The hugos have announced their list of finalists! This is the first year I’ve nominated things, so interesting to see how things shook out compared to my own nominations. If you can, I’d really recommend getting a voting membership: they’re only ~50 dollars and will get you >24 novels, plus tons of shorter fiction. Anyways, some thoughts on the various categories:
Best Novel: 4/5 of the books I nominated made it on to the ballot, which I’m happy about. I feel like A Desolation Called Peace and The Galaxy and the Ground Within were shoo-ins for this category, both from well-regarded series and authors. I was a bit surprised (but please) that A Master of Djinn made it in, but in retrospect that makes a lot of sense: it may be P Djeli Clark’s first full novel, but his shorter fiction has been very well received. Absolutely thrilled that She Who Became the Sun made it: I loved this book so much, and it’s probably my top pick for the year, but I wasn’t sure how broad attention it had got. I think it’s also pretty rare for a first time author to get nominated for best novel, so congratulations to Shelley Parker-Chan. Now that I think of it, I think they may be the first nonbinary author nominated for best novel (and tied for first this year in any major category)? I’m assuming that there have been nb people nominated/winning in categories that get less press (ie the 3 billion people listed whenever strange horizons gets nominated). Haven’t read the other two yet, don’t know anything about Light from Uncommon Stars, didn’t feel a particular need to read Project Hail Mary, but it should be good.
Best Novella: I’ve only read two of these, both of which were excellent. I liked Across the Green-Grass Fields, but don’t think it’ll win: it didn’t grab me as much as some others in the series. A Psalm for the Wild-Built was good, but maybe will function better once that series fully gets going, as part of a greater whole. The others I haven’t read: Catherine Valente and Aliette de Bodard are two authors I bounce off of more often then not, but I’m willing to try again with The Past is Red and Fireheart Tiger. I’ve liked Alix E Harrow’s short fiction in the past, though I wasn’t wild on her novel, so I’m looking forward to A Spindle Splintered. Haven’t read anything by Adrian Tchaikovsky, but I’ve heard good things about his books, so I’m optimistic for Elder Race.
I don’t read much short fiction, so nothing much to say about novelettes or short stories (though find it deeply amusing that one of the publishers is Magicthegathering.com)
Best Series: this was a tricky category to nominate for, because for me it feels better suited to long-running series than just a trilogy or something, so there are fewer options. I liked the Kingston Cycle a fair amount, but don’t have much to say about it. I think the front-runner in this is the Wayward Children novella series, which won individually several times, and have since been building on each other in a way perfectly suited to this category. I’ve actually been reading The World of the White Rat in the past few days and enjoying it greatly: I started with the paladin romance novels, and will go back and read the others soon. It was a bit jarring at first for me to read adult romance novels by T Kingfisher, whose strong narrative voice I associate more with middle grade works like a wizard’s guide to defensive baking, but once past that I found them delightful. The others I haven’t read, but I’ve heard good things about Terra Ignota, while I know nothing about Merchant Princes or The Green Bone Saga (though I’ve seen the authors’ names floating around)
Don’t know anything about the graphic novels, though I’ve seen most of their title before. The only Related Work I recognize is the Vox piece on Isabel Fall and Helicopter Story, which I suppose will prompt another wave of hot takes (I recommend looking up last years voting records for novelettes for an interesting perspective on people’s feelings about Helicopter Story)
Long-form dramatic is exactly what you would expect, the normal mix of marvel properties and big-budget adaptations mixed with a couple more innovative things (nice to see that Space Sweepers made it in). Short form is a little more varied, strange to have a year with no doctor who episode, and the last year for the expanse. I basically filled up my ballot with episodes of Arcane, nice to see one made it in.
I am going to skip over all the technical categories (editors, zines/casts, writing and artists), on the ground of I know none of them (though after a few years of following the hugos, the names are getting familiar)
The Lodestar (technically not a hugo) is a strong field this year: three of my five nominations made it in, and I’m not surprised that the other two didn’t, or by the three I didn’t vote for. Also, fully half of these books are the sequels to previously nominated works. Of those I’ve read, I absolutely loved The Last Graduate and Iron Widow, and iirc iron widow in particular has had a lot of success. Chaos on Catnet is a quieter story, but from a cs perspective I found it’s premise frighteningly realistic, and the first book won for a reason. Haven’t read Redemptor or A Snake Falls to Earth yet, but the author’s first books both were good and did well last year, and I’m curious to see where they’ve gone since. Victories Greater Than Death is another obvious choice: Charlie Jane Anders has done well writing for an adult audience, and moving into YA seems like it has brought more success.
The Astounding Award: it’s interesting to me that this award gives two years of eligibility, so multiple authors are up for works from 2020. Interesting to see who made it back onto the ballot from last year, who didn’t, and who made it this year but not in their first year of eligibility. Only two of my nominees made it onto the list, but they were the two I was most enthusiastic about, and the 3 of the other authors were on my longer list of possibilities. Everina Maxwell I haven’t read yet, but I’ve seen her books praised and have been planning to pick them up at some point. I liked A K Larkwood’s first book, though not as much as I had hoped, and I haven’t picked up the second one yet. Xiran Jay Zhao and Tracy Deonn are both YA authors, which afaik is rare for the astounding? Though Iron Widow particularly is geared towards upper YA to the point where it’s almost not YA anymore. Tracy Deonn is also an interesting author: Legendborn was a good book, and most of its flaws felt like they came from where it stuck to genre convention. I’m excited to see where the sequel, and even more so whatever her next books end up being, go now that she’s had some success and hopefully will be given more editorial room to innovate. I’m delighted to see Micaiah Johnson back on the ballot: The Space Between Worlds was an excellent book that deserves more attention. And last, but most certainly not least, Shelley Parker-Chan, whose book She Who Became the Sun I’ve talked about above. It’s a rare book, even more so coming from a brand-new author with no previously published works, and they’re my top pick both for my own vote and how I think the award will go.
tl;dr read the hugo ballot!
