2008 Awards

[k1w1taxi]

Surprised no one has updated this topic. The winners for both the Hugo & Nebulas are out.

Michael Chabon has scooped both novel awards with The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Thoughts?

I see also that Connie Willis has won another Hugo in the Novella category.
And The Doctor won Best Short Form Drama. Yay!!

Cheers
Lee

[spacecat]

Thanks for the update!

[Stinky93]

Thoughts?
Yeah, I have thoughts.

The Yiddish Policeman's Union is an overrated book rife with very amateur similes that probably wouldn't pass by
a high school teacher's editing pen.
His book Kavalier and Clay was awesome. This one was not.
And it only was labeled as a sci-fi book due to its alternate history setting. It's not really a sci-fi book, and
it kind of irritates me that it was even nominated, thus taking some attention away from a more deserving book.
I wonder if people are judging it based on its own merit, or on his previous works (which were better).

Like many other people here, I try to read every Hugo winning book out there so I know many of you are going to
read it anyway. I'm curious if you think it deserved a Hugo.

And when you do read it, make note of the similes in it. There is one in almost every other paragraph. And now that I've
pointed it out, you won't be able to unsee them during your reading. My review of this book was like an accidental
soliloqy performed by a circus clown during the Normandy invasion. (Like that. See?)

[admin]

I've got Yiddish Policeman's Other Ball (or whatever) on my "must read" shelf, but I'm about three Hugo winners behind on my reading, and I'm currently reading next year's probable winner Anathem.

What book do you think should have won?

[Stinky93]

Having not read any of the other nominees, I can't really say what should have won.
I've read so many books over the years, I feel like I'm a pretty decent judge of quality.
Or maybe I'm not. Who knows.
It was magically qualified to win a scifi award due to its "alternate history". The only alternate history in the book is that
the Jews are living in a piece of Alaska instead of Israel.
As far as I could tell, that was the only scifi element in the entire book. Everything else was just a straight up crime story.
There are so many great science fiction and fantasy authors out there. It just seems like the real scifi authors
got screwed over.
It wouldn't bother me as much if it was at least a well written book, but it's not.
Judging by the amazon.com reader reviews, about 40 percent agree with me, and about 60 percent think it's the best
thing since the wheel.