- Thu, 12:00: Gearing up for panel on Flann O’Brien and The Third Policeman, for which I am probably the least qualified and least prepared.
- Thu, 12:33: RT @Scott_EricH: Flann O’Brien panel at Dublin WorldCon. https://t.co/BEBVGJFMM9
- Thu, 12:37: Picture by @Scott_EricH of @Nigellicus, @FrankMcNallyIT, @SlovoBooks and myself (@nwbrux) discussing Flann O’Brien. https://t.co/DszyrXKRC0
- Thu, 13:44: RT @wwhyte: @nwbrux “I should never have spent all that time reading about the first two policemen!”
- Thu, 13:49: How the ‘neithers’ could decide Northern Ireland’s political fate https://t.co/hbR1OyNOML I am quoted by @RoryCarroll22 in today’s Guardian.
- Thu, 14:00: RT @tnielsenhayden: This year’s worldcon publications All refer to it as Dublin 2019; but in accordance with local naming conventions, I pr…
- Thu, 21:53: RT @Dublin2019: Congratulations to Alice Lawson winning the Big Heart Award! https://t.co/8i5V5HzvFq
- Thu, 21:59: RT @Dublin2019: The First Fandom Posthumous Hall of Fame Recipients are Bob Shaw, James White and Walt Willis. #Dulbin2019 #AnIrishWorldCo…
- Thu, 22:07: RT @Dublin2019: Erle M. Korshak presents the Sam Moshowit Archive Award. Erle attended the first 15 ever Worldcons! https://t.co/XZt2TIustF
- Thu, 22:15: RT @Dublin2019: The winner for the 1944 Retro Hugo Award for Best Fanzine is Le Zombie, editor Wilson ‘Bob’ Tucker. #Dublin2019 #AnIrishWor…
- Thu, 22:18: RT @Dublin2019: The winner for the 1944 Retro Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer is Forrest J. Ackerman. #Dublin2019 #AnIrishWorldCon #RetroHug…
- Thu, 22:22: RT @Dublin2019: The winner of the 1944 Retro Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist is Virgil Finlay. #Dublin2019 #AnIrishWorldCon #RetroH…
- Thu, 22:25: RT @Dublin2019: The winner of the 1944 Retro Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor, Short Form is John W. Campbell. #Dublin2019 #AnIrishW…
- Thu, 22:30: RT @Dublin2019: The winner of the 1944 Retro Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form is Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, writt…
- Thu, 22:33: RT @Dublin2019: The winner of the 1944 Retro Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form is Heaven Can Wait, written by Samson Rap…
- Thu, 22:35: RT @Dublin2019: The winner of the 1944 Retro Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story is Wonder Woman #5: Battle for Womanhood, written by William…
- Thu, 22:40: RT @Dublin2019: The winner of the 1944 Retro Hugo Award for Best Short Story is King of the Gray Spaces (R is for Rocket) by Ray Bradbury (…
- Thu, 22:42: RT @Dublin2019: The winner of the 1944 Retro Hugo Award for Best Novelette is Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett (C.L. Moore & Henry…
- Thu, 22:44: RT @Dublin2019: The winner of the 1944 Retro Hugo Award for Best Novella is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Renal & Hitchcoc…
- Thu, 22:48: RT @Dublin2019: The winner of the 1944 Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel is Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber, Jr. (Unknown Worlds, April 1943). #…
- Thu, 23:00: Retro Hugo summary https://t.co/f3I9GtFebh
- Fri, 02:28: RT @Goobergunch: 1944 #TheHugoAwards results from the #Dublin2019 newsletter https://t.co/XTSs9fvEsx
- Fri, 11:18: Eleanor Wheeler’s van, full of Hugos, on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately the van broke down on her way back home;… https://t.co/v549yukSJj
- Fri, 11:48: RT @davidallengreen: This is spot-on “Corbyn is leader of the opposition and, in accordance with our [uncodified] constitution, the first…
I have said many times I’m not keen on book x of y getting into the Hugos for that reason, but to be honest I didn’t think it would make much difference. I don’t think I missed much.
I’m not a huge MilSF fan anyway, so the general dialog didn’t grip me, nor did I find the characters all that interesting. But what I really detested was:
– It’s the future, except everything is the same as now except the big spaceships and FTL – neural computers get mentioned but don’t do much
– People dumber than now – kinetic energy weapons? The whole random scientist just happens to work out something that the entire Earth military haven’t? Don’t buy that, especially since the final solution was used in a Larry Niven novel about 40 years ago
– Some truly horrible science errors – ‘the debris cloud was still accelerator at a quarter gee’, seeing the ‘flash’ from the collision after it happens almost 2 AU away with no mention of an ansible?
I have more, but that’s the headlines. Maybe some of this was covered in the first one, especially how they ended up in the Soylent Green world, but it’s not encouraged me to read another of his.
Ancillary Sword was much better, and I had already decided not to put that top as it’s a Book 2 anyway.
I’m almost certainly not going to read the Butcher, see my book x of y thing, plus I read the first 2 or 3 and didn’t much like them.
I’m curious about the Andersen, but that’s the start of a new series, which also puts me off and again, I don’t think we should be nominating series to the Hugos.
The Goblin Emperor is good so far though.
But one of the terrible things about this mess is the lack of choice on the ballot.