Most importantly, ANCILLARY JUSTICE won the novel category! Yay! Which is to say, yes, right, I hadn’t read any of the other candidates, but I was pretty sure that this one should win and that the SERIES Wheel of Time shouldn’t — I just don’t agree that it was ever truly eligible. But so many readers grew up with it, I was a bit nervous it might win.
But no. Justice prevailed. Nothing else even came close. Ballot details are here, if you’re interested.
Congratulations to Ann Leckie, and I’m definitely looking forward to the sequel this fall.
The other categories for written work:
BEST NOVELLA — “Equoid” by Charles Stross (Tor.com, 09-2013)
BEST NOVELETTE — “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal (maryrobinettekowal.com/Tor.com, 09-2013)
BEST SHORT STORY — “The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere” by John Chu (Tor.com, 02-2013)
I have no opinion about any of these because I didn’t read any nominee in any short fiction category. Except I believe that Kowal story was nominated last year and disqualified (incorrectly imo) because it was first published in audio form. I thought it was screwy to disqualify it for that reason. Who cares what medium the story is published in? So I’m glad to see it was nominated in print form this year, and won. Good.
Also: Julie Dillon won the Hugo for professional artist, and good for her! I like her swirly style and bright colors.
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I did read them all (well, I made it about halfway through the third volume of WoT by the deadline), and ANCILLARY JUSTICE was still my top pick by far. The real surprise for me was WARBOUND, which I would never have picked up on my own (the Grimnoir Chronicles? seriously?), but which I ended up putting in second place. I don’t want to oversell it; it’s solid entertainment, but it doesn’t really strike me as an obvious candidate for a literary award. Still, I liked it better than everything in the novel category except AJ, and I’ll definitely be buying Correia’s other books.
I didn’t really love any of the shorter fiction this year. “Wakulla Springs” was my favorite novella, but I decided not to vote for it because it just didn’t seem like speculative fiction. “Equoid” was probably great for horror fans, but it convinced me never, ever to read a Laundry story again. I almost vowed not to read anything by Stross again afterward, but I decided that if I wanted to vote in the novel category, I should at least try NEPTUNE’S BROOD.
I’m glad you weighed in, Linda; I figured you’d read everything. Interesting that you liked WARBOUND. I, like you, would be so turned off by the Grimnoir tag that I would never have picked up anything in the series.
Now I’m curious, though: what did you think of NEPTUNE’S BROOD?
What did I think of NEPTUNE’S BROOD? I could see why a lot of people loved it–it’s a big, ambitious book, with lots of clever ideas. It wasn’t my cup of tea at all, though. In general, I find Stross’s style sort of chilly, and I never end up caring much about his characters. Also, while BROOD is definitely SF, it had enough elements of horror in it to turn me off. (I was probably extra-sensitive to this after “Equoid.”) Finally, I didn’t like the ending much. I suspect that the closer the reader’s political views are to Stross’s, the better the ending works.
Basically, I don’t think NEPTUNE’S BROOD is going to change anyone’s mind about Stross. If you liked his other SF novels, you’ll probably like this one, too; if you didn’t, you should probably skip it.
Thanks, Linda. I think I’ll continue to give NEPTUNE’S BROOD a miss, then. I have admired Stross’ writing in the past, but his characterization, or lack thereof, never has appealed to me.