Jan. 5th, 2016
Collecting Hugo thoughts, part 1.
Jan. 5th, 2016 11:17 amSo I need to make my Hugo nominations. I was tagging *most* stuff as I found it, but not all of it, and now I need to filter through it and decide what gets a nom and what doesn't.
Let's start with the easy category, Best Short Story, since I don't read a lot of short stories. The ones I read that I really loved are:
"Cat Pictures, Please" - Naomi Kritzer
"Steve Rogers, PR Disaster" from Rearranging The Alphabet (and I asked the author for permission to nominate it and got it, here)
"Palimpsest" - Frances Rowat
"John Scalzi Is Not A Popular Author And I Myself Am Quite Popular By Theophilus Pratt" - Alexandra Erin - have to check the number of words on this, I might have it in the wrong category.
"Monkey King, Fairie Queen" - Zen Cho
That's less than 5, the first three are truly excellent and the last two decent. I don't really need to filter this category down unless people have a bunch of suggestions I love in the comments.
Novella and Novelette: I seriously don't read a lot of short fiction. The Alexandra Erin from above might actually go in one of these instead.
Novels are a little harder:
Calibre tells me that in 2015 I read these 2015 novels:
Terry and Rhianna Pratchett, "The Shepherd's Crown"
Chuck Wendig, "Star Wars: Aftermath"
Zen Cho, "Sorcerer To The Crown"
Neal Stephenson, "Seveneves"
Jenny Lawson, "Furiously Happy"
Seth Dickinson, "The Traitor Baru Cormorant"
Jim Butcher, "The Aeronaut's Windlass"
Charles Stross, "The Annihilation Score"
Ann Leckie, "Ancillary Mercy"
I also read a crapton of other books that aren't from 2015 and don't count. And, in something I consider HILARIOUS, *the entire Discworld*, all 41 novels, may technically be eligible for Best Novel. This fact, and the arguments it will spawn, warm my cockles greatly, especially because the Discworld oeuvre contains several of the best SFF books ever written.
So, that list is too big, gotta cut it down some.
Ancillary Mercy and The Traitor Baru Cormorant are two of the best books I've read in years, both are definitely going on the list.
The Aeronaut's Windlass was unreadable crap - I bailed on it after several Oh Look At All The Steampunk chapters, so it's definitely off.
I didn't throw Sorcerer To The Crown across the room like I did Strange & Norrell, but it was a very near thing; apparently I have a VERY LOW tolerance for Second Order Idiot Plots based on inbred prats harrumphing about how things just are Not Proper. The fact that it was well-written enough that I finished it doesn't change that I didn't like it, so it's off.
Seveneves was an entertaining, breezy read, as long as you don't mind that all the non-physics science wasn't just wrong it was actively stupid, few of the characters act remotely like humans, the author has no idea how long a "year" is, and neither Kerbal Space Program The Novel nor the attached novella have an ending. Still, despite that, I found myself liking it and would probably consider it better than No Award. I don't think I'll nominate it, though.
Star Wars: Aftermath: Uh, yeah, no, sorry. While it was certainly the best movie-tie-in I've read in decades, it still wasn't great on a scale of my first two picks.
If Terry Pratchett wasn't dead and The Shepherd's Crown wasn't his last book I'd never nominate it. It felt flat, and not up to the standard of the really good novels. But it *is* his last book, and that gives it sentimental weight. Still, I think I'm going to stick "all 41 Discworld Novels" on my nomination because really, Pratchett doesn't need my single vote and getting The Discworld on as a whole on would make me laugh for days.
Furiously Happy is allegedly nonfiction. If you've read it, you'll see why I use "allegedly". It's frankly awesome but I'm not sure it really counts as a "SFF novel" or even a "novel". Still, just being nonfiction doesn't prevent Hugo awards from being given out - Apollo 11 won Best Dramatic Presentation, after all - but not being SFF-appropriate does. (I might keep this one. Probably not.)
That leaves The Annihilation Score. Which I really liked, but is book 6 of an ongoing series and isn't the best of them.
So I'm looking at
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Ancillary Mercy
The Entire Damn Discworld, Yes All 41 Novels
Furiously Happy (probably not)
which leaves me with one or two spots, and waffling about including The Annihilation Score. Which is a pretty nice place to be and leaves room for ones I've missed.
