The quality of the novels that were nominated for the Hugo Award was pretty abysmal, the worst year in years (or ever?). Most of the books were very light and not really something to take seriously. I didn’t finish Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir, because I found the earlier part to be unreadable and did not continue, something that happens extremely rarely for me. Only one book was imaginative, really engaging, and well-written all at once. Others were lacking at least one of those qualities. Nettle & Bone was that exception to the rule, and it was very easy to put in the first place. The other books really aren’t award-worthy, in my opinion; I will put “No Award” in the second place. Well, after that, it was a choice between Poe pastiche, Thin Man pastiche, and Japanese monster movie pastiche. Yawn. I chose their order based on how well I consider them to be written. Legends & Lattes was left in the last place as very light, not too well written, and badly timed. It was apparently written as a National Novel Writing Month book, and it really shows––some tightening and rewriting and editing might have been a good idea.
1. Nettle & Bone, by T. Kingfisher (Tor Books)
2. No Award
3. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
4. The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books)
5. The Kaiju Preservation Society, by John Scalzi (Tor Books)
6. Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree (Tor Books)
No comments:
Post a Comment