SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I am always astonished about how few of the books I have read in the awards lists and feel I can't really vote in most of the lists. It's OK for me because my priority isn't to read new releases.

I did though give my votes to Starsight because the first book in this series was 5 stars and Network Effect because it was also a solid 5 stars read for me. I don't know if these are the best reasons to vote but I doubt most people are able to vote with the ground reasoning that they read all books in the list and can therefore choose the best book with certainty.

And you? Are you voting and do you have any favorites?

Update: In "Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction" I write-in voted for The Nemesis because S.J. Kincaid is much less known than Sanderson and deserves more recognition.

I even voted for a book that won't be released by the time the voting period ends, so that nobody can have read it... 😂

But I don't expect my favorites to win: every year without exception, the winners are always the ones with the highest number of ratings (not highest rating). So House of Earth and Blood will win fantasy this year, Network Effect will win SF, and the YA SFF award will go to A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, lol.

I still voted for my favorites (and for Rhythm of War which I already know will be another favorite, Sanderson never lets me down), just to say "I love these books" and hopefully give them a little PR boost.

I've read more than half in the SF section. But since they -again - ignored Tchaikovsky who wrote the best SF book of the year, I wrote in "The Doors of Eden".

I've read less in the Fantasy section, and here I had to vote for a book that's not even released ^^'. I just hope that "Rhythm of War" will be on the same quality level as the three books before.

ETA: LOL, Eva, just saw that you posted at the same time. It's strange to vote for a non-released, non-read book, isn't it? But I just couldn't not vote for it.

Yes, very strange! But I do plan to at least read the first 16 chapters (the audiobook version of them is on Sanderson's youtube channel) before the voting period ends and judge it based on that. If I don't like them I'll change my vote, I promise!

But it really feels as if this book has to participate in a race while hobbled and blindfolded, lol. They should change the eligible dates to go only up to the start of the first round to make sure people have at least a *chance* to read the book in full before having to vote. 😅

You can do a write in nomination. I did that to add Aurora Burning into the YA section.

Had to do a write in for Autobiography for I Have Something to Tell You. Several potential greats there, but felt wrong not to see it included.

I knew there was one I wanted more than the one I actually voted for. Thanks Leonie :) Just changed it and wrote Aurora Burning in.

Last year I had to write in Holy Sister.

I haven’t read as much this year as I normally do- but I still found something to vote for in the Fiction, Thriller, Fantasy (had to write it in), SF, Historical Fiction and Horror categories.

I was surprised (but probably shouldn’t have been) to find I’d read about half the Horror nominees and and only a couple of the Fantasy ones, none of which I wanted to vote for.

I struggled with the SF choice. There were two that I really loved in there.

Most years I do end up writing in my votes. Sometimes they make it to round two sometimes they don’t.

Gabi wrote: "I've read more than half in the SF section. But since they -again - ignored Tchaikovsky who wrote the best SF book of the year, I wrote in "The Doors of Eden".

I've read less in the Fantasy sectio..."

More than half, I'm impressed :-) Of the sci-fi list I still want to read The "Space Between Worlds" by Micaiah Johnson. Not sure about the others. Which would you recommend?
And "The Doors of Eden" is surely in my TBR as all Tchaikovsky books are. I just want to read the books I already have of him before buying his new releases.

I want to read most save three of the Fantasy list, but again I prefer to read the books I already have than buying new books right away.

Eva wrote: "I even voted for a book that won't be released by the time the voting period ends, so that nobody can have read it... 😂

But I don't expect my favorites to win: every year without exception, the wi..."

And when I think of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes the first word that comes to my mind is 'überflüssiges'. Superfluous.

@Leticia: that's cause I bought a Worldcon membership for next year so I wanted to be as knowledgeable as possible before I nominate.

From the GR list I can wholeheartedly recommend "The Vanished Birds", "The Book of Koli", "To sleep in a sea of stars" and "Hidden Girl and other Stories"
"Riot Baby" is more a very angry contemporary comment on racism and perhaps UF, I wouldn't count it as SF (but it is a good and intense book)
"The Hench" which is in the Superheroes category was so lame that I dnf'd it.
"The New Wilderness" and "The Mothercode" were okay, but I was wondering as I saw them in the nominations.
"axiom's end" and "the space between worlds" I own, but haven't read yet, "The end of October" sounds interesting (never heard of that before).

I see some people here comment on Rhythm of War, but don't you guys think it's crazypants that this book is on the nominees list? Unless you have an ARC for review, you cannot have read this book, so it does not belong on the list for 2020.

It was the same last year with "The Deep" by Rivers Solomon. That's why I really would love to know the reasoning behind the nominations.

It's the same for The Burning God and probably other books that I'm less familiar with. The best advice I got was treating this whole affair as "most hyped books of 2020", rather than "best books of 2020".

