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<blockquote data-quote="Gizzard" data-source="post: 973110" data-attributes="member: 527">I'm in full Hugo mode; I can see the voting deadline looming and want to get everything read.&nbsp; Nothing like a deadline for motivation.&nbsp; Anyway, I read Coraline by Neil Gaiman the other day.&nbsp; It's sort of a fairy tale in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm - dark and spooky.&nbsp; It's short, it's actually nominated in the Novella catagory.&nbsp; I liked it a lot.&nbsp; I think the fairy tale may be the perfect outlet for Gaiman's talent; it's not so long that the plotting becomes a problem and the genre allows you to cram tons of wild imagination into a short space.&nbsp; When I finished that I started on Swanwick's Bones of the Earth and am about 75% done.&nbsp; I'm also enjoying that one a lot.&nbsp; The whole book flows smoothly, Swanwick realizes that he's a storyteller and he's a good enough craftsman that I read practically all of it in one sitting.&nbsp; The book itself reminds me a lot of what Kage Baker has been doing lately with her short stories and recent novel about time-travel and corporate intrigue.&nbsp; Swanwick himself wrote two short stories Scherzo with Tyrranosaur and something else that I can't quite remember which were alternate versions of some of the sections of this book.&nbsp; I actually find that a bit distracting; that I am thinking about the short stories and comparing them to what he wrote here, so I'd recommend reading them later if you are interested in following up on Bones of the Earth.&nbsp; I believe Scherzo won a Hugo it's year, though it could be that I only felt that it should have won.&nbsp; ;-)&nbsp; Sometimes I get confused in that way.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Gizzard, post: 973110, member: 527"] I'm in full Hugo mode; I can see the voting deadline looming and want to get everything read. Nothing like a deadline for motivation. Anyway, I read [I]Coraline[/I] by Neil Gaiman the other day. It's sort of a fairy tale in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm - dark and spooky. It's short, it's actually nominated in the Novella catagory. I liked it a lot. I think the fairy tale may be the perfect outlet for Gaiman's talent; it's not so long that the plotting becomes a problem and the genre allows you to cram tons of wild imagination into a short space. When I finished that I started on Swanwick's [I]Bones of the Earth[/I] and am about 75% done. I'm also enjoying that one a lot. The whole book flows smoothly, Swanwick realizes that he's a storyteller and he's a good enough craftsman that I read practically all of it in one sitting. The book itself reminds me a lot of what Kage Baker has been doing lately with her short stories and recent novel about time-travel and corporate intrigue. Swanwick himself wrote two short stories [I]Scherzo with Tyrranosaur[/I] and something else that I can't quite remember which were alternate versions of some of the sections of this book. I actually find that a bit distracting; that I am thinking about the short stories and comparing them to what he wrote here, so I'd recommend reading them later if you are interested in following up on [I]Bones of the Earth[/I]. I believe [I]Scherzo[/I] won a Hugo it's year, though it could be that I only felt that it should have won. ;-) Sometimes I get confused in that way. [/QUOTE]

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