My 2021 Hugo ballot continues (see short stories and novelettes here) with novellas and the most high-profile category: novels. You can see the full list of finalists here.
As I've mentioned before, I've been voting for the Hugos for several years, and I rely on my Three Principles of Hugo Voting (but maybe not exclusively: I've been consistently inconsistent in the past and it would be inconsistent to change that now).
You'd think extending the deadline to November instead of the usual late summer time would help, but then you'd be underestimating my powers of procrastination and how busy a time November is in my academic calendar. I think I did pretty well this year considering how many categories there are. I was even more down-to-the-wire than usual this year, but it would be a full job in itself just reading all that stuff, so I'm not going too hard on myself.
So without further ado, here's how I voted!
There's some great stuff in this high-profile category this year, and also some stuff that's not my thing. I read Rebecca Roanhorse's Black Sun in the summer back when I thought Hugo ballots were due soon and that the pandemic might be inching toward an end (I turned out to be wrong about both of those things). That novel was my #1 pick before I read the others, and I never changed my mind. I also really liked Susanna Clarke's Piranesi, but didn't have time to write a full review. Some of my other rankings are as surprising to me as they are to anyone.
1. Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Gallery / Saga Press / Solaris)
- From my review: "I enjoyed Roanhorse's other work, but I was super excited when I heard she was writing a high fantasy inspired by the histories and cultures of the Americas (especially Mesoamerican cultures). In the afterword, she expresses her own frustration with Eurocentric fantasy, and I'm pleased to say that she does a fantastic job, joining the ranks of other recent explorations of non-Eurocentric fantasy by N. K. Jemisin, Fonda Lee, and others, but while giving her own stamp on the genre."
2. Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
- From my Goodreads review: "This is an odd little book, but one I liked. I can't tell if it's exactly as clever as it seemed to me in my rather hasty reading (I'm rushing to meet the deadline for voting for the Hugos), or if there are hidden depths and unexplored passages waiting for me if I take the time to ponder them properly. Maybe I will find a full review in some hall or other if the tides are right."
3. The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books / Solaris)
- If I had realized how long this third book in Kowal's Lady Astronaut series was or (honestly) if I had liked the previous book in this series more, I probably would have started this sooner. Weirdly, I loved the first one, but the second one didn't work as well for me. Still, I figured I'd pick this up. Alas, I only got about 100 pages in before Hugo ballots were due. I am going to finish it, but here's my update on Goodreads: "Hugo ballots are due in 1 hour and 52 minutes, so I'm not going to finish this in time, but so far it seems better than the second one but not quite as good as the first. That "new universe smell" wore off in the second one, but it took me a while to remember who's who, although I'm getting there. A lot of set up so far, but then this is over 500 pages, which I didn't realize until I opened the box."
- Even though my Hugo voting principles say to prefer people who haven't won Hugos above those who have and Jemisin won three in a row in recent years, this alone wouldn't give me reason to rank this lower on the list. The weird thing is: I thought this book was just okay. From my Goodreads review: "This is not the groundbreaking work the Broken Earth trilogy is (urban fantasy rarely is in my opinion), but it has some cool ideas. I like the idea of the multiverse and a density of stories making up how cities interact in that multiverse (at least I think that's what the idea was...). The concept of cities being "born" at certain points in their history is interesting ... Still, there's something a bit ... condescending about the fact that only certain kinds of cities undergo this birth..."
5. Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tor.com)
- I'm as surprised as anyone to find Murderbot so low on my list. But here we are. I think the whole Murderbot thing lost its charm for me. Or maybe there are too many long and tedious descriptions of space battles in this one. I don't know. Like I said, I'm as surprised as anyone. From my Goodreads review: "I enjoyed the first few Murderbot novellas, but I just couldn't finish this one."
Not ranked: Harrow The Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com)
- I really thought about reading this sequel to Gideon the Ninth. I even checked it out from the library. But when I remembered how much I kind of liked aspects of the first one but how much effort I had to summon to push myself through it... I just couldn't do it. Sorry. At least I made it available to other library patrons who might enjoy it.
