A complex look at the Hugo Awards, and what they've become

Who Won Science Fiction’s Hugo Awards, and Why It Matters

SINCE 1953, TO be nominated for a Hugo Award, among the highest honors in science fiction and fantasy writing, has been a dream come true for authors who love time travel, extraterrestrials and tales of the imagined future. Past winners of the rocket-shaped trophy—nominated and voted on by fans—include people like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, and Robert A. Heinlein. In other words: the Gods of the genre.

But in recent years, as sci-fi has expanded to include storytellers who are women, gays and lesbians, and people of color, the Hugos have changed, too. At the presentation each August, the Gods with the rockets in their hands have been joined by Goddesses and those of other ethnicities and genders and sexual orientations, many of whom want to tell stories about more than just spaceships.

Early this year, that shift sparked a backlash: a campaign, organized by three white, male authors, that resulted in a final Hugo ballot dominated by mostly white, mostly male nominees. While the leaders of this two-pronged movement—one faction calls itself the Sad Puppies and the other the Rabid Puppies—broke no rules, many sci-fi writers and fans felt they had played dirty, taking advantage of a loophole in an arcane voting process that enables a relatively few number of voters to dominate. Motivated by Puppygate, meanwhile, a record 11,300-plus people bought memberships to the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, Washington, where the Hugo winners were announced Saturday night.

Nice to see George R. R. Martin was one of the voices of reason.

DVR is set, in case I'm not home yet tonight

The Real History of Science Fiction – Episode One Airs Tonight On BBC America at 10pm ET

Nifty

The Brooklyn bookshop saving out-of-print sci-fi, one e-book at a time: The genre enthusiasts are working with rights holders to preserve great book

With its dramatic cover art and fantastical story plots, science fiction dared readers to dream of amazing possible futures filled with aliens, robots, and all sorts of gadgetry. Now, ironically, some of the earliest books of the genre find themselves precariously near extinction, never to make it to the future they describe. Until Singularity & Co came onto the scene, that is.

This is a fantastic idea. One sad thing is the response by some libraries that own the books that are to be saved:

Despite being out of copyright, none of the universities who owned a copy of Mr. Stranger's Sealed Packet permitted scanning. "If you're part of that university or that consortium then you have access to that book. If you don't then you don't," said James. "Which is sad," added Kalb, "the default position of the organisation seems to be, 'I don't know if this is valuable but, just in case it is, I want to make sure nobody else gets their hands on it.'"

I'm sure there were lots of reasons such as how rare the book has become and the need to preserve, but isn't that ironic considering these people are trying to preserve them? And one thing we were taught in library school is while the physical object is important (and often have a beauty in and of themselves, thinking of mediaeval manuscripts, beautiful marbled end papers, luscious illustrations, and yes, even lurid pulp magazine covers), it is the information inside that is most treasured.

Found this today

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database

The ISFDB is a community effort to catalog works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It links together various types of bibliographic data: author bibliographies, publication bibliographies, award listings, magazine content listings, anthology and collection content listings, and forthcoming books.

Via @pfanderson.

I love Art Noveau, comics and sci fi, so I had to follow a link to this

The Legion of Art Nouveau Heroes

They're actually rather well done. My favourites, of course, are the Doctor Who ones. :)

Something for the den

Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite Desk

Yeah. You read that right. The picture is intriguing.

Here's a nifty little resource for sci fi geeks (and others who just like it)

100+ Amazing Science Fiction Stickers To Put On Your Laptop

There are the normal Star Trek, Star Wars, and comics-related stickers, but also Cthulhu, Harry Potter, even a 'Merlotte's Bar and Grill' for Sookie Stackhouse fans. There are even some Steampunk ones. I particularly like Edvard Munch's 'Scream' with a Cthulhu head. :)

Thanks Jedi Librarian for the link.

By the way, I read somewhere (sorry, didn't save the link), that a 'Battlestar Galactica' movie is in the works and, dum, dum, dum, it's not based on the new series at all but is by the original creator, Gary Larson, and will be more in style of the old series. Yay! I never watched the new series (didn't have cable while it was on). I might rent the DVDs at the library at some point. But I loved the old series as a kid.

Okay, geek rant finished.

I was playing on Hulu

and discovered under their science fiction section that they have all 12 episodes of the Dresden Files, a show I only got to see a little of, although I've read three of the books and plan to read more. Here's the link: http://www.hulu.com/the-dresden-files?c=Science-Fiction

There are many other series, too, including Sliders, of all things.