My 2022 reading resolution: Read or DNF every novel that has won a Hugo or a Nebula award, and acquire all the good ones.
I had expected to DNF a lot of these books, but I was a little dismayed at how terrible they are. Or rather, how some of them can be so well-written and yet so idelogically possessed.
For a while, I worried that I was pre-judging some of these books too harshly, based on my opinions of the author. After all, shouldn’t art be treated separately from the artist? But then I decided that it would be better to lean into that bias, and trust my intuition. After all, it’s impossible to approach reading without a personal bias—and even if it were possible, it wouldn’t be advisable.
One of the key things I’m hoping to take away from reading these books is a better understanding of my own personal tastes. Toward that end, it’s much better to DNF early and often, since that tells me something valuable about my own tastes. I’ll get much more out of this exercise if I pay attention to that than whether or not I’m being “fair” to a particular book or author.
As for how my bias against an author might prejudice me against a book, I don’t think that’s too much of a problem so long as I’m aware of those biases. Yes, it makes it more likely that I’ll read a book with a critical eye, and not in the way that I typically read for enjoyment, but that goes both ways, since if I do enjoy a book, that’s going to improve my opinion of the author (or at least make me reconsider my opinion). So long as I’m aware of my biases and make sure that they aren’t set in stone, I think it should be fine
Besides, it’s not like I have anything to prove. Sure, China Mike Glyer might pull out an excerpt from this post to use as content (hi China Mike!), but I couldn’t care less what that particular corner of fandom thinks about my public ruminations. I will know if I’m being too “unfair” to a book or an author, and the only criterion that really matters is whether I have a clear reason for DNFing the book, separate from my biases about the author.
And honestly, what I’ve found so far is that my biases are pretty spot on. Authors who behave insufferably in public or on the internet tend to write some pretty insufferable books, especially if they’re woke.
Fortunately, I have found a few new-to-me books and authors who are really fantastic. And my decision to DNF early and often is helping to keep it from becoming too much of a slog, which is good. It also means that I may complete this resolution a lot sooner than I’d expected, at which point I’ll probably move on to the Dragons or the Prometheus awards.
In any case, here are all the Hugo and Nebula awared-winning novels that I read or DNFed in January 2022:
Books that I read and plan to / have already acquired:
- Way Station by Clifford D. Simak (1964 Hugo)
- Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov (1983 Hugo)
- The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold (1991 Hugo)
- Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (2015 Nebula)
Books that I read and don’t plan to acquire:
- None
Books that I did not finish:
- The Big Time by Fritz Leiber (1958 Hugo)
- A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1959 Hugo)
- The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber (1965 Hugo)
- The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany (1968 Nebula)
- Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (1969 Hugo)
- Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin (1969 Nebula)
- Man Plus by Frederik Pohl (1977 Nebula)
- Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre (1979 Hugo and Nebula)
- A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge (20000 Hugo) (My wife recommended this one, and I will probably try it again, since I took a break midway through and forgot who all of the characters were. But for now, I’m counting it as a soft DNF.)
- Camouflage by Joe Haldeman (2006 Nebula)
- The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (2010 Hugo and Nebula)
- Redshirts by John Scalzi (2013 Hugo)
- Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (2014 Hugo and Nebula)
- All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (2017 Nebula)
- The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (2019 Hugo and Nebula)
- A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (2020 Hugo)
- A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker (2021 Nebula)
