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Hugo time! Your packet is available! 2018


Lily Valley

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On 5/22/2017 at 2:09 PM, Darth Richard II said:

Blech,  my feelings on THAT book are already well documented. I am not surprised though.

Haven't gotten there yet.  Since learning your opinion on 3-body, I will make up my own mind, Thank you very much.

Now, what I want to know is WHICH OF YOU ASSHOLES NOMINATED NINEFOX GAMBIT.  Seriously, I am in the middle of chapter two and we are STILL unpacking at least 5 "universe" words per page that are requiring clunky exposition.  I feel like I am reading the GODDAMN appendix first.  What the Fuck, nerds??  Does this book ever Get On With It?

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4 hours ago, Lily Valley said:

Now, what I want to know is WHICH OF YOU ASSHOLES NOMINATED NINEFOX GAMBIT.  

Not me. The only novel from my nominations that made the shortlist is The Obelisk Gate

Come to think of it, I must really not be in tune with the Hugo nomination mindset this year. In the categories where I nominated, I had only one make the final list in all of them except Dramatic Presentation - Short Form, where I had both clipping. and The Expanse. On the bright side, that means more new things to read. Hope it goes better than my initial forays into the Best Novel list.

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19 hours ago, Lily Valley said:

Haven't gotten there yet.  Since learning your opinion on 3-body, I will make up my own mind, Thank you very much.

Now, what I want to know is WHICH OF YOU ASSHOLES NOMINATED NINEFOX GAMBIT.  Seriously, I am in the middle of chapter two and we are STILL unpacking at least 5 "universe" words per page that are requiring clunky exposition.  I feel like I am reading the GODDAMN appendix first.  What the Fuck, nerds??  Does this book ever Get On With It?

It does get on with it, yeah. You have to go with the flow and just not worry too much about the weirdness. It turns into quite a fun two-sided character piece. The main criticism I have of it is that outside of those two characters, pretty much everyone else is just around to fill out the plot, but the two central characters and their interactions are great.

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Almost done with Ninefox, I remove all my earlier shade pieces from the table except for the one reserved for the editor.  This book REALLY needs a glossary.  Afternoon plan is All the Birds.  My Dear Richard, I will get to your lightening novel by Sunday.

Also, I can't make it to WorldCon this year, which means I'll be watching the Hugo's livestream in my kitchen with my cats and my pal beer.  All my IRL friends suck at Hugo Award Watching.  If anyone cares to join me, I'll be back in this thread every 5 minutes yelling and posting pictures of the cats throwing tomatoes.  Sounds like a lot of us have a horse or two in this race. :)

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In the middle of Ninefox and enjoying it.  Have read All the Birds in the Sky (surprised it was nominated - thought it was pleasant but pretentiously unremarkable) and the Becky Chambers book (a lot of fun).   But feeling like there was a theme in nominations this year in the novel category, but of course, I've only read 2.5 so far......  

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Just finished Ninefox Gambit.  I found it really, really incredible - one of the best books I've read in a long time.  I am about to start Too Like Lightning, so we'll see, but it has some big competition in my mind.

 

ETA:  It's really a wrench, too, because the sequel to Ninefox comes out tomorrow.  I'm SO VERY tempted to read it, but am trying to have some discipline here.

 

ETA2:  And @Lily Valley, I don't think I agree on the glossary for Ninefox.  I appreciate the editorial choice.  Half of the fun of the book to me was figuring out the system and what was going on.  I also think that was half of the point of the book - one is figuring things out on multiple levels and that is the point (so are the characters).  If there had been something at the front saying something like "a Kel is a this and a Shuos is a that", and names are determined thusly, etc. etc., it would have spoiled half the fun.  I'm curious to see if there is a glossary in the second - because I could see it being more appropriate there, depending on what the story is about.

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Newest upgrade on the board is not working with chrome, so I'm retyping this.

@Mlle. Zabzie I was totally able to follow the caste system, etc.  However, the first 5 chapters introduced a new term and then immediately started a boring infodump.  It was so irritating, I actually kept track of how long it took for there to be a page without an infodump, this happened in chapter 7.  Once that was done, the story really took off.  I just found the exposition to be really clunky in the beginning of the novel.  I felt like I was reading author's notes.  I still rank it higher than Birds.  Both of the novels by former winners are solid nominations.  So far I haven't read anything on the ballot that I'd hate to see win, but no new treasure that I am super excited about.  I may get the first Novel of Closed and Common Orbit if I can get to it.  

Just finished All the Birds.  I enjoyed it, even though I found it a bit light and silly.   I started Lightening, but the switching style and reader asides keep throwing me out of the story.  I'm finding it a little tiring, so I started the novellas or novelettes.  They're all jumbled up in my kindle and I'm having a hard time figuring out which category they're all in.   Currently reading the Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe.   I'm enjoying it so far.

I finished Black Box, The Game we played during the War, and the City Born Great.  I really liked City, even though Jemisin disses New Orleans twice.   The Game We Played was really good too.  I am forwarding it to my mother and all of my pals who are nurses. 

Edit:  Overall REALLY impressed with the packet.  I am going to be busy for a long time.  

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Of all the books nominated, I have not read A Closed and Common Orbit. 

Of the rest, my favourite was a tie between Ninefox Gambit and Obelisk Gate. 

Ninefox is hard to understand. I still don't really get the calendrical system. But it was very original, very innovative, and I loved the letters. 

Obelisk Gate was an excellent continuation to the outstanding 5th Season. 

I really did not like All the Birds in the Sky. The second half is weak, the ending is laughable. 

I found Death's End to be very illogical and given to sudden and very extreme jumps. A lot of the book did not really make sense, but then again the series was dead in the water for me as I disagree with the very premise of the Dark Forest theory. 

 

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So, seriously, what is with all the love for Too Like the Lightning?  I think it is pretty legitimately awful.  I am about 40% through and I have yet to (1) meet a character I give a damn about, and (2) discover a plot that has any motivating force whatever.  It feels like it is written by the gunner in my law school Con Law class who had a PhD in philosophy and made sure everyone knew it each time he opened his mouth (which regrettably was all.the.damn.time).  It's like someone read the History of Civilization by the Durants and decided they would be great adapted as near future sci fi (and you know, since the author is a professor of Renaissance history at U of C, I'm actually not that far off).  The world building is unoriginal - she's so busy making her points about economic and political thought that she never gets around to really developing something worth reading.  I sort of wonder whether Palmer is trolling her readers.  I am about 60% certain she is making a point about making a point about gender (clapping back at Leckie, and ultimately LeGuin), but 40% of me thinks that she hasn't read either.  Anyhow, I think it is utterly pretentious twaddle.  

But boy do I love Ninefox :)

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