reading hugo award nominees _ part 2

**Exploring Hugo Awards Nominees: A Detailed Journey Through Part Two of the Vlog**

In this article, we delve into the second part of a vlog discussing the 2022 Hugo Awards nominees. The creator shares insights, thoughts, and detailed reviews of various books they've read as part of their journey through the nominated works.

### Introduction

The vlog begins with an introduction to Part Two, referencing Part One and highlighting the ongoing exploration of Hugo Awards nominees. The creator mentions their recent activities, including playing "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," while catching up on reading. They express frustration over missing out on "Coven" but are now finding solace in literature.

### Book Reviews

#### 1. **She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan**

The creator discusses their experience with *She Who Became the Sun*, a genderqueer retelling of Ming Dynasty history. They describe it as a medium-paced novel, noting its intricate political intrigue and war elements. The story follows Zoo, who impersonates her brother to claim his fate, and a eunuch general seeking vengeance. The creator compares this book to "The Poppy War," appreciating its queer themes but finding it less brutal than Theos. They rate it a four-star read, acknowledging its strong character interactions and political depth.

#### 2. **Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire**

Next, the creator reviews *Across the Green Grass Fields*, part of the Wayward Children series. Set in Hoof Land, populated by centaurs and unicorns, this novella explores themes of destiny and choice. While they praise its unique world-building, the creator feels it lacks focus on its thematic elements, leading to a bittersweet ending. They give it 3.75 stars, noting it’s not their favorite in the series but still engaging.

#### 3. **Master of Gen and The Dead Jin in Cairo**

The creator expresses excitement for *Master of Gen*, influenced by their enjoyment of the short story *The Dead Jin in Cairo*. They highlight its steampunk setting and intriguing mystery, comparing it favorably to "City of Brass." The creator is eagerly awaiting the next book in the series, deeming it a strong contender for their Hugo vote.

#### 4. **Galaxy in the Ground by Becky Chambers**

Concluding their novel reviews, the creator talks about *Galaxy in the Ground*, the final installment in Becky Chambers' Hugo-winning series. They praise its hopeful themes of cultural exchange and parenthood, particularly focusing on Rovag and Speaker. The creator rates it five stars, hailing it as a bittersweet yet life-affirming conclusion to a beloved series.

### Reflections and Future Plans

The creator reflects on their reading journey, balancing their Hugo Awards exploration with personal projects like *First Sister* for book club. They mention struggles with pacing and thematic focus in some books, such as *A Memory Called Empire*, while expressing enthusiasm for upcoming reads like *The Galaxy in the Ground Within*.

They plan to vote before the deadline, possibly favoring either *Master of Gen* or *Galaxy in the Ground* but remain open to changes. The creator concludes by inviting viewers to share their own Hugo nominee experiences and hints at a future video ranking all nominees.

