2007 Preliminary Nebula Awards
The annual Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), for some the best science fiction and fantasy fiction published in the United States during the two previous years.
Nebula & Norton Award Winners
The 2007 Hugo Awards were announced recently in Japan. The Hugo awards recognize the year's best science fiction and fantasy writing.
The Hugo is named after Hugo Gernsback, a magazine publisher credited with publishing the first science fiction magazine.
Some of this year's winners are:
Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
Set in the future of 2025, computers have become ubiquitous and connect people in ways not possible today. In a genre sometimes referred to as cyberpunk, this novel from Vinge looks to be an interesting addition to his Fast Times at Fairmont High collection of short stories.
This next three novellas were published in the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction.
A Billion Eves by Robert Reed
Robert Reed tells us the following tale “It is a brutal reworking of a story that I first wrote in my mid-twenties. What remains from that earlier attempt is the flashback sections with the sorority house . . . except that I changed the point-of-view and the general tone, and, hopefully, I bring to bear the wisdom of a couple of decades of life experience.”
The Djinn's Wife by Ian McDonald
“The Djinn’s Wife” shares the same background of near-future India as Ian’s last Asimov’s story, “The Little Goddess” (June 2005), and his most recent novel, the 2005 Hugo-nominee River of Gods (Pyr). The author’s current book-in-progress is Brasyl. Ian works in television program development, and lives just outside Belfast in Northern Ireland with the hills behind him and the sea before.
Impossible Dreams by Tim Pratt
Tim Pratt’s stories have been published in Best American Short Stories, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and other places. His first novel, The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl (Bantam Spectra), appeared in 2005, and his next collection, Hart & Boot & Other Stories, will be out later this year from Nightshade Books. Tim co-edits a little literary ‘zine called Flytrap with his wife, Heather Shaw. They live in Oakland, California. In his new story for Asimov’s, he takes a fresh look at that mysterious little shop we’d all like to find once again, and offers us a tantalizing glimpse of some . . .
Here it is - 5 AM on Saturday morning and I'm at the keyboard. I've been waking up real early all week and I had a feeling that I'd have trouble sleeping in on Saturday. Usually if I can make it in till 8 or so that's doing good.
I hope to find so time this weekend to work on an application that I'm doing for a Christian organization called Love Packages. These people do great work sending literature and books throughout the world. They need some database work keeping track of things so I'm hoping to help out a bit.
So as the family sleeps I'll be on the laptop. This will be a good time to comment on the book I'm currently reading: Maximum City by Suketu Mehta.
The Rising Tide by Jeff Shaara
This is a historical novel of WWII, or more specifically - America's first steps into the wider European conflict. Throughout our lives we have seen movies and read plenty of America's involvement in WWII, Hitler, the Pacific front, D-day, VJ-day.... This is the first I've read of our involvement in north Africa.
I've long been a WWII history lover. I like the strategy of the battles, the gritty, dirty "boots on the ground" drama and the historical detail of different points of view. This novel delivers. We see how Eisenhower assumes command of the European front, how Montgomery revitalized a near beaten British army, how Patton bullied his way in the front, Rommels generalship, and the man in the tank doing the fighting...
Some months ago I was on a trip with a friend of mine who is in his 70s. He was there in the European front during WWII as an enlisted man. I asked him about Patton and what he remembered about him. His comment was "patton was the kind of leader that if he was asked to take that hill - he would get you that hill. No matter what the cost of human life, he got the hill."
Shantaram - Gregory Roberts
OK - this book will go on my top 10 list. I have long had a fascination with books about India. Don't know why. I love reading about the country. I picked this book up on a whim and it was one of those books that I hated for it to end - because I didn't want to loose the relationship I had with the characters. This is that book that you come across once every 5 years or so that strikes you so hard that it sticks with you months after you are done reading it.
This is Gregory Roberts telling of his life on the lam from the law (escape from an Australian prison) in Bombay. This epic novel starts out with Robert's prologue: "It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know of love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."
Lin (Robert's nom in India) and his friend Prabaker enter a society of prostitutes, beggars, gangsters, holy men, soldiers, actors and other exiles. Robert's writes from the first person perspective and it works surprisingly well. We feel his fear, pain, love.
Roberts is such a gifted writer - he finds just the right words or phrase to send the image home. [some people have a way with words and some people.... oh... not have way... i guess]
