mike, did you ever teach at the University of Akron?

Yeah, man, Perdido got my vote too. Awesome novel, way too long, but fascinating stuff. I loved the characters and the setting. I hope he wins, even over Gaiman, whose book was great but I've forgotten already, even if Mieville is like barely even 30! Young whippersnapper...

Sad to see no one on the Tangent newsgroup wants to talk about STORIES but instead wants to bitch some more about mainstream vs. "real SF." Boy did that discussion get out of hand...

Looks like we're pretty well aligned on our Hugo votes, Mike, with the exception of the novelette category. Like I said over in the SFF.NET quagmire, I'm voting for the Chiang piece, with the Charles Stross in close second. I did like "Undone," though.

I think Perdido Street Station's getting my novel vote, though I haven't finished it yet. It seems, though, that despite its flaws, it's a hallmark work of fantasy. Or science fiction. Or some hard-to-define steampunk/SF/fantasy hybrid. It's good.

Oh, forgot to mention that we watched "The Majestic" last night on DVD, and I liked it more than I'd expected. While the end was a bit too preachy (when he's standing up at the commie witch-hunt hearing), I truly was wondering how the hell they were going to end the film. I like not being able to see the ending coming. And Jim Carrey was pretty good. He's getting better as a "serious" actor.

If we have time, we're going to try to watch "The Shipping News" today or tomorrow -- but I slipped up and got one of the accursed Blockbuster "2 Night Rentals" so it's due back Sunday by noon. I hate that.