acquitting myself nobly against the fearsome Hugos

[jinian]

YEAR, NOVEL
2005, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke
2004, Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold
2003, Hominids, Robert J. Sawyer (hate Sawyer's stuff)
2002, American Gods, Neil Gaiman
2001, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J. K. Rowling
2000, A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge
1999, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis
1998, Forever Peace, Joe Haldeman
1997, Blue Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
1996, The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson
1995, Mirror Dance, Lois McMaster Bujold
1994, Green Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson (I only read Red Mars! Partial credit?)
1993, Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
1993, A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge
1992, Barrayar, Lois McMaster Bujold
1991, The Vor Game, Lois McMaster Bujold
1990, Hyperion, Dan Simmons
1989, Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh
1988, The Uplift War, David Brin
1987, Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card
1986, Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
1985, Neuromancer, William Gibson
1984, Startide Rising, David Brin
1983, Foundation's Edge, Isaac Asimov
1982, Downbelow Station, C. J. Cherryh
1981, The Snow Queen, Joan D. Vinge
1980, The Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C. Clarke
1979, Dreamsnake, Vonda N. McIntyre
1978, Gateway, Frederik Pohl
1977, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Kate Wilhelm
1976, The Forever War, Joe Haldeman (in spite of having a book club meeting set up so I'd read it, I still didn't)
1975, The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin
1974, Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
1973, The Gods Themselves, Isaac Asimov
1972, To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip José Farmer (and was it awful)
1971, Ringworld, Larry Niven
1970, The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
1969, Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
1968, Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny (bounced)
1967, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
1966, Dune, Frank Herbert
1966, "...And Call Me Conrad" (This Immortal), Roger Zelazny
1965, The Wanderer, Fritz Leiber
1964, "Here Gather the Stars" (Way Station), Clifford D. Simak
1963, The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
1962, Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
1961, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M., Miller Jr
1960, Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
1959, A Case of Conscience, James Blish
1958, The Big Time, Fritz Leiber
1956, Double Star, Robert A. Heinlein
1955, They'd Rather Be Right (The Forever Machine), Mark Clifton & Frank Riley
1953, The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester

Should I read any of the ones I've missed? Wim thinks I'm a giant freak for reading late Heinlein to the exclusion of early; I suppose I could remedy that. And it is already clear that I need to read all available KSR.

Comments

[gregtitus.livejournal.com]

You should read Downbelow Station. Darn good story, great politics, has a great feel for what life on board a giant space station would be like during times of panic and strained life support. Plus bitchy women in power! :-)

Personally I think you are smart to have avoided Green Mars and Blue Mars. Nothing missed there.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I fully intended to include the fact that of course I will eventually read Downbelow Station because it's by Cherryh, duh, but I left it out by accident.

The Years of Rice and Salt was so very good that I intend to get to the colorful Marses eventually, possibly even rereading Red if I feel especially insane.

[gregtitus.livejournal.com]

Ahh... well then completely ignore my opinion.

I had a hugely difficult time getting through The Years of Rice and Salt. I thought the first hundred pages or so of setup was great, but then it kept on feeling like setting up the world, and setting up... and setting up... and ...

It felt like a great background idea that became a book about a great background idea instead of actually setting a plot into it.

The Mars books are fairly similar in that respect, so you'll probably like them too.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I think I may be all about the literary foreplay. :) Background background, character character, ooh more background...

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

My, you're much more well-Hugo-read than I am! Which would you say are your favorites? I'm sort of vaguely working on catching up on reading them (and various other award winner lists), but I'm so behind it's hard to decide where to start.

Of what you haven't read, I've only read two: Downbelow Station, which I concur with gregtitus in recommending (I booklogged it fairly recently, but had nothing interesting to say about it because I logged it too long after reading it and was braindead); and Double Star, which I liked a lot when I read it a million years ago (okay, fifteen probably), but don't recall very well now.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I think you've read most of my favorites (Bujold, Cyteen). How about
A Deepness in the Sky? It's definitely my favorite V. Vinge, though the related A Fire Upon the Deep is also very good. I like The Diamond Age a lot, don't remember if you read Stephenson. There are some flaws (science and plotting) in Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, but as a teenager I was really fascinated by the postapocalyptic clone-families in it.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any Stephenson and have been meaning to, but hesitating about where to start -- will push The Diamond Age up the list, along with the Vinge and the Wilhelm. Thanks!

[gregtitus.livejournal.com]

Oh, also, The Uplift War if you enjoyed Startide Rising. I think Startide is slightly better, though, so if you didn't think it was great, Uplift may be skippable.

I think David Brin does better with short fiction and commentary anyway - I'd highly recommend his collection Otherness, and his (non-fiction) argument in book form, The Transparent Society.

[firecat]

What do you hate about Sawyer?

I think you should read The Man in the High Castle, Stand on Zanzibar, Downbelow Station, and The Uplift War.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I read Factoring Humanity and was told that other Sawyers were similar enough to it that they would probably also make me crazy. From what I can remember, I mostly thought the plot was stupid, and I almost had to fling the book at one particularly bad point. (I don't remember the specifics now.) I also thought it was poorly written and characterized, and I think that was the book in which the annoying "I am set in the future!" trick of listing Known Name, Known Name, Unknown Name appeared frequently and was not even done correctly. Thanks for the recommendations!