« Fans: What Do We Owe Them? | Main | Hey! Your Truth Got Into My Book! »
January 13, 2007
High Up There on the List of Truly Unexpected Award Nominations
The Android's Dream has notched its first award nomination, for Best Science Fiction Novel of 2006 from -- wait for it -- the Romantic Times BOOKreviews Career Achievement and Reviewer's Choice Awards. Romantic Times BOOKreviews gave TAD a very nice review last year, so it's nice to see it's made the cut for the magazine's awards. The other nominees in my category:
Carnival, Elizabeth Bear
Crystal Rain, Tobias Buckell
The Dead Letters, Tom Piccirilli
Sun of Suns, Karl Schroeder
Farthing, Jo Walton
You know what, that's a seriously good lineup of books and nominees. The folks doing the science fiction reviews over at Romantic Times BOOKreviews know their genre pretty damn well. There are also three fantasy novel categories, in which Ellen Kushner, Brandon Sanderson, Naomi Novik and Jeri Smith-Ready are nominees among others, so that's most excellent. And look! Marjorie Liu and Julia Spencer-Fleming are nominated too! I like these awards.
The winners among these nominees will apparently be announced in the June 2007 issue of Romantic Times. I have absolutely no idea what my chances are for this award, and I'm really not going to worry about it. I just like being nominated with the folks I'm nominated with. This is fun stuff. And I'm happy to see The Android's Dream get noticed.
Posted by john at January 13, 2007 09:58 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.scalzi.com/mt2/mt-tb.cgi/4358
Comments
Scott Wyngarden | January 13, 2007 10:54 PM
Does this mean that TAD won't have to be talked down from the ledge of the bookshelf as often?
Cassie | January 13, 2007 11:01 PM
I can't imagine that TGB is going to get a nod from The Romantic Times Book Review (really biting my lips not to make some cromulent remark) so I expect TAD ought to take the high road and be a bit nicer to the other books and buy everyone a round.
Marjorie | January 14, 2007 06:25 AM
Congratulations, John! Does this mean you could be convinced to come down to Houston to pick up your award if you win? :-)
And hey, this is the first I've heard about being nominated. Sweet. My first book won the award last year, which was a very lovely surprise.
John Scalzi | January 14, 2007 07:44 AM
Marjorie:
"Congratulations, John! Does this mean you could be convinced to come down to Houston to pick up your award if you win? :-)"
I believe I'm already slated to be at a convention that weekend, otherwise, sure, why not? I think it would be fun.
Scott Mactavish | January 14, 2007 09:31 AM
If you do attend the awards ceremony, be sure to take your (open neck) puffy shirt, MC Hammer pants and Fabio wig.
Kate Nepveu | January 14, 2007 09:42 AM
. . . a whole six comments before insulting people who read romance novels, when the _nominee for the award_ went out of his way to note that the reviewers knew the science fiction and fantasy genres.
Well done! You've reaffirmed my faith that there's no snob like a genre snob.
Michele | January 14, 2007 10:01 AM
I just ordered a copy of TGB through a bookstore. I hope they order additional copies, so others can buy it. They have OMW on the shelf.
Gennita Low | January 14, 2007 10:08 AM
John,
Congratulations! I always read the scifi reviews in RT to keep up with one of my other favorite genres.
Scott--Get with the program, darling. Fabio is so thirty years ago.
Scott Mactavish | January 14, 2007 10:54 AM
Flavor Flav viking hat, then?
Stephen G | January 14, 2007 11:02 AM
Congratulations, Scalzi. That's wonderful!
Kate, I'm not sure Scott was implying anything about romance readers, merely joking about a type of book cover that's associated in most people's minds with romance novels. It'd be like suggesting someone nominated for an SF award wear a silver lame jumpsuit to the awards ceremony.
Though, looking around at the romance novel covers here at the house, I'm with Gennita. Nowadays Scalzi would either have to be an iconic symbol on a solid-color background or always be photographed so that only a portion of him is visible, like his left arm or his torso from neck to just above the waistline.
John Scalzi | January 14, 2007 11:05 AM
I don't think anyone really wants to see my torso at the moment. Maybe after I start my new exercise regimen.
