Sign in with Facebook
Nataliya's Reviews > 2020 on ŷ
2020 on ŷ
by
by
The year is almost over, the Hugo/Nebula challenge is met (see below), and it’s time to reminisce about the strangeness that was 2020.
Everything else aside, it was probably one of my best reading years. That’s why you get when you combine an indoorsy introvert and quarantine/lockdown. That’s the proverbial silver lining.
This year is special for me because it’s the year I returned to ŷ. I took a sabbatical from review writing starting sometime in 2016, just as pressures of “real� life started cracking down on me. A few months of this break became a year, then two, then three. I still read (although less) and sometimes would read reviews, and rarely popped out a review or two � but my love of expressing myself through writing was dulled, and eventually it was basically a writing block as my reviewing got rusty. Then I changed my job to a slightly less stressful one, and got myself into a better place mood-wise.
And then 2020 happened, and in the middle of the supposedly non-Covid pneumonia, feeling physically miserable, I found my way back. It was ŷ or pick up knitting again, and knitting is not easy when coughing and sneezing in bed. Long story short, I decided to reexplore GR � and I was able to get over my block and express my opinions regardless of whether anyone wanted to hear them. And my ŷ friends � wonderful people who make this place a wonderful oasis of book loving and discussion � made this a special place again. And before I knew, I easily read about three times my average. And I love it.
—ĔĔ�
And now for the best and the worst of the year.
The Best:
� The award for the most treasured find of the year goes to Martha Wells� snarky and pessimistic Murderbot, my soul sibling. Can I remember my world without Murderbot? I think not.
� The award for the best debut novel (SFF) goes to wonderful A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. Enjoy your well-deserved Hugo!
� The award for the book that went from dislike to pure love goes to The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson.
� The award for the most bonkers series goes to Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. Those were, well, something else. The runner-up in the singles category goes to Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and all those weird capitalizations in it. And, of course, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Walking to Aldebaran because wtf?
� The award for best spiders and octopuses in a SF novel goes, of course, to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time and Children of Ruin.
� My award for the most heartbreaking literary novel belongs to The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels.
� Two wonderful short story collections - Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang and Jackalope Wives and Other Stories by T. Kingfisher - are excellent finds that brought me real joy. Kij Johnson’s At the Mouth of the River of Bees gets an honorable mention.
� The End of Everything by Katie Mack was my favorite science book, and Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish brought happy hours of delighted listening to all that Scottish accent. And let’s not forget What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe.
� Tana French, of course, gets her own category: her newest offering The Searcher was quite lovely, and my rereads of The Trespasser and Faithful Place were amazing.
� Frances Hardinge’s Deeplight just proves that there’s nothing she can’t do. Hats off to the genius.
� My favorite story about Humpty Dumpty’s murder case solving goes uncontested to Jasper Fforde’s The Big Over Easy.
� My favorite rereads were Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day and Andy Weir’s The Martian.
� And my favorite guilty pleasure reads were, of course, the many offerings by K.J. Charles (The Magpie Lord, Slippery Creatures and The Sugared Game), and Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On because why not?
—ĔĔĔ�
The Worst:
� Do I even need to mention the needless soulless cash grab sequel Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline? No, I guess not. It won over Midnight Sun and its sparkly vampires (Stephenie Meyer) and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Ew.
� Most hyped up but ultimately disappointed book? The dubious honor goes to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and her seven freckles (V.E. Schwab) and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
—ĔĔĔ�
—ĔĔĔ�
My personal challenge this year: read (and review) all the Hugo and Nebula nominees, as my undying love declaration for SF and fantasy.
