Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

I saw a comment from another mod recently that we've passed 100 books completed through monthly reads and challenges. That's a pretty big milestone, although not all members keep the same pace or choose to read all the selections. But it got me wondering, what are the standout books for our group members from what we've read together?

So here's a thread where I ask:

1. What are your top 3 (new favourite) books you read as part of a monthly read or challenge in this group? (not a reread or a book from the H/N list you read independently)

2. What are your bottom 2 (most disliked) books you read as part of a monthly read or challenge in this group? What was just not redeemable for you at all?

I'm curious to see if there's any overlap in our reactions to what we've chosen, either among the best or worst.


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Tally so far:

Best
2 votes
The Curse of Chalion
A Wizard of Earthsea
Perdido Street Station


1 vote
Barrayar
Cyteen
Leviathan Wakes
Parable of the Sower
Piranesi (don't think this group read it together though)
Powers
Red Mars
The Dispossessed
The Fifth Season
The Iron Dream
Who Fears Death

Worst
2 votes
God's War
Nova Express
The Sheep Look Up

1 vote
A Choice of Gods
Glory Road
Neptune's Brood
Rainbows End
Synners
The Byworlder
The Female Man

To help recall what we read, on the right, there is a menu, where you can choose "Bookshelf" and there select "read"

There are quite a few books I rated 4 and 5 stars, but of them the most memorable were
The Fifth Season
Red Mars
The Dispossessed

bottom 2
The Sheep Look Up
Nova Express

Ooh,this is difficult! We have had so many good books is hard to choose just three; OTOH there's been a good collection of real stinkers too.

Fifth Season is a good candidate, but I feel like the Broken Earth trilogy as a whole is stronger than individual books in the series, and thus I'm going to pass that one. For the same reason none of the Vorkosigan books made my list, although I enjoyed e.g. Mirror Dance immensely.

No, my real Top Three is:
+ Parable of the Sower. This was such a strong book. I've recommended it to everyone I know. It's eerily prophetic, and it manages to be really bleak yet hopeful at the same time. I swallowed it in a couple of days and instantly craved more.

+ The Iron Dream. I managed to surprise even myself choosing Spinrad's book over so many other fine choices, but there you are. I don't think I've thought about any of our Monthly Reads as many times after we finished them than this wonderful piece of satire. The greatest thing about The Iron Dream, however, is how it transcends satire: it lets the reader understand the pull of the fascist mindset and makes it easier to comprehend why Hitler had such a huge following back in the 1930's.

+ The Curse of Chalion. My first Bujold novel, and certainly not the last. Since then I've read The Paladin of Souls, all the Vorkosigan books and the Penric novellas. And its all due to this book being so great. I don't usually read fantasy, but when I do, I enjoy low-magic/high-theology setting the most (insert meme picture here).

And then the Hall of Disgrace:

- I guess I should appreciate Synners more: after all, it predicted lots of things correctly about the evolution of computing and television. But it was such a mess I plot-wise, and so bloody dull!

- But the absolutely worst mess we've ever read was God's War. It was so bad. I never forgave Hurley for writing this piece of crap: I haven't read anything else by her, and likely never will. Fool me once etc.

Best:
Who Fears Death
A Wizard of Earthsea

Worst:
The Female Man
The Sheep Look Up

Antti wrote: "Ooh,this is difficult! ."

Yes it was difficult! I also rated Parable and Curse quite high, the latter was in my top-5 list and the former is great, but I've read it before the group read, so I deemed it ineligible for me :)

Both your "worst" are only 2 stars for me and I saw them as candidates as well

Ed wrote: "Best:
A Wizard of Earthsea"

Wizard was one of three books that shifted me to fantasy from SF in my teens, it is definitely a great and lasting work

Very tough question indeed!

BEST
The Curse of Chalion - much better than double-winner Paladin of Souls, I thought
Perdido Street Station - but as good as it was, I thought The Scar (challenge book) was better
A Wizard of Earthsea - a very welcome challenge; I read the entire series, never having found it as a younger person

WORST
Lots of choices, but:
Neptune's Brood
Glory Road
The Byworlder

Hard to leave out Nova Express, but that was very experimental and I class it with The Love We Share Without Knowing as to why it was even considered SF or F.

No time for this right now, but you have me thinking.

I know that Nova Express will be one of the worst.

Allan wrote: "Hard to leave out Nova Express, but that was very experimental and I class it with The Love We Share Without Knowing as to why it was even considered SF or F."

For me the latter was maybe not exactly SFF but a story with a sense, while Nova's idea is a senseless text, which I guess is ok for a story but not a novel.

Also it was sad to see Neptune's Brood and Glory Road as the worst - for me they were 3-stars but I'm a fan of both authors. Being a fan of Poul Anderson hasn't precluded me from marking The Byworlder as a bad book (not as bad as my two choices but still)

Oleksandr wrote: "Also it was sad to see Neptune's Brood and Glory Road as the worst - for me they were 3-stars but I'm a fan of both authors."

