Not the Soup. The Award. Not that Award; the Other Award.
Okay, I got this via Scalzi's blog, which linked in turn to this official-looking site, so I guess it's on the level even though I've received no official notification. But it looks like Blindsight made the finals for the John W. Campbell Award.
It's in there with the usual worthy suspects from the Hugos and the Nebs, and lots more besides because — hey, thirteen finalists? Is that normal? Well, whether it is or not, I'm especially gratified to see Karl Schroeder's Sun of Suns in there, because that really is an incredibly fun book with some glorious Technicolor worldbuilding. I wish I'd written it.
Labels: fellow liars, writing news
posted by Peter Watts at
1:07 PM
12 Comments:
Many Congrats Peter! I just knew Blindsight was going to kick ass...
Interesting list, though. Glad to see M. John Harrison's Nova Swing made it there as well. Another great book I would heartily recommend.
-Hannu
Congratulations, even if I find myself less than surprised. Get used to it, your book rocks and rules and numerous other complimentary R-verbs (R-selects? :D)
What's with that bit of code at the bottom though?
Huzzah !
Excellent! Blindsight is fantastic. Glad to see it get some mouth-time that doesn't involve shoving it in a dozen of your friends hands and saying "Read this or you're dead to me. No. Really." ;-)
You've got some great company on that list, too. Good luck!
Glad to see it get some mouth-time that doesn't involve shoving it in a dozen of your friends hands and saying "Read this or you're dead to me.
Hey, how do you think I forced the damn thing onto so many shortlists?
That's great news! I just finished Behemoth (while waiting for my damn B. burgdorferi cultures to spin down) and I'm about to start on Blindsight so I can't vouch for it's quality just yet, but I'm sure it's going to be fantastic if the Rifter series is any indication.
Incidentally, the "official" official site with the nominations is here: http://www2.ku.edu/~sfcenter/campbell-finalists.htm
There's Blindsight next to Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge! Quite exciting.
For some reason it lists these as the 2006 nominees, although the 2006 Award has already been given out. I'm assuming these are distinct because the 2006 Awards (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) do not correspond to any of the finalists.
The 2006 Awards (along with others ) can be viewed here: http://www2.ku.edu/~sfcenter/campbell.htm
Congrats for sure
BS has been one of the best - and most frightening - novels I've read for years. Frightening because of all the issues that we've been discussing here, meaning it's doing what sf should do.
Good to see Nova Swing up there too - quite different, but there's a similar sort of scepticism mixed with lyricism and strange beauty there.
There exists no beauty that hath not some strangeness of proportion to it. Well, that's not word-for-word accurate because I can't be fagged getting the book of my shelf, but it's from Francis Bacon.
Hey, how do you think I forced the damn thing onto so many shortlists?
What, no hacked MRIs to control the awards committees? I demand more unnecessary evil scientist behavior!
Unsurprisingly everyone who has read my scattergun "read-this-or-die" gift are now pissed that Rifters Dead Tree Version is so less trivial to find than Blindsight. (Something should be done.)
Congratulations, Mr. Watts - much deserved.
By the way - the blog is great, but we need a new novel. Seriously. I'm getting the shakes over here.
Dude!
Great to see you up there on the list with Stross and Vinge and other luminaries where you belong... a long and harrowing road. As you know I had my doubts about this kind of outcome, not because of the book's quality -- hell no! -- but because of my dim assessment of the reading public's intelligence and my dismal predictions about the courage of whoever nominates these things (sometimes the public, sometimes a small and elite cabal). We both know this book fucking rocks, let's hope it prevails. The skeptic/pessimist in me still feels shaky ground underneath, but damn boy, you are beating the odds so far, so who knows?
the blog is great, but we need a new novel. Seriously.
Yeah, well, I need a new agent. Even more seriously. Blindsight was a massive uphill struggle, and my list of allies within the system was, shall we say, shorter than it might have been. Next time into the breach, I want someone watching my back.
I got a list of candidates, though. Some of them even know I'm coming.
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