UK Hugos for a UK Worldcon

[avram]

Odd things about this BBC News article about British SF:

• Even though it’s about written SF, the photo is a Doctor Who publicity still, and the first paragraph mentions the TV series.
• Not only are all of the Best Novel Hugo nominees by British authors, but two of them have the word “iron” in the title.
• Charles Stross is quoted so as to ascribe the ascendence of British SF to American preoccupation with 9/11, even though his own nominated novel, Iron Sunrise, is about terrorism and weapons inspections.
• The two fantasy novels on the list — China Miéville’s Iron Council and Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell — are both set in the 19th century, and therefore not futuristic at all, except perhaps by the standards of the Tolkien-derived pseudo-medieval swords-and-sorcery that until recently dominated fantasy.

I expect a list of Hugo winners will show up on my Friends page within seconds of their being announced; perhaps even while, if the con’s wi-fi extends far enough. I can just about imagine autopope winning, and blogging about it on the way up to the podium.

Comments

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

Er, I think you mean Stross's Iron Sunrise.

[cheshyre]

Hugos are tonight? What time? [Rooting for matociquala for the Campbell]

[pnh.livejournal.com]

Miéville’s novel is Iron Council, not The Iron Council.

[pnh.livejournal.com]

Sunday night.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Tomorrow. (Trust me, I'm keeping track of this.)

Oh, and I began writing "Iron Sunrise" in 1998. So bite me :)

[avram]

Damn, next you’ll be telling me that Susanna Clarke’s book actually has “and” spelled out in the title instead of an ampersand.

[avram]

Sure, and lots of the American SF and fantasy published these past few years predates 9/11 too. Jon Wright says he wrote his Golden Age trilogy before 9/11, and I think his fantasy duology was written before that (though published after).