Final 2018 Hugo Recommendation Post

This is a bit of a catchall post concerning the remaining categories. In many of these categories, I don’t really have any choices. This doesn’t mean I don’t think highly of those categories – I do! But I just can’t say much intelligent about any of them. I’ll go ahead and mention the categories anyway, for information’s sake.  

Best Semiprozine

I’ll nominate from the online world Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Uncanny, Lackington’s, and Kaleidotrope, as well as, from the print world, the venerable and still excellent Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. Each of these magazines publishes fiction primarily – and excellent fiction. Most of them are pretty well known, but perhaps Lackington’s, edited by Ranylt Richildis; and Kaleidotrope, edited by Fred Coppersmith, deserved special mention because they don’t get quite as much attention.

Neil Clarke maintains a list of eligible semiprozines, here: http://semiprozine.org/semiprozine-directory/. Neil’s list still includes Black Gate, but I believe that’s more appropriately a Fanzine – it does not pay its contributors, John doesn’t make significant money from it I’m sure, and it hasn’t declared itself a semiprozine.

I should add a couple of extra particular mentions: two sites that focus on longer fiction: The Fantasist (edited by Will Waller, Evan Shiloh Adams, and Bernard Foyuth), and Giganotosaurus, edited by Rashida J. Smith.

Best Fancast

I am more or less clueless on podcasts, but I’ll mention one that I’ve enjoyed, and not only because I was the featured guest on one episode: The Literary Wonder and Adventure Show, http://literarywonderandadventure.com/, run by Robert Zseldes ("Robert Zoltan"). I’ll add a long-running and always very good podcast, The Coode Street Podcast, https://jonathanstrahan.podbean.com/, run by Jonathan Strahan and Gary Wolfe. (I was going to be a guest on an episode of that a couple of years ago, but technical difficulties intervened.)

Best Related Work

I have one book to recommend: Paul Kincaid’s Iain M. Banks (University of Illinois Press), a very interesting and illuminating look at the career of a very significant SF and Mainstream writer.

Professional Artist

I am going to mention three new names in this category (nothing against the excellent work of previous nominees and winners such as Julie Dillon, John Picacio, and Galen Dara, who surely still deserve consideration). But these are three folks who did some very nice work and who haven’t previously been nominated.

1.       Kathleen Jennings – I saw two lovely covers from her this year for Small Beer Press books: Telling the Map, and The River Bank. Not traditional SF illustration – which is not at all a bad thing! She has got notice in the past as a World Fantasy Award artist nominee. And she’s a very good writer: I used her story “Skull and Hyssop” in my 2015 Best of the Year volume. A portfolio is here: https://www.kathleenjennings.com/illustrations/.

2.       Gregory Manchess – He was the Artist GOH at World Fantasy this year, and I was really impressed by his work displayed there. He wrote an illustrated novel, Above the Timberline, published in 2017, which I have not read, but, again, the illustrations I’ve seen from it are very good indeed. Samples of his work can be found here: https://www.manchess.com/images/.

3.       Dave Senecal – Senecal did some intriguing covers for Interzone this year, which attracted my attention. A Google search also found some interesting work based on Lovecraft, and lots more stuff, not necessarily SF or Fantasy-oriented. But the Interzone pieces themselves are well worth a look. UPDATE: I am informed, thanks to JJ at File 770, that as Interzone is by WSFS rules a semiprozine, Senecal's work would be eligible for Best Fan Artist, and not for Professional Artist. I confess he certainly seems like a professional to me (and so does Interzone seem like a prozine), but the rules are the rules, I suppose.

Fan Artist

Here’s a category I’m going to bow out of – I just haven’t seen enough fan art this year to make a recommendation. (With the exception that, as noted above, I will nominate Dave Senecal for Best Fan Artist unless I find some qualifying professional work by him.)

Best Graphic Story

And one more I’ll bow out of – I don’t read graphic novels as a rule. Don’t take that as disparagement – I’m really impressed by the artwork and storytelling, but it’s a case of “so many books, so little time” …

Best Novel, Series, YA
Best Editor, Campbell Award

Short Story
Novelette

Novella

Dramatic Presentation, Fan Writer, Fanzine
Other Hugos

2018 Hugo Recommendations: Long Fiction

I've been holding off on this post for a while, because I'm still catching up on my novel reading. But having at least got to The Moon and the Other and Ka, and with time running a bit short, I figure I'll go ahead and post it -- revising it later as I read more.

