Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

Here I decided to add several books, published in 2018, which could be nominated for Hugo/Nebula. Please add interesting new releases that can be added.


Circe by Madeline Miller
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
Early Riser by Jasper Fforde
Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson
Tales of Anyar by Olan Thorensen
The Snail on the Slope by Arkady Strugatsky
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller
Semiosis by Sue Burke
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi

I shall also name new books, but I am not sure that I am a good judge of whether a book could be nominated. I mean, I often disagree with everyone here, anyway.

What is the cut off date? The date of the last Hugos? The calendar year? How do I know it is good for 2019?

Cut off date is end-2018. The are 1 calendar year long for US published books, 2 years for UK or other English published.

I guess if you liked it and/or it has a famous author, there are high chances. For example Scalzi won several (thus highly likely to be shortlisted) and Kowal was nominated earlier.

The Snail on the Slope by Arkady Strugatsky

This is a new English translation - released in 2018

Cordelia wrote: "The Snail on the Slope by Arkady Strugatsky

This is a new English translation - released in 2018"

I am not sure, but I guess if there are several translations only the year of the first/earliest in counted. And just curious - have you read it? I've read it in original Russian and remember that there are very long sentences, which I guess are hard to translate.

Oleksandr wrote: "Cordelia wrote: "The Snail on the Slope by Arkady Strugatsky

This is a new English translation - released in 2018"

I am not sure, but I guess if there are several..."

Reading it at the moment. No. I haven't noticed any long sentences. Translated by same person as "Roadside Picnic". Quite simple to read. But the story is really strange, surreal and kafka-ish. There is an afterword written by Boris S which is very useful in explaining teir intentions.

Cordelia wrote: "There is an afterword written by Boris S which is very useful in explaining teir intentions. "

If there would be any questions regarding it, just ask... I've read like 20 years ago, but I still have a copy so may clarify if something seems strange

Oleksandr wrote: "Cordelia wrote: "There is an afterword written by Boris S which is very useful in explaining teir intentions. "

If there would be any questions regarding it, just ask... I've read like 20 years ag..."

Thanks. I'm taking it slowly and carefully. Dont want to miss anything important. Apparently even the epigraphs are important.

Olan Thorensen has a book series out called Destiny's Crucible. There are 4 books proper and he just released a smaller book with a handful of short stories. Anyway, these books are like the apex of sci-fi for me and I'm genuinely surprised they haven't won any awards.

Book 4 came out this year, Forged in Fire. Maybe it will get people's attention.

Bryan wrote: "Olan Thorensen has a book series out called Destiny's Crucible."

Sounds interesting, thanks for pointing. Sadly, it is self-published and I guess no self-published novel was ever short-listed for the award (sad reality for indie authors)

I bought the new Scalzi book yesterday. I'll probably jump into that one next month...I need to keep my spooky books going for this month.

more eligible works
Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson, quite late in the year so lesser number of readers, but he won several H/N and was nominated last year

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee, this is the 3rd book of the trilogy(?) and both 1st and 2nd were nominated. I disliked the 1st and thus skipped the rest

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - I have it and plan to read. Her last novel, Uprooted, won N and was nominated for H. BTW great novel, recommended

Another one by Scalzi this year, Head On, this in the 2nd volume, the first one was good but wasn't nominated (another grudge against H/N)

2 more points to add:

1. there are currently 2 lists here on GR with eligible works,
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

and

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

2. I guessed that books with highest number of ratings would be at least nominated but this is not always the case at least for 2018 - some actual nominees have several times less reviews!

These are cool lists. Shall we just add to them, then?

I believe ratings are hardly of any use these days, all the releases since 2010 are mostly bloated by "fanbois" and girls. Same as on IMDB people these days mostly vote on a binary system. I liked it = 10 and I didn't = 1.

Art wrote: "I believe ratings are hardly of any use these days,"

Therefore, an important statistics is number of votes for it is a proxy for number of people who read the book. As for ratings, actually (based on several studies) they are not concentrated on the ends but skewed toward higher mark - people are less likely to rate books/movies they didn't finished.

Yeah, but there are more people who are exposed to internet, therefore many more people are keen to leave ratings.

What I mean is Dune has 500k+ ratings and Maze Runner has 700-800k ratings. One of the novels is among the most important works ever written while the other one is teenage drivel. I will be subtle and not point out which one is which.

