Hugo noms

[melannen]

So! Hugo noms are coming perilously close, and of course I have not done half the reading I meant to.

Does anybody have any recs for 2016 or 1941 Hugo-eligible novels I should make sure to read before I nominate?

So far I have read:

Ancillary Mercy
Dark Orbit
Sorceror to the Crown
Uprooted
Darkness on his Bones
Castle Hangnail
Slan
The Ill-Made Knight
(and several of the 1941 ones on the novella/novel line)

They were all good enough I should not be sad if they won, but none of them hit me in the head with Yes! This should definitely win a Hugo!

I have Unbound and The Traitor Baru Cormorant waiting for me, I could maybe get through three or four more if I really push, so what should those three or four more be? Things that are likely to push a rec up my priority list: not by a white cis dude, stand-alone complete in one volume, someone on my reading list thinks it deserves a Hugo, and either secondary-word fantasy with magic or science fiction with spaceships (especially SF with spaceships, not enough of that around lately). ETA: being also Campbell eligible would also help.

...Also I have a bunch of folks' Hugo-eligible short fiction recs bookmarked, but I would not object to recs/links for that either. Or Fanwriter - the problem with that is too many possibilities, no obvious way to narrow down...

I'm actually in better shape than I expected to be for most of the other 2016 categories - I know my noms for Graphic Story, Dramatic Presentation, Editor (Short Form), Zines, and Fancast, will never be able to judge Editor (Long Form) and more or less know where I'm looking for Related Work and Artist. 1941 recs for any of those would be welcome, though.

Comments

[vass]

(I have no answers to your actual questions, so I will just talk about Hugo-eligible novels you already mentioned.)

I have hopes for Sorcerer to the Crown.

I'm currently reading The Traitor Baru Cormorant, and think pretty highly of it too.

And I'd be entirely happy with Ancillary Mercy winning except that because Ancillary Justice won I don't feel like it needs to.

[melannen]

I really liked Sorceror to the Crown, but fundamentally it was a Regency Romance with much much more worldbuilding and a better POV than usual, and it had plothole issues and structure issues and was not really all that deep and the magic worldbuilding falls to pieces as soon as you try to look offstage.

(Like. If we lived in an AU where it was not exceptional that it's a Regency romance where the leads were people of color and it did not ignore slavery/imperialism, I don't think it would be considered anything ther than a fun Regency romance? It's really good at being that, and it is something special, because we aren't in that AU, so I would be quite happy if it won, but as a story it didn't utterly blow me away.

...maybe that's because I'm spoiled, though, I know that the mere fact it tried to do those things did blow a lot of people away.)

Ancillary Mercy I'd be all for if Justice hadn't won, and I loved it A Lot, but I feel like it wasn't nearly as great as Justice was, in terms of what it actually did as a story, and definitely not as a stand-alone. (Also, yeah, Justice won, so while the series as a whole is amazing I don't think I could nom it to stand in for the series as a whole.)

(Yeah, I know, I'm super-critical when I'm put up against awards, we all remember this from last summer. :P)

[rymenhild]

N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season, is almost certainly the best work she's ever done, and should be a contender for Best Novel. Author is neither white nor dude. Setup is secondary world apocalyptic dystopia with geology-based magic. Book is not standalone (and I'm dying to know what happens next, alas).

[melannen]

Yeah, I'm looking at that one, and I want to read it eventually, but I don't think I would ever vote for a book that ended on a major cliffhanger for something like this, and I remember how little the end of Hundred Thousand Kingdoms wrapped up...

[rymenhild]

I would say that The Fifth Season is less wrapped up than The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. 100KK is at least the full story of how Yeine became Someone else and began fixing the universe. Even if the rest of the universe repairs appeared in later books, at least Yeine's apotheosis was complete. By contrast, The Fifth Season really doesn't finish Essun's story. So if that's a dealbreaker for a contender for you, then you don't need to consider it.

[melannen]

Ah, yeah, I'll probably wait until after Hugos to pick that one up then, unless it gets nominated. I'm okay with things that are technically in a series but mostly work on their own (like Ancillary Justice) but I don't like giving an award to a story that's really really not finished yet; save that for a nom for the whole series. And also I wish there were more stand-alone fantasy novels and fewer series - the stand-alone is becoming a bit of a lost art - so I want to encourage that.

[thatyourefuse]

The Traitor Baru Cormorant is what I'd be voting for if I were voting, but I think it's going to be divisive as hell, and I don't believe it ticks a lot of your boxes.

