It’s award season in Science Fiction and Fantasy Land, with the 49th annual Nebula Awards Weekend starting TODAY (Terry and I will be attending), and the Hugos coming up in August. The Hugo slate wins the Everyone’s-in-a-Froth award for the nomination of the entire WHEEL OF TIME series in the best novel category, a nomination which is allowed by the World Science Fiction Society, but leaves people saying, “Wha—hunh?”
We’ve got all the short-listed novels reviewed (links below), but we want to know what you think. Have you read them? Which books do you think will win? Which books do you think should would win? Which 2013 books are not on these lists but should be? One random commenter will get to choose a book from our Stacks.
THE NEBULA NOMINEES FOR BEST NOVEL:
- We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler (review)
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (reviews)
- Fire with Fire by Charles E. Gannon (review)
- Hild by Nicola Griffith (reviews)
- Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (reviews)
- The Red; First Light by Linda Nagata (review)
- A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar (review)
- The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (reviews)
THE HUGO NOMINEES FOR BEST NOVEL:
Let’s see. I read Ancilliary Justice, Neptune’s Brood, Parasite, and Red: First Light.
I genuinely enjoyed them all, except for Parasite.
And I hope Red: First Light takes the Nebula and Neptune’s Brood the Hugo.
I think Nagata has a fascinating idea playing out in The Red:First Light. And I haven’t read Parasite or the NewFlesh zombie books either, so I don’t have an opinion.
I started the Golem and the Jinni. Was okay, but it was a library book and it wasn’t compelling enough for me to finish it in time or check it out again. Nothing wrong with it, but a slower pace than I generally like and so.
I hate to say it, but I rarely enjoy Hugo nominees. I used to check them out from the library, but enjoyed so few, I now avoid them…
Gosh. I’m a curmudgeon. But I think I just enjoy lighter fare.
I read The Ocean at the End of the Lane and enjoyed it. Parasite was just OK. I tried The Golem and the Jinni but couldn’t get into it.
I loved The Golem and the Jinni but I think it had some pacing problems at the beginning.
I’ve only read The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and Ancillary Justice. If forced to choose between those two … urgh. I don’t know. They were both fascinating for completely different reasons.
I’m now eagerly awaiting the arrival of Hild, but it won’t come in time for the Nebulas.
Melanie, that’s a hard choice right there!
I’ve read all the Nebula Award books except Ancillary Justice. I seem to go against to crowd here, because I enjoyed The Golem and the Jinni the most of these selections. I don’t think it will win, but that would be my selection.
I don’t think I could make a selection on the Hugo. I’ve only read the 4 1/2 books of the WoT, and I had to stop for a while. And, I haven’t read any of the others.
I haven’t read enough of them to be able to give an opinion. Based on others’ reviews, I have a feeling that I’d like Ancillary Justice best, but I haven’t actually read it.
Marion, you’ve read the Nebula nominees. Which would you choose?
Kat –that’s a hard one. I told Terry, “I want Hild to win the Nebula and Ancillary Justice to win the Hugo.” The problem with Hild, if it is a problem, is that is was not marketed in any way as fantasy.
My favorite book of the bunch is the Golem and the Jinni. I love the idea, that neighborhood in New York, and those characters.
I’ve only read Ancillary Justice as of yet. I have The Golem and the Jinni on my shelf but haven’t gotten to it yet and I may read the Gaiman at some point – I like his writing and some of his books but only about half so I’m not really sure I’ll like it. I might read the Larry Correia one at some point as well.
Oh, I’ve read the entire Wheel of Time series so I guess I could include that.
I doubt I’d be a good judge of an award of this type. Reading is such a subjective thing and my tastes have never run anywhere near where these awards are judged from. I judge by what makes me happy and that can change by the day.
I don’t see the furor over the WoT being considered one item for judging purposes, it only makes sense as it is one story and none of them really stand alone. But, I suspect that it should not be there for other reasons, apart from it being a gigantic series of endless books written by two different authors who never collaborated face to face. Mostly because it does not seem to have any of the things that I consider hallmarks of books chosen for these types of awards like innovation, revolution, surprise, uniqueness. While I enjoyed it to pieces (I’ve read the entire series multiple times) I would never have imagined it being considered for these types of awards. *shrug* who am I to say? I haven’t paid attention to awards like this since I was a kid and saw the gold Newberry sticker on a favorite book.
Ancillary Justice for both. Although I thought that God’s War should have beaten it out for the Arthur C. Clark award.
Now I’m going to have to read God’s War! Another book to place on the towering stack!
Yes, you really should. The entire trilogy is fantastic (brutal, but fantastic).
While this will have nothing to do with the random winner of a book, I’m sure you all know by now that Ancillary Justice won the Nebula for best novel.
Eric Schwartz, if you live in the USA, you win a book of your choice from our stacks.
Please contact me (Marion) with your choice and a US address. Happy reading!
WOW!!! Thank you!