Jaclyn Moriarty - Dreaming of Amelia (Book Review)

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When Riley and Amelia transfer to Ashbury High School, they immediately capture everybody's attention and become two of the most popular students. Theirs is, however, not the only mystery of Ashbury High – between all the schoolwork, secret crushes and upcoming HSC (High School Certificate) exams arise the rumours of a ghost that haunts the hallways.

About a month or two ago, I took a short break from epic fantasy – after I read a book and a half of Malazan, I really needed something different, something a bit lighter in style and topic. Around that time, I also noticed Ana's review of Dreaming of Amelia (called The Ghosts of Ashbury High in the US), and decided to give it a try.

At first, I found Dreaming of Amelia very intriguing – the many POV's (Riley, Emily, Lydia, Toby …) are presented to us via an intertextual narrative that uses essays, e-mail correspondence, meeting minutes … to convey the story. It creates the impression that the reader is discovering the story through someone's research on the events that are described and also creates a very plausible high-school atmosphere.

By the time you get to know the characters better, however, the effect of the narrative wears off and the novel gets a bit annoying. I could relate to neither of the characters - Lyda is a spoiled girl with detached parents, Riley thinks that he and Amelia are superior to other students because neither of them comes from a rich family, Emily is a drama queen who likes to throw 'big' words around her essays and is unable to spell words such as 'annihilate', and Toby's essays are mostly telling the story of an Irish convict named Tom Kincaid who lived in New South Wales in early 19th century. This last narrative is actually very interesting, more so than the others, but it does nothing to keep the reader's attention on the main plot, which mostly revolves about how popular Riley and Amelia are and how they excel at everything they do and a ghost that just might be real but probably isn't.

I'm not really sure why I pressed on, but I'm glad that I did. Both the characters and the plot develop after the initial standstill – Em gets a grip on herself and proves that she's more than just a silly girl, Riley and Amelia get friendlier, the secret of the ghost is solved … I found it very nice how all the side plots (Ashbury ghost, Tom the convict) found their epilogue as well as got tied to the main plot. I'm not used to endings where all the loose ends are tied up, but it was really nice to see one of those for a change; it gives the reader a nice feeling of completion at seeing everything wrap up so nicely.

Dreaming of Amelia is not one of those YA books that appeal to readers of all ages; it's clearly aimed at a younger audience. This gave me some problems as I didn't really care about the characters or their (mostly very typical) adolescent problems. I can still say, however, that Dreaming of Amelia was just what I needed - a sweet, undemanding read to pass my time. I just wish I discovered it earlier – I bet my 14 year old self would love it.
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3,5/5



Trin


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Just deleted >9000 of spam posts. Fun fact: the spambots seem to be drawn to my review of James Enge's Blood of Ambrose :D At least the blog is clean now ^^

Carrie Ryan - The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Book Review)

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Zombie apocalypse came and went, but generations later, there is still a group of survivors left – not that zombies are gone, though. Mary is a teenager growing up behind well-guarded fences in the middle of Forest of Hands and Teeth. Her village, run by the Sisterhood, is in constant danger of being overwhelmed, but Mary has other problems: the boy she fancies decided to marry her best friend and her mother just got bitten by one of the Unconsecrated.


When I first heard about The Forest of Hands and Teeth, I was all 'Yay, another post-apocalyptic book!' and was eager to see how this particular zombie apocalypse turned out. The beginning was not what I expected, though - the setting is interesting, but the world of Forest of Hands and Teeth only works if you don't think about it too much. The zombies (or the Unconsecrated, as Mary calls them) are presented as if they were an unstoppable force of nature, even though it's not clear where they all even came from, seeing how it's been generations since the original outbreak, and they seem to be able to swarm even the most prepared villages. People from Mary's village also seem to have a habit of wandering too near the fences, there seems to be an unlimited amount of fence material and the more I read about how the village works, the more similar everything seemed to The Village. Luckily, this village is not the main focus of the book, but instead only provides a background for the protagonist's various problems and dilemmas.

Mary is a typical teenager – stubborn, a bit naïve and capricious. This was why I had a hard time deciding whether Forest of Hands and Teeth is a YA book or not, because she, despite her age, is also a very non-typical YA character, mostly because not only she's far from perfect, I also find her very hard to empathise with. She rarely speaks her mind and abides by the norms of the society she's trapped in, even though she despises them; any rule-breaking she does seems coincidental. She is quick to notice other people's failings, slow to realise her own and most of the time completely passive. Even though she mentions all kinds of sacrifices she's willing to make, those, too, would require only minimal participation from her (for example, agreeing to a 'scandalous' proposal, but not voicing it). I actually found all that pretty refreshing – I'm used to YA protagonists who are rebellious, active, and all in all the person most teenage readers would love to be. I can't imagine that many teenagers would want to be Mary, but she does strike me as a pretty realistic character.

The other Mary's personality trait that I found atypical was her inability to be satisfied with anything that doesn't go according to her various daydreams. She is unhappy with a boy who fell in love with her because he is not 'the one', and never gives him a chance to prove himself; when she finally gets to be with the boy she supposedly loves, she quickly gets bored and starts longing to fulfill her long-time wish to see the ocean. Where a more typical YA character would realise (probably with a little help from a good friend) that they've been too selfish ans try to make amends, Mary chooses her wish over everyone she knows and leaves them to their own devices and unknown fate.

That's actually what made the book for me and what I liked most about it. Mary is stubborn, unreasonable and selfish, but not annoying; the reader may not agree with her decisions, but has to go along with them. True, the setting (and the zombies) is there only to provide a background and other characters are not nearly as lifelike as Mary - mostly, they're only archetypes (the best friend who grows distant, the older brother who loves her sister despite a grudge, the two love interests who (of course) both fall in love with her, the strict teacher …) for Mary to interact with, but Mary herself is a very nicely written, realistic character; the journey to her realisation of what she really wants is what makes this book well worth reading. I can't wait to see what the sequel (The Dead-Tossed Waves) will bring.


4/5



Trin



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Yet another skipped week. Study time = crazy time.

