Soulstar, by CL Polk

I recognize that this is the third book in a trilogy and I have not read the first two, but this is what the hugo packet provided unto me for judgement for the best series nomination, and the first book had a lot of holds on it at my local library, so here we are!

I'd heard of this series on and off since the first book came out, but never bothered putting it on my to-read list, because it didn't seem like the kind of thing that I would vibe with.

But the hugos get me to read all kinds of things I wouldn't ordinarily prioritise so here we are! There are some great things about this book, and I love that it's a book about ordinary people doing community activist work to achieve a better world for the oppressed persons in their country, with a background queer romance. And a book that recognizes that a monarchy is bad because complete power is bad, EVEN IF the monarch seems willing to allow for some movement in the direction of reforms! But....I guess my main complaint is that Soulstar felt too simplistic. A lot of things were just brushed over, that should have been issues, I felt like!

There was not enough attention given to Robin and her spouse Zelind trying to rebuild a relationship after 20 years apart while Zelind was imprisoned and mistreated; they have, like, one fight but other than that things are basically fine and remarkably little attention is given to their relationship, or to Zelind's healing.

How did a group of activists manage to organise a country-wide analog election, in a country that's never had public elections and with a government that's against them, with only one month's lead time???? No attention is given to this either, or to any of the other difficult logistics problems that are inherent in the things the activists are doing. Robin is good at organising things, and that's the only thing we hear. What do she and the rest of the folks she works with on this actually DO? Who knows!

How did Zelind manage to come up with a non-witch-based source of aether SO quickly and easily, when this is clearly something so desirable but nobody's ever come up with it before? Is it really that easy? Or is Zelind unusually perceptive and bringing something to the table nobody else is able to in order to figure out the answer? It is not made clear.

And then the happy ending where they succeed at all their goals feels unearned, because I never really felt the truth of how hard it would have been to achieve the things they achieved! I felt more like "well, yes, obviously this is how things would end, because it's that kind of book" rather than feeling like "YEAH!!!! They did it!!"

It's fine! It's a fine book! But. Eh.

I don't know. A lot of things felt like they just kind of....happened, instead of feeling like they had the weight of reality. I wanted to feel like even if the reader doesn't actually know everything, the background context DOES exist and does make sense.

I did consider whether the things that were a problem for me in this book were due to me not having read the first two books in this trilogy, but from what I understand, each of the books has been from a different character's perspective, and each character had different priorities, and the first two were MUCH less about revolution than this one was. So I don't think it's that all the context and depth of world that I wanted was simply present in the previous books. But if I'm wrong about that, please do let me know!

(I also don't love that at one point in the story it's the "right" thing for our hero to pressure Zelind into seeing kher estranged-for-very-good-reasons mother on a weekly basis. Yes, there are good reason for it. Yes, Zelind agrees. Yes, this doesn't end up actually happening. But like. Yikes.)

2022 Hugo Award: Best Series

EVEN MORE just under the wire, here are my thoughts on the hugo nominees for best series!

1. The World of the White Rat, by T Kingfisher

I have read every single book in this series, some more than once. Do I find Kingfisher's obsessions with paladins and with large breasts irritating? I do. But everything else about the series is delightful, and I just find her writing to be immensely comforting/comfortable to read. I've been following her work since I was a teenager reading her weird extensive descriptions that were more like mini-stories about her deviantart paintings, and I just like how her brain works.

2. The Green Bone Saga, by Fonda Lee

Well, I've only read 20% of the first book in this series, but from that sample I can tell that what the author is doing here is very well done and very compelling. I really enjoyed what I was reading, but I just cannot handle reading books about crime families, I'm afraid, and when I looked up spoilers for the rest I was like NOPE. Not what I want to read, even if it is good! I definitely recommend this series, but for other people, lol.

3. The Kingston Cycle, by CL Polk

I've only read the third book in this trilogy, Soulstar, and although it was basically fine, it felt too simplistic and too lacking in the feeling of weighty reality in the various hard and bad things the book addresses.

4. Terra Ignota, by Ada Palmer

I have adored Palmer's blog Ex Urbe for many years; her extensive posts about florentine history are fascinating to me, though she hasn't been doing much of that for the past few years, I'm assuming because she's busy with other things. (Her series of posts on machiavelli and his context is particularly excellent, and I find her spot the saint series great fun!) So I was excited when I heard she was writing novels! But. I tried the first novel and was soooooooo bored. I could tell it was probably doing interesting things, and I think I might have even eventually found my way round to finding it worthwhile, but I just could not force myself to keep my attention on it despite multiple attempts.

5. Merchant Princes, by Charles Stross

I read the first book in this series when it came out in 2003, more or less enjoyed it at the time, but never felt strongly enough about it to keep up with the series as it kept coming out. This summer I gave it another go, and got a decent way into the first novel, and my main reaction was that it's so very, very much of its era that it feels out of place to be in conversation with the current genre. And to me it didn't even feel INTERESTINGLY of its era, but just kind of dated and boring. I don't know where he's gone with the series since then, whether the newer books feel more relevant and exciting, but tbh I found the first book tiresome enough that I didn't bother finishing it, and felt no motivation to keep going.

6. No Award

7. Wayward Children, by Seanan McGuire

I've read multiple books in this series for past hugos, and what I've read of it actively frustrates me enough that I do not personally feel able to countenance voting for it to receive an award, though I know it speaks to other people.