Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

We still have a few books (and, for some, the remainder of the Dragonriders of Pern challenge) remaining this year, but we have arrived at December, which means the month to take stock and reflect on what we've read over the past year!

Allan normally creates these threads but he has some personal stuff going on so I'm posting, just to get the ball rolling.

Please share with us what you read in our group this year, and let us know what books would take the spot in the below categories:

The novel you enjoyed most
The book that made you think the most
The weirdest group read
Your favorite newly discovered author
Favorite sci-fi & fantasy
The book that exceeded your expectations
Your favorite protagonist & villain
The novel you'd like to re-read in the future
The most difficult read
The novel that failed to live up to its hype

In evaluating these questions each year, I’ve realized you can break it into 1) monthly group reads; and 2) all your individual reads. I’ve generally done both, but just something to think about.

You're right, Allan. Some of my answers tend to take me outside of the group reads, although this year I've read more from our list than any previous year -- my speed or progress is accelerating!

I'll start since everyone seems shy. :)

This year, for our group, I managed to finish:
Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin
Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
Jade City by Fonda Lee
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (catch-up)
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear (catch-up)
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany (catch-up)
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
Uprooted by Naomi Novik

(I'm still hoping to finish Dragonquest, The White Dragon, Dying of the Light, and Invisible Cities before year's end.)

I'll mark (1) for group reads, and (2) for books read otherwise.

The novel you enjoyed most
(1) Powers, for sure. It's a masterpiece (alongside many other Le Guin masterpieces).
(2) Nona the Ninth. I devour these - no soul-eating puns intended. If I have my way this will be joining our H/N list as of next year!

The book that made you think the most
(1) Toss-up between Three-Body Problem & Too Like the Lightning: 3BP for strange physics, the history of communist China, and the threat of first contact. TLTL for interesting thought experiments in the evolution of social structures and political systems.

The weirdest group read
(1) Babel-17; but not in a good way. It had way too many weird ideas crammed into a relatively short page count. None of them really combined to form a coherent whole.

Your favorite newly discovered author
(1) Probably Catherynne M. Valente. I read Space Opera, which was fun but sometimes overbearingly try-hard on the comedy. But I also read The Past is Red, which was genius, and some other shorter works by her. She is a brilliant wordsmith, and I'm excited to read more by her.
(2) Bo-Young Kim. A Korean speculative fiction author (mostly of shorter fiction) with a few story collections released over the past few years in English. Definitely worth checking out.

Favorite sci-fi & fantasy
(1) Three-Body Problem for sci-fi; Powers for fantasy.
(2) Nona the Ninth is science fantasy, so I'll count it for both.

The book that exceeded your expectations
(1) Three-Body Problem. I'd heard so many conflicting things about this book, but some of the main criticism is that it's stilted and the characters don't feel real. I didn't end up resonating with that criticism as much as I expected to, rather than the praise and adoration it gets from other quarters.
(2) Sinopticon: A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction; generally anthologies don't hold as much interest for me, but this one was expertly translated, edited, and contextualized by the editor, Xueting C. Ni.

Your favorite protagonist & villain
(1) Mycroft Canner, the protagonist of Too Like the Lightning; for being so unwieldy and strange and packed with surprises (and for never shutting up about his narration choices). The Wood from Uprooted for villain. I love nonhuman antagonists, and a twisted, corrupted forest of doom is the epitome of Nature-as-Danger.
(2) N.O.N.A. Nona. And yes, I realize we are annoying to those of you who don't like these books.

The novel you'd like to re-read in the future
(1) Too Like the Lightning -- I'm sure this would benefit from a re-read after having completed the series.
(2) Saga & Monstress. The great tragedy of graphic novels is that they take so much work to create but readers go through them so quickly. Saga especially I want to re-read again and again. Monstress mostly just because every time I read it I'm like "wtf is going on?" and maybe with a reread it will make more sense.

The most difficult read
(1) Too Like the Lightning. Generally considered a "difficult" novel of ideas. I didn't feel like it was challenging, but upon looking back at my year in reading, it definitely took my the longest to work my way through, and there were so many layers and so much going on that yes, it was the most difficult of the year for me.

