Hugo Awards discussion post: Campbell, and long-form fiction categories

[dolorosa_12]

This is my last post dedicated to discussion of the Hugo Awards finalists. Voting closes in a few days' time, and it's been great to discuss the nominees in this, my first year of voting. As always feel free to join in the discussion in the comments, where I will set up a dedicated thread for each award category. You're welcome to interpret this call for discussion in any way, whether that's setting out how you're planning to vote, offering your thoughts on a single finalist, or something else entirely.

The finalists are as follows:

Best Novel

The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager)
Revenant Gun, by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris)
Space Opera, by Catherynne M. Valente (Saga)
Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik (Del Rey / Macmillan)
Trail of Lightning, by Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)

Best Series

The Centenal Cycle, by Malka Older (Tor.com publishing)
The Laundry Files, by Charles Stross (most recently Tor.com publishing/Orbit)
Machineries of Empire, by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris)
The October Daye Series, by Seanan McGuire (most recently DAW)
The Universe of Xuya, by Aliette de Bodard (most recently Subterranean Press)
Wayfarers, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager)

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

The Belles, by Dhonielle Clayton (Freeform / Gollancz)
Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt / Macmillan Children’s Books)
The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black (Little, Brown / Hot Key Books)
Dread Nation, by Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray)
The Invasion, by Peadar O’Guilin (David Fickling Books / Scholastic)
Tess of the Road, by Rachel Hartman (Random House / Penguin Teen)

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Katherine Arden*
S.A. Chakraborty*
R.F. Kuang
Jeannette Ng*
Vina Jie-Min Prasad*
Rivers Solomon*

*Finalist in their 2nd year of eligibility

There will be a dedicated comment thread for each category. You can see all the finalists here.

Comments

Best Novel

[dolorosa_12]

Discuss the Best Novel finalists here.

Re: Best Novel

[merit]

I really should read something by Valente at some point. I've only read the last two on the list; both of which mildly surprise me. Seems like 'smaller stakes' versus some previous years.

Re: Best Novel

[dolorosa_12]

Yeah, I actually think it's a bit of a weak list of finalists. Of the nominees, I'd read Spinning Silver (and loved it), Record of a Spacborn Few (ditto), and Space Opera, which I thought was okay, but not brilliant. (It doesn't help that Valente was absolutely vile to someone I know, and I find her online persona quite grating.) I had read the first in Yoon Ha Lee's series, but didn't warm to it and I suspect I'm not going to change my mind about the third book in the series, although I am aware a lot of people really love the trilogy and it probably deserves to be there. Of the remaining two books, I read The Calculating Stars and was very impressed, and Trail of Lightning and was ... less impressed.

In general I think this category is very weak this year. I think 2019 has been better so far for SFF and would hope to see a stronger Best Novel list in 2020.

Re: Best Novel

[(Anonymous)]

I suppose some years are like that. Bit of the luck of the draw sometimes. I haven't had much exposure to Valente but I understand your perspective; I've read a few grating moments with some authors and it has turned me off their work. I've tried to read the first book of Yoon Ha Lee's series about three times but keep on giving up around 30% of the way through. There's definitely an enthusiastic fanbase though.

Re: Best Novel

[dolorosa_12]

Yeah, it's also interesting in that this is one of the first years where I could honestly see any of the nominees winning, and wouldn't be surprised. There's no major, beloved, critically acclaimed trilogy à la Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice or N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth, Liu Cixin (another wildly hyped author) didn't published anything eligible in this category last year as far as I can tell — so there's no book that seemed an obvious winner as soon as the finalists were announced. While there is one book I would prefer to win in this category, I find it very hard to predict what will actually win.

Re: Best Novel

[auroracloud]

I'm guessing Calculating Stars is going to win, since it seems to me it's had by far the most buzz and enthusiastic five-star reviews. Of course, it may just be my impression from the places and things I follow. It won both the Nebula and Locus awards, too, though of course these are different voting processes and voters, and I'm not really yet well enough acquainted with typical Hugo voting to analyze it from that perspective. I have mixed feelings, because while I unabashedly loved the book, I had some... issues with the second part of the duology, which also sours the first part a bit for me. Plus, it's very, very American, more so than some other books written by American authors, and sometimes one tires of that. (No offense, Americans reading this. But as someone from a small, insignificant European country whose culture is being Americanized far too much, I feel I'm entitled to have some grudges towards global political and cultural hegemons, even if I voraciously read their SFF literature.) I still think it's going to win, though. And I won't grudge it if it does, it's a good one, just... *shrugs* Complicated feelings. It happens.

