Nebulous at Best

6 Responses to Nebulous at Best

1. Anonymous says:

   February 28, 2009 at 1:46 am

   Oh, goody. Time for another game of How Far Down the List Does Jeff Have to Go to Find a Story He’s Read.
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   Fourteen! And it was a very good story.

   –Jeff Stehman
   • JE says:

     March 1, 2009 at 8:46 am

     You beat me (though I’ve held a couple of the nominated novels in my hand and read a couple pages).

     I’m going to have to get more up-to-date with sf/f, I can see. Till now I sort of felt like I was au courant if I was reading something within a decade or so of its publication.
     • Anonymous says:

       March 1, 2009 at 2:14 pm

       Subscribing to F&SF was my only in to the Nebulas. Now that I’ve let that expire, it’ll be a big empty for me.

       One of the novels is on my read-me list, and another is on my defacto read-the-entire-Discworld-series-someday-because-you’ve-been-a-total-git-and-haven’t-read-any-of-them list. I guess I should start visiting bookstores and put hands on books I want to read, so next year I might be able to say I held some of the nominees. That sounds like a better indication of intent.
       • JE says:

         March 1, 2009 at 9:08 pm

         I live with two of the foremost Discworld-junkies of our time, so Making Money is actually in the house as I type. But I haven’t read it because it’s the direct sequel to another Discworld book I haven’t read, Going Postal (and word on the street says it’s not as good as its predecessor).

         In fact, “I haven’t read it” describes most of Discworld for me, but I have read one of the Granny Weatherwax books and Mort, and I may get to most of the rest eventually. My barrier with Pratchett is that he often seems to find what he’s writing more amusing than I do. There’s only so much of that one can take at a sitting, if one is me. On the other hand, I love his crazily inventive wordbuilding, and his deft way with character, and sometimes even a surly bastard like me finds him hilarious (e.g. whenever the Nac Mac Feegle show up).

         Le Guin’s Powers I looked at because I’d read its predecessor Voices. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t scream at me, “You must buy the others in this series,” so I didn’t.
         • davidcapeguy says:

           March 2, 2009 at 12:00 am

           I read McDevitt’s “Cauldron” and liked it, though not as well as some of his other recent works, such as “Devil’s Eye” and “Seeker.”

           I’m also a big Pratchett fan, but more Ankh-Morpork than the Discworld in general. I think I’m part of a small group that believes that his later works are better than his earlier stuff. Granny Weatherwax and the witches I find dull. “Mort” wasn’t bad, but didn’t set me afire. “The Truth,” about the founding of Ankh-Morpork’s first newspaper, was the one that really turned me into a Pratchett admirer. And it’s true that Pratchett finds his own work amusing, but that’s a hallmark of a true humor writer — as opposed to the “professional” writing stables who turn out what passes for humor in TV and Hollywood in recent years. The key for a reader is finding that writer whose sense of humor overlaps your own. For me: Pratchett, Twain, Westlake, Wodehouse, a few others. Douglas Adams, on the other hand, has never gotten even a smile from me, in radio, tv, movies or books. I’m not derogating him in any way, just saying that his sense of humor and mine don’t mesh.

           And for the record: Marx Brothers: funny. Stooges: funny. W.C. Fields: funny. Shakespeare: funny. Laurel & Hardy: not funny. Noel Coward: not funny.
         • JE says:

           March 2, 2009 at 2:06 am

           I’m on almost exactly the same page as you re funniness: I did think the original radio/TV “Hitchiker’s Guide…” was pretty funny, but I never warmed up to the books. And I find Noel Coward was funny sometimes; it’s a case-by-case thing for me.

           I liked the Granny W book I read (Witches Three I think) but not so much like I felt I had to read them all (obviously).

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