Hugo Nomination Thoughts, Long Fiction

I use the term “Long Fiction” because we now have three categories that can fit. Best Novel, of course, but also Best Series, as well as the new “Not a Hugo” for Best Young Adult Fiction.

Best Novel

Every year I mention that I haven’t read a lot of novels. Maybe I did a bit better this year, however. Already I’ve read the following novels I think are potentially Hugo-worthy:

Spoonbenders, by Daryl Gregory

Ka, by John Crowley

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, by Theodora Goss

The Moon and the Other, by John Kessel

Provenance, by Ann Leckie

Seven Surrenders, by Ada Palmer

The Wrong Stars, by Tim Pratt

Amatka, by Karin Tidbeck

I’ve got a few more novels ready to read real soon: Raven Stratagem, by Yoon Ha Lee (cool that I’ll read that right after John Crowley’s novel about a crow); Six Wakes, by Mur Lafferty; The River Bend, by Kij Johnson; and Autonomous, by Annalee Newitz. That doesn’t by any means exhaust the pool of good novels, or potentially good novels, but I only have so much time!

I’m going to put three novels on my tentative nomination list right away. These are the best three 2017 novels I’ve read so far, and I’ll be surprise (and pleased!) if any of the novels I have yet to read surpass them. The leading choices for other two on my ballot right now are The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, The Wrong Stars, and Amatka, but there is still time for a new novel to bump one of those, or for me to change my mind. (And, of course, I need to make up my mind between those three anyway!)

So, the top three are, in no particular order (well, alphabetical by author):

Ka, by John Crowley – the subtitle is “Dar Oakley in the Land of Ymr”, and it’s about a Crow named Dar Oakley, who, upon being nursed to life by an aging man in our near future, tells the man stories of his long life – or series of lives – and his increasing contact with humans and knowledge of the human world (which he calls Ymr). This sounds simple – oh, another talking animal story – and it’s nothing but: beautifully told and wise, with the voice of both the human narrator and of Dar Oakley remarkably well-realized.

Spoonbenders, by Daryl Gregory – a very funny (and often heartbreaking as well) novel about a family of pyschics – the pater familias is a con man, but his wife and his children (and at least one grandchild) have real (if inconsistent) powers. I was reminded of Michael Chabon, and I was convinced by the portrayal of the Chicago suburbs, where the book is set and where I also grew up. There are multiple love stories, there is a tricky and well-navigated plot, and there is a real and powerful emotional payoff. And, yes, it’s very funny.

The Moon and the Other, by John Kessel – Set a in the 22^nd Century on the Moon, centered on the political turmoil in one colony run by the Society of Cousins, in which women hold all political power, on the grounds that men are too violent. (The argument is developed more subtly in the book and in its related stories.) One character (the hero of a previous story) has been exiled and is making a life in another, noticeably patriarchal, society, when he is offered an opportunity to return to his first home. Another character is a woman involved in a Reform movement aimed at giving men in the Society the right to vote. Another character is a charismatic athlete in the Society who wants custody of his son. And who has a very unexpected personal secret. The novel is not drily political, or polemical, at all (though as with most essentially utopian stories, I sensed  a bit of bias towards the more utopianish community) – instead it’s actively engaging, very fun reading, very thought-provoking. This is the choice for those who want traditional hard SF.

Best Series

I’m going to cop out just a bit and suggest that the best thing to do is look at JJ’s list of eligible series posted at File 770 here: http://file770.com/?page_id=32954.

I’m behind in catching up with some definite candidates. As things stand now I’m most interested in nominating:

The World of Five Gods, by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Laundry Files, by Charles Stross

Riverside, by Ellen Kushner

Kylara Vatta, by Elizabeth Moon

Terra Ignota, by Ada Palmer

Best YA Novel

This is the first year for this new award. As I mentioned, it is not a Hugo, but it will be administered and awarded by the World Science Fiction Society using essentially the same process as for the Hugos (and the Campbell). The only true YA novel I read this year was Martians Abroad, by Carrie Vaughn, which I enjoyed, though I wouldn’t quite call it Hugo level work. I have just bought A Skinful of Shadows, by Frances Hardinge, on the urgent recommendation of folks like Farah Mendlesohn and others, and it looks quite interesting. Beyond that I’d suggest a look at the YA category in the Locus Recommended Reading list: http://locusmag.com/2018/02/2017-locus-recommended-reading-list/.

