One of the things I love about helping maintain the official Hugo Awards web site is seeing all of the links come in when major announcements are posted. This year we’ve been mentioned in a bunch of major news outlets, including:
I can claim credit for some of that, but Rob Sawyer is way better than I am at PR.
We’ve also had links come in from Japan, Poland, Brazil, Sweden, Spain and Finland.
Many nominees have been blogging excitedly, including the folks doing PR for the Star Trek film, who sadly note that no Trek movie has won a Hugo.
I am, of course, ridiculously happy to see the logo being used so widely.
Yes, but Star Trek was also the only(?) TV programme to ever win a Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo, a category traditionally dominated by movies, before the split into Short Form (TV) and Long Form (film).
Not the only one: Babylon 5 – “The Coming of Shadows†won in 1996.
Also, The Twilight Zone (collectively, as a series) won three times, from 1960 to 1962. (The rules were different then; this was even before the WSFS Constitution was adopted.)
Babylon 5 also won in 1997 for “Severed Dreams.”
The Hugos were also linked at the bottom of the SJ Mercury News Good Morning Silicon Valley daily tech newsletter. In the newsletter it’s a final bit of link salad.
On the Blog, it is it’s own “Off Topic” link post.
http://bit.ly/9qi6TP
Excellent, thanks!
As well you might be .. happy I mean. The Hugos web site is a Good One, well laid out, clean and clear but would it be possible for it to provide links from the nominees titles to a site where, say, a given book might be bought or a given short story read? Or is it just that that might display a particular partiality to a given dealer and thus just too damn fiddly and awkward?
Ah,well .. it wasn’t too hard to copy and paste a title from the list and so go to ..
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780786435036/The-Inter-galactic-Playground
And gasp with horror at the price. Not that it isn’t worth it of course but I think that I’ll wait for a while
I’m afraid that’s pretty representative of the book category it’s published in. If you think $30 hardbacks are expensive, check out textbook prices these days…
Hi Pera,
Of course I don’t expect Hardbacks to be especially inexpensive but my Wallet and sense of .. Gods ! But it isn’t too expensive Really .. has been temporarily stunned by the amount that I paid for the latest in the ‘Skulduggery Pleasant ‘ series …
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0007325940/ref=ox_ya_os_product
I KNOW ..it’s Amazon .. and I am Doing My Best to Overcome my painful HABIT as Cheryl and Dave Langford intimate that I should, but … £6.49 for a newly published Hardback?
I do recommend this series to all who like fantasy that has a Strong young female lead Character that Norton or Pratchett wouldn’t be ashamed to have invented … I just like the Idea of a Detective who is Basically .. a Skeleton … Great fun ..
” Praise for Skulduggery Pleasant Hugely enjoyable — a thrill-a-minute adventure.’ Jonathan Stroud ‘It’s exciting, pacy, nicely handled and fun. I sincerely hope Landy revisits these characters.’ Philip Ardagh, Guardian ‘A gripping debut.’ Phil Hogan, Observer ‘Skulduggery Pleasant serves up a thoroughly satisfying blend of humour, magic and adventure. Once you’ve met Stephanie and Skullduggery, you’ll be clamouring for a sequel.’ Rick Riordan “A remarkably accomplished debut with wonderful dialogue.” Robert Dunbar, Irish Times “[Landy’s] fight scenes are perfectly pitched. His characters are exceptionally well drawn and delightfully colourful! Reading [this book] is like riding a rollercoaster.” Irish Independent “Landy’s witty style will win him fans of all ages! With writing of this standard, a rattling plot and definite potential for cross-over appeal, it’s a good job Harry’s [Potter] resigning before he’s forcibly retired.” Irish Mail on Sunday “Humour and magic combine in this thrilling adventure.” Waterstone’s Books Quarterly “!people in the book world are raving about this book.” Glasgow Herald “It’s pacy, it’s funny, it’s irreverent. The relationship between Skulduggery and Stephanie is tremendously strong. Stephanie is a splendid character — blunt, logical and outspoken! We enjoyed Skulduggery Pleasant. Muchly. Roll on volume two!” The Book Bag “A rip-roaring adventure.” Irish Sunday Independent “Full of black humour, super powers, mysteries, … ”
and so on.
I wonder if the series is mentioned in ‘The Inter-Galactic Playground’ ..it is Fantasy after all and not SF.
Arnold.
It is an academic book. Academic books are almost always absurdly expensive.
Academic books quite often have small printruns. No economy of scale there, matey!
“£6.49 for a newly published Hardback?”
Er … no. That’s the DISCOUNTED price. The list price as set by the publisher (not Amazon, not the author) is £12.99 – so it’s a 50% discount.
PS. Petrea .. er … you did notice that its £34.94 –
Save £2.56 (6%) – .. Pounds Sterling and not, say, Dollars American ?
And I AM sorry about getting your name wrong .. overly hasty typing I’m afraid. My typing system can’t manage the ..ampershand ? is it called ? over the ‘ e ‘ in your name but then it does keep trying to insist on American -USA – spelling and so that may well be un-surprising.
Arnold.
Yes, I did– $34.94 would have been ridiculously cheap for an academic book.
That’s an acute accent over the second e, but that’s okay, I’m pretty used to seeing my name without it.
You are right about the partiality thing. Also there are lots of people in fandom who would be outraged at the Hugos supporting anything to do with filthy commerce. Anticipation put sales links on their Hugo listings last year and got a good kicking for it.
The Graphic Story nominees just popped up the PW comics news. It’s interesting to see how they divide them up conceptually.
For those of you who think by major publisher is the obvious way to do it, the biggest part of the reaction to last year’s nominees in the category appeared to differentiate primarily between proper full-page comics and the one (gasp, sneer!) comic strip.