Hugo Awards Announced on Sunday

I will be in Virginia when the Hugo Awards are announced, but I actually voted this year for the first time.  I'm not sure if I "should" share my votes, although it doesn't hurt anything since this is a popular vote.  You can watch the live coverage here, and see the entire list of nominees here.  I'm going to write brief comments on the item I voted #1 for in each category. 

I should also note that when you vote, you vote from 1-5.  That way if your top voted item gets discarded for low votes, your vote still somehow counts for something.  For me, it was far easier to pick a winner than to differentiate between 3 and 4.

Did you vote in the Hugo Awards?  Do you have a beef with my selections?  Leave a comment!

Best Novel

• Embassytown, China Miéville (Macmillan / Del Rey)

In the end, the world building and very interesting aliens won me over.  This was a slow read, and I really had to invest time as a reader.  I suspect that will turn many readers off, and expect Martin or Walton to win.

Best Novella

• Silently and Very Fast, Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA)

I'm afraid that when Valente is on the list, I don't see the others, but only because I think she is amazing.  I did read them all.   "Inside, Neva is infinite. She peoples her Interior."

Best Novelette

• “Ray of Light”, Brad R. Torgersen (Analog) 

This category was harder, but in the end I went with the underocean community.  

Best Short Story

• “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”, E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld)

This story was my favorite from the Nebula pool too!

Best Related Work

• The Steampunk Bible: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Imaginary Airships, Corsets and Goggles, Mad Scientists, and Strange Literature, Jeff VanderMeer and S. J. Chambers (Abrams Image)
• Writing Excuses, Season 6 (podcast series), Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Jordan Sanderson

I unfortunately can't find my ballot.  I know I voted for one of these.  I deliberated a long time because Writing Excuses is one of my favorite podcasts, and has been very entertaining and useful to me.  The Steampunk Bible was a beautifully put together coffee table book about steampunk, and has its own share of the recent controversy.  I discovered new music and new authors because of some of the entries.

Best Graphic Story

• Locke & Key Volume 4: Keys To The Kingdom, written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)
• The Unwritten (Volume 4): Leviathan, created by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, written by Mike Carey, illustrated by Peter Gross (Vertigo)

I voted for Locke & Key, and will go back to read the entire run.  The Unwritten had a story line that really appealed to me, and beautiful art.  (See, voting was hard.  I would have been happy to assign multiple first places.)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, screenplay by Steve Kloves; directed by David Yates (Warner Bros.)

Yeah yeah yeah, I know.  But I loved this rendition of the triumphant end.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

I recused myself from this category.  Maybe by next year, I will have caught up with Doctor Who!

Best Semiprozine

• Locus, edited by Liza Groen Trombi, Kirsten Gong-Wong, et al.

This category was impossible because each of these zines has a different focus and a different audience.  It was completely based on which I thought I'd go back to.  And then last month Locus Online linked to my blog about Shared Worlds.  It was fate.

Best Fanzine

• SF Signal, edited by John DeNardo

Another difficult choice.

Best Fancast

• SF Squeecast, Lynne M. Thomas, Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, Elizabeth Bear, and Catherynne M. Valente

Another completely impossible category, but I think this fancast is the best representation of the female perspective, of which I am one.  :)

Best Editor, Long Form

• Lou Anders

Wow, Lou has brought a lot of important authors to print.

Best Editor, Short Form

• John Joseph Adams

I wanted to vote for Adams and Strahan.  Adams is one of the central forces that pulled me into being a more serious SF/F reader, and I will never forget.

I didn't vote on the art categories.

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

• Karen Lord
• E. Lily Yu

I wanted to vote for both of these authors.  In the end, I chose Karen Lord because I had voted for E. Lily Yu for her story.  Both have great futures ahead of them, and I will continue reading their work!

The Forrests by Emily Perkins

The Forrests by Emily Perkins

Publisher summary:

For fans of Zoë Heller and Zadie Smith, a vibrant and vital novel about the way family—with its dysfunctional bonds, sibling love, and rivalry—enduringly defines us.

Dorothy Forrest is immersed in the sensory world around her; she lives in the flickering moment. From the age of seven, when her odd, disenfranchised family moves from New York to the wide skies of New Zealand, to the very end of her life, this is her great gift and possible misfortune.

