Relax, don't think and then you'll enjoy it
There were another awards awarded this weekend on a con. The 2012 Zajdel awards were handed out on this year Polcon:
Novel:
Robert M. Wegner, Niebo ze stali (Sky of Steel)
Jakub Ćwiek, Kłamca 4. Kill’em all
Jarosław Grzędowicz, Pan Lodowego Ogrodu, tom 4
Anna Kańtoch, Czarne
Andrzej Ziemiański, Pomnik Cesarzowej Achai, tom 1
Short Story:
Robert M. Wegner, Jeszcze jeden bohater (One More Hero)
Jakub Ćwiek, Będziesz to prać!
Jakub Ćwiek, Co było, a nie jest...
Jakub Ćwiek, Kukuryku!
Jacek Dukaj, Portret nietoty
Tomasz Kołodziejczak, Czerwona mgła
I haven't written about nominees before because I didn't read any of them, except for Czerwona Mgła - Red Fog story. I also haven't written about them because I never read them but I read other stories from most of those authors and there wasn't a lot of results I could be happy with. I finally decided that one good thing about that this is a nice reminder that there are much worse things then Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. They fell into similar category of being widely beloved and nominated for awards but full of questionable content. Between Ziemianski's beloved trope of turning his "kickass strong woman" protagonist into object in her own story (I haven't read that one but I'm sure he manage to stick rape/sexual abuse/prostitution in there too) and Kołodziejczak's stories about how only normal families with men and women in their traditional roles of husbands and wives in idealised version of 1920s will save the world from being taken over by evil (literally, it stops it from corrupting souls - also singing patriotic and religious songs). The worst part about it that they are often have cool worldbuilding and they read really well. But only until your tolerance for the underlying message runs out and you turn away in disgust. Or, judging from those nominations, not.
The guy who got most nominations isn't as bad so I won't bother you with rant about him but I can't get over how he got all those short stories nominations. And I can't get over that only one woman got nominated. But I don't know the guy who won both categories. Maybe he is better.
I didn't want go so depressing and grumpy old woman on another post so now time for something nicer. And in English.
Steven Erikson wrote about his inspirations for his current trilogy and epic fantasy in general in On the Origins of Forge of Darkness by Steven Erikson. He also proved once again that he is a writing machine because he had two week writer's exhaustion and then published another book year after the last.
Here's Neil Gaiman intervied by BBC at the age of 7. And Below is his talk with with Philip Pullman. I'm not going to say anything about first one because I already ranted today except that it so awesome they found it for him. The second one mentions Neil in badger costume:
Novel:
Robert M. Wegner, Niebo ze stali (Sky of Steel)
Jakub Ćwiek, Kłamca 4. Kill’em all
Jarosław Grzędowicz, Pan Lodowego Ogrodu, tom 4
Anna Kańtoch, Czarne
Andrzej Ziemiański, Pomnik Cesarzowej Achai, tom 1
Short Story:
Robert M. Wegner, Jeszcze jeden bohater (One More Hero)
Jakub Ćwiek, Będziesz to prać!
Jakub Ćwiek, Co było, a nie jest...
Jakub Ćwiek, Kukuryku!
Jacek Dukaj, Portret nietoty
Tomasz Kołodziejczak, Czerwona mgła
I haven't written about nominees before because I didn't read any of them, except for Czerwona Mgła - Red Fog story. I also haven't written about them because I never read them but I read other stories from most of those authors and there wasn't a lot of results I could be happy with. I finally decided that one good thing about that this is a nice reminder that there are much worse things then Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. They fell into similar category of being widely beloved and nominated for awards but full of questionable content. Between Ziemianski's beloved trope of turning his "kickass strong woman" protagonist into object in her own story (I haven't read that one but I'm sure he manage to stick rape/sexual abuse/prostitution in there too) and Kołodziejczak's stories about how only normal families with men and women in their traditional roles of husbands and wives in idealised version of 1920s will save the world from being taken over by evil (literally, it stops it from corrupting souls - also singing patriotic and religious songs). The worst part about it that they are often have cool worldbuilding and they read really well. But only until your tolerance for the underlying message runs out and you turn away in disgust. Or, judging from those nominations, not.
The guy who got most nominations isn't as bad so I won't bother you with rant about him but I can't get over how he got all those short stories nominations. And I can't get over that only one woman got nominated. But I don't know the guy who won both categories. Maybe he is better.
I didn't want go so depressing and grumpy old woman on another post so now time for something nicer. And in English.
Steven Erikson wrote about his inspirations for his current trilogy and epic fantasy in general in On the Origins of Forge of Darkness by Steven Erikson. He also proved once again that he is a writing machine because he had two week writer's exhaustion and then published another book year after the last.
Here's Neil Gaiman intervied by BBC at the age of 7. And Below is his talk with with Philip Pullman. I'm not going to say anything about first one because I already ranted today except that it so awesome they found it for him. The second one mentions Neil in badger costume: