Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Hugo Congrats Are In Order

C
ongratulations to the Hugo Award finalists.   A few short thoughts on a few categories:

Best Fan Writer: Jeffro Johnson
This Jeffro guy is getting to be a regular fixture there.  He's slowly becoming the Sally Fields of the Hugo Awards.  They should just give him one already, then maybe he'll finally go away.
 
Best Fancast: The Rageoholic
The level of talent necessary to create a video game blog that outshines the stiff competition in that field is one thing.  To couple that with an encyclopedic knowledge of heavy metal music (and an ability to make heavy metal music interesting for non-metalheads), and some of the best dang political analysis on this or any other internet, and you're looking at a talent that the Hugo Awards don't deserve.  In a just universe, this guy would have wa-hay more subscribers (and be just as hated as) that PewDiePie goofus.  On the other hand, he does have a raging case of the Moorcock Hives.  Elric is okay, but so are a lot of cheap Conan knock-off, people.

Best Fanzine: Castalia House blog
It's traditional to make the Hugo Awards about oneself - not about recognizing the best and brightest in the field - and who am I to buck tradition?  I'm a contributor there, so really, if you think about it, this isn't really Jeffro's second nomination this year, it's my first.  In all seriousness, the crew over there represents some of the smartest and most passionate fans of sci-fi around.  They are also some of the most upbeat and fun loving fans around, constantly pushing envelops and laughing their way into the bad graces of Team Curmudgeon.  They really are the best.

Best Semiprozine: Cirsova
P. Alexander continues to prove the nay-sayers retarded.  As if the continued growth of his little experiment hasn't been gratifying, now he's got a much larger stage upon which to strut his stuff.  He has already earned his stripes, and he deserves all the attention that this nomination should bring his way.

Best Novella: "This Census-Taker" by China Mieville
Bleurgh.  I've never been impressed by China Mieville.  He can put sentences together like a beast, but he's like the Jackson Pollock of writers - all that talent and he turns around and writes vapid trash that is ultimately as empty as his political philosophy.  Also, he owes his success in large measure to having the right politics.  If Perdido Street Station had presented a heroic and inspirational ending that cast doubt on the benefits of socialism, no way would he have earned all those early accolades.  He'd have been Circular Filed along with the rest of the undesirables.
Best Novel: The Obilisk Gate by NK Jemisin
No comment.  Not worth talking about.

1 comment:

  1. The illustration at the top of this page is so disturbing on so many levels, that I'm going to go read Bloom County until I recover some of my sanity.

    Please don't ever do that to me again.

    ReplyDelete