From the wilderness of a commune to falling in love to early marriage and motherhood, from the glorious anguish of parenting to the loss of everything worked for and the unexpected return oflove, Dorothy is swept along by time. Her family looms and recedes, revelations come to light, death changes everything, but somehow life remains as potent as it ever was, and the joy in just being won’t let her go.

In a narrative that shifts and moves, singing with color and memory, growing as wild as its characters, The Forrests speaks to the unexpected ways in which life can change—“if you’re lucky enough to be around for it.”

I first heard about this book in Publishers Weekly's Fiction Review, so when I was given the opportunity to be a participant in a virtual book tour for it, I jumped at the chance.

This is pitched as a dysfunctional family book, and that isn't wrong exactly, but I think it takes more of an explanation. The story is told in vignettes and I think I was probably 1/3 of the way in before I had a clear grasp of the characters. Even then, I am not sure I ever completely grasped what was motivating Daniel, Lee, or even Dorothy most of the time. The children (the Forrests) would slip in and out of stories at such rapid frequency that it was difficult to keep track or really understand them as characters. The parents are practically nonexistent, and the children don't really do a good job at making their own way, crisscrossing between countries and continents. Family at one point is referred to as a "thrashing octopus," and I think the events and struggles are very reflective of this idea.

My favorite story, "Out There" (chapter 5), chronicles when Daniel and Evelyn are briefly living together at a ski resort. It was beautifully told - painful, with tiny details that become important, and finishes unresolved. I wish more of the book had been so effective.

Communion Town by Sam Thompson

Communion Town: A City in Ten Chapters by Sam Thompson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel is on the 2012 Booker longlist, and is not described as short stories; it seems to be ten different narratives in the same fictional city. This city has such a strong effect on people that it becomes its own character.  There is a drawing accompanying each section that comes from part of the title page, and appears to be a segment of the city.

There are unknown creatures (maybe monsters?) in at least one story, unnamed narrators, and the city morphs between feeling Soviet to English to futuristic to noir.  The city might lead to eternal daylight. The city may be controlled by a child-like being who creates one in the sitting room.  The city is dangerous at night.  And a flâneur wreaks havoc at night. 

My favorite was "The Song of Serelight Fair." It had a component of mystery to it that almost all the stories did, where I was pretty much scratching my head at what had happened, but instead of it making me want to quit reading, I wanted to experience more of it.  "Gallathea" is more of a straight detective story, and "Good Slaughter" made me squeamish. 

 To try to categorize or compare this writing, I find more kindred spirits in speculative fiction, like China Miéville, or who could forget the maps of Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente. It even made me think of Mark Z. Danielewski with the house that grows and takes on a character that is to be feared, or at the very least not understood.

As far as my own experience with the Booker goes, I think I'd put it in the same category of "C" by Tom McCarthy, another book I really enjoyed while feeling I barely grasped it.  I think it is incredibly good for a first "novel" (if we're calling it that) and I hope to see more from this author.

Skios by Michael Frayn

Skios: A Novel by Michael Frayn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was one of the few books longlisted for the Booker that I could get my hands on immediately.  

It makes sense that Michael Frayn is best known for his plays, because it is impossible to read this without seeing it staged in my mind. Only after I finished it did I realize he is the same playwright who wrote Noises Off. It has the same feeling to it - farce, silliness, chaos, characters who are so wrapped up in being themselves that they don't pay attention or fix their own problems; necessary for the entire thing to work.

Instead of a stage, this is set on a tiny Greek isle. I laughed a lot and took intentional breaks because it went by too quickly, and I wanted to enjoy it. 

As far as novels set in Greece though, it would be hard to displace The Magus in my mind.

Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig

Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the first Miriam Black book, Blackbirds, which was a good introduction to the unique gift/curse Miriam possesses, of seeing how people will die if she touches their skin. I was a little concerned about reading a second book, because I didn't want her to become routine. When Angry Robot Books offered me an eARC through their Robot Army, I jumped at the chance. It won't come out for the rest of you until October, sorry. But that will give you the chance to read the first book. Get to it!

Miriam is established as a loner in Blackbirds, and for good reason. In Mockingbird, the reader gets deeper insight into her past and the moment she becomes psychic. So much pain! I wasn't expecting to find her where she was in this book, in several situations that require her to be a part of a community, and to connect with other people. Her interactions with the teens and the frumpy teacher were really great, because instead of just being a hard-ass, she was somehow an awkward hard-ass. There was some humor to it, and I'm always caught off guard how Chuck Wendig can pull me from laughing at a subtitle like "fuckity fuck fuck" to being completely grossed out by certain moments involving feathers back to wondering about whether or not Miriam liked Punky Brewster as a kid, all within a matter of moments.

