The Dumbies 2010 - The Winners

And the winners are...

Books : The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
In any other year The Windup Girl would have won. And in a year other than that Moxyland, Gardens Of The Sun or The City & The City would have won. However The Dervish House was Science Fiction written for me. I loved it, loved it, loved it. Just like I loved River Of Gods and Brasyl. It's a familiar trope imbued with freshness and 21st century style and proper characters and a wonderful story. Did I mention that I loved it?

 

Films : Monsters
I thoroughly enjoyed Inception, Toy Story 3 and thought The Road was brilliant (hard to say I enjoyed the stomach twisting apocalypse), but Monsters is the film I'd want to see again and again. It's cool and stylish and very Science Fiction, with beautiful cinematography and a focus on real people. Proof that story and execution and vision and passion is worth more than a hundred million dollars. I can't wait to see more from Gareth Edwards. I'd also like to mention The Social Network, not SF, but a supremely entertaining and intelligent film, everything you'd expect from Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher, with one of the best cinematic hacking scenes ever.

 

Television : Lost
It has to be doesn't it? Lost finished. Six years and a hugely enjoyable ride. It was crazy bonkers brilliant. It even played with us in the final series and offered some form of afterlife that everyone had be counting on and discounting for years. It was never about the answers. Perfect ending. Perfect television.

 

Short Story : ?
I honestly can't pick a single winner. No one story stands above all the others. Is that a cop out? I don't care, I can't pick one.

 

Videogame : Super Mario Galaxy 2
It's in space. It's 3D. It's Mario. Wonderful gameplay.

 

Comic : xkcd
It's got to be xkcd. More geek than SF. Makes me laugh. A lot.

 

Music : Tron Legacy
Slightly biased as it's current to when I'm writing this, but despite all the faults of Tron Legacy it got one thing right, a great soundtrack from Daft Punk. All the other soundtracks nominated are worth a listen to as well, loads of atmosphere.

 

 

I hereby close the Dumbies for another year. Bye bye 2010.