Re: Hugo Shortlist 2008 (Sawyer)

Hey, Sawyer's not that bad an author.  He is at the very least
competent, something much of the SF output doesn't even reach.

Mind you, he is mind-cloyingly politically correct.  Well, except for
the part about always criticizing the USA, 'cause that doesn't count
as bigotry to him of course.

I recall more than a few of his books with some fondness.
FlashForward, Calculating God, Illegal Alien.  And even, yes, Hominids
(not Humans, yecch) .  OK, they are not necessarily groundbreaking and
earthshaking, but I can remember the basic ideas in them and they
weren't half bad or too too recycled.  The writing is competent enough
as well.

Contrast that with much SF where there is very little in the way of
originality besides whipping out some of the heroic soldier/evil
cor****ation/doomsday/nanotech/cyberpunk whatever tropes.

Look maybe some of y'all know your way around authors blindfolded, but
every new SF author I buy is a gamble and many of them suck, badly.
Last time I trusted the salesperson's recommendations, at a
specialized SF bookstore, netted me 4 out of 5 duds  (the worst of
them endorsed by Sawyer btw).

Sawyer's decent enough and neither his politics, nor Gene's
unfathomable lack of attraction to his manly charms, justify dragging
him through the mud.  He's not in my top 10, but somewhere in my top
20-30.  Probably 'cause I usually don't go for any SF published < 1985
or so, which bars me from the classics.