[melannen]

Yeah, I'm going to try to read it, because it's getting a lot of buzz, but I get the impression it may not be my kind of book, and that it has even less SF in it than Goblin Emperor did, so I don't think it's going to solve my dilemma.

[thatyourefuse]

I think "not your kind of book" about sums it up, sadly (it is extremely mine but you should take this as the word of someone who craves stories about the terrible things people do to themselves and others under crushingly oppressive systems; like, I'd made good-faith efforts at reading King Lear and The Handmaid's Tale by the time I was nine; it's extremely MY kind of book).

[melannen]

I don't actually mind books about people doing terrible things in terrible situations but a) you have to be REALLY SUPERLATIVELY GOOD at the characterization and worldbuilding, because my brain goes into overdrive mode trying to pick it apart to prove that it's not really that terrible, and b) the people doing the terrible things can't be terrible people (which goes back to the superlatively good characterization.)

(I mean, I didn't like Handmaid's Tale not because of the terrible stuff, but because I really disliked a lot of the charaterization and the way the author presented that characterization, to the point that I was writing fixit fanfic for it, where the torment were worse but the people were better....)

Also I tend not to seek them out, even if I might like them, because there's other genres where I have better odds. So there's that.

So I might like Baru Cormorant a lot! But it's got a harder row to hoe than if it was about happy people in a magical forest.

[law_nerd]

“The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet,” by Becky Chambers
Space ship, mixed crew of aliens, humans, and an AI … great read; qualifies for the Campbell award for new author. May or may not qualify for Hugo, was (I think) self-published 2014, first mainstream (Hodder & Stoughton) publication 2015.

[Ed to add]: May be part one of a series, hard to tell, can be read as complete, does not end on a cliffhanger.

[melannen]

Ooh, thank you! I have absolutely nothing for the Campbells yet, I keep forgetting them because they're not Hugos. :P

[cahn]

They were all good enough I should not be sad if they won, but none of them hit me in the head with Yes! This should definitely win a Hugo!

*nods* Yup. I mean! I think this was a strong year and that there are a lot of books I'm happy having read, which is not always the case. My bet is on Uprooted to win (I think fairy-tale ambience + Novik's popularity + Robin McKinley pastiche + doing it better than McKinley = win), and I liked it the best of what I've read, but none of the novels, like you say, has hit me in the head.

I would like to rec the novelette Morrigan in Shadow which is admittedly by a white cis dude, but on the other hand it is not about white dudes and it does have spaceships, and I really liked it and I do think it deserves a Hugo.

Where are you looking for Related Work? I'm in bad shape for that one.

[melannen]

Being by a white cis dude is not a disqualification, just moves it down the list! I have heard about that one, I'll keep it in mind.

...mostly I am planning to nom Fanlore and AO3, and probably also New Horizons and some of the other cool space exploration things that came to fruition this year. I doubt any of them will make it past the noms stage but it would be cool enough if they did that I am willing to waste my noms on the off-chance. (And Apollo 11 won, so there's precedent for actual space science winning Hugo awards.)

[likeadeuce]

Aliette de Bodard's'House of Shattered Wings' might fit your bill although it has the same issue as 'The Fifth Season' in that it definitely feels like the first part of a longer story.

And by cis white dude but a really good SF with spaceships story that engages with SFnal ideas in ways that I hadn't thought about -- AURORA by Kim Stanley Robinson. caveat that I've never read him before so I don't know how much it is the same as his other books but I was impressed.

[melannen]

Oh, thank you! I've heard good things about Aurora but I've heard mixed things about KSR's writing in general (in that I know several people who started the Mars series and then got really bored and quit), so maybe that would be a good place to start with him.

[likeadeuce]

It's definitely an idea book with just enough characterization to keep the reader engaged (the most interesting character is actually... Well, I read this right after Ancillary Mercy & there's an interesting resonance.) And sometimes there were infodump parts where I skimmed/zoned out. But I liked enough of the writing & it was one of the few books I've read recently that really surprised me, multiple times, in fascinating ways...the less spoiled you are the better.

[ambyr]

I am going to rec Erin Bow's The Scorpion Rules, even though it's YA and thus would never win. It is not technically a stand-alone--there is a companion novel scheduled to come out this year--but I suspect that is going to be more of a "looking at different aspects of this world" book than a direct sequel. I think it does interesting things with the genre of dystopia, starting with the fact that the protagonist does not consider overthrowing the system a plausible (or even, possibly, desirable) goal. It's a quiet, philosophical little book, and I liked it a lot.

Also, it has goats, and they're pretty awesome.

(I think you would enjoy her earlier book Sorrow's Knot more, but it's not eligible, so.)

