Finalists: 2015 Hugo Award

[mgbino]

Originally Posted by shalym

Exactly this. I will always value a good storyteller who is a mediocre writer over a great writer who is a mediocre storyteller.

Shari

Particularly because an excellent editor can turn a mediocre writer into a solid one. There isn't much that can be done with a mediocre storyteller.

[dickloraine]

I didn't mean just writing style. Composing the story I would count towards this. A plot is often a very simple thing. A story is when you manage to arrange characters, style, structure etc. in an unique and interesting way. Of course different authors have different strengths. And of course I enjoy books, that are lacking in some aspects. But a book that manages to be strong in all of them, I would consider to be better. Much of this considerations are of course subjective. How one weights this aspects depends on personal preferences.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dickloraine

I didn't mean just writing style. Composing the story I would count towards this. A plot is often a very simple thing. A story is when you manage to arrange characters, style, structure etc. in an unique and interesting way. Of course different authors have different strengths. And of course I enjoy books, that are lacking in some aspects. But a book that manages to be strong in all of them, I would consider to be better. Much of this considerations are of course subjective. How one weights this aspects depends on personal preferences.

I completely agree with everything you say, but it applies equally to all books; it's not unique to SF.

[DiapDealer]

Luckily, it's not required that readers reach a consensus about why they read (or what they appreciate the most when doing so). The fact they can't is exactly why a book award's history/tendencies in nomination can't possibly (and shouldn't even try to) please everyone.

I would just ask that people nominate/vote/campaign for positive (I love this) reasons, rather than out of reaction to negative experiences or "I hate all this recent stuff" reasons.

[kennyc]

From The Guardian:

Feeding the Hunger – female writers are storming the male citadels of sci-fi
A generation of readers raised on Harry Potter has had a knock-on effect on demand for fantasy fiction, and left publishers scrambling to sign up women
....

http://www.theguardian.com/books/201...P=share_btn_gp

So There!

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by kennyc

From The Guardian:



http://www.theguardian.com/books/201...P=share_btn_gp

So There!

That's kind of silly. There are a bunch of female fantasy writers and have been for years. I grew up on Anne McCaffrey and Andre Norton.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Be loyal to your fellows was the big one that I saw. Never give up would be another. Simple moral lessons, of course, but sometimes those are the most important.

Lesson? Simplistic examples it seems to me. That really need to be problematised.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by shalym

For the story?

Shari

I read crime and mysteries also. I find the story usually much better in crime and mystery books. For fantasy the story can sometimes be the point. But the fantasy element is important also.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I think tompe's point is: what makes SF different? What are SF fans looking for in SF rather than any other genre?

Exactly. And that which is different is the most important thing for an SF award.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by tompe

Lesson? Simplistic examples it seems to me. That really need to be problematised.

You seem to be like my 10th grade literature teacher who thought that every single book had to be analyzed for symbolism and meaning. She also told our class that if we were reading for fun that we were wasting our lives.

It's teachers like her that are the reason why people think that they hate reading.

Shari

[dickloraine]

Haven't read the book, but I think he doesn't mean that the reader should do that, but the author. That was an answer to someone else, who said there is morality in the book. He just seems to say, there is not much about moral in it, if it didn't problematised it.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by tompe

Lesson? Simplistic examples it seems to me. That really need to be problematised.

Why? Sometimes the best lessons are simple. Frankly, in real life most things are simple if you look at them the right way. But as Clausewitz once remarked, sometimes even simple things are hard.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

Exactly. And that which is different is the most important thing for an SF award.

But you still haven't said what you think is different about SF. I've been an avid SF reader since my early teens (ie 40-odd years ago), and I see no fundamental difference between SF and any other literary genre. What is it that you think makes SF fundamentally different?

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by HarryT

But you still haven't said what you think is different about SF. I've been an avid SF reader since my early teens (ie 40-odd years ago), and I see no fundamental difference between SF and any other literary genre. What is it that you think makes SF fundamentally different?

Why are you an avid SF reader, if it's no different to anything else?

For me, it's about imagination. Flights of fancy. Interesting ideas. Fresh takes on the world. Exaggerations and explorations.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Why are you an avid SF reader, if it's no different to anything else?

I read SF and fantasy for the same reason I read any other type of book: good stories and engaging characters.