- A not-terribly-good review of Susanna Clarke’s collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, although I’m glad someone else has reservations about the illustations. A much better review by Ursula Le Guin.
- Also from the Guardian, an article about our obsession with awards.
Discuss, with particular reference to science fiction and fantasy (20 marks).Prizes are becoming the ultimate measure of cultural success and value. One prize inevitably spawns another, in imitation or reaction, as the perceived male dominance of the Booker spawned the Orange Prize for women’s fiction. There are now so many, in so many different fields, that it can be difficult to find a professional artist, writer or journalist who has not been shortlisted for a prize.
[…]
In the book world, prizes have long since supplanted reviews as our primary means of literary transmission, and now they are taking on the task, from the professional critics, of judgment as well. - Gabe Chouinard responds to some of the points raised by Charlie Stross in the post I linked on Saturday. Semi-relatedly, two good posts by Paul McAuley.
- Abigail Nussbaum on Heroes and Studio 60.
- Reactions to Torchwood: here, here, here, and here. (None of which I’ve actually read, since I haven’t seen it yet; as much as anything this is a list for me to come back to later.)
- Some thoughts on China Mountain Zhang, by me, for the Instant Fanzine book group. One thing that post doesn’t mention: I was scandalised to discover it wasn’t even nominated for the Clarke.
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I wonder if the time lag between US edition of China Mountain Zhang (1992) and UK Clarke eligible edition (1995) is a factor.
I can’t speak for the judges that year, of course, but I’m sure there have been books that the judges read sometime before the UK edition and subconsciously decided weren’t eligible for the year in question.
I remember in ’91 receiving what we suspected might have been a first true UK edition of Dhalgren, though there had been a US import stickered with UK publication details apparently. Imagine the consternation if we’d shortlisted a 16 year old book.
Surely Niall’s comment was a joke referring to the Guardian article about how prizes are taking on the tasks that critics once performed.
Ted: I thought Niall’s comment was alluding to Graham Sleight’s column in the latest Vector, where he pre-empts The Guardian by a couple of weeks.
A little from column A, a little from column B … :)
Re Torchwood: didn’t like it, reasons why here.
Hi Martin: thanks, interesting post. I’m hoping to get my own thoughts on the show up tomorrow …