I'm really surprised about that reaction to Anathem.  I got sucked in immediately and loved every bit of it.

---- Dan Hicks <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
> "Doug Baker" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> > That's a pretty sad lot.? Stephenson has started to over write. Saturn's 
> > Children is awful.? Zoe's Tale is probably the one I'll vote for but 
> > Stephenson will probably win.
> >
> 
> There are some gems there. As good as Scalzi's "Zoe's Tale" is, I think Cory 
> Doctorow's "Little Brother" is the best of the pack.
> 
> I know what you mean about the Stephenson book. I have started it a few 
> time, but not gotten into it. That was the way I felt about Chabon's 
> "Yiddish Policemen's Union" last year. Oh, I liked it well enough, but I did 
> not think it should have won over Sawyer's "Rollback." I am surprised to not 
> find Stephanie Meyer's "The Host" on this list. Not that I liked the book 
> much at all, but it has been in the top ten or fifteen of the NY Times 
> Bestseller list for many months. I thought that would get it a nomination.
> 
> I am still sad that Stephen Baxter's "Last Contact" did not win best short 
> story last year. I blew me away when I read it, and I know a few people who 
> said they were voting for it maybe just to stop me from talking about it) 
> and my wife and I voted for it. I was happy to meet Stephen Baxter at 
> Denvention 2 tell him just how much I appreciated "Last Contact."
> 
> Dan J. Hicks
> 
> "If you are going to walk on thin ice,
>  you might as well dance."
>                         - Inuit Proverb