Hugo 2024 - Best Novel

As is my habit, I am buying and reading all the novel finalists for this year's Hugo Awards.  This is how my ballot will line up.  

1. Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh [currently reading] - This book reflects the best of genre fiction.  It asks the reader to consider a great many presumed perspectives.  There is an underlying theme of asking people to listen to one another that I find powerful.  There are other themes in the book that I will challenge in a longer review of the book.  The fact that there are challenging themes is part of what makes this a great work.  The author has crafted compelling characters and circumstances that motivate the reader to continue reading despite some of the kookier ideas presented.  There are some serious identitarian themes presented in the book.  I think it is useful to point out that while another serious identitarian finalist was a hard DNF, this one is a hard "have to finish".
2. No Award
3. Starter Villain by John Scalzi - This one will get a 4-star review on Goodreads.  John Scalzi does what he does best.  He creates relatable characters in reasonably relatable circumstances that draw the reader into the story in a way that motivates you to finish the book.  The first quarter of the book is pretty much a normal person going through normal bad times slowly sliding into a "excuse me what do you mean by that!!??!" sort of world.  You are buckled in for the entire ride.  The book exhibits a lot of John's wit and humor and is quite fun to read.  I won't spoil a good reading experience, so go read it.  So why is this below "No Award"?  Because this is a lightweight story.  The ending is telegraphed early on.  There are multiple instances where any normal person would have acted differently and concluded the story faster.  Starter Villain is almost on par with books like Piers Anthony's "On A Pale Horse" and other entries in the Incarnations of Immortality series.  I recommend those books as well.  They are entertaining with several deep messages woven into the series.  Starter Villain lacks any serious depth beyond some mildly "woke" (for lack of a better term) elements.  It simply is not in the same category as the works that have been awarded the Hugo.  Worth buying and reading.  Not one of the 6 best books of 2023.
4. Witch King by Martha Wells - I have thoroughly enjoyed (most of) Wells' Murderbot series of books.  She writes with great empathy and detail.  She invites the reader to experience different perspectives.  In Witch King, our supposed protagonist is a demon who has inhabited the body of another person.  The first act of possession was supposedly of a willing person.  The rest were not.  The single greatest flaw in Witch King is the presumption that the demons are benevolent and that the antagonists are evil.  We are shown that demons have great power that can be used to destructive ends.  We never learn what motivates them to interact with humanity much less how they might be morally constrained from wreaking havoc on the world.  A decent book.  But not one of the six best books of the year.
5. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty - Conceptually, this was a really intriguing book.  The book presumes to tell a fantastic tale akin to some of the great fantasy tales in the Western tradition but from an Arab perspective.  As someone who grew up with many Sinbad stories, I was ready to warmly welcome a more native telling of a fantasy set in that region.  If one sets aside the hypocrisy involved in painting early Islam as tolerant of independent women, Amina al-Sirafi is a fine read.  Also, the book hides a lot of information from the reader.  The person relating the story tells the reader directly that they are lying, but they will get to the truth eventually.  This technique is an unclever method for stretching a good novelette into novel length.  And it frustrates the reader.
6. The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera - plain DNF.  No connection with the characters.  No real progress in the story.  I made it over halfway through the book before I just couldn't take it anymore.  I've got a half dozen books waiting in my Kindle that I already know will be better than this.  Definitely not one of the six best books of the last year.  People really need to start ignoring Locus for this sort of thing.
7. End of Ballot
8. Translation State by Ann Leckie - Hard DNF.  I've really got no patience for the "guess a gender" authors anymore.  My last experience with the Radsch Empire ended poorly.  I gave this one a chance but "noped" out early on.

All of the books that I nominated were better than the books that ended up below No Award.

• The Ferryman by Justin Cronin 
• Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
• House of Gold by C.T. Rwizi
• Stand Alone by John Van Stry  (the weakest of my nominees, still better than this stuff)