Stephen King - Under the Dome

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On a usual October morning, the residents of Chester's Mill find themselves abruptly cut off from the rest of the world by an invisible dome. While most people are concerning themselves with confusion and casualties, some of them have other things on their mind: Dale Barbara is now trapped under the dome with the very people he was trying to escape; 'Big Jim' Rennie plans to extend his already significant influence to hold the town under his control, while his son, Junior, discovers that most problems can be solved with murder ...


Under the Dome starts in King's classic style. The narrative is interesting enough to capture the reader from first moment onward; King perfectly depicts the feeling of a small town where most everybody knows most everybody else down to the mistakes of their grand-grand-fathers. There are plenty of characters, which adds to the small town feeling but can sometimes be a bit annoying since it is fairly easy to confuse people with similar names, especially because not all of them play a significant enough role in Under the Dome for the reader to know exactly who they are.

Along with his usual qualities, King seems to have kept all of his weaknesses as well. He still has a bit of a problem with 'show, not tell' principle – he makes almost no distinction between the behavior of adult people in different age groups. Dale 'Barbie' Barbara, the 30 years old protagonist, could easily be aged anywhere from 40 to 80 – he is described as 'Iraq war veteran' and at first, I was sure he took part in the Gulf War. He doesn't act like a young man who grew up during the 80's and 90's – he doesn't care about technology, his way of thinking and acting is universally mature and apparently, he is into apocalyptic fiction:

“[...] It was built in the fifties, when smart money was on us blowing ourselves to hell.”
“On the Beach,” Barbie said.
“Yep, see you that and raise you Alas, Babylon.”

Not that there's anything wrong with apocalyptic fiction (I'm a fan of it myself), but this little piece of conversation just didn't work for me. It's as if Barbie's different characteristics just didn't add up - he did not strike me as a real person, more like a rough character sketch. Kid characters are a bit more plausible, but there is otherwise no difference in maturity, responsibility and general behavior between the characters aged 20, 30, 40 or more. Aside from that, the characters are wonderfully written, with various life stories, personal traumas and moral dilemmas.

Under the Dome is set in the not-too-distant future; this, from what I gathered, means somewhere between 2012 and 2016. It, however, doesn't seem like the people of Chester's Mill keep up with the times: an iPod is referred to as 'one of those computer-music doohickies', kids born in the 00's wish to be characters from Star Wars for Halloween (again, nothing wrong with that, but it strikes me as a bit odd – why not Pokemon, Hello Kitty, Dora the Explorer, anything that is a bit more recent?). And of course, the gift of blank CD's at the end of the book. Even now, this one must top the chart of lamest gifts for your SO (or anyone, actually) ever, and I can't even imagine how lame it will be in, say, 2014. Sure, King needed these blank CD's for plot's sake, but he could've at least said that they were meant for a 'Back to 2000's' party or something.

Speaking about the ending – it's as sudden and unrelated to the rest of the story as endings in King's books often are. King makes a mess out of Chester's Mill, creates a very tense situation which makes the reader eager to see how it will all resolve. The book, however, ends after a sudden turn of events that erases all the previous problems and leaves a lot of little details unexplained.

Despite everything I've just said, Under the Dome is a very good read. Mistakes and inconsistencies are mostly lost during the fast-paced turn of events – Chester's Mill sees more action in just a few days than other towns see in years, so it is easily to get confused and get the feeling that it's all been going on for ages. Some of the characters also seem to have gotten confused – they act excessively or overconfidently, regarding that they have been trapped under the dome for only a few days. Other than that, characters are (mostly) plausible and full of life, with their own stories and reactions to the sudden isolation. These reactions are what King builds most of his story on, and I must say that it's a pretty good story, worthy of a re-read.

4/5







Trin

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Sorry for not updating in two weeks. I was elsewhere, having fun :P

Dan Simmons - Drood (Book Review)

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"DROOD" (Amazon: UK, US)
by DAN SIMMONS
Format: Paperback, 816/784 pages
Publisher: Quercus / Little, Brown and Company (Feb 2009, first edition)

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Last summer, I've written a post regarding books we like and how hard it can be to review them – can you remain objective? Should you remain objective? Drood is one of such books and I can't really decide whether I'm infatuated with it or it really is that good.

"Drood", like "The Terror", is neither fantasy nor science fiction – it's historical fiction, but unlike " The Terror", "Drood" concentrates more on 'historical' than on 'fiction'. Our narrator is Wilkie Collins, who introduces us to his life as a writer, one of Charles Dickens' closest friends and a member of 19th century's London upper class.

"Drood" presents Dickens and Collins in the time when they were both already established writers, praised all over England, neither of them short on money or company. Their lives, as well as everyone involved, are subject to their various whims and thus often a fine source of gossip; while Dickens dismissed his wife and forbid her to enter his house again, Collins is unmarried but has two lovers who don't know about each other. While both authors readily cooperate, they just as readily dismiss each other's work as petty, unimaginative or just plain bad writing. The older they get, the wider the gap between them becomes – with a little help from the mysterious Mr. Drood, whose past and skills obsess Dickens.

In most reviews of "Drood" I've read, people mostly complain about "Drood" being too long and mostly just Dickens' biography. Neither of these bothered me. I actually enjoyed how SIMMONS took his time and 'spent' many pages to create a perfect atmosphere and explain the background of the story. Admittedly, this was probably a bit easier for him than if he set his story in a fictional place, because a lot is known about 19th century London and its upper class, but it still takes a certain amount of skill to present it as intriguing and engrossing as SIMMONS did. "Drood" hardly reads as a history textbook or a biography, more as a work of pure fiction. One of the possible reasons to why its length didn't really bother me might lie in the fact that I've recently read a lot of first-part-of-the-series novels, and they rarely left me satisfied because they centered more on action, offering an immediate, but not lasting satisfaction, and less on explanation and wholeness – there is enough time for the latter in one of the sequels. "Drood," though, is a standalone novel, and as such has to offer some explanation, background and so on.