Alexander wrote: "I see some people here comment on Rhythm of War, but don't you guys think it's crazypants that this book is on the nominees list? Unless you have an ARC for review, you cannot have read this book, ..."

Of course, it's so unfair to the book and author! Way to handicap him against winning... Goodreads should definitely change the time frame for eligible books to only those published *before* the voting starts, or at the very least those published before the end of the first voting round.

I think it can even go two ways. Right now you could say the Rhythm of War and Sanderson don’t get a fair chance because basically nobody has read it, so it doesn’t get enough votes. And the book won’t be nominated again next year so, game over. At the same time, IT is getting votes because of hype/popularity, so it is taking away votes from other nominees that do deserve to be in this contest.

If you want to do a best books of the year thing, you need to either organize it in January of February so that you can include all the books published in 2020 and give people a fair chance to read the ones published at the end of the year.

Or if you organize the votes in October, like Goodreads, include books published from October of the previous year till September of the current year.

At least that’s my two cents...

It will make it through even though nobody has read it because it’s Sanderson. Just like Stephen King always wins Horror because he’s Stephen King. I’m sure there are better Horror books out there. It’s not a best book competition at all. It’s really a favourite author/most popular competition.

I agree that the cut off date for publication needs to be September to give people time to actually read the book. The last few years they have had books that were released the week before and the week of the start of the first round but after the first round is actually finished.....that’s going a bit far.

Hear hear, Alexander!!

Also Semi final voting just opened up.....

And here I thought the selection would be better than the opening round....

Will continue to vote for The Vanished Birds until it get kicked out.

The rest I don't care.

A couple of my other groups have commented on how few books they recognise in the selections. The general feeling in some is the they're a bit US centric. (Some books don't get released in other countries until well after the US.

And I agree regarding Rhythm of War. I love Sanderson, but I haven't read it due to it not being released yet, and therefore will not vote for it.

Silvana wrote: "And here I thought the selection would be better than the opening round....

Anyway since I wrote in The Vanished Birds in the SF category and apparently many people also did, I'll ..."

The Vanished Birds was already in the first nominations round. The write ins that made it into SF are funnily all books I've never heard of. My vote goes to Koli here.

For Fantasy I stubbornly stick with Sanderson. If he didn't have a major writing break down, I know I will love the book. And other than Piranesi I'm not so fond of any of the other ones we have as a choice.

Gabi wrote: "The Vanished Birds was already in the first nominations round.."

Hmm I forgot about that, thanks for correcting. I don't think it's going to pass through the next round, though. This is GR Hype Award, after all.

What is the hype for SF this year? I have no overview and as mentioned haven't even heard of some of the books in the current selection.

According to my theory (most GR ratings) it will be Network Effect.

I've seen 15/20 of the SF nominees getting quite some buzz but indeed it's not as 'hyped' as the fantasy nominees. And of course all the new releases (or not-yet-released) nominees which annoys me a lot. It's very discriminating for those with limited/no access to libraries or various affordable online subscriptions.

Now I am thinking since I am so cynical about this Award I should not vote altogether considering I actually have read only three books out of 20 of the SF category, not even half. On the other side, TVB is too good to pass and I guess showing authors our support does not hurt.

Banshee wrote: "It's the same for The Burning God and probably other books that I'm less familiar with. The best advice I got was treating this whole affair as "most hyped books of 2020", rather than "best books o..."

Then it's still questionable I think. Why didn't Ready Player Two and A Sky beyond the Storm make the cut then? Fairly certain those are a SciFi and a fantasy that a lot of people are looking forward to this year, I know I am. :-D

Alexander wrote: "Then it's still questionable I think. Why didn't Ready Player Two and A Sky beyond the Storm make the cut then? Fairly certain those are a SciFi and a fantasy that a lot of people are looking forward to this year, I know I am. :-D"

You certainly have a point here. I've read and listened to many different speculations about how the list of nominees is created in the first place. No one managed to definitely answer that question yet 🤷‍♀️

The only thing I'm certain of is that this just cannot be treated as "best of" award, if most people don't have a fair chance in the voting process. I mean, some books could be read only by a handful of influencers that had access to ARCs. That's why I decided to stop raging at Goodreads Awards and treat it instead with a pinch of salt.

Goodreads Choice Awards are next to meaningless because of the way they are run. It's a shame, because organized differently, they could have been at least an accessible popular vote poll for the common layperson.

I didn't bother participating last year, but I wrote in some titles this time. Alas, none of them made it to the Semifinals so... *shrug* I may cave and vote for some underdogs though.

I'm more familiar with the Fantasy than the SF titles this year, but I never seem to get to more than a handful. I'm impressed by those of you who have managed to read half.

