My Hugo award votes 2015 part 4 – Novels

Two of the nominees of the novel category originated from the “puppy lists”; three got to the final voting list by people who probably actually have read the books in question. The difference between these two groups was pretty obvious. The three honestly nominated books were inventive, and at least in some way unusual, and they were mostly well written. The two others weren’t bad, but they weren’t special in any way either, and both come from the middle of a long series. In my opinion, the best book with least faults was Ancillary Sword, which was even better than the first part of the series. The only drawback is that it IS a part of a series – but so were all nominees, except one, The Goblin Emperor. However, Ancillary Sword stood pretty well by itself; it was very enjoyable and it was easily the best written of all nominees. The Goblin Emperor and Three Body Problem both have some fairly serious flaws, but they both were interesting in their own way. In my opinion, the flaws of Three Bode problems were worse – among them was a so ridiculous description of scientists, that it begs belief (Oh, my physics experiment produced unpredictable results – I must now go and kill myself. Really?). I won’t place Skin Game in my voting as I didn’t finish it (and no way a middle part of a pulpish series is worth a Hugo), but I won’t be using “no award” in this category – there have been worse nominees (and winners) than any of these books.

My voting will be:
1. Ancillary Sword
2. The Goblin Emperor
3. The Three Body Problem
4. The Dark Between the Stars


proofread