The Locus Undertaking

“Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end.”
― George R.R. Martin

Locus Awards for the Best Fantasy Novel

35 Locus Awards for Fantasy has been awarded since 1978

current progress:

• books read - 8

Year	Novel	Author
1978	The Silmarillion (5 Stars)	J. R. R. Tolkien
1980	Harpist in the Wind	Patricia A. McKillip
1981	Lord Valentine's Castle (4 Stars - Reviewed)	Robert Silverberg
1982	The Claw of the Conciliator	Gene Wolfe
1983	The Sword of the Lictor	Gene Wolfe
1984	The Mists of Avalon	Marion Zimmer Bradley
1985	Job: A Comedy of Justice	Robert A. Heinlein
1986	Trumps of Doom	Roger Zelazny
1987	Soldier of the Mist	Gene Wolfe
1988	Seventh Son	Orson Scott Card
1989	Red Prophet	Orson Scott Card
1990	Prentice Alvin	Orson Scott Card
1991	Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea (3 Stars - Reviewed)	Ursula K. Le Guin
1992	Beauty	Sheri S. Tepper
1993	Last Call	Tim Powers
1994	The Innkeeper's Song	Peter S. Beagle
1995	Brittle Innings	Michael Bishop
1996	Alvin Journeyman	Orson Scott Card
1997	A Game of Thrones (5 Stars)	George R. R. Martin
1998	Earthquake Weather	Tim Powers
1999	A Clash of Kings (5 Stars)	George R. R. Martin
2000	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	J. K. Rowling
2001	A Storm of Swords  (4 Stars)	George R. R. Martin
2002	American Gods (3 Stars)	Neil Gaiman
2003	The Scar	China Miéville
2004	Paladin of Souls	Lois McMaster Bujold
2005	Iron Council	China Miéville
2006	Anansi Boys	Neil Gaiman
2007	The Privilege of the Sword	Ellen Kushner
2008	Making Money	Terry Pratchett
2009	Lavinia	Ursula K. Le Guin
2010	The City & the City	China Miéville
2011	Kraken	China Miéville
2012	A Dance with Dragons (5 Stars)	George R. R. Martin
2013	The Apocalypse Codex	Charles Stross

Locus Awards for the Best Science-Fiction Novel

34 Locus Award for Science Fiction has been awarded since 1980

current progress:

• books read - 5

Year	Winner
1980	Titan by John Varley (3 Stars)
1981	The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
1982	The Many Coloured Land by Julian May
1983	Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov
1984	Startide Rising by David Brin
1985	The Integral Trees by Larry Niven
1986	The Postman by David Brin
1987	Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (3 Stars - Reviewed)
1988	The Uplift War by David Brin
1989	Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh
1990	Hyperion by Dan Simmons (5 Stars)
1991	The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons (4 Stars - Reviewed)
1992	Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
1993	Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
1994	Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
1995	Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold
1996	The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
1997	Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
1998	The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons (5 Stars)
1999	To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
2000	Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
2001	The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin
2002	Passage by Connie Willis
2003	The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
2004	Ilium by Dan Simmons
2005	The Baroque Cycle (i.e. Quicksilver; The Confusion; The System of the World) by Neal Stephenson
2006	Accelerando by Charles Stross
2007	Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
2008	The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
2009	Anathem by Neal Stephenson
2010	Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
2011	Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis
2012	Embassytown by China Miéville
2013	Redshirts by John Scalzi

Started circa: May, 2014

Date of Completion:

Lord Valentine's Castle (Lord Valentine #1) by Robert Silverberg

Title:Lord Valentine's Castle (Lord Valentine #1)
Author: Robert Silverberg
Original Publication Date: 1980
Pages: 506

"Conquest over self was the finest of victories."(467)

It pains me that this book is languishing in undeserved obscurity. 

Lord Valentine's Castle follows the journey of Valentine, devoid of any semblance of identity and perhaps irretrievably deprived of indescribably defining memories, living a wanderer’s life, joining a band of jugglers, learning the trade in the only way it was meant to be learned, by heart and soul, and comes to the realization that he has fallen from the highest possible state of grace, comes to the inevitable understanding that he must journey to reclaim what he has lost, not for himself, but for the safety and order of Majipoor.

This is a journey of one man, his quest to define himself, as much as it is a voyage through the world of Majipoor. And it is splendid.

