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2023 Hugo Awards

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Re: 2023 Hugo Awards

#61

Post by amanaplanacanal »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #55
alephxyz wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Voting is open to all attendees of the World Scifi Convention and they usually get thousands of votes now. It's possible that you find the winners too "mainstream" but accusing them of being cliquey doesn't make sense.

WorldCon is not representative of all readership. Its website even notes: "The Hugo voters are good at finding and nominating good works, and do talk among themselves, so word spreads." [1] They seem to do an awful lot of talking among themselves, I'll give them that. Besides, it doesn't take a whole lot of nominations to get something onto the ballot. An energetic and motivated clique can capture the whole thing. An…

A motivated clique attempted a takeover in the mid 2010s and the nominating rules were changed so it couldn’t happen again.

Re: 2023 Hugo Awards

#62

Post by Rebelgecko »

wiredfool wrote: post #20
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #4

Barely recognize any of the books or authors there, especially the winners. I've listened to Travis Baldree narrate Cradle, so I'm probably gonna check out his Legends & Lattes book. It didn't win, but I read The Scholomance which is listed in the series section. If you're interested in unconventional magic systems then I'd recommend it. Nettle & Bone was the big winner. Reading the blurb doesn't immediately call out…

T Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon is very good, in a weird fantasy/horror/romance/reimagined fairy tale way. (Depending on the book. One of the romances features severed heads.) I haven’t read this one, but I’ve read basically all her other stuff apart from the horror, which I’ve noped out from. I’m not sure if this one is more reimagined fairy tale or horror, which is how I made it past release week without reading it.

It's a bit of both, but I'd say leans it has more of a Grimm fairy tale vibe

Re: 2023 Hugo Awards

#63

Post by lacker »

I used to really love the Hugo and Nebula awards but over time they seem to be shifting away from the harder science fiction that I like the best, more in the fantasy direction. I miss the days of Hugo winners like Neuromancer, A Fire Upon the Deep, Green Mars, The Diamond Age, The Windup Girl, The Three-Body Problem.

That might be just tracking what gets written nowadays rather than the opinions of the people giving out the awards, though. And I did really like Babel (which won the Nebula this year although I guess was not a finalist for the Hugo) and N K Jemisin's work (three Hugos in the past decade).

Re: 2023 Hugo Awards

#64

Post by lacker »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #47

The Hugo Awards have really come to represent the views and tastes of a narrow clique. I don't know to what extent this was always the case -- my impression of the Awards in the 90s and 00s was that they strived for more objectivity -- but it's quite flagrant right now. And it's unfortunate, as they go HARD for very soft science fiction which reads a lot more like fantasy...

I'm curious, is there some novel that you think was underlooked at this year's Hugo awards, like if you were running the show you would have given them the award? I feel like my tastes probably agree with yours but I am not sure if the problem is the Hugo voters or if there are just very few great books of the sort I most prefer the past few years.

Re: 2023 Hugo Awards

#65

Post by unethical_ban »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #53
brookst wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is defining “preaching”. In my limited experience, those who complain about feminism usually see having a strong female protagonist as offensive preaching. I read a LOT of SF. I cannot remember the last book I read that I would consider “preachy” about feminism. What are some examples that bother you?

Not OP, but I've definitely read books by authors I otherwise enjoy which I'd consider to have lecturing segments in them. I'm hesitant to name specific examples though... I think something similar happens with politics. Some people say they don't want politics in their media, but what they usually mean is they don't want half-assed and shallow political takes. If you're going to take on a serious and important topic…

I think the expanse series is some of the best sci Fi I have ever read. I suspect it is because the show helped my mind paint a better picture of the universe.

It presented the concepts behind several kinds of societies and governments very well, and presented a world where sexism existed but wasn't pervasive, where women were equal and as capable and likely to have power as men.

Oh, and nom-hetero and poly relationships existed, and even had a small impact on the plot, but it was never presented as some "in your face" message. It just was there.

Expanse makes you think about harsh environments, political ideology, realpolitik dynamics between governments, morality of terrorism (by oppressed and oppressors), ethics of behavior in survival scenarios, the nature of existence/what makes someone themselves, and more.

I cannot recommend the series highly enough.