As for the biography part of criticism – well, I can't really say, since in all those years I spent in school, we only mentioned Dickens a couple of times. And when I say mentioned, I mean exactly that – we listed his name along with other writers of his era, but we never got further than that. We never had to read any of his works, and I never knew that Wilkie Collins existed. Because of that, reading "Drood" was in a way like watching a great documentary; biography was just a logical part of the book and I found it more interesting than boring.

As mentioned, SIMMONS takes a step forward from "The Terror" here; by introducing an unreliable narrator, he successfully manages to blur the line between facts and fiction and thus piquing reader's interest. The book starts as a tale of two 19th century writers' everyday life, but slowly evolves into a gripping and unexpected tale, full of suspense. Highly recommended.

~Trin~

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I'm totally out of practice, guys. I don't remember the last time I read so little. I've read maybe 10-20 books since June, which is just SAD. I have written 2 (unfinished) reviews. Sucks to be me, I guess?

Six feet under...and digging my way back out

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So what have I been up to the last couple of months that I haven't been blogging? Nothing much really. I'm stuck in a rut and I'm slowly digging my way back out of the mire. Even though I've been procrastrinating on an exponential level I still haven't been completely idle where reading is concerned - I've been close enough to stone cold idle though - and while I don't have the drive or the energy to write full-blown reviews let me give you a quick recap of what I've read lately and what are my thoughts on the books.

After I've reviewed DAVID LUIS EDELMAN's "Infoquake", that was way back in June, I've tackled (for the 7th time now) the mind-boggling saga Malazan Book of the Fallen. "Reaper's Gale" is not the best book in the series, but it is still a substantial effort by the fantasy powerhouse that goes by the name STEVEN ERIKSON. I'm not going into the details, so if you are unfamiliar with the series you can go and catch up on some of the older reviews I've written ("Midnight Tides" is actually the opening review for this site; at that time I was still learning the ropes of how and what to write so it is most definitely too long and unfocused, but it went a lot of effort into writing it). "Reaper's Gale" is, in my opinion, a weaker work than the initial four novels, but feels tighter and more focused than both"Midnight Tides" and "The Bonehunters". Malazan Book of the Fallen definitely remains a hallmark of modern fantasy, and "Reaper's Gale" only solidifys this notion.

After the hefty Malazan novel I had a taste for something smaller in volume, but not necessarily lighter of content. I found what I was looking for with URSULA K. LeGUIN's "The Dispossessed". It's no secret that I'm a fan of her work. "The Left Hand of Darkness" was a terrific work of fiction and one of my favourite reads of all time and while I wasn't as enthused with "The Lathe of Heaven" -- another of her masterworks -- "The Disspossesed" reminded me of LeGUIN's lucid insights into the human condition and her brilliant characterization skills. The ending was lukewarm in comparison with the rest of the novel, but a very strong work of fiction on overall, totally deserving of the Masterwork title and all the awards it got back in the day. Highly recommended.

"Heroes Die" and "The Blade of Tyshalle" by MATTHEW WOODRING STOVER are certainly works of fiction that I shouldn't have postponed reading for so long. STOVER -- a close example to PAUL KEARNEY in this particular case -- is another gem of fantasy literature who deserves more widespread recognition (and audience). He has a devoted following among the genre fans, which comes as a no surprise to me, but his works never cut it as deep into the mainstream as have titles from some lesser authors. His Star Wars novels, namely "Traitor", "Shatterpoint" and "Revenge of the Sith", are considered among the best works that were written in this particular shared world, but again, author's renown usually rises and falls with the original work he writes...which brings us to THE ACTS OF CAINE. The Acts of Caine are, by this moment, an unfinished fantasy series that consist of the following novels: "Heroes Die" (1997), "Blade of Tyshalle" (2001) and "Caine Black Knife" (2005, Act of Atonement: Book One). Book Two of the Act of Atonement, "His Father's Fist", is forthcoming. There is a rumor of more books about Caine to be written and he has recently signed a deal to write a novelization of a popular "God of War" videogame (Kraitos, the character you play in the game, has Caine written on it forehead really), but I digress. Caine is Badass, period. Following Caine's story is an absolute joy ride, but what makes these books good aren't the inventively portrayed acts of distilled bone-crushing violence, but the fact that you care about Caine and what happens to him. STOVER is a smart writer and his characterization is quite on the spot. Where STOVER fails in "Heroes Die" is the pretty straightforward plot and the feeling that he could expand on the world-building (the ideas are good, but the author rarely deviates from the fast moving plot and Caine's story), which makes the book a bit "provincial". But all this doesn't lessen my opinion of the novel, since STOVER addresses all the shortcomings of book one in "Blade of Tyshalle" and disperses all the doubts I had that Acts of Caine won't meet the high expectations I had about them. Truly remarkable.

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I have no idea what I'll read next, but I'll let myself be surprised and I hope I'll be able to write a review or two in the near future and brake this stupor I've gotten myself into. Until the next good book is read...
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~ ThRiNiDiR ~

Richelle Mead - Thorn Queen (Book Review)

"THORN QUEEN" (Amazon: UK, US)
by RICHELLE MEAD
Format: Paperback, 480/384 pages
Publisher: Bantam Books / Zebra Books (August 2009)

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About a year ago, I read and reviewed the first book of Dark Swan series, Storm Born, which came as a pleasant surprise. Naturally, I was excited to hear that the sequel was coming out this year and when I got the book, I started reading it as soon as I could find some time. Sadly, I have to say that it wasn't worth it.

The beginning once again introduces us to Eugenie's everyday (which I found pretty nice since I'd forgotten most of what has happened in the first book). This time around, Eugenie spends most of her days in Otherworld, since she is now the Thorn Queen there. Her country, being magical, has changed to suit her, but the inhabitants of Thorn Land have some hard time adapting to the climate changes. Eugenie is distraught and wants to help them, but by doing so, she has to put her talents to use, learn some more magic and decide on where her loyalties lie.