Art wrote: "What I mean is Dune has 500k+ ratings and Maze Runner has 700-800k ratings. "

I guess here we have also hype and demographics as contributors - so, when have just to wait when one goes to obscurity... sitting on the riverbank and waiting for your enemy's body to flow by :)

Funny, I was thinking I should give one of those two books another try because everyone seemed to love it so. Perhaps I will just go ahead and relegate it to the teenage drivel pile permanently.

I started it once upon a time but just got extremely bored with the it immediately (you know which one I mean!)

But teenage drivel can also be good SF! I think it was a skill that most of the golden age author had that they were able to wrap up big themes and interesting ideas in stories that were fast-paced action adventures.

I was thinking of nominating Jaspar Fforde's Early Riser

It's not his best book by a mile, but I'd still like it if he got wider recognition because he's such an interesting and inventive writer. I'm never sure if it's poor form to nominate the writer more than the specific book.

Nick, I love Jasper Fforde. He's one of my favorite guys. I am so confused about why he has never had wider acceptance/acclaim.

My favorite (among many) is Shades of Grey.

Early Riser, according to a couple of sources, was published in 2016, so I think it is too late for it to be on a nominee list. I have not read it (was not really aware of it) because it is not out on Kindle.

I take back the 2016 date for Early Riser. That is supported only by https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/ja... but when I went back to Amazon, I misread it. Yes, 2018, so I nominate it too.

I even love this guy's web pages! http://www.jasperfforde.com/index2.html

I've recently read The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde and this is so far the only book by him I've read. My impression was good but not great, but this may be due to the fact that I grew up not reading English classics :)

Another possible nominee is Rosewater by Tade Thompson, which btw I just started

Kateblue wrote: "My favorite (among many) is Shades of Grey."

Me too! I'm dying to know what happens next, but I've heard rumours that he's not planning to continue the story. :(

Oleksandr wrote: "My impression was good but not great."

I've tried to press Jasper Fforde on friends, and they haven't been able to get over the general weirdness and whimsy, especially in the Thursday Next series, so you're not alone. I love a good literary reference.:D

Nick wrote: "I've tried to press Jasper Fforde on friends, and they haven't been able to get over the general weirdness and whimsy, especially in the Thursday Next series, so you're not alone. I love a good literary reference.:D "

:)
I like to see references and 'Easter eggs' in books, but I may often miss them: just recently I found out that Too Like the Lightning is a reference to Shakespeare, because what I've read of him was mostly Russian translations and they don't go word by word

Oleksandr, the Eyre Affair was really good, but the next few in the Thursday Next series were better, and then after that I think they fall off in quality to just very good.

I thought The Well of Lost Plots and Lost in a Good Book were particularly good.

Here's the Goodreads rankings. Yes, the rankings will always go up after the people who didn't like the first book stop reading the series, but here, it goes up, then down again . . .

BOOK 1
The Eyre Affair
by Jasper Fforde
3.91 · 102,236 Ratings · 9,288 Reviews · published 2001 · 84 editions


BOOK 2
Lost in a Good Book
by Jasper Fforde
4.14 · 45,328 Ratings · 2,560 Reviews · published 2002 · 64 editions


BOOK 3
The Well of Lost Plots
by Jasper Fforde
4.09 · 34,076 Ratings · 1,778 Reviews · published 2004 · 51 editions


BOOK 4
Something Rotten
by Jasper Fforde
4.15 · 29,496 Ratings · 1,386 Reviews · published 2004 · 48 editions


BOOK 5
First Among Sequels
by Jasper Fforde
4.01 · 22,357 Ratings · 1,521 Reviews · published 2007 · 5 editions


BOOK 6
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
by Jasper Fforde
3.94 · 16,196 Ratings · 1,713 Reviews · published 2011 · 34 editions


BOOK 7
The Woman Who Died a Lot
by Jasper Fforde
4.05 · 11,373 Ratings · 1,385 Reviews · published 2012 · 18 editions

Nick, according to what I have read he was disappointed that Shades of Grey didn't sell better. But I think it was a marketing error as the Kindle book was WAY overpriced. (Also name probably got mixed up with 50 shades thereof, which I think came out at about the same time, yet another marketing error.) I finally gave up and bought it, and then? Of course, it went on sale for $2.99

I think it's currently another marketing error--Early Riser has no Kindle version. I don't buy paper books any more. If it had been out today in Kindle, I would have bought it today. Too bad for them. Fforde needs a book marketer who lives in the 21st century.

Kateblue wrote: "Oleksandr, the Eyre Affair was really good, but the next few in the Thursday Next series were better, and then after that I think they fall off in quality to just very good. "

Thank you for the info, I may give them another try eventually.

