Hugo Award voting is open and will continue through the November 19, 2021 (The voting period is extra long this year due to COVID delaying the convention till December). For those of you new to the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre, the Hugo Award is one of the most prominent awards for works in the genre, with the Award being given based upon voting by those who have paid for at least a Supporting Membership in this year's WorldCon. As I did the last four years, I'm going to be posting reviews/my-picks for the award in the various categories I feel qualified in, but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comments.
This is the seventh and final part of this series. You can find all the parts of this series, going over each category of the Hugo Awards HERE.
Today I'll be looking at the nominees for the biggest award, the award for Best Novel. It's an.....interesting ballot this year, which featured none of my own nominees, even if a few of these books came close. It's also one that really badly lacks new blood - the six nominees feature three sequels to prior nominees/award-winners and three books from authors who have won Hugo Awards previously with prior works. There usually aren't too many newcomers on a best novel ballot, but there's often 1 or 2 (2 last year), and we lack that this year.
Which is not to say that there isn't some really good stuff on this ballot, or that the nominees aren't worthy. Nearly all of them are. So let's take a look at what made it, below the jump:
7 Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com) (Review Here)
I'm in the minority here, but I didn't like Harrow the Ninth and have it below No Award on my ballot, despite my enjoying of Gideon the Ninth, which was on last year's ballot. Gideon was a lot of fun with its lesbian swordswoman protagonist's sarcastic narrative and its locked room mystery featuring swordsmen and necromancers. It managed to succeed despite the fact that the book basically never explained how its setting and magic really worked, or who the various major figures actually were (most notably the Emperor/Necrolord Prime).
Harrow the Ninth again doesn't really explain things, but this time that's a problem, as those things are suddenly incredibly relevant to the story and as to what's going on. The book tries to avoid doing that by having Harrow lobotomize herself early, resulting in a herky-jerky interesting narrative that makes the book a bit of a puzzle, and that does work to a certain extent (even as it loses the sarcastic wit). But the final act just didn't work to me without any explanations to make me understand why I really actually cared about any of the twists and turns, and just left me wondering "huh?" I know others have found Harrow's mental state really interesting and praiseworthy, but for me it's not enough to carry the book to make up for its other flaws. So yeah, it's a No Award for me.
6 No Award
5 The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books) (Review Here)
The Relentless Moon is the third book in the Lady Astronaut series, which won the 2019 Hugo Award with The Calculating Stars (book 2 came out the same year as book 1, so it didn't really have a shot at making the ballot). I liked The Calculating Stars, but didn't love it as much as others, and DNFed book 2, so I didn't read this book until it was nominated. And it's a solid and enjoyable thriller, that I actually wound up liking more than I expected thanks to the more relatable flawed protagonist.
At the same time, this is the Best Novel ballot, and The Relentless Moon doesn't really do anything particularly unique or interesting enough for me to rank it all that highly. And so it finishes last among my award-worthy books on my ballot.
4 Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury) (Review Here)
Piranesi is the first book on this ballot I'd be unsurprised to see win the award, even I didn't love it as much as others. It's a short novel featuring an unnamed protagonist (at the start at least) who explores a strange parallel world of statues, and deals with the feelings of exploration, of scientific method, of finding calmness and sanity in an alternate world, vs finding insanity through ambition. I'm describing it poorly because well I read it a long while ago.
Still this is Clarke's highly awaited second novel after the Hugo Award winning Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, so it's no surprise this wound up being nominated, and well, I liked it a bunch. But I wished for more from it, so it didn't quite make it over the other novels on my ballot.
3 The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit) (Review Here)
The City We Became is the first novel in a new trilogy by Jemisin, one of my favorite authors, and the first long fiction of hers dealing with the real world (in a SF/F way). It's an expansion of NK Jemisin's prior Hugo Nominated short story, The City Born Again, in which a black homeless boy, the avatar of the city fought against a lovecraftian white/police Other to awaken New York City. The book uses that story as a prologue and instead focuses upon the avatars of each borough of NY as they attempt to finish the job of waking the city against the White Other who would smother them as she did so many other cities.