Re: 2023 Hugo Awards

#66

Post by tromp »

greesil wrote: post #39
tromp wrote: post #8

"The hugo award" sounds eerily similar to the Dutch town of "Heerhugowaard" where I grew up...

Is there a dutch town that sounds like Worldcon or Dragoncon?

You can look for similarities on https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijst_van_Nederlandse_plaatsen

Workum seems closest to Worldcon, and Drogeham to Dragoncon.

Re: 2023 Hugo Awards

#67

Post by A_D_E_P_T »

lacker wrote: post #64
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #47

The Hugo Awards have really come to represent the views and tastes of a narrow clique. I don't know to what extent this was always the case -- my impression of the Awards in the 90s and 00s was that they strived for more objectivity -- but it's quite flagrant right now. And it's unfortunate, as they go HARD for very soft science fiction which reads a lot more like fantasy...

I'm curious, is there some novel that you think was underlooked at this year's Hugo awards, like if you were running the show you would have given them the award? I feel like my tastes probably agree with yours but I am not sure if the problem is the Hugo voters or if there are just very few great books of the sort I most prefer the past few years.

2022 books? Sure.

"The Mountain in the Sea" by Ray Nayler.

"Beyond the Burn Line" by Paul MacAuley.

"Eversion" by Alastair Reynolds.

"The Thousand Earths" by Stephen Baxter. (Who, surprisingly, has never won a Hugo. This fact alone reflects very poorly on the Hugos.)

"How High We Go in the Dark" by Sequoia Nagamatsu.

I feel that all of these books were better than any of the nominated ones.

I like Ken MacLeod's Lightspeed Trilogy (thus far) too, but only one of them was published in 2022 and the series is still incomplete...

Re: 2023 Hugo Awards

#68

Post by swayvil »

unethical_ban wrote: post #65
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP, but I've definitely read books by authors I otherwise enjoy which I'd consider to have lecturing segments in them. I'm hesitant to name specific examples though... I think something similar happens with politics. Some people say they don't want politics in their media, but what they usually mean is they don't want half-assed and shallow political takes. If you're going to take on a serious and important topic…

I think the expanse series is some of the best sci Fi I have ever read. I suspect it is because the show helped my mind paint a better picture of the universe. It presented the concepts behind several kinds of societies and governments very well, and presented a world where sexism existed but wasn't pervasive, where women were equal and as capable and likely to have power as men. Oh, and nom-hetero and poly relations…

We are of quite differing tastes.

I like Egan's Permutation City

Banks' Excession

Hugh's Fine Structure

Re: 2023 Hugo Awards

#69

Post by mcphage »

brookst wrote: post #14
progne wrote: post #5

The Scholomance series by Naomi Novak is quite good, her best and I've liked all her books. Yes it's a Potter derivative, but doesn't feel derivative but inventive and de-disneyfied.

I loved her previous books but just couldn’t do Scholomance. I don’t mind the Harry Potter derivation, but she tripled down in the life is so unfair vibe that annoyed me in Potter. Still, glad to see her recognized, Spun Silver and Uprooted are amazing books.

> life is so unfair vibe that annoyed me in Potter

In Potter's defense, the world really was out to get him.

Re: 2023 Hugo Awards

#70

Post by dbsights »

lacker wrote: post #63

I used to really love the Hugo and Nebula awards but over time they seem to be shifting away from the harder science fiction that I like the best, more in the fantasy direction. I miss the days of Hugo winners like Neuromancer, A Fire Upon the Deep, Green Mars, The Diamond Age, The Windup Girl, The Three-Body Problem. That might be just tracking what gets written nowadays rather than the opinions of the people giving…

Agreed. When I was a kid, I would look for the award winners as a shortcut to find new books to read, but lately its been disappointment after disappointment. I don't feel like the winners reflect what I consider quality (e.g. I loved A Deepness in the Sky, Cryptonomicon, in addition to the books you've listed (minus Three Body Problem)).

With the death of physical stores, I no longer have a way of discovering new science fiction. I wish there was an award or recommendation engine that could find these gems among all of the trash.

Interestingly, I did find one book that was quite enjoyable, from a John Carmack tweet of all places, The Powers of the Earth.

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