I meant to post this in July, after posting Part 1, but my summer plans overtook me. So here I am posting Part 2 after both my full Hugo ballot, a post on my Worldcon talks, and my report on Worldcon. Oh, well.
Here are my reviews of Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Someone You Can Built a Nest In by John Wiswell, and The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. The last of these won this year's Hugo for Best Novel, which didn't bother me as I enjoyed the book, but it did somewhat surprise me: I found it enjoyable, but ultimately not as innovative or interesting as the others.
Anyway, I was getting close to the Hugo voting deadline when I wrote my original reviews on Goodreads, so I've expanded them just a bit here.
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Here's my short Goodreads review:
It took me a bit to get into this, but eventually you get some great Tchaikovsky Big Ideas, some of which may relate to thoughts I’ve had recently about nondualism—we’re all connected but not thereby reduced to a single homogeneous whole. More soon!
Well, I never got around to extenting this review on Goodreads, but I did add a bit here on the blog when I wrote about my Hugo ballot.
I was thrilled to see not one, but two, Adrian Tchaikovsky novels on the list, and I loved both of them. Ultimately I decided to put Alien Clay at the #1 spot for the innovative way it blends both biological and political speculation, although I admit that the robot POV in Service Model was exceptionally well done and thought-provoking by an author who specializes in unique and thought-provoking POVs.
To add just a tad more: I ultimately thought Alien Clay did best according to my usual three main Hugo voting criteria: being philosophically interesting, being innovative in the genre, and being enjoyable. I ranked it #1 on my ballot. In particular, I thought the way that Tchaikovsky blended both the weird biology and the weird politics into a cohesive weird story was exceptional--how does he do it? Amazing!
Someone You Can Built a Nest In by John Wiswell
I wrote another short Goodreads review on this one:
I'm not sure if "cozy horror-fantasy-romance" was a thing before, but it is now! And nobody could pull this off as well as John Wiswell, whose short stories I've enjoyed (especially "Open House on Haunted Hill"). I wasn't sure this premise could fill a whole novel and it does drag a bit (especially toward the end), but overall I found the characters and the whole exercise so delightful that I didn't mind.
I don't have much more to add, but I did really enjoy this one. I put it at #4 on my list, below the science fiction novels and above the other fantasy novels on the list. I found the premise interesting and fun to read about. I will look forward to more from Wiswell!
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
Wow, people really liked this one! I talked to several people at Worldcon who raved about it. It won the Hugo by a fairly larger margin, according to the Hugo voting statistics. My theory is that Bennett captures that fun snarky nerd energy that you get from people like John Scalzi and Joss Whedon (at least before we found out Whedon was a jerk). Also, the mystery element and the kaiju and everything are really fun. And maybe the Hugo voters are wiser than I in choosing a novel that's fun above all? Or maybe they latched on to the more innovative elements I touch on below in my Goodreads review?
A fun fantasy with heavy elements of mystery and some deep world building with giant kaiju in a complex world that's almost as interesting as something like N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series. The main character's boss is an awesome and hilarious absent-minded professor type. I may have more to say later, but one influence I haven't seen mentioned is Dune: you have a giant empire filled with enhanced humans and many of the enhancements are derived from giant beasts. I look forward to learning more about this world in the sequels when they arrive as inevitably as the titans.
And there you have it! It's funny looking at those voting stats, because my ranking for the novels was pretty different than the majority of Hugo voters. I'm not sure what to think of that. Maybe this year I was letting my general preference for science fiction over fantasy influence me too much? Maybe I just really like Tchaikovsky more than a lot of people? Maybe I'm too reliant on my Hugo voting criteria, and should lighten up a bit? Who knows?
Another surprise: I also thought The Ministry of Time was pretty likely to win as a time-travel romance that touches on big social and political issues, but I was surprised to see it so low on the list of the overall votes (only Service Model ranked lower). Huh.
Another thing about those voting stats: not that many people are actually voting for this stuff, which means that you, dear reader, should consider becoming a Hugo voter in 2026! Every vote really does make a difference to the future history of science fiction, fantasy, and horror!
Now I will tell myself I will start reading the Hugo nominees earlier next year, knowing full well that I probably won't. Happy reading!
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