263 thoughts on “2018 Hugo Award Finalists”

1. @JJ: It’s the infinite scrolling trick. I think that once you’ve got that, you can put anything in it. But I’m still learning web design so I might be missing something.

2. Much stuff to reply to, I’ll try to be brief in the time I have…

   @JJ. I personally haven’t “somehow created an exception” for Mike; the FAAn awards for ‘Best Website’ has been given since 2008.
   @Xtifer. A pdf is a fixed file easily sent and printed, a website isn’t.
   @Tom Becker: I tend to agree with Mike that form is not necessarily an indicator of excellence in design (or anything else) – I don’t think there’s a direct correlation.

   In general, it seems that the FAAns are getting criticized for not being like the (Fan) Hugos, and vice versa (some mea culpa there, surely?). I’d suggest that voter interest and engagement in each case flows from the definition of “fanzine”, which the Hugos have as broad as possible and the FAAns have defined much more restrictively. Each primarily caters to a different constituency, perhaps, and that’s all right, though as in my initial post it’s interesting to observe the differences.
   An analogy might be going into an Italian restaurant and complaining there’s no sushi.
   I look forward to resuming this discussion when the FAAn award results are announced (in just over a month).
   (Note @Mike: I can, of course, give you a heads-up on those whenever you think it appropriate. There will be a “results issue” of The Incompleat Register including discussion on possible changes for next year.)

3. @Nic Farey if Filers wander in to the FAAn winner announcement to write jargonistic walls o’text undermining their legitimacy and questioning their worth, I’ll be every bit as unimpressed with them as I have been with your contributions on this thread :/

4. Nic Farey: In general, it seems that the FAAns are getting criticized for not being like the (Fan) Hugos

   No. You’re trying to pretend that this has been a reciprocal activity. In fact, what keeps happening is that older fen like you, John Hertz, and Andrew Porter (among others, you’re far from the only ones) keep coming here to File 770 and complaining that the Hugos are not recognizing Real Fan Writers, Real Fan Artists, and Real Fanzines.

   I put that down to the fact that you are all so involved in your own fan community that you don’t realize that File 770 is not just a website which posts news items every day. In the last 3 years it has become a real community — one which is just as valid as your FAAN community — with many people who have come to know each other quite well, who converse with each other several times a week if not every day, who have shared not only their loves and hates regarding SFF works, but who have shared pieces of their personal lives with each other: wins, losses, hopes, dreams, job triumphs and setbacks, illnesses, operations, births, and deaths. Many of us communicate with each other privately by e-mail, and on Twitter and Facebook. We’ve met up with each other in real life — at Worldcons and other cons, and when we visit cities and countries where other Filers live.

   What you have done in this thread is, as Arifel has pointed out, the equivalent of Filers writing letters to your fanzines and the FAAN awards, telling you that what you enjoy and honor are not Real Fan Writers, Real Fan Artists, or Real Fanzines. And no one has been doing that. The criticism is all coming from one direction: yours.

5. I’ll get me coat, then…

6. @Nicholas Whyte: For Five Gods, I would strongly recommend starting with either the first or second novel (The Curse of Chalion or Paladin of Souls). I enjoyed most of the Penric stories very much, but I wouldn’t have nominated the series for a Hugo based on them alone. For Divine Cities, I agree with Kendall that the first book is the best place to start. If you don’t like it enough to go on, I think that’s all the information you need.

7. Nicholas Whyte on April 1, 2018 at 10:11 pm said:

   What I did last year for the series I didn’t know was to get the single volume with the highest rating on Goodreads and LibraryThing, read it and see to what extent that whetted my appetite for more.
   >snip<
   World of the Five Gods: the third Penric story, Penric’s Mission, has the highest rating on LibraryThing, but the sixth and most recent, The Prisoner of Limnos, has the highest rating on Goodreads.

   I can’t speak to the other series, as I have them to look forward to, but for this series I would not recommend staring with Prisoner of Limnos.

   For World of Five Gods, I’d recommend starting with either Curse of Chalion or Paladin of Souls (Paladin is possibly the best book Bujold has ever written, IMO, and you can understand it without reading Curse first, but it will spoil the heck out of Curse if you do.) Then, if you are trying to read the fewest stories to get an overall flavor, I’d recommend either Penric’s Demon or Penric’s Mission.

