Beyond Reality discussion

Here's the list of this year's Hugo Award winners, which were announced last night:

Best Novel: Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

Best Novella: Nancy Kress, "The Erdmann Nexus"

Best Novelette: Elizabeth Bear, "Shoggoths in Bloom"

Best Short Story: Ted Chiang, "Exhalation"

Best Professional Artist: Donato Giancola

Best Graphic Story: Kaja and Phil Foglio, Girl Genius

Best Editor, Long Form: David Hartwell

Best Editor, Short Form: Ellen Datlow

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Wall-E

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Joss Whedon, "Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog"

Best Related Book: John Scalzi, Your Hate Mail will be Graded

Best Semiprozine: Ann VanderMeer and Stephen Seagal, Weird Tales

What do you think of the winners?

Girl Genius, YAY!!

I haven't read any of 'em, but to my knowledge they are all worthy.

I liked The Graveyard Book, good to see that it won.

2009 Nominees:
http://www.thehugoawards.org/2009/03/...

Anomander wrote: "I liked The Graveyard Book, good to see that it won even though it didn't have that much competition in the 'Best Novel' category."

I don't know, I personally loved Anathem.

Random wrote: "I don't know, I personally loved Anathem."

Me too. And I thought Little Brother was excellent.

I should've said that better. Yeah I'm not knocking the other books, of the ones I've read I liked those too. My feeling of why 'The Graveyard Book' won is that it's well written children's fantasy novel most accessible to a general audience.

Of the novels nominated I'd only read Little Brother and while I think it's an important book for our times, I don't think it's a great book.

I listened to both Exhalation and Shoggoths in Bloom and enjoyed both.

I also read the Ray-Gun - a Love Story by James Alan Gardner (up for novella), which I thought was excellent. And 26 Monkeys by Kij Johnson (which I actually narrated myself). Both stories came in 2nd place, and I would recommend them to anyone. They are available online.

Has anyone checked out the The Vorkosigan Companion, which was nominated for best related book?

I have The Vorkosigan Companion on the shelf, Diane, but I haven't had the chance to read it yet. It looks like it's a collection of interviews and essays about the series - could be interesting. I plan to start reading it soon - there's just always something else to read first, you know?