SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases discussion

Some of us have read only a few, some of us have read tons from the past calendar year. But many of us nominate and vote in the Hugo Awards or other SFF awards. And since nominations season is almost upon us, I'm curious to hear what stood out for everyone from last year, and what you plan to recommend as award-worthy.

Hugo categories:

Best Novel
Best Novella
Best Novelette
Best Short Story
Best Graphic Novel
Best Dramatic Presentation (Short)
Best Dramatic Presentation (Long)
Best Series
Best Related Work
(you can add the other categories too if you want but I won't list them here)

The annual spreadsheet for Hugo Award-eligible works has been recently posted: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

For the novel and best new author (astounding award) The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
Also in novels Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution

I've only read novels and the one or other novella, so I can only have an opinion on the novel section.

The one standout novel for me was

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez - absolute perfection

Other novels that fascinated me last year were:

- Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang
- The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
- The Veiled Edge of Contact by James Brayken
- How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
- When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà
and the two Tchaikovsky novels Eyes of the Void and Children of Memory (I still don't know which one of those two I liked better)

Gabi wrote: "the two Tchaikovsky novels Eyes of the Void and Children of Memory (I still don't know which one of those two I liked better)"

I have high hopes for the third Children, just finished re-reading 2nd

I'll share my lists. As usual I haven't read enough in most categories to even fill out a full ballot (like, I've read 4 novels released in 2022). That said, if I don't consider something award-worthy I'll leave it off my ballot, even if I have less than a full slate.


Best Novel
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang
All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay

Best Novella
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
These Prisoning Hills by Christopher Rowe
A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow
All the Horses of Iceland by Sarah Tolmie

Best Graphic Novel
Saga, Volume 10 by Brian K. Vaughan
Monstress, Vol. 7: Devourer by Marjorie M. Liu

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short)
"The We We Are" - Severance, season1 episode 9
"One Way Out" - Star Wars: Andor, season 1episode 10
"Rix Road" - Star Wars: Andor, season 1 episode 12
"Dear Billy" - Stranger Things, season 4 episode 4
"The Sound of her Wings" - The Sandman, season 1 episode 6
"JIbaro" - Love, Death & Robots, season 3 episode 9

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long)
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Star Wars: Andor S1
Prey
Nope
Severance S1

(the BDP categories might change since there's still a lot of films and seasons I'm trying to watch before the nomination deadline, namely For All Mankind, See, The Boys -- I'm too behind on Star Trek Discovery to catch up)

Oleksandr wrote: "For the novel and best new author (astounding award) The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler."

Ray Nayler has been publishing short fiction for awhile, so isn't eligible for the Astounding Award.

Gabi wrote: "- When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà"

I was looking into this for the SF in Translation group, but it didn't seem like a genre novel. Would you consider it SFF?

Kalin wrote: "Ray Nayler has been publishing short fiction for awhile, so isn't eligible for the Astounding Award.."

I have to check, but I thought it was for a debut novel, not any SFF work

It's not a debut novel award, it's for the writer itself and for the first or second year of their career as a published writer; doesn't matter the length of the publication (short story, novella, novels, etc.). So for example, over the last couple years Emily Tesh was nominated for and won the award, since Silver in the Wood and Drowned Country were her first published works (both novellas). She's not going to be eligible for the Astounding Award for the upcoming Some Desperate Glory, even though it's her debut novel.

Kalin wrote: "It's not a debut novel award, it's for the writer itself and for the first or second year of their career as a published writer; doesn't matter the length of the publication (short story, novella, ..."

Yep, I've checked, you're correct. Sad, for I guess his chances to get nominated aren't very hard even if some hi-profile SF people push it, like Rich Horton

I personally haven't read a lot of stand outs that are eligible this year. Here is what I have so far.

Best novel:
Nona the Ninth
Goliath
Siren Queen
Kaikeyi (I am hesitant to bother nominating another myth retelling though as they don't seem to ever make even the long list)
The World We Make (Haven't finished it yet, but enjoying it so far.)

Also considering:
Elektra
Juniper & Thorn
The Book Eaters
The Oleander Sword

Best novella:
Nebula Vibrations (my only standout so far)
What Moves the Dead
The Jade Setter of Janloon
Lucky Girl: How I Became A Horror Writer: A Krampus Story
January Fifteenth
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

Best novelette:
Time Box by Janelle Monae (from The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer
That one about the aliens from The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories: A Collection of Chinese Science Fiction and Fantasy in Translation from a Visionary Team of Female and Nonbinary Creators
The other two from The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer
(Gotta look up the actual titles of these)

Short Stories:
I need to remember what i've read so far...

Best Series:
The Dandelion Dynasty
The Locked Tomb
The Scholomance

BDP (short form):
The Orville S03 E08 · Midnight Blue

BDP (long form)
The Boys season 3
Prey
Nope
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Stranger Things Season 4


All of these categories could change for me. I'm still consuming media.

I think The World We Make will be nominated with high probability, and Nona as well

I have often the impression that the same authors win every year so I am not really having many thoughts this year.

@Kalin: I'd shelf "When I sing..." as magical realism. It feels like a novel that could have been nominated for the Philip K Dick award. Certainly nothing for the Hugo awards folks.

Among books I liked last year and would vote for were:

Novel:
Braking Day
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
Eyes of the Void
A Half-Built Garden
Kaikeyi
Nettle & Bone
The Path of Thorns
Siren Queen

My favorite of all these was: A Half-Built Garden

Novella:
Ogres=> my favorite.
Rosebud

I haven’t read enough 2022 fiction to complete much of a nomination ballot. These are my favourites:

Novel:

The Grief of Stones.

Novella:

All the Horses of Iceland

I cannot. I have read too few

Kateblue wrote: "I cannot. I have read too few"

Maybe 'just few good enough to nominate'? ;)

For novel, there are important works I have not read yet, but of the stuff I have read, I'd nominate Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution and Nettle & Bone. For novella, I think I've read widely enough, and my favourites have been:
* Spear
* A Prayer for the Crown-Shy
* Ogres
* A Mirror Mended
* Comeuppance Served Cold

(Of course, this year I'm not nominating, because I want nothing to do with Worldcon Chengdu. But I'll be back nominating for Glasgow)

MH wrote: "* Spear
...
(Of course, this year I'm not nominating, because I want nothing to do with Worldcon Chengdu. But I'll be back nominating for Glasgow)"

Spear is actually a (short) novel, nominate it there. I think a lot will be confused about this one, since the page count is short. (edit: nvm you're not nominating)

re: Chengdu, I wouldn't be participating either except I voted in site selection so I've technically already paid. Even big names in the industry (Jonathan Strahan, Ellen Datlow) are reporting that they have no idea what's going on and Chengdu doesn't have the membership process or communication operational. If the ballot ends up being all-Chinese, I'll wash my hands of it.

Wait, really? I totally thought spear was a novella. I listened to the audio and it was only around four hours.

Kristenelle wrote: "Wait, really? I totally thought spear was a novella. I listened to the audio and it was only around four hours."

Yep, apparently it is ~48,000 words, and novellas are 17,500 - 40,000.

Kalin wrote: "Yep, apparently it is ~48,000 words, and novellas are 17,500 - 40,000..."

There was +-20% rule, so formally novella can be up to 1.2*40k = 48k

I was just thinking about something to do with Ogres today. It really is a good book. I’d include it as a novella nominee.

Stephen wrote: "I was just thinking about something to do with Ogres today. It really is a good book. I’d include it as a novella nominee."

Yes, a nice choice