   ETA: Come to think, to get the most out of the Penric books, Paladin would be the best book to read if you are only going to read one of the earlier books.

8. Weirdly, if I were voting this year, Best Series would be the one I’m most prepared for in advance. I’ve read the whole of most of those series, and enough books in the remaining ones to know how I feel about them. And there are a lot of categories where I’ve read/seen/heard exactly 0 entries (novelette, short story, related work, graphic story, fancast …)

   I guess I like series.

9. @Linda S & @Nicholas Whyte: I may be in the minority, but in some ways I loved the first “Divine Cities” book best. I’m sure some or a lot of this is due to the newness of it all. I’d probably rank them 1st as best, 3rd as second best, then 2nd as third best, but with the understanding that my in-series rankings of them are very close. 😉 I loved them all!

   This is probably another reason I go, “Wait, start with book 1!”

10. @ULTRAGOTHA & @Nicholas Whyte: I started with the Penric & Desdemona novellas but haven’t read the novels yet. So to me, the P&D novellas are a fine place to start! 🙂 Granting I may be missing world building, or the novels may be even better than the novellas (which I enjoyed a lot).

    To me, the problem starting with “The Prisoner of Limnos” is that it’s the third entry in a sub-sub-series. The P&D sub-series of novellas stood alone fine for me. But within them, #4-#6 (Mission, Mira, Limnos) is one story; each basically picks up right where the previous one left off. They’re very closely connected; Limnos arguably a smidge less so, but only a smidge, IMHO. It’d be like picking up a novel and starting halfway through (with the last quarter not yet published). Starting with this sub-sub-series, I strongly recommend “Penric’s Mission” over “The Prisoner of Limnos.” And you don’t even need to read Shaman or Fox, starting with Mission.

    The previous three (Demon, Shaman, & Fox) stand alone a little better. I’d still read Shaman before Fox, since Fox spoils a bit of Shaman, but one could start with Shaman, methinks, then pick up “Penric’s Demon” as if a prequel, later on, if you enjoyed Shaman. Shaman+Fox are more loosely connected than Mission+Mira+Limnos (which is basically a story that’s not over quite yet), IMHO.

    Sorry to ramble. Just trying to articulate some issues with “The Prisoner of Limnos” as a starting point. Obviously, Nicholas, do what you like. 😉

11. @Kendall: I agree with your ranking of the Divine Cities books (1, 3, 2), but I also agree that all of them were very good. I was sorry none of them made the Best Novel ballot, and I’m glad to see them in Best Series.

12. @Nicholas —

    What everyone else said. And especially that highest rating in a series mostly only tells you at which point the fringe series fans were weeded out, leaving only the diehards — it doesn’t really tell you which book in the series was best.

    Also — IMHO ya gotta read book 1 of each series to get a good idea of the setup for that series. If you’re trying to maximize efficiency, personally I’d say read book 1 and then whichever is rated highest if you still feel like continuing. It’s absolutely true that the early books in a series are sometimes not representative of overall quality (Dresden, I’m looking at you), but book 1 will still give you the foundation and the flavor.

    And finally — don’t you dare read book 3 of the Divine Cities first! Nonononono, a thousand times no! That’s like my mom, who used to (when she was reading dead-tree books instead of audio) read the ends of mysteries first. Just Say No! ;-D

13. I just started my “official” reading for 2018 voting with JY Yang’s Black Tides of Heaven; the first couple chapters, at least, I’ve enjoyed.

    As it happens, I already own most of the novels and several of the novellas, so I’ll probably work my way through them as I wait to see what’s included in the packet. (And before I read Stone Sky, I do have to go back and read Obelisk Gate, which I never got to last year.)

