Lost worlds and ports of call

2010 Prometheus Award finalists

The Libertarian Futurist Society announced this year’s finslists for the Prometheus Best Novel Award, for fiction published in 2009.

I have not yet read a single one of the nominees, though I admit to some surprise that Harry Turtledove has two books in the running. I have read only a handful of his books, and (my opinion only) I find them far from gripping and engaging in the manner I expect from an award winning novel. As for the other nominees, I read Card’s earlier novel, or rather, skipped huge chunks to get through it out of sheer sense of obligation. I enjoyed Doctorow’s Little Brother, but have read nothing else by him, and the Kollin brothers debut with their novel. Am I just losing touch with modern SF? I found the recent list of Hugo finalists also distressingly banal and uninteresting. It has been a long while since I truly enjoyed most of the new books I read, and I seem to read fewer each year. There is no sense of wonder in today’s SF, or maybe that’s just me. In movies, everything is a reboot. I expect more from books, but maybe the magic has faded. I get more out re-reading Jack Vance these days.

2 Comments

  1. William H. Stoddard

    This was not a good year for Prometheus nominees. None of the five finalists is an overwhelmingly strong candidate. Every so often there’s going to be a year like that, just as every so often there will be a year with two or three finalists that obviously deserve to win (I have 2000 in mind, specifically).

  2. Anders Monsen

    It seems like the last few years have been fairly uneven. However, after I read the finalists I may change my mind and find one that I really like.

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