Nightfall* by Isaac Asimov](http://escapepod.org/2007/04/05/ep100-nightfall/). This is a fabulous story that I’ve read many, many times. But the slower pace and forced attention of the audio book led me to notice a change in the tone compared to the SF stories that I normally listen to.…
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Hugo Review: Best Short Story, 2007
The Hugo Award isn’t just for novels, of course, but also has sections for Short Story, Best Novelette and Best Novella. All the nominees for Best Novella, Best Novelette and Best Short Story are all online. As are three of the Best Novel nominees. This year I’ve only read the Novel and Short Story categories…
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The best novels Hugo never liked
The [Hugo award](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel) has been around for 54 years now. In that time it’s generally been about the most reliable indicator of the best novels around. But there are still a few instances where everything fell over a little bit: 1959: *A Case of Conscience* (James Blish) beat *Have Space Suit – Will Travel* (Robert…
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Hugo review: Blindsight
The final entry in my Hugo best novel review series for this year is *Blindsight* by Peter Watts. In the late 21st century humanity has reached almost incomprehensible levels of achievement. Those on the bleeding edge may be stable multiple personalities, or have mechanical prosthetics replacing almost their entire body. To help the majority of…
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Hugo Review: Eifelheim
Four hugo books down, one to go… The penultimate Hugo review for this year is *Eifelheim*, by Michael Flynn. This is a complex story, told in two time periods and with three main characters… * Sharon Nagy is a physicist, on the brink of fundamental breakthroughs that could revolutionise physics. * Tom Schwoerin is a…
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Hugo review: Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
Here’s the third in my series of Hugo reviews for this year. I’m well on track to review them all before the 31 July deadline for voting. So here’s *Rainbows End* by Vernor Vinge. I’ve read two other Vernor Vinge novels before, *A Fire Upon The Deep* and *A Deepness in the Sky*. Neither of…
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Hugo Review: Glasshouse
The second in my series of Hugo nominated book reviews for this year, *Glasshouse*, by Charles Stross Robin doesn’t know a lot about his past. That’s partly because he just had a lot of it erased, and partly because of the Curious Yellow virus that had infected the teleport gates and wiped a lot of…
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Hugo Review: Temeraire
The [Hugo Award](http://www.worldcon.org/hugos.html) [nominations for 2007](http://www.nippon2007.us/hugo_nominees.php) were just announced this week. I’m going to be reading all of them over the next few weeks, starting with *Temeraire* by Naomi Novik. The novel is set in 1795, and Captain William Laurence has just captured a French frigate carrying precious cargo – a dragons egg, about to…