The plot is promising and pretty well-written, even if it seems that we've heard it all before. It's too bad that Mead doesn't leave it at that, but instead proceeds to throw in the element of paranormal romance – quite a lot of it. It seemed as if every chapter ended with a long scene of Eugenie and Kiyo having wild, rough sex. These love scenes are not even good, and after reading two or three of them, I simply started skipping them, because they were all the same. It was pretty annoying, not to mention being a really obvious filler for when Mead got out of ideas or simply wanted to prolong the book (without the sex scenes, it would've been shorter for at least a half) – I can't even say that she wanted to spice things up a bit, because it was all so utterly boring.

The humour, which I enjoyed quite a lot in the first book, has now faltered as well; in Thorn Queen, dialogues seem watered down and uninteresting. I admit I was under a lot of stress at the time of reading this book, so that might have influenced my views a bit, but I still think the fault lies mostly in Mead's writing. There was some lack of research on her part that did nothing to improve things – I could hardly laugh at Ladyxmara72 (a girl who met Eugenie in person and insisted on being addressed with her World of Warcraft character name), when I find it almost common knowledge that WoW characters can't have numbers in their names. It's a very silly, not to say sloppy mistake, but it destroyed that character for me, rendering her completely unconvincing. You can't submerge yourself into plot that way, not when such mistakes make you aware that the characters are just a product of an author that did not do her research well enough and don't, by any chance, resemble real people. And I always thought geeks were the easiest characters to write, because there are so many stereotypes about them that are actually true in plenty of cases. Meh.

Thorn Queen is a huge step backwards from what we've seen in Storm Born. The plot is all but put on the sidetrack and the whole book mostly revolves about Eugenie's sexual life, when it should be the other way around. Thus, Thorn Queen firmly sets itself into the sub-genre of paranormal romance, and will probably appeal to fans of Twilight and the like. Too bad, really – the plot had much potential, but has become more of an excuse for sex scenes.
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~Trin~

2009 Hugo Award Winners

2009 Hugo Award Winners were presented at Anticipation, the 67th World Science Fiction Convention, in Montréal, which was held from August 6-10, 2009.

The Winners:

• Best Novel: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)

• Best Novella: “The Erdmann Nexus”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)

• Best Novelette: “Shoggoths in Bloom”, Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008)

• Best Short Story: “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)

• The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: David Anthony Durham

• Best Related Book: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008, John Scalzi (Subterranean Press)

• Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)

• Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: WALL-E Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)

• Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon, & Maurissa Tancharoen, writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)

• Best Editor Short Form: Ellen Datlow
• Best Editor Long Form: David G. Hartwell
• Best Professional Artist: Donato Giancola

• Best Semiprozine: Weird Tales, edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal
• Best Fanzine: Electric Velocipede edited by John Klima
• Best Fan Writer: Cheryl Morgan
• Best Fan Artist: Frank Wu

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Congratulations to all the winners!

source: The Hugo Awards

David Gunn's "Death's Head" - Giveaway contest winners!

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Thanks to all of the participants who entered the competition, but the books are going to only two persons, and they are...

Suzana Confalonieri, Italy
and Luka Finžgar, Slovenia

The books are going to be shipped as soon as possible and the date of arrival depends only on how fast the guys on the post work :). I'd again like to thank the good people at Transworld, who made this giveaway possible and to the rest of you, better luck next time!

Until another good book finds its reader...

Sarah Rees Brennan - Sorcerer and Stone (Free Fiction)

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I reviewed SARAH REES BRENNAN's debut, "The Demon Lexicon", back in March, and found it an appealing YA novel. She has now come up with an idea for promoting her book with gifts and free fiction - a short story entitled Sorcerer and Stone (I haven't decided yet whether the title, as well as some other things, is a deliberate reference to Harry Potter or not), which tells the background of one of the characters in "The Demon's Lexicon". You can read the short story here.

China Miéville on J.R.R. Tolkien

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MIÉVILLE's derogatory opinion of J.R.R. TOLKIEN is pervasive and documented. His leftist criticism from a few years back denotes TOLKIEN as stultifying (i.e. tending to humiliate), reactionary, pompous, petty and in favour of status quo among other things. He consciously strived to move fantasy away from TOLKIEN's influence. In other words, MIÉVILLE's goal -- as I understand it -- was to make fantasy more aware of the problems of contemporary world, to make fantasy socialist, subversive and revolutionary, critical of the ruling elite and in favour of the common man. MIÉVILLE's position on the genre is, as he admitted himself, also indebted to MICHAEL MOORCOCK. MOORCOCK's highly critical and somewhat elitist position on the genre, or rather, the genre paradigm stemming directly from TOLKIEN is evident in the article titled "Epic Pooh", which is also well worth reading.

Now, "Lord of the Rings" was the first fantasy book I've read -- how cliched, I know :) -- and I don't, or rather, I won't, say a bad thing about it. Of course, I'm open to criticisms directed at "LOTR", as long as they are rational and constructive, and I wouldn't go out of my way to stubbornly defend it (I'm stallwart, but I'm not that rigid). But when it comes to me thinking about reviewing the trilogy, I wouldn't want to do it, because I don't feel that I'm grown up to the task. I'm positive that my attempts at impartiality would be utterly thwarted by my own feelings of affection and nostalgia. All this holds true only, if I wouldn't be completely disillusioned upon rereading "LOTR", but which I wasn't when I did reread it a couple of years ago, so it does, hold true that is.

