Only hours left to get in your Hugo ballots! By long* tradition, my ballot and reasoning below.
Best Novel
1 – Ancillary Justice, obviously. So cool that in addition to my standard Book Club Review I also had to write a second post, about the themes I loved within it. Deserves the win.
2 – Warbound. This was a bit of a hard call. I wouldn’t consider either of them to be a “great” work, but Warbound is certainly less interesting and more popcorny. So why Warbound above Neptune’s Brood? I guess I just preferred its tone of humanity ultimately being good, if flawed, over Brood’s brooding “all humans are scum” feel. That makes up for a lot.
3 – Neptune’s Brood.
4 – Parasite. I didn’t read it. I slogged through the last three books Mira Grant managed to get nominated, all of which were too long and two of which sucked. I know Seanan McGuire is awesome IRL, I’d love to hang out with her (altho if she ever saw this I doubt the feeling would be mutual). But I simply no longer trust her to tell a story. Certainly not enough to entrust her with many hours of my life. If she ever writes something really awesome I’ll have to be told of it by others, I certainly won’t find out for myself.
5 – Wheel of Time. I’m glad this got on the ballot, it’s fun to stick a wrench in the works from time to time. :) But let’s get serious when we’re voting.
Only read one Novella (Valente, cuz she’s awesome), so I’m not voting there.
Best Novelette
1 – Truth of Fact, Truth of Feeling
2 – Lady Astronaut of Mars
3 – The Waiting Stars
4 – The Exchange Officers
5 – Opera Vita Aeterna
Explanation why, and reviews, here.
Best Short Story
1 – Selkie Stores Are for Losers
2 – Ink Readers of Doi Saket
3 – If You Were a Dinosaur
4 – The Water That Falls on You From Nowhere
Explanation why, and reviews, here.
No votes in any other catagories, since I haven’t read/seen enough of the ballot to make an informed decision. Although y’all really should read We Have Always Fought if you haven’t already, it’s really good.
*since last year