TeaThe Hugo is a fan-chosen award, voted for by the members. World Science Fiction Society. Specifically, this year each option was Too Selected by the readers of locus mag To appear on another major awards list, the Locus Awards. So there is a lot of consensus this year. The list is also full of previous award winners, so it’s set to be a high-quality field this year.
went to hugo last year tainted cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, and this year’s sequel is a finalist: a drop of corruption. The series are mystery books, set in a dank and dangerous secondary world. If you haven’t read the first one yet, you can now rest assured that you are starting a series that will continue on an ongoing basis. Expect a flamboyant, caustic detective; A solid sidekick in the Watson vein, but with a magically enhanced memory; And a rich, prosperous developed world.
The installation begins with a classic locked room mystery, but the stakes are political and high. spoke to jackson bennett crime reads About combining the high-politics expectations of fiction with the law-and-order expectations of a murder mystery: In these books, “the essence of the story… lies not in magical mass destruction, but in what we do to each other when we feel the rules being blurred, and what steps we need to take to re-enforce the law – and why.”
The second book on the list has the distinction of being nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards this year, and has already won the NAACP Image Award for Fiction and the Libby Award for Science Fiction. death of the author The story of Zelu is told by Nnedi Okorafor, a writer who is going through a rough patch in her career, until she writes a groundbreaking science fiction novel that changes her life. There is much in the novel that is autobiographical: Okorafor writes about being Nigerian American and the experience of disability.
All the chapters of Zelu’s successful novel are woven together, rusty robotSet in a human-less future. Okorafor told book page, “I think one of the things that’s going to be interesting about this book is the question, ‘What is this?’ Because it’s too much.” It is based on providing both his education in mainstream fiction and his career in SFF. Kirkus It has been described as “all-out Okorafor – his best yet”.
Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2023 winner of the Hugo Best Series Award, is next children of time. He was nominated last year foreign soilIn which alien life was modular and group-minded in a way that bends our human understanding; He returns here with another extremely alien world Shroud.
Tchaikovsky told imaginary hive“For Shroud I wanted to get as far away from earthly life as possible.” So he crash-lands two members of the profiteering crew on a lightless, high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen and highly radioactive moon… and then introduces the key species. writing for locus mag, Alexandra Pierce describes the result as “an epic first-contact novel … one of the most intriguing scenes of alien/human contact I have read in many years.”
Fourth place on the list goes to Alix E. Harrow everlasting. A scholar obsessed with a noble lady-knight finds himself traveling back in time to meet her, only to discover that the two of them are destined to repeat their story again and again. This time, they want to rewrite the ending. Discussing his inspiration, Harrow explained she studies that “the romantic medieval image of the knight cannot remain in touch with history to a degree. This book is a product of the tension between knights as they existed in my childhood imagination (noble, loyal, gallant, warm), and what knights actually were (violent enforcers of state power, later deployed as propaganda).”
The book has been highly praised and described voice mag as “a richly conceived triumph of storytelling”, and by strange horizon “A beautiful novel that will reward reading and rereading.”
Emily Tesh wins 2024 Hugo, and is nominated for Hugo, Nebula with Okorafor And Locus this year. hot A school teaches magic to teenagers – but this time the teacher plays the hero. She must fill out a risk assessment and prepare to apply to university, all while keeping the students safe from the cruel demonic realm.
Tesh is a teacher herself. he told locus mag, “I had all these staff-room jokes stored away, I had all this observational comedy that I finally had somewhere to put.” So we can expect humor, deep learning, and an innovative re-examination of worn-out magic school tropes.
Finally, Antonia Hodgson has an award-winning record for her historical mysteries, but she made her fantasy debut Raven Scholar. Seven claimants legitimately compete for a throne. On the way, one of them is murdered. Our hero must find out who it is, and see justice done – but he’s also named a replacement seventh contender. There’s enough to keep anyone busy, so it’s no surprise that it comes in at nearly 700 pages.
This doorstopper has great reviews – paste magazine It has been described as “a story that, if there is any justice, will be on everyone’s best-of list by the end of the year” and reactor magazine As “essentially readable”. Lose yourself inside.
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