Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell won the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Novel. The winners were announced today. I have not read the work, which friends have described as a novel for adults about magic. All of this year’s nominees were British authors.
Charles Stross won the award for Best Novella for “The Concrete Jungle” in The Atrocity Archives, which I reviewed here and at Blogcritics. Stross had two other nominations this year: Iron Sunrise (reviewed here) for Best Novel and “Elector” for Best Novella.
Inexplicably to me, the animated film The Incredibles won the award for Best Dramatic Presentation, beating out Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Details of the voting on the final ballot is available in PDF format here.
UPDATE: Review of the votes for nominees (PDF file) for best novel is even more revealing than the fact all the finalists were UK authors. Of the 16 novels received nominating votes, one (that’s right, count ’em — ONE) was by an American author. Last April, I excerpted part of comments Charlie Stross made about the problems with American SF. It’s worth another look.
Reality is a crutch for people who can’t handle science fiction.
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