Hugo thougths - novels

Novels

First a note: unlike the shorter categories, I haven't read the complete works of all the nominated works here. I will note how much I've read of each work in my notes.

Ancillary Justice, where I've only read the sample chapters that were part of the Hugo voter's package. It is by far the most ambitious candidate in how it uses language and science fictional concepts, and I'm likely to pick up a copy and finish the book. I'm a little worried about if Leckie could manage to conclude the novel in a way that doesn't let the beginning down, given that it's a first novel.

Neptune's Brood I read soon after it was published. It's a standalone followup to Saturn's Children, and is an action-filled space opera that manages to play by plenty of the rules of mundane sf. However, as a novel it suffers from a mostly reactive protagonist - she is constantly put or placed into situations, where her role is to react to what happens less than it is to drive in what happens; ie a lack of agency. That's fine initially in a bildungsroman, but this isn't a bildungsroman and she continues to lack agency for the entire novel.

Parasite, where I've again only read the sample chapters. It appears to be a zombie outbreak novel, and I'm not that interested in them, even if this seems to be a smart such.

Warbound, where I only read the final book cold, without checking the preceding ones (which were included in the package). There's action, some political debates mostly consisting of putting up strawmen, more action, gun porn, more action, huge casualties, more action and last some romance for the heroes. I also constantly read Grimnoir as "grim noir" instead of a play of "grimoire", but "grim noir" really fit with the theme of the book. Quite readable, but just as forgettable.

The Wheel of Time, where I haven't even started on the books. However, I was an avid WoT reader up to about 2000 or so. In its scope it's definitely the most ambitious candidate, but I don't view scope as such as a really interesting criterion, and there is very little new or innovative in the parts of the story I've read.