My vote for Best Novel
I thought I might start by looking back at the last 15 years, which is the period in which I have really paying attention to the Hugo process year on year. My strike rate at choosing winners has been rather poor.
2000: Best Novel award won by A Deepness in the Sky. I preferred A Civil Campaign.
2001: Best Novel award won by Harry Potter and the ( Read more... )
2000: Best Novel award won by A Deepness in the Sky. I preferred A Civil Campaign.
2001: Best Novel award won by Harry Potter and the ( Read more... )
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Anyway, so since the only category I really care about is Best Novel (like a large percentage of the Hugo-voting population, as Chaos Horizon's analysis has shown) I have tried to read all 5 nominees regardless of how painful it might be.
I had heard about Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor mentioned as one of the best fantasy books of the year (and it was nominated for a Nebula after all) so I was happy to try it. I got through the first 50 pages or so and found that I just did not care about ANY of the characters and found it just painful to continue so I stopped. I may try and pick it up again later in the summer for completeness, but right now I simply do not understand what people are seeing in this book as ( ... )
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You are very brave to struggle through the short fiction. I have read only the one non-slate finalist, but reports of the others from elsewhere are not encouraging...
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I'm one of the new members who've relied on the Hugos for years to lead me to new authors and works to explore. Feel kinda like I let a friend down. I love the short stuff but also bought anthologies after the awards were over. I'm determined to be more proactive.
On this year's short fiction, I feel somewhat obligated to try to read it in case something should be listed below NA to prevent something worse from winning. So far the only one is "Totaled" by K. England. She has some talent and the story's average. I haven't decided, yet.
Everything else I've read is drek and won't even get rated after NA. Still have 2 or 3 from each category to go. Of course, with John C. Wright hogging so many slots and writing such miserable drivel, I may save myself the pain and just deep six his remaining candidates.
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Clearly reasonable people can disagree about the relative merits of the nominees. The Goblin Emperor would be an unusual winner - the last obvious fantasy novels to win were in 2004 and 2005 - and I think that each of the other two probably has more momentum; my sense is that Ancillary Sword has the edge.
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I'd classify Among Others and The Graveyard Book as fantasies as well.
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So far my ballot looks like
1. The Three Body Problem
2. Ancillary Sword
3. NO AWARD
4. Skin Game
5. The Goblin Emperor
The big question for me is whether to put books I don't think deserve the Hugo at all above No Award. To me that's the point of the No Award option (but this is my first time voting). I would be fine with 3BP or AS winning the Hugo for Best Novel. I wouldn't be sad if SG won, but I don't know that I want to contribute to it doing so. I understand a lot of people admire TGE but I can't get my head around it, even though I have it for free now in the Hugo packet.
Funny you think Sword has the momentum, I think the Hugo is The Three-Body Problem's to lose this year and Liu is starting to show up a lot more in mainstream places. With Leckie winning EVERYTHING last year, she seems less inclined to campaign for this one and ( ... )
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