Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

We have two themes in May:

Trilogy 1 - read the first book of a trilogy. We ran a poll in late January where we selected the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers, which is now up to four books. The first in the series, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, will be the May book. The other three books in the series will follow in June, July & August.

Start An Author - pick a book whose author we haven't read before as a group. Of 277 authors in the H/N list, we have read books by 105, so there's an extensive list to choose from (post a nomination and I'll let you know if the author is eligible).

Remember that books must meet the following criteria:
- Must be a Hugo or Nebula nominee
- May not be a nominee from the last five award years (those have their own theme)
- It may be the first of a series, but not a later book in the series, unless the earlier book(s) have been read by the group.

I’ll nominate Dinner at Deviant's Palace by Tim Powers. 1985 Nebula nominee.

I'd like to nominate Distraction by Bruce Sterling, 1999 Hugo nominee.

A big chunk of authors on that list are ineligible based on our recency rule.

I was planning to nominate Islands in the Net by Sterling, but won't double up on the author.

I'll nominate Slow River by Nicola Griffith

Kalin wrote: "A big chunk of authors on that list are ineligible based on our recency rule. ..."

I know, I was going to take a second pass at it once I finished putting the whole thing in, but I'm not sure the list is even necessary since we've got a few nominations.

I nominated Distraction because I've really wanted to read it for a long time & could never find a copy. I finally broke down and bought one, so I figured I'd nominate it. From the blurb & the reviews, it seems very relevant to today's social environment.

OK, The Butterfly Kid by Chester Anderson

I nominate Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh (or the next book in the series if this one's already been read by the group)

Second Dinner at Deviant's Palace

Norman wrote: "I nominate Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh (or the next book in the series if this one's already been read by the group)"

We read it in March 2023, no spoiler thread is HERE. The second book of the series, Merchanter's Luck wasn't Hugo/Nebula nominated therefore ineligible. I've read both and found them interesting, even if they are a bit hard to follow - therefore upon a re-read I liked the Station more

I think Norman meant to nominate for series, but we already have a selection for that. So far, for Start-An-Author, we have:

Dinner at Deviant's Palace by Tim Powers
The Butterfly Kid by Chester Anderson
Distraction by Bruce Sterling
Slow River by Nicola Griffith

Some good choices, all authors I enjoy. I'll let it go another day or so, then put the poll up.

Poll is up!

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...

Some excellent choices this month. I've read two of them, one just a couple weeks ago, but the other two I've been looking forward to for a long time.

Dinner at Deviant's Palace by Tim Powers is the winner for Start-An-Author!