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A review by bookaneer
An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards, 1953-2000 by Jo Walton
4.0
I am not sure how I should rate this book considering I skimmed maybe 20% of it (I'll explain why). This book is a compilation of Walton’s articles in Tor.com and she included some of the comments made by mostly the influencers in the genre, editors like Rich Horton, James Nicoll, the late Gardner Dozois etc. It reads to me like a Goodreads forum with the more SFional knowledgeable members commenting on a thread about Hugo nominations. I should also say members who have followed the genre development since the 1950s.
Of course in Walton’s own commentary and the included comments there were A LOT of titles mentioned. Most of them, especially the ones before 1990s, were not recognizable by yours truly except household names who are still widely read today like Le Guin, Butler, Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, you know the rest. She also put some essays about the winners but since they are spoilery I skipped/skimmed some of them which books I have not read.
Still there were lots of interesting points. I did not know File770 was more than 30 years old. I did not know Ted Chiang was already a big deal in 1992 when he won the Campbell (now Astounding) Award and in the previous year also was nominated for Tower of Babylon. I did not know No Award was a thing even in the 1950s. I did not know there was a Best All Time Series category once (which is back now, I suppose).
Another thing I found interesting is the quote from Peter Graham: The Golden Age of SF is when you were twelve. I am pretty excited to know that the Mars trilogy, A Fire Upon the Deep, Parable of the Sower, and Ted Chiang's first nominated stories was my golden age of SF, as well as A Game of Thrones (though it’s technically not SF). I guess I need continue the Mars trilogy and also try some Nancy Kress.
I enjoyed Walton’s frank opinion. She complained about lots of things, like cyberpunk (she really hates it), Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books (understandable), some of the award categories (that keeps changing sometimes in a bizarre direction – like, what the fudge is Best Ad?), and of course the works that should have won or nominated. I just laughed when she dubbed the best semiprozine category as ‘the Best Locus’ category. She has this hilarious streak of zingers that got me chuckled lots of times.
Last but not remotely least, she included winners from other major awards in her opinions, from the Nebulas to the PKD, World Fantasy and also Tiptree awards (now Otherwise) so that's helpful.
Eh, it seems I did enjoy this book quite immensely and I did purchase two Cherryh books while reading it due to Walton’s almost feverish promotion, so four stars it is.
Of course in Walton’s own commentary and the included comments there were A LOT of titles mentioned. Most of them, especially the ones before 1990s, were not recognizable by yours truly except household names who are still widely read today like Le Guin, Butler, Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, you know the rest. She also put some essays about the winners but since they are spoilery I skipped/skimmed some of them which books I have not read.
Still there were lots of interesting points. I did not know File770 was more than 30 years old. I did not know Ted Chiang was already a big deal in 1992 when he won the Campbell (now Astounding) Award and in the previous year also was nominated for Tower of Babylon. I did not know No Award was a thing even in the 1950s. I did not know there was a Best All Time Series category once (which is back now, I suppose).
Another thing I found interesting is the quote from Peter Graham: The Golden Age of SF is when you were twelve. I am pretty excited to know that the Mars trilogy, A Fire Upon the Deep, Parable of the Sower, and Ted Chiang's first nominated stories was my golden age of SF, as well as A Game of Thrones (though it’s technically not SF). I guess I need continue the Mars trilogy and also try some Nancy Kress.
I enjoyed Walton’s frank opinion. She complained about lots of things, like cyberpunk (she really hates it), Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books (understandable), some of the award categories (that keeps changing sometimes in a bizarre direction – like, what the fudge is Best Ad?), and of course the works that should have won or nominated. I just laughed when she dubbed the best semiprozine category as ‘the Best Locus’ category. She has this hilarious streak of zingers that got me chuckled lots of times.
Last but not remotely least, she included winners from other major awards in her opinions, from the Nebulas to the PKD, World Fantasy and also Tiptree awards (now Otherwise) so that's helpful.
Eh, it seems I did enjoy this book quite immensely and I did purchase two Cherryh books while reading it due to Walton’s almost feverish promotion, so four stars it is.