In order to keep all this straight, i’ve calculated the “Combo Rank” of all the works.  This spreadsheet takes into account how well a work did in all 5 of the awards, and using a convoluted formula produces a single number roughly between 0 and 10.  Thus a book that got second place in 3 awards would rank higher than one that got first in one award but did not place in any other award.I have no delusions that this method is the perfectly corresponds to a work’s greatness.  Frederik Pohl’s Gateway and A. C. Clarke’s Rendevous with Rama are at the top of the list, being the only two novels to take first place in four of the awards i use.  Though they are not unknown novels, i don’t expect to find them at the top of many “All Time Sci-fi Greats” lists.  But in as much as winning a Nebula or a Hugo award indicates a work’s quality, this rank can be a useful tool to discover books of quality.

That is the purpose of the spreadsheet.  It’s a tool to help me, (and hopefully other people) to find some of the better sci-fi to read.  To that end i’ve also included brief summaries and links (when i could find the info).  But of course the info is sometimes incomplete, or maybe even wrong.  And inclusion on this list in no way implies a recommendation or endorsement by me. I’ve personally only read 13% of the list. But i’ve found using the list is much more rewarding than browsing through a library or bookstore looking at covers or blurbs. 

Enjoy.

Award-Winning Sci-fi List 

This is an instance of typography saving lives. Clearview signs can be read 200-300 feet further away than signs of the same size set in Highway Gothic. This gives drivers extra seconds to process information and make decisions.

I’m sorta ashamed i never noticed how badly suited the old Highway Gothic is for highway use, but i guess you never get a chance to spend much time looking at the typography of the signs.

It’s as if Dr. Frankenstein had unearthed the coffins of all the worst logo-design of the 80’s, and somehow combined the parts into a great reanimated design monster. The best thing i can say about it is that it grabs your attention, similar to the way that 1200 fingers scratching of chalkboards grabs attention.

It is not surprising that such a brand mark is accompanied by meaningless drivel by way of explanation:

London 2012 will be everyone’s Games, everyone’s 2012. This is the vision at the very heart of the new London 2012 brand. It will define the venues that are built and the Games that London and the UK will host. The new 2012 emblem will use the Olympic spirit to inspire everyone and reach out to young people. It is an invitation to take part and be involved.

These will be a Games where everyone is invited to join in. A Games where people are inspired to either take part in the many sports, cultural, educational and community events leading up to 2012 or inspired to achieve personal goals.
…
The new emblem is dynamic, modern and flexible. It will work with new technology and across traditional and new media networks.

As if other emblems don’t work with new technology…

The official site (to prove i’m not making it up)

Here’s some design discussion.

Don’t even think about writing sf or fantasy unless you’ve read every story in: The Hugo Winners, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Dangerous Visions and Again Dangerous Visions.

These stories are the root of the field. If you don’t know them, you will try to reinvent the wheel; and since the readers do know them, it will kill your work. Besides, you can’t learn the tools of the trade without being familiar with how they’ve been used and developed. Science fiction is more demanding than literary fiction, and is harder to do well; the reward is that science fiction and fantasy allow you to tell any story that can be told in li-fi, and far more that can’t.

I don’t have specific aspirations to be a writer, but this seems like good advice for the sci-fi reader as well. So, instead of wandering blindly through the mass of sci-fi, i decided to read those works recognized by the writers and readers of sci-fi as the greats. And because i’m very bad at remembering book titles, i put together a chart to keep track of things. The chart gradually grew into something more, either exhaustive or monstrous— depending on your perspective.

I’ve included the Anthologies O.S. Card recommended, the Hugo Award winners and nominees, The Nebula Award Winners, and most of the Locus Award Winners. A total of 1100+ novels, short stories and intermediate length works. For convenience the chart tallies up your progress in the various award categories. It also displays how much of the content in each category you’ve read, weighing longer works more heavily than short stories. Finally there are brief non-spoiling summaries of some of the works i’ve read.

I don’t know how many people are rabid enough about sci-fi to use this, but here it is:
A excel chart of award winning sci-fi

My current, life-long total:
38% of the Hugo Winners
15% of the Total in this chart.