    For series, I’ve read at least bits & bobs of three of them — Raksura, InCryptid and Five Gods. Not quite sure how much additional I’m going to be able to fit in — I’ve had my eye on the Divine Cities books for quite a while now, and enjoyed RJB’s previous novels, so I’ll probably try to squeeze them in, and at least a few of the Lady Trent. The Sanderson just seems kind of — exhausting to contemplate, although I’m sure they’re good books. But I’m pretty sure every single installment is large enough for a best-series nomination if it had been published in parts …

14. I haven’t read a lot of the series nominees this year. Coincidentally, series is one of the few categories where none of my nominees made it (and I nominated some very popular series), so apparently my tastes are very much out of step with the rest of the Hugo nominators.

    The World of Five Gods is the only series I’ve read in full. I’ve read and liked two of the InCryptid books, but totally missed that the series is up to seven now. I read the first Raksura book, liked it, but again didn’t read the rest. Lady Trent, Divine Cities and Stormlight Archives I haven’t read at all, either because the author or the premise don’t do much for me.

15. Is InCryptid open-ended?

    We have three (Raksura, Lady Trent and Divine Cities) which are complete, one (Five Gods) which is effectively open-ended, even if the author plans to stop somewhere, since the books don’t actually form a sequence, and one (Stormlight) which is completable but incomplete, which I agree with everyone doesn’t really make sense for this award. I guess we have to pretend it is open-ended, and judge it for its worldbuilding and characters, and the localised plots. Is that possible, or does it not make sense without the arc?

16. InCryptid is the story of the adventures of a specific family who (this isn’t really a spoiler; it’s made clear right away) is trying to save “monsters” (cryptids, like, say, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster) from extermination and extinction, versus another group of humans who are equally bent on destroying them, while the bulk of humanity doesn’t notice that the “monsters” exist at all. The first few books are from one person’s point of view, then the next couple have moved to another family member. They’re open-ended but there’s a definite story arc; decisions made in one book have real consequences in another.

    There’s no obvious sign that the overall story arc will end any time soon, but I don’t know what Seanan McGuire has planned. And I haven’t yet read the latest; it’s next up on Mount TBR.

    (Oh, and there are some real laugh-out-loud bits, in amongst the action-adventure; the Aeslin Mice are a treasure….)

17. @Cassy B: Thanks for summarizing the “InCryptic” series. That sounds interesting/fun. 🙂

18. There is definitely forward movement in the later InCryptid books; at the end of the 7th there are some broken eggs that can’t be put back together. (Deliberately cryptic to avoid spoilers.) But there’s no more sign of a conclusion than in the Toby Daye books.

19. @Tom Becker: Thanks for the link. It doesn’t wow me, and is gimmicky or actually distracts me from the reading experience. But now I know what you mean, so that’s good.

20. @Kendall: As much as I like Penric, I think The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls are two of the best books Bujold has ever written, and that’s saying a lot.

21. Regarding InCryptid: my feeling was that, if it’s open-ended, it’s fair to vote on the basis of a sample, because all there is, and perhaps all there ever will be, is effectively a sample. Whereas if it’s a story proceeding towards an end, then in principle perhaps one should read all of it, though in practice, if it has ten volumes, that isn’t going to happen.

22. @David Goldfarb: I just started re-reading Curse of Chalion for nighttime reading, and had an oh wow moment because I had forgotten how awesome it is.

23. @David Goldfarb: Wow, that is high praise! And a good reason (though presumably longer) to start there instead of with Penric (which is all I’ve read so far, so all I could comment on – whether or not it works as a starting point). Thanks.

    I just realized the pre-Penric novels aren’t actually on my list to get, though when the series comes up, I keep thinking, “Oh yeah, I need to get those.” ::goes off to fix this flaw in my list::

24. @Kendall —

    Oh yeah, ya gotta read Paladin and Chalion. You can skip Hallowed Hunt. 🙂

25. I’m sorta with Contrarius; The Hallowed Hunt was neither as good as the books that preceded it, nor as bad as its worst critics made it out to be, but while I found it solid work, it isn’t essential reading unless you’re a completist.

