I used to really love the Hugo and Nebula awards but over time they seem to be shifting away from the harder science fiction that I like the best, more in the fantasy direction. I miss the days of Hugo winners like Neuromancer, A Fire Upon the Deep, Green Mars, The Diamond Age, The Windup Girl, The Three-Body Problem.<p>That might be just tracking what gets written nowadays rather than the opinions of the people giving out the awards, though. And I did really like Babel (which won the Nebula this year although I guess was not a finalist for the Hugo) and N K Jemisin's work (three Hugos in the past decade).
The Hugo Awards have really come to represent the views and tastes of a narrow clique. I don't know to what extent this was always the case -- my impression of the Awards in the 90s and 00s was that they strived for more objectivity -- but it's quite flagrant right now. And it's unfortunate, as they go HARD for very soft science fiction which reads a lot more like fantasy...
The Scholomance series by Naomi Novak is quite good, her best and I've liked all her books. Yes it's a Potter derivative, but doesn't feel derivative but inventive and de-disneyfied.
"Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes" by Rob Wilkins really is excellent. If you enjoyed Pratchett's novels and are interested in his life then you will get a lot out of it. It's much better written than I expected of an authorized biography; not a hagiography at all, it showed his feet of clay as well as his halo. Some of it, of course, is very amusing.<p>Be warned, however, that it covers Terry's deterioration with alzheimers' without pulling its punches much. There were a couple of points where I had to put the book down for a bit and take a break because it was too sad.
Barely recognize any of the books or authors there, especially the winners.<p>I've listened to Travis Baldree narrate Cradle, so I'm probably gonna check out his Legends & Lattes book.<p>It didn't win, but I read The Scholomance which is listed in the series section. If you're interested in unconventional magic systems then I'd recommend it.<p>Nettle & Bone was the big winner. Reading the blurb doesn't immediately call out to me. Worth checking out?
I didn't know the Hugo Awards has so many award. I naively though it was just best sci-fi book because I would see lists of Hugo award winners by year and see only one book per year and they were all sci-fi.
I don't get the hype about Everything Everywhere All at Once .. quite a letdown. Nowhere close to Rick and Morty it had been compared to.<p>Severance however was pretty good.<p>Children of time - amazing.
Good to see Travis Baldree winning Astounding Award for Best New Writer. Legends & Lattes was one of my favorites reads last year - looking forward to the prequel next month.