It is splendid because Silverberg is unlike most fantasy writers. This book is not filled with fantasy tropes and cliché plot devices. No. There are no dwarves, elves and well-defined magical schemes, no epic wars, but there are dragons! Like Ursula Le Guin, in the A Wizard of Earthsea, the struggle is much more personal, and to expect a diluted brilliance in this work is but a folly one must dispense with.  As I have written in my review on the first book of the Earthsea Cycle which is suitably in consonance with my views on this book,“what is most fascinating in this unique work of fantasy is how personal and particular the main struggle is and yet it carries a worldly importance to the book. The perpetuation of the grand narratives of good against evil, or of the prosaic if not routinary overblown dilemmas of kings and men have endeavored to situate if not relegate this grand personal struggle everybody must go through in the background as mere subplots at the best and at worst as plot devices, never really brought in the forefront.” And I like this kind of books, not only because of the inherent mastery with which it is delivered but it reflects

Silverberg’s vehemence and audacity at writing out of the banalities in fantasy writing. This he achieved by masterfully incorporating a bit of sci-fi background in this world and highlighting the power of dreams to list a few, and of course envisioning our lovely charismatic engaging Valentine to be black.I revel in the fact that the protagonist in this was envisioned to have had dark skin. For it is not so much as the color of the skin that talks but of the profound meaning and effect it carries concerning minute details of vital necessity not only in the fantasy genre but of printed work generally… for most fantasy plots are patterned if not derived from the middle ages of conquest where the dichotomy of the white and black or of the east-west conflict is fundamentally translated to good and bad respectively and the stratification of the social class is at its height..’’ Authors like this must be read!

Silverberg’s world building is exceptionally extensive and my imagination was left in no less a euphoric state given the way he wrote. His was so detailed, so wonderful, so mesmerizing. Not only were the cities strangely unique and uncompromisingly beautiful, they were real, they were real in the manner that Silverberg wanted them to be, as if you were there, standing before the gates of the city, drunkenly dazzling at the beauty of this alien world. Just as a painter masterfully but with adamant care puts life into the canvass with those slow adroit masterful strokes of genius, so does Silverberg conjures Majipoor to life with his phrases, sentences and paragraphs. And this world building in effect makes Valentine’s journey more empathic, and I would easily pledge my loyalty to this unprecedentedly deposed Coronal, even though most of his travels are uneventful compared to most fantasy books, I will choose to be beside this man and enter Majipoor once again.



This book is part of my LOCUS AWARDS reading list.

Demon (The Gaea Trilogy #3) by John Varley

Title: Demon (The Gaea Trilogy #3)
Author: John Varley
Publisher: Berkley Books
Original Publication Date: 1984
Pages: 464

What if you could talk to god, and ask one thing? What would you ask of him or her?

John Varley played with this concept in this trilogy together with ideas of cultural variations, religion and psychological developments. It was exciting, novel and conspicuously distinctive from most science-fiction works of today.

The book was written in 1979, and in 1980, it was listed as the first official winner of the Locus Award in Science-Fiction. But considering that time frame, all the books in the series are an easy read and arguably a page turner. If I recall correctly, I labeled the books as currently reading months earlier but in actual time consumption, I finished all three in less than a week.

I liked how in Varley’s world building, he presented numerous interesting ideas on cultural development and religion. The idea of the self-sustaining alien environment is appealing and just like the mysteries carried in Rendezvous with Rama and 2001: A Space Odyssey, the idea of a more advance entity gracing us is riveting.

But what made me rate the books from the average three to a measly two is as conspicuous as the books’ appeal.

I did not like any of his characters. They were designed with weak foundations and even weaker developments. Simply put, they were not enthralling. In the later parts of the trilogy, I still failed to neither identify nor maintain a veritable connection with the crew.

The further reason is that Varley’s books can be abridged in two simple story arcs. The first is the discovery to the overthrow of the god and second the sex, yes you read that right, sex. Let me set this straight that outright, there is no fundamental issue between these two topics, the problem lies in the story itself. You see, when John Varley first presented Titan, the process of reproduction between the Aliens was nothing but interesting. I admit it was unique and well thought out. In the later parts of the trilogy however, when the process have been deconstructed and it has worn out its appeal and novelty,  the science and the beauty of the process was relegated to nothing but mere physical intercourse (including humans of course). So what happens is that the whole story is actually an intercourse (no pun intended) between these two pieces of the puzzle, something like this, sex-discovery-sex-plotting-sex-conspiring-sex-overthrow, so you see the problem, or is it a problem at all?

Would I recommend this trilogy? Perhaps not. I actually engaged in finishing the three books because I could not literally bear leaving something hanging, even if that means plodding through another two books.

As for me, if I could ask a god, I would, in his infinite capacity inquire, when George R.R. Martin would actually come around finishing his GoT series.