Official Hugo and Retro Hugo Nominations

6 Comments

1. jp says:

   April 9, 2004 at 11:28 pm

   Wow, that battle for best novel of 1953 is rough. Which do you pick? To me its a two book race between Fahrenheit 451 and Childhood’s End. I’d probably vote for F 451, but I wouldn’t argue with CE.

   The only recent novel for the Hugo that I’ve read is Singularity Sky. I’d say I’d vote for Illium over it, even though I haven’t read Illium yet. Not that SS was bad (it wasn’t) but I don’t think it warrents a Hugo.

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2. John says:

   April 10, 2004 at 12:18 am

   I would choose Blind Lake over Singularity Sky (the only two I’ve read from the novel category), but I know that Sky is the favorite.

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3. FredKiesche says:

   April 10, 2004 at 6:40 am

   Retro Hugo: My vote goes to Caves of Steel. Maybe it’s because I’ve read the other two (Childhood’s End and F451) so many times they don’t feel as “fresh”.

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4. John says:

   April 10, 2004 at 11:38 am

   I’ve read all nominees for the retro novel category.

   • The Caves of Steel ? Isaac Asimov – This first robot novel is his best robot novel. A finely crafted detective story. The society Asimov sets up (spacers, robots, etc.) is creative and the story moves quickly. How can you hate the book that introduces R. Daneel Olivaw?
   • Fahrenheit 451 ? Ray Bradbury – The intriguiing concept of outlawed books marks this classic. The only compliant I had was that Bradbury’s lyrical writing style started to get annoying after a while. I rated it a 4 out of 5.
   • Childhood’s End ? Arthur C. Clarke – An engrossing tale about the transcendance of mankind. As usual, Clarke’s writing style shines through in his clear descriptions, immersive plots and cool SF ideas.
   • Mission of Gravity ? Hal Clement – A hard SF classic. Clement’s starightforward story is enhanced by the cool physics of the M&M shaped world of Mesklin where gravity uncreases as you approach the poles. Cool concept. The worst thing I could say about MOG is that the writing style was a bit dry. So I rated it a 4 out of 5.
   • More than Human ? Theodore Sturgeon – Of all authors, nominted or otherwise, Sturgeon’s style is the best. Every sentence is a finely crafted work of art and it shows. I found myself many times just smiling at the simplest of sentences. Sturgeon proves the power of the written word again and again. More Than Human is a collection (“fixup”) of 3 excellent novelettes that, taken together, tell the story of five people who make up a single gestalt entity.

   All are worthy classics so it would be a tough choice. But if I had to, I would choose More than Human as the winner.

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5. jp says:

   April 10, 2004 at 1:56 pm

   Uncreases? Thanks for lowering our Lix score…

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6. John says:

   April 16, 2004 at 1:09 pm

   Update:

   Poul Anderson’s “Three Hearts and Three Lions” has replaced Judith Merril’s “Daughters of Earth” as a nominee in the novella category, due to prior (1952) publication of Merril’s story

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