Chabon Wins Hugo Award For Best Novel

The 2008 Hugo Awards have been announced in Denver. MadProfessah had previously previewed the nominees and had hoped that John Scalzi's The Last Colony would win the Hugo for Best Novel (although this was before I had read the book. I have since read the third in Scalzi's Old Man's War series and will have a review up, hopefully this week.) Scalzi ended up winning a lesser Hugo award, for Best Fan Writer.

Well, Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen’s Union has followed up its recent win of the 2008 Nebula Award by winning the 2008 Hugo Award, becoming one of the rare books to win both major science fiction/fantasy awards, and the first since Lois McMaster Bujold's Paladin Of Souls. As loyal readers of this blog would know, I am currently making my way through the list of winners, which includes some of the all-time classics of the genre.

I suppose this win means I will try to read it, but I have previously found Chabon's work almost unreadable (including his Pullitzer prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) after loving his debut novel The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. A few years ago, his book Wonder Boys was made into a badly received film starring Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire and on NPR yesterday there were reports that Oscar-winning fwriter-directors Joel and Ethan Coen are currently writing a film adaptation of The Yiddish Policeman's Union.

Here are the most important winners of this year's Hugo Awards. Stardust won for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form (I wanted Heroes, 1st Season) to win and Doctor Who won for the second year in a row, beating out my choice, the fan-created Star Trek New Voyages.

Best Novel: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins; Fourth Estate)
Best Novella: “All Seated on the Ground” by Connie Willis (Asimov’s Dec. 2007; Subterranean Press)
Best Novelette: “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” by Ted Chiang (Subterranean Press; F&SF Sept. 2007)
Best Short Story: “Tideline” by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s June 2007)
Best Related Book: Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction by Jeff Prucher (Oxford University Press)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Stardust Written by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman Illustrated by Charles Vess Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Paramount Pictures)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Who “Blink” Written by Steven Moffat Directed by Hettie Macdonald (BBC)

Interestingly, Ted Chiang's "The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate" won both the Hugo and Nebula Award for Best Novelette. It's available online (for free!) here.