Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

We're one week out from the voting deadline for this year's Hugo Awards. Of the nominees, what are your choices for what should win the 2020 awards?

Thanks for starting this thread, Kalin! I managed to read almost all the fiction nominees, and my favourites were...

NOVEL: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. Beautiful, complex world-building, plausibe politics and three-dimensional characters, it had everything I want from a SF book. I had trouble starting another book after finishing this one, since my mind kept wandering back to Teixcalaan. If I was in the habit of writing fanfic, I would definitely have already written something in this world.

NOVELLA: many excellent candidates, but my pick is This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Poetic and emotional, an inventive semi-epistolary novella that managed to create a solid story that didn't feel too short or too long.

NOVELETTE: "Omphalos" by Ted Chiang. Frim the master if "what if...", here's a story about a world where Young Earth Creationism is true and the world was, indeed, created just 10 000 years ago.

SHORT STORY: "As the Last I May Know" by S. L. Huang. Good story about living by your principles, even in the face of an impending nuclear war. Uses an idea by Roger Fischer, but doesn't attribute it, which was A Bad Thing To Do, but the story was still better than any others in this category.

Damn, I have no idea! And I did so well last year!

Thanks for putting this out here, Kalin and Annti.

What day do they actually come out? We should tell everybody so they know the time limit.

A great topic, Kalin!

What I'd like to win:
novel: The Ten Thousand Doors of January but I'm ok with A Memory Called Empire
novella: Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom
novelette: Omphalos
story: no clear preference

For me it is

novel: City in the Middle of the Night
novella and novelette: both Ted Chiang, for me nobody else

sh... I'm on the app and always hitting the wrong button ...

short story: As the last I may know

... I

I voted but have no " I want this to win" choices as all those got shut out.

Looking at my options, it has to be The Ten Thousand Doors of January. Of the ones listed, this is the one I liked the best. I might think it would be A Memory Called Empire, but it is the only one I have not read.

I am picking This Is How You Lose the Time War for novella. I didn't like it, but everyone else did. I've read all but one of the nominees. I cannot vote for “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom” by Ted Chiang because I have not read it. I was never able to get the book from the library.

So really, it would make sense if the only novel and novella that I have not read will win. :-)

I will not vote for anything else because I didn't read any.

If you have the voting rights, you can download almost all nominees for free.

Nice to everyone's choices!

Mine are:

Best Novel: The Ten Thousand Doors of January. I also really liked The Light Brigade and would be happy if it were to win, but haven't heard much chatter about it. I'd be fine if Gideon won as well.

Best Novella: A really hard choice for me between Anxiety and Time War. I'm probably going to vote Time War because it was just such an impressive creative work.

Best Novelette:Omphalos wasn't my favourite of the two Ted Chiang stories nominated, but definitely is my favourite of the novelette entries.

Best Short Story: I'm undecided. Honestly none of them spoke to me too strongly. I'll probably vote for Alix E. Harrow here. Or the Indian anticolonial one.

Best Graphic Novel: I didn't really like volume 4 of Monstress. I'm nowhere near caught up on Paper Girls or Wicked & the Dying. I'll probably vote for Die because I really liked the art in it.

Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form: Russian Doll, easily.

Best Dramatic Presentation Short Form: The Good Place's "The Answer"

Kateblue wrote: "What day do they actually come out? We should tell everybody so they know the time limit."

They'll be announced during the ConZealand online convention happening at the end of the month. But the voting deadline is the 22nd at 12:00am PST.

Stephen wrote: "I voted but have no " I want this to win" choices as all those got shut out."

Do you mean you nominated, or voted for the finalists?

I voted . Just a couple of my nominees make it so I put them 1 . Read everything, so good on me . Whoever wins I be happy.

Kalin wrote: "But the voting deadline is the 22nd at 12:00am PST.."

OK, so let's have ours in by then, also.

As to the other categories, yes, Russian Doll. It was great. I guess there's going to be a second season?

Re series, I don't know InCryptid or Winternight, but I have read at least one in all the other series, and I have NO idea. Just for grins, I will take The Expanse just because I want to keep reading it but no time.

I have a copy of The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein and have read a few pages, so I will pick that. It's the only one that interested me at all.

For Retros, unlike last year, I have read none. I will take Frederick Brown because I love the guy and have read pretty much everything he's written over the years. There's a novelette and a short story. But I have read/seen no others, so never mind about them.

I was under the impression that I had read more of the nominees. :-P I've only read "The Ten Thousand Doors of January" in the novel category and I wasn't a big fan. So I'm hoping there is something better that wins.

In the novella category I only read Time War and TBTIF. They were both good but only 4 star reads for me. I'm not sure which I prefer. Maybe Time War should win just because it is more experimental and artsy.

And I haven't read any of the other categories. I'm going to try to read more of the Hugo noms for next year so I can better participate.

I've watched a lot of the TV category though... Watching tv together after the kids go to bed is how my husband and I connect these days. Absolutely, one of the Watchmen episodes should win. I think I have a preference for "A God Walks into Abar," but they are both ridiculously good. And I love The Good Place. So I'd be happy with that episode winning too. But Watchmen is better art, I think.

For the long form category, I vote "Us." I tried watching "Good Omens" and "Russian Doll" but couldn't get into either of them. "Good Omens" was slow and boring and "Russian Doll" didn't have any characters I cared about. Star Wars was completely unmemorable and I didn't watch the others. Hubby says "Avengers: Endgame" is good enough to win, but he votes "Us" too.