### Conclusion

This journey through the Hugo Awards nominees reveals a rich tapestry of stories, each offering unique perspectives on themes like identity, destiny, and cultural exchange. The creator’s detailed insights provide valuable recommendations for readers, encouraging exploration of these acclaimed works.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello this is part two of the hugo nominees reading vlog i will link part one on the screen if you haven't watched it i am reading through all of the novella and the novel nominees for 2022. and if you didn't watch part one uh i did get coven i hadn't caught it before and so i'm still pretty mad about it it's kind of given me some time to read i've actually been playing a lot of breath of the wild um but i have also been reading a lot so i finished up she who became the sun by shelly parker-chan which i started in the last vlog this is a genderqueer retelling of the ming dynasty the star of the ming dynasty and that emperor which is a historical period that i don't really know a ton about and this is a i would say like medium paced uh book like there's parts of it that are kind of slow um not only does it follow our main character of zoo who is a woman that took on the identity of her brother in order to kind of like grasp his fate which is supposed to be faded to be like fantastic great um and like the rise to power there but it also follows the eunuch general that's part of the mongolian army and like his vengeance and his fate it's a lot of stuff about like fate and revenge and how people are sort of connected and how they propel along fates like how all those fates intertwined uh and all of that so it's a big like i would say like a political intrigue sort of story with like a war story uh this definitely reminded me a lot although less fantasy-ish of like the poppy war in like the different moving about of um you know military strategy and people and people that are awful to the main characters and things like that uh definitely that this is also very queer and i would say this is less brutal in the like grim darkness of it there's still some definitely brutal things that happen um but less real than the poppy war so yeah i like this um it'll be an interesting conclusion to the duology when the next book comes out which has not been officially announced yet i'm thinking like a four star um it was a book that when i wasn't reading it i wasn't necessarily like oh my god i have to pick it up because it is like more slower moving um but i really liked again all those like character interactions um and how fates are intertwined and things that was really cool i don't tend to love military fantasy or sci-fi or anything like that so some of that strategery um was like i don't really care about this but solid uh and yeah i will continue with this series when the next book comes out i'm actually gonna read one of the novellas next across the green grass fields by seanan mcguire um just to read that really quickly then i have to read a book for book club that's not on the hugos and then i think i will probably either read master of gin or um the last wayfarers book i'm thinking one of those two might be my favorite as i'm going through some of these um this one i thought might have been a five star but ended up being a four the wayfarers books are always five star books for me and then i did read the short story one of the short stories um a dead gin in cairo which is in the same world as master of gin and i really liked that um so i'm thinking i might really like master of gin um i don't know if i'm going to get to the um the sci-fi series why can i not think of what it is memory called empire or katie martine the second book desolation called beast i don't know if i'm gonna get through all those enough to to read that um but we will see so yeah right now i'm thinking top contenders for my picks are gonna be the wayfarer book or um or the master of gen but who knows anyway i'm going to be reading across the green grass feels next hello i am still so fatigued so i didn't do anything today with myself i put non pajamas on and even that was a stretch and i put my hair up like this and no makeup and you're just gonna have to deal with that so i did finish uh across the green grass fields last night so i started to finish that in like two days obviously novella this was fine uh again not the strongest contender in the wayward children series i tend to prefer the ones that include the full cast um unless we're going to a world i really love and the hoof lands which is which where this one takes place um is just basically like a world for horse girls or really it's anything hoofed like is there so any kind of like hooved monster creature myth whatever so there's like centaurs kelpies unicorns a bunch of other different things um which is kind of cool but i felt like this one suffered from the same thing that a few of the other ones have suffered from where like it doesn't necessarily follow through completely on the theming there was a lot of like choosing your own destiny and not letting destiny choose you and no one right way to do things and not assuming things about people great and then it abruptly ends as it always does with like the kids you know going back to the like previous world it happens in every book that's not a spoiler we know that's coming um but i wish there was like a little bit more need a little more time there's sort of two parts of the story and i wish like the second part had a little bit more time um but i'm assuming that we'll see reagan as part of the other like bigger cast as the series goes on there's been wrap ups with some of the other cast members um and then she might be added in as another student um we will see so we might get more of a wrap up with that but fine 3.75 stars so not my least favorite of the series but definitely not my favorite and i prefer like the main installments for that i now just started a master of gin so i will be updating on