Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

I just bought all the Expanse books on sale today only at https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=s9_acs...

and so I made a list, including novellas.

So just in case we ever decide to read all these (and only the first is on our list, so maybe not for this group?) But here, a gift!:


.2 Drive (2012) from syfy.com/theexpanse/drive
.5 The Butcher of Anderson Station (2011)
1 Leviathan Wakes (2011)
1.1 The Last Flight of the Cassandra (2019) available in role playing game book only
2 Caliban's War (2012)
2.5 Gods of Risk (2012)
3 Abaddon's Gate (2013)
3.5 The Churn (2014)
4 Cibola Burn (2014)
5 Nemesis Games (2015)
5.5 The Vital Abyss (2015)
6 Babylon's Ashes (2016)
6.5 Strange Dogs (2017)
7 Persepolis Rising (2017)
7.5 Auberon (2019)
8 Tiamat's Wrath (2019)

Drive is apparently a Season 2 script turned into a short story, and Cassandra is apparently very short.

I like the series, thanks for making the complete list

I haven't read any of the novellas, but I've read novels 1-7. The library has #8 and I will get to it soon. I like the series a lot, some books more than others, obviously. They're smooth, relatively easy reading without too much jargon or overly complex structure. Just good space adventure.

I love me a good space adventure!

I've read the first two novels, planning at some point to continue the series. I would join a buddy read when it catches up to me.

Nice! I plan to re-read the series next year in the build up to the finalé.

I've read the first three novels with different levels of enjoyment (dependent on the respective POVs), I would join for book 4.

I think if we just find a time to set the first one, then we can discuss whether we are continuing together after we see who is still in . . .

By the looks of the polls, it is very likely the first book (Leviathan Wakes) will be our January Monthly Read.

Well, perfect.

I'm resurrecting/hijacking this thread to set up a schedule and guidelines for out Expanse Buddy Read! On the Leviathan Wakes non-spoiler thread we decided to read the whole series this year one book per month. Those who want to read the supplementary novellas/novelettes can do so, but they aren't really required reading.

I'll create new threads every month for that months book & associated works, but we can discuss January's shorter works (Drive & the Butcher of Anderson Station) in this thread.

SCHEDULE (EDITED JUNE 29TH):

January
.2 Drive (2012) from syfy.com/theexpanse/drive
.5 The Butcher of Anderson Station (2011)
1 Leviathan Wakes(2011) (Monthly Read)

February
2 Caliban's War (2012)
2.5 Gods of Risk (2012)

March
3 Abaddon's Gate (2013)
3.5 The Churn (2014)

April April–May
4 Cibola Burn (2014)

May June–July
5 Nemesis Games (2015)
5.5 The Vital Abyss (2015)

June August–September
6 Babylon's Ashes (2016)
6.5 Strange Dogs (2017)

July October–November
7 Persepolis Rising (2017)

August December
8 Tiamat's Wrath (2019)
8.5 Auberon (2019)

(September)
(9 Book Nine, if it's been published by September)

Tag

Sounds great. I'm in.

I try to jump in from April on. I'm not really a fan of the series, but I want to know how the story goes on.

I'll pop in every so often as read up Auberon and Tiamat's Wrath including the short fiction (have a dominant completionist gene :). Will be watching the 4th season on Amazon Prime soon.

So curious to see what others think as one of my favorite book series.

Cool, I've been out of touch, but I'm back now, and I will try to join

I might wait until we have chose our Hugo Nebula books for the year.

Interesting, though I prefer to do a marathon of the novels three months prior to the publication date, whenever that will be.

Same like John, I am curious to know what the others think. It is one of the best series out there.

I'll join you on that binge, Silvana. I'm too patiently impatient (or impatiently patient?) to read most of the series again and then have to wait for an unspecified amount of time for the conclusion.

I’m in , I’m reading leviathan wakes now and loving it. I was going to do a dark tower reread but I’d much rather read a new series then reread an old series.

I'll jump in on the novellas for sure. I've always wanted to read those but I don't really need to re-read the novels as I remember them well.

Isn't a series Buddy Read really a Challenge? Discuss among yourselves, lol.

Allan wrote: "Isn't a series Buddy Read really a Challenge? Discuss among yourselves, lol."

We usually call all series reads a challenge, but the name doesn't mean much. What is important is the joy of reading and discussing

@oleksander amen! I don’t care what it is as long as I’m
Reading.’

The way I see it, the point of Challenges is to be able to read nominated works that are part of a series that also includes non-nominated books. Like the Vorkosigan saga, for example: without reading non-noms, you won't be able to understand the nominated books that come after them.

But the Expanse had no other noms than the first book(that can be read as a stand-alone), so reading the others doesn't advance our group's started goal of reading all the nominated works. Hence, I don't see the Expanse as a Challenge but a Buddy Read.

(If Book #9 gets a nomination, the series WOULD be a good Challenge).

Also it can be nominated as the Best Series

Ok for calling it Buddy Read

Count me in. Started "Leviathan Wakes" yesterday. Seems really good. I would like to read the whole series.

