- Sat, 12:56: Glorious thread, especially the last one. https://t.co/mHBMkGypwJ
- Sat, 14:10: Local choir doing valiant battle with a French tongue-twister: “Un chasseur sachant chasser chasse sans son chien.”… https://t.co/vHc6cNe6w7
- Sat, 14:28: RT @apcoworldwide: Follow @feps_europe to keep up on important conversations around #climatechange during #unga74 #client
- Sat, 14:48: Brexit: The perils of progress on the backstop https://t.co/vE7nOBAssY @tconnellyrte is not convinced that we are much closer to a solution.
- Sat, 15:27: Great piece. https://t.co/mBYjdG8koA
- Sat, 16:05: Demolition of Richard Dawkins by someone who knows what he is talking about. https://t.co/m1c0SVxmZD
- Sat, 18:46: RT @lowflyingrocks: 2019 SX, 3m-7m in diameter, just passed the Earth at 14km/s, missing by 424,000km. https://t.co/o5d8PbhNPk
- Sat, 18:54: West Side Story (1961) https://t.co/EcWmk2FG9B
- Sat, 20:00: My week on Twitter : 83 Mentions, 28.4K Mention Reach, 173 Likes, 51 Retweets, 197K Retweet Reach. See yours with… https://t.co/4MTqZRrf9A
- Sat, 21:44: Watching Blake’s 7: The Web. The final attack of the Decimas is as disturbing now as it was to 10-year-old me in 1978!
- Sun, 10:45: RT @northernsoul78: Compare these numbers: Debt to GDP (2018): 86.8% 64.8% Deficit (2018): 2.1% 0.0% Growth (2018): 1.4%…
I am a newbie to Hugo voting. So, even though I am opposed to the Puppies and think that their tactic of using slates to dominate the Hugo nominations was tacky, misguided and obnoxious, I am glad that it has led to the information that all it takes is $40 to have a vote for the 2015 Hugo and nominate for the 2016 Hugos.
Anyway, so since the only category I really care about is Best Novel (like a large percentage of the Hugo-voting population, as Chaos Horizon’s analysis has shown) I have tried to read all 5 nominees regardless of how painful it might be.
I had heard about Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor mentioned as one of the best fantasy books of the year (and it was nominated for a Nebula after all) so I was happy to try it. I got through the first 50 pages or so and found that I just did not care about ANY of the characters and found it just painful to continue so I stopped. I may try and pick it up again later in the summer for completeness, but right now I simply do not understand what people are seeing in this book as the best of the year.
I bought and loved Ancillary Justice last year and thus was very excited about the sequel Ancillary Sword, which I agree is almost as good as the first book. That being said, it is very similar to the first book and doesn’t really expand the story in significant ways.
I read The Three-Body Problem and to me this is the only book of the 2015 Hugo nominees that got me excited and that I think “fits in” to the historical list of previous winners. The story has rich elements and the Cultural Revolution stuff is very very interesting.
I also tried to read Kevin J Anderson’s The Dark Between The Stars and found it to be absolutely atrocious. It is very reminiscent of the numerous horrendous “XXX of Dune” books co-authored by Mr. Anderson and Brian Herbert. I did give it a try but after the first 50 pages or so I could see that it was not going to get any better and gave up. It probably didn’t help that is is Book 8 in a 7-book series (or the first book of a new trilogy).
I currently have Jim Butcher’s Skin Game on my mantle (borrowed from the library) but the fact that it is #15 of an ongoing series makes it unlikely that the book will stand on its own merits. But I will give it a fair shot to impress me. If someone put a gun to my head and said I had to submit my Hugo ballot I would say:
1. The Three-Body Problem
2. Ancillary Sword
3. NO AWARD