I must admit that my science fiction reading has been sorely lacking over the past few years. Still, I like to keep up with what’s going on. And so, I get excited when the Hugo Nominations are announced (even though the only thing I know anything about are the video productions).
In the “Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form” category, Return of the King (more fantasy than sci-fi, in my mind) is competing against 28 Days Later (fun zombie movie), Finding Nemo (fun animated movie… though I’m not so sure about it’s sci-fi credentials), Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (fun pirate movie… again with questionable sci-fi ties), and X2: X-Men United (fun comic book movie). If I were voting, I’d go with 28 Days.
In the “Best Dramatic Presentation – Short Form” category, there’s likely the final Buffy episode to be nominated, a nice Smallville episode, Gollum’s hilarious acceptance speech at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, and two Firefly episodes. I really wish I’d gotten the chance to see Firefly, now.
What’s really cool, though, are the “Retrospective Hugo Awards for 1953.” Lots of neat stuff there, including this powerhouse lineup for “Best Novel”:
The Caves of Steel – Isaac Asimov (Galaxy, Oct.-Dec. 1953)
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury (Ballantine)
Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke (Ballantine)
Mission of Gravity – Hal Clement (Astounding, Feb.-July 1953)
More than Human – Theodore Sturgeon (Ballantine)
Wow. How do you choose?
But, of course, my favorite nominee of all is in the “Best Dramatic Presentation – Short Form” category. You already know what it is from the title of this post, right? Right?? Well, if you don’t, then I’m not going to tell you, because you obviously have no taste and are a complete loser. So, back off, Martian, or I shall use my disintegrating pistol on you. And when it disintegrates, boy, does it disintegrate… hey, whaddya know? It disintegrated. Heh.
Clarke for the Retrospective, although Bradbury’s work is monumental, too, and close to prescient regarding today’s society.
Fahrenheit 451, definitely. Asimov has better books, and I can think of a better fictional polemic on our media culture than his timeless novel.
“It was a pleasure to burn.”
Fargenbarger…! I meant to say that I *cannot* think of a better novel, not that I can.
I claim THIS planet in the name of Mars! Ooh, isn’t that lovely?
Get the Firefly DVD’s! They’re worth it.
I like the retrospective awards. That’s such a great idea. But man, what a choice! Quite the bunch of heavyweights there.
I agree 100% about the Firefly DVDs. I missed the show entirely when it was aired, so I rented the first two discs. I was hooked by episode 3. Get those DVDs and treasure them. There’s some fantastic writing in there.