that um that's one of the last books i have three more after this no i have three novels after this one so i think i'll make it two of those are the arcade martine books actually to go to the bookstore and pick the first book up for that and then one more novella i did start the past as read by catherine m valente i listened to it on audio i'm listening to it on audio um the thing is is like i kind of know i'm probably not going to like it that much her books just don't tend to resonate with me i'm still giving it a shot and the audiobook is kind of fun but it's in like the voice that the narrator is using for the like accent um is a little bit hard to like focus on if i'm not only focusing on that so i've been trying to listen to that while i'm like playing a video game for example which i can usually do for a lot of books and this i feel like i need to pay a little bit closer attention because there's more like sort of slang and like the accent that's being used and whatever um so i don't know how fast i'm gonna get through that one but honestly if i don't get through that one i probably will it's a novella but if i don't it's not that big of a deal because i'm like i'm prob i'm not gonna rank in a five like i would be stunned i just don't tend to resonate with her books like my favorite book of hers is deathless and when i read that i still gave it like 3.5 stars three stars it resonates more with me individual lines over time like i like it more in my memory but the actual enjoyment of the reading experience was pretty low um so this would probably be the same i don't think it's going to knock out the top two contenders for novella for me but i am looking forward to master of gin i really liked the short story that i read before this or just kind of see how i liked the writing style and to like dip my toe in and people said you should read that short story before you read this so uh i like that short story and i'm so far like i'm only 10 pages into it but i like the writing uh steampunk cairo so fun so it's contender i just finished a master of gin uh and i don't think that i've updated while reading this because i've been so engrossed in it and enjoyed it so much so this was another unexpected is the right word again i went into this not knowing a ton about it like a steampunk cairo um and that's it so i did read the short story um the dead jin in cairo before this i did not read haunted tram car or whatever um but you don't really need that to read this uh this was so good atmosphere 10 out of 10 characters probably 10 out of 10. the mystery plot i don't always love a mystery this one was done really well um yeah i already have been even before i finished this last night i was looking up like do we have an announced second novel in this series yet and there's not hopefully soon because i'm like oh my please um again there's like sophic cool like sophic relationship uh there's a lot there's a lot and i loved this this was like man what was the overlap here this had some vibes of like city of brass you know there's there's similar things going on there like similar mythologies being used um this is obviously more modern that like steampunk vibe it also is really self-aware with its like mystery with some of the ridiculousness and then it has it has moments that are like funny but like just funny enough i would say there was a moment particularly later in the book that almost reminded me of like the humor of like thor ragnarok which i was not expecting um great but like not too much right just enough so this one i think about a five five out of five stars this one is a contender for favorite of the novels so i i do have it on my shelf that's why i'm like hunching over sorry just trying to change up locations for the vlog so i have three more books left um one of those being the galaxy in the ground within by becky chambers then i need to read um a memory called empire before i can write a desolation called peace i did some math and i have to read about 100 pages a day of all the books i have to read um because i also need to read first sister which is not for the hugos but that's for my book club i actually have to read that next and take a little break break i'm trying to figure out i was like could i listen to one of these books on audio i don't think i want to i could maybe do um the galaxy in the ground without audio but i don't think i want to and then i tried to listen to a sample of a memory called empire uh i don't i don't think i'm gonna vibe with it so i think i need to read this on physical copy i'm gonna be cutting it so close but i think if i'm still reading um the destination called piece and i keep like forgetting which ones are actually nominated um i will know at least by halfway through if that is a contender for the one i want to vote for because at this point i'm probably going to be voting for a master of gen but potentially galaxy in the ground with them but i'll be reading that next the american empire or katie martin books are the last things i'm going to read so unless those knock one of those two out of the running i should know in time for voting we will see i still want to get all them right before voting wish me luck i had to take a little break to uh read first sister because we're reading that for book club this month but now i'm back to hugos so i was actually gonna read the becky chambers book next but i decided i didn't want to have to read the um or katie martine books back to back even if i loved them i like to typically take a break between like books in the same series i used to be avenger not so much anymore but i'm a little less than halfway through the first book so uh a memory called empire i want to talk about this like slightly um because i'll be interested to kind of compare how i feel about the second book if i do get to the second book i mean i plan on reading it but if i really didn't like this i wouldn't this is interesting because i went into this really not knowing much about it