Reading Wednesday

[sabotabby]

 Just finished: Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Yeah, I think this is my Hugo best novel pick. It was really good, really timely, fucking gross, and gave me nightmares. It's very much a confluence all of Tchaikovsky's quirks—rather darkly funny narrator, alien minds, and the particular type of resolution he goes for. All of those things happen to work for me quite a bit. This one reminded me quite a bit of Jeff Vandermeer but less nihilistic and I liked the characters more.

Currently reading: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. This was the only novel on the Hugo list where I'd never heard of the author or the book. I'm loving it so far though. It's a murder mystery set in a city where only engineered seawalls stop the things from Attack on Titan from demolishing the place every wet season. A noble is murdered in a mansion (not his mansion) via a tree growing through his body. The person charged with investigating the murder is an old autistic woman who doesn't leave her house so she gets a young man to be her eyes and ears. The murder mystery structure makes it rather different from not just this batch of nominees but the other award lists in general, which is also intriguing.

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett.

I enjoyed this one! I listened to it as an audiobook, which worked really well. I keep meaning to check out the sequel.

[sabotabby]

I can see it working really well as an audiobook, yeah. It's got that, "so no shit, there I was" quality to it.

[lydamorehouse]

I have yet to read Alien Clay, so thanks for the reminded. I LOVED The Tainted Cup, though! I can't wait to hear what you think of it.

[sabotabby]

I'm very into it so far!

[frandroid]

> a tree growing through his body

Whaaaat I love this. For some reason plants growing in people has remained a motif in my head since I heard of a seed germinating behind someone's eyeball in the past.

[sabotabby]

If you enjoy this kind of thing, you'll enjoy both this one and Alien Clay. (Obviously I enjoy this sort of thing.)

[frandroid]

For anyone else in t-dot reading this, there are fairly few copies of Alien Clay at the TPL so get in the hold line now before it grows to CN Tower heights

[sabotabby]

I suspect it won't win b/c Hugos are even more conservative than the Nebulas but I've been wrong before. I think all of the novels are strong except Someone You Can Build a Nest In, which would be what I'd put money on if I were a bettin' woman.

[sovay]

It was really good, really timely, fucking gross, and gave me nightmares. It's very much a confluence all of Tchaikovsky's quirks—rather darkly funny narrator, alien minds, and the particular type of resolution he goes for.

Cool.

[sabotabby]

If his thing works for you, this will work for you.

[radiantfracture]

In other relatively good book news, my public library is buying your books!

[sabotabby]

That is good book news!

[dagibbs]

I read the Foundryside trilogy by Bennett last year, and I quite enjoyed it.

[sabotabby]

I quite like his writing so far.

[greylock]

This was the only novel on the Hugo list where I'd never heard of the author or the book. I'm loving it so far though

And how do you feel about that?
I assume you're a lot more switched on to the zeitvibe than I am, and I guess at least for the big stuff, random books don't fly out of anywhere ... unless the awards are organised in China?

I mean, do you often get surprised?

[sabotabby]

Depends on what you mean by surprised.

I'm eligible to vote for three different awards: Hugo, Nebula, and Aurora. The latter is very limited because it's Canada. We punch above our weight in genre, so, for example, Premee Mohamed ends up in all three. But you have books like Blackheart Man (my pick for best novel) in the Auroras that would never make it to the other two because they lack mass appeal in a larger pool.</ Hugos are fan-based and Nebulas are author-based, and in general the Nebulas will trend closer to my own elitist preferences, whereas the Hugos will be more populist. For example, last year, <I>The Saint of Bright Doors swept every award it was eligible for except the Hugos, where Some Desperate Glory, which I haven't read but by its summary, hits every Rainbow Age trope, won the Hugos. Rakesfall, which is the most ambitious and interesting SFFH book I read this year, didn't even get shortlisted. This year, I'll be shocked if anything other than Someone You Can Build a Nest In wins.

[greylock]

Surprised in someome gets nominated in the Hugos who wasn't on your radar, not even in terms of "quality", but word of mouth.
(You know, I actually have no idea HOW the Hugos get nominated. I know plenty of people who vote, and feel the need to read all of the nominees... BRL, to wikipedia!)

[Personally, I take it as a moral failing when something slips by me in an area I consider myself knowledgeable in, but that is very much a me thing.]

[sabotabby]

Oh, yeah, I'm often surprised by the choices. Especially in some of the art categories. Usually short stories and novellas are the ones that I see Tor hyping, and most of the time, novels.

[greylock]

I read ReacTOR and its various lists, so I'm not surprise Tor guff gets a lot of push, but I'd hoped they'd not be that pushy.
More fool me.

[frandroid]

You have an unclosed tag in this post, I don't know if I'm just missing italicization or more. :P

[sabotabby]

For some reason the edit button is missing but I think it's just messy tagging, not missing content.

[armiphlage]

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/land-of-hope

[sabotabby]

Oh rad!