The Hugo Awards don't generally offer much for readers of middle grade sci fi/fantasy, but this year I was awfully pleased to see that Ursula Vernon, of Dragonbreath fame, won the "Best Graphic Story" award for Digger. I've been meaning to try Digger for ages; here's the blurb for Vol. 1:"Digger is a story about a wombat. More specifically, it is a story about a particularly no-nonsense wombat who finds herself stuck on the wrong end of a one-way tunnel in a strange land where nonsense seems to be the specialty. Now with the help of a talking statue of a god, an outcast hyena, a shadow-being of indeterminate origin, and an oracular slug she seeks to find out where she is and how to go about getting back to her Warren."
The best novel Hugo award went to Among Others, by Jo Walton, which is a book that struck me as one I should love, but I didn't.
You can find the whole list of winners here at Tor.
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That's awesome! I love Ursula Vernon's work.
ReplyDeleteHILARIOUSLY, this is what Ursula Vernon posted on her blog five days ago:
ReplyDelete"I will lose with dignity and go to the Hugo Loser’s party and drink until I fall down. With dignity."
We are all mocking her heartily just now. I am SO VERY PLEASED for her, it's kind of a happy-dancing thing going. I've never met her, but I LOVE her offbeat sense of ...well, everything. And her stories. And her Biting Pear. And I really am trying hopefully to get her to write something weird for older kids. Well, me, really.
Anyway, yay!
I would love to meet her someday! I'm actually quite happy for her to keep writing Dragonbreath books--we all love them hereabouts.
DeleteDigger is a great story, but if you are sharing it with your kids, it's got a bunch of heavy duty adult stuff along with the sillyness. Not sex adult stuff, but societies, exiles, no good choices sometimes, duty, violence and death. With the young kids, you can just gloss over a lot of it, but if they are a little older, it might raise questions you are not yet prepared to discuss with your kids. That being said, it's a wonderful complex story that just sorta happened while ursula was doing other things to make a living.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up! I'll be sure to read it first.
DeleteWow. This sounds, amazing. I normally don't read graphic novels, but I love Ursula Vernon's art and the premise just sounds so fantastic! A wombat?! Automatic must read!
ReplyDeleteI like the "oracular slug" myself, but I agree wombats have great appeal!
DeleteDragonbreath! Love. And what was wrong with Among Others? It sounds as if I should like it, too.
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