Tag: Hugo Finalist

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

In some distant and ultimately irrelevant future, humanity has mastered time travel and discovered not a single causal chain through the unity of time and space, but a vast multitude of timelines. They cluster in groups of similar development. In some, humanity spreads to the stars; in others, humanity remains more tightly tied to its …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/03/23/this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war-by-amal-el-mohtar-and-max-gladstone/

A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

A City on Mars asks in its subtitle “Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?” When I read part of the book to decide how to vote on its place in the 2024 Hugo Awards category of Best Related Work I thought that the answers were “probably …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/03/16/a-city-on-mars-by-kelly-and-zach-weinersmith/

Hugo Awards 2024: Wrapping Up

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

When I read for the Hugos, I like to write a full review for each novel and novella that I finish, but I also like to finish all of my reviews from a given calendar year by the end of that year, and so here I am. There’s not a whole lot of December left, …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/12/21/hugo-awards-2024-wrapping-up/

Hugo Awards 2024: Best Novelette

The 2024 Hugo Award ceremony is about to start, and I am watching the livestream, so this post is nothing if not timely. Maybe even by the time I have finished it, I will know how my choices compared with those of the other voters. Here are briefish notes on each finalist, in ascending order …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/11/hugo-awards-2024-best-novelette/

Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo

In the first two novellas of Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills series — The Empress of Salt and Fortune, and When the Tiger Came Down from the Mountain — violent conflict is kept at a distance, and much of the tension in the stories arises from the question of whether it can continue to be kept from …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/28/mammoths-at-the-gates-by-nghi-vo-2/

Hugo Awards 2024: General and Some Novellas

The logo of the Glasgow 2024 Worldcon

This is the fifth year that I have been a reader and a voter for the Hugo Award, a practice I began when I fulfilled a long-time dream and attended a World Science Fiction Convention. Finances and geography, among other things, have conspired to keep me away in the years since, but maybe I will …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/27/hugo-awards-2024-general-and-some-novellas/

The Mimicking Of Known Successes by Malka Older

On the plus side, with this I’ve finally read all the nominees for Best Novella for the 2024 Hugos! That said, what a strange set of entries for this year. As Doug has opined elsewhere, this was not a good year for the category Jo Walton considers an excellent barometer of the speculative fiction zeitgeist. …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/19/the-mimicking-of-known-successes-by-malka-older/

Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed

And with this I’ve completed the reading for the 2024 Hugos nominees for Best Graphic Story! And what a way to round out the category! It won’t topple Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons from the chokehold that book has on first place, but it sure comes close. Shubeik Lubeik is the Arabic for, essentially, “your …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/18/shubeik-lubeik-by-deena-mohamed/

Life Does Not Allow Us To Meet by He Xi

translated into English by Alex Woodward. I guess I should start by attempting to summarize this story, but it’s just so weirdly — if not outright poorly — written (or perhaps translated? I’m sorry for throwing you under the bus here Mr Woodward but this story was just so bafflingly not good) that I don’t …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/17/life-does-not-allow-us-to-meet-by-he-xi/

Thornhedge by T Kingfisher

God, reading this book was such a relief. After struggling through three of the other Best Novella nominees for the Hugo Awards 2024, it was nice to finally read a book that felt like it was written by a professional who gives a shit about her audience. Now I’m a sucker for fairytale retellings, so …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/15/thornhedge-by-t-kingfisher/