In one of MIÉVILLE's latest entries as a guest blogger on Omnivoracious, he tempers his past commentaries on TOLKIEN with what could be called a praise or even a hommage -- he even mentiones the words grateful and rocks -- to the forefather of the large piece of contemporary epic fantasy, if only from the perspective of MIÉVILLE's past barrage of denunciation. Although he still acknowledges that even an author of TOLKIEN's fame can and -- exactly because of such high standing -- must be open to intellectual reproach, he nevertheless gives TOLKIEN credit for the achievments and contributions he's made to the genre, which, MIÉVILLE admits, were seminal and substantial. The essayistic manner in which MIÉVILLE wrote "There and Back Again: Five Reasons Tolkein Rocks" makes it for a dense, scholary read, but the five reasons can, basically, be boiled down to this:

1. TOLKIEN was responsible for a tectonic shift of focus in storytelling; a shift from Greco-Roman mythology to a more yeasty Norse Magic. Greco-Roman influence on fiction was run of the mill at that time and MIÉVILLE views it as "too clean," "overburdened with percision," and "as cold as Greek and Roman marble". Norse mythos is, on the other hand, more fleshy, anti-moralistic and, well...awesome.
2. TOLKIEN's vision is tragic. This is a noble trait that most of those who followed in his footsteps forgot -- intentionally or unintentionally -- to take over. The ending of "LOTR" is not happy, even though the good guys win. It is an end of a glorious age: the magic is going west with the elves, a premonition of a more mundane, and thus poorer future. The book ends with strong melancholia and nostalgia for times that are not quite gone yet, but are in passing. All this, argues MIÉVILLE, deserves celebrating and reclaiming.
3. TOLKIEN "...gives good monster. Shelob, Smaug, the Balrog...in their astounding names, the fearful verve of their descriptions, their various undomesticated malevolence, these creatures are utterly embedded in our world-view. No one can write giant spiders except through Shelob: all dragons are sidekicks now. And so on." All this, coming from a man with seemingly unfathomable imagination, means a lot.
4. "TOLKIEN explains that he has a 'cordial dislike of allegory'. Amen! Amen!" If "LOTR" would be allegorical, then it would, in one way or another, represent, reflect or suggest resemblance to reality. Metaphor on the other hand does not suggest any such thing. MIÉVILLE still cautions that TOLKIEN's work does "throw off metaphors" that do "all sort of things, wittingly or unwittingly, with ideas of society, of class, the war etc.", but where metaphors "evade stability", allegory, on the other hand, is, "in some reductive way, primarily, solely, or really 'about' something else, narrowly and precisely." An allegorical work of fiction gives promise to the reader that he can 'solve' it by finding a right key, by decoding it, and "TOLKIEN knows that that makes for both clumsy fiction and clunky code. His dissatisfaction with the Narnia books was in part precisely because they veered too close to allegory, and therefore did not believe in their own landscape." So, in MIÉVILLE's view, "LOTR" is worthwile, because it believes in itself and in the world created within. It is 'lartpourlart' in its true sense and whichever stereotypes it does reproduce and if it defends the status quo, it does so evasively and unintentionally. I'm curious though, how does MIÉVILLE's work relate to allegory? Isn't he guilty of the same thing he stands so firmly against in this treatise?
5. "Middle Earth was not the first invented world, of course. But in the way the world is envisaged and managed, it represents a revolution." Middle Earth was not the first, but definitely "an outstanding herald" of the fantasy worlds that are not secondary to the plot. TOLKIEN represents a paradigm shift which reverses the order of things: "the world comes first, and then, and only then, things happen--stories occur--within it." TOLKIEN calls this process 'subcreation' and it is now, probably, the default fantasy mode and an extremely potent literary approach, whether you denigrate or praise it. MIÉVILLE laments the fact that there is little to no theoretical work on this technique as of yet.

MIÉVILLE concludes his article in a lenient, mannerly way: "There are plenty of other reasons to be grateful to Tolkien, of course--and reasonable reasons to be ticked off at him, too: critique, after all has its place. But so does admiration..." You can read the article in its entirety here.

While MIÉVILLE doesn't recall his past harsh criticism of TOLKIEN, he nevertheless tempers and balances it out by complimenting the Professor and giving him acclaim, where acclaim is due. I'm just curious what brought him 'about'? Was the article written as a consequence of the process of MIÉVILLE's 'wising up' with age or is there a more pragmatic reason behind it? James takes an educated guess and speculates that MIÉVILLE's article comes as an indirect reposte to the RICHARD MORGAN's rant and I'm inclined to agree with him.

~ ThRiNiDiR ~

In the Limelight - The Winner of The David Gemmell Award for 2009 Announced

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On April 12th the shortlist for the first DAVID GEMMELL LEGEND AWARD was announced and the final five nominees were as follows:
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"Last Argument of Kings" by JOE ABERCROMBIE
"Heir to Sevenwaters" by JULIET MARILLIER
"The Hero of Ages" by BRANDON SANDERSON
"Blood of Elves" by ANDRZEJ SAPKOWSKI
"The Way of Shadows" by BRENT WEEKS

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The award ceremony has taken place on June 19 in the Magic Circle in London and at the end of the night THE DAVID GEMMELL LEGEND AWARD went to:
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"Blood of Elves" by ANDRZEJ SAPKOWSKI

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Congratulations to the winner and condolences to the rest! I haven't yet read "Blood of the Elves", but if I could judge it by "The Last Wish" (SAPKOWSKI's first novel translated into English and reviewed here) then I'd say it was a strong candidate at the least. Now I have no excuse to delay reading it anymore.

David Gunn - Maximum Offense (Giveaway)

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Thanks to the folks at Transworld, we have two giveaway copies of DAVID GUNN's "Death Head's: Maximum Offense" (2008; Amazon UK) - a direct sequel to "Death's Head" (2007) - for you to win. If you'd like to find out more bout this in-your-face military sf title you can read the review at Graeme's Fantasy Book Review or over at Fantasy Book Critic. A section of what Graeme had to say about the book:

"No expense is spared in bringing the reader the most visceral hand to hand combat, that I’ve seen, along with lots of heavy machinery exploding in a variety of ways. There’s elements of ‘MacGyver’ here as Sven seems able to make use of pretty much anything to get himself out of a tight spot and bring down the enemy."

"‘Maximum Offense’ makes no apologies for what it is, a hefty slice of violent space opera that will entertain. It doesn’t do a lot more than that though so make sure you’re in the right mood to enjoy it before you pick it up (unless you’re a fan already in which case you’ll love it)."

