2007 Hugo Award Nominees Announced

SciFi Weekly reported April 2 that the nominees for the 2007 Hugo Award, the highest awards in Science Fiction Achievement, were announced:

Novel: Eifelheim by Michael Flynn, His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik, Glasshouse by Charles Stross, Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge, Blindsight by Peter Watts

Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth, The Prestige, A Scanner Darkly, V for Vendetta

Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Battlestar Galactica, "Downloaded"; Doctor Who, "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday"; Doctor Who, "Girl in the Fireplace"; Doctor Who, "School Reunion"; Stargate SG-1, "200"

The winners will be decided at the World Science Fiction convention, WorldCon LXV in Yokohama, Japan this summer.

Last year, thanks to a heads-up from Political Animal Kevin Drum, I was able to read most of the Best Novel nominees and discovered some new authors that I will try to read more of. I was very happy that the 2006 winner was Robert Charles Wilson's Spin, which the other half is currently reading right now and which I also thought was the best of last year's nominees. I DETESTED Charles Stross' Accelerando so I'm shocked to see him nominated twothree years in a row although he's clearly well-regarded by SF critics. I though Spin was great,but I did read another book by Wilson (The Chronoliths) which was not as good (not great, but not a waste of time, either). I'm currently slogging through The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks which had gotten quite good reviews 2 years ago and was nominated for the 2005 Hugos. I still need to get around to reading that year's winner Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

This year I'll also be paying attention to the Dramatic Presentation nominees, since I saw and reviewed all the nominees in the Long Form category, and have been watching some of the short form (not Doctor Who, I don't know why but I just can't get into it, though I gave up after the first season and I believe the third season is about to start). In the Long Form category my pick for the Hugo Award would be The Prestige.

Anyway, I look forward to spending part of the summer reading His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, Book 1) by Naomi Novik (which has been optioned by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson), Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge (whose Deepness in the Sky I loved and am still writinga review for the blog), Blindsight by Peter Watts (just sounds like the most interesting of this year's nominees) and possibly Eifelheim (great premise, shaky reviews) or Glasshouse (hated his last book!) before the winners are announced in late August.