From: dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Schaumann)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Ranking the Hugo nominees (was Re: List of voters in ESF)
Date: 31 Jul 92 04:49:02 GMT
Reply-To: dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Schaumann)
Organization: University of Arizona

In article <1992Jul29.223540.1282@hsv3.lsil.com>, mvp@hsv3 (Mike Van Pelt) writes:
>In roughly worst-to-best order:
>
>(Possible spoilers for some of these stories)

>"Press Ann" was just too silly for me.

I kinda liked it, but yeah, too silly and light-weight to make it to 
it in the top half.

>My reaction to "Buffalo" was "For crying out loud, John, cut the silly
>obtrusive reminders every paragraph that none of this really happened
>and let us suspend our disbelief."

As I posted earlier, I didn't like this one either.  I put it last,
after "no award".

>"Dog's Life" was a "talking animals" fantasy, without the
>pseudo-explanation of Daffyd ab Hughes' story of last year.
>Not my kind of story, but well written.

This one was OK.  My main problem with it is that it's an extraordinary
idea lost in an ordinary story.  I really can't believe that a universe
with sentient dogs and cats (and other animals) would be so nearly like
our own, or that the story told was the most interesting such a premise
could generate.  Another bottom-halfer.

>"In the Late Cretaceous" was a mainstream Academic Tenure Wars story.
>Nice sense of humor. There didn't seem to be much point, though.

Yah.  Another "so where's the SF?" story.  Rounded out my bottom half.

>"Winter Solstice" was a Merlin & Arthur fantasy, playing some
>changes on the Merlin as the man living backwards in time theme
>by leaving him some memories of the 20'th century.

I can't remember off hand whether I put this second or third (I forgot
to save my ballot before sending it off :-().  A very vivid portrayal
of a man (wizard?) loosing his memory in extraordinary circumstances.

>"One Perfect Morning, With Jackals" was a nicely done look inside
>the head of a back-to-nature type.  I couldn't feel any sympathy
>for him, but the world was quite interesting. (I haven't read any
>of Resnick's Kirinyaga stories, so there could have been some
>background that Resnick expected me to know about.)

I put this one first.  I really liked the way the author maintained
sympathy for both father and son, at the same time doing such a good
job of portraying what kept them so seperated.

>My instant reaction to "A Walk in the Sun" was shock, horror, rage,
>and depression.  [...]
>
>Other than that, I thought "A Walk.." was a great story, and the only
>*REAL* SF on the ballot.

Well, I think that all of your top 3 qualify.  But I decided early on
that trying to pidgeon-hole stories according to SF/non-SF was the
wrong way to try to vote, and so I just went on how I liked them.
I thought this was good, but not quite as good as "Perfect Morning".
However, I think that any ordering of the last three wouldn't bee too
outrageous, they're all reasonable stories.

>My only quibble would be why a lunar mission not intending to land in
>a world in which there was no lunar presence would carry such a nifty
>suit.

I didn't think of that, but how about:
  -why didn't she just head for the nearest pole?  She couldn't have
   headed directly there, but it would've had to have been better than
   a straight circumnavigation.

  -I don't believe she could've found her crash sight again with only
   a globe and dead reckoning to guide her.  As pointed out in the
   story, Luna's a big place, especially compared to something as
   small as a crash-sight.
   
>My reaction to the whole list is a sad suspicion that SF is taking
>off in a direction that I have no interest in following.

Well, SF is sturgeoned, just like everything else.  I did like
"Understand" quite a bit, more than any of the short stories, I
think.  I have to agree, though, that none of the short stories
really cry out for an award.  Maybe that means I should've put
"no award" higher, but I'm not really that cynical/mean...

And I did rather like three of the stories.

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