I have way too long and complicated opinions on this category, so I'm going to come back properly for my thoughts on it later.

Re: Best Novel

[jain]

It won both the Nebula and Locus awards, too, though of course these are different voting processes and voters, and I'm not really yet well enough acquainted with typical Hugo voting to analyze it from that perspective.

Actually, three of the six Hugo Best Novel finalists are Locus winners this year, due to the Locus Award splitting its novel nominations across multiple categories. The Calculating Stars won Science Fiction Novel, Spinning Silver won Fantasy Novel, and Trail of Lightning won First Novel.

Re: Best Novel

[dolorosa_12]

it's very, very American, more so than some other books written by American authors, and sometimes one tires of that.

It's really interesting that you should say this, because that was my immediate impression, and my husband's also (I'm Australian and he's German, and we live in the UK). I mean, I can't really complain, given that I always like books to have a really strong sense of place, I just have a lot of complicated feelings about American cultural hegemony, like you.

I know what I want to win in this category, but I don't think it will. I really wouldn't be surprised if any of the nominated works won, though.

Best Series

[dolorosa_12]

Discuss the Best Series finalists here.

Re: Best Series

[auroracloud]

Okay, my opinions or experiences on these:

The Centenal Cycle - I started reading it and found the politics too close to the real world issues that make me upset and stopped reading it. So leaving it out of the voting.

The Laundry Files - I started reading the first book, I couldn't stand the POV character or the smug-flippant white straight IT dude tone, and didn't bother to finish it, so I haven't bothered to continue either. Not ranking it, but I don't really know the series well enough to put it below No Award, given that I only read, I don't know, 50 pages?

Machineries of the Empire - While I found the first half of the first book really tough to get through and understand, after that I got into it, and I loved the second book. I still need to read the third book, but I think I have a chance of making it... Definitely going to rank this, but don't yet know what the rank will be!

The October Daye series - I've read the first three books now, probably won't have time to read any more, though I might be able to make a start at the fourth one. I like it, though I like her other series, InCryptid, more. Then again, this series came earlier, so it's not that surprising if her later books are better. This is maybe the one that's the most like the kind of series the category is especially meant for, and I like what it's doing, and I could really use more urban fantasy with an actually capable and complex heroine, and where romance, though it may exist and have some complications, decidedly takes a back seat compared to the plot and the heroine's growth, rather than being the ultimate point. (Plus, I actually like the characters involved in the romance vibes so far! That is fascinating and unusual! One of the reasons I like McGuire is that she's actually capable of writing het relationships that I care about and genuinely like, and men interested in women that I don't constantly wish would get obliterated by the plot so I wouldn't have to read about them anymore. That is rarer than I'd like it to be. Er, sorry, long digression.) This is going to rank pretty well for me, but I don't yet know how well. Because...

The Universe of the Xuya: I really love this, nominated it, and it's fabulously written, and I may want to put it on top. On the other hand, it's very, very loosely connected, not a series in the traditional sense, but simply connected by worldbuilding and themes, and I can't decide whether this should factor into how high I rank it.

And then there's the Wayfarers: I love it, nominated it, and if the Xuya don't end up on top for me, this one will, because it has my heart, and it's honestly helped me to hold onto as much sanity as I have, and to envision a better world and a way out of awful things. Besides which I love the characters and the worldbuilding and the coziness that's like a big warm hug and a mug of tasty tea. But there's also the matter that the books are veeeery loosely connected - a bit more closely than the Xuya books, since there's at least mentions of characters and events from other books (and the second book features side characters from the first) - but still, they're basically standalone connected by shared worldbuilding and themes. Should that count against it? Then again, I'd be so much worse of mentally without these books, so who cares about definitions like that. Tl;dr: probably ranking this one first because I ♥ it, regardless of how well it works as a series.

Re: Best Series

[dolorosa_12]

See, I ranked Xuya at the top because I felt it was harder to pull off a collection of stories set in the same universe, with the same tone and exploring the same issues, but with wildly different characters, stories that take place at vastly different points in time, and still write something coherent, consistent, and interesting. For the same reason, I put Wayfarers second because each book deals with different characters and is telling a slightly different kind of story while maintaining internal consistency and exploring the same collection of themes.

I like Malka Older's series although I can understand why it would make you feel stressed about real-world issues. For me (a migrant who spent years spending huge amounts of money and stress to stay living in the country that I wanted to make my home, and a recent UK citizen who is on the verge of having my right to automatically live and work in 27 countries taken away from me), the world she created seemed like paradise! You get to choose where you live based on whether you agree with its politics, and if an election doesn't go your way you're allowed to move wherever you want in the world to somewhere whose politics better matches your own! But then of course, as you say, even in this utopian setting the same problems remain.