...and here's what Fantasy Book Critic has to say about the book:

"In the end, “Maximum Offense” is basically more of the same in-your-face military SF that was on display in the author’s debut, but where I enjoyed “Death’s Head” I absolutely loved the new book. What’s even better is that there will be at least one more Death’s Head novel and if the first two are any indication, then the book is going to kick some ass…"

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If you are interested in having this book for yourself send us an email at sf.fantasy.books[AT]gmail.com (remember to replace [AT] with @) entitled "DEATH'S HEAD" and containing your full mailing address (name, surname, street etc.). If you don't want your real name/full name posted on our blog when we announce the winners, please include that information in your email.

Because our resources are, unfortunately, still of a very restricted nature, we can't afford to mail the book overseas. What it means is, that this particular giveaway is for European residents only. If you are a member of any particular message board you can include your nickname in the mail as well, but this is not obligatory.

Multiple entries and emails failing to follow the above guidelines will be disqualified.

We will announce the winners of the giveaway on July 7, 2009.

Good luck to all the participants!

James Enge - Blood of Ambrose (Book Review)

"Blood of Ambrose" (Amazon: UK, US)
by JAMES ENGE
Format: Paperback, 401 pages
Publisher: Pyr (April 21, 2005)

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Like "Midwinter" by MATTHEW STURGES, "Blood of Ambrose" is a novel with a promising blurb and an appealing cover, but it took some time for me to convince myself to pick it up and start reading. Even then, I regarded the first few characters with skepticism: sure, they showed promise, but so did the opening chapters of "Midwinter" and look what those have lead to... Luckily, "Blood of Ambrose" is - among other things - much more coherent than Midwinter, and the opening chapters do not charm the reader in order to make up for a disappointment he will experience later, but rather lead him into a story about a child-king, growing up in a restless age of riots and uprisings.

John from Grasping for the Wind described the plot as "Lathmar's capture, rescue, recapture and rescue again", which correctly describes the gist of it, but there’s more to the story than just the adventures of the little King. "Blood of Ambrose" is an action-packed fantasy, which, despite seeming to revolve around the boy-king Lathmar, actually focuses more on Lathmar’s grown-up ‘assistants’ and his distant relatives: his ‘grandmother’ Ambrosia, her brother, the notorious Mordock, and his apprentice, who all fight Lathmar’s war in order to bring peace back to his kingdom. There is still a lot of focus on Lathmar’s adventures, though, which makes "Blood of Ambrose" a nice blend of YA and fantasy – the not-too-serious narrating tone prevents "Blood of Ambrose" to sound too bleak or ominous when regarding some of the graver events like the uprising of the ‘zombies’ and the painful past of the Ambrosii (i.e. Mordock and Ambrosia). At the same time, we get a pretty realistic picture of Lathmar as a boy: he hardly knows what the grown-ups are talking about half of the time, he has no special skills except for those which are more or less common in his family and his perception is, at times, rather naïve.

Some reviews claim that "Blood of Ambrose" lacks characterization, but I disagree. Sure, there is a lot of unused potential to the characters, but we get to know their main personality traits and since we view them mostly from Lathmar's perspective I think it's only logical that they all seem a bit mysterious and distant – after all, these are the basic attributes of an adult viewed from a child's perspective. There are also a lot of little tidbits of characters' pasts, which implies that we'll get to know them even better in the sequel, This Crooked Way (personally, I suspect that Mordock will appear there as the main character).

"Blood of Ambrose" has other problems, though – what I missed most was humour. There were some attempts at it, but I just didn't find them amusing enough. There were maybe two or three really humorous moments, but mostly, it just seemed as though there were a lot of little holes in the flow of narration or dialogue which should be filled with humour but were, for some reason, left empty.

At times, parts of the story are simply left unfinished, such as the part where Lathmar falls in love and then never mentions or remembers that again. What bothered me as well were the parts with Hope, who only appears a few times; her relationship with Ambrosia could use some more detail and overall complexity. Also, how come Morlock is still confused by the signature in her note to him, when he received a farewell from her just before that? Such small things make the book look unfinished, which is never good.

These flaws aside, "Blood of Ambrose" is still more than a decent debut with a nice, flowing style, intriguing characters and a unique idea. Its ending led me to expect that we'll see a great deal more of Ambrosii in the sequel, and I look forward to it.

---(4 out of five EvilFruitcakes)
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~Trin~

David Eddings has passed away...

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DAVID EDDINGS, aged 77, has, sadly, passed away two nights ago, on June 2, 2009. He is most well known for his five-book Belgariad saga, written in 1980'. His fantasy was extremely popular, inspired many contemporary writers, and has helped to carve what we call modern epic fantasy. He was one of the most influential fantasy authors in the eighties and early ninties. Amongst his peers were such authors as Stephen Donaldson and Terry Brooks. While often criticized for his formulaic and repetitive approach to writing (he didn't deny that he started writing fantasy for profit), his works nevertheless possess some inate quality and appeal that made his such a prominent name.

It is always sad to hear that an author passes away, especially one that brought pleasure to so many of us. Our condolances to his family and friends, this truly is sad news for the genre fans. May you rest in peace Mr.Eddings...

source: The Wertzone, Graeme's blog & SFCrowsnest.com

Condensed&Appropriated BOOK RELEASES for JUNE 2009

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Why condensed and appropriated? Because I shifted through the more extensive publication lists that were published elswhere (I wouldn't want to take credit for other people's work: The Deckled Edge, SFRevu.com, The Ostentatious Ogre and Fantasy Book Critic) and I appropriated them for my own needs; since I'm rather picky the list I'm making is also of a condensed nature :).

Without further ado, the books of June 2009 that look especially promising are:

• "Best Served Cold" (June 1, 2009 UK) by JOE ABERCROMBIE
• "The Angel's Game" (transl. June 1, 2009 UK and June 16, 2009 US) by CARLOS RUIZ ZAFÓN
• "Nights of Villjamur" (June 12, 2009 UK) by MARK CHARAN NEWTON
• "Retribution Falls" (June 18, 2009 UK) by CHRIS WOODING
• "Naamah's Kiss" (June 24, 2009) by JACQUELINE CAREY
• "Warbreaker" (June 9, 2009 US) by BRANDON SANDERSON

For the rest of the books being released in June 2009 follow the links above.

