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Hugo Related Works
Jul. 17th, 2020 09:36 pmI gave it a good try, anyway!
Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood, by J. Michael Straczynski (Harper Voyager US) - 4/5. This was very very good. This guy can WRITE and I was riveted the entire time despite not being entirely sure who he was when I started and never having watched B5 or anything else the guy has done. Content note for extremely severe spousal and child abuse. Like, it was so bad that in self-defense my brain was hoping that he'd made some of it up. (I don't think he made any of it up.) Voting this to win. and now I have even more reason to watch B5 (one day!)
I should also maybe mention that Harlan Ellison is one of his heroes and shows up several times in the book, and he doesn't treat Ellison being, er, problematic, really at all. This didn't blunt my enjoyment of the book, but if it would bother you just be aware that it's there.
Joanna Russ, by Gwyneth Jones (University of Illinois Press (Modern Masters of Science Fiction)) - excerpt in packet. I don't think I finished the excerpt. This was very dry, and I haven't read much Russ.
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, by Mallory O’Meara (Hanover Square) - Introduction in packet. I would have tried to read this if the book had been in the packet, but although the introduction was intriguing it didn't wholly convince me I was interested in it (not being really into monsters or movies).
The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, by Farah Mendlesohn (Unbound) - 3+/5. I enjoyed this a lot and it succeeded in what it set out to do, which was remind me how much fun Heinlein's SF can be, and inspired me to reread a bunch of it. I thought Mendlesohn did a great job of being balanced about Heinlein, never casting him as either perfect or perfidious, but a guy who had some interestingly progressive ideas and also had some hidebound ideas of his time, and could often not disconnect the two. And also who wrote some extremely readable stories :)
“2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech”, by Jeannette Ng - I'm not totally sure how I feel about this. I think on the whole I would rather award actual books.
Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, produced and directed by Arwen Curry - did not watch because for whatever reason it's hard for me to watch video on a screen right now. But if someone's watched it and it's good I might try it?
Rating:
1. Becoming Superman
2. Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein
...ugh, I don't think I can really rank anything else.
Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood, by J. Michael Straczynski (Harper Voyager US) - 4/5. This was very very good. This guy can WRITE and I was riveted the entire time despite not being entirely sure who he was when I started and never having watched B5 or anything else the guy has done. Content note for extremely severe spousal and child abuse. Like, it was so bad that in self-defense my brain was hoping that he'd made some of it up. (I don't think he made any of it up.) Voting this to win. and now I have even more reason to watch B5 (one day!)
I should also maybe mention that Harlan Ellison is one of his heroes and shows up several times in the book, and he doesn't treat Ellison being, er, problematic, really at all. This didn't blunt my enjoyment of the book, but if it would bother you just be aware that it's there.
Joanna Russ, by Gwyneth Jones (University of Illinois Press (Modern Masters of Science Fiction)) - excerpt in packet. I don't think I finished the excerpt. This was very dry, and I haven't read much Russ.
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, by Mallory O’Meara (Hanover Square) - Introduction in packet. I would have tried to read this if the book had been in the packet, but although the introduction was intriguing it didn't wholly convince me I was interested in it (not being really into monsters or movies).
The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, by Farah Mendlesohn (Unbound) - 3+/5. I enjoyed this a lot and it succeeded in what it set out to do, which was remind me how much fun Heinlein's SF can be, and inspired me to reread a bunch of it. I thought Mendlesohn did a great job of being balanced about Heinlein, never casting him as either perfect or perfidious, but a guy who had some interestingly progressive ideas and also had some hidebound ideas of his time, and could often not disconnect the two. And also who wrote some extremely readable stories :)
“2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech”, by Jeannette Ng - I'm not totally sure how I feel about this. I think on the whole I would rather award actual books.
Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, produced and directed by Arwen Curry - did not watch because for whatever reason it's hard for me to watch video on a screen right now. But if someone's watched it and it's good I might try it?
Rating:
1. Becoming Superman
2. Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein
...ugh, I don't think I can really rank anything else.
