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Fire Watch (story)
"Fire Watch" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Connie Willis. The story, first published in ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'' in February 1982, involves a time-traveling historian who goes back to the Blitz in London, to participate in the fire lookout at St. Paul's Cathedral. Plot The narrator is a student historian from a future where historians use time-travel to study history directly. He had prepared himself to visit St. Paul in the first century but instead gets sent to St. Paul's Cathedral in 1940. He develops a deep emotional attachment to the cathedral and is highly devoted to his role in defending it – especially due to his bitter knowledge that St. Paul's would survive the World War II bombings but would be obliterated in a terrorist attack nearer to the protagonist's own time. Reception The story won both a Hugo Award for Best Novelette and a Nebula Award for Best Novelette. Relationships to other Willis works "Fire Watch" (1982) was inclu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, extraterrestrial life, sentient artificial intelligence, cybernetics, certain forms of immortality (like mind uploading), and the singularity. Science fiction predicted several existing inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon, whose names entirely match their fictional predecessors. In addition, science fiction might serve as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations. Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is also related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Science fiction, in literature, film, television, and other media, has beco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doomsday Book (novel)
''Doomsday Book'' is a 1992 science fiction novel by American author Connie Willis. The novel won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and was shortlisted for other awards. The title of the book refers to the ''Domesday Book'' of 1086. Kivrin Engle, the main character, says that her recording is "a record of life in the Middle Ages, which is what William the Conqueror's survey turned out to be." The novel is the first in a series about the Oxford time-traveling historians, which includes ''To Say Nothing of the Dog'' (1998) and ''Blackout/All Clear'' (2010). Plot introduction Willis's mythos is a near future, first introduced in her story " Fire Watch" (1982), in which historians conduct field work by traveling into the past as observers. The research is conducted at the University of Oxford in mid-21st century England. In the book's fictional universe, history resists time travel that would cause the past to be altered by preventing visits to certain places or times. Typically ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugo Award For Best Novelette Winning Works
Hugo or HUGO may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese * Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback * Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise based on a troll ** ''Hugo'' (game show), a television show that first ran from 1990 to 1995 ** ''Hugo'' (video game), several video games released between 1991 and 2000 * ''Hugo'' (stylised as ''hugo''), a 2022 album by British rapper Loyle Carner People and fictional characters * Victor Hugo, a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. * Hugo (name), including lists of people with Hugo as a given name or surname, as well as fictional characters * Hugo (musician), Thai-American actor and singer-songwriter Chulachak Chakrabongse (born 1981) Places in the United States * Hugo, Alabama, an unincorporated community * Hugo, Colorado, a Statutory Town * Hugo, Minnesota, a town * Hugo, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Hugo, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction Short Stories
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for scientific reasoning is tens of thousands of years old. The earliest written records in the history of science come from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age and later by the efforts of Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infinity Plus
''Infinity Plus'' (sometimes stylized as ''infinity plus'' and ''infinityplus'') was a science fiction webzine active from 1997 to 2007,science fiction, fantasy and horror from infinity plus retrieved May 13, 2018 specializing in reviews, interviews, and professionally written fiction. It was founded by (who took a "deliberately elitist approach"); The story of infinity plus originally published in '' Interzone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Joint Winners Of The Hugo And Nebula Awards
{{Short description, none This is a list of the works that have won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, given annually to works of science fiction or fantasy literature. The Hugo Awards are voted on by science-fiction fans at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon); the Nebula Awards—given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)—began in 1966, making that the first year joint winners were possible. The categories are defined by number of words, as follows: *Novel: >39,999 words *Novella: 17,500 - 39,999 words *Novelette: 7,500 - 17,499 words *Short story: *2003/2002 Novel: ''American Gods'' by Neil Gaimanbr>*2005/2004 Novel: ''Paladin of Souls'' by Lois McMaster Bujoldbr>*2008 Novel: ''The Yiddish Policemen's Union'' by Michael Chabonbr>http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?navi=&Year=2010] *2012 Novel: ''Among Others'' by Jo Waltonbr>http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?navi=&Year=2011] *2014 Novel: ''Ancillary Ju ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Plague