The novel that failed to live up to its hype
(1) Babel-17. Talked about as a classic of new wave SF, I was really hoping for a well-considered use of linguistics in a science fictional setting. Instead I got quasi telepathy (a 1960s SF obsession if there ever was one) and a whole bunch of extraneous worldbuilding.

Books read with the group:

The Death of the Necromancer - Martha Wells
The Year of the Quiet Sun - Wilson Tucker
Inverted World - Christopher Priest
The Wanderer - Fritz Leiber
Too Like the Lightning - Ada Palmer
The Long Tomorrow - Leigh Brackett
The Wild Shore - Kim Stanley Robinson

I intend to read Invisible Cities and Mockingbird. Also possibly Ragnarok,Zoo Station and X-Ray for the alphabet challenge.

Novel enjoyed most: from the seven listed above, probably The Long Tomorrow. From other genre reading I particularly enjoyed The Witness for the Dead (reread) and The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison.

Weirdest: Inverted World

Newly discovered author: no exciting new-to-me author comes to mind.

Book that exceeded expectations: probably The Wanderer. I think I tend to have a high tolerance for 1960s oddities. Also, a nongroup nonfiction work: Supreme Ambition: Brett Kavanaugh and the Conservative Takeover by Ruth Marcus. Really first rate high-end journalism.

Favourite protagonist & villain: The young protagonist of The Long Tomorrow, and Celehar, the Witness for the Dead in Addison’s books, would likely be the most sympathetic. For villains, I don’t know.

Novel you’d like to reread: not sure there’s any. This was my second read of Too Like the Lightning and I need to finish the series.

Most difficult. Too Like the Lightning. There’s just so much going on.

Novel that failed to live up to its hype: I don’t think I read anything with a great reputation that disappointed, and I didn’t read much new stuff this year. Relative disappointments were Wilson Tucker’s The Lincoln Hunters, a ‘50s time travel story that didn’t do much for me, and Stapledon’s Star Maker, which is great but didn’t quite live up to my memories of Last and First Men from 40 years ago.

I read/reread a lot of Tolkien this year, which doesn’t fit into this format but I thought I’d mention it. Next year I’ll start the 3-volume hardcover edition of the 12-book History of Middle Earth.

Kalin wrote: "You're right, Allan. Some of my answers tend to take me outside of the group reads, although this year I've read more from our list than any previous year -- my speed or progress is accelerating!
..."

That's a solid accomplishment, congrats! As always, I tend to agree with your comments. Any LeGuin, even if YA-ish, is always superb. Babel-17 was total gibberish to me.

I haven't tackled the Gideon the Ninth series yet, but I do plan to get around to it.

Group reads finished:
Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents
The Killing Moon
The Female Man
Space Opera
The Death of the Necromancer
Sirius
The Wild Shore
Dragonflight & Dragonquest

Too Like the Lightning & The White Dragon in progress. Hope to finish those in December. 13 of the group reads I had read before, so I skipped all of those except Uprooted, which I am re-reading. That just leaves The Wanderer, which I won't get to now.

Novel enjoyed most
Among group reads, the Earthseed novels. Very different from what I expected, dark & gritty as I like them. Non-group: Children of Time, that was spectacular.

Novel that made you think the most
Group read: Too Like the Lightning, if only that it's making me concentrate heavily (not the easiest thing for me). Non-group: The Ministry for the Future. I really liked that one and it suited the way my own mind works.

Weirdest read
Group read: The Female Man. Very strange & disappointing. Non-group: The Peripheral by William Gibson. Interesting enough that I'm going to have to re-read it to see if I can capture the plot better.

Newly discovered author
Group read: not newly discovered, but after The Ministry for the Future & The Wild Shore, I want to take on his that I haven't read. I might even re-read Mars. Non-group: Jane Yolen. I read Briar Rose & thought it was excellent. She has a few on the H/N list.

Favorite SF and Fantasy
Group read: Earthseed & Uprooted. Non-group: toss-up between Children of Time & The Ministry for the Future. Fantasy: Spinning Silver.