� = “Category winner�
❤️ = “My favorite(s) in the category�
Hugo nominees:
Best Novel
☑️ The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan) � 2 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK) � 4 stars, review here
� ❤️ A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine (Tor; Tor UK) � 5 stars, review here
☑️ Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK) � 4 stars, review here
Best Novella
☑️ ❤️ “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom�, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador)) - 5 stars, review here
☑️ The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga Press/Gallery) � 3.5 stars, review here
☑️ The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing) � 4.5 stars, review here
� This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Saga Press; Jo Fletcher Books) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton) � 4.5 stars, review here
Best Novelette
☑️ “The Archronology of Love�, by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed, April 2019) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ “Away With the Wolves�, by Sarah Gailey (Uncanny Magazine: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy Special Issue, September/October 2019) � 2 stars, review here
☑️ “The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye�, by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, July-August 2019) � 3 stars, review here
� ❤️ “Emergency Skin�, by N.K. Jemisin (Forward Collection (Amazon)) � 5 stars, review here
☑️ “For He Can Creep�, by Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com, 10 July 2019) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ “Omphalos�, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador)) � 4.5 stars, review here
Best Short Story
☑️ “And Now His Lordship Is Laughing�, by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons, 9 September 2019) � 3 stars, review here
� ❤️ “As the Last I May Know�, by S.L. Huang (Tor.com, 23 October 2019) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ “Blood Is Another Word for Hunger�, by Rivers Solomon (Tor.com, 24 July 2019) � 1 star, review here
☑️ “A Catalog of Storms�, by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2019) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ “Do Not Look Back, My Lion�, by Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2019) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island�, by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, May 2019) � 2.5 stars, review here
Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (not a Hugo) (heh, I think it still counts, Hugos!) - BONUS CATEGORY
� Catfishing on CatNet, by Naomi Kritzer (Tor Teen) � 4 stars, review here.
☑️ ❤️ Deeplight, by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan) � 4.5 stars, review here.
☑️ Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee (Disney/Hyperion) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ Minor Mage, by T. Kingfisher (Argyll) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ Riverland, by Fran Wilde (Amulet) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ The Wicked King, by Holly Black (Little, Brown; Hot Key) � 3.5 stars, review here
—ĔĔĔ——�
—ĔĔĔ——�
Nebula Nominees:
Novel
☑️ Marque of Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen) � 2 stars, review here
☑️ The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor) � 5 stars, review here
☑️ Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing) � 4 stars, review here
� A Song for a New Day, Sarah Pinsker (Berkley) � 4 stars, review here
Novella
☑️ ❤️ “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom�, Ted Chiang (Exhalation) � 5 stars, review here
☑️ The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)� 4 stars, review here
� This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga; Jo Fletcher) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water, Vylar Kaftan (Tor.com Publishing) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga) � 3.5 stars, review here
☑️ Catfish Lullaby, A.C. Wise (Broken Eye) � 3.5 stars, review here
Novelette
☑️ “A Strange Uncertain Light�, G.V. Anderson (F&SF 7-8/19) � 3.5 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ “For He Can Creep�, Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com 7/10/19) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ “His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light�, Mimi Mondal (Tor.com 1/23/19) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ “The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye�, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 7-8/19) � 3 stars, review here
� “Carpe Glitter�, Cat Rambo (Meerkat) � 3 stars, review here
☑️ “The Archronology of Love�, Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed 4/19) � 4 stars, review here
Short Story
� “Give the Family My Love�, A.T. Greenblatt (Clarkesworld 2/19) � 3 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ “The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power�, Karen Osborne (Uncanny 3-4/19) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ “And Now His Lordship Is Laughing�, Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons 9/9/19) � 3 stars, review here
☑️ “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island�, Nibedita Sen (Nightmare 5/19) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ “A Catalog of Storms�, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 1-2/19) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ “How the Trick Is Done�, A.C. Wise (Uncanny 7-8/19) � 1.5 stars, review here
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction - BONUS CATEGORY
☑️ Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, Carlos Hernandez (Disney Hyperion) � 2 stars, review here.
☑️ ❤️ Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer (Tor Teen) � 4 stars, review here.
☑️ Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee (Disney Hyperion) � 2.5 stars, review here
⭕️ Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions, Henry Lien (Holt) - I’m much too old for this
⭕️ Cog, Greg van Eekhout (Harper) � see above
� Riverland, Fran Wilde (Amulet) � 2.5 stars, review here
Everything else aside, it was probably one of my best reading years. That’s why you get when you combine an indoorsy introvert and quarantine/lockdown. That’s the proverbial silver lining.
This year is special for me because it’s the year I returned to ŷ. I took a sabbatical from review writing starting sometime in 2016, just as pressures of “real� life started cracking down on me. A few months of this break became a year, then two, then three. I still read (although less) and sometimes would read reviews, and rarely popped out a review or two � but my love of expressing myself through writing was dulled, and eventually it was basically a writing block as my reviewing got rusty. Then I changed my job to a slightly less stressful one, and got myself into a better place mood-wise.
And then 2020 happened, and in the middle of the supposedly non-Covid pneumonia, feeling physically miserable, I found my way back. It was ŷ or pick up knitting again, and knitting is not easy when coughing and sneezing in bed. Long story short, I decided to reexplore GR � and I was able to get over my block and express my opinions regardless of whether anyone wanted to hear them. And my ŷ friends � wonderful people who make this place a wonderful oasis of book loving and discussion � made this a special place again. And before I knew, I easily read about three times my average. And I love it.
