Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

Have you been reading through this year's nominees? What are your thoughts, and what will you be voting for (or what would you vote for if you had a membership)? Please share!

Oooookay, I'll start!

I'll share my categories in this post as I finish them up. I'm trying harder this year to read through the nominees, last year I barely hit any before the deadline.

Best Novel
1. The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
2. Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
3. Translation State by Ann Leckie
4. The Adventure of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
5. Witch King by Martha Wells
6. No Award
(7. Starter Villain by John Scalzi)

Best Novelette
1. The Year Without Sunshine by Naomi Kritzer
2. One Man's Treasure by Sarah Pinsker
3. On the Fox Roads by Nghi Vo
4. Ivy, Angelica, Bay by C. L. Polk
5. I AM AI by AI Jiang
6. Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition by Gu Shi

Best Short Story
1. Better Living Through Algorithms by Naomi Kritzer
2. The Sound of Children Screaming by Rachael K. Jones
3. Tasting the Future Delicacy Three Times by Baoshu
4. How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub by P. Djeli Clark
5. No Award
(6. The Mausoleum's Children by Aliette de Bodard)
(7. Answerless Journey by Han Song)

Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form
1. Spiderman: Across the Spider-verse
2. Barbie
3. Poor Things
4. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
5. Nimona
6. No Award
(7. The Wandering Earth 2)

Best Professional Artist
1. Alyssa Winans
2. Galen Dara
3. Micaela Alcaino
4. Tristan Elwell
5. Rovina Cai
6. Dan Dos Santos

Best Fan Artist
1. Laya Rose
2. Iain J. Clark
3. Alison Scott
4. Sara Felix
5. España Sheriff
6. Dante Luiz

I so far only managed How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub and it hasn't impressed me at all

Oleksandr wrote: "I so far only managed How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub and it hasn't impressed me at all"

The only one that I actually *really* liked was "Better Living Through Algorithms" which is way ahead in first place for me.

Ah, I haven't attempted the nominees yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing all your thoughts and rankings. I heard somewhere else that one of the Chinese stories was basically justifying genocide?

Yeah, Abigail Nussbaum posted that on Bluesky in reference to "Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet" by He Xi. I haven't read it yet, not sure I will bother.

Kristenelle wrote: "Ah, I haven't attempted the nominees yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing all your thoughts and rankings. I heard somewhere else that one of the Chinese stories was basically justifying genocide?"

Yeah, in the novella category. And not ”basically”, but _actually_. An extremely disgusting story.

In short stories, my voting order will be:

My voting order will be:

1. “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer
2. “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark
3. “Answerless Journey”, Han Song
4. “The Mausoleum’s Children” by Aliette de Bodard
5. “Tasting the Future Delicacy Three Times”), 宝树 / Baoshu
6. “The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones

Read all 6 over the last couple days. Here's my ranking of the short stories:

1. “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer
2. “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark
3. “Tasting the Future Delicacy Three Times”), 宝树 / Baoshu
4. “The Mausoleum’s Children” by Aliette de Bodard
5. “Answerless Journey”, Han Song
6. “The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones

I read "Better Living" a couple of days ago. I liked it at the time, but now I can't really remember anything about it. I haven't read the others yet

I updated message #3 above with my BDP long form rankings. Just finished the last one I had, Poor Things, which was... a unique experience. Much better than Wandering Earth 2 which I really struggled to get through. Other than that, they're all good this year.

I explored the Professional Artist and Fan Artist categories in order to vote on them. The professional category in particular is reaaaally hard to rank because they are all so magnificent. I really feel like we're in a golden age for cover art (I am not partial to old midcentury pulp-style artwork). Of course a lot of the entries are for Subterranean Press which has really fancy cover and interior artwork for their fancy limited editions most of us can't actually get our hands on. I posted my rankings up in message #3, I went with Alyssa Winans in the top spot for her excellent Tordotcom work, but Galen Dara's and Micaela Alcaino have some breathaking work too. I ranked Rovina Cai lower because she's already won the award a few times, and I'd like to share the glory.

