Blankbaby

John Scalzi posted his Hugo reading strategy, so I thought I’d post my plan of attack this year.

As in past years, Jason Snell is forcing me to read all the Hugo nominated novels (ok, he isn’t forcing me but we have entered into a strange pact wherein we both read all of them and talk about them on the Incomparable with others who generally lack the fortitude to read all the works. Listen to 2013, 2012, and 2011. Also, I can’t believe this will be the fourth time we’re doing this!).

This year is an odd year for the Hugos (my friend Barry points out that I say that every year, but this year I mean it). Since the Hugo nominations are open to anyone with a WorldCon membership, wacky things can get nominated given an author’s popularity.

Now, I should say that given this is how the Hugos are set up I have nothing against any author for rallying the troops and getting themselves on the ballot. Kudos to them, I say! However, it doesn’t mean I’m going to read everything that’s nominated (more on that in a moment).

The other oddity this year is the nomination of an entire series as best novel. That’s wacky, and I won’t be reading all 14,000 Wheel of Times books.

Here are the nominated novels, some thoughts about them and if I am going to actually read them:

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie – Not only did I read this book already, but I was one of the people who nominated it. Given that this is the only book on the list I’ve read thus far I can’t say I will definitely vote for it, but I’m probably going to vote for it. I spoke about it on an episode of the Incomparable if you’d like to hear some learned opinions about the book from my fellow panelists.

Neptune’s Brood by Charles Stross – Mr. Stross is an author whose books I’ve purchased but I don’t think I’ve ever actually read. I didn’t even know this book existed, so I don’t have an opinion about it. I am glad to see I was wrong in thinking it is a sequel. It seems as though it is a standalone book in a loose series, so I’ll be reading it and probably voting for Ancillary Justice.

Parasite by Mira Grant – Oh, Mira Grant. I actually figured that this book would be nominated because Grant’s audience REALLY likes her work. I REALLY disliked her Newsflesh series but hope springs eternal. I might like this version of her one voiced characters facing zombies better. But if someone drinks a Coke and pokes something with a stick I might just stop reading and walk away.

Warbound, Book III of the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia – This is a controversial nomination because Larry posted a list of works on his website and suggested that his readers vote for them. I have nothing against that tactic given what the Hugos are, though I do find it a bit ingenious that Larry spins it as an experiment to see if the voting was rigged to keep politically conservative authors off the ballot. Anyway, I don’t really care about that but I do care that this book is the 3rd in a series and I haven’t read book 1 or 2. I am probably going to skip reading this book because of that (and not because of the so called controversy surrounding it, I have no trouble separating the author from the work).

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson – If I were a betting man I’d put my money on this series to win. That being said I attempted to read the first book in this series long ago and couldn’t get through it. It won’t get my vote, and I have no plans on attempting to read it.

There you have it, since absolutely no one asked me about the Hugos but NOW YOU KNOW!