Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

Group Read #35

I've read it earlier this year, will gladly discuss as others catch up

Ditto, read both of the ones for this month during the Hugo/Nebula nominating process.

Anyone heard anything about the audiobook for this one? It seems like a book that would do well in an audio format, plus I have no idea how to pronounce some of the Navajo terms which breaks me away from the universe while reading (about a quarter of the way in so far)

I suggest everybody look at a map for the area, You can just look at a map of today that you can get my Googling the place names. As the characters moved around, I ended up doing that about 1/3 or the way in.

just started this and you can't imagine how happy I was to see the word 'Monster'. No horribly mutated crops like in Wind-Up Girl or Botanicaust, no bloody tea-drinking ship-clone, not even a communist being brained for teaching relativity or playing a 3-D game. Just a garden variety MONSTER :-)

Jeanette wrote: "just started this and you can't imagine how happy I was to see the word 'Monster'.."

That's a real monster for you in the original definition of the word, i.e.. directly from Latin monstrum "divine omen (especially one indicating misfortune), portent, sign;

Rebecca wrote: "Anyone heard anything about the audiobook for this one? It seems like a book that would do well in an audio format, plus I have no idea how to pronounce some of the Navajo terms which breaks me awa..."

Will be starting on the audio version of it tomorrow, will keep you updated!

Rebecca wrote: "Anyone heard anything about the audiobook for this one? It seems like a book that would do well in an audio format, plus I have no idea how to pronounce some of the Navajo terms which breaks me awa..."

I am half way through the audiobook version of this and I must say it is going great. The voice is pretty good, the story lends itself wonderfully to a narration, the writing itself is great and it is pretty refreshing just being able to enjoy the story without the author trying too hard to lean hard on the selling points (like gore and violence in God's War).

The story itself is engaging, though not overly complicated. Perfect for the schedule I have right now.

That was a refreshing read. Nothing too complicated or hard to follow nor is it too easy to pick out what happens next. Love the Navajo mythos.

Just grabbed this off the shelves this morning as I realized I only have a few weeks to get best novels read in time for Hugo voting this year!

I know I’m behind but in case anyone enjoys what we in another book club call “necroposting” I am posting this here. I’m at chapter 15 and I’m torn with this one. I’m happy to encounter a setting that is so unexplored and to learn about a mythology that is almost entirely new to me. I’m just a little put off by the generic hard-boiled first-person voice. Otherwise the writing is crisp and vivid and the engine of the plot is pretty compelling.

I like it. Necroposting. You can necropost here anytime.

I guess I didn't notice a problem with "the generic hard-boiled first-person voice." I'm not sure what you mean by that.

Though I have got to say, I am tired of everything being written in first person. Too much of the character's internal rationale can just magically appear, usually in the form of angst. Which I'm tired of.

But I didn't really have any problem with this one that way. Of course, it's been 6 months since I read it, so I'm not sure now . . . but I was delighted with the book most ways, and that's what I remember now.

Thanks for allowing my necroposting!

By hard-boiled first-person voice I mean that she’s sort of generally tough and sour, kind of like a narrator in a film noir or detective story, hence the “hard-boiled” label. I get that she’s been traumatized and her toughness is mostly a defense, but I’d like her voice to feel a bit more subtle and human at times.

Anthony wrote: "Thanks for allowing my necroposting!

By hard-boiled first-person voice I mean that she’s sort of generally tough and sour, kind of like a narrator in a film noir or detective story, hence the “har..."

Absolutely agree with what you two are saying, though it didn't get to me this time around, it does get frustrating following a "badass" character from the first person perspective, probably because it makes the character appear even more one-dimensional.

I probably let it slide for this book because in comparison to the main character from God's War, she is nowhere as annoying.

I guess it is relatively easy to write bad-asses because of all the previous ones. That's why it is so popular. I am fine with such characters most of the time, if the story per se is interesting.