I didn't find much redeeming in Neptune's Brood. I wasn't a fan of Saturn's Children either but Neptune was worse for me.

I read tons of Heinlein as a teenager (mid to late 70's) & loved it. Now when I read or re-read his books, they mostly seem stale and outdated. The exception was The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but even Double Star & Farmer in the Sky, while good, seemed very old-fashioned. While I get much the same vibe from Anderson, I don't get it from Asimov. I feel like his stories have held up better.

Certainly Nova Express was just nonsense strung together. Reading the whole trilogy was a difficult reading experience, to say the least. I didn't hate The Love We Share as a novel, but I didn't see how it was SFF at all. But there are plenty of other examples I guess. There were several other books I wanted to list as bad!

Allan wrote: "Hard to leave out Nova Express, but that was very experimental and I class it with The Love We Share Without Knowing as to why it was even considered SF or F."

To be fair, the aliens from Minraud had an important role in the... I can't say "plot", so let's go with "recurring scenes".

Allan wrote: "I didn't find much redeeming in Neptune's Brood. I wasn't a fan of Saturn's Children either but Neptune was worse for me.."

I agree that o this two Neptune was worse. However, a great redeeming quality of this duology for me was rare for the genre sub-light travel multi-star civilization and the fact that the author thought about economics of it

Oleksandr wrote: "There are quite a few books I rated 4 and 5 stars, but of them the most memorable were
The Fifth Season
Red Mars
The Dispossessed"

Nice! These are three of my all-time favourites, but I read all of them before discovering this group so they don't count for me.

best

Leviathan Wakes
Cyteen
Piranesi

worst

Nova Express
God's War (Bel Dame Apocrypha, #1) with Machinehood running a close third, although that may be because I had such high hopes for it.

Thanks for sharing all your thoughts!

As for answering my own question, it's harder for me to pick the best ones than the worst. Recency bias also probably plays a role in my thinking. But:

1) Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin -- we read this one just this past January, and I consider it a masterpiece up there with Le Guin's best work. It's a shame it was so heavily marketed as YA (after the big YA boom post-Harry Potter), because it deserves more attention than it gets. One of her last novels, and probably her strongest late work.

2) Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold -- it's definitely hard to pick from among the Vorkosigan books, which has been a defining aspect of my participation in the group so far. But Barrayar was the book that made me go "holy shit I'm reading this whole series." I loved many of them, in particular Mirror Dance, Memory, Diplomatic Immunity, and A Civil Campaign.

3) Hard to choose for the last slot, but likely Perdido Street Station by China Miéville is the one that will stay with me longest. Crazy dense, very weird, intense worldbuilding, and the monsters were phenomenal. I still haven't tackled the sequels because of their intimidating girth. But one day...

(runners-up: A Fire Upon the Deep & Blindsight)

As for the Hall of Disgrace! (as Antti called it lol)

1) Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge -- this book took an interesting premise of augmented reality tech fused with a heist story, and created an absolute travesty of plot, character, and muddled action. It was unbearable to read. I'm still embarrassed I was the nominator for this one.

2) A Choice of Gods by Clifford D. Simak -- a book that aims to be a profound theological SF tale, but mostly just bored me to tears and didn't succeed in what it was trying to do. I'm still willing to give Simak another shot (unlike Niven after eye-bleeding my way through Ringworld) but he's an author I'm nominating under the "dreading" category now, because I anticipate being disappointed or feeling like he's wasting my time.

Kalin wrote: "I'm still embarrassed I was the nominator for this one."

Me ditto for Machinehood

I like your choices, Kalin! You will have your mind blown when you read The Scar!

Allan wrote: "I read tons of Heinlein as a teenager (mid to late 70's) & loved it. Now when I read or re-read his books, they mostly seem stale and outdated. While I get much the same vibe from Anderson, I don't get it from Asimov. I feel like his stories have held up better."

I only have one data point but I agree with Allan, my worst book with this group was Glory Road and best The Gods Themselves.

This exercise helped me discover that I rarely participate in the monthly reads. Mostly its an issue with no library availability for the books we read. But if I'm honest, Heinlein turned me off to most older school SFF. I've read many of our monthly reads, but before and after this group read them - so they don't count.

Rebecca wrote: " I've read many of our monthly reads, but before and after this group read them - so they don't count.."

Of course they all count in terms of the spreadsheet. I only read about half the monthly reads, mainly because I've read them before, mostly in the last 4 years. The ones I do read I rarely read on time. I'm still trying to finish June's book, Sirius, and I'm finding it soooo slow. But then I've read both of June's and both of July's books, so it gives me some time.

I'm on the same road as Rebecca. I actually can't say which books I read with the monthly reads. I was putting a hold on spending money on books this year, so my reads have been more a case of audiobook availability than group votes.