I'm skirting around the major plot line of the book because I don't want to ruin it for anyone. It involves birds and poetry, but don't read butterflies and rainbows into either of those two things. Horrifying, dark, and disturbing. It is Chuck Wendig doing what he does best. I am hoping he someday decides to collaborate with whoever the cover artist is on a graphic novel; wouldn't that be incredible? 

Dracula by Bram Stoker (now with music)

Dracula: A Norton Critical Edition by Bram Stoker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Read to the end for a crowd-sourced Dracula playlist!

"I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange things which I dare not confess to my soul."

I had never read Dracula; somehow, it slipped through all the classes I took and all the lists of books I read like vitamins. I was excited when it was on the reading list for the freeFantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World course I signed up for from Coursera. Another class is next week's assignment - Frankenstein, another book to add to the list of Never Reads.

I was impressed. Dracula has become kitschy in our culture, and other than Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the TV show, not the movie), I usually can't be bothered with vampires. I prefer them singing and dancing. They aren't sexy to me, sorry Anne Rice, and don't even get me started about that series which shall not be named with the sparkle vampire babies.

With that kind of context, it was refreshing to go back to the original. Where vampires are an anomaly, and terrifying. Where it isn't sexy to be attacked, but devastating to a loving relationship. Where Dracula (which he is eventually named) is inhuman, evil, and powerful.

At the same time, he isn't in very much of the book. The story is told through journals of 5-6 characters, as well as a few news clippings. They don't know what is going on, although Dr. Van Helsing might. The reader discovers Dracula as they do, and sometimes knows more than they do. I had read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova a few years back, which is written in a similar way, only spanning generations to tell the story of the historical Dracula. Oh how I wish I'd read this first!

I'm not usually a fan of atmospheric fiction, but it really worked for me here. The slow moving bleak setting and fear the characters experience builds up to an exciting finish.

My only complaint is the bad grammar used to imply a Dutch accent for Van Helsing; it was really grating and I wish the author had accomplished it another way. Still, small potatoes.

"Sleep has no place it can call its own."

When I was halfway through, I posted pleas to Facebook and Twitter for ideas of good music to listen to while reading this book.  When the core of a book is atmosphere, I often go searching for appropriate music.  The people in my circles are awesome.  One of the albums not represented here but is worth hunting down - Dracula by Philip Glass.  Haunting piano score, but not found in Spotify. I'm reading Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig right now, and the same music will be a great accompaniment to Miriam Black's visions.  Well, maybe with fewer hobbits and more death.

Link to the playlist on Spotify.

A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins

A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book comes out in October, but I got to read a copy early because of the Penguin First Flights program.

I found it impossible to read this book without thinking of Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart*. It isn't exactly the same setting, but the main character and his much younger lover felt like they had been picked up and dropped into this book, with a few little tweaks. It was the most bizarre sense of déjà vu I've had as a reader. I get a little tired of middle aged male protagonists who don't know what they want out of life and fail at relationships. It is hard to find anything new in that.

But then, even though he reads like a middle-aged man, I find out that Neill isn't middle aged, but in his 30s. The way he is so jaded and releasing his 'porcelain youth,' he may as well be. Neill has a job helping to train a computer program to try to defeat the Turing test. They are using his father's journals, his father who committed suicide when he was in his late teens.

The techie talk got a bit exhausting, even for me, who enjoys books like The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood and Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker. The young girl character was uninteresting and flat. Joining cults, making bad decisions... yawn. I found myself slogging through it, forcing myself to finish. I'd say I reached a point where I wanted to keep reading about 40% in.

The bits I enjoyed were about far less happy relationships - Neill conversing with his dead father now embodied inside a computer, and secretly meeting his ex-wife for coffee. The flashbacks to his failed marriage are probably the best writing in the book - the pain feels very authentic. Next time, I'd want to see more pain!

* - Gary Shteyngart wrote one of the blurbs on this book. My world just crashed in on itself:
"A brainy, bright, laughter-through-tears, can’t-stop-reading-until-it's-over kind of novel. Fatherless daughters, mother-smothered sons, appealing ex-wives, mouthy high school drop-outs—damn, this book's got something for everyone!"
I imagine Mr. Shteyngart says such things because it reminded him so much of his own work! Ha!