I wanted to post on a couple of topics that I hope will be useful or of interest to some of you.
First, the 2018 Nebula Award nominees have been released. Thanks to NG for forwarding the link and for continuing to remind me that I can do more here than just share my opinions on recent reads. This is one of several annual awards meant to recognize the best new Science Fiction and Fantasy entrants across multiple creative categories. The annual awards with arguably the strongest name recognition are the Hugo Awards – chosen by fans – but many will argue that the Nebula – chosen by The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) – is a more prestigious award. It’s also worthwhile to pay attention to Clark Award nominees and winners as that award is focused specifically on books published in the U.K. – with winners chosen by a panel of judges.
Here’s a link to an article in The Verge announcing the 2018 Nominees:
I hope you all find one or more new titles that intrigue you.
I also wanted to put in a quick pitch for a recently released NetFlix series called “Altered Carbon”. I don’t know how many of you have read Richard K. Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs novels – “Altered Carbon”, “Broken Angels” & “Woken Furies”. If you haven’t, I’d highly recommend all three books. I enjoyed everything about these books – the dystopian future that Morgan creates, the title character, the quality of the writing and the intricacy of the stories. I was aware that they’d serialized the first of these books and had been hesitant to take a look – always such a letdown when you break a great book trying to translate it either to the large or small screen. I finally dipped my toe into the water during my trip last week – watched the first episode. Five hours later – far too late for a night when I had early meetings scheduled the next morning – and 5 episodes in – I’m very happy to say that I love what they’ve done bringing this to television. They’ve taken a few liberties – thankfully in a way that’s enhanced the experience – but by and large have stayed loyal to the books – no small task with a future vision and a story as complex as this one.
I’ve had a few people complain when I step away from books and veer into movies or television translations but I love to see quality writing faithfully translated into a media that allows it to impact a new or larger audience. If 1% of the television audience for “Altered Carbon” who otherwise wouldn’t is prompted to pick up an old, paperback copy of “Broken Angels” – that’s a win for all of us.
I hope you’ll give this one a try and let me know what you think. I loved it.
Cheers