2020 Hugo nominees: Best Novel
Jun. 13th, 2020 05:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nonelvisHugo-reading season is in full swing, and oof, I hadn't read any of the six novels nominated, which meant I had a lot of reading to get done once the list was announced. I am still a bit disappointed that Anne Leckie's The Raven Tower didn't make the cut, though I fully expect to see it on the longlist when that's released – but given how incredibly strong this field is, even the two books that weren't really my thing, I'm not surprised that some good work got left behind.
Anyway, all these reviews will look familiar if you follow me on Goodreads.
The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders
This is really more of a 4.5-star book for me simply because I wanted a tiny bit more from the ending, but the worldbuilding is so astonishing and the character growth so compelling that I'll give it five stars without hesitation. Sophie's and Mouth's traumas felt visceral and essential to their character arcs, and the cities of Xiosphant and Argelo – not to mention the titular city, with its nonhuman residents – were so fully realized that you could set any number of other books there and still not run out of stories to tell. I've got five more novels to go for the Hugo list this year, and if they're all this good, I'm going to have a hell of a time ranking them.
Middlegame, Seanan McGuire
McGuire mentions in her afterword that she had to write the book in order for her editor to understand the pitch, and I can see why: Middlegame is urban fantasy, literal Wizard of Oz allegory, alchemical body horror, Harry Potter reference, and YA found-family narrative all in one. And weirdly, even with that unlikely combination of sources, it reminded me very much of another book I love – Tim Powers' Last Call, which hits similar reality-warping fantastical elements – so if you liked that book, you'll like this one, too.
The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley
I've read my share of military SF, and The Light Brigade is very reminiscent of one of my favorites of the genre, Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, not in the least because like that book, it's about the social, moral, and emotional costs of war rather than being a simple glorification of it. But a military SF novel will never be my first choice of reading material even if we weren't already living in an increasingly militarized society, and one in which The Light Brigade's posited future of nation-states run by corporations only interested in exploiting cheap labor and preserving their own power feels all too likely.
So, in short: a good book, but not for me.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow
Yet another really strong entry in 2020's Hugo Awards Best Novel category, The Ten Thousand Doors of January covers what happens when a girl named January Scaller, ward of a wealthy collector of looted archaelogical objects, finds a doorway to another world, and hints that her family may be closely connected to it. Harrow's prose is lovely, and January is fully realized as a headstrong teenager desperate to reunite with her long-lost father, no matter what path her guardian prefers she follow. If I have any complaint, it's that sometimes the villains' pursuit of January lacked urgency – which I suppose was necessary, given the amount of (in fairness, really interesting!) backstory the novel has to provide – but this does slow things down a bit sometimes, and the villain's true motivation felt a little weak to me. But these are honestly small issues that didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the novel that much, even if they mean this won't get the #1 slot on my Hugo ballot.
Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir
Oh, man, this needed editing – the number of characters needed to be pared down, and there was more than one scene I spent wondering how on earth it was pushing the plot or characterization forwards. Also, the modern dialogue ("die in a fire" and other slang) in what was essentially a fantasy setting, albeit one with science fiction elements, was jarring right up to the very end of the book. I can see why this book has its fans, but it's definitely not for me.
A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine
How is this year's Hugo field so good? I knew my friends had loved this book, so I was expecting to love it, too, but now it's my #1 pick even after I was certain I couldn't read anything better than The City in the Middle of the Night. (And it was a very close call between the two books until the end of A Memory Called Empire.) Empire mixes fish-out-of-water elements reminiscent of Ancillary Justice and memory implant elements reminiscent of Ninefox Gambit alongside palace intrigue and truly outstanding worldbuilding, and I was only able to put it down because I had to do silly things like "cook dinner" and "sleep."
My rankings
1. A Memory Called Empire
2. The City in the Middle of the Night
3. Middlegame
4. The Ten Thousand Doors of January
5. The Light Brigade
6. Gideon the Ninth
Anyway, all these reviews will look familiar if you follow me on Goodreads.
The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders
This is really more of a 4.5-star book for me simply because I wanted a tiny bit more from the ending, but the worldbuilding is so astonishing and the character growth so compelling that I'll give it five stars without hesitation. Sophie's and Mouth's traumas felt visceral and essential to their character arcs, and the cities of Xiosphant and Argelo – not to mention the titular city, with its nonhuman residents – were so fully realized that you could set any number of other books there and still not run out of stories to tell. I've got five more novels to go for the Hugo list this year, and if they're all this good, I'm going to have a hell of a time ranking them.
Middlegame, Seanan McGuire
McGuire mentions in her afterword that she had to write the book in order for her editor to understand the pitch, and I can see why: Middlegame is urban fantasy, literal Wizard of Oz allegory, alchemical body horror, Harry Potter reference, and YA found-family narrative all in one. And weirdly, even with that unlikely combination of sources, it reminded me very much of another book I love – Tim Powers' Last Call, which hits similar reality-warping fantastical elements – so if you liked that book, you'll like this one, too.
The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley
I've read my share of military SF, and The Light Brigade is very reminiscent of one of my favorites of the genre, Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, not in the least because like that book, it's about the social, moral, and emotional costs of war rather than being a simple glorification of it. But a military SF novel will never be my first choice of reading material even if we weren't already living in an increasingly militarized society, and one in which The Light Brigade's posited future of nation-states run by corporations only interested in exploiting cheap labor and preserving their own power feels all too likely.
So, in short: a good book, but not for me.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow
Yet another really strong entry in 2020's Hugo Awards Best Novel category, The Ten Thousand Doors of January covers what happens when a girl named January Scaller, ward of a wealthy collector of looted archaelogical objects, finds a doorway to another world, and hints that her family may be closely connected to it. Harrow's prose is lovely, and January is fully realized as a headstrong teenager desperate to reunite with her long-lost father, no matter what path her guardian prefers she follow. If I have any complaint, it's that sometimes the villains' pursuit of January lacked urgency – which I suppose was necessary, given the amount of (in fairness, really interesting!) backstory the novel has to provide – but this does slow things down a bit sometimes, and the villain's true motivation felt a little weak to me. But these are honestly small issues that didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the novel that much, even if they mean this won't get the #1 slot on my Hugo ballot.
Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir
Oh, man, this needed editing – the number of characters needed to be pared down, and there was more than one scene I spent wondering how on earth it was pushing the plot or characterization forwards. Also, the modern dialogue ("die in a fire" and other slang) in what was essentially a fantasy setting, albeit one with science fiction elements, was jarring right up to the very end of the book. I can see why this book has its fans, but it's definitely not for me.
A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine
How is this year's Hugo field so good? I knew my friends had loved this book, so I was expecting to love it, too, but now it's my #1 pick even after I was certain I couldn't read anything better than The City in the Middle of the Night. (And it was a very close call between the two books until the end of A Memory Called Empire.) Empire mixes fish-out-of-water elements reminiscent of Ancillary Justice and memory implant elements reminiscent of Ninefox Gambit alongside palace intrigue and truly outstanding worldbuilding, and I was only able to put it down because I had to do silly things like "cook dinner" and "sleep."
My rankings
1. A Memory Called Empire
2. The City in the Middle of the Night
3. Middlegame
4. The Ten Thousand Doors of January
5. The Light Brigade
6. Gideon the Ninth