I think it's great that the group is taking this on in addition to the monthly reads and the Vorkosigan challenge, whatever we choose to call it. It really is a great series and I haven't found any of the books to be a real letdown. There's also enough variation in the stories to keep them really interesting.

I downloaded Drive to my Kindle app and found most of the novellas at my local library, so I'll knock those out and get to Tiamat's Wrath maybe later this month or next.

Just finished season 4 of the show and am really looking forward to reading more of the series. See y'all in March!

Over the last few days, I've read all the short stories and novellas except the most recent. All of them were available at my library, the last currently on hold. They've been very good, picking out little spots where more personal stories can be found between the main events.

I’m on season 2 episode 12. It’s amazing!

I read "The Drive" between books 2 and 3. I was hoping it would shed some light to the nigh-magical Epstein Drive. Alas, the short story didn't really explain much - if anything, it made the Drive feel even more like magic.

(view spoiler)[Solomon had made some tweaks to existing drives that he expected would increase the efficiency by 4%, but instead achieved improvements of hundreds of percents? That's simply not believable. That's something that could only happen in Superman comics.

I would've much preferred if the story had shown Solomon having a completely new idea for a drive, something that defied existing paradigms, something that was built from scratch. Then I could've suspend my disbelief, no matter how implausible that kind of breakthrough would've been.

But this is just completely nonsense. It's like an engineer was making some adjustments to old Wright brothers aeroplane and accidentally invented the jet engine. It's just Not Possible. (hide spoiler)]

The one that talks more about "the drive" is .2 Drive (2012) from syfy.com/theexpanse/drive

Though I am not sure if it really has a rational, scientific explanation

Yeah, that's the story I was talking about. Utter nonsense.

Antti wrote: "I read "The Drive" between books 2 and 3. I was hoping it would shed some light to the nigh-magical Epstein Drive. ."

Assume critical mass analogue - if you have fuel below the critical mass it is safe, but once you passed it the situation changes

I think if you have fuel below critical mass nothing happens. That's kind of what I meant with my critique of the story: they could have made an atomic bomb analogue and have Solomon build a drive that works from very different principles than any that have come before - principles that were abandoned, because the drives hasn't worked due to not having "critical mass". That would've been at least somewhat believable, if not very plausible.

But there's not a single invention in the history of mankind where you tweak an existing design, expect few percentages of gain, but get something that works dozens (hundreds?) of times better.

Antti wrote: "But there's not a single invention in the history of mankind where you tweak an existing design, expect few percentages of gain, but get something that works dozens (hundreds?) of times better."

It depends on what constitutes a tweak? Are early guns a tweak on bow/crossbow?

In general, I agree, it is hand-wavium kind of explanation

Guns were emphatically not improved crossbows; they are a prime example of working from very different principles than anything that came before: chemical energy instead of potential energy.

(And of course early guns were basically miniature cannons, so it was in fact the cannon that was the groundbreaking invention.)

Which in turn was developed from rockets.

Guys, did any of these titles besides the Leviathan get nominated for either of the awards?

No but I think they should have. IMHO, they’re solid, well-reasoned adventure, not particularly literary. The world-building and character development is very good. Not sure why, they’re better than some actual nominees.

Art wrote: "Guys, did any of these titles besides the Leviathan get nominated for either of the awards?"

Not for H/N but first 3 or 4 for Locus

I'm finally starting book 3. Finally.

Art wrote: "Guys, did any of these titles besides the Leviathan get nominated for either of the awards?"

Abaddon's Gate won the Locus SF Novel, and it's the best that I've read of the first three, but yeah they don't get much attention from H&N voters. Since the series is so far into its run, it's not likely that reading voters are going to change their mind on the final volume. But it does continue to get nominated in the "Best Series" category.

Kalin wrote: "they don't get much attention from H&N voters."

Yes, not activist enough I guess. However I was surprised by this year Nebula and having the 5th Cain novel there. More surprised when I checked and saw that 4 of 5 were nominated!

Have you read those? Are they any good?

What are the Cain novels?

Kateblue wrote: "What are the Cain novels?"

Allan wrote: "Have you read those? Are they any good?"

Cain(e) novels start with Fire with Fire and the main protagonist there is an Intelligence Analyst Caine Riordan. I liked the first book but they quickly went downwards for me so 1st 4*, 2nd 3*, 3rd 2* and disliking the 3rd I've never got hold on 4th

Oleksandr wrote: "Kateblue wrote: "What are the Cain novels?"

Allan wrote: "Have you read those? Are they any good?"

Cain(e) novels start with Fire with Fire and the main protagonist there is an In..."

First book is free on amazon.com

What do those have that the series keeps getting nominations, as opposed to The Expanse? They seem like lighter fare than I usually like. Am I wrong?

Allan wrote: "What do those have that the series keeps getting nominations, as opposed to The Expanse? They seem like lighter fare than I usually like. Am I wrong?"

This surprises me as well. Maybe like Antti's 'rule' about the nomination of the current Nebula's head, the author is considered a good fellow that should be nominated