{"id":18411,"date":"2024-05-31T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=18411"},"modified":"2024-05-30T20:47:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T02:47:22","slug":"how-i-would-vote-now-2018-hugo-award-best-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/how-i-would-vote-now-2018-hugo-award-best-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"How I would vote now: 2018 Hugo Award (Best Novel)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Nominees<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/616aYU-j2ML.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Stone Sky<\/em> by N.K. Jemisin<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51KTW6wK-HL.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Six Wakes<\/em> by Mur Lafferty<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51Gsr827o0L.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Provenance<\/em> by Ann Leckie<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51jo1k%2BX00L.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Raven Strategem<\/em> by Yoon Ha Lee<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51-EAB0ZTgL.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>New York 2140<\/em> by Kim Stanley Robinson<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51l9jVAk1uL.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Collapsing Empire<\/em> by John Scalzi<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Actual Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>The Stone Sky<\/em> by N.K. Jemisin<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>The Collapsing Empire<\/em> by John Scalzi<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Provenance<\/em> by Ann Leckie<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Six Wakes<\/em> by Mur Lafferty<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Raven Strategem<\/em> by Yoon Ha Lee<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>New York 2140<\/em> by Kim Stanley Robinson<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How I Would Have Voted<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Six Wakes<\/em> by Mur Lafferty<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No Award<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I liked <em>Six Wakes.<\/em> It was a fun murder mystery on a spaceship, with cloning technology that led to some interesting twists (for example, everyone wakes up to discover their dead bodies floating everywhere, and the murderer doesn&#8217;t actually remember know who he\/she was, because those memories weren&#8217;t uploaded to the database in time). It&#8217;s not up there with <em>Dune<\/em> or <em>Hyperion<\/em>, but it was a good read, with interesting world building and better-than-average attention to detail. There were a couple of passages that a conservative reader might consider woke, but it wasn&#8217;t enough to bother me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everything else from this year is pretty much terrible, in my opinion. I skipped <em>The Stone Sky,<\/em> <em>Provenance,<\/em> and <em>Raven Strategem<\/em> because those were all series that I had already DNFed. I could probably be persuaded to try Yoon Ha Lee&#8217;s Machineries of Empire series again (the first book was just too confusing and absurdly violent), but I have no desire to go back to Jemisin&#8217;s Broken Earth Trilogy or Leckie&#8217;s Ancillary Justice universe. Short version: Leckie&#8217;s entire career at this point seems to be premised on creating fantasy genders and playing to our culture&#8217;s current transgender moment, while Jemisin&#8217;s trilogy is the most anti-life (anti-pro-life?) thing I think I have ever read. Also, she&#8217;s suuuper anti-racist, which makes me think of this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7L9io-b9Uew?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Collapsing Empire<\/em> was where I decided to give up on reading any more Scalzi. It&#8217;s basically an inferior clone of Star Trek, with random meaningless sex thrown in, which Scalzi somehow manages to make boring. I haven&#8217;t read <em>Starter Villain<\/em> and I don&#8217;t intend to, but many of this BookTuber&#8217;s criticisms of Scalzi&#8217;s writing apply to <em>The Collapsing Empire<\/em> too:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bRPeX_Fx79k?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As for <em>New York 2140,<\/em> I DNFed after the first couple of pages when Robinson began to wax political, and not in a good way. I know that Kim Stanley Robinson is supposed to be one of the great SF writers of our time, but the only book of his that I&#8217;ve managed to get through was <em>Red Mars<\/em> (and that was over a decade ago). He&#8217;s one of those writers who wears his politics on his sleeve, and preaches more than he entertains. Also, he will occasionally throw in stuff that&#8217;s uncomfortably weird, like the Mars colonists having secret sex cult orgies in the farm modules. There was a time when the sex and the politics didn&#8217;t bother me as much, but it does now, so I&#8217;ve put him on my &#8220;skip this author&#8221; list, along with Ann Leckie, John Scalzi, and N.K. Jemisin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/how-i-would-vote-now-hugo-awards-best-novel\/\">How I Would Vote Now: All Years<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nominees The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty Provenance by Ann Leckie Raven Strategem by Yoon Ha Lee New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi The Actual Results How I Would Have Voted Explanation I liked Six Wakes. It was a fun murder mystery&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/how-i-would-vote-now-2018-hugo-award-best-novel\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How I would vote now: 2018 Hugo Award (Best Novel)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1508,1485,567,328,400,1183,1298,1752],"class_list":["post-18411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ann-leckie","tag-dnf","tag-hugo-awards","tag-john-scalzi","tag-kim-stanley-robinson","tag-mur-lafferty","tag-n-k-jemisin","tag-yoon-ha-lee","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-4MX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18411"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18992,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18411\/revisions\/18992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}