The Serene Wombles

Once a year, on this blog’s birthday (3rd October) I offer awards to the best things I have reviewed in the course of that year. These awards are known as the ‘Serene Wombles’, because I used to write this blog under the name ‘Serenity Womble’, and because being the best of the best, those awarded might be considered to be Wombles of Serenity*. Now that I have my own domain, I have changed the name to be more in line with my general web-presence, as ‘Rhube’. But I see no reason to rename the awards. The Oscars, after all, are happily known as such to most people, rather than as the Academy Awards.

In any case, I felt it was high time I collected somewhere a list of these worthy award winners. I hope it will help my readers to find the best of the best, and for these fantastic works to get the attention they deserve. The awards are listed by year below. Note that each year awards are given to both ‘Serene Wombles’ and ‘Time Travelling Wombles’, depending on how recent the work reviewed was considered to be at the time of posting.

The First Annual Serene Wombles – 2010-11

The Serene Womble for Best Film: Captain America: The First Avenger

The Serene Womble for Best TV Show: Game of Thrones

The Serene Womble for Best Actor: Eve Myles, for her performance in Torchwood: Miracle Day

The Serene Womble for Best Novel: Jumper, by Steven Gould

The Serene Womble for Best Podcast: The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

The Time Travelling Womble for Best Film: Mr Smith Goes to Washington

The Time Travelling Womble for Best Actor: James (Jimmy) Stewart, for his performance in Mr Smith Goes to Washington

The Time Travelling Womble for Best TV Show: Pushing Daisies

The Time Travelling Womble for Best Novel: The Wolf Within, by Pamela Bell

The People’s Choice Award 2011: Torchwood: Miracle Day

The Second Annual Serene Wombles – 2011-12

The Serene Womble for Best Film: Dredd (3D)

The Serene Womble for Best TV Show: Game of Thrones, Season Two

The Serene Womble for Best Web Series: The Guild, Season Five

The Serene Womble for Best Actor: Ben Wishaw, for his work in The Hollow Crown, Part I: Richard II

The Serene Womble for Best Novel: Rome Burning, by Sophia McDougall

The Serene Womble for Best Comic: Romantically Apocalyptic

The Time Travelling Womble for Best Film: The Glass Slipper

The Time Travelling Womble for Best Actor: Lee Pace, for his work in Soldier’s Girl

The Time Travelling Womble for Best Novel: The Dark Tower, Vol. 2: The Drawing of the Three, by Stephen King

The People’s Choice Award 2012: The Guild, Season Five

The Third Annual Serene Wombles – 2012-13

The Serene Womble for Best Film: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Serene Womble for Best TV Show: Hemlock Grove, Season One

The Serene Womble for Best Novel: Null – due to Life I didn’t review any novels with which I was sufficiently impressed.

The Serene Womble for Best Blog: Escher Girls

The Serene Womble for Best Podcast: Welcome to Night Vale

The Serene Womble for Best Music: Stephanie Mabey, for her album, Wake Up Dreaming

The Serene Womble for Best Webcomic: City of the Dead

The Time Travelling Womble for Best Novel: The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

The Time Travelling Womble for Best Non-fiction Book: Wild Swans, by Jung Chang

The Time Travelling Womble for Best Blog: Inexplicable Objects

The People’s Choice Award 2013: Hemlock Grove, Season One

(No, I don’t know why I didn’t give any acting awards for 2012-13 – blame it on the fact that I was writing up the awards at a very stressful time.)

*In the sense that in gaming parlance a ‘combat womble’ is one who has designed their character to maximise their stats for combat – low on intelligence and wisdom, high on strength and dexterity – and as my blog was, at the time, named ‘In Search of the Happiness Max’, it seemed to me that one who had maximised for happiness would be a serenity womble.

Don’t judge me – it made sense at the time!