Charmers, each and every one

A certain amount of backlash was to be expected from the Hugo results at Sasquan, but...

Yeah.

First off, there's the stupidity concerning this nonsense, in which Scott Malcomson thoroughly makes a fool of himself concerning the idiotic idea of a class-action lawsuit because the Puppy slates didn't win en masse.

Now what would actually be even more laughable as a concept?

How about a Gamergate-connected something called Andrew Swallow trying to drag the FBI into it for no real reason?

Add to this Kate Paulk's ever so subtle characterization of anyone opposed to this nonsense as "petty bullying socialists" who  would "fit in just as well with the Nazis as they would with their equally murderous Communist cousins" (gee, Kate, hyperbole much? Over losing a bunch of literary awards, for crying out loud?) and you get the sense that the Puppy camp is exclusively made up of one of the following:

1) Professional Internet trolls;

2) People looking to expand their following and book sales by throwing red meat to readers gullible enough to believe their logic-free bullshit in toto;

3) People dumb enough to actually believe their own rhetoric;

4) An unpleasant mixture of "All of the Above".

Seriously, how many more iterations of this garbage do we have to go through before people do what the logical thing is and write these idiots off as not worth addressing, bickering with or even caring about?

It seems to be the thing to do, especially since tuning obnoxious blowhards out whose opinions you couldn't give two shits about in real life is second nature to most adults.

So why not here?

Running Through Hugo's Back Yard 10: Who?

Hugo nominee: Who? by Algis Budrys, 1959

My view: a dark book that treats the concept of being stuck in the uncomfortable middle ground of the Cold War with the symbolism it deserves, Who? is one of those novels most people probably won't forget years - or even decades - after reading it. I'm not sure how much Kafka Budrys read during his life, but Lucas Martino's dilemmas as a character (suspected by all, but especially by those who knew him before he was "rebuilt") seems to have been inspired by him to a certain degree.

Or maybe that's just Budrys' understanding of that decade's international politics and how it related to his expatriate background talking. A enjoyable, unnerving novel, and its unresolved cliffhanger ending is just about perfect considering the subject matter.

Nuggety?: Absolutely not.

Running Through Hugo's Back Yard 11: Deathworld

Hugo nominee: Deathworld by Harry Harrison, 1961

My view: Considering how much danger Jason dinAlt is put in in most chapters of this book by the flora and fauna of Pyruss, a description consisting of the phrase "action-packed" seems more than a bit inadequate. The action doesn't let up a whole lot (which is the point, obviously) and Deathworld is probably one of the best examples of this type of SF that I've read.

Nuggety?: while it seems to meet some of the qualifications of what Brad Torgersen thinks is traditional, action-based SF, the big reveal concerning why Pyrrus is so dangerous isn't one likely to please him. Even more than Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, there's a message buried in the action that's far too complex and ambiguous than "let's go kill us some BEMs!";