26. Huh, I’m going to go against the grain here and say that while I think the average quality of the Five Gods books is much higher than the average quality of the Vorkosigan books, I don’t think its peaks rise as high. Bujold is definitely a better writer than she used to be, but the series still lacks a knock-my-socks-off book like either Mirror Dance or A Civil Campaign, which remain my two favorite books of hers. But Chalion is a very close third. I also liked Hallowed Hunt a lot more than a lot of people seem to. I’d rank it above most of the Vorkosigan books.
    —-
    I’m a little underwhelmed by the Novel options. Of the ones I’ve read, I think The Stone Sky is my favorite, but I didn’t like it anywhere near as much as its predecessors. The Scalzi is not standalone, and I didn’t think there was quite enough “there” there to justify calling it the best of the year. The Lee was decent, but not really my cuppa. Of the remainder, I find Robinson hit-or-miss in general, and I know little about the Lafferty. I think I have my hopes hung on Leckie for now.

27. @Xtifr

    Yeah, although the Scalzi was a fun read it wasn’t sufficiently standalone for me to nominate it. I’m pretty sure I’m going to enjoy the series though, and maybe I’ll be nominating it for Series in the future.

28. @Lenora —

    I’m sorta with Contrarius.

    Yeah, let’s just say that I’m planning to read Paladin and Chalion again to make sure my memory is refreshed, even though I’ve read each of them two or three times already, but I probably won’t bother rereading Hallowed Hunt. 😉

29. In the novels, I’m really pleased about Six Wakes, and will probably be ranking that first. I didn’t originally think that Provenance was that strong compared to Ancillary Justice (granted, that’s an awfully high bar to clear) — but I did a rare re-read last week of it and felt that it held up really well on the second pass.

    I did not love the earlier Broken Earth and Machineries of Empire novels (despite having loved the Inheritance Trilogy and the Dreamblood Duology). I’m dreading having to pick up the sequels, but I am at least going to give them a try.

    KSR has 2 strikes with me. If he doesn’t pull it out with NY2140, I’m probably done with his work. I had a goal of reading all of the Hugo Finalists, so I may try Red Mars at some point, but I’ve kind of gotten over having to force myself to read books which I don’t enjoy, given that there are more books that I will enjoy than I can finish in what’s left of my lifetime.

30. @Mark: Yeah, if Scalzi can maintain the quality through the sequels, I think it could easily end up being his best series yet.

    @JJ: I already had given up on KSR, but then I found a copy of The Years of Rice and Salt in our local free library, and figured I could give him one more chance. That was three days ago, and I haven’t given up on it yet. So, he’s back on my willing-to-try-it list, at least for now.

31. @Xfiltr: I liked quite a bit of KSR’s earlier works, like the California trilogy and A Memory of Whiteness (a very philosophical work with loose connections to 2312 and Galileo’s Dream). Haven’t read too much of the later work (except for the two just mentioned).

32. @JJ —

    Oooo, we’re gonna have very different ballots, even though a lot of the time I think you and I have similar tastes.

    In the novels, I’m really pleased about Six Wakes

    Ehh. I will admit that I have a strong pet peeve against the interpretation of “immortality” as presented in this book (and in Altered Carbon, and so on), so this started out with a huge strike against it in my book. Aside from that, I wasn’t all that thrilled. But I know it has been very popular! I’ll probably reread it to see if it grows on me.

    I didn’t originally think that Provenance was that strong

    I thought Provenance was a lot of fun, but not terribly deep.

    As for the Scalzi, I thought it had some good ideas, but I reaaaaally got tired of being buried under all that bitter snark. If he could lighten up a bit, I’d enjoy the sequels more.

    I did not love the earlier Broken Earth and Machineries of Empire novels (despite having loved the Inheritance Trilogy and the Dreamblood Duology)

    Now, see, several years ago I started 100,000 Kingdoms and dnfed it. But I’m incredibly impressed by the Broken Earth books, even though they are sooooooooooo depressing.

    At this point I think I’ll probably put Stone Sky first, followed by Raven Stratagem. We Shall See.

    KSR has 2 strikes with me.

    I’ve only tried one of his so far — Red Mars. I found it deadly dull boring, and finally gave up after 5 or 10 hours (I forget now). I too will try NY2140, but if it’s as dull as Mars, I may well not be finishing it. Fortunately, it’s the only novel nominee I haven’t read already.

    I just started Way of Kings last night (audio version). Not all that thrilled so far, but I’m not tossing the iPhone across the room yet, either.