i knew like ambassador goes to an empire that is essentially a little bit you know empirical colonizing things like that um and her predecessor was like potentially murdered and everything goes from there um but this is written in a way that's like slightly harder to follow sometimes i'm comparing this a little bit not quite as complicated but this feels similar in like the way my brain has to think about it to to like the lightning by ada palmer which is another sci-fi not like this but just like the way that it's written is like slightly literary like there's i think you just ran into my new show i don't know if you can see back there i just put uh like a single shelf together i'm gonna try to figure out how to arrange everything but yeah like the way that like language is used and there's even like discussions about language is used within this book and there's like just like discussions of cultures and things and it feels very like foreign um and it's just very interesting because like i said she's an ambassador she's from like a space station and then she's going to like a planet and they kind of consider her barbaric like her people sort of like barbaric like they joke at their barbarians um but like they blatantly are not anything that we would perceive as barbaric obviously um like they have like really advanced technology and things like that so it's kind of just like what so yeah it can be like sometimes hard to follow but not in like a bad way like i'm i'm pretty you know chugging along with i'm trying to read about 100 pages a day i figured out this is a tangent but i figured out that usually i'm very much like a mood reader i can set up a monthly tbr and like kind of stick to it like something for a project like this for example but i basically did the math between like these three books that i have to read of how many pages i have to read a day to finish before the 11th so that i can vote and after we basically like about 100 pages a day give or take um and i i can so do that if i have like a short term goal like that could i read a hundred a day every day potentially but i get a little bit burnt out um you know i'm not doing other hobbies as much because i'm just doing this for this project but i've done that before where like i've done the math and then i can just like hyper focus on this thing because i have this like goal to attain is very funny but anyway i'm liking this so far this was the winner of the 2020 hugo i'm curious if i'll think this book and like the second book for example are good enough like if the second book the sequel is good enough to be voted like a you know two year in a row best novel situation doesn't happen very often i think the first one to do it was actually um the broken earth trilogy by n.k jemisin so will this do that i don't know doesn't happen like i said very often at all i'll probably update next though when i like actually start the becky chambers book and then the sequel to this i totally forgot to update that i uh read the galaxy and the ground within by becky chambers i read this in two days two sittings really half and half uh am i shocked no because all of these books in this series have been five stars and this one was as well this is the final book in the series and it was only following aliens which i thought was great uh a great way to sort of wrap up the series i love the themes in here as i do in every single one of these installments of um coming to terms with like differences and just like instead of just being the humans being like oh aliens this is also weird it was even like aliens having to discuss their like cultural differences uh two characters in particular were my favorite uh rovag and speaker oh my god i'm obsessed with them um i love them i teared up it's such a hopeful world that like i wish existed the way this one like has a lot of themes of parenthood um and the way that some of the different aliens like raise kids i was like i want like literally the i don't actually know how to say it out leon because i always read the word and i never have to say it out loud the way that they do parenting obsessed honestly the way that most of the aliens do parenting in this like series but like they have people that like they treat it as a profession they're like you like you you become a parent because you want to be just like the themes around that are amazing i will talk about this more when i do like an actual review of this but i love this 5 out of 5 stars um now i really don't know because i'm pretty sure it's gonna be between this and uh a master of gin i love them both i think this will be the one that i vote for i'm very torn but like the feel-good thematics of this are just so good um it also just feels nice that it's like the last book in the series which i am like it's so bittersweet because i think it's ending on a high note it's nice that it's not being like dragged out until they just get like bad or run out of stuff to talk about not that you really would with a book series like this but whatever i'm glad that she's ending it at like four books um but i would gladly take so many more uh i love how like bittersweet these endings sort of are because not everything's wrapped up in pretty little bone it feels very much like life but it still feels like hopeful it's just so good so i just loved this um i do not think i'm currently reading a desolation called piece i just started like 50 pages in um i don't think that is gonna knock out a master of gender this one so i'm like even if i don't get that finished before the 11th which right now it's like the fifth so i should have plenty of time um i'm pretty like confident that like i'm not going to love that enough to knock one of these two out so one of those two is definitely going to be my pick for the novel category oh i have officially finished up my reading for the hugos technically so i did start a desolation called peace by katie martine originally i started on ebook because i wasn't sure if i wanted