Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

Monthly Themes for 2024

Jan - 60s & 90s (least read decades)
Feb - One-Hit Wonders & Debut Novels
Mar - Women, SF & Fantasy
Apr - No books, catch-up month
May - Space Opera & Trilogy 1
Jun - Dark Fantasy & Trilogy 2
Jul - Finish A Year/Author & Trilogy 3
Aug - Extremely/Very Long (1 book)
Sep - First Contact & Military SF (new themes/shelves)
Oct - Anticipating & Dreading
Nov - Close Calls & Big Losers
Dec - Shorts (3)

Works for me 🤙 👍

By January, I'm gonna be ahead by at least 2 for stories written during the 60s.

Here's the history with 2024 included:

January
2019: Long & Short
2020: Hard SF & Fantasy
2021: Very Short & Re-Reads/Make-Ups
2022: Post-2000's & Mini-Series 1
2023: Old (30s-50s) & New (00s-10s)
2024: 60s & 90s (least read decades)

February
2019: Time Travel & Retro
2020: Apocalypse & Humor
2021: Mini-Series
2022: Dark/Urban Fantasy & Mini-Series 2
2023: One-Hit Wonders & Alt-History
2024: One-Hit Wonders & Debut Novels

March
2019: Women
2020: Women
2021: Women
2022: Women, SF & Fantasy
2023: Women, SF & Fantasy (also Trilogy 1)
2024: Women, SF & Fantasy

April
2018: Fantasy & Steampunk
2019: Light SF & Humor
2020: Artificial Intelligence & Alien Invasion
2021: 90's & Fantasy
2022: No books, catch-up month
2023: No books, catch-up month
2024: No books, catch-up month

May
2018: New Releases & 70's
2019: Anticipating & Dreading
2020: Steampunk & Cyberpunk
2021: Mini-Series
2022: Humorous & Steampunk
2023: Trilogy 2 & Hard SF
2024: Space Opera & Trilogy 1

June
2018: Dystopia & Space Opera
2019: Hugo-Nominated & Nebula-Nominated
2020: 70's & 90's
2021: Retro Hugo & Hard SF
2022: 80's & Retro Hugos
2023: Trilogy 3 & Debuts
2024: Dark Fantasy & Trilogy 2

July
2018: Mini-Series
2019: Hard SF & Fantasy
2020: Alt-History & Time Travel
2021: Anticipating & Dreading
2022: Time Travel & High Fantasy
2023: Adapted to Screen & Finish A Year/Author
2024: Finish A Year/Author & Trilogy 3

August
2018: 00's & Alt-History & Shorts (added for page count)
2019: Extremely Long
2020: Eco-Fiction & Retro Hugo
2021: Very Long Reads
2022: Alien Invasion & One-Hit Wonders
2023: Extremely/Very Long (1 book)
2024: Extremely/Very Long (1 book)

September
2018: Dystopia & Space Opera & Shorts (added for page count)
2019: Close Calls & Bad Losers
2020: 30's-70's & 80's-10's
2021: 70's
2022: Anticipating & Dreading
2023: Multiple Awards & Newly Eligible (2018)
2024: First Contact & Military SF (new themes/shelves)

October
2018: Scary (series)
2019: Scary
2020: Scary
2021: Scary
2022: Apocalyptic & Birth Year
2023: Anticipating & Dreading
2024: Anticipating & Dreading

November
2018: Scary (series) & First Contact
2019: 60's & Space Opera
2020: Hugo Winners & Nebula Winners
2021: Close Calls & Big Losers
2022: Close Calls & Big Losers
2023: Close Calls & Big Losers
2024: Close Calls & Big Losers

December
2019: Shorts (3)
2020: Close Calls & Big Losers
2021: Shorts (3)
2022: Shorts (3)
2023: Shorts (3)
2024: Shorts (3)

Mmmmmm...so much tasty wordage, so little time!

when I opened this all I saw was scary scary scary lol

A note on nomination eligibility. We have a five year waiting period to encourage members to try out older H/N novels.

Starting in Jan., the 2019 H/N nominees will be eligible to pick as group reads, but there are only four that our group hasn't read yet (our waiting period was set up after we'd tackled most of these). They are Record of a Spaceborn Few, Revenant Gun, Witchmark, and The Poppy War. We didn't think it made sense that there would be a poll just of these four, so unlike this past September when we did a "Newly Eligible" poll, we won't have one in 2024; but you can nominate or vote for any of these if they fit other categories.

Thanks for the reminder Kalin and the great list Alan, not sure why but really I like the lists 🤓

Rebecca wrote: "Thanks for the reminder Kalin and the great list Allan, not sure why but really I like the lists 🤓"

lol, I'm one of those "list" people, if you haven't noticed already

Thanks for all the work, Allan (and Kalin)

This looks like a great list for 2024. Thanks!

yes indeed, that looks excellent.

One other PSA:

For the "trilogy" polls from May-July, we're also going to allow series that have three or less books remaining to be read. For example, we just read Hyperion last month, so for the three month "trilogy" categories, you could nominate The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion instead of being strictly limited to a trilogy.

We'll provide a list of all the trilogies/series that fit this bill when the time comes to nominate, so you know what's available to choose from.

Posting a reminder here for the "Start-an-Author" theme for 2025. I think it would be good for January.