Hugos: The God engines by John Scalzi

[alias_sqbr]

This is deliciously absurd (but not funny), about starships powered by enslaved gods. I have a huge soft spot for sf which takes supernatural phenomenon seriously in the right way, so that you actually believe there's a consistent logic behind it all without losing sense of cool that makes fantastic elements worth writing about in the first place.

Not a perfect novella, but I found it a gripping read. Quite dark and violent, in the way I like but it's not going to be to everyone's tastes.

EDIT: Heh. Am reading the sample chapters of "The Secret Feminist Cabal", written by local fan Helen Merrick, and was put off on the first page by the use of the word "cookies". Don't given into American cultural imperialism, Helen! Biscuits and tea for all!

EDIT 2: So like ten of you comment on the cookies and not one of you thinks to mention that the title of this post was about the Hugis. Man, I suck at typing.

Comments

[nixwilliams]

heh. i use both biscuits and cookies - i got 'cookies' from my dutch family...

[alias_sqbr]

You know it never occured to me until this post to connect "cookies" with "Kuchen" (someone made a very similar comment on the lj version of this post, too)

[nixwilliams]

lol re: your edit - i totally didn't notice the title! :D

[gretel]

As long as it wasn't Anzac cookies, we don't have to flay her. It's all good.

:P

[callistra]

I think feminist cookies are a very different thing from any sort of baked goods.
:D

[alias_sqbr]

That's true, the "Meets minimum standards of a decent human being" cookies were from a sandgroper as well. But they were more metaphorical (even if also literal) which feels different :)

[alias_sqbr]

Yes, if she'd said that we'd have to revoke her citizenship. Meanwhile her american readers would go "ANZ-what cookies?".

I once saw an American give a recipe for "New Zealand cookies" which was actually for ANZAC biscuits. I, uh, may have given them an unexpected history lesson :D