It is an absolutely unsubtle book, even less than Jemisin's work usually is, as its protagonists are people of color, immigrants, and queer and fighting against a generic oppressive white lady, who is spouting horrible lies with her language, to say nothing of the oppressive non-supernatural forces found within the city. But it works really well, and it really captures the spirits of each borough of the city (and yes I'm biased as a native New Yorker).
It's great stuff, as usual from Jemisin.
2 Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (Gallery / Saga Press) (Review Here)
The City We Became is the first novel in a new trilogy by Jemisin, one of my favorite authors, and the first long fiction of hers dealing with the real world (in a SF/F way). It's an expansion of NK Jemisin's prior Hugo Nominated short story, The City Born Again, in which a black homeless boy, the avatar of the city fought against a lovecraftian white/police Other to awaken New York City. The book uses that story as a prologue and instead focuses upon the avatars of each borough of NY as they attempt to finish the job of waking the city against the White Other who would smother them as she did so many other cities.
It is an absolutely unsubtle book, even less than Jemisin's work usually is, as its protagonists are people of color, immigrants, and queer and fighting against a generic oppressive white lady, who is spouting horrible lies with her language, to say nothing of the oppressive non-supernatural forces found within the city. But it works really well, and it really captures the spirits of each borough of the city (and yes I'm biased as a native New Yorker).
It's great stuff, as usual from Jemisin.
2 Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (Gallery / Saga Press) (Review Here)
Black Sun is, like the last book on this list, another first in a new trilogy from a Hugo Award winner (although Roanhorse didn't win for her Best Novel nomination, but for her nomination for Best Short Story a few years back). It's an epic fantasy trilogy based upon pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, featuring a quartet of main characters from different backgrounds leading up to a major event (the "Convergence") which we flashforward to early only to jump back to discover how we got there.
It's the type of epic fantasy I love, full of interesting themes (Class, Power, Gender, etc.) and just as importantly a fascinating set of characters, one of whom seems on his way to what will clearly be his death. I don't want to say too much more because I really don't want to spoil (and again I read this a WHILE back), but if you want to see my thoughts after reading it, click my review above.
The point is though, this is the type of epic fantasy you expect to win normally, featuring great themes and characters, a story that is satisfying on its own while also presenting tremendous cliffhangers to keep you enticed for the next book whenever it comes out (2022). Unfortunately, it's not my pick, and I don't expect it to win, because of the last book on this list.....
It's the type of epic fantasy I love, full of interesting themes (Class, Power, Gender, etc.) and just as importantly a fascinating set of characters, one of whom seems on his way to what will clearly be his death. I don't want to say too much more because I really don't want to spoil (and again I read this a WHILE back), but if you want to see my thoughts after reading it, click my review above.
The point is though, this is the type of epic fantasy you expect to win normally, featuring great themes and characters, a story that is satisfying on its own while also presenting tremendous cliffhangers to keep you enticed for the next book whenever it comes out (2022). Unfortunately, it's not my pick, and I don't expect it to win, because of the last book on this list.....
1 Network Effect by Martha Wells (Tor.com) (Review Here)
I mentioned above that none of my nominees made the ballot, but that was only technically true; by my book grading system, Network Effect should have made my nomination ballot, but I was damn sure it would make the shortlist no matter what, so I didn't wind up nominating it. Unsurprisingly, given the SF/F crowd's love of Murderbot, I was right that it didn't need my nomination - hell, Network Effect even won the Nebula and is probably the favorite here.
And as usual, that's for damn good reason. Network Effect is just utterly fantastic as it takes Murderbot for the first time to a full length novel format, and features it having to develop when its friend ART winds up in danger...and ART's actions get Murderbot's own humans in trouble as well. The characters are just great - whether that be Murderbot (still anxious as hell about being free and about its role in keeping the stupid humans alive, desperate to protect ART and then angry at being manipulated), ART, or new human character Amena (really adorable young adult daughter of Murderbot's most trusted human friend Dr. Mensah).
Oh and besides all the fun that's involved in this book, and there's a lot of fun, there's serious themes of corporate exploitation, of free will and autonomy, of PTSD and seeking help, and of some surprise elements I dare not spoil in a review. Even with the rest of the good stuff on this ballot, Network Effect is an easy choice for my top spot.
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