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... )
Yours is a really interesting reaction compared to mine. I bounced off The Goblin the first go, thinking it was a bit too YAish. Tried again a bit later and got sucked into a) Maia's character development, b) the world building and c) the slight trope bending of the overlooked, mistreated heir coming to power and single-handedly kicking a&& and taking names who instead overcomes his disadvantage by empathy and kindness.
In contrast I am really struggling with 3BP. Am only 1/3 thru on 2nd attempt but keep bumping into not being able to accept or care about the characters. I read that you may need to get further to encounter the cool science stuff to carry over characterization issues (and the science stuff usually does get first place with me).
Hadn't read AJ so about 1/2 through and loving it. Will then read AS.
I tried Dark and just can't get past the really choppy vignette style and cardboard characters. I have tried previous Anderson books and was never able to sink into the stories far enough that the problems didn't yank me back out again.
Will try Skin Game later.
I don't have an order yet, but Dark will not be ranked, even below NA.
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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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