Showing posts with label Award winners. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Award winners. Show all posts

Monday, July 26, 2010

Book Review: Never Let Me Go

Last week I read the book Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, which was considered by Time Magazine to be the best book of 2005, as well as being short-listed for the Booker Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. I've always found it a little funny that I keep coming across titles like these - books that have all sorts of critical acclaim and are in one of my favourite genres (the book is a Science Fiction novel), and it is only years after the fact I even hear about them.

The novel itself follows a woman named Kathy H. as she looks back over her childhood at a boarding school called Hailsham, a school for special children, and especially her friends Ruth and Tommy.

Without going into too many spoilers (which again, is kind of funny, considering I'm talking about a five-year-old book), I love how the book manages to introduce a feeling of anxiety and dread for the reader, while at the same time, slowly letting us know exactly what the students at Hailsham knew all along.

It's very rare I come across a Science Fiction book that fills me with a sense of incredible sadness like this book did, but don't get me wrong - I really liked it. It's kind of a gateway book, wherein fans of award winning literature may take a look at SF and fans of SF may start branching into books that win the Pullizer or the the Booker Prize.

A quick note: I'll be off camping on Wednesday, so I won't have another post up until Friday, but as it will be my 150th post, I'll try to do something special.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Keeping on top of Genre, the Yearlies

Yearly Genre updates are actually pretty simple, mostly it's just keeping up with the genre awards and checking in on certain sequels I've been patiently waiting on.

The Awards
One of my favourite things about the Internet is how easy it is to keep on top of award winners.

From Science Fiction (Hugo, Nebula, and Locus), to Fantasy (World Fantasy and Mythopoeic), to Horror (Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild), and even the few award shows that specialize in horror (Scream Awards, MTV Movie awards), I can keep track of what the newest critically acclaimed titles are (or in the case of the MTV movie awards - what my kids friends most acclaimed movies are) by doing a simple Google search.

I actually keep a spreadsheet listing the winners of each of the book awards and am slowly, but surely moving my way though the winners list - when I'm done it's on to the nominations list.

Sequels
For the simple reason that I don't want to feel bad on a monthly basis, I only follow up on sequels I've been waiting for once a year. Currently Clive Barker's third Abarat novel tops the list (I've been waiting since 2004) followed by my hopes for a new Miles Vorkosigan novel from Lois McMaster Bujold.

What the heck I'll check right now - for fun.

(frenzied sound of typing)

NOPE - no third Abarat book any time soon - that's fine, I've been waiting for half a decade, I can keep waiting for now.

But wait - Lois McMaster Bujold is releasing a new Miles Vorkosigian book in September! It's called Cryoburn! SQUEEE!

(Sound of Bookmonkey doing a quiet victory dance - everyone else in the house is asleep)