[seekingferret]

I remembered your rec of this yesterday and put it on hold at the library. Hopefully I'll enjoy it.

[ambyr]

I have no idea what you're going to think of it, actually, so I look forward to hearing it! It is one of those books that is totally tailored to my tastes, but that I can understand might not be everyone's jam.

[melannen]

That sounds really interesting! Thank you! And I would love to see a YA book win (and Uprooted is getting marketed as YA in some places, and has a good chance). I may end up nomming Castle Hangnail, which frankly I think had some of the most interesting stuff to say of the ones I've recced, and it's a long junior-grade novel.

[ambyr]

Castle Hangnail is on my to-read list, but the friend I was going to borrow it from went and loaned it to someone else (the injustice!) so now I have to wait longer.

Although actually I could just check it out of the library, so maybe I'll do that, heh.

[melannen]

It's not, like, life-changing, but I enjoyed it a lot, and the main character's arc is really well done.

[the_rck]

Castle Hangnail was the best book I read last year. I don't read a lot of adult fiction, though, so I can't compare it to anything else being discussed.

[melannen]

It would have been my only five-star book from the year on Goodreads, except I can't get over the fact that her awesome boots of wickedness have laces in the text and buckles in the illustrations. Boots are very important, so that knocked it down a little.

Everything else was great.

[seekingferret]

Ken Liu's The Grace of Kings is on my Hugo ballot, is secondary world fantasy by a non-white dude, and is really really good.

[seekingferret]

Also, the best short story I read this year, Benjamin Rosenbaum's "Tractate Metim 28a", is not freely available on the internets, it's part of the Jews vs. Zombies anthology, but here is Benjamin Rosenbaum talking about cucumbers, and it's the context necessary for nonJews to get the story: http://www.benjaminrosenbaum.com/blog/archives/2012_08.html

[melannen]

...ok now I kind of want to give a hugo to that blog post, but sadly it's too old.

[seekingferret]

Imagine my face when I learned that Rosenbaum had written a zombie story inspired by that blog post.

[melannen]

Sadly I don't think I'll be able to acquire the anthology in time for noms, but I am even more intrigued by said anthology than I was before.

[melannen]

I have heard a lot about that one! Good to keep in mind, thanks.

[rushthatspeaks]

I haven't read it myself yet, but Kai Ashante Wilson's The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps has been getting a lot of buzz (just won the Crawford, an award usually pretty good about picking out interesting). Non-white cis dude, secondary-world fantasy with magic, and I believe Campbell eligible. It's certainly on my own TBR list.

[melannen]

Oh, that definitely sounds like one to try! Thank you!

[muccamukk]

Fifth Season by NK Jemisin was my favourite read lst year, and probably the only think I'm getting Nenya to nominate (she's got a supporting from last year).

ETA: Seeing your above comments, I totally take your point, but I think that what it's doing on its own is interesting enough that I don't mind that the arc doesn't finish. A lot of questions aren't answered, but purely on the way that they're brought up, and the structure of the book itself, I'd count it as worthy.

It's REALLY different from 100K Kingdoms, if that's the only Jemisin that you've read.

[melannen]

Yeah, I read 100k Kingdoms when it came out, and really liked it, but that's about when I decided I wasn't going to start any more fantasy epics that would leave me hanging, so I never read any of the others. I've been meaning to get back to her for a long time, though! (Wishes and fishes.)

[mecurtin]

A bunch of people on File770 (including myself) are planning to nominate Rachel Hartman's Seraphina & Shadowscale as a single work, the series "Seraphina".

I just went to the Locus Recommended list, and it reminded me of "The Watchmaker of Filigree Street", which may also be on my list.

[melannen]

That sounds interesting! Thank you.

[mecurtin]

What are your art nominees? I have to get my hugo art tumbler up to date ...

[melannen]

Um. My "know where I'm looking" is mostly "mecurtin's art tumblr and my tumblr likes". If I find anyone when I go through them that you don't have yet, I'll try to pass it on?

[sophia_sol]

I don't have any more suggestions for novels (I'm bad at reading books in a timely manner) but here's some short fiction I've enjoyed in 2015:

The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn, by Usman Malik

The Truth About Owls, by Amal El-Mohtar

20/20, by Arie Coleman

Six Swans, by Mallory Ortberg

First Do No Harm, by Jonathan Edelstein

Telling the Bees, by T. Kingfisher

Ambiguity Machines: An Examination, by Vandana Singh

[melannen]

Thank you! I will look at those (and I see three or four names there I recognize already.)