As for what you can expect from us in the next couple of weeks is Trin's review of "Blood of Ambrose" by James Enge, my review of "Infoquake" by David Luis Edelman and a new giveaway, so stay tuned...
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~ Thrinidir ~

May Day

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For what is worth nowadays, we wish you all great 1st of May (International Workers' Day).
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Everybody knows one can't live on principles and rights alone. But do bear in mind, that if we accept their suspension for the duration of a crisis then it's very likely that the crisis, at least for us, will never end.

Good luck to all of us!

Matthew Sturges - Midwinter (Book Review)

"Midwinter" (Amazon: UK, US)
by MATHEW STURGES
Format: Paperback, 345 pages
Publisher: Prometheus Books / Pyr (March 2006)

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You probably know how it is when a book's cover looks so great and its summary sounds so intriguing that you want to adore it straight away, without even reading it. In fact, you could almost say you're afraid to read such a book because you don't want to get disillusioned. I felt like that when I got "Midwinter" in the mail – but to my relief, when I finally dared to open it, I found out that its beginning was great.

The opening scene shows us directly into a prison brawl, where we meet two of the main characters; a warrior called Mauritane and the mysterious Raieve. There is no introduction to the world in which the story takes place or to the events that lead to either one’s imprisonment, which is one of the reasons why the beginning is so gripping and intriguing. When the plot became quest-oriented soon after the opening chapters, I was not disheartened – even though there is a danger of getting trapped into the usual cliché of quest-oriented fantasy (the great hero goes on a quest, saves the world and gets the girl), there are still really great books with quest-based plots. I was also charmed by the amount of humour present (you can find an example at the beginning of SQT’s review) and I often laughed out loud while reading. Plus, there were curious little tidbits of mystery: different worlds, the strange Gifts and re energy of the elves, Mauritane and Purane-Es’ past … The first third of "Midwinter" showed great potential – honestly, I was certain that it could get better than, say, one of the Abercrombie’s books.

The problem is that all the initial potential went more or less to waste. In fact, the book deteriorates so much after the first third that the reader wonders whether STURGES simply got lucky with the beginning. First signs that the story has started to go wrong appear soon enough: on about one third of the novel, more and more of the details don’t get explained, and the adventurers are revealed to bear the most typical roles of adventuring party members:

• a near-omnipotent, loyal and honourable leader
• a mysterious elven woman who is, depending on situation, either a cold-blooded fighter or a damsel in distress
• a wizard whose sole point in life seems to be chasing young women
• a human physicist who serves as the clumsy, confused provider of comic relief and
• a few elves, who seem to be there only because STURGES felt that not all of the party members should survive but couldn’t spare any of the important ones.

Other characters are, sadly, none the better. Hy Pezho is your typical frustrated villain who abhors the fact that he is of no interest to women and wants to achieve greatness in order to finally win the hearts of the court ladies. The two Queens of the opposing sides appear to be little less than statues when it comes to their character – we don’t even get to know why exactly our party of ‘good guys’ follows one and not the other, since the only vague reason we get is somewhere along the lines of ‘ well, we’re used to being loyal’. Lady Anne is one of the rare brighter spots here and the only character who isn’t strictly black or white; she is shunned by society because of her noble husband’s imprisonment and must choose between loyalty and social life. Purane Es is half mindless, vengeful jerk and half romantic poet who is forced to obey his father’s wishes. My almost-extinguished hopes rose when Purane-Es decided to win Lady Anne for himself and delivered the ‘you’re so special, I’ve never felt like this before’ speech – I was delighted with how evil, cunning and convincing he was. Imagine my disappointment when I found out that he was, in fact, being honest.

At that moment, I put "Midwinter" down for a week. I can’t describe how disappointed I felt – I kept hoping that all those little mysteries will be solved, that the questions will get answered and things like Gifts will get explained, but as I neared the ending, I saw that this was not the case. When I finally decided to pick "Midwinter" up again, I saw that it would be better if I left it unread – the conclusion is the lowest point of the book, not because it were badly written but because it is the end of all hopes that Midwinter’s potential will be put to good use. The party almost trips over the quest’s objective, but we still don’t get to know what good the quest actually was. The aforementioned Gifts and re energy are only mentioned once or twice after the beginning, the humour is completely gone after the first third and it is painfully obvious that things like Silverdun‘s transformation and the human settlement subplot were meant to have a purpose which was then lost in the process.

This might sound a little harsh, but I was reminded of the time when I was 14 and trying to write a ‘book’. I had lots and lots of ideas (not terribly innovative ones, but still), but I just piled them all up and then filled the holes with random stuff. When I look at that text now, I see a few good ideas, some unused potential and a lot of useless junk. "Midwinter" is pretty similar in that aspect – piled up ideas, lots of fillers and a potential to be something much, much better. For now, though, "Midwinter" is more of a raw draft than anything else, and will leave a bad taste, regardless of how good the sequels are, but they can push the trilogy onto an average level and maybe even past that if they return to the style of Midwinter’s first third. If it weren’t for the latter, "Midwinter" would be a total waste of time.
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~ Trin ~

The David Gemmell Award 2009 (shortlist)

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On April 12th the shortlist for the first DAVID GEMMELL LEGEND AWARD has been announced and the final five in alphabetical (bold) order are as follows:
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"Last Argument of Kings" by JOE ABERCROMBIE
"Heir to Sevenwaters" by JULIET MARILLIER
"The Hero of Ages" by BRANDON SANDERSON
"Blood of Elves" by ANDRZEJ SAPKOWSKI
"The Way of Shadows" by BRENT WEEKS

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Congratulations to all the nominees! I've only read the first book so my (partial) vote lies with LAoK; I've heard a lot of good stuff about Sanderson (Mistborn is sitting by me pleading to be read), Sapkowski (The Witcher was brilliant) and Weeks though...nothing about Marillier, but I don't doubt the book deserves recognition. So, where lies your vote?
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Hugo Nominees 2009: Free Reading

