As I’ve mentioned on social media, I only have two works eligible for awards nomination from 2017: The Stone Sky, and my Uncanny short story Henosis. Last year was tough, so I didn’t get much writing done. I’m sure a lot of you can relate.
But since people have asked for my thoughts on this… Please, if you’re going to nominate The Stone Sky in any form, do so in the Novel category, rather than nominating the whole Broken Earth trilogy for Series. I mean, I can’t stop you from nominating it however you like — but let me point out, if you didn’t know, that The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate have both won Hugos already. This is awesome, but in my eyes, it simply wouldn’t be fair for those books to effectively get a second bite at the apple in the Series category. That this possibility exists has always been a potential problem of the category, IMO.
And here’s the thing: I understand that some folks believe I’d have a better chance at scoring a third Hugo in the Series category. I’m super-grateful to those of you who think about stuff like this, but as someone who never expected to get even one Hugo… y’all, I’m okay either way. If TSS doesn’t get nominated or win in the Novel category, and some other deserving work does win, then so be it. TSS is a New York Times and Locus bestseller and the series has been picked up for a TV show; I’m doin’ all right by most other measures. I’m not going to pretend I wouldn’t squee my head off if I won Hugo #3 at any point, but there won’t be any tears in my beer if I lose, either. (If for no other reason than that I don’t drink beer.)
So, hope this helps clarify things!
Just finished TFS last night after stumbling across TSS at the library’s new on the bookshelf recently (which made me scramble to find the first in the series to start this new author-reader relationship right). So happy to have been introduced! Tonight my plan is to crack open TOG and I can hardly wait. Regarding your November 2016 post, don’t you think sometimes we are living in a sci-fi world where at some point we will have to start making some tough heroic choices and take a stand against the wrongs we see happening in the world we live in today, like characters in a book?
Thank you for sharing your wishes on this. Nominating this year is truly agonizing. My lists are so much longer than my ballot slots.
Congratulations on the trilogy. It broke my heart and I loved every page of it.
Though I’m not a nominating member of worldcon, I kind of wish I were, so I could nominate TSS. I loved it, and I think it stands up as one of the best new novels of 2017. I personally can’t think of anything I read that topped it.
Do you have any recommendations for the Hugo?
Love your books, love your columns in the NY Times, love your texts.
TSS was definitely my best read for 2017. Well deserving of the Hugo. Thank you for beginning to fill my void following the loss of Octavia. Broken Earth Trilogy is my first read of your works. Going back to consume the rest this year.
It would be so wild to see you win a 3rd year in a row. I started reading the first book not knowing it had won, and kept thinking, “My God, how did this not win the Hugo?” But, of course, it had. (I just started/finished reading them over the last week)
So I picked up the second book, which mentions TFS’ award on the cover, and read it thinking, “It’s too bad it would be politically impossible for this one to win, too, it so deserves to.”
So despite all of the political nightmares we’ve been seeing recently, you’ve achieved what I’d thought would be impossible. Can you three-peat? The book is most definitely worthy, although I have to admit I haven’t read the others.
But if you don’t, the best part is that it doesn’t matter, because you’ve written another incredible book, and pulled off what has destroyed many other series, a satisfying conclusion to a trilogy. That’s a lot of loose ends being braided so beautifully.
Real awards aside, these 3 books are very possibly my favorite SF ever, and I’m a real (but picky) junkie. There have been quite a few Hugo winners that I couldn’t get past the first 3 chapters of. As meaningless an “award” as it may be, you’ve got my personal Novel of the Year.
(AND I just saw that there’ll be a series! Ehrmagerd. My fingers are crossed that TNT can pull of an elevation of quality like Starz did for American Gods)