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Hugo 24 Best Novel – summing up
So I’ve read and reviewed (sort of) all the 2024 Hugo Best Novel finalists. Overall, a decent variety of novels. We have two novels of unclear genre (Bright Doors and Starter Villain), two fantasy novels and two science fiction. Hugo voters this year really had a big beef with reality with two books in which…
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Hugo 24 Novel: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
Like a lot of book-hungry readers of science fiction, I read Ender’s Game in the mid-1980s and, on balance, enjoyed it. The book was clearly packed full of problems (a child systematically bullied and isolated so that they will be the master tactician/strategist behind the total elimination of an alien species) but it wasn’t hard…
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Hugo 24 Novel: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
Time to set sail for adventure! Yeah, people we’ve got a map in the front of the book, we’ve got a retired legendary pirate captain pulled out of retirement for just one last job, we’ve got a crew of talented misfits and we have a truly evil magician after a magical relic. Djinn, monsters, magic,…
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Hugo 24: Best Game or Interactive Work
Time to try and deal with at least one whole category. Unfortunately, this is going to be a bit of a messy one. As a recap here are the finalists and the extent to which I’ve engaged with them: Alan Wake and Jedi: Survivor I don’t have a platform suitable for playing. Baldur’s Gate 3…
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Hugo 24: Starter Villain by John Scalzi
Like his earlier Kaiju Preservation Society, this is another in John Scalzi’s pandemic/post-pandemic phase of light overtly fun novels. Neither book is really a comedy as such but they play with amusing ideas and the use pastiche of popular culture to assemble their plots. Unlike, KPS there is a stronger element of satire in Starter…
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Hugo 24: The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
The sense of history folding in on itself is not unique to any one country. I didn’t really feel it in the UK until I returned as a visitor who had made another home in a different country where that sense of historical dislocation was even more stark. It is more than just the haunting…
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Hugo 2024: Currently playing Chants of Sennaar
I’ve played two of this year’s Best Game or Interactive Work Hugo finalists (Dredge and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom). The only console I own is a Nintendo Switch, so I’m not going to be playing Alan Wake 2 or Star Wars Jedi: Survivor any time soon. Baldur’s Gate 3 has a…
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Why I Declined a Hugo Spot
Nothing terribly controversial. I had two closely related reasons but as I’ve said before Ockham’s razor doesn’t apply to motives in so far as multiple motives are better explanations than single ones. 2023 looms large here and there were definitely people I would rather see on the Hugo ballot for Best Fan Writer this year…
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Hugo Finalists Post (because I will be asleep)
Sydney is currently 11 hours ahead of Glasgow, so it is already Friday here. The Hugo finalist announcement is due at 3 pm which for me is 2 am on Saturday when I will be fast asleep. When I wake up, I’ll add the finalist list here but feel free to post comments on the…
Camestros Felapton
FELAPTONL
Camestros Felapton 