My voting order in novelettes:
My voting order:


1. “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny Magazine, November-December 2023)

2. “Ivy, Angelica, Bay” by C.L. Polk (Tor.com, 8 December 2023)

3. “One Man’s Treasure” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, January-February 2023)

4. “I AM AI” by Ai Jiang (Shortwave)

5. “On the Fox Roads” by Nghi Vo (Tor.com, 31 October 2023)

6. “Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition” by Gu Shi /〈2181序曲〉再版导言, 顾适 translated by Emily Jin (Clarkesworld, February 2023)

Timo wrote: "1. “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny Magazine, November-December 2023)
."

It won Nebula, so maybe Hugo will follow

I just finished reading the novelette category and I'm with Timo on the top and bottom placements. "The Year Without Sunshine" was great, if low-key, but what can compete with a well-written story about a community coming together to take care of each other in a disaster scenario? I just need more stories like this right now, and I think a lot of others do which is why I suspect she'll win both the novelette AND short story categories.

The Gu Shi story was frustrating because for over half the novelette it was just a future history of cryosleep, characters didn't come in until about two-thirds in and then it became much more attention-capturing.

Also, I watched Godzilla Minus One over the weekend and it really should have made the ballot for BDP in place of Wandering Earth 2. I am not a kaiju fan but it was really good.

I plan to finish my current 'eye-reading' book and start with all short stories. This week I hope

Slowly working my way through the novellas. Should finish Rose/House today, that’ll be four.

Novella ranking:
1. Thornhedge
2. Mammoths at the Gates
3. Seeds of Mercury
4. Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet
5. Rose/House
-- The Mimicking of Known Successes (ongoing, but likely to be higher than Rose/House coz I can't finish that one. Martine's writing does not click with me.

Novelette ranking - this is the hardest, I like most of them!
1. I AM AI
2. Ivy, Angelica, Bay
3. Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition
4. The Year Without Sunshine
5. On the Fox Roads
6. One Man's Treasure

Short story ranking:
1. Tasting the Future Delicacy Three Times - the most fun short work this year (but maybe coz the others are rather meh)
2. Better Living Through Algorithms
3. Answerless Journey
4. How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub
5. The Sound of Children Screaming
6. The Mausoleum’s Children

Still working on the best novel & graphic novel category, to be updated in this thread. I wish I could read the Lodestar ones but no time.

I have read only two novellas - the Chinese ones. But rarely has anything caused deeper hatred against a piece fiction than "Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet". 100% will be under "No award".

Timo wrote: "I have read only two novellas - the Chinese ones. But rarely has anything caused deeper hatred against a piece fiction than "Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet". 100% will be under "No award"."

I'm curious just how awful it is but I think I will skip it given how many negative reactions I'm starting to see about it online.

I finished the short stories and my rating is
1. Better Living Through Algorithms by Naomi Kritzer - while it reminds of her H/N winning Catnet, it is still the best among the nominees
2. Tasting the Future Delicacy Three Times by Baoshu - even if the prose/translation is uneven (plus a slight sexism) and I guessed in advance the punchline of the first third, overall a good idea story - as in old SF and Soviet SF which I clearly see here.
3. How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub by P. Djeli Clark - ok, a nice homage to Vernes but per se forgettable story
4. The Sound of Children Screaming by Rachael K. Jones - important theme, solid angry voice but too US-centric. I kept thinking about children in Kharkiv, who study in the underground daily...
5. The Mausoleum's Children by Aliette de Bodard - an average story, nothing exceptional, probably pushed by the author's fans
6. Answerless Journey by Han Song - what is was, a horror masking as SF? They recalled too much and too little, inconsistent

My Best Novelette ranking
1. The Year Without Sunshine by Naomi Kritzer - it think it is both well written and breaks the trope, where only 'needed' people survive in post-apoc
2. One Man's Treasure by Sarah Pinsker - magic garbage collectors is a great idea
3. Ivy, Angelica, Bay by C. L. Polk - even if I predicted some of the final twists, I liked the story

all three below are so-so,

4. On the Fox Roads by Nghi Vo - Bonnie and Clyde with Chinese characters? Doesn't work for me. I ain't a fan of the original duo, who according to the wiki "They are believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and four civilians". And with non-whites I guess Chinese pogroms would have been a result

5. I AM AI by AI Jiang - so a heart is really where emotions reside?
6. Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition by Gu Shi - boring. I'm still searching for a 60s (I guess) SF work (maybe a novelette in size. definitely below a novel) where so many people tried to sleep to a better future that the present went worse and worse due to lack of workers, etc. the protagonist there works unfreezing illegal sleepers

Silvana wrote: "Novella ranking:
."