Exceeded your expectations
Group read: Earthseed. Non-group: Bag of Bones by Stephen King. Hadn't read much King in recent years & this one looked daunting, but the ending was very intense as the story comes together.

Favorite protagonist/villain
Group read: Sirius, the dog. The Frankenstein of the canine world. No villain. Non-group: Geralt & the crew of the Rocinante (The Expanse, which had its finale this year). The malevolent presence in Bag of Bones was good.

Novel to re-read
I don't re-read much, although here I am doing a few in December. Group read: The Handmaid's Tale. Non-group: The Peripheral.

Most difficult to read
Group read: Too Like the Lightning. Non-group: The Peripheral.

Novel that didn't live up to the hype
Group read: The Female Man. Non-group: Everfair by Nisi Shawl. Great ideas but poor execution.

Best non-fiction read
I add this category to get some good suggestions TBR. Best I think was Godforsaken Grapes: A Slightly Tipsy Journey through the World of Strange, Obscure, and Underappreciated Wine, with The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York (a re-read) not far behind. Also good was Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain, though very sad.

Allan wrote: "Newly discovered author
Group read: not newly discovered, but after The Ministry for the Future & The Wild Shore, I want to take on his that I haven't read. I might even re-read Mars."

I've been collecting first editions of KSR novels and have almost all of them now, but not Wild Shore so I didn't read that with the group. But I would love to tackle more KSR in 2023 -- I *really* want to finish Blue Mars, but I've been waiting for a group read for it. There's also 2312 and New York 2140, which becomes eligible to nominate again this coming year.

I am also an enthusiastic fan of KSR. I’m not in a hurry to reread the Mars trilogy, with so many of his other books still to read, but I would probably be on board with almost any group read of his work.

I'll list novels from both group reads and outside

The novel you enjoyed most
1632 by Eric Flint from recent reads, story collection Maps of the Edge by Ian Creasey, and Ukrainian (there is a translation) - Інтернат / The Orphanage by Serhiy Zhadan
The book that made you think the most
I guess one of non-fic, maybe Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. Among SFF possibly Too Like the Lightning (but it was a re-read)
The weirdest group read
Invisible Cities
Your favorite newly discovered author
Eric Flint
Favorite sci-fi & fantasy
surprisingly good Polish fantasy award nominee Wszystko pochłonie morze
The book that exceeded your expectations
1632
More later
Your favorite protagonist & villain
The novel you'd like to re-read in the future
The most difficult read
The novel that failed to live up to its hype

Kalin wrote: " I *really* want to finish Blue Mars, but I've been waiting for a group read for it. There's also 2312 and New York 2140, which becomes eligible to nominate again this coming year...."

Like you, I only have Blue Mars to go in the trilogy. But for me it's been close to 20 years since I read Red Mars, so reading them again in succession might be ok for me. I read New York 2140 but still have to read 2312. He also wrote the trilogy Green Earth that I have on my shelf, and some more recent books.

I only finished seven books for our group this year so far:
- Parable of the Sower
- Parable of Talents
- Inverted World
- Cloud Atlas (for the catch-up month)
- Female Man
- The Wanderer
- Dying Inside
- And right now I'm reading Invisible Cities.

The novel you enjoyed most:
1) This one is super easy: Parable of the Sower. It went right to my Top Ten Favorite SF Books of All Time. It was simply so good on every level.
2) The Devourers by Indra Das. It was a heartbreakingly beautiful queer shapeshifter story, and it made quire an impact with me.

The book that made you think the most:
1) Most likely The Inverted World, trying to figure out how the weird inverted physics of the world actually worked.
2) Some non-fiction book, most likely The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes. It was an audacious book making extremely bold claims on the flimsiest of evidence, and I devoured it. "Bullshit, but I believe it", as the meme goes.

The weirdest group read:
Female Man. It was peak 70's feminist New Wave, and thus weirdness was guaranteed.

