Yesterday I saw a post from Scalzi pushing back at some rando who claimed Hugo voters don’t read all the nominated works. I wanted to be mad about it too, because dammit! I definitely try!
The truth is, Best Series always gets sacrificed because the Best Novel and Novella finalists always push me up to the voting deadline. And this year may be no different, as I need to read four of the six novels and all six novellas. For three of the Best Series finalists, I have read some or all of the novels (White Space, Old Man’s War, Chronicles of Osreth), and for the other three I will try to read the first novel in the series, time permitting.
Time permitting means that in addition to all this Hugo reading between now and the August 8 deadline, I also have at least ten other books I want to read (new books from Mark Lawrence, Fonda Lee, Martha Wells, Ann Leckie, Ray Nayler, Suzanne Palmer, James Cambias, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Temi Oh, Wil McCarthy, yikes! it’s quite a summer and I want to get through at least half of these before the fall books start arriving) as well as three new issues each of Clarkesworld and Lightspeed, seven new Beneath Ceaseless Skies, two each of Uncanny, Analog and Asimov’s, and of course near weekly entries from Reactor. Also, I will want at least a few days to go through the material for all the other categories in the packet. (BTW I have already read all the short stories and novelettes except When He Calls Your Name and Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything but I’m not too worried about fitting those in. I’ll probably just read them tonight).
So, here is my order of operations for Hugo boot camp:
- The Raven Scholar – It’s the longest of the novels so it makes sense to read it first. It’s also the one I’ve most wanted to read even before the nominations came out.
- The Everlasting – I liked The Ten Thousand Doors of January and A Spindle Splintered. Not an author that jumps to the top of my TBR but I anticipate enjoying this.
- The Incandescent – Liked but didn’t love Some Desperate Glory. I know, sacrilege. Also think this will be good.
- Death of the Author – Probably avoided this because the title reminded me of having to slog through the Roland Barthes essay in Literary Theory class a lifetime ago. Despite Nnedi Okorafor’s attempt to re-traumatize me I think I will survive this.
- Murder by Memory – I have never read anything by this author, but I do love a good murder. Fictional murder. Fiction.
- What Stalks the Deep – Terrific writer, really good series.
- The River Has Roots – I’m hit-and-miss with this author. Here’s hoping for a hit.
- Cinder House – I have not read this author. She was previously nominated in the Best Series category but as usual I did not get to it before the deadline.
- Automatic Noodle – This looks “cozy”, which I am generally allergic to. Doesn’t mean I will hate it, but it does drop it closer to the bottom of the pile.
- The Summer War – This is only available as an excerpt in the voter packet, so I will have to get it at the library. This will move it up or down the list depending on when it is available for checkout. I like Novik a lot, so this is one of the more anticipated titles in the queue.
- Rosemary and Rue – The saga of me trying to read this book continues. Every time this series gets nominated I want to read this novel and I never manage to make it before the deadline. Maybe this year things will work out.
- Dead Country – I’ve read a few of Gladstone’s Craft Sequence novels but not this spinoff series. It is a pretty short novel so if I can get through no. 11, I may be able to squeeze this in.
- Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries – Only an excerpt in the packet, but FFS the excerpt is like half the novel why not just include the whole thing? We’ll see if I make it this far.
Happy reading, Hugo voters!
Item 202 