Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

It feels like awhile since we've done a poll for this group!

Starting in May we'll be reading the remainder of the Hyperion Cantos (The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion) over the months of May, June and July. This is our "trilogy" theme. (If you want to join us, use April's "catch-up" theme to read Hyperion, which we covered last fall).

Alongside the trilogy theme for May, we have a subgenre theme for our second book: Space Opera! Anything from our space opera shelf is eligible nominated earlier than 2020, plus anything that should be listed on that shelf but was overlooked, is eligible. Here's the shelf link:

https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

Get your nominations in, we'll get the poll up in a week or so.

I nominate The Weapon Makers by A.E. van Vogt

My nomination is Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer

Hm, I was going to nominate but I like what Kalin suggested. I might submit another one later but I'll second his for now.

I was noticing that the quantity of books on the space opera bookshelf is misleading, because there are so many trilogies and series represented in this subgenre. There are far fewer standalone titles on the list.

I don’t think Lewis’s “space trilogy” should be classified as a Space Opera at all.

Where would you slot them in instead? I don't know if any of the mods have read them before and know where they'd best fit. These categories are always tentative for that reason.

I don’t know if there is a good fit. I see the SF Encyclopedia classifies the first two (Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra aka Voyage to Venus) as Planetary Romances, which makes sense as a traditional sf category. They are almost entirely set on Mars and Venus respectively. That Hideous Strength, the third volume, is set on earth and concerns evil goings on at a scientific research establishment, with strong fantasy elements.

I have nominated Starplex previously, so that's my vote.

I have read the CS Lewis trilogy, but I don't remember a thing about it. I adored Narnia as a child and still do, loved The Screwtape Letters, and I guess I thought these were just OK because I cannot remember anything about them/.

As far as where they belong in our bookcases? No idea

The Lewis trilogy is classified as Theological, First Contact, Space Exploration in WWE. I've read the first two, but I don't remember them at all, certainly not enough to classify them myself.

Last time I was messing with the shelves, I noticed that if a book is listed in a series, it tends not to have other tags that identify its sub-genre, such as space opera. Since space operas tend to be series, that would cut down our shelf considerably. I wanted to remedy that, but it's a big undertaking. On top of that, the definition of space opera is pretty nebulous to me. I think Peter F Hamilton as space opera, huge galactic scale, but there's lots of smaller scale books that identify as space opera. We certainly don't need to limit ourselves to our shelf definitions - I think we're pretty good about that, and I'm willing to move books around.

Since we're not seeing any other nominations, I'll go ahead and toss one out so that we at least have a short list of three:

The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson, 2015 Hugo nominee. It's the first book of a trilogy; books 2 and 3 did not have any award nominations.

Allan wrote: "I'll go ahead and toss one out so that we at least have a short list of three:The Dark Between the Stars by [author:Kevin J. Anderson..."

I am good with The Dark Between the Stars and even have had a copy around here for a while. But I will also nominate The Last Hawk (Saga of the Skolian Empire, #3). It FINALLY came out on Kindle, so everyone should be able to get a copy at this point.

This Skolian "series" is about lots of people in the same family, and this one is about a particular guy, so it can be read without books 1 and 2. Besides, if you were reading them by the Skolian timeline, this book would not be book 3. It might be book 6 or book 9 depending upon where you slot in a few books written later.

The Last Hawk


Putting this link here because when I put it above it made a huge link that covered 2 sentences. Also, italics are not working right for me

*sigh*. It's always something.

When I originally posted the two comments imediately above, I did not realize I had already commented that I would like to read Starplex. Now I have THREE space opera books I want to read in May

I read the nominated Asaro books a couple years ago. It's such a massive series and the books are pretty much stand-alone.

Kateblue wrote: "When I originally posted the two comments imediately above, I did not realize I had already commented that I would like to read Starplex. Now I have THREE space opera books I want to read in May"

I may still vote for Starplex, which I've nominated at least a couple times. With Dark, I just wanted to get something else out to vote on, although it is on my TBR-soon list.

The poll went up a few days ago but I forgot to post the link here:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

I just sent out the invite to the second half of the group. It's a very close vote so far so I'm curious to see the outcome.

And the winner is.......

The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson

lol my pick never wins

Rebecca wrote: "lol my pick never wins"

I nominate all the time, but mine rarely win. I only nominated this one because we needed a few to choose from. I preferred reading Starplex because I've unsuccessfully nominated that one a few times. You never know.

Allan wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "lol my pick never wins"

I nominate all the time, but mine rarely win. I only nominated this one because we needed a few to choose from. I preferred reading Starplex because I've un..."

yes starplex was my pick

I notice that this book is a continuation of "The Saga of the Seven Suns" series. Do we need to read this series before we read that book?

No, this series can be read separately.

I wanted Starplex too, but the group has been allergic to voting up a Sawyer book for quite awhile.

I don't have the Anderson book so I'm going to be doing another personal catch-up read in May, debating between Ancillary Mercy and The Wild Shore. I'm leaning towards Ancillary Mercy because then I can nominate Provenance as my "finish an author" pick in July.