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the deaths of people, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. Bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium ''Yersinia pestis'' spread by fleas, but it can also take a secondary form where it is spread by person-to-person contact via aerosols causing septicaemic or pneumonic plagues. The Black Death was the beginning of the second plague pandemic. The plague created religious, social and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history. The origin of the Black Death is disputed. The pandemic originated either in Central Asia or East Asia before spreading to Crimea with the Golden Horde army of Jani Beg as he was besieging the Genoese trading port of Kaffa in Crimea (1347). From Crimea, it was most likely carried ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackout/All Clear
''Blackout'' and ''All Clear'' are the two volumes that constitute a 2010 science fiction novel by American author Connie Willis. ''Blackout'' was published February 2, 2010 by Spectra. The second part, the conclusion ''All Clear'', was released as a separate book on October 19, 2010. The diptych won the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2011 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novel. These two volumes are the most recent of four books and a short story that Willis has written involving time travel from Oxford during the mid-21st century, all of which won multiple awards. Plot introduction Willis imagines a near future (first introduced in her 1982 story " Fire Watch" and featured in two of her previous novels: ''Doomsday Book'' and ''To Say Nothing of the Dog'') in which historians conduct field work by traveling into the past as observers. The research is mainly conducted at the University of Oxford in England in the mid-21st cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
To Say Nothing Of The Dog
''To Say Nothing of the Dog'': ''or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last'' is a 1997 comic science fiction novel by Connie Willis. It used the same setting, including time-traveling historians, which Willis explored in '' Fire Watch'' (1982)'','' ''Doomsday Book'' (1992), and ''Blackout/All Clear'' (2010). ''To Say Nothing of the Dog'' won both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1999, and was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1998. Source of title The book's title is inspired by the subtitle of an 1889 classic work, as explained by the author in the dedication: "To Robert A. Heinlein, who, in ''Have Space Suit—Will Travel'', first introduced me to Jerome K. Jerome's '' Three Men in a Boat, To Say Nothing of the Dog''." Plot Ned Henry is a time traveler in 1940 studying Coventry Cathedral after the Coventry Blitz of World War II. He is specifically searching for the location of the "Bishop's bird stump", a MacGuffin that is not defined by the narrator. The narrator shows ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world; it has buildings in every style of English architecture since late Anglo-Saxon. Oxford's industries include motor manufacturing, education, publishing, information technology and science. History The history of Oxford in England dates back to its original settlement in the Saxon period. Originally of strategic significance due to its controlling location on the upper reaches of the River Thames at its junction with the River Cherwell, the town grew in national importance during the early Norman period, and in the late 12th century became home to the fledgling University of Oxford. The city was besieged during The Anarchy in 1142. The university rose to domina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts. Definition The Italian term is a feminine of ''novello'', which means ''new'', similarly to the English word ''news''. Merriam-Webster defines a novella as "a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel". No official definition exists regarding the number of pages or words necessary for a story to be considered a novella, a short story or a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association defines a novella's word count to be between 17,500 and 40,000 words. History The novella as a literary genre began developing in the Italian literature of the early Renaissance, principally Giovanni Boccaccio, author of ''The Decameron'' (1353). ''The Decameron'' featured 100 tales (named nov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fire Watch (book)
''Fire Watch'' is a book of short stories by Connie Willis, first published in 1984, that touches on time travel, nuclear war, the end of the world, and cornball humour. The title story, "Fire Watch", is about a time-travelling historian who goes back to the Blitz in London. He's miffed because he spent years preparing to travel with St. Paul and gets sent to St. Paul's Cathedral in London, instead. This model of time travel also features in Willis's subsequent novels ''Doomsday Book'', ''To Say Nothing of the Dog'' and ''Blackout/All Clear'', set in the same continuity. The stories are: *" Fire Watch" *"Service for the Burial of the Dead" *"Lost and Found" *"All My Darling Daughters" *"The Father of the Bride" *"A Letter from the Clearys" *"The Sidon in the Mirror" *"And Come from Miles Around" *"Daisy, in the Sun" *"Mail Order Clone" *"Samaritan" *"Blued Moon" This was Connie Willis's first collection. Reception David Pringle rated ''Fire Watch'' three stars out of fou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
