Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

Another annual thread about books read in 2024, more specific to the H/N nominees covered by this group. There may be some overlap between this and the Goals and Best/Worst threads, but those are more reflections-based and include lots of books people read that aren't from this group's BOTMs or the H/N list.

Consider this thread a "how are we doing?" thread:
How many monthly reads did you participate in?
Did you read H/N novels that weren't selected?
Did you read ones the group had already read?
Did you participate in any Buddy Reads or Challenges?
Share a list of the H/N books that you did read!

And please, let us know how you like the group & what we can do to promote more participation in the reads & discussions!

How many monthly reads did you participate in?
Not very many. Let's see... Grass; Immortality, Inc; Anathem; Nova; and Picnic in Paradise. Only five? That's even fewer than I thought.

Did you read H/N novels that weren't selected?
I don't think so, no.
Did you read ones the group had already read?
Not that either.

Did you participate in any Buddy Reads or Challenges?
Again no. It seems like my participation has been pretty minimal this year. Oh well.

How many monthly reads? 8. They were: Immortality, Inc. (February); The Uninvited (March); The Shadow of the Torturer (June); Provenance (July); All Flesh is Grass (September); The Forever War (September); Starplex (November); Picnic on Paradise (December).
I also read Anathem (November) earlier in the year, and I expect to read Slaughterhouse-Five (December) soon.

Did you read H/N novels that weren’t selected?
Did you read ones the group had already read?

I read 8 other novels that would fall into one or the other of those categories: Startide Rising, Starter Villain, The Saint of Bright Doors, Lord of Light, The Claw of the Conciliator, Rainbows End, Fourth Mansions, Childhood’s End.

Buddy reads or challenges: The Prestige, The Book of the New Sun

I think I’ve already listed the H/N books I read.

I enjoy the group a lot. I like many of the books we choose to read and I enjoy the comments of the participants. I don’t have any thoughts on promoting more participation.

How many monthly reads did you participate in?
Only six, which is less than I thought, but I branched off into my own reading more this year and did a lot of catchups. I joined "in real time" for:
Stranger in a Strange Land (January)
To Say Nothing of the Dog (March)
The Fall of Hyperion (May)
Provenance (July)
Starplex (November)
Picnic on Paradise (December)

Did you read H/N novels that weren't selected?
I decided to read two of my nominees even though they didn't win their respective polls: Beggars in Spain in March and then it became a buddy read. I also read Friday in October, and it was so bad I'm glad I never have to touch it again. Other than that, just books for this year's voting process: The Saint of Bright Doors, Starter Villain, and Amina al-Sirafi.

Did you read ones the group had already read?
Yes, anytime I didn't already have a selected book on my TBR I chose one from my TBR that the group previously read. In this category I tackled: Timescape, Ancillary Sword, Ancillary Mercy, The Wild Shore, Cyteen, A Deepness in the Sky, Camouflage, The Byworlder, (Endymion), The Rise of Endymion, and His Majesty's Dragon. At 11 books, that was the majority of my H/N reading this year.

Did you participate in any Buddy Reads or Challenges?
Just the Nancy Kress for a BR, and we didn't do a challenge separate from monthly reading, but I wasn't able to keep up with the Hyperion Cantos month-to-month so ended up reading it later than the group -- Endymion in August, Rise of Endymion in Oct-Nov.

I read a total of 21 over the year (I wanted to get to Nova with the group this month but I've run out of time). This brings me to a total of 156, just shy of 25% of the full nominee list. My aim was to hit 24 for the year, but between Cyteen, ADitS, and the Hyperion Cantos, I tackled some chonkers so 21 is fine with me.

Here's my spur-of-the-moment ranking of this year's reads:

1. A Deepness in the Sky
2. The Fall of Hyperion
3. Ancillary Sword
4. Ancillary Mercy
5, The Saint of Bright Doors
6. The Wild Shore
7. Starplex
8. Beggars in Spain
8. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
9. Provenance
10. Endymion
11. Picnic on Paradise
12. His Majesty's Dragon
13. To Say Nothing of the Dog
14. Cyteen
15. The Rise of Endmyion
16. Starter Villain
17. The Byworlder
18. Timescape
19. Camouflage
20. Stranger in a Strange Land
21. Friday

How many monthly reads did you participate in?
I read 16 of the 22 monthly books. 6 of these were re-reads. Of the 6 I didn't read in 2024, 5 I'd read before and only Anathem unread.

Did you read H/N novels that weren't selected?
In addition to the 10 new ones that were monthly books, I read 30 others for a total of 40 this year.

Did you read ones the group had already read?
Cryptonomicon from 2023 and The Wanderer from 2022

Did you participate in any Buddy Reads or Challenges?
Buddy Reads were The Prestige, which was outstanding, finishing off the Beggars In Spain trilogy and The Book of the New Sun (the main four - book 5 was added on later and will be read in 2025). I also finished the Hyperion Cantos in the group reads.

Share a list of the H/N books that you did read!
Cryptonomicon
Stand on Zanzibar Hugo Winner
Grass
The White Dragon (Pern #3)
No Enemy But Time Nebula Winner
Shigidi & the Brass Head of Obalufon
The Uninvited
The Saint of Bright Doors
The People of the Wind
The Adventures of Amina al-Sarifi
The Water Outlaws
Beggars & Choosers
Tower of Glass
The Dark Between the Stars
The Fall of Hyperion
Accelerando
Farthing
The Forge of God
The Rise of Endymion
The Claw of the Conciliator Nebula Winner
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
The Sword of the Lictor
Death's End
The Enemy Stars
Millenium
The Grace of Kings
The Native Star
The Citadel of the Autarch
The Wanderer Hugo Winner
Titan
Singularity Sky
Barsk: The Elephant Graveyard
Starplex
Iron Sunrise
The Golden Fleece
Earth
Picnic on Paradise
The Falling Woman Nebula Winner
King's Dragon
Chindi (Academy #3)

Finishing 5 additional winners leaves me with only 6 Hugo/Nebula winners to read!

That’s a heck of a list.