Your favorite newly discovered author:
1) Octavia Butler. I hadn't read any of her works previously (for shame! But now I've luckily remedied that lapse in judgment!)
2) It's either Indra Das or Emily St. John Mandel, but since The Sea of Tranquility was such a letdown, I'm going with Das.

Favorite sci-fi & fantasy:
1) I guess Invisible Cities is sort-of fantasy? In that case, is the only F book I've read with the group, so it will have to qualify. Favourite SF is naturally Parable of the Sower.
2) Favourite F was the aforementioned Devourers. Favourite SF was Station Eleven.

The book that exceeded your expectations:
1) Dying Inside. I had only read one book by Silverberg before, and that was New Wavey Nightwings. I expected more of the same, so I was positively surprised by this slice-of-life story about a slacker telepath.
2) A Psalm for the Wild-Built. I don't know how Becky Chambers can write such naively-sweet hopepunk novellas, and not make me hate them: indeed, I quite liked the Monk and the Robot books.

Your favorite protagonist & villain:
1) None of the books I read had very clear villain figures. I guess president Donner in Parable of Talents was one, so I'm pick him.
My favourite protagonist is Lauren Olamina of the Earthseed duology. She wasn't really a hero, but that makes her all the more nuanced as a protagonist.
2) Protagonist/villain: Juan in Our Share of Night. He did everything he could to protect his son, even if he became (more of) a monster in the process.
Villain/protagonist: Crake in Oryx and Crake. He wanted to make a better world, even if it meant killing every living human in the process.

The novel you'd like to re-read in the future:
1) Parable of the Sower, for sure.
2) Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Now there's a book that doesn't reveal everything about itself with one read.

The most difficult read:
1) Parable of the Talents. The concentration camp scenes were brutal.
2) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. This is post-modernism at it's most difficult setting. Infinite Jest was baby level stuff compared to this.

The novel that failed to live up to its hype:
1) The Wanderer. How could a novel this bad ever win a Hugo?
2) Sea of Tranquility, like I hinted earlier. Station Eleven was wonderful, Glass Hotel very good, but the third book by St. John Mandel was such a disappointment.

Antti wrote: "Your favorite newly discovered author:
1) Octavia Butler. I hadn't read any of her works previously (for shame! But now I've luckily remedied that lapse in judgment!)."

I've 'discovered' her works for myself a few years back and when I first read Talents I was very impressed (much more than by her Kindred, which according to some critics was her best, so maybe with high expectations I was a little put down by it). I plan to re-read both Talents but they are so emotionally raw that I cannot do it now. Her Xenogenesis trilogy, starting with Dawn is also quite strong (at least the first book)

Antti wrote: "2) The Devourers by Indra Das. It was a heartbreakingly beautiful queer shapeshifter story, and it made quire an impact with me."

I'm glad a book from our translation group had such an impact! I didn't actually manage to tackle this one for lack of time, but I'm going to keep it on my long-term TBR.

And yeah, Butler is just amazing. Her works will be with us for a long time, I think. Lillith's Brood (Xenogenesis) and Seed to Harvest are both some of my favourite books of all time. Both should have had nominations, IMO.

Now I am interested in The Devourers by Indra Das--on the list! Thanks! BBL with my list

Kateblue wrote: "Now I am interested in The Devourers by Indra Das--on the list! Thanks! BBL with my list"

It was my most surprising reads this year as well. I hope you like it and share your thoughts!

I wasn't going to post my answers for these questions because I don't usually read the monthly books with you and mainly participate in the challenges and see what books you all keep mentioned time and time again :) This year I might have enough H/N reads to fill this out! So let's see:

Books read with this group (3): Invisible Cities, The Lathe of Heaven, and Too Like the Lightning (I had previously read Uprooted, Jade City, The City we Became, Space Opera, Parable of the Talents and Sower)

Books read from the group's shelf this year (14!): The Dragon Reborn, The Song of Achilles, Silver in the Wood and Drowned Country, Bellwether, The Left Hand of Darkness, One Day All This Will Be Yours, and 7 Vorkosigan Saga books.

