Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

The sole December theme is Short Books, where we choose three books of less than 300 pages for the monthly reading. It's a good way to quickly knock some titles off the list. More than 1/3 of the H/N list is books shorter than 300 pages. They're organized into the shelves below that you can make your nominations from. You can nominate up to three books.

Extremely Short (less than 200 pages)
https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

Very Short (200-249 pages)
https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

Short (250-299 pages)
https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

Do we each nominate a single book, and then vote for 3 among the nominees? I guess I must not have participated in this before.

Stephen wrote: "Do we each nominate a single book, and then vote for 3 among the nominees? I guess I must not have participated in this before."

Sorry, didn't make that clear. You can nominate up to three books. I think in one poll, you'll only have one vote though. Maybe if I do multiple polls, members can have multiple votes. I'll talk to the mods about that.

I’ll nominate The Devil Is Dead by R.A. Lafferty and Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg.

I'll nominate:

The High Crusade by Poul Anderson
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak
This Immortal by Roger Zelazny

They are all on the extremely short books shelf, and also collected in American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels 1960-1966: The High Crusade / Way Station / Flowers for Algernon / . . . And Call Me Conrad by Gary K. Wolfe, which I have in hardcopy and would love to tackle.

I'd like to nominate these:

The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy - 1988 Nebula winner
Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer - nominated at least twice before
Redshift Rendezvous by John E. Stith - nominated before

I have Starplex waiting to go as well.

I like all nominees so far - some I've read others not, but will gladly read any with the group

Since we're reading three, I'd like to get about 10 nominations.

The Devil is Dead may be hard to find, like other Lafferty books. I have an old copy.

I think I'll nominate only one - The Weapon Makers by A.E. van Vogt

I have no idea. You guys decide

I will note that The Devil is Dead is not an ebook and is stupid expensive at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...

That’s what I thought. Unless there is some way I’m unaware of for people to get hold of The Devil is Dead, I’ll withdraw the nomination, because there’s no point.

I’ll nominate The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov.

I loved the caves of steel. Although I must say it's been years and years and years

A long time for me, too. Well over 40 years, maybe 50. It feels strange to me to have lived so long I can say something like that. I read The Devil is Dead the summer of 1971, over 52 years ago.

I've re-read Caves recently and they are still good

Stephen wrote: "I’ll nominate The Devil Is Dead and Tower of Glas& by Robert Silverberg."

Love the covers on both of these books, just a short Q, does the latter, by _the grand master_ R Silverberg, have anything to do, with this 'conceptual design' of this 'vasta array of antennas' in which was opening, like in 2019, a few years before the pandemic struck?

Also I do luv, this design on RAferty's book https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
@oleksander : You're proficcient in Russian, as well eh? amongst other languares, what's yr mother language then?

I haven’t read Tower of Glass, but for what it’s worth I’ve never heard of it having inspired any present day engineering projects.

I did have a copy of the May 1970 Galaxy magazine, which featured an instalment of a serialization of the novel, but I think it went over my head. Or it may not have been the first instalment. I’ve always intended to read the book but never got around to it.

We've got 10 books, which I think is a good list. Quite a roster of authors, several older books by grandmasters. I'll leave it open for another day & put up the poll tomorrow.

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
The Devil is Dead by R.A. Lafferty
The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy
The High Crusade by Poul Anderson
Redshift Rendezvous by John E. Stith
Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer
This Immortal by Roger Zelazny
Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak
The Weapon Makers by A.E. van Vogt

Dan'S_mind wrote: "S@oleksander : You're proficcient in Russian, as well eh? amongst other languares, what's yr mother language then?."

I read in Ukrainian, Belarussian, Russian, Polish, English, a very tiny bit of Latin and I planned to start reading Czech, but currently engaged with other projects. My mother tongue, as well as for a majority of city-dwellers in my childhood, was Russian - during the late Soviet period there was a constant and continuous russification, the extent of which can be seen in two figures: in 1929, on the peak of modern Ukrainian revival 80% of schools in the UkrSSR were in Ukrainian, the rest 20% not only Russian, but Greek, Polish, Jewish, Armenian etc. In 1991 when the USSR fell 51% of schools were in Russian, in cities about 2/3. And this isn't because of mass migrations, but because of the policies of the authorities

Allan wrote: "We've got 10 books, which I think is a good list. Quite a roster of authors, several older books by grandmasters. I'll leave it open for another day & put up the poll tomorrow...."

I can add two more nominations if that would help:

The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
They'd Rather Be Right (AKA The Forever Machine) by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley

That would give us 12 nominations each by a different author.

Note about They'd Rather Be Right -- not available in Kindle and I started it once and quit. Boring. But you know me. Unfortunately, I gave my copy away long ago

Change to last message. Actually, it turns out that the 3 parts of They'd Rather Be Right are available in The Second Golden Age of Science Fiction MEGAPACK for 99 cents https://www.amazon.com/Second-Golden-...

