2014 Hugo Nominee Ballot: Best Novel
I feel like this is one of those categories where no matter what I do, I’ll always miss something. 2013 wasn’t a huge reading year for me, and that means there are just too many bloody novels I didn’t have time to get to. Thankfully, I got to read some exceptional books, even if they are only 1% of the things published in sf/f in 2013. So without further delay, here’s what I’ve chosen: The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord If there’s one thing to be said about this book, it’s this: it sure doesn’t pull any punches with its central conceit. Right at the start, an entire people is nearly wiped off the proverbial map, with remnants of the population scrounging to figure out how to survive in a dwindling gene pool. What follows is a fascinating examination of genetics, cultural clash, and…love? I loved it. Paul Weimer loved it. You will, too (or else I’ll cry). Our interview on The Skiffy and Fanty Show. Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson I’m biased. I know. But Sister Mine is the kind of urban fantasy that will keep me coming back for more every single time. Hopkinson’s characters are richly developed and beautiful in their eccentricities. I also loved her attempt to incorporate the orishas of African “myth” into a modern setting, particularly as it assigned semi-divine status to the main character and her sister. Our interview on The Skiffy and Fanty Show. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes Remember when Zoo City was the coolest thing Lauren Beukes had published? Then she released The Shining Girls and destroyed our minds forever. I loved Beukes’ use of time travel and the pov of a serial killer to explore mortality and psychosis; attentive readers will discover all kinds of unique connections between the various details, too. If you haven’t read it yet, then you’re missing out. Our interview on The Skiffy and Fanty Show. The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar In my humble opinion, this is the best sf/f book of 2013. Tidhar’s prose style, historical depth, and unique take on “superheroes” or “superpowers” absolutely blew me away when I read it earlier this year. There’s something haunting about this particular work, much like Osama (2011). If Tidhar keeps it up, I’m going to have to dedicate an entire college-level course to his work… Our interview on The Skiffy and Fanty Show. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie I imagine this is the one book everyone expects to make it to the final ballot. And it deserves to be there, too. While sf has previously played with gender in ways similar to Leckie’s take, there’s something refreshing about Ancillary Justice. Maybe it’s the unique take on empire or the protagonist’s past as part of a “collective” or simply the immediacy with which Leckie destabilizes the gender paradigms in the first chapter…whatever it is that makes this book so compelling, I loved it. Our interview on The Skiffy and Fanty Show. Now what am I missing?
2014 Hugo Nominee Ballot: Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
I thought long and hard about this one. You’ll see a lot of things missing here: no Byzantium (though I quite enjoyed it) or Iron Man 3 or Catching Fire (which was good until the last 5 minutes) or Upstream Color or The Hobbit 2 (the latter of which I think is utter garbage). With that said, here’s the list I came up with: Pacific Rim While I’d argue that there are films better than Pacific Rim in terms of style or depth, I also can’t ignore just how much fun this movie was for me and how much it has remained part of the conversations I have with my sf/f geek friends (though some of my “geek in name only” friends hate this movie because they don’t have taste — there’s snark in here). I saw it more than once last year and loved the hell out of it from the start. Giant robots + kaiju = potential for great fun! Pacific Rim is the only blockbuster I saw fit to nominate based on its quality. It’s not a perfect film by any stretch, but it is an honest film, if that makes any sense. Her Honestly, I think this film deserves to win. It is easily one of the top 5 films of 2013 and definitely the strongest sf film, too. Her is almost ambitious in a way, exploring what is a definitely science fictional conceit with careful attention to character detail and growth. It’s not every day we get to see a film where characters actually change in any real or serious sense. Here, the change is profound, thought-provoking, and utterly engrossing. Elysium I feel like I’m the only one that understood this movie. I loved the film’s dystopian imagination, particularly in its deep allegory about poverty and the “third world” and the growing disparity between the wealthy and the poor in our own world. That and I’m a sucker for Matt Damon…I don’t expect this one to win, but I do think it deserves the nomination. We covered it on The Skiffy and Fanty Show last year, in case you’re interested. The World’s End It’s funny. It’s cute. It has alien robots who take over a small English village. What more could you want? OK, so it also takes a stab at the looking glass of middle age, alcoholism, lost loves, and masculinity. Really, you just need to see it. We covered The World’s End on The Skiffy and Fanty Show last year, too. Gravity I don’t think Gravity had the depth of Her or the larger interpretative frame of Elysium, but it was one of the most tightly-plotted, hair-raising thrillers of 2013 with visuals that would give wet dreams to Fritz Lang (maybe). It’s a stunning film, even if it is not the strongest of the 2013 lot. Oh, and it won a bunch of Oscars, which is pretty cool. We also covered this one on The Skiffy and Fanty Show. And there you go. What do you think?