33. @Contrarius, @Lenora Rose, @Xtifr, et al.: Thanks for the comments about the “World of Five Gods” novels!

34. Xtifr on April 3, 2018 at 11:09 am said:

    Huh, I’m going to go against the grain here and say that while I think the average quality of the Five Gods books is much higher than the average quality of the Vorkosigan books, I don’t think its peaks rise as high. Bujold is definitely a better writer than she used to be, but the series still lacks a knock-my-socks-off book like either Mirror Dance or A Civil Campaign, which remain my two favorite books of hers. But Chalion is a very close third. I also liked Hallowed Hunt a lot more than a lot of people seem to. I’d rank it above most of the Vorkosigan books.

    I think Bujold’s pinnacles are Memory and Paladin of Souls. I also think The Hallowed Hunt is underrated by many (including me the first time I read it). The lovely thing about Bujold is that every time you re-read one of her books, you get a better book.

    If I was pinned against a wall and forced to choose whether Vorkosigan or Five Gods were the better series, I’d probably go with Vorkosigan because there are SO MANY different styles of books. Social Commentary, Straight SF, Space Opera, Romance, Caper, Mystery, Screwball Comedy, and death itself. But it would be a very hard choice. Her writing in Five Gods is amazing.

35. @Ultragotha —

    If I was pinned against a wall and forced to choose whether Vorkosigan or Five Gods were the better series, I’d probably go with Vorkosigan

    Yeah, and Vorkosigan feels more like a series. Which is one problem with voting the Five Gods books as best series — although they’re all in the same universe, they don’t share any characters until the Penric novellas, and they don’t especially feel series-like to me until Penric comes along.

    OTOH, it would be extremely cool to have LMB win two years running.

    But OTThirdH, maybe she’s got enough Hugos already?

36. I’m going to have a LOT of reading ahead of me to give the other series a try. Thank goodness I have two 5-hour plane flights in my near future. Five Gods definately has an edge on my voting but I’ve changed my minds on beloved books before now. (Anatham in 2009 just blew me away from out of the blue. Wow, what a book. “Graveyard Book? What’s a Graveyard Book?”)

37. Contrarius: OTOH, it would be extremely cool to have LMB win two years running.

    Yeah, nah, much as I love Bujold and her books, there are a lot of fantastic series out there, and I would prefer to spread the love around. And I can honestly put The Divine Cities first on my ballot without even worrying about that, because I think that it’s just as good as the Five Gods books — and it’s completed, whereas the Penric books are not.

    Fortunately, my library has the 5+2 Raksura books and the 5 Lady Trent books in e-book form. They only have the Incryptid in hardcopy, which I don’t mind — but they don’t have the Stormlight books in e-book form, and I’m really not wanting to read those mammoth books in hardcopy. Hopefully, Tor will be willing to put those in the Hugo packet (and hopefully DAW will be willing to put all of the Incryptid books in the packet as well).

38. @Contrarius: “Vorkosigan feels more like a series. Which is one problem with voting the Five Gods books as best series . . .”

    Meh, I’m okay with that, under the terms of the category. I could change my mind next year for some other series – I won’t swear consistency here.

    “But OTThirdH, maybe she’s got enough Hugos already?”

    I try not to think like that. Variety is good, but I plan to vote for the one I feel is best. But if it’s a tie on my personal ballot, or if I’m waffling a lot (“today X, tomorrow I’d pick Y, the next day I’d pick X again” kinda thing), then I can see using that to break the tie. Just speaking for me.

    On the fourth paw, or whatever we’re up to now, I must sorta echo @JJ by saying that for me, “Divine Cities” is the one to beat, so far.

    You know, till I read the “World of Five Gods” novels and go OMGWTFBBQ on it, of course. 😛

    In other news, I got a comment e-mail, but not all of them. Ugh.

39. @Xtifr: you liked …Salt? I thought that was the worst of his books (that I’ve read) — every bit of possible life beaten out of the story(s) in order to keep to that stupid pattern.

    @JJ: I wouldn’t waste time on RGB Mars unless someone gives you an understanding/opening-wedge that feels like it could make them worthwhile; I slogged through all three roughly as they came out, and thought there were brilliant bits (I’m fond of tricksters who work out of something other than malice) amid a puddingy mass. A friend said he thought KSR lost control of the story — not unlike some views of GRRMartin now, although not at such length.