Scott Mactavish | January 14, 2007 11:46 AM
Stephen G.:
Kate, I'm not sure Scott was implying anything about romance readers, merely joking about a type of book cover that's associated in most people's minds with romance novels.
You are correct, sir.
I really don't know anyone that reads romance novels, and if I did, I certainly wouldn't insult them.
But if you'd like to insult me for reading Eskimo midget porn, then fire away. I deserve it.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to Nanook and the Snow Skanks.
(Lighten up, people.)
kitten trumpinski-roberts | January 14, 2007 01:13 PM
excellent!!! Congratulations, John. I read TAD over winter break, I'm reading Carnivale now, Farthing is in the pile and I have noted the other three for next payday...thanks for the head's up.
Johnny Carruthers | January 14, 2007 03:38 PM
No one wants to see your torso? Not even your wife? ;)
John Scalzi | January 14, 2007 03:40 PM
That's between and my wife, Johnny Carruthers.
Steve Buchheit | January 14, 2007 03:56 PM
Congrats. Those Romance Writers organizations are excellent. And they definately go way beyond what most people think of "Romance." For any starting writers you should really check out their conventions.
Scott Mactavish, Eskimo midget porn. Okay, I'm still trying to get a grip on just the concept of "midget porn" and we now have sub genres of the thing. Damn. And once again I find myself without mental floss. I think I need to go to Sams and get the uber-bulk pack.
j-_e_richards | January 14, 2007 04:12 PM
Wear the tiara....that's all you need to do...wear the tiara.
Twenty | January 14, 2007 07:44 PM
Trust me guys, I went to junior high and high school with that reviewer and she knows her stuff! Congrats!!
Dr. Phil | January 15, 2007 01:38 PM
I really don't know anyone that reads romance novels, and if I did, I certainly wouldn't insult them.
Check out Marjorie M. Liu's paranormal romances, starting with Tiger Eye. Okay, so I read it because I went to Clarion with Marjorie in 2004, but this is fun stuff with wicked cool imagery, plot and memorable characters. So I'll cheerfully tout her stuff because I'm still reading it. (grin) And some of the romance writing blogs have lots of juicy insight, too. Guess I have to set aside my 1980s prejudices. (double-edged-grin)
Dr. Phil
Brandon Sanderson | January 15, 2007 06:11 PM
SCALZIIII!!!
On a more serious note, congrats! Maybe I'll have to pass the Scalzi award over to someone else if you trounce them all for this one. :)
John Scalzi | January 15, 2007 07:26 PM
Heh. I don't suspect I'll win this one, Brandon.
Carl V. | January 16, 2007 01:16 PM
That is very cool. TAD was such an amazingly fun, adventure filled book. Not surprised that it has gotten recognized and I hope it will be up for many more awards.
Jeri | January 18, 2007 12:33 PM
Congrats, John! I'm pulling for you. I didn't even know I was nominated until I saw it on Elizabeth Bear's blog yesterday.
Now that "paranormal romance" has its own review section in Romantic Times, the SF/F section is nothing but SF/F (just like mystery and mainstream fiction have their own non-romance sections). It's my understanding that the SF/F reviewers for RT only review SF/F, which means a) you're right, they do know the genre and b) the books aren't judged/reviewed according to their romance elements. So you never know--TAD could win! Go TAD!
Me, I have no hope, but I'm massively honored to have my name in the same eyeball range as Barone, Bishop, Brooks, Bujold, Novik, and Spencer. I'm the WTF? entry in the list, no doubt.
Post a comment.
Comments are moderated to stop spam; if your comment goes into moderation, it may take a couple of hours to be released. Please read this for my comment moderation policies.Preview will not show paragraph breaks. Trust me, they're there.
The proprietor generally responds to commenters in kind. If you're polite, he'll be polite. If you're a jackass, he'll be a jackass. If you are ignorant, he may correct you.
When in doubt, read the comment thread rules.
Tim Pratt | January 13, 2007 10:52 PM
Hey, congrats! My first novel won a Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice award in one of the fantasy categories last year. Very odd, but you can do worse than to seize a chunk of the romance-reading market!