The novel you enjoyed most
1) Cetaganda (because Borders of Infinity isn't really a novel)
2) How High We Go in the Dark

The book that made you think the most
1) The Left Hand of Darkness and Borders of Infinity
2) The Past is Red and The Dispatcher

The weirdest group read is Ethan of Athos (in a good way), I tend to avoid actually weird group reads because I read your comments before deciding to go ahead.

Your favorite newly discovered author
1) LMB
2) AT

Favorite sci-fi & fantasy
1) Borders of Infinity and Silver in the Wood
2) The Exiled Fleet (The Divide, #2) and The Spear Cuts Through Water

The book that exceeded your expectations
1) Shards of Honor, I thought it might be like the Wheel of Time, which was really hard to get into and enjoy, but it most certainly was not!
2) The Devourers and How High We Go in the Dark

The most difficult read
1) Too Like the Lightning
2) The Tower of Swallows (The Witcher, #4), had to DNF

The novel that failed to live up to its hype
1) The Song of Achilles
2) A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking

Wow, long post 😅

Rebecca wrote: "I wasn't going to post my answers for these questions because I don't usually read the monthly books with you and mainly participate in the challenges and see what books you all keep mentioned time..."

The Wheel of Time, of course, is never ending, since it is a wheel! It's tough to get through & has a lot of darkness. Vorkosigan is a whole different animal. Though long, is much easier to read because of its humor and well-plotted silliness.

The Left Hand of Darkness. One of my all-time favorites, the one SF book I give copies of to friends. Anything LeGuin is top end.

Allan wrote: "Anything LeGuin is top end.

While in general I agree wholeheartedly, I can't endorse the "anything" part: I found the first Hain novels (Rocannon's World and Planet of Exile) only so-so.

Antti wrote: "While in general I agree wholeheartedly, I can't endorse the "anything" part: ."

I agree but I haven't read an author whose any and every book was great.

Antti wrote: "Allan wrote: "Anything LeGuin is top end.

While in general I agree wholeheartedly, I can't endorse the "anything" part: I found the first Hain novels (Rocannon's World and [book:Plane..."

True, her first novels. I was exaggerating, but a high % of her stuff is excellent.

I am kind of partial to Ursula K LeGuin. I lived in Portland Oregon as well for 11 years. In college in California, although a history major, I took several courses in anthropology and as such we referred to her fathers work at the University of California. Wish I still had all my notes but I have moved so many times those have long ago been let go.

Agreed, Wheel of Time will have to be something I pick back up again once I’m in the mood. There are too many other, more enticing things to read! I do hope to read more Le Guin next year. Assuming I’ll need to read Rocannons to get the whole world building for the Hanish Cycle?

It’s been a long time, but I think those early Le Guin books are well worth reading.

Rebecca wrote: "I do hope to read more Le Guin next year. Assuming I'll need to read Rocannons to get the whole word building for the Hainish Cycle?"

Not necessarily, and I bet you've already read Hainish novels without knowing it. The so-called "Hainish Cycle" is a disparate bunch of novels & stories that develop in various human colonies founded by the oldest humans, the Hainish people. LeGuin herself discounted the idea of the cycle, writing on her website that "The thing is, they aren't a cycle or a saga. They do not form a coherent history. There are some clear connections among them, yes, but also some extremely murky ones." It's one universe, but stories take place on different planets with no interconnected characters, I don't believe.

The first three Hainish novels are Rocannon's World (her debut), Planet of Exile & City of Illusions. They're mid-60's, so short & pretty old school, with aspects of heroic fiction, but with LeGuin's trademark anthropological interests. I think they may be the most closely related of the bunch, with some reference to a League of All Worlds. There is an omnibus edition with all three of these.

The Left Hand of Darkness is the 4th book, followed by The Word for World Is Forest & The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia. The Telling is also part of it.

There are also a lot of short Hainish stories spread throughout Le Guin's short story collections which you aren't likely to read in any particular order. Like Allan said, there is no order to the Hainish cycle. Read as you come across them! They are all great, I think even the early ones are great too, if not as thematically rich as the later ones. City of Illusions is the best of the first three, IMO.

The Earthsea books require more so that you read in order.