—ĔĔ�
And now for the best and the worst of the year.
The Best:
� The award for the most treasured find of the year goes to Martha Wells� snarky and pessimistic Murderbot, my soul sibling. Can I remember my world without Murderbot? I think not.
� The award for the best debut novel (SFF) goes to wonderful A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. Enjoy your well-deserved Hugo!
� The award for the book that went from dislike to pure love goes to The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson.
� The award for the most bonkers series goes to Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. Those were, well, something else. The runner-up in the singles category goes to Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and all those weird capitalizations in it. And, of course, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Walking to Aldebaran because wtf?
� The award for best spiders and octopuses in a SF novel goes, of course, to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time and Children of Ruin.
� My award for the most heartbreaking literary novel belongs to The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels.
� Two wonderful short story collections - Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang and Jackalope Wives and Other Stories by T. Kingfisher - are excellent finds that brought me real joy. Kij Johnson’s At the Mouth of the River of Bees gets an honorable mention.
� The End of Everything by Katie Mack was my favorite science book, and Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish brought happy hours of delighted listening to all that Scottish accent. And let’s not forget What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe.
� Tana French, of course, gets her own category: her newest offering The Searcher was quite lovely, and my rereads of The Trespasser and Faithful Place were amazing.
� Frances Hardinge’s Deeplight just proves that there’s nothing she can’t do. Hats off to the genius.
� My favorite story about Humpty Dumpty’s murder case solving goes uncontested to Jasper Fforde’s The Big Over Easy.
� My favorite rereads were Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day and Andy Weir’s The Martian.
� And my favorite guilty pleasure reads were, of course, the many offerings by K.J. Charles (The Magpie Lord, Slippery Creatures and The Sugared Game), and Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On because why not?
—ĔĔĔ�
The Worst:
� Do I even need to mention the needless soulless cash grab sequel Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline? No, I guess not. It won over Midnight Sun and its sparkly vampires (Stephenie Meyer) and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Ew.
� Most hyped up but ultimately disappointed book? The dubious honor goes to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and her seven freckles (V.E. Schwab) and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
—ĔĔĔ�
—ĔĔĔ�
My personal challenge this year: read (and review) all the Hugo and Nebula nominees, as my undying love declaration for SF and fantasy.
� = “Category winner�
❤️ = “My favorite(s) in the category�
Hugo nominees:
Best Novel
☑️ The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan) � 2 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK) � 4 stars, review here
� ❤️ A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine (Tor; Tor UK) � 5 stars, review here
☑️ Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK) � 4 stars, review here
Best Novella
☑️ ❤️ “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom�, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador)) - 5 stars, review here
☑️ The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga Press/Gallery) � 3.5 stars, review here
☑️ The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing) � 4.5 stars, review here
� This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Saga Press; Jo Fletcher Books) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton) � 4.5 stars, review here
Best Novelette
☑️ “The Archronology of Love�, by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed, April 2019) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ “Away With the Wolves�, by Sarah Gailey (Uncanny Magazine: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy Special Issue, September/October 2019) � 2 stars, review here
☑️ “The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye�, by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, July-August 2019) � 3 stars, review here
� ❤️ “Emergency Skin�, by N.K. Jemisin (Forward Collection (Amazon)) � 5 stars, review here
☑️ “For He Can Creep�, by Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com, 10 July 2019) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ “Omphalos�, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador)) � 4.5 stars, review here
Best Short Story
☑️ “And Now His Lordship Is Laughing�, by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons, 9 September 2019) � 3 stars, review here
� ❤️ “As the Last I May Know�, by S.L. Huang (Tor.com, 23 October 2019) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ “Blood Is Another Word for Hunger�, by Rivers Solomon (Tor.com, 24 July 2019) � 1 star, review here
☑️ “A Catalog of Storms�, by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2019) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ “Do Not Look Back, My Lion�, by Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2019) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island�, by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, May 2019) � 2.5 stars, review here
Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (not a Hugo) (heh, I think it still counts, Hugos!) - BONUS CATEGORY
� Catfishing on CatNet, by Naomi Kritzer (Tor Teen) � 4 stars, review here.
☑️ ❤️ Deeplight, by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan) � 4.5 stars, review here.