Alexander wrote: "Banshee wrote: "It's the same for The Burning God and probably other books that I'm less familiar with. The best advice I got was treating this whole affair as "most hyped books of 2020", rather th..."

Books published in the United States in English, including works in translation and other significant rereleases, between November 16, 2019, and November 17, 2020, are eligible for the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards. Books published between November 18, 2020, and November 17, 2021, will be eligible for the 2021 awards.

Yeah basically books that are published a day AFTER the semi final voting is finished are still eligible. You’d think that the cutoff date would be the start of the voting at least.

And the results are in.....

Surprised to see To Sleep in a Sea of Stars to take the SciFi title, most ratings and reviews on my wall/timeline were quite critical. I haven’t read it yet myself.

I read two of the winners.
Mexican Gothic was a five stars read for me although I considered it a 'mild' Horror if there is such a thing and The Queen of Nothing which I also liked but I'm not sure is the best book in its category too. The winners in Sci-Fi and Fantasy would not be my first choice for winners either.

Results are a garbage popularity contest as usual

Alexander wrote: "Surprised to see To Sleep in a Sea of Stars to take the SciFi title, most ratings and reviews on my wall/timeline were quite critical. I haven’t read it yet myself."

I was surprised/disappointed about that one as well. I'm stalled out at about 50% on TSIASOS because it was really uninspiring and I didn't hear anyone saying it was going to get better. I keep trying to convince myself to pick it back up and just... can't.

I'm kind of surprised that neither the Twilight book nor the Hunger Games book won in Fantasy since they have huge fanbases and I expected one of them to win the popularity contest.

Congrats, Nathan W. Pyle, and Strange Planet, for the win. You genius being.

I loved Strange Planet - a well-deserved win!

I’m bummed about the results too. The only one I’ve read is The Vanishing Half. definitely deserved the win- but I’d read four of the Horror novels and Mexican Gothic wasn’t one of them. And I doubt I’ll pick it up because I’m just not a fan of Moreno Garcia’s writing.


Granted- she’s probably improved since her first novel Certain Dark Things but every time I think about her I remember that book and move on to the next book.

I was also bummed Emily St John Mandel lost out on the literary category. Wasn’t even close.

Neither of my SF picks won but I don’t think either of them were blockbuster releases like TSIASOS. I’d only read one of the fantasy picks (Jemisin’s The City We Became) and didn’t like it that much so I have no comment on that.

I was surprised that Stephen King and Brandon Sanderson didn’t win. Their fan bases are huge and it doesn’t matter usually if the book is the best or not if they’re in there.

Wasn’t surprised about Rick Riordan winning the YA SFF section. The same thing happens with him now. As we all know the Goodreads best book is a definite popularity contest.

@Jacqueline - I was surprised by that too. I think the King book I get because it was a collection of short stories and not a novel. There were some good stories in there but it wasn’t super memorable.

The Sanderson one shocked me.

Jacqueline wrote: "I was surprised that Stephen King and Brandon Sanderson didn’t win. Their fan bases are huge and it doesn’t matter usually if the book is the best or not if they’re in there.

Wasn’t surprised abo..."


As far as I know Sanderson never one a GR award, did he? And putting in a book that's not even released at the time of voting wasn't really fair towards book and author.

I'm good with the winner of the SF category. "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars" was a lovely love letter to the general SF genre and I'm pleased to see that it gets attention.

The other ones I would have loved to see winning ("Vanished Birds" and "Koli") are faaaar behind.

I guess GR just isn't the audience for 'real' (i.e 'hard') SF. Books that appeal to a broader, general audience get more attention here.

Gabi wrote: "I'm good with the winner of the SF category. "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars" was a lovely love letter to the general SF genre and I'm pleased to see that it gets attention."

It was the only winner that I've read from this year's selection. I agree that it was a really enjoyable book. I might have even given it 5 stars? Though I'm not convinced that it's "best" SF of the year.

@Banshee: :D with "best of SF" lists I have a quite pragmatic approach: Is Adrian Tchaikovsky on it I take seriously, if not it's just a general hype one ;p

The fiction winner, The Midnight Library, won by 5 votes! Never think your vote doesn't count.

M.L. wrote: "The fiction winner, The Midnight Library, won by 5 votes! Never think your vote doesn't count."

Oh wow, I hadn't noticed that. It must have been interesting for those behind the scenes watching the votes come in.

Our current club polls were also separated by less than 5 votes, last I heard... *nudge nudge*

Jordan wrote: "I'm kind of surprised that neither the Twilight book nor the Hunger Games book won in Fantasy since they have huge fanbases and I expected one of them to win the popularity contest."

Those surprised me as well, but then I remembered that those YA books were written in 2005 and 2008, and the fan base has largely aged out by now.