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FeminineFantastique

Posted 2014-04-25 11:32 AM (#7326)
Subject: 2013/2014 Novels

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Due to disappointment with this year's Hugo fiasco, some of us have been discussing (over on the blog) forming a recommended reading list by our members for the purpose of suggesting potential award nominations for next year's round-up. (Plus, maybe setting up a Worlds Without End award in the future.)

I figured we could use a place to mention and discuss the 2013 and 2014 novels that we've read, that are in our TBR pile, or that we're considering for our TBR pile, so we have a go-to source to look for books to pull from for our challenges that may do double duty. (Usually books are eligible for awards for two years, yes? If not, someone correct me and we can change this to 2014 only.)

Here are mine thus far:

Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird--mythic fiction/fairytale retelling
Nnedi Okorafor's Lagoon--alien invasion/apocalyptic, with additional fantasy elements -- this book is only available in the UK for now but should be in the US within a few months IIRC
John Scalzi's Unlocked--apocalyptic/oral history of an epidemic -- this is the companion to his novel Unlocked, which will be out in August IIRC; the novella will be released May 7
Ramona Louise Wheeler's Three Princes--alternative history in which Caesar never left Cleopatra in Egypt (debut novel)
Sofia Samatar's A Stranger in Olandria--high fantasy, so far as I can gather
Nicola Griffith's Hild--historical magical realism

Scalzi's book upthread is a novella, and I'm not sure if we all want to include short fiction, as that makes it a bigger job -- but if we do, Mari Ness' "In the Greenwood" is my favorite short of the year (and maybe ever).

Edited by FeminineFantastique 2014-04-25 11:50 AM

daxxh

Posted 2014-04-25 12:43 PM (#7327 - in reply to #7326)
Subject: Re: 2013/2014 Novels

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I have been following the comments on the blog and think that a WWE Award and a recommended reading list are excellent ideas.

Because of all the challenges I am doing and because I have a huge TBR pile, I haven't read that many recently published books. But, I did read one published in 2014 that was excellent - Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation. That's my favorite book of the year so far. I can't wait for the other two books of this trilogy, which are supposed to be released this year. Thanks to DrEvilO for the recommendation!

I also read The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, which I think was published in 2013, so I don't know if it will qualify for 2014 awards. Although I thought this book dragged a bit in the middle, it is still an excellent book and worthy of award nominations.

If WWE is going to come up with a recommended reading list, I need to read the latest Alastair Reynolds, Iain M. Banks and David Brin novels.

Rhondak101

Posted 2014-04-25 12:55 PM (#7328 - in reply to #7326)
Subject: Re: 2013/2014 Novels

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Because of the various rules about award years and dates, I think we might need to settle on the Hugos as a main area of concern/recommendation. I'll be pasting below two bits of info from the Hugo page that should help us think about this.<br /> <br />1.Individual works are eligible only in their first year of publication. For people and serial publications the Award is given for all achievements in the year in question. 2. Please note that if a book is first published in hardcover and then later in paperback then it is eligible only for the year in which the hardback was published. Note that the Hugo Awards are labeled for the year they are presented, not for the year in which the works were published. For example, the 2007 Hugo Awards are generally for works first published or appearing in 2006. So, all the books for the 2014 Hugos were published in 2013. So if we want to do a recommended reading for the 2015 Hugos, then we need to list books published in 2014. I don't know how the other awards set up their timeframes, and I don't have time to look into the others as I am running to class in 7 mins, so more later....<br />

FeminineFantastique

Posted 2014-04-25 1:03 PM (#7329 - in reply to #7326)
Subject: Re: 2013/2014 Novels

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It may be the case that best debut novelists/new writers/etc. are eligible for two years, while individual novels are eligible for only one year. Somebody will have to figure this out, I suppose; my google-fu is epically terrible.

If we're serious about trying to get an award together, we should probably start another thread for the logistics of doing that, but I think the first step is (1) what we're doing now, since reading these books will take us several months. Then (2) we can start nominations for the WWEnd recommendation list in winter/spring or something like that. (3) If we decide to have an actual award, that recommendation list can serve as our nomination list.

But as for the logistics of trying to figure this out -- how to set up an award, if we go that route -- I think that's probably up to us, the users, because our neighborhood admin seems really swamped.

Also, should we set up a 2014 challenge? Then people could go to that as a look-see for what other folks are reading.

ETA: Cross-posted with Rhonda. 2014 books only then.

ETA2: Also, omit the last two books in my first post, but the first four are all 2014 publications.

Edited by FeminineFantastique 2014-04-25 1:07 PM

Rhondak101

Posted 2014-04-25 1:51 PM (#7330 - in reply to #7326)
Subject: Re: 2013/2014 Novels

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FF, I must be crazy... but I'll set up a 2014 challenge. Since I was taking my long WWE leave of absence when the RYOs were thought up, I am not hosting a challenge. I will do some research to come up with a list of likely candidates and set something up.
Rhonda

FeminineFantastique

Posted 2014-04-25 2:00 PM (#7331 - in reply to #7326)
Subject: Re: 2013/2014 Novels

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Sweet. Thanks, Rhonda!

One suggestion -- since the year is close to half-over (as well as the fact that the pool of available books is far smaller than for most awards), you might want to consider keeping it to 8 books or fewer rather than 12. That may keep us all a bit more sane.

