We’re back! This morning I entered the pod here in Perth, fired up Skype and called Gary in Chicago. He’s just back from California, and I’m not long back from Aussiecon in Melbourne so we chatted about awards, eligibility and nominations, the 100 Days, and a lot of other things. It’s good to be recording again, and we’ll try not to miss any more episodes as we count down to World Fantasy and Columbus!
Ah, so much I could respond to, especially about the Hugo analysis, but I shall try to be brief.
Jonathan: Sorry about the Hugo 2011 panel, but I told them I wasn’t available during the Business Meeting. It seemed to be very difficult to get unlisted from a panel.
Gary: The number of nominations required to get on Best Short Story is always very low. That’s not because of lack of interest in the field, but rather because there are so many short stories and people’s taste is so varied.
Zombies: FEED, by Mira Grant, is an excellent near-future political SF novel with zombies in it.
Some years I get through December without knowing what will ultimately be on my Hugo nominating ballot, and I have to go through a “long list” “shorter list” “final list” process to wind up with just five titles. This year, as sometimes happens, two novel positions “locked” early, and now everything else I like is fighting it out for the final three positions. Those two, according to your analysis, don’t stand much of a chance, so I hope you’re wrong! They are Ship Breakers and Who Fears Death. The Lifecycle of Software Objects and Seven Cities of Gold have pulled a similar trick with the novella ballot. Everything else is still very much in a state of flux.
Galileo’s Dream has a copyright of 2009 in the US edition. (It came out on December 29, or some such date.)
Despite my deep aversion to zombie content, I really liked Amelia Beamer’s novel, and I agree with Cheryl’s positive opinion of Mira Grant’s FEED. The infinite growth in werewolf and vampire populations and the ongoing zombie apocalypse seem to me to be a direct result of banishing aliens and elves. I’m ready for the return of aliens, at least.
I didn’t realise it was you who didn’t make it. I was only told that someone was a proxy. You shouldn’t sweat it at all. I’ve had far more good panel experiences than bad ones.,
I’ve had the same experience. I’m often asked about what I think will win or what will make short lists etc etc, but what I find is that things only really being to crystallise for me when I get to the part of the year when we start work on the Locus Rec. Reading list. That process usually clarifies it for me. I will I say I think your two favorites – Ship Breaker and Who Fears Death – would be very worthy nominees, and that the whole point of having the discussion now at all is an attempt to shift those odds, not by campaigning, but simply by trying to increase reader awareness.
Your mention of GODLIKE MACHINES reminds me that I have to join the SFBC again. Any nibbles of a mainstream or small press publisher for it before I do?
Sadly, not at the moment and not for want of trying.
Jonathan,
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the “Predicting the Hugos” panel. FWIW, I thought you did a fine job under difficult circumstances. Clearly, it would have been preferrable had there been more people on the panel, with the resulting discussion & the bouncing back & forth of views & ideas that make a panel fun. But despite, I enjoyed it. Some of the works that you mentioned I already knew about (it seems like everyone’s tipping “The Quantum Thief”) and others I’ll be keeping an eye out for. Thanks.
The surreal experience of watching you having to be translated into “American English” for some members of the audience is something I’ll not forget for a very long time. There was something positively SFnal about that.