A Fan's Playground

Here's how I'm voting for the Lodestars! None of these books was a book I had zero reservations about, but they all had at least something worthwhile going on. Links to my full reviews in the titles.

1. A Snake Falls to Earth, by Darcie Little Badger

I loved the two stories that this book was telling, but I found that the way in which they were put together didn't quite work for me, because the switching back and forth was SO rapid.

2. Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao

Too dark for me to love it unreservedly, but I found the story and the characters very compelling!

3. Redemptor, by Jordan Ifueko

Loved the characters, thematic focuses, and worldbuilding, but the uneven pacing, heavy-handed elements, and some real over-simplification of issues meant that it didn't live up to what I hoped from it.

4. Chaos on Catnet, by Naomi Kritzer

A fun read, but the degree to which you have to turn your suspension of disbelieve WAYYYYYYYY up is just...a lot.

5. The Last Graduate, by Naomi Novik

Good themes, does many things that I OUGHT to like, and written very competently, but I just couldn't care about any of it.

6. Victories Greater than Death, by Charlie Jane Anders

Perfectly good at being exactly the kind of book it is, but I found it a tedious read. The only book on this list that I really struggled to actually get through.

Well, time for me to talk about the Hugo novel nominees as a group. You may notice I have not posted reviews for all of them. This is because I did not even finish most of them! The novel options this year contain a lot of books that are just not to my personal taste.

The bottom two books in my ranking are ones I never would have bothered even picking up and trying if they weren't on the Hugo list, and the middle two probably would have languished on my tbr list forever due to there being so many other books that sound more appealing to me to prioritise. On the other hand we also have one of my favorite sci-fi novels ever written on the list this year, so hey, can't complain too hard!

My voting order is as follows. I've linked the book titles to my full review for the ones where I did read the whole book.

1. A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine
Absolutely brilliant in so many ways and I completely adored it.

2. Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
Mostly very compelling and I really liked it, but given that I'm too much of a wuss for horror, it was rather much for me.

3. The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders
I read about a quarter of it and got the distinct impression that it's very like the other Anders novel I've read: very well written, interesting, and unusual, but I can't quite actually LIKE it. So I didn't really feel inspired to continue.

4. The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E Harrow
I read the 100 page sample provided to voters. The ideas had potential but I bounced off of the narrative voice. Having a distinctive voice can be a gamble because either it really works for the reader or it really doesn't, and I admire the attempt, but this one's not for me.

5. The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley
Read more than a third in the hope that maybe at some point it would stop being boring but that was as far as my patience could take me, and honestly I'm impressed I made it that far. I'm told it does get more interesting once you get more into the meat of the plot, but if it takes that long to get there then you've lost me. Which is too bad because the time travel element at least sounded kind of interesting.

6. Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire
Read about a quarter of it and just.....did not care. Evil people manipulating children in order to take over the world is just not a plot I am interested in. And the child characters themselves were also not particularly compelling to me, even if I could have otherwise been interested in hearing about psychic friendship.