I've finished up a new review for 'Mockingbird' by Walter Tevis.  This novel is another good example of why I set out to read all the nominees and not just the award winners.  Published in 1980 'Mockingbird' lost out to 'Timescape' by Gregory Benford.  While I haven't read 'Timescape' yet Benford was a long time editor and writer of science fiction that was going to be nominated no matter what.  I give the SFWA props just for nominating a book like Bird. 

Tevis didn't write primarily science fiction, and really didn't write that many books.  He did write 'The Hustler,' 'The Color of Money' and 'The Man who Fell to Earth.'  All of which got turned into movies, so that's something.  I'm happy to see any author get nominated for the first time, it shows that the awards are willing to branch out a little and not continue to embrace the same authors over and over.  I do wish that 'The Man who Fell to Earth' had received a Hugo nomination in 1960 but you can't get everything you want.

This review is a pretty short one for a book as deep as 'Mockingbird,' and I'm just worried that I didn't convey well enough just how much I loved this book.  I thought it was great, and like I said, it's exactly the sort of thing I was looking forward to when I set out on this project.  While it's fun to be pointed in the direction of N. K. Jemisin, or stumble across 'Dark Universe' or Poul Anderson, what I really want to find is more books like 'Mockingbird.'

If anyone else has read these books feel free to comment on them, or better yet just put your own review on here and I can make links to different reviews.  I'd be especially curious to see reviews for the books I didn't really like, if anyone really enjoyed 'The Eskimo Invasion' or 'The Wanderer' I need to know about it.