☑️ Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee (Disney/Hyperion) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ Minor Mage, by T. Kingfisher (Argyll) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ Riverland, by Fran Wilde (Amulet) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ The Wicked King, by Holly Black (Little, Brown; Hot Key) � 3.5 stars, review here
—ĔĔĔ——�
—ĔĔĔ——�
Nebula Nominees:
Novel
☑️ Marque of Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen) � 2 stars, review here
☑️ The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor) � 5 stars, review here
☑️ Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing) � 4 stars, review here
� A Song for a New Day, Sarah Pinsker (Berkley) � 4 stars, review here
Novella
☑️ ❤️ “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom�, Ted Chiang (Exhalation) � 5 stars, review here
☑️ The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)� 4 stars, review here
� This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga; Jo Fletcher) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water, Vylar Kaftan (Tor.com Publishing) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga) � 3.5 stars, review here
☑️ Catfish Lullaby, A.C. Wise (Broken Eye) � 3.5 stars, review here
Novelette
☑️ “A Strange Uncertain Light�, G.V. Anderson (F&SF 7-8/19) � 3.5 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ “For He Can Creep�, Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com 7/10/19) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ “His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light�, Mimi Mondal (Tor.com 1/23/19) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ “The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye�, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 7-8/19) � 3 stars, review here
� “Carpe Glitter�, Cat Rambo (Meerkat) � 3 stars, review here
☑️ “The Archronology of Love�, Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed 4/19) � 4 stars, review here
Short Story
� “Give the Family My Love�, A.T. Greenblatt (Clarkesworld 2/19) � 3 stars, review here
☑️ ❤️ “The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power�, Karen Osborne (Uncanny 3-4/19) � 4 stars, review here
☑️ “And Now His Lordship Is Laughing�, Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons 9/9/19) � 3 stars, review here
☑️ “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island�, Nibedita Sen (Nightmare 5/19) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ “A Catalog of Storms�, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 1-2/19) � 2.5 stars, review here
☑️ “How the Trick Is Done�, A.C. Wise (Uncanny 7-8/19) � 1.5 stars, review here
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction - BONUS CATEGORY
☑️ Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, Carlos Hernandez (Disney Hyperion) � 2 stars, review here.
☑️ ❤️ Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer (Tor Teen) � 4 stars, review here.
☑️ Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee (Disney Hyperion) � 2.5 stars, review here
⭕️ Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions, Henry Lien (Holt) - I’m much too old for this
⭕️ Cog, Greg van Eekhout (Harper) � see above
� Riverland, Fran Wilde (Amulet) � 2.5 stars, review here
Sign into ŷ to see if any of your friends have read
2020 on ŷ.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
April 22, 2020
– Shelved
Comments Showing 1-50 of 75 (75 new)
message 1:
by
Silvana
(new)
May 29, 2020 10:28PM
The Locus ones are great too!
reply
|
flag
Silvana wrote: "The Locus ones are great too!"They sure are! I may add those to my goal depending how I do with Hugo and Nebula nominees. Adding those at this point feels a tad intimidating.
S. L. Huang was on my radar for a while. Just curious what you think. I just finished the story you listed. Hmm I'm not sure what to think.
PyranopterinMo wrote: "S. L. Huang was on my radar for a while. Just curious what you think. I just finished the story you listed. Hmm I'm not sure what to think."S.L. Huang’s story is still on my TBR. One of these days I’ll get to it. Today I hope to finish The Haunting of Tram Car 015 and The Deep.
I really hope I’ll be able to get through all of these this year. Good thing both lists overlap quite a bit.
you've already read so many of these! i had a great time going through all your reviews :)didn't know about the existence of the lodestar awards either, but that also looks like a fun one to keep track of. good luck reading all of them before the year is up!
Thanks, jade! I’m making a decent progress through this list so far, but I need to step up the kid books reading. I’m not doing too well with those - but I do want to read them; it’s always good to find new good SF books for younger readers. So far Hardinge’s Deeplight was excellent.
I read a similar post on reddit the other day. The op had set up a personal challenge to read all the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and World fantasy award winners and they had also posted a short review for each of the books from the 1950s. They also posted a spreadsheet containing the names of the books sorted out by the publication dates which I was thrilled to see. You are doing great! I hope I get around to reading some of these books soon.
Looks like that person’s goal is loftier than mine! I looked up Locus finalists and I’ve read a few thanks to Hugo/Nebula goal.I guess I can include Locus here as a bonus goal to strive for. Yay for the overlap that awards my laziness :)
Wow! That's really impressive!
Sofia wrote: "Wow! That's really impressive!"Thanks! I still have quite a way to go.
