ZT on SF Site’s 2009 Reader’s Choice List
Posted on March 2, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 8 Comments
And, uh, the title says pretty much everything about that, doesn’t it? Here’s the complete list to see who else made the cut; it’s a good list.
Zoe’s appearance means that to date, every one of the Old Man’s War books have made the SF Site’s Reader Choice list in the year it was published, which is a nice bit of consistency to have. None of them, however, have ever made the annual Editor’s Choice list. But if one must choose which to be popular with, readers or editors, one’s mortgage generally votes for readers. So, I’m good.
It is curious that none of them made the editors’ list — perhaps they aren’t tedious enough…
It’s not that curious. The OMW is not obviously technically impressive, like, say, Anathem is (which, incidentally, I did not find tedious at all), so it doesn’t lend itself to the attention of folks looking for innovative or novel use of language/plot/setting, etc.
I think you’re in excellent company there, John. Zoe’s Tale certainly made my list for last year. I’ve recommended it to quite a few friends, as well.
Scary how that works out. Either readers love it or editors love it.
Kinda like the Oscars.
And to be honest that kinda sucks for both.
Tom:
Not always. This year there’s a fair amount of overlap in the editors and readers lists, and Anathem tops both.
I’m not always looking for technically challenging every time I pick up a book so I’m good too. If I feel up to it, I just pull out “The Silmarillion” It makes me work for it and it sounds like Anathem will too. Anathem sounds fun though and I’ll be reading it as soon as I get a chance.
Oh, and congrats on ZT being chosen for this list. I could go on and on but suffice to say there are sections of ZT that I think is some of the best work you’ve ever done.
Not sucking up just IMHO.
Congratulations, John. I just finished Zoe’s Tale this weekend and now I need to read the other books in this series. I must admit to being fairly new to Sci-fi books; most of mine has been tv and movies. In fact what lead me to your books was news on the SG:U TWoP forum thread that you had been signed as a creative consultant. As the comments were extremely flattering I thought I better check out your work.
There were two things that really stood out to me: Enzo’s poem was heart-stoppingly beautiful, and Zoe’s speech left me with tears running down my face….twice. Yup, went back and read the speech again and cried again.
And good call on not hanging out w/sophmore girls for “research.”
Thanks, John.
Hi there,
I’ve returned to reading SF after close to a two decade abscence – prior to this return, the last SF novels I read were “Eclipse Corona” and “Mona Lisa Overdrive” – and out of the authors/series/novels I’ve read so far, the OMW series has been equally the most enjoyable. Reading SF as an allegedly “mature” adult is different from when I was a teenager/on the cusp of adulthood.
My enjoyment of the OMW series has reignited my enthusiasm for the genre, and I’m going to enjoy catching up on the past couple of decades as well as the classics I read as a teenager.
Cheers