Via MetaFilter I was pointed to this entertaining rant by Adam Roberts on the “poor taste” of the fandom that voted for 2009’s Hugo Award nominees. Although I’ve read a lot of SF in the last year and a half, I don’t really feel I’m in a position to agree or disagree. Oddly enough, I’ve read books from all of the nominated authors, many quite recently, yet none of this year’s books.
But the quality and delivery of the vitriol was quite good ;-) One thing that a lot of folks will miss though is that Roberts is tweaking the fandom because he thinks they can rise to the challenge. He believes that people of above average intelligence and curiosity are drawn to the genre. Their best books of the year shortlist should rise above mediocre.
Robert’s post is universally good for pointing to and justifying some more challenging works. Checking out the past winners lists for the Nebula award and similarly for the Clarke, I see a lot of author names new to me.
Immediately added to the reading list, Ian R. MacLeod’s Song of Time, and Richard K. Morgan’s 13, nee Black Man.