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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.

A new category this year. The nominations are going to be Science Fiction related, rather than my general music listening (if you're interested in that, go here. It's not everything, just everything that was scrobbled.)

And, what can link music to SF? Film. So here's a list of my favourite soundtracks that I listened to this year.

Tron Legacy
Moon
Monsters
The Road

Another category that always falls by the wayside. I read almost zero comics this year. If I get sent comics, I read them, I hardly ever buy them. When I visit shops I flick through graphic novels and go "oooh" that looks good, but I can never justify spending the money.

I did read:

Ball, Peen, Hammer

xkcd.com

and watched a video of  2000AD covers a few times, bringing back memories of when I used to read it weekly.

I'm not sure why I bother keeping videogames in as a category, because let's face it I hardly play games any more. Here's some I did play:

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Just Dance 2
World Of Goo

 

Erm, was that it?

Yep I think so.

I avoided playing Minecraft because I was scared it would take over my life. I did however talk about it a reasonable amount.

It felt like I read a reasonable amount of short fiction this year, until I listed it. One a month isn't that great. I really should read more. And I say that every year.

The fiction that stands out were those in DayBreak Magazine. Of course I had an interest because my story The Rules Of Utopia was published there too, but the selection of near future optimistic SF was very enjoyable. (And no, I still haven't got around to reading Shine.)

As usual the magazines that publish SF came and went. The iPad was touted as the saviour of books and short fiction, but presumably only for those people who can afford a 500 quid walled garden gadget. The online magazine seemed even prettier this year than ever, with quite a few touting original artwork.

Most sad for me was Futurismic ceasing to publish stories, years of submitting and I never sold one to Paul and Christopher. Personal fail.

Here's the list of the short fiction I reviewed. I more than likely read a few more and forgot to review them. Perhaps.

No Time Like the Present by Carol Emshwiller
Elegy for a Young Elk by Hannu Rajaniemi
A Serpent In The Gears By Margaret Ronald
Somadeva: A Sky River Sutra By Vandana Singh
The Things - Peter Watts
Riding In Mexico By Brenda Cooper
Dalí's Clocks by Dave Hutchinson
Biting The Snake's Tail by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Language Of The Whirlwind by Lavie Tidhar
She's All Light by LaShawn M. Wanak
Fembot by Carlos Hernandez
White Swan by Jason Stoddard
Bruce Sterling - The Hypersurface of this Decade

Despite the continued hype and whining about television series ending and being cancelled and blah, blah, blah (doesn't everyone online have other things to talk about?) I saw some good SF TV this year. Yes four of the TV shows ended and aren't coming back, but that's fine everything ends. It's the journey that matters. Not the destination.

Once again, proper Science Fiction here: space, mind viruses, viral apocalypse, vampires, zombies, time travel and (bonkers + emotion)^2.

And yes, I haven't watched Fringe. And yes I should do. The problem, as always, is time. Watching a TV series these days takes commitment, especially the long 22 episode US seasons. I think I prefer the UK size of 6, or 13 if you're Doctor Who. Easier to watch.

Defying Gravity
Dollhouse
Survivors, Series 2
Being Human, Series 2
Lost: The Finale
Doctor Who
The Walking Dead

As usual I didn't get to the cinema that much this year, however when I did I made sure that it was to see some Science Fiction films. And looking at the four I reckon that's about 80% awesomeness. Proper, great, Science Fictional films, not just bangs and special effects and no plot. (I'm still counting toys that come to life as SF.) In fact they all had great special effects, but the key differentiator is a good story and great characters and some intelligence. Tron lacked these characteristics but the other three had them in buckets.

Even more impressive was how the films broke moulds and bucked trends: The Road was a bleak, uncompromising story; Inception required rejected dumbing down to the audience for high budget films in spectacular style;  Monsters proved (again) that great Science Fiction can be made on tiny budgets; Toy Story 3 proved that it was possible to make a wonderful trilogy.

Quality over quantity.

The Road

Inception

Tron Legacy

Monsters

Toy Story 3

 

As usual the year started with a flurry of reading, then slackened, then I read a few on holiday then it tailed off again. Not for lack of things to read just for lack of effort really. I read some good books this year, out of the fiction list I was only negative about three of them, and the rest are easily contenders for book of the year. Which means that it was a good year, in reading terms, in publishing terms most of them were published the year before but there's always that lag with my reading (and most other people too?)

Also worth noting is that all of the books were full on Science Fiction, meaning that a Science Fiction concept was at their very core. And most of that SF felt new and fresh and cool. The death of SF is, as usual, completely untrue.

I only read one anthology, but made up for that by reading quite a few shorts (see another post).

And I read two non-fiction books about writing, both of which provided a jolt of inspiration

Fiction
Small Miracles - Edward M. Lerner
Transition - Iain Banks
Yellow Blue Tibia - Adam Roberts
Generation A - Douglas Coupland
Moxyland - Lauren Beukes
The Restoration Game - Ken MacLeod
The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
The Dervish House - Ian McDonald
Gardens Of The Sun by Paul McAuley
How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe - Charles Yu
The City & The City - China Miéville

 

Anthologies
Vermilion Sands - JG Ballard

Non-Fiction
Booklife - Jeff Vandermeer
On Writing - Stephen King

 

Big Dumb Object is pleased to announced the sixth annual Big Dumb Object awards, known as The Dumbies.

The awards follow the now traditional format (thanks to cut and paste)...

Media are eligible for nomination if they have been seen or read by the judges panel in the year of 2010, no matter when they were released. Categories include Best Film, Best Book, Best Short Story, Best Television Series, Best Comic, Best Videogame and new this year, Best Music. There are no worst awards in The Dumbies, life is too short to consume bad media and the judges therefore try to avoid such matters.

The nominations will be announced over a few days (for no other reason than to string it out a bit and provide content when the judges are in fact eating and drinking and playing with toys). After the nominations have been announced the judges will be open for bribes for an unspecified period of time. Once they are satisfied that the best offers have arrived and have cogitated on the nominations, the judges will then make their decision and announce the awards in a grand ceremony that involves a single, but important, blog post.

The judges are selected in a secret and mysterious process and their names are kept secret to protect their superhero identities. (In other words, it's just me, James.)

Please feel free to speculate on the nominations until they are announced.

And the winners are....

Books: Spook Country by William Gibson

I'm not sure if it's Science Fiction, but it's definitely William Gibson: cool and zeitgeisty and strange within the familiar. It's about the people on the edge. Writing that makes me want to read it again and again, and a plot that left me hooked and wondering (in a good way). Loved it.

Film : Moon

Moon wins easily. It's stylish, cool and surprisingly takes the Science Fictional fork in the plot path. Great stuff and destined to be a classic.

Short Fiction : Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers by John Lanagan (read in Wastelands: Stories Of The Apocalypse)

It's the sort of story that hints at more, keeps you hooked and makes you care about the characters. Great writing, taking the well worn apocalypse and crafting something new.

Television : Lost

Yes, Lost again. Even more bonkers, with added time travel. Great fun, characters I love and yes, it's Science Fiction. I cannot wait for the last season, then I will be sad.

Comics : xkcd

I forgot to mention it in the nominations, but it still wins because xkcd makes me laugh. A lot. Still.

Videogames : Guitar Hero