Hugo Award

2020 Hugo Nominees

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This year’s Hugo award nominees were announced today. For the most part, they’re all unknown to me, save the following:

Looks like of the textual nominees, the only one(s) I’ve read is Best Series nominee Tade Thompson’s The Wormwood Trilogy, courtesy of the final book’s nomination for the P.K. Dick award. I really enjoyed those, though!

I’ve seen 2/3 of the long form dramatic presentations, missing only Russian Doll S1 (the first couple episodes were fun, but didn’t get further through, for no particular reason) and Jordan Peele’s Us (which is on my “to watch” list).

Only seen one of the short form nominees, The Mandalorian‘s “Redemption”, but I couldn’t tell you which episode that was, so…🤷‍♂️.

Congratulations to all the nominees, and I look forward to finding out which book will be added to my Hugo Best Novel reading project!

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📚 sixteen of 2020: This Immortal by Roger Zelazny ⭐️⭐️ 1966 Hugo Best Novel

Meh. Maybe it’s a combination of mid-60s SF and the current pandemic stress, and I might have been more receptive at another time, but this was a slog.

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📚 three of 2020: Dune, by Frank Herbert ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1966 Hugo Best Novel

This one (mostly) holds up well; still an excellent book, with its mix of SF adventure, ecological messages, political maneuvering, and religious themes. Well worth the re-read after many years.

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📚 sixty of 2019: The Wanderer, by Fritz Leiber. ⭐️⭐️ 1965 Hugo Best Novel

Veers wildly between interesting concepts (a planet the size of Earth appears in Earth’s orbit, affecting tectonics, tides, etc.), and incredibly dated plots that do not age well.

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📚 fifty-seven of 2019: Way Station, by Clifford D. Simak. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1964 Hugo Best Novel

Excellent book, mostly quiet and contemplative, as one man struggles with both his and humanity’s place in the galaxy. An introspective and ultimately hopeful piece.

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📚 fifty-five of 2019: The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1963 Hugo Best Novel

Fascinating partly for the primary alt history, but also for other alternatives and the ruminations on those, an author’s intent, and the characters’ realizations.

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Book fifty of 2019: Conjure Wife, by Fritz Leiber. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1944 Retro Hugo Best Novel

I enjoyed this one more than I expected when I started it. There’s an entertaining story in here, you just have to deal with the very mid-40s gender stereotypes.

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Book forty-five of 2019: Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1962 Hugo Best Novel

Good story, and this was very likely one of my earliest introductions to any sort of consensual non-monogamy ideas, but gender role and sexuality issues bother me.

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Book thirty-nine of 2019: A Canticle for Liebowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr._ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1961 Hugo Best Novel

Not terribly optimistic in its outlook towards humanity’s ability to learn from our mistakes, but an excellent and far-reaching post-apocalyptic tale.