Nice done. I'll take note of your favorites :)
Mitticus wrote: "Nice done. I'll take note of your favorites :)"Thanks! Most of Hugo nominated novels were quite good, and a few decent novellas as well.
Wow you just took me on an at least hourlong journey with all of these awesome reviews. That was fun, thanks! Now I feel all caught up with the current crop of modern scifi writers, even though I haven't read a single one of these lol. But at least I downloaded all of the stories for the future.
mark wrote: "Wow you just took me on an at least hourlong journey with all of these awesome reviews. That was fun, thanks! Now I feel all caught up with the current crop of modern scifi writers, even though I h..."You are welcome! I’m glad my little Hugo-Nebula project provided some entertainment for you :)
It’s interesting reading all these books because without the pressure of this project I wouldn’t have chosen to read the majority of these and would have not discovered a few writers that I am now a fan of. I think I’ll do the same next year as well, for the same reason - forcibly broaden my horizons. I may pick some other book awards as well to really venture outside my self-appointed book bubble.
This is impressive! So many books to read, so little time! Surprised you liked a memory called empire so much. Can imagine a 4 but not a 5.
Di wrote: "This is impressive! So many books to read, so little time! Surprised you liked a memory called empire so much. Can imagine a 4 but not a 5."It was one of my favorites this year, actually - and top favorite out of the nominees. Something about it just hit all the right notes for me. I watched the Hugo Awards ceremony online and actually clapped when it won. I thought it was very good, even better than Baru Cormorant. I gather you didn’t like it much?
I only have two kiddo books left on that list (both nominated for Andre Norton Nebula Award), and I’m inclined to give them a pass. From their description, I’m 30 years too old for them, and I don’t think it will be fair to them.
Amazing list, Nataliya! Happy New Year!
Thanks! I pretty much met my goal, two kiddie books excluded (but I’m much much much too old for those). Happy New Year to you as well!
Such a delightfully eclectic spread of books Nataliya—I love it! I’m also so glad that you made it through what sounds like an incredibly difficult time, and grateful that you got back into writing reviews—it’s always such an extraordinary pleasure to read them!
Here’s to a much better year in 2021! Cheers! :)
Thanks, Kevin! It’s all rainbows and sunshine from here on � or so is the plan, at least :)
glad you're back. here's hoping 2021 magically resets the world!
So good to hear that you found the joy again this year - your reviews and comments have certainly brightened many 2020 days for me. All the best for 2021! I'll chime into hoping it's a reset :)
I didn't realize you had been on a ŷ-hiatus! I friended you this year because I kept seeing your reviews everywhere - we especially seem to share a love for Discworld. As a fellow introvert who found out that her usual lifestyle passes for "quarantine", it was a great reading year for me as well, although I did go through some slumps.
Welcome back. I cut way back when we had a kid in 2019 but I'm hoping to spend more time here in 2021.
yeah! get a job, kid!
karen wrote: "yeah! get a job, kid!"He's been skating by on his looks for a while now...
hahahah that's a great photo. looks ready for a management position!
I didn’t realize you were gone, either! Your reviews are awesome and keep showing up :) I am glad you are back and I am glad we are friends on ŷ :) And now my TBR has expanded - which I keep trying to trim...
karen wrote: "glad you're back. here's hoping 2021 magically resets the world!"Thanks, karen! I hope so too.
Fiona wrote: "So good to hear that you found the joy again this year - your reviews and comments have certainly brightened many 2020 days for me. All the best for 2021! I'll chime into hoping it's a reset :)"
Thanks, Fiona! Coming back to GR and writing again certainly helped me get through 2020, and I’m glad that they helped you as well 😁
,
Tanya wrote: "I didn't realize you had been on a ŷ-hiatus! I friended you this year because I kept seeing your reviews everywhere - we especially seem to share a love for Discworld. As a fellow introvert..."
I always love when I meet other Pratchett fans! And yes, being an introvert was super helpful with getting through this year. Granted, even at the height of the quarantine measures I still go to work - in person - and seeing all my coworkers plus all the patients made it barely seem like a quarantine at all, but it was almost a relief not having to have those introvert-unfriendly social obligations. When people would tell me they haven’t seen another person in weeks or couldn’t even remember the day of the week or that they haven’t changed out of sweatpants in weeks, I just could not relate. But at least I did nog have to think of excuses for annoying social obligations! Of course, Covid ruined 3 vacations for me (this week included) so I felt the pain then! But eventually returning to semi-normal will be nice.