to get a physical copy i have a physical copy of the first book but i wasn't sure if i was going to like it enough to justify getting a copy of the second book and i'm glad that i didn't i got it from my library on ebook first and the thing with this book is that um it adds like three new povs and i think it actually could have just added one new pov i mean i haven't gotten to the end like 66 of the way into it um but i could just tell from the good go i wasn't going to enjoy it enough for it to knock the top two contenders out of the spot for the voting in the hugos i wasn't even really sure i wanted to keep reading it i was contemplating dnfing it but then when i start to read it again i'm interested enough to continue and i kind of want to continue because like why not so i end up getting the audio uh and just listening to it during walks and stuff so that's where i got about 66 of the way through but at this point i think i'm not going to like it as much as the first book and i didn't like love the first book um it's it's fine uh i just think especially the second book i'm actually kind of surprised it was nominated um i get what it's doing but i think it would have been a much more interesting story for me if they would have focused the povs a little bit more and not had all of those extras because the first book had one pov and there were things about that one pov that i wanted to see explored more and we're missing that because we have all these povs we're sharing with so i'll be finishing that before the end of the month and i will have my full reaction and like my regular reading wrap up uh but as far as the hugo reading i am now done with all of the hugos i made it and i voted like a few days before voting um stopped so i'll actually be doing a video ranking all of the hugo nominees uh telling you guys where i kind of placed everything and how i voted and what my predictions are for what's actually gonna win the hugos uh so i'll post that later this month so yeah that was a really fun little reading experiment uh i think i will continue to do this honestly i am very intrigued now to see um what next year's nominees will be which is a ways away obviously but i'm kind of like okay what are the things that are likely to be nominated for hugos because then i'll have them on my radar even more um it's gonna be interesting to see like what of this year's new releases um have all the hype and stuff so we will see i mean we're already more than halfway through the year and i i don't know which are the ones that are like top contenders so we will see this was a very fun project i enjoyed everything i read to a certain extent uh none of them were less than like 3.5 stars i think maybe some of the novellas were three but a three star novella does not bother me whatsoever so this was overall really good experience and i will plan to do this with more awards in the future as well so comment down below and let me know if you read the hugo nominees and if there's any words in particular you think i should do this for science fiction and fantasy ones i'm not reading like the man bookers or anything thank you all for watching i'll see you guys soon bye youhello this is part two of the hugo nominees reading vlog i will link part one on the screen if you haven't watched it i am reading through all of the novella and the novel nominees for 2022. and if you didn't watch part one uh i did get coven i hadn't caught it before and so i'm still pretty mad about it it's kind of given me some time to read i've actually been playing a lot of breath of the wild um but i have also been reading a lot so i finished up she who became the sun by shelly parker-chan which i started in the last vlog this is a genderqueer retelling of the ming dynasty the star of the ming dynasty and that emperor which is a historical period that i don't really know a ton about and this is a i would say like medium paced uh book like there's parts of it that are kind of slow um not only does it follow our main character of zoo who is a woman that took on the identity of her brother in order to kind of like grasp his fate which is supposed to be faded to be like fantastic great um and like the rise to power there but it also follows the eunuch general that's part of the mongolian army and like his vengeance and his fate it's a lot of stuff about like fate and revenge and how people are sort of connected and how they propel along fates like how all those fates intertwined uh and all of that so it's a big like i would say like a political intrigue sort of story with like a war story uh this definitely reminded me a lot although less fantasy-ish of like the poppy war in like the different moving about of um you know military strategy and people and people that are awful to the main characters and things like that uh definitely that this is also very queer and i would say this is less brutal in the like grim darkness of it there's still some definitely brutal things that happen um but less real than the poppy war so yeah i like this um it'll be an interesting conclusion to the duology when the next book comes out which has not been officially announced yet i'm thinking like a four star um it was a book that when i wasn't reading it i wasn't necessarily like oh my god i have to pick it up because it is like more slower moving um but i really liked again all those like character interactions um and how fates are intertwined and things that was really cool i don't tend to love military fantasy or sci-fi or anything like that so some of that strategery um was like i don't really care about this but solid uh and yeah i will continue with this series when the next book comes out i'm actually gonna read one of the novellas next across the green grass fields by seanan mcguire um just to read that really quickly then i have to read a book for book club that's not on the hugos and then i think i will probably either read master of gin or um the last wayfarers book i'm thinking one of those two