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I didn't get around to the novel category last year. I focused on the sub-novel length works last year and ran out of time.
My mistake.
This year, I started buying the novel nominees as soon as the finalists were announced. I didn't wait for the packet as I really wanted to get through as much material as possible.
My thinking on the finalists in this category has changed over time. I finished the last one in late May or early June. Since then, I have changed my vote a couple of times.
This is not a full-on book review. It's just my impressions relative to my voting for the Hugos. Without further delay, here we go.
Spoilers!!.....duh
Spoilers!!.....duh
The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher (Roc)
While this book was not my first read, it was by far my favorite. The novel includes multiple character perspectives and very detailed fantasy world-building.
I thoroughly enjoyed the positive themes of people governing themselves politically and individually. There was a tension between the idealized version of how people viewed themselves and the reality of how they interacted with the world around them. There was a sub-text of people aspiring to be better than they were.
That goes for many of the antagonists as well. One of the hallmarks of good writing is to create interest/sympathy for an antagonist.
In addition to creating a well-formed and coherent world filled with a variety of character types, he has also accomplished the unique task of making a steampunk-themed world sensible to me as well as making me like cats.
In addition to creating a well-formed and coherent world filled with a variety of character types, he has also accomplished the unique task of making a steampunk-themed world sensible to me as well as making me like cats.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Reflection on this novel has resulted in the most significant change to my ballot. It has moved twice from fourth to second place. In terms of world development and plotting, I find it to be a very narrow second to The Cinder Spires.
Ms. Jemisin has created a wonderfully detailed world. The one regrettable feature is the unquestioned class/career social structure that affords few opportunities for individuals to follow a unique path.
Four issues separate this novel from being in first place.
The acceptance of socially imposed class/career structures. The protagonists don't really mind being limited to what they are as long as they aren't on the bottom of the social structure. They don't advocate for equal liberty. They advocate for some other caste to be on the bottom of the pile.
The idealization of society as a sort of quasi-socialist utopia. For a brief time our protagonists are free from their masters and join a quasi-socialist society run/led by people of their "caste". The society indulges in common cooking arrangements rather than household/individual sufficiency. The society survives by stealing the productive wealth of others instead of producing something of use that can be traded.
(Socialism appears to be the currently preferred political system of fantasy writing. Which is appropriate as the only place where it works is as a fantasy. In the real world it is the most bloody and oppressive system invented by humankind.)
The primary characters are self-absorbed with their social position without a sense of humor. They are almost wholly consumed with achieving revenge. No matter how justified their revenge might be...and it is justified...I just am not interested in reading about characters that do not aspire to be something better. Ms. Jemison might take a look at Joe Ambercrombie's First Law series to see characters with both nasty and humorous sides that want to be something better tomorrow than they are today.
The book centers on the plight of the social cast of orogenes; people that can manipulate the earth. Among other skills, they can create or silence earthquakes; quite useful on a planet that is quite seismically active. The orogenes are kept under control (effectively held as slaves) by another caste. There is precisely one orogene in the book that is free to do as he pleases. I find the lack of refugee bands of orogenes to be less than believable. Of course, groups of free orogenes running around would result in a very different book.
In thinking about the sub-text of the world, consider the orogenes as government power instead of as individuals. From that perspective, the novel suggests that their unrestrained power is in some way a good thing. Human experience suggests that unlimited government power generally results in poverty and oppression. But that is not a sub-text that the author intends. I think that subtle shift would have made this a better novel.
Reflection on this novel has resulted in the most significant change to my ballot. It has moved twice from fourth to second place. In terms of world development and plotting, I find it to be a very narrow second to The Cinder Spires.
Ms. Jemisin has created a wonderfully detailed world. The one regrettable feature is the unquestioned class/career social structure that affords few opportunities for individuals to follow a unique path.
Four issues separate this novel from being in first place.
The acceptance of socially imposed class/career structures. The protagonists don't really mind being limited to what they are as long as they aren't on the bottom of the social structure. They don't advocate for equal liberty. They advocate for some other caste to be on the bottom of the pile.
