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Hugo nominated novels 2012
Apr. 8th, 2012 10:18 pmMuch to my delight, I've read all this year's Hugo nominated novels. I suspect that A Dance With Dragons may be a shoo-in for best novel, I'd probably pick Among Others as my novel of the year. And, if I had to pick a second choice, I'd probably plump for Deadline rather than Embassytown.
Why? Well for all that Dance is an impressive achievement, the narrative structure is so shaky that I don't think it works as a conventional novel. As a series of connected stories set in the same world? Absolutely. As monolithic entity? Not so much. But is that going to bother the voters? I suspect not.
Among Others on the other hand, is pure delight. As book about growing clever and bookish and outside the normal conventions, it's note perfect. Especially to someone who grew up clever and bookish and dyslexic. As a guide to 1950-70s genre fiction it's increably practical. As a liminal fantasy novel with a first person narrator who may by unreliable and who finds herself struggling with a difficult life that may be being made more difficult by her mother's witchcraft, it's a thing of lyrical beauty.
Sorting through the other nominees is tough because they all fall into different categories. Leviathan Wakes is good fun and extremely well written, but it's not a book that sets out to challenge assumptions. Embassytown is smarter — let's face it, Embassytown is smarter than God — but there are so many ideas that it suffers a bit in the character department. Deadline is both a pacy thriller and book with some serious clever ideas behind it. It skillfully subverts a lot of the normative assumptions that the reader is asked to accept without question in Feed in a way that reshapes the world in a consistant and interesting way. It also features some great characters, including a lead who is in the middle of what looks like an acute psychotic break, something that makes his actions appearantly thoughtless and occasionally unpleasant without making them inexplicable or unsympathetic.
Seems like a pretty reasonable list to me.
Why? Well for all that Dance is an impressive achievement, the narrative structure is so shaky that I don't think it works as a conventional novel. As a series of connected stories set in the same world? Absolutely. As monolithic entity? Not so much. But is that going to bother the voters? I suspect not.
Among Others on the other hand, is pure delight. As book about growing clever and bookish and outside the normal conventions, it's note perfect. Especially to someone who grew up clever and bookish and dyslexic. As a guide to 1950-70s genre fiction it's increably practical. As a liminal fantasy novel with a first person narrator who may by unreliable and who finds herself struggling with a difficult life that may be being made more difficult by her mother's witchcraft, it's a thing of lyrical beauty.
Sorting through the other nominees is tough because they all fall into different categories. Leviathan Wakes is good fun and extremely well written, but it's not a book that sets out to challenge assumptions. Embassytown is smarter — let's face it, Embassytown is smarter than God — but there are so many ideas that it suffers a bit in the character department. Deadline is both a pacy thriller and book with some serious clever ideas behind it. It skillfully subverts a lot of the normative assumptions that the reader is asked to accept without question in Feed in a way that reshapes the world in a consistant and interesting way. It also features some great characters, including a lead who is in the middle of what looks like an acute psychotic break, something that makes his actions appearantly thoughtless and occasionally unpleasant without making them inexplicable or unsympathetic.
Seems like a pretty reasonable list to me.
