As in previous years, the Bay Area Science Fiction Association held Hugo (and Campbell) Recommendation Nights in January and February, and we are posting our accumulated recommendations in a series of entries here.

A key to the initials of the people making recommendations is in basfa's community journal. This post may change if we receive additional ( Read more... )

Episodes of Prophets of Science Fiction broadcast on the Science Channel are well worth considering. They looked at the lives and predictions of notable science fiction creators. In 2012, there were good episodes on Robert Heinlein, Jules Verne, and Isaac Asimov.

Another suggestion is The Annotated Sandman, Vol. 1 by Les Klinger (Vertigo), a ( Read more... )

HOLD!

Leaving Mundania, a Gonzo journalism investigation into the live action role playing (larp) scene by Lizzie Stark is an exceptionally entertaining and insightful look into the hobby art form of play-pretend. With wit and soul, Stark's examination of this growing global phenomena is a landmark account that not only explains the inner workings ( Read more... )

I would like to recommend for the 2013 Best Related Non-Fiction Hugo Award category the book As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality (Oxford University Press, 2012) by Michael Saler. It's a history of imaginary worlds and how science fiction and fantasy fans transformed them from literary worlds to "virtual worlds" ( Read more... )