Paging Steve, or anybody else: HP Awards?

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "nrenka" <nrenka at ...> wrote:
> 
> -Nora also really did enjoy Fire upon the Deep, though
>

Ah. Venor Vinge.
Now you're talking. And IMO his 'A Deepness in the Sky' was even better,
well worth the 2000 Hugo. And he has a new novel out in the next few days.
Another Visa bill coming up, what with new books from Vinge, Neil Asher,
Christopher Brookmyer (not SF but wonderful dark humour), plus a handful 
of other tomes needed to lighten my drab existence. That'll be 3 orders
(about 30 books - history, political philosophy, whodunnits and SF in about 
equal numbers) from Amazon in a month. 
Might as well construct a connecting conveyer belt and be done with it.
Pity I can't order more floor-space from them at the same time.

Being a befuddled old fart, the elision between genres gets a bit confusing
sometimes. It'd be helpful if when authors swap writing hats they followed
the example of Iain Banks who sticks a middle initial M in there when he's
into SF mode. Mind you, Amazon hasn't cottoned on to this distinction yet,
they still wonder why I'm not buying 'The Crow Road'  when I've got a fair
slew of his Culture novels. Still, he's only been doing it for a dozen years or
so, so it's maybe a bit premature to expect their categorisation clones to
realise that the addition is deliberate and is there for a good and helpful
reason.

'Course, it was a bit different when I was able to spend most of a day per
month browsing in an actual bookshop, but the nearest comprehensive book
store is now about 60 miles away. Back then the unwelcome or unwanted 
elvishly fluffy aberration could be cast away with a "Begone, foul changeling!" 
Buying online is cheaper and mostly more convenient, but it does still have a 
drawback or two. And I've been burnt too often by 'reviews' to trust them 
much, either. There's a piece of legislation here in the UK called 'The Trade 
Descriptions Act'; I doubt most reviewers consider that they fall within its ambit. 

Kneasy