Best Novella
The novella category is usually a highlight for me. Novellas are often just the right length: enough of a story to sink your teeth into, but not so much you can't finish your meal. And when you do have the problem of wanting more (as I definitely do with my #1 pick), that's not a bad problem to have. Also my top three choices are just fun reads, even given the seriousness of their subject matter. My #4 and #5 pick are also serious, but not as fun in my opinion.
1. Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com)
- It turns out I saved the best for last, having finished Ring Shout two days before Hugo ballots were due. I loved everything about this, except that it left me wanting more. From my Goodreads review: "In 1920's Macon, Georgia, we meet our protagonist, Maryse, who is a monster hunter. In this universe the KKK isn't just racist white people, although they have those, too, here called Klans. There are also monsters called Ku Kluxes that look like humans to most people, unless you have a power to see them like Maryse. She also happens to have a magic sword. ... In the Acknowledgements, Clark mentions that fantasy doesn't have to be set in places like Middle-Earth or even imagined Africa. It can be distinctly American: we have plenty of horrors, inspirations, and mythologies here at home.I loved the idea that hate eats you up inside (literally in this case!) and dehumanizes the hater as well as the hated (it may also summon interdimensional creatures). Maryse has to decide whether to hate. She's angry, yes, and justifiably so, but will she hate?"
2. Finna, Nino Cipri (Tor.com)
- This was one of the most fun things I read for the Hugos this year. But it also has some emotional and philosophical depth. From my Goodreads review: "I really enjoyed everything about this: the characters, the story, the confluence of a multiverse story and a critique of capitalism. Our main characters were formerly in a romantic relationship and are now trying to figure out how to be friends. They navigate their new relationship as they have soul-crushing jobs together at the bland capitalist nightmare of Definitely-Not-IKEA(tm). Of course, wouldn't you know it? There are doors to other universes in Definitely-Not-IKEA(tm)."
3. Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey (Tor.com)
- Another fun one with a bit of depth. From my Goodreads review: "In an American West so-new-it's old in a (post apocalyptic?) future, Esther is on the run after her lover is executed, stowing away in a wagon of Librarians who roam the land distributing Approved Materials. But of course not is all as it seems... Much like Gailey's alternative history hippo caper, River of Teeth, this one has some fun with the premise (I mean, badass Librarians of a future-old West? Cool!)."
4. Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi (Tor.com)
- This one has an interesting premise and deals with some serious issues, but ultimately it's a bit more abstract and not as much fun as some of the others. Still good, though. From my review: "It took me awhile to get into Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi, or really, to figure out what was going on. But once I did get into this novella, it was a look at life for African Americans in recent decades through the experiences of a single family, united by a sort of magic/psychic power that allows them to see scenes from the past. It's hard to really summarize, though, because reading it is a big part of the experience. For instance, the bits of narrative alternate between times and places in a way that feels jarring at first, but I think Onyebuchi's deeper point is that the past is never just the past."
5. The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo (Tor.com)
- In some objective sense, I'm sure this is a great and subtle story, but it maybe just wasn't my thing. From my Goodreads review: "Like the contextless lists of things (sort of like narrative still life portraits?) at the beginning of several chapters, I felt like this novella has a lot of beautiful parts that just didn't come together for me. I like the fantasy setting inspired by Imperial China, but there's not enough world building to give much of a sense of it."
Not ranked: Come Tumbling Down, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com)
- Having not read any of the previous four books in this series, I didn't feel like I could rank this fifth one. The books in this series have been on the list of Hugo finalists almost every year I've voted for the Hugos. I tried to read the first one years ago, and it didn't seem like my thing. Maybe I was wrong, but it's probably too late to find out now. Does this make me a bad Hugo voter? Probably. One of these years I will actually read everything in the novel and novella category (as I do for the short stories and novelettes), but all things considered I feel like I did pretty well this year with 5/6 novellas and roughly 4.25/6 novels with intentions to finish The Relentless Moon.
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