The Hugos are Coming: A Reader's Perspective

I've been eagerly awaiting the Hugo Awards nominations for Novel of a Year, and I'm excited to share my thoughts on the nominees. As a reader, I've had the pleasure of reading all these books, and I must say, they've left a significant impact on me. The selection process is always challenging, but it's also thrilling to see which book will take home the award.

My love for Becky Chambers' works started with "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet," and since then, I've devoured every one of her books. She has a unique ability to craft stories that are both thought-provoking and entertaining. The themes she explores in her novels resonated deeply with me, which is why I consider them all five-star reads. I'm extremely attached to these books, and I have high hopes for "Record of a Spaceborn Few," the next installment in the Wayfarers series.

Another book that's been on my radar for months is "Light from Uncommon Stars" by Rika Aoki. This novel has garnered quite a bit of attention, with many readers comparing it to Becky Chambers' works and even calling it a "Faustian deal"-like story. With the blend of aliens, space travel, and sapphic romance, I'm excited to dive into this book and see how it compares to my beloved Wayfarers series.

Shelley Parker-Chan's "They Who Became" has also been generating a lot of buzz. As a historical fantasy novel with a strong focus on themes of power, identity, and trauma, it piques my interest. The story follows a young woman who steps up into her brother's role after his death and becomes empress. I've heard amazing things about this book, and I'm eager to explore its grimdark world.

PJ Jelly Clark's "The Master of Gin" has also caught my attention. This desert fantasy novel is comprised of a series of novellas that were later collected into a single volume. While I don't have experience with PJ Jelly Clark's work yet, I've heard great things about their writing style, which is often described as humorous and fast-paced.

Andy Weir, the author of "The Martian," has also been nominated for the Hugo Award in Novel of a Year. His latest book, "Project Hail Mary," promises to be a thrilling sci-fi ride with a dash of humor. As someone who hasn't had the chance to read any of Andy Weir's previous works, I'm excited to dive into this novel and see what all the fuss is about.

The nomination process for the Hugo Awards can be challenging, as it's difficult to predict which book will win. However, based on my experience with these novels, I think any one of them could take home the award. Becky Chambers' works have a strong chance, given their popularity and critical acclaim. Andy Weir's "Project Hail Mary" is also a contender, thanks to its well-deserved reputation as a fast-paced and humorous sci-fi novel.

It's worth noting that while these books are highly regarded, the Hugo Awards are not just about popularity contests. The voting process requires members to be active and engaged in the community, which can make it challenging for newcomers or those who don't attend the conventions to participate. Nevertheless, I'm excited to read all of these novels and share my thoughts with you through a reading vlog.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys it's sam i started filming this before my lighting was properly set up so i'm redoing it and i also now have a rug so maybe it's not as echoing here we will see but today i wanted to talk about my hugo awards tbr so if you aren't familiar the hugo awards is a yearly science fiction fantasy award that is given to a number of different categories novel novella short story fan works like a bunch of different things but i would say the people talk about the most are probably like the short stories the novellas and the novels and these awards are given every year at the world science fiction and fantasy convention which takes place in a different city around the world every single year what's cool about the hugos as well is that if you are a member of like the convention whatever which you can do whether you're attending the convention or not you can like sort of have a membership you can vote in the hugos so there's a little bit of like not only are these you know like sort of critically acclaimed but there's a little bit of people also contributing to this but there's a certain barrier of entry as well that makes it so like people that are voting on it are probably like super hardcore fans but anyway this year i am attending the hugos in the world science fiction fantasy convention because it's going to be in chicago i live in chicago so by the way if you plan on going let me know i plan on doing like some kind of meetup with all the sci-fi and fantasy people things can be really fun i decided since i'm voting i already voted in the nominations and stuff but since i'm voting now for the finalists i want to be had like i want to contribute i want to like really be able to vote based on like all of them so the ones i really care about are the novels and the novellas you're probably thinking why am i even gonna watch this video i can just look up who the novel and novella nominees are you can however what i plan on doing this video is me sort of saying where i think these books are gonna fall for me uh and like who i think is gonna like win in my heart who i think is probably gonna win like overall uh so sort of like predictions and stuff i also do plan on filming a vlog of me reading all of these you kind of get my real-time reactions as well well let's get into it i'm gonna start with the novellas and then go into the novels versus the novella i've already read and that is a song for the wild built by becky chambers this is the first novella