Alternate Hugos
I've been meaning to blog about this for nearly two weeks now. Time flies.
The absolute high point of WorldCon for me was the Hugo ceremony. This was not just because I got to sit with the cool kids, and not just because people I know and like won well-deserved awards, and not just because it was probably the shortest Hugo ceremony on record, and not just because I got to chat with various nifty people beforehand and afterward.
No, all those things were great, but the very best part was Kim Newman and Paul McAuley's emcee speech. Which I had hoped to post about first thing and scoop everyone, but I was too slow, and by now it's old news.
Anyway, I adored it. Brilliantly written, hilariously funny, excellently delivered. I would post excerpts/quotes from it, but (a) I would want to quote the whole thing, and (b) I think this is a case where it really is better if you don't know what to expect.
It reminded me a fair bit of David M's "Irrational Histories" in its marvelously executed dream-logic and refreshing disregard for the usual bugaboos of "causality." Between this, the Irrational Histories, and Ben's "Biographical Notes . . ." (and perhaps, in a way, David's "Planet of the Amazon Women"), I feel like we're witnessing the florescence of a particular sub-subgenre, a playful kind of self-referential alternate history that fits my head perfectly.
Vive le fiction scientifique!
