The list of finalists for the 2008 Aurora Awards (Canada’s awards for SF fiction in English & French, art & fandom) was released today. Visit the Canadian SF Works Database site for the entire list. Looks like most of the stuff I nominated in the first round didn’t make it on the ballot this year.
The nominees for Best Long-Form Work in English are:
-“As Fate Decrees” by Denyse Bridger
-“New Moon’s Arms” by Nalo Hopkinson
-“The Moon Under Her Feet” by Derwin Mak
-“Rollback” by Robert J. Sawyer
-“Cry Wolf” by Edo van Belkom
The only one to make it through here from my list was Sawyer’s great book about a man given a second chance when technology restores his youth while his still-geriatric wife tries to unlock the secrets of an alien transmission.
I struck-out completely on picking the finalists for the Best Short-Form Work in English:
-“Falling” by David Clink
-“Saturn in G Minor” by Stephen Kotowych
-“Metamorphoses in Amber” by Tony Pi
-“The Dancer at the Red Door” by Douglas Smith
-“Like Water in the Desert” by Hayden Trenholm
Better luck picking them in the Best Work in English (Other) category though:
-“Polaris: A Celebration of Polar Science” edited by Julie E. Czerneda
-“Under Cover of Darkness” edited by Julie E. Czerneda & Jana Paniccia
-“Tesseracts Eleven” edited by Cory Doctorow & Holly Phillips
-“Neo-opsis” edited by Karl Johanson
-“On Spec Magazine” edited by Diane Walton
I’d given the nod to On Spec and Neo-opsis, both fine mags indeed, but the latest installment of the Tesseracts anthologies was weak at best. Not sure how that one made it on the ballot, unless people just nominated it because there was so little to nominate.
The last category where I submitted my two bits was Fan Achievement (Organizational):
-Debbie Hodgins (KAG)
-Penny Lipman (Masquerades)
-Roy Miles (IDIC)
-Joan Sherman (IDIC)
-Geoffrey Toop (DWIN)
No love here either… I’d nominated VCon 32/Canvention 27.
Oh well.
Congratulations to the nominees who did make it onto the ballot! Best of luck to all!
babbling relentlessly about science fiction, fantasy, and all points in between
3 comments:
Ditto on the only person I nominated who got on being RJS.
On short form, just like you, I also nominated Stueart's Poets. It really was a beautiful story, so it's too bad he didn't make it, but I'm sure we'll see him on an Aurora ballot at some point.
On fan organizational, well, as usual there's a pretty big Ontario slant there. I mean, is anyone there not on the shore of Lake Ontario/in the GTA? Us westerners couldn't get arrested in that category. I do expect to see Randy McCharles on there next year for his work on World Fantasy, but other than that, I'm sure it's going to be all-GTA next year.
We just have to get organized out here in the west. Fandom isn't Ontario, it's all of Canada.
Further to my western-alienation post, and speaking again of Randy McCharles and the west, I really wish the roll-on-the-floor hilarious Star Trek spoof musical, "Phantom of the Space Opera," had made it on the ballot. It was completely written by and performed by Calgary locals (mostly members of IFWA who have been putting together a different musical every year), and the hundreds of man-hours they put into that performance really should have been recognized.
Last comment, I promise!
I'm really disappointed that Susan Forest's "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" didn't make it to the ballot, either. It was in Tesseracts, and in my opinion, it is a masterpiece. I got to hear an earlier draft, years ago, at a convention reading, and it has stuck with me ever since. Wow. Regardless of awards, read just this story. You won't regret it.
And just looking at the body of her work, including "Paid in Full," which was in Asimov's last year, "Immunity," which was in another Asimov's, and "Playing Games," which was in another Tesseracts, I sincerely think she's one of the best writers working in Canada today.
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