series by her that's taking place in her like hope punk kind of settings that she does this follows a team monk who's essentially a therapist is having sort of like an identity crisis like not really sure almost like a quarter life crisis and it goes off into the wilderness and is sort of discovered by a robot like meets a robot and robots have not been seen for quite some time like hundreds of years they've almost become myth at this point and then they like basically team up and it's very cute and wholesome uh i give this five stars so already like a strong contender in my heart for what i think i will end up loving the most uh but yeah we will see next is one that i own but i haven't read yet and that is a spindle splintered by alex e harrow this is a i think darker sleeping beauty retelling i believe it also might be sapphic this one i'm not sure i'm gonna feel honestly i actually plan on listening to this on audio i did get the audiobook out from my library i was waiting for my hole to come in and i've only read ten thousand doors of january by this author didn't love it i do plan on reading her other book uh like full-size novel not sure i've heard mixed things about that so i'm not really sure how i'm going to feel about this at all but we'll see next is a series that i've actually read most of them but i'm a little bit behind that is across the green grass fields by seanan mcguire this is i think the seventh sixth seventh book in the wayward children series i've enjoyed all the ones that i've read so far there's only one that i was kind of like iffy about but i haven't read i think either one or two before this one i think only one um so i need to read that one before i read this one even though they're sort of like companion either some crossover there's some not it kind of depends on the book they're not always like you don't always have to read all of them if you hear that knocking it's my neighbors causing some kind of ruckus but of all of them that i've read so far down them on the sticks and bones has been my favorite i'm not sure if this will be able to top that because that's just like gothic horror goodness and i love the themes explore in this one i believe people have talked about this one almost being like a horse girl story which i think is like very interesting uh so we will see how happy about this one we have elder race by adrian chiakowski this is an author that i have not read yet but i've heard a lot about people talking about like space operas and stuff uh that this author writes so i'm intrigued and i think it'll be kind of interesting to see what their writing style is like before diving into a full-size novel i will say short stories are something that i like really can't get a feel for the author uh novellas are like hit and miss for me which is why i'm not reading the short stories uh novellas are hitting this for me so we'll see but if they do a really great job with the novella i'll be like okay i feel like i can really commit to the novel and this follows an anthropologist on a planet that ends up having to like help the natives that they were like studying with some kind of foe and i believe this is a bit of a genre bender because like the synopsis almost sounds fantasy-esque as well so it might be like a sci-fi fantasy mix which i think is sort of what this author does i don't think this is in the same world as their other books and lastly we have the novella that i actually just started i'm only about 20 pages into it though so i don't have any solid feelings about it yet that is fire heart tiger by ellet de bedard and this is set in a pre-colonial vietnamese-esque world and our main character has some kind of like fire powers that are manifesting but right now she's sort of stuck between her mother and her like former lover uh and she's sort of having to be a not quite emissary but like um the go-between as we're doing these like negotiations because she was originally sent sort of as like an emissary um political stuff to that other women's country and but they formed a relationship of the two princesses and so like there's this dynamic so it's saffic pre-colonial vietnamese fantasy and it has been described as like a romantic fantasy so of these i'm not sure i mean i think it's gonna be really hard to beat a psalm for the wild belt because that just like spoke to me and i tend to love becky chambers i will say i think there's a strong chance that elder race will also resonate with me and potentially fire heart tiger as well not so sure about across the green grass fields and i'm really unsure about uh spindle splinter as far as what i think will win for the actual hugo i'm gonna say i'm going to say it's going to be between i'm thinking it's going to be between elder race and uh song for the wild belt we'll see that has nothing to do with me feeling like those the best i do have good taste but like that's what i'm thinking are gonna be the strong contenders now for the novels the first one is a desolation called peace by arcadia martine this is the second book in this series and i have not yet read the first which is a memory called empire i don't think that one that one might have won last year uh this is a space opera i believe almost like space opera fantasy again like space opera and fantasy like sci-fi fantasy sort of combine really well but i've been very intrigued about that one for a while so i'm hoping really hoping i can read the first book and get to the second book all of this i didn't even mention this all this i need to do before august 11th when the voting happens one of the reasons i am taking on this little project is because most of well all of the uh novels i wanted to read anyway and a number of them i already own the next