Useful Awards

[james_davis_nicoll]

I can think of two varieties of useful award: those that steer me towards interesting reading matter and those whose selections are so amusing in the context of their alleged criteria that discussion of them provides me with much needed conversation.

Any suggestions for awards of either catagory I should be looking at? F&SF, ideally.

Comments

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

There should be an awards for Best Blurbs. I slogged through a slow beginning on a fantasy solely based on three killer blurbs on teh back of teh book.

Sidewise Awards

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

I'm rather partial to the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History, since I'm one of the founders. Over the years we've had numerous discussions/arguments about inclusion of fantastic elements, secret histories, ah based on fiction rather than history and other items.

Examples of each are: Mary Gentle's Ash: A Secret History, Jack Dann's The Memory Cathedral, and Walter John Williams "Foreign Devils."

Re: Sidewise Awards

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

That should be Walter Jon Williams.

Re: Sidewise Awards

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I don't think I will review those for an entirely self-serving reason: I'd have to read SMS.

BTW, have you looked at Ben Jeapes' latest, _The New World Order_? It's from David Fickling Books, who don't seem to publish a lot of books but who appear to make up for that with quality.