might be my favorite as i'm going through some of these um this one i thought might have been a five star but ended up being a four the wayfarers books are always five star books for me and then i did read the short story one of the short stories um a dead gin in cairo which is in the same world as master of gin and i really liked that um so i'm thinking i might really like master of gin um i don't know if i'm going to get to the um the sci-fi series why can i not think of what it is memory called empire or katie martine the second book desolation called beast i don't know if i'm gonna get through all those enough to to read that um but we will see so yeah right now i'm thinking top contenders for my picks are gonna be the wayfarer book or um or the master of gen but who knows anyway i'm going to be reading across the green grass feels next hello i am still so fatigued so i didn't do anything today with myself i put non pajamas on and even that was a stretch and i put my hair up like this and no makeup and you're just gonna have to deal with that so i did finish uh across the green grass fields last night so i started to finish that in like two days obviously novella this was fine uh again not the strongest contender in the wayward children series i tend to prefer the ones that include the full cast um unless we're going to a world i really love and the hoof lands which is which where this one takes place um is just basically like a world for horse girls or really it's anything hoofed like is there so any kind of like hooved monster creature myth whatever so there's like centaurs kelpies unicorns a bunch of other different things um which is kind of cool but i felt like this one suffered from the same thing that a few of the other ones have suffered from where like it doesn't necessarily follow through completely on the theming there was a lot of like choosing your own destiny and not letting destiny choose you and no one right way to do things and not assuming things about people great and then it abruptly ends as it always does with like the kids you know going back to the like previous world it happens in every book that's not a spoiler we know that's coming um but i wish there was like a little bit more need a little more time there's sort of two parts of the story and i wish like the second part had a little bit more time um but i'm assuming that we'll see reagan as part of the other like bigger cast as the series goes on there's been wrap ups with some of the other cast members um and then she might be added in as another student um we will see so we might get more of a wrap up with that but fine 3.75 stars so not my least favorite of the series but definitely not my favorite and i prefer like the main installments for that i now just started a master of gin so i will be updating on that um that's one of the last books i have three more after this no i have three novels after this one so i think i'll make it two of those are the arcade martine books actually to go to the bookstore and pick the first book up for that and then one more novella i did start the past as read by catherine m valente i listened to it on audio i'm listening to it on audio um the thing is is like i kind of know i'm probably not going to like it that much her books just don't tend to resonate with me i'm still giving it a shot and the audiobook is kind of fun but it's in like the voice that the narrator is using for the like accent um is a little bit hard to like focus on if i'm not only focusing on that so i've been trying to listen to that while i'm like playing a video game for example which i can usually do for a lot of books and this i feel like i need to pay a little bit closer attention because there's more like sort of slang and like the accent that's being used and whatever um so i don't know how fast i'm gonna get through that one but honestly if i don't get through that one i probably will it's a novella but if i don't it's not that big of a deal because i'm like i'm prob i'm not gonna rank in a five like i would be stunned i just don't tend to resonate with her books like my favorite book of hers is deathless and when i read that i still gave it like 3.5 stars three stars it resonates more with me individual lines over time like i like it more in my memory but the actual enjoyment of the reading experience was pretty low um so this would probably be the same i don't think it's going to knock out the top two contenders for novella for me but i am looking forward to master of gin i really liked the short story that i read before this or just kind of see how i liked the writing style and to like dip my toe in and people said you should read that short story before you read this so uh i like that short story and i'm so far like i'm only 10 pages into it but i like the writing uh steampunk cairo so fun so it's contender i just finished a master of gin uh and i don't think that i've updated while reading this because i've been so engrossed in it and enjoyed it so much so this was another unexpected is the right word again i went into this not knowing a ton about it like a steampunk cairo um and that's it so i did read the short story um the dead jin in cairo before this i did not read haunted tram car or whatever um but you don't really need that to read this uh this was so good atmosphere 10 out of 10 characters probably 10 out of 10. the mystery plot i don't always love a mystery this one was done really well um yeah i already have been even before i finished this last night i was looking up like do we have an announced second novel in this series yet and there's not hopefully soon because i'm like oh my please um again there's like sophic cool like sophic relationship uh there's a lot there's a lot and i loved this this was like man what was the overlap here this had some vibes of like city of brass you know there's there's similar things going on there like similar mythologies being used um this is obviously more modern that like steampunk vibe