These are my thoughts on the Hugo-nominated novels. If you're
planning to vote, you may wish not to read these notes until you have
done so.
All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders: by far the
most modern-feeling of these books, and a slap in the face to the
magical realists who think that making their books hard work to read
gives them greater literary value.
A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers: my favourite of the
two I'd read before nominations were announced; that rare thing for
me, a second volume that I liked better than the first. Yeah, it would
be nice if the tech made more sense, but not if that means making the
writing worse.
Death's End, by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu: I ploughed through
The Three-Body Problem and even enjoyed it before the ending let
everything down, but the more I considered reading this, and then that
I really ought to read The Dark Forest as well, the more I realised
that I didn't want to.
Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee: blends modern literary SF with
enough of the classic tropes and ideas that it just about has it all.
This is a book aimed directly at me even though it's not quite like
anything I've read before.
The Obelisk Gate, by N. K. Jemisin: if it hadn't been for the first
book I'd have liked this much more (this seems to be a pattern for
me). Still pretty good, though.
Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer: self-consciously literary and
ruined thereby.
Overall: for a change I'd actually read three of the nominees before
the list was announced. I was sorry to see Gentleman Jole and the Red
Queen didn't make it; to be fair it doesn't really stand alone as
well as some of the other books in the series, but I'd have put it
at #3 or maybe #2. Obelisk was a disappointment after the hard but
worthwhile slog of the first book. I'm very surprised to find myself
putting Ninefox over Closed, but there it is: that one really
worked for me.
Voting order:
- Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee
- A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers
- All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders
- The Obelisk Gate, by N. K. Jemisin
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