My Hugo award votes 2016, part 4: novels

The best novel category was good this year in spite of the voting slates. Most probably, the same books would have been nominated anyway, except for, The Aeronaut's Windlass. Only two of the nominees (Uprooted and Seveneves) were separate works which weren’t part of any series. Two were first parts of a new series. For me, the choice of first place was between two books. One was more imaginative, but it was part of a series; another was a separate book (always a major plus, when voting for an award). The Fifth Season was so intriguing and well written I decided to put it on the first place. Uprooted was a second by a hair in spite of engaging plot and characters. The Ancillary Mercy was clearly below those two and clearly, the overlong Seveneves was below that. As a whole a rather good year for novels.

My votes:

1. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
2. Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
3. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
4. Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow)