Author Archives: mataglap

I’ll start by saying I dreaded reading this book, I could tell by the back cover blurb that this was not my thing and once again the Hugos are causing me to read a book I would otherwise blissfully ignore.  I had one false start where I just wasn’t into it, I even got my […]

  Winner: 2012 Hugo – short  story Winner: 2012 Nebula: – short story Liu has appeared seemingly from nowhere to capture both the Hugo and Nebula award for this story, along with a bunch of nominations for other awards.  And it shows a tremendous amount of craft, what struck me the most about it was […]

  Read it here. 2012 Hugo nominee – short story 2012 Nebula nominee – short story A story this short and with such a non-descript title is in danger of being overlooked before it is even read. Much like when reading poetry the reader has to make a conscious effort to devote the time and […]

Winner: 2012 Hugo Award – Best Novella Winner: 2012 Nebula Award – Best Novella Nominee: 2012 Locus Award – Best Novella The title of this story describes exactly what it delivers, a quiet unassuming tale of Kit, a government official who is assigned to a rural area to oversee the construction of a quarter-mile suspension […]

With every year, the Locus Award nominees look more representative of the field than the Hugos, particularly in the shorter categories.  But while there are no sparkly vampire stories here, it’s worth noting that there are still no novelette or short stories nominees from the big 3 magazines.  What the heck happened? SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL […]

Looking at the Hugo nominees for this year and cross referencing them with what was chosen for the 3 big year’s best anthologies we find: No Hugo-nominated novellas were included.  While there isn’t room to print all of them, usually a couple make the cut. Two of the five Hugo-nominated novelettes were included “Fade to […]

Boneshaker is my first encounter with Cherie Priest, and comes with a lot of advance notice and even the Locus award.  It would seem to promise a specific experience, with its steampunk setting (and cover, and title for that matter), but what it delivers is something else entirely and, for me anyway, a big disappointment. […]

I wasn’t sure what to make of this novella at first, it’s sort of science fiction, but within the trappings of a hyper-religious society who must both display consistent and underwavering faith in their god while at the same time enslaving other, presumably lesser gods that somehow power the starships they command.  But I wouldn’t […]

Here in one place are the announced contents of this year’s crop of “year’s best” anthologies.  Haven’t seen anything from Hartwell/Cramer yet, but the other three have been announced.  I don’t see the Horton book on Amazon yet, but there are links to the other two, although they don’t come out for a while.  This […]

  Over 15 years ago Asimov’s published what has arguably become Jim Kelly’s most famous story, “Think Like a Dinosaur”, which went on to win the Hugo in 1996.  That story was widely recognized as a response or a commentary or a riff on “The Cold Equations”, one-hit wonder Tom Godwin’s even more famous story […]