{"id":23521,"date":"2026-07-28T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=23521"},"modified":"2026-07-27T21:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T03:07:22","slug":"how-i-would-vote-now-1988-hugo-awards-best-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/how-i-would-vote-now-1988-hugo-awards-best-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Would Vote Now: 1988 Hugo Awards (Best Novel)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Nominees<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Forge of God<\/em> by Greg Bear<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Uplift War<\/em> by David Brin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seventh Son<\/em> by Orson Scott Card<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When Gravity Fails<\/em> by George Alec Effinger<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Urth of the New Sun<\/em> by Gene Wolfe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Actual Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. The Uplift War<\/em> by David Brin<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. When Gravity Fails<\/em> by George Alec Effinger<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Seventh Son<\/em> by Orson Scott Card<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. The Forge of God<\/em> by Greg Bear<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. The Urth of the New Sun<\/em> by Gene Wolfe<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    How I Would Have Voted <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    1. Seventh Son<\/em> by Orson Scott Card<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Explanation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      This wasn’t a terrible year for me. With that said, there’s only one book I can positively vote for, and that’s Orson Scott Card’s Seventh Son,<\/em> the first book in his Alvin Maker Saga\u2014and after all these years, it looks like he’s finally<\/em> releasing the last book in the series! See, George R.R. Martin? It’s not that hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Card likes to play with a lot of Mormon themes in his books, and the whole Alvin Maker series is interesting because it’s basically the story of Joseph Smith in an alternate history America where magic is real and the United States never actually formed. So all of the different European colonies, some of which have achieved quasi-independence, are all vying against each other, while the Indian nations are using their magic to drive the white man out (or build an Indian New Jerusalem, though that doesn’t come into play until the later books). But the guy at the center of it all is this seventh son of a seventh son, which basically makes him the magical chosen one. And he’s basically Joseph Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Card is often hit or miss for me. I didn’t enjoy his Homecoming series as much, because it’s basically the Book of Mormon in space, except he took the plot of the Book of Mormon and not much else, and tried to force it too much, to the point where it was way too on the nose. There were lines of dialogue that were almost line for line identical to the Book of Mormon, except without the deeper spiritual significance, and that turned me off. But hey, it was still way more interesting than most of the sci-fi stuff that wins the Hugos these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The Alvin Maker series, on the other hand, is much more subtle and nuanced with the Mormon elements\u2014not on the nose at all. So I enjoyed Seventh Son,<\/em> and plan to read the rest of the series, including the final book when it comes out. It’s good stuff. Kind of similar to Dave Butler’s Witchy Eye,<\/em> if you’ve read that too. Except with a fantasy Joseph Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      As for the other books: I didn’t read The Urth of the New Sun,<\/em> because I couldn’t really get into the first book. Everyone says Gene Wolfe’s writing is some of the best, but that book was just too macabre for my sensibilities, so I DNFed the book and the series. But I might be willing to try it again, with a strong enough recommendation. There weren’t any overt content or political issues that made me choose to skip it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The Uplift War<\/em> is also a series that I DNFed with the first book. I got about halfway through Sundiver<\/em> before I gave up on it. The thing that really got to me was David Brin’s dogmatic atheism: basically, after first contact, all religions have been proven false, so everyone who still holds onto some religious faith is an obvious crackpot or wacko, according to the author. Which really just shows that Brin is the kind of atheist who hates religion because he doesn’t understand it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Would first contact with an intelligent alien species send shockwaves through the religious world? Yes, but it wouldn’t necessarily prove the non-existence (or conversely, the existence) of God. In fact, it would actually confirm the truth of some Latter-day Saint scriptures that explicitly state that God has created “worlds without number” and peopled them with His children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Brin’s dogmatic atheism isn’t super explicit in these books, but there was just enough of an undercurrent there that it turned me off. After all, why should I feel obligated to read an author who’s incapable of nuance in an area of life that matters so much to me? And if he’s incapable of nuance in one area, how can I have confidence that he’ll be nuanced in other areas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      As for When Gravity Fails,<\/em> I screened that one with ChatGPT and decided to skip it. Here’s what the AI said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n

      \ud83d\udd1e Explicit Content
      Graphic Violence & Gore<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Protagonist encounters brutal, explicit violence: victims are mutilated, tortured, including scenes involving child and adult victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Strong Language<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Abundant profanity\u2014including frequent use of the F\u2011word\u2014used naturally to reflect the raw, urban setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Sexual & Cybernetic Body Mods<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Includes prostitution, sexual violence, and explicit sexual interactions. Characters frequently undergo body modifications: gender swaps, personality \u201cmoddies,\u201d and cosmetic changes central to character and plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u270a Progressive & Social Themes
      Gender Fluidity & Identity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Cyberpunk tech enables characters to alter their gender, identity, and personality, challenging fixed notions of self.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

      All of those things are pretty bad, but if the only issue was violence against children, that would still be enough for me to give it a hard pass. Ever since I became a father, I do not do violence against children anymore. Not at all. No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Which leaves The Forge of God.<\/em> I really wanted to like this book\u2014truly, I did\u2014but after 200 pages, I just had to give up. It’s got a really good premise, though: basically, two different kinds of aliens land simultaneously, in the United States and in Australia, but the ones in Australia claim that they are there to usher in a new age of great prosperity for humanity, while the one in the US says that the other aliens really want to consume and destroy the Earth. And when the humans confront the aliens in Australia with what they’ve learned from the other alien (who dies pretty early on), the Australian aliens all self-destruct. And then things start to get weird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      It’s a really great premise, but unfortunately the whole story is basically an hour by hour, blow by blow of how the government bureaucracy reacts to and handles the first contact event. Which means that almost all of the characters are government bureaucrats (except for a random sci-fi author, who inexplicably becomes an advisor to the president after crash landing his single engine plane in a restricted zone\u2014author insert much?) and most of the “action” of the novel is really just filing paperwork or passing things up the chain. I kid you not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The premise alone sustained me for 200 pages, but after that I decided I couldn’t stand the bureaucracy. If the book had been cut to half the length, it would have been a better book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
      How I Would Vote Now: All Years<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The Nominees The Forge of God by Greg Bear The Uplift War by David Brin Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe The Actual Results How I Would Have Voted Explanation This wasn’t a terrible year for me. With that… Continue reading How I Would Vote Now: 1988 Hugo Awards (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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[1599,1551,1884,1600,567,324],"class_list":["post-23521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-david-brin","tag-gene-wolfe","tag-george-alec-effinger","tag-greg-bear","tag-hugo-awards","tag-orson-scott-card","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-67n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23521","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=23521"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23583,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23521\/revisions\/23583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}