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Asimov's Science Fiction has made available all of their Hugo and Nebula award nominees for 2009 as a free read up on their website.
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HUGO

Novellas
"The Erdmann Nexus" by NANCY KRESS
"Truth" by ROBERT REED

Novelette
"Alastair Baffle's Emporium of Wonders" by MIKE RESNICK
"The Ray-Gun: A Love Story" by JAMES ALAN GARDNER
"Shoggoths in Bloom" by ELIZABETH BEAR

Short Story
"26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss", by KIJ JOHNSON
"From Babel's Fall'n Glory We Fled", by MICHAEL SWANWICK

NEBULA

Novelette
"The Ray-Gun: A Love Story" by JAMES ALAN GARDNER
"Dark Rooms" by LISA GOLDSTEIN

Short Story
"26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss", by KIJ JOHNSON
"Don't Stop" by JAMES PATRIK KELLY

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I'd like to thank Joe Sherry From Adventures in Reading for the heads up.

EDIT: Thanks to MentatJack for directing me to his Hugo tracking post, where he offers quite a few more links to free online versions of Hugo nominees ("Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow, all of the nominees for Best Novellete as well the nominees for Short Story and almost all the nominees for Best Novella). Good stuff.

~ Thrinidir ~

In the Limelight - 2009 Hugo Awards Nominations

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The nominations for arguably the most important genre award are known and are as follows:
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Best Novel

“Anathem” by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
“The Graveyard Book” by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
“Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK)
“Saturn’s Children” by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
“Zoe’s Tale” by John Scalzi (Tor)

Best Novella

“The Erdmann Nexus” by Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)
“The Political Prisoner” by Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF Aug 2008)
“The Tear” by Ian McDonald (Galactic Empires)
“True Names” by Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow (Fast Forward 2)
“Truth” by Robert Reed (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)

Best Novelette

“Alastair Baffle’s Emporium of Wonders” by Mike Resnick (Asimov’s Jan 2008)
“The Gambler” by Paolo Bacigalupi (Fast Forward 2)
“Pride and Prometheus” by John Kessel (F&SF Jan 2008)
“The Ray-Gun: A Love Story” by James Alan Gardner (Asimov’s Feb 2008)
“Shoggoths in Bloom” by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008)

Best Short Story

“26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s Jul 2008)
“Article of Faith” by Mike Resnick (Baen’s Universe Oct 2008)
“Evil Robot Monkey” by Mary Robinette Kowal (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
“Exhalation” by Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
“From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled” by Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s Feb 2008)

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Aliette de Bodard*
David Anthony Durham*
Felix Gilman
Tony Pi*
Gord Sellar*

Best Related Book

Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan University Press)
Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art by Cathy & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood Books)
The Vorkosigan Companion: The Universe of Lois McMaster Bujold by Lillian Stewart Carl & John Helfers, eds. (Baen)
What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid (Beccon Publications)
Your Hate Mail Will be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008 by John Scalzi (Subterranean Press)

Best Graphic Story

The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle Written by Jim Butcher, art by Ardian Syaf (Del Rey/Dabel Brothers Publishing)
Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
Fables: War and Pieces Written by Bill Willingham, pencilled by Mark Buckingham, art by Steve Leialoha and Andrew Pepoy, color by Lee Loughridge, letters by Todd Klein (DC/Vertigo Comics)
Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politic Story and art by Howard Tayler (The Tayler Corporation)
Serenity: Better Days Written by Joss Whedon & Brett Matthews, art by Will Conrad, color by Michelle Madsen, cover by Jo Chen (Dark Horse Comics)
Y: The Last Man, Volume 10: Whys and Wherefores Written/created by Brian K. Vaughan, penciled/created by Pia Guerra, inked by Jose Marzan, Jr. (DC/Vertigo Comics)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

The Dark Knight Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer, story; Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, screenplay; based on characters created by Bob Kane; Christopher Nolan, director (Warner Brothers)
Hellboy II: The Golden Army Guillermo del Toro & Mike Mignola, story; Guillermo del Toro, screenplay; based on the comic by Mike Mignola; Guillermo del Toro, director (Dark Horse, Universal)
Iron Man Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway, screenplay; based on characters created by Stan Lee & Don Heck & Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby; Jon Favreau, director (Paramount, Marvel Studios)
METAtropolis by John Scalzi, ed. Written by: Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell and Karl Schroeder (Audible Inc)
WALL-E Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

“The Constant” (Lost) Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof, writers; Jack Bender, director (Bad Robot, ABC studios)
Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen , writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)
“Revelations” (Battlestar Galactica) Bradley Thompson & David Weddle, writers; Michael Rymer, director (NBC Universal)
“Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead” (Doctor Who) Steven Moffat, writer; Euros Lyn, director (BBC Wales)
“Turn Left” (Doctor Who) Russell T. Davies, writer; Graeme Harper, director (BBC Wales)

Best Editor, Short Form

(377 Ballots)
Ellen Datlow
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Gordon Van Gelder
Sheila Williams

Best Editor, Long Form

Lou Anders
Ginjer Buchanan
David G. Hartwell
Beth Meacham
Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Best Professional Artist

Daniel Dos Santos
Bob Eggleton
Donato Giancola
John Picacio
Shaun Tan

Best Semiprozine

Clarkesworld Magazine edited by Neil Clarke, Nick Mamatas & Sean Wallace
Interzone edited by Andy Cox
Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
The New York Review of Science Fiction edited by Kathryn Cramer, Kris Dikeman, David G. Hartwell, & Kevin J. Maroney
Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal

Best Fanzine

Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
Challenger edited by Guy H. Lillian III
The Drink Tank edited by Chris Garcia
Electric Velocipede edited by John Klima
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer

Best Fan Writer

Chris Garcia
John Hertz
Dave Langford
Cheryl Morgan
Steven H Silver

Best Fan Artist

Alan F. Beck
Brad W. Foster
Sue Mason
Taral Wayne
Frank Wu

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Congratulations to all the nominees!