nominee is the galaxy and the ground within by becky chambers which is the fourth in the wayfarers companion series and this is the finale and this again little like slice of life hope punk world i don't know i've loved every single one of the books in that series they've all been five stars for me very attached to them in their themes so high hopes for this one in a similar vein we have light from uncommon stars by rika aoki this is another one people are talking about it's sort of like becky chambers meets good omens people are sort of saying um there's like faustian deals and like aliens and all the stuff so i again i've been wanting to read this for like months i've had this since christmas uh but i just haven't gotten around to because one of those books that i'm like i have to be in the perfect mood for it but i'm always in the perfect move or something like this so high hopes for this as well obviously then she who became the sun by shelly parker chan this is like sort of historical fantasy um sapphic as well but more of like a brutal grim dark sort of story this is about a woman in mongol chyna who uh sort of like steps up into her brother's role after he is killed and becomes i believe like empress or whatever uh i've heard amazing things about this as well so all of these very strong contenders like i haven't heard a bad thing about any of the books that are nominated for novel the next one is the master of gin by p jelly clark this one i've been hearing a lot of good things about as well it's a desert fantasy uh this one was like a series of novellas and then this novel so question i will look into this myself as well but i would love opinions about should i read all those novellas before i read this or are those just like additional cut i don't know i don't know if i need to or not um but i've heard really good things about pj jelly clark just been meaning to get into their stuff haven't yet then we have project hail mary by andy weir uh andy weir is the person that wrote the martian um a couple other books uh i have not read i don't think i've read anything by andy weir thus far so this would be my first one people tend to say that he has like a funny sort of like funny sci-fi writing style very like fast paced and everything um people were talking really highly of this so again high hopes all around as far as what i think this was really tough um i really think i could love any of these as like favorites uh obviously becky chambers very possible will be like my favorite favorite like i'm pretty sure i will give the bank of chambers books five stars but i could give all of these five stars like i'm pretty confident all of these could be five stars as far as the winner i can see the galaxy on the ground within winning almost as like a uh cumulative of the wayfarers i don't know if the wayfarers ones have any of them have won hugo's in the past i'm not sure um but i can see this being sort of like a yes what a crowding achievement i also think project hail mary has a pretty good chance because i do know andy weir is like fairly well loved and because there is this element of like a lot of people do get to vote is it going to be a little bit of like it's not quite a popularity contest because there's a lot like you have to be like sort of a super fan to vote in this because the tickets are like pretty expensive and stuff especially if you're voting as like a non-attendee even those tickets are pretty expensive to be like a member uh so i it's not like it's you know the goodreads choice awards or something but yeah um i'm gonna say either becky chambers andy weir maybe our katy martine if they won last year i really any of these any of these could win and i would like not be shocked i mean obviously they're all nominated but like i don't know all of these novels i've heard amazing things about so there's not really a front runner in my head for what's gonna win here so yeah that is the plan so i'm gonna try to read all these books before august 11th uh when the voting stops i'm gonna do a reading vlog vlogging my experience reading all these books uh so yeah comment below let me know if you've read any of these what you thought of them if you plan on reading things for the hugos um and let me know if you think my guesses are correct as far as what i think will win slash what i think i'll like the most i really don't know i mean like all of these sound good which is why i'm doing this so thank you all for watching and i'll see all the guys soon bye youhey guys it's sam i started filming this before my lighting was properly set up so i'm redoing it and i also now have a rug so maybe it's not as echoing here we will see but today i wanted to talk about my hugo awards tbr so if you aren't familiar the hugo awards is a yearly science fiction fantasy award that is given to a number of different categories novel novella short story fan works like a bunch of different things but i would say the people talk about the most are probably like the short stories the novellas and the novels and these awards are given every year at the world science fiction and fantasy convention which takes place in a different city around the world every single year what's cool about the hugos as well is that if you are a member of like the convention whatever which you can do whether you're attending the convention or not you can like sort of have a membership you can vote in the hugos so there's a little bit of like not only are these you know like sort of critically acclaimed but there's a little bit of people also contributing to this but there's a certain barrier of entry as well that makes it so like people that are voting on it are probably like super hardcore fans but anyway this year i am attending