Can you drop a few words, on why You chose the works you deed? If you look on other rankings, all but you set e.g The Year Without Sunshine by Naomi Kritzer 1st, but you only 4th

The Year without Sunshine was nice, I liked it but it went a bit too long and I got bored near the end. The top three evoked more feelings when I finished reading them.

Silvana wrote: "The Year without Sunshine was nice, I liked it but it went a bit too long and I got bored near the end. The top three evoked more feelings when I finished reading them."

I was getting bored with "Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition" so I understand the feeling :)

Oleksandr wrote: "Silvana wrote: "The Year without Sunshine was nice, I liked it but it went a bit too long and I got bored near the end. The top three evoked more feelings when I finished reading them."

I was gett..."

to each their own!

Oleksandr wrote: "
5. I AM AI by AI Jiang - so a heart is really where emotions reside?."

lol, I thought the same thing. It was a very strange pivot to sentimental metaphor for an ostensibly hard-SF transhumanist story. It didn't work for me, although the rest of the story around it is pretty good. I read Jiang's other voter packet contribution (for the Astounding award) and damn, her writing is very full of of-the-moment cost of living crisis anxieties. I'm curious about Linghun, the Nebula novella winner.

For the first time ever, I actually managed to finish all novels on the Hugo ballot. It helps that I read three of the entries last year so it wasn't such a heavy load at this time (also helps that one of the finalists was basically a puffball with no substance).

I posted it above, but here's my final ranking:

Best Novel
1. The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
2. Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
3. Translation State by Ann Leckie
4. The Adventure of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
5. Witch King by Martha Wells
6. No Award
(7. Starter Villain by John Scalzi)

I enjoyed most of them, I'd be happy with most of them winning, but I really do think The Saint of Bright Doors was the most "special", new, and thought-provoking of them all. I keep interchanging Translation State and Amina between spot 3 and 4 -- they're basically tied as fun adventures without that extra bit to truly stand them apart, but I did really appreciate the freshness of Chakraborty's Horn of Africa/Indian Ocean setting for a fantasy. Lastly, Starter Villain doesn't belong on the ballot IMO.

I still haven’t got past the first pages of Amina, but I will one of these days. For me Saint of Bright Doors is certainly the best of the rest.

My novella list:
1. Thornhedge
2. Rose/House
3. Seeds of Mercury
4. The Mimicking of Known Successes
5. Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet

I have to read 'Mammoths at the Gates', but I haven't especially liked the 1st volume, therefore I guess it will end up 4-5

Hmm saint of bright doors was kinda impenetrable to me, I decided to put it aside but might come back since many said it's good. Will see if I have time before the deadline. Still have three novels to read :(

I had a similar experience with Saint of Bright Doors. I think I only got 3% and was vibing at all. Not sure if I should give it another shot.

re The Saint of Bright Doors in my review I link a review that opens the meaning of the book. It may spoil the story but may improve it

I skipped through The Saint of Bright Doors and am trying to decide if I want to go back and/or count it as read. I have better things to read, I think. But I am on the list for the next book that is coming out by this author.

I just could not get interested.

The voting ends on July 20th, so we should decide on ranking of the works. I guess we can take from the posts above if only one variant is presented 'as is'. Where multiple choices we have to decide. I'll try to list what we have below

These we have from Kalin only, so I guess they'll go as is

Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form
1. Spiderman: Across the Spider-verse
2. Barbie
3. Poor Things
4. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
5. Nimona
6. No Award
(7. The Wandering Earth 2)

Best Professional Artist
1. Alyssa Winans
2. Galen Dara
3. Micaela Alcaino
4. Tristan Elwell
5. Rovina Cai
6. Dan Dos Santos

Best Fan Artist
1. Laya Rose
2. Iain J. Clark
3. Alison Scott
4. Sara Felix
5. España Sheriff
6. Dante Luiz

I did better this year than I have before. Finished the novels & short stories, but only half the novellas.

I might add a list for best fancast in the next few days.