40. Contrarius and JJ: I’m a very big Bujold fan, and have read just about all the works in both series. However, my concern about Best Series is that it is simply going to pile more rewards on work voters have already recognized. If Bujold wins again, I think that deserves to put the stake through the heart of this Hugo category.

41. Mike Glyer: I’m a very big Bujold fan, and have read just about all the works in both series. However, my concern about Best Series is that it is simply going to pile more rewards on work voters have already recognized. If Bujold wins again, I think that deserves to put the stake through the heart of this Hugo category.

    I wouldn’t go quite that far, but I will admit that I was disappointed to see it among the Finalists this year, because I think that there are other great series like The Divine Cities where the individual books haven’t received much in the way of recognition and the series as a whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. The Penric books seem like an ongoing serial to me, and they have already received a fair amount of recognition — and the original trilogy received a huge amount of recognition when they were published.

    It will be interesting to see what’s on the longlist.

42. Is it a problem when the best series category keeps nominating series and authors that have already had plenty of individual recognition? Yes, it is, especially since I viewed the best series category as intended for those series which are great, even if individual volumes rarely get any Hugo attention. Examples would be the Dresden Files or Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson series or J.D. Robb’s In Death series or Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander or Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series, etc… However, such series don’t get nominated so far. Instead, we see many of the same nominees that made the long and shortlist individually before.

    I was actually quite happy with the first year of the best series award, since I had read all of the series at least partly and really didn’t like only one of them (and even that I placed above No award). This year, I’m not so happy, because I have never read three of the series and don’t have a great desire to do so, have partially read two, but wasn’t all that inspired to read more and have read only one series in full.

    Best series is also one of the few categories where not a single of my nominees made it (and I nominated several popular series), so I guess my tastes are just very out of step with those of the greater Hugo electorate.

43. @Mike —

    Contrarius and JJ: I’m a very big Bujold fan, and have read just about all the works in both series. However, my concern about Best Series is that it is simply going to pile more rewards on work voters have already recognized. If Bujold wins again, I think that deserves to put the stake through the heart of this Hugo category.

    Well, seeing as how these are the only two series LMB has written, we won’t have this particular problem again — unless she doesn’t win this year and gets nominated again next year, of course. 😉

    But I don’t really see a problem with recognizing both an individual book and a series containing that book. Doesn’t it sort of stand to reason that a “best” series would be likely to have some “best” books within it?

    @Cora —

    However, such series don’t get nominated so far.

    Of course they do. InCryptid hasn’t gotten any single-book prizes that I know of, and neither has Stormlight or Divine Cities or Lady Trent or Raksura. And I’m sure we’ll see Dresden on the list just as soon as the next Dresden book comes out — same with the Briggs and Andrews series (though personally I don’t like either of those nearly as much).

    I think we need to remember that this is a brand new award — it’ll take a few years to really figure out what it’s going to “mean” in the Big Picture.

    (And let’s see….. only one of my noms made it to the series list — and it wasn’t Five Gods! I don’t know why I didn’t have that on the list… hmmmm…. it might have been that “not really a coherent series” thing, or maybe I just forgot!)

44. But World of the Five Gods is the only series this year where individual entries have been Hugo finalists/winners. Divine Cities books have made longlist (and IIRC, City of Stairs was close enough to the shortlist to make a case for “would have made it in the universe with no puppies”). Looking at last year, obviously you have the Vorkosigans, but aside from that only the first Temeraire and Expanse books had made the Hugo novel shortlist in their respective years. While it’s early days (and we don’t know what happened with the Broken Earth, and whether it received enough votes for a nomination but Jemisin declined), I don’t think data from the last two years supports the idea that this is a best novel rehash yet.

    EDIT: Part ninja’d by Contrarius!

45. @Contrarius

    Of course they do. InCryptid hasn’t gotten any single-book prizes that I know of, and neither has Stormlight or Divine Cities or Lady Trent or Raksura. And I’m sure we’ll see Dresden on the list just as soon as the next Dresden book comes out — same with the Briggs and Andrews series (though personally I don’t like either of those nearly as much).

