Hugo Awards nominations

For those who haven't spotted them elsewhere, the Hugo Awards nominations listings are up - here's the top of the list but you'll need to go to the main site for the rest of them.

Best Novel

• The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins, Fourth Estate)
• Brasyl by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
• Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer (Tor; Analog Oct. 2006-Jan/Feb. 2007)
• The Last Colony by John Scalzi (Tor)
• Halting State by Charles Stross (Ace)

Best Novella

• “The Fountain of Age” by Nancy Kress (Asimov’s July 2007)
• “Recovering Apollo 8″ by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Asimov’s Feb. 2007)
• “Stars Seen Through Stone” by Lucius Shepard (F&SF July 2007)
• “All Seated on the Ground” by Connie Willis (Asimov’s Dec. 2007, Subterranean Press)
• “Memorare” by Gene Wolfe (F&SF April 2007)

An homage to Arthur C

It seems there's a lot of it about at the moment as we bid a final farewell to Arthur C Clarke and reflect on the man and his legacy. Wired, as always covers the passing and links to this vid on YouTube which is from December last year.

The colour of marketing

So unless you've been living on a mountainside in a fantasy-style alternative reality you may have noticed that Sky have been doing a bit of promotion for the new adaptation of Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic.

We'll reserve judgement until we see it but if you want to get a sneaky peek, the Times Online has a clip up and if you're really hardcore you can submit a picture of yourself dressed as "Rinsewind" (sic) to try and win the full audio back catalogue. Now where did I put my camera....

Harper Collins Survey

Hey y'all, there's a Harper Collins fantasy survey doing the rounds if you feel so inclined.

Dungeon master, nerd king...

A quick nod to the big news story of the last week - the passing of Gary Gygax who, for those of you who didn't indulge in D&D goodness in the world before Playstation, was the creator of what Wired refers to as "the most influential game ever made".

There have been a number of articles reviewing his contribution to the world of SFF and gaming from the reverent to the irreverent but one thing's for sure - there isn't a Playstation game around today that could appeal so directly to a core audience or build so great a following and passion.

And you gotta love the guy for his opinions on Frodo alone.

Article - SFF World Building

For those of a creative writerly bent, the Gnu brings you an interesting article on creating SF worlds from SFF.net. The emphasis here is on SF rather than Fantasy with the onus on facts, planets, "the future" and other technological wizardry. A word of warning - its written by a published SF author so is a little on the heavy side but if you can get past "SF is that class of Fantastic Literature where this divergence is the result of a rational extrapolation of a change in the writer's reality" then you'll enjoy this little nugget.

Innocent Mage - Karen Miller

Working through the mountain of books, at various stages of "read", piled up at a number of locations around Gnu towers, we have dug out orbit book's and the UK's best selling SFF title of 2007 "The Innocent Mage" by Karen Miller and though it has been blogged to death on the blogosphere there is simply no way the Gnu is not going to raise its squeaky voice amidst the clammer and give you an overview of what the bloggers blogged. Oh yes.

Book Info

• Paperback: 613 pages
• Publisher: Orbit (5 April 2007)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 1841496049
• ISBN-13: 978-1841496047

Synopsis

Enter the kingdom of Lur, where to use magic unlawfully means death. The Doranen have ruled Lur with magic since arriving as refugees centuries ago. Theirs was a desperate flight to escape the wrath of a powerful mage who started a bitter war in their homeland. To keep Lur safe, the native Olken inhabitants agreed to abandon their own magic. Magic is now forbidden them, and any who break this law are executed. Asher left his coastal village to make his fortune. Employed in the royal stables, he soon finds himself befriended by Prince Gar and given more money and power than he'd ever dreamed possible. But the Olken have a secret; a prophecy. The Innocent Mage will save Lur from destruction and members of The Circle have dedicated themselves to preserving Olken magic until this day arrives. Unbeknownst to Asher, he has been watched closely. As the Final Days approach, his life takes a new and unexpected turn

Reviews

Well the book certainly achieved great commercial success so well done Karen Miller and Orbit books and given the reviews on amazon joe public was suitably impressed. Having said that, the bloggers reaction is mixed. Fantasy Sci Fi Book Review describes it as "all kinds of awesome" and points out that she actually does a great job with accents and the depiction of class without resorting to stereotypes.