it also is really self-aware with its like mystery with some of the ridiculousness and then it has it has moments that are like funny but like just funny enough i would say there was a moment particularly later in the book that almost reminded me of like the humor of like thor ragnarok which i was not expecting um great but like not too much right just enough so this one i think about a five five out of five stars this one is a contender for favorite of the novels so i i do have it on my shelf that's why i'm like hunching over sorry just trying to change up locations for the vlog so i have three more books left um one of those being the galaxy in the ground within by becky chambers then i need to read um a memory called empire before i can write a desolation called peace i did some math and i have to read about 100 pages a day of all the books i have to read um because i also need to read first sister which is not for the hugos but that's for my book club i actually have to read that next and take a little break break i'm trying to figure out i was like could i listen to one of these books on audio i don't think i want to i could maybe do um the galaxy in the ground without audio but i don't think i want to and then i tried to listen to a sample of a memory called empire uh i don't i don't think i'm gonna vibe with it so i think i need to read this on physical copy i'm gonna be cutting it so close but i think if i'm still reading um the destination called piece and i keep like forgetting which ones are actually nominated um i will know at least by halfway through if that is a contender for the one i want to vote for because at this point i'm probably going to be voting for a master of gen but potentially galaxy in the ground with them but i'll be reading that next the american empire or katie martin books are the last things i'm going to read so unless those knock one of those two out of the running i should know in time for voting we will see i still want to get all them right before voting wish me luck i had to take a little break to uh read first sister because we're reading that for book club this month but now i'm back to hugos so i was actually gonna read the becky chambers book next but i decided i didn't want to have to read the um or katie martine books back to back even if i loved them i like to typically take a break between like books in the same series i used to be avenger not so much anymore but i'm a little less than halfway through the first book so uh a memory called empire i want to talk about this like slightly um because i'll be interested to kind of compare how i feel about the second book if i do get to the second book i mean i plan on reading it but if i really didn't like this i wouldn't this is interesting because i went into this really not knowing much about it i knew like ambassador goes to an empire that is essentially a little bit you know empirical colonizing things like that um and her predecessor was like potentially murdered and everything goes from there um but this is written in a way that's like slightly harder to follow sometimes i'm comparing this a little bit not quite as complicated but this feels similar in like the way my brain has to think about it to to like the lightning by ada palmer which is another sci-fi not like this but just like the way that it's written is like slightly literary like there's i think you just ran into my new show i don't know if you can see back there i just put uh like a single shelf together i'm gonna try to figure out how to arrange everything but yeah like the way that like language is used and there's even like discussions about language is used within this book and there's like just like discussions of cultures and things and it feels very like foreign um and it's just very interesting because like i said she's an ambassador she's from like a space station and then she's going to like a planet and they kind of consider her barbaric like her people sort of like barbaric like they joke at their barbarians um but like they blatantly are not anything that we would perceive as barbaric obviously um like they have like really advanced technology and things like that so it's kind of just like what so yeah it can be like sometimes hard to follow but not in like a bad way like i'm i'm pretty you know chugging along with i'm trying to read about 100 pages a day i figured out this is a tangent but i figured out that usually i'm very much like a mood reader i can set up a monthly tbr and like kind of stick to it like something for a project like this for example but i basically did the math between like these three books that i have to read of how many pages i have to read a day to finish before the 11th so that i can vote and after we basically like about 100 pages a day give or take um and i i can so do that if i have like a short term goal like that could i read a hundred a day every day potentially but i get a little bit burnt out um you know i'm not doing other hobbies as much because i'm just doing this for this project but i've done that before where like i've done the math and then i can just like hyper focus on this thing because i have this like goal to attain is very funny but anyway i'm liking this so far this was the winner of the 2020 hugo i'm curious if i'll think this book and like the second book for example are good enough like if the second book the sequel is good enough to be voted like a you know two year in a row best novel situation doesn't happen very often i think the first one to do it was actually um the broken earth trilogy by n.k jemisin so will this do that i don't know doesn't happen like i said very often at all i'll probably update next though when i like actually start the becky chambers book and then the sequel to this i totally forgot to update that i uh read the galaxy and the ground within by becky chambers i read this in two days two sittings really half and half uh am i shocked no because all of these books in this series have been