    I think we need to remember that this is a brand new award — it’ll take a few years to really figure out what it’s going to “mean” in the Big Picture.

    (And let’s see….. only one of my noms made it to the series list — and it wasn’t Five Gods! I don’t know why I didn’t have that on the list… hmmmm…. it might have been that “not really a coherent series” thing, or maybe I just forgot!)

    The Divine Cities was likely kept of the ballot by puppy shenangigans, but you’re right that InCryptid and Raksura and Stormlight and Lady Trent really never got any individual nominations. I suspect my problem is just that so much of this category is series I havent read and have no interest in or series where I read one or two books, but never any further.

    Currently, The World of the Five Gods is my personal frontrunner, though I didn’t nominate it, largely because I didn’t view it as a series (except for the Penric novellas).

46. @Chip Hitchcock: “Like” might be too strong for my feelings about Rice and Salt. It’s…better than I remembered Robinson being. But I can certainly see why you feel the way you do about it. It’s certainly very uneven. But so far, I’m willing to tolerate/skim the less interesting parts for the sake of the more interesting ones. We’ll see if I finish it or not… 🙂

    @Rest of the folks: Yeah, I also have mixed feelings at the thought of Bujold winning best series twice in a row. I do love her stuff, but it does seem a bit much. I have a couple of other nominees to investigate, but so far, I’m leaning toward putting InCryptid first–in part because humor doesn’t win enough awards, IMO.

    If The Expanse or the Laundry Files had made the ballot, my job would have been much easier. I know that Stross said he would decline if nominated this year, but I don’t know what happened with Franck & Abraham. Although releasing the latest novel in December probably didn’t help….

47. Contrarius: And I’m sure we’ll see Dresden on the list just as soon as the next Dresden book comes out

    That may depend on how many Hugo nominators feel the way I do — which is a deep and eternal resentment for being forced to slog through Skin Game, for which 80% of the nominations appeared to come from Puppies.

48. Xtifr: If The Expanse… had made the ballot, my job would have been much easier… I don’t know what happened with Franck & Abraham. Although releasing the latest novel in December probably didn’t help.

    I suspect it was one (or both) of two things: people chose not to nominate it for fear it would be ruled ineligible because it had technically been a finalist for the category last year and they would have wasted a ballot slot, or the Hugo Admins disqualified it because it has not had 240,000 new words since last year.

49. @Cora —

    I suspect my problem is just that so much of this category is series I havent read and have no interest in or series where I read one or two books, but never any further.

    Well, I have personally enjoyed both the Divine Cities and Raksura books very much — probably Divine Cities more, but then I’m faced with the problem that I don’t really think a trilogy counts as a series. Sigh. I’ve read two of the Lady Trent books, and they are enjoyable, but I’d place them third. I’ve read the first InCryptid, which I wasn’t all that thrilled with, but I’ll give it a chance with one or two more at least. And as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fangirl of some of the individual novels/vellas in the Five Gods, but it doesn’t really seem like a series to me because of the lack of carried-over characters. And then finally I’ve just started Stormlight, which I don’t have a good feel for yet.

    Currently, The World of the Five Gods is my personal frontrunner, though I didn’t nominate it, largely because I didn’t view it as a series (except for the Penric novellas).

    Yeah, I’m with ya on the lack-of-series-ness.

    @JJ —

    That may depend on how many Hugo nominators feel the way I do — which is a deep and eternal resentment for being forced to slog through Skin Game, for which 80% of the nominations appeared to come from Puppies.

    I’m a pretty rabid Dresden fan (some folks may remember that my avatar is a Harry Dresden Lego, and my user name was created on the Jim Butcher forums), and I don’t think it would be fair to blackball the series just because it got hijacked. I agree that Skin Game didn’t belong on the Best Novel list, but it wasn’t Harry Dresden’s fault OR Jim Butcher’s fault that it got there.

50. I have a very odd relationship to Kim Stanley Robinson’s work. I picked up the Mars trilogy from a co-worker and blew right through Red Mars and Green Mars. Absolutely loved them. Blue Mars is still sitting there, two or three years later. I’m satisfied with where the story left me.

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