Audience Participation: What 2015 fiction works have I missed, that I *should* read and maybe include?
Next time: Dramatic Presentations, I think.
Let's start with the easy category, Best Short Story, since I don't read a lot of short stories. The ones I read that I really loved are:
"Cat Pictures, Please" - Naomi Kritzer
"Steve Rogers, PR Disaster" from Rearranging The Alphabet (and I asked the author for permission to nominate it and got it, here)
"Palimpsest" - Frances Rowat
"John Scalzi Is Not A Popular Author And I Myself Am Quite Popular By Theophilus Pratt" - Alexandra Erin - have to check the number of words on this, I might have it in the wrong category.
"Monkey King, Fairie Queen" - Zen Cho
That's less than 5, the first three are truly excellent and the last two decent. I don't really need to filter this category down unless people have a bunch of suggestions I love in the comments.
Novella and Novelette: I seriously don't read a lot of short fiction. The Alexandra Erin from above might actually go in one of these instead.
Novels are a little harder:
Calibre tells me that in 2015 I read these 2015 novels:
Terry and Rhianna Pratchett, "The Shepherd's Crown"
Chuck Wendig, "Star Wars: Aftermath"
Zen Cho, "Sorcerer To The Crown"
Neal Stephenson, "Seveneves"
Jenny Lawson, "Furiously Happy"
Seth Dickinson, "The Traitor Baru Cormorant"
Jim Butcher, "The Aeronaut's Windlass"
Charles Stross, "The Annihilation Score"
Ann Leckie, "Ancillary Mercy"
I also read a crapton of other books that aren't from 2015 and don't count. And, in something I consider HILARIOUS, *the entire Discworld*, all 41 novels, may technically be eligible for Best Novel. This fact, and the arguments it will spawn, warm my cockles greatly, especially because the Discworld oeuvre contains several of the best SFF books ever written.
So, that list is too big, gotta cut it down some.
Ancillary Mercy and The Traitor Baru Cormorant are two of the best books I've read in years, both are definitely going on the list.
The Aeronaut's Windlass was unreadable crap - I bailed on it after several Oh Look At All The Steampunk chapters, so it's definitely off.
I didn't throw Sorcerer To The Crown across the room like I did Strange & Norrell, but it was a very near thing; apparently I have a VERY LOW tolerance for Second Order Idiot Plots based on inbred prats harrumphing about how things just are Not Proper. The fact that it was well-written enough that I finished it doesn't change that I didn't like it, so it's off.
Seveneves was an entertaining, breezy read, as long as you don't mind that all the non-physics science wasn't just wrong it was actively stupid, few of the characters act remotely like humans, the author has no idea how long a "year" is, and neither Kerbal Space Program The Novel nor the attached novella have an ending. Still, despite that, I found myself liking it and would probably consider it better than No Award. I don't think I'll nominate it, though.
Star Wars: Aftermath: Uh, yeah, no, sorry. While it was certainly the best movie-tie-in I've read in decades, it still wasn't great on a scale of my first two picks.
If Terry Pratchett wasn't dead and The Shepherd's Crown wasn't his last book I'd never nominate it. It felt flat, and not up to the standard of the really good novels. But it *is* his last book, and that gives it sentimental weight. Still, I think I'm going to stick "all 41 Discworld Novels" on my nomination because really, Pratchett doesn't need my single vote and getting The Discworld on as a whole on would make me laugh for days.
Furiously Happy is allegedly nonfiction. If you've read it, you'll see why I use "allegedly". It's frankly awesome but I'm not sure it really counts as a "SFF novel" or even a "novel". Still, just being nonfiction doesn't prevent Hugo awards from being given out - Apollo 11 won Best Dramatic Presentation, after all - but not being SFF-appropriate does. (I might keep this one. Probably not.)
That leaves The Annihilation Score. Which I really liked, but is book 6 of an ongoing series and isn't the best of them.
So I'm looking at
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Ancillary Mercy
The Entire Damn Discworld, Yes All 41 Novels
Furiously Happy (probably not)
which leaves me with one or two spots, and waffling about including The Annihilation Score. Which is a pretty nice place to be and leaves room for ones I've missed.
Audience Participation: What 2015 fiction works have I missed, that I *should* read and maybe include?
Next time: Dramatic Presentations, I think.