I only know Charles Stross and Vaughan because I read a bit of the Saga comic book.
All but one of the novel nominees were written by women. And all but one of the novella nominees likewise. And all but one of the novelette nominees. AND all but one of the short story nominees. That must be a first for this award. The best series nominee authors include two men. This is the Year of the Woman in science fiction.
I’ve read three of the novel nominees (Chambers, Kowal, and Novik) and want to read another (Valente). The only one I’ve not heard of is Trail of Lightning, which I’ll now put on my shortlist. This is a great slate. I hope Chambers wins this year. She rocks. Suck it Puppies!
Trail of Lightning is fantastic and well deserving of the nomination.
Yeah, I mistyped “now” as “not” (corrected above.) I intend to read it.
Both Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers and Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee are deserving. I’ve heard great things about Spinning Silver, The Calculating Stars, and Trail of Lightning but haven’t read them. I wasn’t fond of Space Opera.
I’m sure Martha Wells’ murderbot novella is great, but I haven’t read it. However, The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard is excellent. Holmes & Watson only Watson is a spaceship.
WHAT
I want to read that.
My experience with Valente is that she’s very hit or miss. Sometimes I love her stuff to death (Palimpsest). Other times I’m left scratching my head (Radiance.) Sounds like Space Opera might be one of the latter?
In the Verge review linked in that nominee list they called Space Opera the funniest book they’d read since Douglas Adams, it made me interested. I do love me some Douglas Adams.
I don’t want to rag on Space Opera too much, but it felt to me like it was trying way too hard to be like Douglas Adams, and more importantly for me the humor just plain missed. That’s why I don’t want to be too hard on it, because humor is notoriously subjective. Also the part that I read (I didn’t finish) made it seem like glam rock was somehow the leading terrestrial music form in the current day, overlooking virtually all of hiphop in addition to later developments in rock and pop both in Britain and worldwide.
I’ve read the first Wayfarers book (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet); is Record of a Spaceborn Few the third or fourth one? I know I’m behind and this is a good reminder to read the other ones.
It’s the third one, but they’re all pretty standalone. They’re set in the same universe, but are only tangentially related to each other. It doesn’t really matter what order you read them in. Her next novel is not, I believe, going to be set in the same universe. It’s entirely standalone.
Oh wow, I just assumed the next novel is a fourth Wayfarers. I totally made an ass outta you and me!
Just finished The selected works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen. Picked it up in the book store because of its looks (lots of little drawings, notes, maps etc in the sidelines) and wasn’t disappointed. However, because of those drawings and stuff, this probably won’t be available on an e-reader…
And I just started Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Which everyone will probably have read already, it being from 1985, but man it is good! I was hooked immediately! Are the other books in this series just as good?
No.
I mean, the second one is interesting, and that’s it.
Ah crap. Oh well, at least I’ll enjoy this one and probably the next then.
It isn’t a planned series. Ender’s Game was a big success, and Card wanted to capitalize on it and also respond to the moral criticisms of the book, so wrote Speaker for the Dead which — as Juan says — is interesting. The rest are exercises in monetization.
No, but the parallel series (starting from Ender’s Shadow) is, IMO. That said, it’s Card and I feel icky even sorta recommending it.
Ender’s Game is sort of the exemplar for Card; a really well-crafted book about really bad ideas.
Yeah, I read the second and didn’t really care for it, so I was done with the series after that. Now of course I have the additional hurdle of Card’s objectionable politics to get over if I decide to pick up one of his books.
I would highly recommend the second book Speaker for the Dead, it is still one of my favorite books of all time.
But I agree with all the others that the sequels after that can be ignored. Xenocide and Children of the Mind just muck things up.