This
weekend, the Hugo Awards, celebrating excellence in the fields of science
fiction and fantasy, will be announced at WorldCon in Chicago. You can even
follow it
live online through streaming video. Voted on by readers—a percentage of whom also tend to be writers and other professionals in the field—the Hugo Awards have taken on all the pomp and circumstance of events such as the
Oscars, if on a smaller scale. Each nominee receives a rocket ship pin and a
special ribbon so convention attendees know they are a nominee. Nominees appear
on panels and can participate in a special “walk With the Stars.” There are
pre-Hugo parties, post-Hugo parties (even a Losers Party for, you guessed it,
those who don’t win), and nominees must attend a rehearsal prior to the
ceremony.
So we thought, going into the Hugo weekend, we’d take a closer look at the
finalists in the best novel category. (You can find the full list of finalists here—and check out our prior Hugos coverage here and here.)
Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor). As I wrote in a review for the New York Times Book Review, the novel “purports to be the diary entries of 15-year-old Morwenna Phelps, but it is really a
strong argument for the importance of books and reading. Set in the late 1970s
in Wales and England, the novel follows Morwenna’s adventures at boarding
school after a car accident has left her with chronic injuries…Morwenna can see
fairies, her mother is really an evil witch, and the car accident that injured
her and killed her sister was part of a magical conflict…It’s a brave act to
write a novel that is in essence all aftermath, but Walton succeeds admirably.
Her novel is a wonder and a joy.” Walton does a great job of sticking to the
ambiguous with regard to the fantastical elements, and makes the idea of faery
folk wonderfully strange. For those voters who love reading—which would seem to
include all of them—the novel strongly evokes one’s own memories of
encountering beloved books, and for this reason it would seem to have the
possibility of winning against the odds.
A Dance With Dragons, George R.
R. Martin (Bantam Spectra). Given high expectations, there was never any
way that Martin could satisfy all readers with the latest installment in his
epic fantasy series, but he has brought back all of the elements that have made
him successful: drama and melodrama, intrigue, battles, characters you care about,
and a breadth of vision that has always served him well. As I wrote in a review
for the Los Angeles Times: “Some reviewers have compared Martin’s work to that of
J.R.R. Tolkien or even William Shakespeare, but the truth is a little more
complex. The Song of Ice and Fire novels work so well because the epic fantasy
is grounded in a strong horror element and because Martin skillfully conveys
the gritty physicality of the world while moving, with equal effectiveness,
between various levels of society. Martin also owes a debt to the dark yet
humane cynicism of writers like Jack Vance, even though he cares much more
about the inner life of his characters than Vance. Martin’s devotion to fully
inhabiting his characters, for better or worse, creates the unstoppable
momentum in his novels and contains an implied criticism of Tolkien’s moral
simplicity.” In terms of sheer number of copies printed (not to mention the
popular HBO series) and thus potential voters reached, and considering that
Martin is largely loved by core genre readers…it might be foolish to bet
against A Dance with Dragons winning
the Hugo.
Deadline, Mira Grant (Orbit). Grant has tapped into a popular
archetype with her take on zombies: “Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news
organization he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to.
Playing with dead things just doesn’t seem as fun when you’ve lost as much as
he has. But when a CDC researcher fakes her own death and appears on his
doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun has a newfound interest
in life. Because she brings news-he may have put down the monster that attacked
them, but the conspiracy is far from dead. Now, Shaun hits the road to find
what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun.” Grant has a significant
presence in other categories of the Hugo finalist ballot (including under her
real name, Seanan McGuire), which indicates she has a powerful voting bloc of readers behind
her. That might or might not translate into a Hugo win, but the strong showing
all around indicates she’s a player with staying power.
Embassytown, China Miéville (Macmillan/Del Rey). The popular
(and critically acclaimed) author delved full-on into science fiction with this
novel, which may remind some readers of 1970s
socio-political science fiction by the likes of Ursula K. Le Guin. Avice
Brenner Cho narrates this alien contact adventure set in Embassytown, a human
outpost on the planet of Arieka. The indigenous Ariekei have helped create
livable space for humans on the planet’s otherwise toxic surface. Thus far,
they have lived in an equitable alliance. But then things change, with Miéville using the novel as a way of talking about the uses and
mis-uses of language. At times, Embassytown functions as thriller, sometimes a
close character study, and sometimes a fascinating rhapsody about
communication. Unlike with his past novels, critical praise was far from
unanimous, the author’s adventuring perhaps farther than some wanted to follow.
In any other year, Miéville would be a favorite to win, but
with stiff competition from all quarters, he might in 2012 legitimately be
considered the underdog.
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey (Orbit).The author in
this case is a pen name for two writers: Ty Frank and Daniel Abraham. On the
face of it, the novel is an old-fashioned space opera set in a colonized solar
system (with the stars still well beyond human reach), but reviews seem to
indicate it’s a fairly sophisticated approach. Within this future setting, “Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs
from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his
crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in
possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to
kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing
in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.” Meanwhile,
“Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but
her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The
Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the
key to everything.” For voters who are fans of traditional science fiction,
this may the choice for them. Is Leviathan Wakes on the outside looking in or
secretly a sleeper favorite? I honestly don’t know.
In my estimation, unless
A Dance with Dragons is just too big
a juggernaut to overcome, this year’s Hugo Award is wide open in the novel
category. Tune in Sunday to find out what happens…
How many of these novels have you read—-and who do you
think will win?
is a widely known T.V. personality and author but what many may forget is that he was a high school history teacher before he became a household name. Adapted from Killing Lincoln, his bestselling book for adults, O’Reilly brings the end of the Civil War and the assasination of President Abraham Lincoln to life for young readers in a new book, Lincoln’s Last Days. 
