Hugo nominations are here!
Jan. 12th, 2019 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ghoti_mhic_uaitI have a few ideas, and the top 8 books on my to read pile are all things which might be eligible (mostly for Lodestar for YA fiction)
The books I was mostly excited about are:
Adult novels:
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse (Roanhorse also in her second year of eligibility for Campbell). This is a postapocalyptic mystery with Coyote. I love all of those things, so I loved this. OWn voices fantasy is where it's at, and rightly so.
Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee. This is the third in the Machineries of Empire series (which I think makes this eligible for series nomination too). Mil SF, beautiful, horrific and coming to a spectacular close in this book, read this you will not be sad. Well, you might be sad, but you'll not regret it.
YA:
Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron. By far my favourite book this year (and I think Cameron is eligible for Campbell). It's about a girl whose mother dies and then angels start falling out of the sky, so girl's father takes her to chase angels, and there is romance and loss and it's all about family of choice and doing the right thing and I loved it so much (especially the bi disabled love interest who is the best love interest since Olivia from Into the Drowning Deep). If you love me you should read this book; if you love books you should read this book; if you have a couple of hours with nothing to do you should read this book; if you love Scotland or angels or cute teenage lesbians or coming of age stories, you should read this book. It's short, even if none of that sounds like you, read the book anyway.
Damsel by Elana K Arnold. This took a while to grow on me but it did. It's sort of a fairy tale but turned on its head, like a grown up Paper Bag Princess. It's about toxic masculinity, and has a really satisfying ending.
Aru Shah and the End Of Time by Roshani Chokshi. If you've spoken to Judith recently, she's probably enthused at you about this book; it's the first time she's ever had a book that she's read and then immediately wanted to lend to all her friends so she can talk about it. It's a save-the-world book with an unwitting hero in Spiderman pyjamas, really full of pop culture references and really fun. I can't wait for the next!
Shorter fiction:
Lost Objects by Marian Womack is a collection of beautiful, complex climate change shorts, which is well worth reading but some of them were published earlier. I'm going to reread and think about which to nominate, but I'd mention that Kingfisher was nominated for the BFSA awards, and it is an uncomfortable story about birds, writing and marriage which I would definitely recommend.
All The Time We've Left to Spend by Alyssa Wong, about JPop and love and regret
https://firesidefiction.com/all-the-time-weve-left-to-spend
The Rose McGregor Drinking and Admiration Society by T Kingfisher, about fairies
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-rose-macgregor-drinking-and-admiration-society/
Campbell:
Rivers Solomon (An Unkindness of Ghosts) is in their second year of eligibility. If you haven't read An Unkindness of Ghosts, but like scifi with autistic protagonists, or books about the Antebellum South, or scifi with historic themes and contemporary relevance, this is the book for you.
What about you? got any recs for me?
The books I was mostly excited about are:
Adult novels:
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse (Roanhorse also in her second year of eligibility for Campbell). This is a postapocalyptic mystery with Coyote. I love all of those things, so I loved this. OWn voices fantasy is where it's at, and rightly so.
Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee. This is the third in the Machineries of Empire series (which I think makes this eligible for series nomination too). Mil SF, beautiful, horrific and coming to a spectacular close in this book, read this you will not be sad. Well, you might be sad, but you'll not regret it.
YA:
Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron. By far my favourite book this year (and I think Cameron is eligible for Campbell). It's about a girl whose mother dies and then angels start falling out of the sky, so girl's father takes her to chase angels, and there is romance and loss and it's all about family of choice and doing the right thing and I loved it so much (especially the bi disabled love interest who is the best love interest since Olivia from Into the Drowning Deep). If you love me you should read this book; if you love books you should read this book; if you have a couple of hours with nothing to do you should read this book; if you love Scotland or angels or cute teenage lesbians or coming of age stories, you should read this book. It's short, even if none of that sounds like you, read the book anyway.
Damsel by Elana K Arnold. This took a while to grow on me but it did. It's sort of a fairy tale but turned on its head, like a grown up Paper Bag Princess. It's about toxic masculinity, and has a really satisfying ending.
Aru Shah and the End Of Time by Roshani Chokshi. If you've spoken to Judith recently, she's probably enthused at you about this book; it's the first time she's ever had a book that she's read and then immediately wanted to lend to all her friends so she can talk about it. It's a save-the-world book with an unwitting hero in Spiderman pyjamas, really full of pop culture references and really fun. I can't wait for the next!
Shorter fiction:
Lost Objects by Marian Womack is a collection of beautiful, complex climate change shorts, which is well worth reading but some of them were published earlier. I'm going to reread and think about which to nominate, but I'd mention that Kingfisher was nominated for the BFSA awards, and it is an uncomfortable story about birds, writing and marriage which I would definitely recommend.
All The Time We've Left to Spend by Alyssa Wong, about JPop and love and regret
https://firesidefiction.com/all-the-time-weve-left-to-spend
The Rose McGregor Drinking and Admiration Society by T Kingfisher, about fairies
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-rose-macgregor-drinking-and-admiration-society/
Campbell:
Rivers Solomon (An Unkindness of Ghosts) is in their second year of eligibility. If you haven't read An Unkindness of Ghosts, but like scifi with autistic protagonists, or books about the Antebellum South, or scifi with historic themes and contemporary relevance, this is the book for you.
What about you? got any recs for me?
no subject
Date: 2019-01-13 06:49 pm (UTC)Have I enthused at you about Murderbot novellas yet? Or T Kingfisher's novel Swordheart?
I'm putting those YA novels on my wishlist (Trail of Lightning is already there).
no subject
Date: 2019-01-14 02:01 pm (UTC)