I've always read science fiction, and a few years ago I realized that more and more I was looking to the Hugo and Nebula awards list to find my next book. I'd already read quite a few, so I started looking to the winners, those that had won both and those that had won either individually. Books like 'Stranger in a Strange Land,' 'The Dispossessed,' and so on. After that I became curious about those books that had lost out those really great novels. 'Bug Jack Barron' lost out to 'The Left Hand of Darkness' for the 1970 Nebula Award, and Walter Tevis' heartbreaking 'Mockingbird' lost out to Benford's 'Timescape,' but these are great novels that simply might be overlooked by readers only hitting the winners and not the nominees.
So, I set myself a goal to read all the winners and nominees for the Hugo or Nebula award for best novel. There are over 400 novels on this list, with at most eleven added every year. So this is quite the deal. Even if I can bang these out at over forty books a year it's going to take me almost a decade to read them all. And there's a few icebergs up ahead that are going to take me some time to navigate (I'm looking at you 'Gravity's Rainbow). But, I love my sci-fi, and I don't see that going anywhere so I'm giving it a shot.
Once I decided on doing this I wanted a place where I could discuss some of these books with other people who had read them. People who loved their award winners as much as I do, and wanted to talk about some of the more obscure books on the list that most others might not have read. There really isn't any place to do that, I tried Goodreads and loved it, but their discussion board is only good if I want to read a book report or bash on 'Blackout/All Clear.' So I'm going to give this a try. As I finish each book on the list I'll write a review, and I'll try my best to get the ones I have read updated as soon as possible. Hopefully by the time I'm done I'll have a review for every book that has ever been nominated for the two biggest awards in science fiction.
That is my goal.
So, I set myself a goal to read all the winners and nominees for the Hugo or Nebula award for best novel. There are over 400 novels on this list, with at most eleven added every year. So this is quite the deal. Even if I can bang these out at over forty books a year it's going to take me almost a decade to read them all. And there's a few icebergs up ahead that are going to take me some time to navigate (I'm looking at you 'Gravity's Rainbow). But, I love my sci-fi, and I don't see that going anywhere so I'm giving it a shot.
Once I decided on doing this I wanted a place where I could discuss some of these books with other people who had read them. People who loved their award winners as much as I do, and wanted to talk about some of the more obscure books on the list that most others might not have read. There really isn't any place to do that, I tried Goodreads and loved it, but their discussion board is only good if I want to read a book report or bash on 'Blackout/All Clear.' So I'm going to give this a try. As I finish each book on the list I'll write a review, and I'll try my best to get the ones I have read updated as soon as possible. Hopefully by the time I'm done I'll have a review for every book that has ever been nominated for the two biggest awards in science fiction.
That is my goal.
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