the hugos in the world science fiction fantasy convention because it's going to be in chicago i live in chicago so by the way if you plan on going let me know i plan on doing like some kind of meetup with all the sci-fi and fantasy people things can be really fun i decided since i'm voting i already voted in the nominations and stuff but since i'm voting now for the finalists i want to be had like i want to contribute i want to like really be able to vote based on like all of them so the ones i really care about are the novels and the novellas you're probably thinking why am i even gonna watch this video i can just look up who the novel and novella nominees are you can however what i plan on doing this video is me sort of saying where i think these books are gonna fall for me uh and like who i think is gonna like win in my heart who i think is probably gonna win like overall uh so sort of like predictions and stuff i also do plan on filming a vlog of me reading all of these you kind of get my real-time reactions as well well let's get into it i'm gonna start with the novellas and then go into the novels versus the novella i've already read and that is a song for the wild built by becky chambers this is the first novella series by her that's taking place in her like hope punk kind of settings that she does this follows a team monk who's essentially a therapist is having sort of like an identity crisis like not really sure almost like a quarter life crisis and it goes off into the wilderness and is sort of discovered by a robot like meets a robot and robots have not been seen for quite some time like hundreds of years they've almost become myth at this point and then they like basically team up and it's very cute and wholesome uh i give this five stars so already like a strong contender in my heart for what i think i will end up loving the most uh but yeah we will see next is one that i own but i haven't read yet and that is a spindle splintered by alex e harrow this is a i think darker sleeping beauty retelling i believe it also might be sapphic this one i'm not sure i'm gonna feel honestly i actually plan on listening to this on audio i did get the audiobook out from my library i was waiting for my hole to come in and i've only read ten thousand doors of january by this author didn't love it i do plan on reading her other book uh like full-size novel not sure i've heard mixed things about that so i'm not really sure how i'm going to feel about this at all but we'll see next is a series that i've actually read most of them but i'm a little bit behind that is across the green grass fields by seanan mcguire this is i think the seventh sixth seventh book in the wayward children series i've enjoyed all the ones that i've read so far there's only one that i was kind of like iffy about but i haven't read i think either one or two before this one i think only one um so i need to read that one before i read this one even though they're sort of like companion either some crossover there's some not it kind of depends on the book they're not always like you don't always have to read all of them if you hear that knocking it's my neighbors causing some kind of ruckus but of all of them that i've read so far down them on the sticks and bones has been my favorite i'm not sure if this will be able to top that because that's just like gothic horror goodness and i love the themes explore in this one i believe people have talked about this one almost being like a horse girl story which i think is like very interesting uh so we will see how happy about this one we have elder race by adrian chiakowski this is an author that i have not read yet but i've heard a lot about people talking about like space operas and stuff uh that this author writes so i'm intrigued and i think it'll be kind of interesting to see what their writing style is like before diving into a full-size novel i will say short stories are something that i like really can't get a feel for the author uh novellas are like hit and miss for me which is why i'm not reading the short stories uh novellas are hitting this for me so we'll see but if they do a really great job with the novella i'll be like okay i feel like i can really commit to the novel and this follows an anthropologist on a planet that ends up having to like help the natives that they were like studying with some kind of foe and i believe this is a bit of a genre bender because like the synopsis almost sounds fantasy-esque as well so it might be like a sci-fi fantasy mix which i think is sort of what this author does i don't think this is in the same world as their other books and lastly we have the novella that i actually just started i'm only about 20 pages into it though so i don't have any solid feelings about it yet that is fire heart tiger by ellet de bedard and this is set in a pre-colonial vietnamese-esque world and our main character has some kind of like fire powers that are manifesting but right now she's sort of stuck between her mother and her like former lover uh and she's sort of having to be a not quite emissary but like um the go-between as we're doing these like negotiations because she was originally sent sort of as like an emissary um political stuff to that other women's country and but they formed a relationship of the two princesses and so like there's this dynamic so it's saffic pre-colonial vietnamese fantasy and it has been described as like a romantic fantasy so of these i'm not sure i mean i think it's gonna be really hard to beat a psalm for the wild belt because that just like spoke to me and i tend to love becky chambers i will say i think there's a strong chance that elder race will also resonate with me and potentially fire heart tiger as well