After a really long hiatus, publisher TOR (Macmillan publishing group) just reinstated* their monthly free ebook club (join by adding your email, no charge, will all be Science Fiction or Fantasy genre ebooks).

There's a booklikes bookclub at http://booklikes.com/book-clubs/88/tor-monthly-free-ebook-science-fiction-and-fantasy if anyone cares to join in he read.  Club hasn't seen much activity because almost as soon as booklikes club started TOR tabled the program for a while.

Not actually sure about the book.  New to me author.  Book description makes it sound like could be a juicy, immersive read for me withh lots of politics, worldbuilding and religion -- or else too bogged down in politics and religion if done wrong.

*ETA or not just reinstated.  See Familiar Diversions comment, thye got a February one I missed.  My apologies to the booklikes bookclub for missing it.  I'll update club shelves when I found out what the February book was.

There is nothing Chuck Tingle cannot and will not write a "pounded in the butt" story about.

The 2015 Hugo Award winners were announced on Saturday, August 22nd, at Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention. The Best Novel award went to Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem, which I don't find surprising. I had a feeling it would take the the award. I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the novel after reading it (my review here), but many of my friends loved it. 

In any case, here is a partial list of winners:

Best Novel: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, Ken Liu (translator)

Best Novelette: “The Day the World Turned Upside Down” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Lia Belt translator (Lightspeed, 04-2014)

Best Graphic Story: Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal, written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Adrian Alphona and Jake Wyatt, (Marvel Comics)

Annie Bellet and Marko Kloos, who both withdrew their names from the ballot due to the Rabid Puppies and Sad Puppies slate fiasco, were awarded Alfies. 

For a full list of winners and nominees, go here.

There is also a very interesting article on Wired today regarding the Hugos and the Puppies: "Who Won Science Fiction's Hugo Awards, And Why it Matters". As Amy Wallace writes:

"[I]n recent years, as sci-fi has expanded to include storytellers who are women, gays and lesbians, and people of color, the Hugos have changed, too. At the presentation each August, the Gods with the rockets in their hands have been joined by Goddesses and those of other ethnicities and genders and sexual orientations, many of whom want to tell stories about more than just spaceships.

 

Early this year, that shift sparked a backlash: a campaign, organized by three white, male authors, that resulted in a final Hugo ballot dominated by mostly white, mostly male nominees. While the leaders of this two-pronged movement—one faction calls itself the Sad Puppies and the other the Rabid Puppies—broke no rules, many sci-fi writers and fans felt they had played dirty, taking advantage of a loophole in an arcane voting process that enables a relatively few number of voters to dominate."

 

More here.

Neben dem Nebula Award gibt es für Science Fiction und Fantasy-Literatur auch noch den Hugo Award zu gewinnen. Im Gegensatz zum Nebula Award, stimmen bei diesem nicht die Science Ficiton und Fantasy Schriftsteller über die besten Bücher diverser Kategorien ab, sondern die Mitglieder der World Science Fiction Society. In den letzten drei Jahren machte dies jedoch keinen Unterschied, denn da wurde jedes Mal der gleiche Roman als Gewinner ausgewählt. Heuer jedoch schaut dies ganz anders aus...

In the world of science fiction and fantasy literature there is another really important prize next to the Nebula Award, where science fiction and fantasy authors decide who wins: The Hugo Award - members of the World Science Fiction Society have the opportunity to vote for the best works in different categories. In the last couple of years the winners of both prizes in the category best novel were always the same - but this year the members of the World Sience Fiction Society had a different opinion...

Best Novel

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Best Novella

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson

Best Novelette

The Girl-Thing Who Went Out For Sushi by Pat Cadigan

Best Short Story

Mono no Aware by Ken Liu (engl.: The Future is Japanese)

I registered for LoneStarCon3! 

I've stared downloading the Hugo Awards packet - wow! This is an exciting year. 

I'm surprised to say, I have not read anything by the authors nominated in the Novel categoy. So, each of the entries is now on my to-read shelf. :)

There are 17 categories; I doubt I'll get through *all* of the reading by July 1, the date the ballots are due, but I will do my best. 

Brief responses will be recorded here at bookLikes. Longer opinions will be posted to TotalCatAnomaly.blogspot.com, as often as I can get it done.