Laundry Files was not to my taste, I tried the first book of Machineries of Empire and didn't like it, and I've never enjoyed any book by Seanan McGuire that I've ever read, so those three series were fairly low on my ballot, but I know people really love all of them, and if McGuire's or Lee's series won I would not be surprised.

Lodestar Award

[dolorosa_12]

Discuss the finalists for the Lodestar Award for Best YA Novel here.

Re: Lodestar Award

[merit]

Children of Blood and Bone has my money for winning! (and I alas still need to read it) but it has a lot of buzz.

Re: Lodestar Award

[dolorosa_12]

That's a real shame, because I think Tess of the Road is one of the best books of 2018 — not just YA and/or SFF books, but best books in general.

Re: Lodestar Award

[(Anonymous)]

It wasn't on my instant to read list because I found Seraphina merely... okay. But Tess of the Road does look more up my alley plot wise.

Re: Lodestar Award

[dolorosa_12]

Fair enough. I loved Seraphina and Shadow Scale, although I think if anything Tess of the Road is even better.

Re: Lodestar Award

[auroracloud]

I'm miffed that I just had to give up on trying to vote in this category - I read The Belles in the spring and really enjoyed it, so already for that I wanted to vote in this category, but I just ran out of time to read the others. I still really want to read Tess of the Road and Dread Nation, so I'm going to, but that'll have to be after the voting. I did at one point try to read The Call, which is the first book of the series of which The Invasion is the second, but I found it so dark and violent and horrific that I couldn't continue reading it. I'm really, really not good with body horror. I wish at the point when I made a stab at that, I'd picked one of the other finalists to try. No idea why I picked that one, but it was evident I hadn't done any research on the finalists because if I'd seen all the "this is really gruesome" reviews on Goodreads, I'd have known to steer clear of that one.

Re: Lodestar Award

[dolorosa_12]

Tess of the Road is one of the best books I read in 2018 — not just best YA books, but best in general. I'll be really disappointed if it doesn't win.

If memory serves me correctly both Dread Nation and The Belles were not full copies of the books in the voter packet, just PDF summaries, so if you want to read Dread Nation you will have to buy it or borrow from the library.

It's hard to know what to pick to read when you're under a lot of time pressure to finish everything before voting closes, and that can lead to unwise reading decisions — I myself regret wasting so much time reading all the Best Editor material instead of just a list of the books they edited in 2018, or magazines they edited.

Campbell Award

[dolorosa_12]

Discuss the Campbell finalists here.

Re: Campbell Award

[auroracloud]

This is an odd category, as four of the finalists where also finalists last year! Which makes it easy in the sense I was already familiar with them. I knew right away I wasn't going to try R.F. Kuang, since every description of The Poppy War says that it's very violent and gory, and my mental health can't handle that. So basically all I've had to do is get my hands on S.A. Chakraborty's City of Brass, which I'm reading now. I'm rather enjoying it. But I honestly don't know how to rank most of them. I'm probably putting Katherine Arden on top, because I've loved the Winternight Trilogy (I still need to read the final book, though). But as for the rest, I don't know... I really liked the two Vina Jie-min Prasad stories that were nominated last year, but the only new story this year was Pistol Grip, which was... intense and unusual but not particularly great. I've read most of An Unkindness of Ghosts, but it's also pretty dark and violent, so I've had trouble making myself pick it up again to finish it. Jeannette Ng's Under the Pendulum Sun had a lot of interesting things going on, but I found it really tough to read, and something about it was ultimately off-putting, so I didn't finish it. Well, I suppose it's Arden on top, Chakraborty or Solomon second... Probably Chakraborty, since that book isn't making my mental health problems manifest, which is always a plus for me, no matter how excellently written the other book may be. And I love the worldbuilding, you really don't get too much fantasy using those mythologies and histories.

Re: Campbell Award

[dolorosa_12]

I ended up voting Arden on top and Chakraborty second, partly because I love both their series and had nominated them both, but also because I feel this award should be on the basis on recent, significant work published in the year prior to the awards. Rivers Solomon, as far as I can tell, published nothing last year (although I think Solomon should have won last year as An Unkindness of Ghosts is a staggeringly good work, albeit extremely brutal and violent), Prasad hasn't published much, and Ng didn't published anything last year. That left R.F. Kuang. I had read The Poppy War previously, and thought it was okay, but not groundbreaking, but a lot of people seem to really enjoy it so she could possibly end up winning this year.