[UPDATE]
I’ve updated the chart. There were several errors, and one big mistake, the weights for “novellas” and “novelettes” were reversed. I.e. reading novelettes gave you twice the credit that novellas did with only about half as many words to read. It works like this: the longer the word, “novel, novella, novelette” the fewer words it has.

I’ve also added some links in the chart, and a column that distinguishes between sci-fi and fantasy. However these are currently blank for most.

Please take a look at the gallery.

Basically they inflate/deflate the land area of the nations to represent various statistics. The following shows patents filed in a recent year. The purple blob on the right? …Japan.

UPDATE:
Well, i’m safely here, with all my belongings in cardboard boxes.

• My Childhood Ambition: To be a Zoologist, Paleontologist, Author, and later a video-game designer.
• My Fondest Memory: None stands head-and-shoulders above the others. But my time spend on Saipan came to mind first. The whole tropical island thing is as gorgeous as it looks in pictures. Or perhaps a road-trip.
• My Favorite Retreat: Other fictional worlds.
• My Wildest Dream: Founding a new school of art of philosophy or art would be neat. Designing the first video-game deemed to be on par with a work of literature. Discovering a lost civilization. Making first contact with a sapient alien race, or first setting foot on a living alien world. Having a family, with kids that go on do whichever of my wildest dreams i haven’t completed.
• My Biggest Challenge: Normal life.
• My Alarm Clock is: Something i’d usually rather ignore.
• My Perfect Day: Perhaps i’ll know it when i have one. It couldn’t be something i planned, the unexpected would be required. But good food, beautiful scenery, and esoteric conversation would be included, interspersed with laughter.
• My First Job was: Not counting chores at home, mowing grass.
• My Most Decadent Indulgence: measured by dollars per square inch, certainly my video iPod.
• My Inspiration: C.S. Lewis.
• My New Years Resolution: To avoid short-lived resolutions.
• My Ideal Companion: I haven’t found her yet.
• My Favorite Color: Blue.
• The Last Book I Read: I’m nearly done with The Prince, and The Wisdom of Father Brown.
• How many Books did I read in 2006: Unabridged audiobooks: dozens. Printed books: 5-6.
• My Ideal Home Would be: Built of stone or adobe/cob on the lip of a waterfall, designed by the ghost of Frank Lloyd Wright.
• I am Expert at: Photoshop. Learning.
• My Funniest Joke: The one make up on the spot.
• My Favourite Animal: Elephants, frogs, Pterasaurs, or maybe the Macrauchenia.
• My Favourite Breakfast: Breakfast casserole, or pancakes with sausage gravy.
• My Favorite Snack: Doritoes.
• My Favorite NEW TV Show: Lost
• My Couch: Cost $30, looks abused and ugly, but is pretty comfortable. Though my favorite couch (of all time) was provided by Jeff when we lived in the same apartment in school.
• Your Greatest Fear: Loosing my mind
• Your Favourite Entertainer: I’m not interested in entertainment personalities.
• Your Favorite Meat & Veggie: Pizza!
• Worst Person in the World: Mao wins for killing more people that anyone in human history. He gets extra evil points because they were his own citizens. Pol Pot is the runner up because he killed a larger proportion of his citizens, about 2/3rds.

Now i’m supposed to tag 5 other bloggers, or the enforcing spirit of chain-letters will curse me with improbable misfortune:

Matt

Ellen

Josh (i don’t have his new blog address yet)

Kathryn

Noelle

I’ve created or modified many of the terrain graphics, and done some work with the interface and units.  It’s a cross between an artistic and an analytical challenge to make terrain graphics that transitions properly with each other and other terrains around them.  I actually spend more time making the game than playing it.

So if you like strategy games, give this one a try. A word of warning: if you do try it out, play first on the easiest setting— it will still be challenging.

The following is a combination of terrains that i’ve completely or mostly made. I’ve done quite a bit more, but most of that was collaborative work, my modifications of early, lousy work, which might be modified several more times.