Re: Nebula Finalists 2009

On Mon, 11 Nov 2024 14:48:55 -0000 (UTC), jdnicoll@panix.com (James
Nicoll) wrote:

2009: Minecraft is released, the Treaty of Lisbon comes into force, and
the common vernacular now includes the term "alt-right".
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Which 2009 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
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Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
Brasyl by Ian McDonald
Cauldron by Jack McDevitt
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Making Money by Terry Pratchett
Superpowers by David J. Schwartz
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The McDonald, the McDevitt, the Pratchett, and the Schwartz.
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Which 2009 Nebula Finalist Novellas Have You Read?
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The Spacetime Pool by Catherine Asaro
Dangerous Space by Kelley Eskridge
Dark Heaven by Gregory Benford
The Duke in His Castle by Vera Nazarian
The Political Prisoner by Charles Coleman Finlay
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Just the Benford and the Finlay.
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Which 2009 Nebula Finalist Novelettes Have You Read?
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Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel
Baby Doll (translation of Baby Doll) by Johanna Sinisalo
Dark Rooms by Lisa Goldstein
If Angels Fight by Richard Bowes
Kaleidoscope by K. D. Wentworth
Night Wind by Mary Rosenblum
The Ray-Gun: A Love Story by James Alan Gardner
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Just the Kessel, the Bowes, and the Gardner.
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Which 2009 Nebula Finalist Short Stories Have You Read?
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Trophy Wives by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss by Kij Johnson
Don't Stop by James Patrick Kelly
Mars: A Traveler's Guide by Ruth Nestvold
The Button Bin by Mike Allen
The Dreaming Wind by Jeffrey Ford
The Tomb Wife by Gwyneth Jones
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None.

None of the above.

Which 2009 Nebula Finalist Script's Film Have You Seen?
WALL-E by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, and Peter Docter
Stargate Atlantis: The Shrine by Brad Wright
The Dark Knight by Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer
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WALL-E and The Dark Knight.

Same here.

WALL-E was delightful. Although I'm not sure the humans depicted could
actually make a go of it.

The Dark Knight was ... loud. Very loud. So load that the bits with
Bruce Wayne were a welcome relief because they weren't so loud.

And I think the story punted on the two boats resolution. I may not
have actually guessed it, but it was obvious that way too much time
was being spent on the bad guys -- that is, that we were being led
down a garden path to a Big Surprise which failed because, after the
buildup, it wasn't a surprise.

Oh, and a better title would be "The Fate of Harvey Dent". Since
that's who the film was actually about.

Advertising itself as Heath Ledger's last movie when Heath Ledger's
actual last movie, /The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus/, was still in
the late stages of being made, was, of course, unforgivably coarse and
exploitative.

All of that IMHO, of course.

I am struck by how poorly reprinted some of these stories are. Also, appalled at my low hit rate, given that the SFBC, RT, and PW were all funnelling books to me by the wheelbarrow load.

Perhaps the voters were mostly drunk at the time. That appears to be
the explanation why many films whose trailers present an entire screen
of film festival awards turn out, when seen, to be ... losers.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"