As ever, I've run this week's announcements through Goodreads and LibraryThing to count the number of owners and record the average ratings.
2016 Hugo finalists
| Goodreads | LibraryThing | |||
| owners | av rating | owners | av rating | |
| Uprooted, by Naomi Novik | 111,631 | 4.17 | 933 | 4.24 |
| Seveneves, by Neil Stephenson | 86,903 | 3.97 | 1,021 | 3.88 |
| The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass, by Jim Butcher |
44,102 | 4.20 | 356 | 4.02 |
| The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin | 37,162 | 4.32 | 388 | 4.28 |
| Ancillary Mercy, by Ann Leckie | 18,393 | 4.23 | 536 | 4.24 |
Two of these have clearly done much better than the other three in terms of market impact. Notable, however, that the multitudes who have read Seveneves are not all that enthusiastic about it.
1941 Retro Hugo finalists
| Goodreads | LibraryThing | |||
| owners | av rating | owners | av rating | |
| The Ill‐Made Knight, by T.H. White (numbers for The Once And Future King) |
139,375 | 4.07 | 10,838 | 4.10 |
| Slan, by A.E. van Vogt | 4,200 | 3.73 | 1,136 | 3.50 |
| Kallocain, by Karin Boye | 4,071 | 3.80 | 422 | 3.79 |
| Gray Lensman, by E.E. "Doc" Smith | 3,426 | 3.96 | 950 | 3.59 |
| The Reign of Wizardry, by Jack Williamson | 63 | 2.96 | 77 | 3.50 |
A clear leader here on all counts, and it will be a bit surprising if it doesn't win. The other three were well ahead of the field in my earlier survey. After them, I had thought that Kuttner or Wellman might get the last spot, but the Williamson book is not bad (though bottom of the table in both ownership rankings and reader ratings).
Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist
| Goodreads | LibraryThing | |||
| owners | av rating | owners | av rating | |
| The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers |
16,536 | 4.20 | 205 | 4.08 |
| Arcadia, by Iain Pears | 4,512 | 3.95 | 145 | 3.84 |
| The Book of Phoenix, by Nnedi Okorafor | 3,358 | 3.92 | 77 | 4.00 |
| Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky | 3,014 | 4.28 | 41 | 4.00 |
| Way Down Dark, by James Smythe | 1,882 | 3.79 | 17 | 3.75 |
| Europe at Midnight, by Dave Hutchinson | 662 | 4.17 | 46 | 4.19 |
The leader in terms of ownership is also second highest rated on both GR and LT. But I'm also cheered by the enthusiasm of the smaller band of Hutchinson fans.
This has been a rather imperfect predictor of success in the past, but it does give some robust statistics of relative popularity in terms of books sold and logged in readers' online catalogues.
Sarah Sutton. Still Sarah Sutton. Bye bye Sarah Sutton.
Re. Five Doctors – I’d put forward the suggestion that in all the “multi-Doctor” stories – the Three, the Five and the Two – it is the Second Doctor who dominates – he’s the one you want to be watching – he’s the one who fascinates.
Troughton is superb in all these episodes – and powerful evidence in favour of the idea that he was, after all, ‘the best’.