My votes in fiction:
Category: Best Novel (最佳长篇小说)
Translation State by Ann Leckie (Orbit US, Orbit UK): 1
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (Harper Voyager, Harper Voyager UK): 2
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Tordotcom, Orbit UK): 3
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom): 4
Witch King by Martha Wells (Tordotcom): 5
Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Tor, Tor UK): 6
No Award: Unranked

Category: Best Novella (最佳长中篇小说)
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (Tor, Titan UK): 1
Rose/House by Arkady Martine (Subterranean): 2
The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older (Tordotcom): 3
Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom): 4
“Seeds of Mercury”, Wang Jinkang / 水星播种, 王晋康, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers): 5
No Award: 6
“Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet”, He Xi / 人生不相见, 何夕, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers): 7

Category: Best Novelette (最佳短中篇小说)
“The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny Magazine, November-December 2023): 1
“Ivy, Angelica, Bay” by C. L. Polk (Tor.com 8 December 2023): 2
“One Man's Treasure” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, January-February 2023): 3
I AM AI by Ai Jiang (Shortwave): 4
“On the Fox Roads” by Nghi Vo (Tor.com 31 October 2023): 5
“Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition”, Gu Shi /〈2181序曲〉再版导言, 顾适 translated by Emily Jin (Clarkesworld, February 2023): 6
No Award: Unranked

Category: Best Short Story (最佳短篇小说)
“Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld May 2023): 1
“How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark (Uncanny Magazine, January-February 2023): 2
“Answerless Journey”, Han Song /没有答案的航程, 韩松, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers): 3
“The Mausoleum’s Children” by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine, May-June 2023): 4
美食三品 (“Tasting the Future Delicacy Three Times”), 宝树 / Baoshu (银河边缘013：黑域密室 / Galaxy's Edge Vol. 13: Secret Room in the Black Domain): 5
“The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare Magazine, October 2023): 6
No Award: Unranked

Timo, I'm just curious, why do you rank “Answerless Journey” higher than “Tasting the Future Delicacy Three Times”? For me, the ranking is reversed

Anyone can open A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? from the Best Related Work packet? I sent it to my Kindle but it says it needs password. It works fine in my laptop but I really don't want to read it there.

I almost finished with my Best Novels category read. Just realized Translation State is only excerpt (boo!) and I might do another DNF with Some Desperate Glory idk. Not interested with Starter Villain (or anything Scalzi).

I wish I have time to read the Astounding samples or even Best Editor Long Form but no time.

Silvana wrote: "Anyone can open A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? from the Best Related Work packet? I sent it to my Kindle but ..."

Yes, I just opened this pdf on my PC no password has been requested.

and the voting deadline in just 4 days

Oleksandr wrote: "Silvana wrote: "Anyone can open A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? from the Best Related Work packet? I sent it t..."

Thanks, so I guess it just could not work in Kindle, will try converting it then. Not going to read it now obviously though I am really interested in the book.

Oleksandr wrote: "These we have from Kalin only, so I guess they'll go as is

Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form..."

I hate to see Nimona ranked so low. But Spiderman and Barbie are certainly quite strong competition. (Haven't seen the others.)

Ed wrote: "Oleksandr wrote: "These we have from Kalin only, so I guess they'll go as is

Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form..."

I hate to see Nimona ranked so low. But Spiderman and Barbie are certainly qu..."

Nimona was a lot of fun, it's just that all the others were too.... except for TWE2, anyway.

I haven't watched the Spiderman yet. I started it, but it was very "blinky" and I was feeling too old for all that blinking.

I did see the earlier one in the theater and it was good.

The sequel is honestly even better.

Kalin wrote: "The sequel is honestly even better."

Are you talking about the sequel to the spiderman movie?

Oleksandr wrote: "These we have from Kalin only, so I guess they'll go as is

Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form
1. Spiderman: Across the Spider-verse."

My movie ranking:
1. Spiderman: almost perfect
2. Nimona: loved it. Kinda curious about the graphic novel version since it was a nominee too
3. Barbie: cool OST, America Ferrera's speech was iconic but the movie was a bit too long
4. The Wandering Earth 2 : really enjoyed the acting of one of the actors.
5. Dungeons and Dragons: almost DNF

Haven't watched Poor Things. I haven't even heard of it before.