five stars and this one was as well this is the final book in the series and it was only following aliens which i thought was great uh a great way to sort of wrap up the series i love the themes in here as i do in every single one of these installments of um coming to terms with like differences and just like instead of just being the humans being like oh aliens this is also weird it was even like aliens having to discuss their like cultural differences uh two characters in particular were my favorite uh rovag and speaker oh my god i'm obsessed with them um i love them i teared up it's such a hopeful world that like i wish existed the way this one like has a lot of themes of parenthood um and the way that some of the different aliens like raise kids i was like i want like literally the i don't actually know how to say it out leon because i always read the word and i never have to say it out loud the way that they do parenting obsessed honestly the way that most of the aliens do parenting in this like series but like they have people that like they treat it as a profession they're like you like you you become a parent because you want to be just like the themes around that are amazing i will talk about this more when i do like an actual review of this but i love this 5 out of 5 stars um now i really don't know because i'm pretty sure it's gonna be between this and uh a master of gin i love them both i think this will be the one that i vote for i'm very torn but like the feel-good thematics of this are just so good um it also just feels nice that it's like the last book in the series which i am like it's so bittersweet because i think it's ending on a high note it's nice that it's not being like dragged out until they just get like bad or run out of stuff to talk about not that you really would with a book series like this but whatever i'm glad that she's ending it at like four books um but i would gladly take so many more uh i love how like bittersweet these endings sort of are because not everything's wrapped up in pretty little bone it feels very much like life but it still feels like hopeful it's just so good so i just loved this um i do not think i'm currently reading a desolation called piece i just started like 50 pages in um i don't think that is gonna knock out a master of gender this one so i'm like even if i don't get that finished before the 11th which right now it's like the fifth so i should have plenty of time um i'm pretty like confident that like i'm not going to love that enough to knock one of these two out so one of those two is definitely going to be my pick for the novel category oh i have officially finished up my reading for the hugos technically so i did start a desolation called peace by katie martine originally i started on ebook because i wasn't sure if i wanted to get a physical copy i have a physical copy of the first book but i wasn't sure if i was going to like it enough to justify getting a copy of the second book and i'm glad that i didn't i got it from my library on ebook first and the thing with this book is that um it adds like three new povs and i think it actually could have just added one new pov i mean i haven't gotten to the end like 66 of the way into it um but i could just tell from the good go i wasn't going to enjoy it enough for it to knock the top two contenders out of the spot for the voting in the hugos i wasn't even really sure i wanted to keep reading it i was contemplating dnfing it but then when i start to read it again i'm interested enough to continue and i kind of want to continue because like why not so i end up getting the audio uh and just listening to it during walks and stuff so that's where i got about 66 of the way through but at this point i think i'm not going to like it as much as the first book and i didn't like love the first book um it's it's fine uh i just think especially the second book i'm actually kind of surprised it was nominated um i get what it's doing but i think it would have been a much more interesting story for me if they would have focused the povs a little bit more and not had all of those extras because the first book had one pov and there were things about that one pov that i wanted to see explored more and we're missing that because we have all these povs we're sharing with so i'll be finishing that before the end of the month and i will have my full reaction and like my regular reading wrap up uh but as far as the hugo reading i am now done with all of the hugos i made it and i voted like a few days before voting um stopped so i'll actually be doing a video ranking all of the hugo nominees uh telling you guys where i kind of placed everything and how i voted and what my predictions are for what's actually gonna win the hugos uh so i'll post that later this month so yeah that was a really fun little reading experiment uh i think i will continue to do this honestly i am very intrigued now to see um what next year's nominees will be which is a ways away obviously but i'm kind of like okay what are the things that are likely to be nominated for hugos because then i'll have them on my radar even more um it's gonna be interesting to see like what of this year's new releases um have all the hype and stuff so we will see i mean we're already more than halfway through the year and i i don't know which are the ones that are like top contenders so we will see this was a very fun project i enjoyed everything i read to a certain extent uh none of them were less than like 3.5 stars i think maybe some of the novellas were three but a three star novella does not bother me whatsoever so this was overall really good experience and i will plan to do this with more awards in the future as well so comment down below and let me know if you read the hugo nominees and if there's any words in particular you think i should do this for science fiction and fantasy ones i'm not reading like the man bookers or anything thank you all for watching i'll see you guys soon bye you\n"