The idealization of society as a sort of quasi-socialist utopia. For a brief time our protagonists are free from their masters and join a quasi-socialist society run/led by people of their "caste". The society indulges in common cooking arrangements rather than household/individual sufficiency. The society survives by stealing the productive wealth of others instead of producing something of use that can be traded.
(Socialism appears to be the currently preferred political system of fantasy writing. Which is appropriate as the only place where it works is as a fantasy. In the real world it is the most bloody and oppressive system invented by humankind.)
The primary characters are self-absorbed with their social position without a sense of humor. They are almost wholly consumed with achieving revenge. No matter how justified their revenge might be...and it is justified...I just am not interested in reading about characters that do not aspire to be something better. Ms. Jemison might take a look at Joe Ambercrombie's First Law series to see characters with both nasty and humorous sides that want to be something better tomorrow than they are today.
The book centers on the plight of the social cast of orogenes; people that can manipulate the earth. Among other skills, they can create or silence earthquakes; quite useful on a planet that is quite seismically active. The orogenes are kept under control (effectively held as slaves) by another caste. There is precisely one orogene in the book that is free to do as he pleases. I find the lack of refugee bands of orogenes to be less than believable. Of course, groups of free orogenes running around would result in a very different book.
In thinking about the sub-text of the world, consider the orogenes as government power instead of as individuals. From that perspective, the novel suggests that their unrestrained power is in some way a good thing. Human experience suggests that unlimited government power generally results in poverty and oppression. But that is not a sub-text that the author intends. I think that subtle shift would have made this a better novel.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
I loved Uprooted from the start. This is a tale about a young woman living in a land where a wizard comes every few years to take a young maid to his castle. The maid is always returned safe and sound to her family, but after the experience is rarely satisfied with her small-town life thereafter.
The wizard usually takes the most beautiful young maid. But one year, he takes the one who appears to have some innate ability to learn/use magic in lieu of greater physical beauty.
The story unfolds along the intersection of two themes. One theme is the conflict between good and evil. Evil is represented by an unknown malignancy that grows in a specific forest. The forest seeks to spread itself and thereby spread the evil.
The second theme is that of magic that is traditionally learned as more of rigorous science with formal rules and traditions as to how magic is performed. As a contrast, our young heroine slowly blossoms into a sort of magic performed by intuition and feelings instead of as the result of rules and study.
The novel begins at a modest pace that unfolds the world in an interesting manner. The pace rapidly accelerates as the "evil" spreads and the wizard must respond to ever-increasing threats. The storyline unfolds in a reasonably linear format that primarily follows the one central character. The linear format is not as complex as the multiple threads used in the two preceding works.
The weakest part of the story is the last few chapters where we learn that the "evil" is simply misunderstood and the "good" isn't as good as they think. The "healing" comes from the new wizard, our young, intuitive heroine, who slowly repairs centuries of harm with intuition and empathy.
I was less than impressed with the ever flawed concept of being able to feel our way to new solutions to old problems.
I loved the writing, the use of language, and the general story. The subtext was less than inspiring. That subtext coupled with the generally more simple/linear framework put this book in third place on my ballot.
I loved Uprooted from the start. This is a tale about a young woman living in a land where a wizard comes every few years to take a young maid to his castle. The maid is always returned safe and sound to her family, but after the experience is rarely satisfied with her small-town life thereafter.
The wizard usually takes the most beautiful young maid. But one year, he takes the one who appears to have some innate ability to learn/use magic in lieu of greater physical beauty.
The story unfolds along the intersection of two themes. One theme is the conflict between good and evil. Evil is represented by an unknown malignancy that grows in a specific forest. The forest seeks to spread itself and thereby spread the evil.
The second theme is that of magic that is traditionally learned as more of rigorous science with formal rules and traditions as to how magic is performed. As a contrast, our young heroine slowly blossoms into a sort of magic performed by intuition and feelings instead of as the result of rules and study.
