Hugo Nominees Announced and I’ve Read A Few

The Hugo Award nominees were recently announced and I am happy to see that I’ve read a couple. Actually two and I read the first book in the series of another of the nominees. 

BEST NOVEL for 2015

• Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
• The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher (Roc)
• The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
• Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow)
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Del Rey)

I’ve read both Uprooted and The Fifth Season and enjoyed both. I’d probably fall on the side of Uprooted if I had to chose between the two mainly because it was so compelling. I couldn’t put the book down, whereas with The Fifth Season, it took a bit longer to get through and I had to think more about how things fit together. It’s purely subjective though since I think both were worth reading and enjoyable. 

I’ve also read Ancillary Justice which is the first book of the Ancillary series – Mercy is the second. I enjoyed that one as well and now that a Mercy has been nominated I’ll bump that up in my reading list. I’m not sure how Ancillary Mercy goes, but Justice was kinda like The Fifth Season in how it jumped around in time a lot. Both had very distinct time frames and events that were presented out of sequence but I enjoyed piecing them together…eventually. 

I plan on reading the other books on the list and hopefully I’ll be able to make an informed opinion about which on I think should win.  

Trolls

One sad note which is a carry over from last year is the puppies.  Apparently trolls have infested the nomination process for the Hugo Awards and they call themselves puppies – either sad puppies or rabid puppies. In either case, the trolls have decided they want to politicize the process and terrorize the SciFi loving fans. I say terrorize because I see this as akin to the attacks by terrorists on historical landmarks and archeological sites.  To many, the Hugo Awards are historical, with some great works of science fiction being nominated and winning, and these trolls have decided to ruin that history. Usually when I encounter the trolls in League of Legends or other games, I at least give them the benefit of the doubt that they may just be kids, but these trolls have a political agenda.  I don’t realy care one way or another for their politics, but I despise the fact that they want to be a disruptive and destructive force.  

So I will read the books, make my own decisions and leave the trolls to play with themselves. 

Morning Ramble 2.77