My hefty stack of recent purchases from the US is quickly running low...and I've only been in Tasmania for two weeks. I think there is a direct correlation between how much I'm reading and being unemployed. Running out of comics means I'm also getting back into actual books (you know, comics without pictures?), specifically my
Hugo / Nebula Award challenge. These are the anual awards given to works of science fiction each year. Some of my favorite authors have won this award including
Frank Herbert and
Joss Whedon (they have a Nebula award for screenplays, too). I made a challenge for myself to read every single book that has won the Hugo or the Nebula Awards. I decided to start with the 18 novels that have the prestigious honor of having won both titles. Here's what I've read thus far:
Dune by Frank Herbert
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. LeGuin
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling (just the Hugo)
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (another Hugo only)
and I've recently finished
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Next on my list is
The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon. It's not surprsing the overlay in the world of science fiction and comics. There's currently an
Ender's Game series being released by Marvel, a publisher that has done other Card adaptations in the past such as
The Red Prophet. There's a
Philip K. Dick adaptation of
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? being relased by Boom! Studios, which is 24 issues long and contains much of the text from the original novel. Obviously Neil Gaiman is a familiar name to comic readers, and Michael Chabon's critically aclaimed bestseller
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay centers on two Jewish comic book creatures during the Golden Age. These are just a few recent "crossovers" and don't even take into account science fiction shows and movies that currently have comic book series (
Battlstar Galactica,
Star Trek,
Star Wars, etc.) It's a shame there aren't more
original science fiction comics out at the moment. I could name some great original fantasy books, crime books, noir books, action and adventure books of course, but science fiction? I'd be hard pressed to name one. I'm definitely open to suggestions though....