Dan wrote: "Welcome back. I cut way back when we had a kid in 2019 but I'm hoping to spend more time here in 2021."
Thanks, Dan! A kid will certainly cut into the GR time, but yours is beyond adorable, so I guess it’s worth it 😉
Marta wrote: "I didn’t realize you were gone, either! Your reviews are awesome and keep showing up :) I am glad you are back and I am glad we are friends on ŷ :) And now my TBR has expanded - which I kee..."Thanks, Marta! I keep wanting to go back and review a few of the books I’ve read during the hiatus years, and I’ve done this with a few of them, usually prompting a satisfying reread. Some of them were really great and I really wish I had written something about them. I guess it’s never too late.
Well, I'm gonna be selfish and say that I'm glad you chose ŷ over knitting. It's been nice getting to know you, Nataliya, and reading your reviews.
David wrote: "Well, I'm gonna be selfish and say that I'm glad you chose ŷ over knitting. It's been nice getting to know you, Nataliya, and reading your reviews."Haha, thanks, David! I did knit two blankets before returning to GR, so at least my household had some material gains.
So glad to have you on GR Nataliya! It’s been great to compare reviews.
Thanks, Di! ŷ-wise, this cluster**** of a year has been wonderful.
Murderbot was also one of my favorites this year!
This is as good a place as any to point out that much of my favorite reading of 2020 was in Nataliya's reviews. I don't read SF, I tried a couple of books this year that all my reading buddies loved, and it just isn't for me. But it's still fun reading The Divine Miss N's reviews because, well, sometimes, sometimes she gets a little opinionated.
Karen wrote: "Murderbot was also one of my favorites this year!"Murderbot was like a bright beacon in this cluster**** of a year. When I’m in a bad mood, I just listen to about half an hour of it, and everything becomes better.
Left Coast Justin wrote: "This is as good a place as any to point out that much of my favorite reading of 2020 was in Nataliya's reviews. I don't read SF, I tried a couple of books this year that all my reading buddies love..."Awwww, Justin, that’s so nice of you to say!
And yes, sometimes I can be very opinionated. But then I find a lovely book and get all gushy-gushy and that evens out.
And as for SF - someday I’ll convince you to read Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (unless you already read it) and that’s all the SF you’ll ever need.
What a list! I am clearly going to have add Murderbot to my TBR. GR has been such a haven for so many of us in this miserable year. Happy reading in 2021.
Thanks, Barbara! Murderbot is such a lovely read! I hope more people discover those stories. Start with All Systems Red, the first Murderbot novella.
I hope you’re fully recovered now, Natalya! 2020 was the year I went “officially� back to ŷ after barely being here in 2018-19. I need to study this list and check book by book! But didn’t expect the see Gideon the Ninth, I need to add it to my list!Happy new year! I wish you a wonderful 2021 for you and yours ❤️
Thanks, Nicole! It looks like 2020 brought quite a few people back here, so at least there’s one good thing about this year.Gideon the Ninth is such n enjoyable bonkers book! I found it hard to get into for the first third of it, and then impossible to put down.
Happy new year. Hope this year will bring us health! 🍻That's a great list! Will steal some title for my this year's reads.
Em Lost In Books wrote: "Happy new year. Hope this year will bring us health! 🍻That's a great list! Will steal some title for my this year's reads."
Thanks, Em! I’m always happy to share good books.
Happy 2021 Natalya, I’m glad you made it back to GoodReads and that we became friends: we may not have the same taste in genres but I always enjoy your snarky reviews!!
The Cats� Mother wrote: "Happy 2021 Natalya, I’m glad you made it back to GoodReads and that we became friends: we may not have the same taste in genres but I always enjoy your snarky reviews!!"Happy New Year to you, too! I like seeing book updates in different genres here � it opens my eyes to new books and genres and avoids GR seeming like an echo chamber 😁
Very thorough review of your reading during this 2020, Nataliya. I liked the way you have grouped your selection by genres. A lot of thought behind this.
I wish you health and good spirits, and great reading, for 2021.
The Hugo/Nebula project. Wow! Never quite managed to do that.I'm glad you found your way back to ŷ. And glad to have found you. :)
Kalliope wrote: "Very thorough review of your reading during this 2020, Nataliya. I liked the way you have grouped your selection by genres. A lot of thought behind this.
I wish you health and good spirits, and ..."
Thanks, Kalliope! I managed to get a bit of genre variety this year (although my favorite SFF, of course, takes the crown), so I’m pretty happy about that.
Happy New Year � and hopefully a wonderful reading year in 2021!