The novel begins at a modest pace that unfolds the world in an interesting manner. The pace rapidly accelerates as the "evil" spreads and the wizard must respond to ever-increasing threats. The storyline unfolds in a reasonably linear format that primarily follows the one central character. The linear format is not as complex as the multiple threads used in the two preceding works.
The weakest part of the story is the last few chapters where we learn that the "evil" is simply misunderstood and the "good" isn't as good as they think. The "healing" comes from the new wizard, our young, intuitive heroine, who slowly repairs centuries of harm with intuition and empathy.
I was less than impressed with the ever flawed concept of being able to feel our way to new solutions to old problems.
I loved the writing, the use of language, and the general story. The subtext was less than inspiring. That subtext coupled with the generally more simple/linear framework put this book in third place on my ballot.
Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow)
Seveneves is two novels in one. The first half presents a global catastrophe in the form of the destruction of the moon. The resulting detritus rains down on the earth, raising the atmospheric temperature, and generally making the planet uninhabitable. Humanity races for lifeboat rockets that will allow a limited number to survive until the planet cools.
Seveneves is two novels in one. The first half presents a global catastrophe in the form of the destruction of the moon. The resulting detritus rains down on the earth, raising the atmospheric temperature, and generally making the planet uninhabitable. Humanity races for lifeboat rockets that will allow a limited number to survive until the planet cools.
Hijinx ensue. People cheat the system designed to preserve the most genetically/biologically fit individuals. There are daring rescues and grisly conflicts. The close of the first half brings us to what is left of the moon still in the usual orbit.
Seven women are the sole survivors among the thousands of humans that left the planet. Fortunately, one of them is a highly skilled geneticist who can create sufficient genetic diversity to allow humanity to survive this rather extreme genetic bottleneck.
The second half begins by leaping a few thousand years in the future. Humanity has built a myriad of space-born structures. The population has expanded and split into seven discrete groups based on their progenitors. Each group reflects inheritable qualities from each of those seven women. There is some interbreeding between the groups, but not all that much.
All of the cultural norms from thousands of years of human civilization are gone.
The earth has cooled and humanity is ready to come home. Exploration has begun. It turns out that the humans that left the planet are not the only ones to have survived. There is conflict and confrontation between all of the descendants of humanity.
While I enjoyed this book a great deal, there were a couple of issues. The first is the behavior of the seven surviving women. They meet in the immediate aftermath of a conflict that results in the death of every other human. They immediately sit down for a conference on how they can survive. One of the first topics is the lack of genetic diversity.
The geneticist indicates that she can manipulate genetic codes to create the diversity that will be needed to help the human race survive. What is ignored is the comparative treasure trove of genetic material present in the bodies that are floating all around them. Instead of sitting down to have a chat, they could have immediately improved their genetic diversity by collecting and freezing samples.
The second issue is the range of "technology" that develops in the centuries that follow. Some of it is impressive and seemingly possible. Some of it represents flights of fancy. Books that attempt to be hard science fiction should avoid flights of fancy.
One such flight is pretty significant. There is a structure that is a spinning ring that orbits the earth. Other human settlements/structures pass through the middle of this ring as it swings around the earth. The big problem here is that the axis of motion for the spinning ring would be roughly parallel to the equator. This would result in the precession of the axis; the ring would rotate as it orbited the earth. There would be too many times when this precession would preclude any other object from passing through the middle of the spinning ring.
There were other flights of fancy in the back half of the book that had my "nit-picking reader" fully operational. There was so little of that sort of thing in the first half of the book that it was a bit confounding to find so much of it in the back half.
I very much enjoyed the book and understand why others would nominate it. But it wasn't as good as the other works listed above.
No Award
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
This is being written in 2021. A few years have passed. This novel bounced off of me pretty hard for a couple of reasons.
One of those is the plot point that the controlling political forces don't care about gender. Humans care about gender even if there are alien species that do not. I am moved by books about humans and human reactions.
Another is that this is a putatively MilSF novel in which our intrepid military protagonist response to every point of conflict by sitting down to a nice cup of tea.
Those issues aside, this was a reasonably interesting if not terribly memorable novel. It just didn't clear the bar relative to the Hugo Awards for me.