Kateblue wrote: "Nick, according to what I have read he was disappointed that Shades of Grey didn't sell better. But I think it was a marketing error as the Kindle book was WAY overpriced. (Also name probably got m..."

Oh that's a shame - how ridiculous that his publisher isn't releasing proper kindle versions! I got Early Riser from my local library, so I'm alright, Jack! :P

Hey, Nick, I was just going to my local library to ask them to buy Early Riser, and when I came back to Amazon to get info for the request, there's a new page with a pre-order for a Kindle version of Early Riser. I swear it wasn't there yesterday.

It's $14.99 and not releasing until February! Honestly, how hard is it to put out a Kindle book! And there's that high price again. I guess I gotta do it to encourage the guy.

UK edition is already online for Kindl, but it is whooping 9.99 pounds! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Early-Riser-...

Yes, well, it's like Doorways in the Sand by Zelazny, I love that book.

they have it in the UK for Kindle but they won't sell it to me. And they ignore me when I repeatedly ask for it here. I guess it is some licensing snafu according to someone I exchanged emails with

I just went to your link and tried to buy it and, as usual,

"We're sorry, we could not complete your purchase.
Kate Kirk, the Kindle Store on Amazon.co.uk is for UK customers only. To shop for titles available for your country/region, please visit Amazon.com."

Grr

Kateblue wrote: "I just went to your link and tried to buy it and, as usual, "

Because I'm outside the US, I had similar problems [plus they often charge additional $2 per ebook] so I rigged a system and made myself a fake US address and no problems since. So if determined to buy on the UK site you may try the same.

Even if the credit card bills to the US?

Kateblue wrote: "Even if the credit card bills to the US?"

at least my non-US card has no problems with US Amazon and US address

So far these novels we named as eligible:

Circe by Madeline Miller
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
Early Riser by Jasper Fforde
Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson
Forged in Fire by Olan Thorensen
The Snail on the Slope by Arkady Strugatsky
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee

Two more can be added to the list:
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller
Semiosis by Sue Burke

And I'm unsure about Rosewater - it was indy-published in 2016, so possibly not eligible

several "Best SF[F]" lists so far:
https://www.vulture.com/article/best-...
https://chireviewofbooks.com/2018/11/...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

I loved Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. She did such a good job with character development and weaving in fairy tales. She reminds my of Jane Yolen, but I might like Novik's novels even more. I did not want this book to end and while some of the plot was predictable, at times, enough kept me guessing to not want to put the book down.

Robin wrote: "I loved Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. "

I loved her Uprooted and had great anticipations regarding this novel, but was disappointed. It is good easy read, I like that there is less anti-capitalist rhetoric than in a lot of modern books. However it was [for me] below the level of Uprooted

Forged in Fire by Olan Thorensen was amazing! His books are big, but so worth it.

Bryan wrote: "Forged in Fire by Olan Thorensen was amazing! His books are big, but so worth it."

I honestly doubt that it will be shortlisted [it is the 4th volume and almost never we see later volumes nominated if the 1st hadn't been], but I'm sure that we can give it one seat in the five allowed. Go indy authors!

p.s. GR says (first published January 17th 2017), so not in 2018

however, Tales of Anyar by him is from 2018, I added it to the 1st post

Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi came out last year. I was surprised when his The Quantum Thief wasn't nominated for Hugo: it was chock-full of brilliant SF ideas. I haven't read Summerland yet, but it is some sort of supernatural spy thriller.

Antti wrote: "Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi came out last year. I was surprised when his The Quantum Thief wasn't nominated for Hugo: it was chock-full of brillian..."

I heard from some impressed readers that Quantum Thief was great but never actually read it. is it that good?

I really liked it; five-star material, easily. I haven't felt such a rush of rapid-fire ideas since reading Greg Egan's Diaspora or Charles Stross's Accelerando.

Another list: https://anthonyeichenlaub.com/2018-a-...

I’m not sure if this is the right place for this but I just saw that the print book I am reading, the seven deaths of Evelyn hardcastle , is listed on a Hugo list.

So now I have all these books, from the library and otherwise, and no time to read any of them.

Atlanta wrote: "I’m not sure if this is the right place for this but I just saw that the print book I am reading, the seven deaths of Evelyn hardcastle , is listed on a Hugo list."

Yes, it was published in 2018 therefore it is eligible. I heard some praise of it - is it really worth reading, your thoughts?