Whether this is a different version because it was originally published in three parts I will probably never know. If I try it again this will be the one that I will be reading

Kateblue wrote: "Note about They'd Rather Be Right -- not available in Kindle and I started it once and quit. Boring. But you know me. Unfortunately, I gave my copy away long ago"

It's not known as "the worst Hugo winner of all time" for nothing.

lol kalin

yes lol kalin

Polls are up!
This month there are three identical polls. Each member has one vote in each, three votes total. Use them to select your 1st, 2nd & 3rd choices. Don't vote for the same book in each poll! Votes will be totaled & the top three will be the winners.

Poll #1
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Poll #2
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Poll #3
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Kalin wrote: "It's not known as "the worst Hugo winner of all time" for nothing.
."

Actually it isn't that bad, it has a great start, but then wanders aimlessly

Allan wrote: "Polls are up!
This month there are three identical polls. Each member has one vote in each, three votes total. Use them to select your 1st, 2nd & 3rd choices. Don't vote for the same book in each ..."

Two of the polls are already closed?

Probably a mistake, I just fixed them.

That’s weird, I thought I gave a week for all three. Thanks, Kalin.

Leaders on the last day of voting:

Way Station - 25
The Caves of Steel - 25
This Immortal - 18

Tower of Glass - 16
The Big Time - 12
The Devil is Dead - 11
The Falling Woman - 10
The High Crusade - 9
Starplex - 9
The Weapon Makers - 4
Redshift Rendezvous -1
They'd Rather Be Right - 0

The list comprises great sci-fi titles, IMO, but I am partial to the precursor of Asimov's Foundation series, Caves of Steel.

Nice, I'll get to read the omnibus in December! I might just go ahead and read The High Crusade too so I can check it off as a 2023 read.

P0B wrote: "The list comprises great sci-fi titles, IMO, but I am partial to the precursor of Asimov's Foundation series, Caves of Steel."

The Robot series, or more specifically, the R Daneel Olivaw series, is really great. I re-read The Caves of Steel just a couple years ago.

Sadly, I've read all three of the leading books & my nominees are failing miserably. Starplex could be the all-time loser in polls! I may have to read it anyway. I'll BR The High Crusade if you like, Kalin.

I'd be happy to read Starplex as soon as we can get it past a poll. :)
Let's try again early in 2023, if there's a suitable theme.

Allan wrote: "Leaders on the last day of voting:

Way Station - 25
The Caves of Steel - 25
This Immortal - 18

Tower of Glass - 16
The Big Time - 12
The Devil is Dead - 11
The Falling Woman - 10
The High Crusade..."

Zelazny making the power move into the top 3! I may have to try to track that one down if it wins.

If this holds up I will happily reread The Caves of Steel, having nominated it. I read Way Station just a few years ago. I had a copy of This Immortal way back when; not sure if I want to reread it. as I recall it is indeed short so I may well.

For those who are interested, two of the leading selections can be found in this anthology:


American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels 1960-1966: The High Crusade / Way Station / Flowers for Algernon / . . . And Call Me Conrad edited by Gary K. Wolfe

👍 👍👍👍👍

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "For those who are interested, two of the leading selections can be found in this anthology:

[bookcover:American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels 1960-1966: The High Crusade / Way Station / Fl..."

Yup, that's the one I have on my bookshelf that I nominated from.

Polls have closed. The results below show the books' score in each poll.

Winners
Way Station > 9-7-9 = 25
The Caves of Steel > 6-7-12 = 25
This Immortal > 4-6-8 = 18

Other nominees:
Tower of Glass > 3-11-2 = 16
The Big Time > 6-2-4 = 12
The Devil is Dead > 4-5-2 = 11
The Falling Woman > 4-2-4 = 10
The High Crusade > 2-4-3 = 9
Starplex > 3-3-3 = 9
The Weapon Makers > 1-1-2 = 4
Redshift Rendezvous > 0-0-1 = 1
They'd Rather Be Right > 0-0-0 = 0

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Allan wrote: "...Winners

Way Station > 9-7-9 = 25
The Caves of Steel > 6-7-12 = 25
This Immortal > 4-6-8 = 18..."

I like that you showed your math, Allan. ;-)

I think I'm in for all three of these.

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I like that you showed your math, Allan. ..."

Lol, force of habit I guess. I was thinking that there were alternative ways of looking at the three polls. Assuming Poll #1 was "1st choice", Poll #2 2nd choice, etc., it could've also been a weighted score with, for example, a vote in Poll #1 being 3 points, Poll #2 2 points, Poll #3 1 point. If I do that, Tower of Glass pushes out This Immortal on the basis of 11 2nd choice points.

Great selection. I've read all three, two - quite recently, but I still plan to re-read one or both

Allan wrote: "RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I like that you showed your math, Allan. ..."

Lol, force of habit I guess. I was thinking that there were alternative ways of looking at the three polls. Assuming Pol..."

Makes sense. I thought for a minute that Tower of Glass was going to be in the mix and I dug out my copy. But I'm good with Zelazny taking that third spot - I would like to read more by him.

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I thought for a minute that Tower of Glass was going to be in the mix and I dug out my copy. .."

As I've read all three, I'll have to figure something else out. Not like I don't have books to read. I might try Tower of Glass anyway, I do like Silverberg.