not so sure about across the green grass fields and i'm really unsure about uh spindle splinter as far as what i think will win for the actual hugo i'm gonna say i'm going to say it's going to be between i'm thinking it's going to be between elder race and uh song for the wild belt we'll see that has nothing to do with me feeling like those the best i do have good taste but like that's what i'm thinking are gonna be the strong contenders now for the novels the first one is a desolation called peace by arcadia martine this is the second book in this series and i have not yet read the first which is a memory called empire i don't think that one that one might have won last year uh this is a space opera i believe almost like space opera fantasy again like space opera and fantasy like sci-fi fantasy sort of combine really well but i've been very intrigued about that one for a while so i'm hoping really hoping i can read the first book and get to the second book all of this i didn't even mention this all this i need to do before august 11th when the voting happens one of the reasons i am taking on this little project is because most of well all of the uh novels i wanted to read anyway and a number of them i already own the next nominee is the galaxy and the ground within by becky chambers which is the fourth in the wayfarers companion series and this is the finale and this again little like slice of life hope punk world i don't know i've loved every single one of the books in that series they've all been five stars for me very attached to them in their themes so high hopes for this one in a similar vein we have light from uncommon stars by rika aoki this is another one people are talking about it's sort of like becky chambers meets good omens people are sort of saying um there's like faustian deals and like aliens and all the stuff so i again i've been wanting to read this for like months i've had this since christmas uh but i just haven't gotten around to because one of those books that i'm like i have to be in the perfect mood for it but i'm always in the perfect move or something like this so high hopes for this as well obviously then she who became the sun by shelly parker chan this is like sort of historical fantasy um sapphic as well but more of like a brutal grim dark sort of story this is about a woman in mongol chyna who uh sort of like steps up into her brother's role after he is killed and becomes i believe like empress or whatever uh i've heard amazing things about this as well so all of these very strong contenders like i haven't heard a bad thing about any of the books that are nominated for novel the next one is the master of gin by p jelly clark this one i've been hearing a lot of good things about as well it's a desert fantasy uh this one was like a series of novellas and then this novel so question i will look into this myself as well but i would love opinions about should i read all those novellas before i read this or are those just like additional cut i don't know i don't know if i need to or not um but i've heard really good things about pj jelly clark just been meaning to get into their stuff haven't yet then we have project hail mary by andy weir uh andy weir is the person that wrote the martian um a couple other books uh i have not read i don't think i've read anything by andy weir thus far so this would be my first one people tend to say that he has like a funny sort of like funny sci-fi writing style very like fast paced and everything um people were talking really highly of this so again high hopes all around as far as what i think this was really tough um i really think i could love any of these as like favorites uh obviously becky chambers very possible will be like my favorite favorite like i'm pretty sure i will give the bank of chambers books five stars but i could give all of these five stars like i'm pretty confident all of these could be five stars as far as the winner i can see the galaxy on the ground within winning almost as like a uh cumulative of the wayfarers i don't know if the wayfarers ones have any of them have won hugo's in the past i'm not sure um but i can see this being sort of like a yes what a crowding achievement i also think project hail mary has a pretty good chance because i do know andy weir is like fairly well loved and because there is this element of like a lot of people do get to vote is it going to be a little bit of like it's not quite a popularity contest because there's a lot like you have to be like sort of a super fan to vote in this because the tickets are like pretty expensive and stuff especially if you're voting as like a non-attendee even those tickets are pretty expensive to be like a member uh so i it's not like it's you know the goodreads choice awards or something but yeah um i'm gonna say either becky chambers andy weir maybe our katy martine if they won last year i really any of these any of these could win and i would like not be shocked i mean obviously they're all nominated but like i don't know all of these novels i've heard amazing things about so there's not really a front runner in my head for what's gonna win here so yeah that is the plan so i'm gonna try to read all these books before august 11th uh when the voting stops i'm gonna do a reading vlog vlogging my experience reading all these books uh so yeah comment below let me know if you've read any of these what you thought of them if you plan on reading things for the hugos um and let me know if you think my guesses are correct as far as what i think will win slash what i think i'll like the most i really don't know i mean like all of these sound good which is why i'm doing this so thank you all for watching and i'll see all the guys soon bye you\n"