My Recommendation Posts:
Best Novel, Series, YA
Best Editor, Campbell Award

Short Story
Novelette

Novella

Dramatic Presentation, Fan Writer, Fanzine
Other Hugos

Old Bestseller: Amos Judd, by J. A. Mitchell

Old Bestseller: Amos Judd, by J. A. Mitchell

a review by Rich Horton

J. A. Mitchell (1845-1918) was a fairly major figure in American publishing, as the founder of Life magazine (which was more news than picture oriented in its early days). He was also an architect of some note. And in his spare time he wrote six novels and a number of short stories, many of them of interest to readers of fantastika. Most famous to those interested in SF history is The Last American (1889), a satirical look at a Persian expedition to a ruined America a millennium in the future. One other SF novel is Drowsy (1917). Worthwhile details can be found in the Science Fiction Encyclopedia entry on Mitchell.

Mitchell's most famous novel in his lifetime, however, was Amos Judd (1895). This too is a work of the fantastic, though closer to fantasy than science fiction, and though set mostly around the time of composition. Amos Judd was first published by Scribner's in 1895. It didn't make the Publishers' Weekly list of top ten bestsellers its year but it sold quite well -- I saw online a copy of the 8th printing, from 1896. My edition is from 1901. It is illustrated in color by A. I. Keller. It is signed on the first leaf "S. A. Y. Christmas 1901".

Amos Judd opens with a train reaching the Bingham Cross Roads station, in Connecticut. Three passengers alight, two adults and one boy of about 6 or 7, all foreigners. They proceed to take a carriage to the village of Daleford, looking for Mr. Josiah Judd. On the way there the boy insists they stop at a house on the way -- Josiah Judd will be there, he avers. And indeed that turns out to be true.

The boy is a young Rajah from a Northern Indian state that has just undergone a revolution. Josiah's brother Morton is a successful merchant in India, and he has sent the young boy to his brother to raise, away from the turmoil in his home. Josiah Judd is a successful farmer, childless, and he and his wife take the boy, saving the large fortune in jewels and other things that he has with him for his majority.

Twenty years later, Josiah is dead, and the boy, now called Amos, has inherited his farm. Amos has made quite a success of it, partly through his love of animals, and partly by using the capital derived from his Indian inheritance. Amos also attended college and made a number of friends -- and some enemies, one of whom he killed (partly by accident) when insults were traded. In New York, Amos is at a party and makes the acquaintance of the beautiful Molly Cabot. Amos' initial reaction is strange, and Molly is at first taken aback by the story she hears of his killing his classmate. (To everybody's credit, Amos' Indian background is never seen as an impediment to his eventual courtship of Molly.)

By happenstance, Molly and her father decide to summer in Daleford, unaware that that is Amos' home. But once there, things take their natural course, and the two young people become closer and closer. Amos also makes friends with Mr. Cabot. And he reveals his one unusual talent: he can, if he chooses, see future events. (This is how he knew Josiah Judd would be at another house when they came to Daleford.) However, he cannot change the future -- anything he sees must happen. Even if he tries to change the future, it will still come to be. Mr. Cabot cannot believe this, but he puts it to the test by asking Amos what he (Mr. Cabot) will be doing the next day, and when he tries to do something different he finds he has lost all volition.

There is some discussion of a philosophical nature on the implications of this talent of Amos', which is, in his Indian family, ascribed to a gift of Krishna after an ancestory helped one of Krishna's Earthly incarnations. (This bit didn't make much sense, as one ancestor used his ability to help him extend his territory by winning important battles -- which seems to contradict the notion that the future, once seen, cannot be changed.) At any rate, Molly and Amos' love affair proceeds apace, though Amos at times seems distracted and distraught -- and we quickly guess the reason -- he must have foreseen his own death.

And so of course it turns out -- Molly and Amos marry, and they have a fine honeymoon. Amos and Mr. Cabot have tried again to cheat fate -- and it seems it has worked, for they have hidden Amos away on the supposed day of his death, and he has survived. But, in the melodramatic conclusion, Molly is attacked, and Amos comes to her rescue, and kills the attackers, but is shot in his turn ... with a calendar present showing the wrong date!

Really, I've made this sound sillier than it is. It's actually a well-executed novel, and the inevitable conclusion is well set up, and faced with honesty. It's quite affecting. This is not a great novel (short novel -- it's about 35,000 words), but it's not bad.

It was made into a movie in 1922, The Young Rajah, starring Rudolf Valentino. The movie bollixed things quite a bit, especially at the end, where, predictably for Hollywood I guess, Amos actually manages to cheat his fate, and survives the attack on his life, and indeed returns to his Indian kingdom, Molly by his side, to regain his crown.