Engelbrecht recommended this to me as a source for finding newly published books: http://www.locusmag.com/Monitor/category/new-books/

Rhondak101

Posted 2014-04-25 3:04 PM (#7332 - in reply to #7326)
Subject: Re: 2013/2014 Novels

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Yes, I was thinking 6 books. I was going to link that that site and io9's here
http://io9.com/all-the-essential-science-fiction-and-fantasy-book

Scott Laz

Posted 2014-04-25 3:23 PM (#7333 - in reply to #7329)
Subject: Re: 2013/2014 Novels

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FF: You may be thinking of the Campbell Award for best new writer, where writers can be in either the first or second year of their careers and still be eligible. For the regular Hugos (e.g., best novel), only books published in the previous year are eligible, with the exception of books that are published during that year in the U.S., but were published in a previous year elsewhere. (For instance, a book with a UK publication in 2012, that got its first publication in the US in 2013, would still be eligible for this year's Hugo.) Bottom line: books that came out in 2013. If people are interested in this, I'd suggest following the lead of the Locus Awards, and having a best fantasy, best SF, and best first novel. I do appreciate the attempt to stop complaining about award and do something constructive!

FeminineFantastique

Posted 2014-04-25 3:36 PM (#7334 - in reply to #7326)
Subject: Re: 2013/2014 Novels

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Scott, I like that idea. And good to know on the else-planet versus US release dates, because I spotted a few books that fit that description on the Locus mag list. (And yes, I was thinking of the Campbell new writer award. Sorry about that. Brain is full of fail today.)

One thing we should decide on if we do set up an award is whether novellas should either (1) count for the novel awards, (2) have their own award (I would just do a "speculative fiction" novella as so much fewer novellas are published than full-length novels, unless 3), (3) have a "best short fiction" category in which novellas or short stories could be nominated, or (4) none of these. Maybe we should discuss the options and then vote or something.

I am very much in favor of the inclusion of a best debut novel award. Good plan. We should probably try to read a couple of those for the challenge.

ETA: Oh, and I think it's important to keep diversity in mind when composing our reading lists and such. I know no one on here's a bigot or anything, but books written by women receive far less marketing support in general -- ergo, given two books of the same quality, one written by a man and one by a woman, you're far more likely to be exposed to the dude's book than the ladies'. And authors of color, LGBT, etc. face hurdles as well.

Plus, given that this list will be at least in a part a Hugo nom suggestion list, it'd be pretty disastrous if it was less diverse than this year's.

Edited by FeminineFantastique 2014-04-25 3:45 PM

Rhondak101

Posted 2014-04-25 5:19 PM (#7335 - in reply to #7326)
Subject: Re: 2013/2014 Novels

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http://io9.com/all-the-essential-science-fiction-and-fantasy-books-...
Link didn't work before.

FeminineFantastique

Posted 2014-04-26 4:26 PM (#7351 - in reply to #7326)
Subject: Re: 2013/2014 Novels

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First recommendation for a 2014 publication: Karen Russell's Sleep Donation, a novella set in the near-future about a deadly epidemic of insomnia. I'm rather a Luddite so I can't comment as to its scientific accuracy, but I read it in one sitting and forgot to eat lunch because of it, so that should tell ya something.

Russell's one of those authors that clearly writes spec fic but is known as a literary fiction writer, so I'd never even heard of her in spite of the fact that she was awarded the MacArthur fellowship and was nominated for the Pulitzer. And is also a bestseller. How does that happen? *scratches head* This false dichotomy drives me nuts. Literary fiction isn't a genre. It's a category, like YA. There are literary books of all genres.

/rant

Regardless, the author isn't in the database yet, but I recommend taking a look.

HRO

Posted 2014-04-26 10:26 PM (#7353 - in reply to #7326)
Subject: Re: 2013/2014 Novels

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I've requested that Karen Russell be added to the database a few times. Her short story collections St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised By Wolves and Vampires in the Lemon Grove are simply fabulous. (Her novel Swamplandia!.....not so much.) As an author she is decidedly spec fic with a grand talent for the surreal and the bizarre.

Ok, continue on with the original topic......

FeminineFantastique

Posted 2014-04-27 9:29 AM (#7359 - in reply to #7326)
Subject: Re: 2013/2014 Novels

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Glad to hear your thoughts on her other works, HRO. I'll slate her short story collections for my (large enough to achieve sentience at this point) TBR pile.

There just may be a book giveaway of Russell's Sleep Donation on my blog this week, probably Monday. I mention this not to self-promote so much as give my fellow WWEnder's a chance to win it if they want to read it. It's an experiment in self-promotion as well as a celebration of what we're doing here. Because consider this novella nominated. It rocks.

I'm about a quarter of the way through Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird and not really feeling it. I don't know if it's me or the book. The characters don't feel relatable. The 2014 book I'm most excited about, Okorafor's Lagoon, has been released in the UK but not the US. And I don't think I've come across any debut novels I could get excited about other than Wheeler's.

Debut novels in fact will probably be the toughest thing to come up with. Finding a half-dozen 2014 releases that appeal, particularly by the end of the year, should not be terribly difficult, but there shouldn't be so many that there isn't enough overlap in what we read to come up with a nomination list. But at some point we might want to try to settle on a few debut authors as contenders, because if we all read something different, well... that presents a logistical problem.

illegible_scribble

Posted 2014-07-02 6:06 AM (#8055 - in reply to #7326)
Subject: Re: 2013/2014 Novels