However most bloggers picked up on the reliance on classic fantasy structure and debate the ways in which she has countered this - or not - as the case may be. To quote from Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
"‘The Innocent Mage’ isn’t the most original work of fantasy that you’ll ever read but after you’re done you will have enjoyed it too much to care"


Interview
A write up of an interview with the author can be found here.


YouTube
And you have her chatting on the (You)Tube here


My two cents

One of the reasons that this was a top seller is probably due to its wide-spread appeal to a number of different audiences - by taking a classic structure and making it her own. Yes it uses a standard fantasy plot structure but it does it in a way that appeals to a wider audience. There has been some criticism of a lack of "action" despite the mention and threat of war that adds to the tension throughout the first book.

Perhaps this is where it deviates from the norm and makes the tale more magical, the characters more endearing and the character development much more entertaining without resorting to the diet of war/death/carnage/severed-heads-being catapulted-over-the-fortress-wall which we have been fed since the LOTR trilogy came out at the cinema.

How long is a....

Today the Gnu draws your attention to a discussion happening on A Dribble of Ink about the optimum length of novels, particularly those of the SFF persuasion so if you have an opinion on the matter go on over there and make yourself heard! It's also nice to see Brian Ruckley of Winterbirth fame getting in on the blogging action and making a couple of very valid points.

Wired article - Gnu clambers onto soapbox

The Gnu's favourite geek-rag has an outstanding article this month entitled Take the red book: Why Sci-Fi Is the Last Bastion of Philosophical Writing

The basic premise of the article is that modern contemporary fiction is just recycling the same themes over and over again within the confines of the reality in which it is based. For example - can you honestly recal the title of the last contemporary novel that you read that was about someone working in a large city and hating their job? how about the one before that? As anyone who works in a big city and hates their job will tell you - reality is dull and limiting. As the article states "And there are, at the risk of sounding superweird, only so many ways to describe reality."

Clive Thompson argues that it is only in the genre of SFF that we can leave the confines of reality and actually discuss some of the deeper socio-philiosophical issues that are of real interest and relevance in the contemporary world.

Thompson believes the reason for this is that the main audience for SFF is the teen market - with most readers "growing out of" fantasy. Is this a sad reflection on society that we are beating the imagination our of people only to replace it with bland, despressing navel-gazing that fails to connect with us on a deeper level?

I think Thompson is right - you shouldn't need "books [....] adorned with embossed dragons" to look at alternative interpretations of reality. This is something that the urban fantasy genre has been pegging away at recently - you only have to look at Neil Gaiman or Jim Butcher's work to see that. Surely by turning to the unreal - we can gain a more realistic perspective?

Reality, after all, is subjective.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions - PSP

There has been endless hype over this game which at launch shot to the top of the PSP charts before anyone had even read the back of the box. And I have to say, it's not entirely undeserved.

The reason it did so well from the outset of course is a result of the Final Fantasy nostalgia to which I am no more immune than others. Imagine if you will, those who have hung-up their sweaty teenage keypads to get "sensible jobs" in "the real world" - those of us not lucky enough to get jobs working for Nintendo - who have been secretly stashing a PSP in their glove box for the day that Final Fantasy came back to stay.

The game initially, as is inevitable given the hype, disappoints. It would be daft to let nostalgia overrule the fact that the game play animation is boxy and not what today's PS3/xbox/Wii gamers expect - though the movie-style cut throughs are pretty cool.

The thing about this game is just to keep going. Yes it is difficult and you'll begin the game eiether losing several characters in every battle or just quitting over and over and going back to the beginning to get through the first few levels in tact. My favourite quote on the web (from Portable Video Gamer) is that "they keep the gamers picking their PSPs out of the fresh dent in the wall and back into their easy chairs for another go". Bucket of plaster, anyone?.

However, once you get through this tedious initial phase - once the faithless have been culled from the gaming herd, with a bit of patience and a little tedious level grinding you will reap the rewards. I promise.