List: otherwise-award-nominees

Cover of Too Like the Lightning.

Too Like the Lightning

by Ada Palmer · published 2016 · last read 2021-12-06

★★★★★

For me, this was a five star books, plain and simple, but I completely understand why it would be a 0-, 1-, 2-star book for others.

Cover of My Real Children.

My Real Children

by Jo Walton · published 2014 · read 2019-09-29

★★★★★

This review is biased. Of course, all my reviews are biased, what else are they there for? But this one is more biased than most. My Real Children by Jo Walton came recommended by a friend who said “if you ever feel the need to bawl your eyes out”, when I mentioned that I had planned to read something by Jo Walton.

Cover of Babel-17.

Babel-17

by Samuel R. Delany · published 1966 · read 2018-08-18

★★★★★

It's been a long time (apart from Too Like The Lightning) that I've read a novel that felt so tailored to me like Babel-17. I mean, it's a queer polyamorous scifi novel where linguistics are key, even to winning space battles, which there are plenty of. I have no words. It's also been the first time in a while that a novel brought me to tears.

Cover of Ancillary Justice.

Ancillary Justice

by Ann Leckie · published 2013 · read 2018-03-13

★★★★★

Cover of A Brother's Price.

A Brother’s Price

by Wen Spencer · published 2005 · read 2020-04-30

★★★★☆

This is comfort food, but it's GOOD comfort food. Fantasy world with inverted gender roles (only one man per 20 women, group family marriages ensue). It follows the Regency romance arc perfectly except for leaving out that relationship building part in the second third, which actually might've been better to include. But it's really enjoyable – takes the gender role reversal seriously, isn't stupid about it, but also clearly just has a lot of fun telling the story.

Cover of The Sparrow.

The Sparrow

by Mary Doria Russell · published 1996 · read 2020-01-08

★★★★☆

I liked The Sparrow a whole lot. Part of that is just that I like the premise: Jesuit First Contact? Hell yes! The Jesuits are the science-minded and intellectual ones among the Catholic orders, and at the same time very capable of actions and decision-making.

Cover of I Sexually Identify As An Attack Helicopter.

I Sexually Identify As An Attack Helicopter

by Isabel Fall · published 2020 · read 2020-01-12

★★★★☆

Original review: I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter is just very, very good. You are cringing from the title? Good, that means it works as intended. This piece is really good scifi – and not transphobic in the least, quite intentionally spiting the title. Read it here.

Cover of The Left Hand of Darkness.

The Left Hand of Darkness

by Ursula K. Le Guin · published 1969 · read 2017-03-01

★★★★☆

Wow! This is a fantastic, clever, wonderful scifi book. I loved the explicitly humanoid species (that are probably expanded on, especially their origin, in other parts of the series). I loved the mostly-androgynous species, their peculiarities, the mechanics of it all, the implications. I loved the protagonist and the carefully spun story arch - but I loved most that the narrator/protagonist was both clever, relatable, and fallible - there were several instances where, in the middle of narration, you started to think "Hold up, I'm sure that's not quite …" or "Isn't that just your weird bisexual bias …?"

Cover of A Fisherman of the Inland Sea.

A Fisherman of the Inland Sea

by Ursula K. Le Guin · published 1994 · read 2018-11-30

★★★★☆

I'm not a huge fan of short story collections – they're hard to rate, I don't like reading stories bunched together all that much, it's just not for me. So giving A Fisherman of the Inland Sea 4/5 stars means a lot – Ursula Le Guin always manages to show deeply familiar human sides to technological developments. Here I was impressed with her ability to show groups (families and other groups) interact and evolve. The deep understanding of individuals growing older, away from home or at home, was touching too, and terribly well executed. Oh, the humanity, you know?

Cover of The Handmaid's Tale.

The Handmaid’s Tale

by Margaret Atwood · published 1985 · read 2017-12-21

★★★★☆

Oh yes, definitely the dystopic tale I needed without knowing it. Nicely done.

Cover of Perdido Street Station.

Perdido Street Station

by China Miéville · published 2000 · read 2018-06-19

★★★★☆

Wow, this book was … a lot to take in. I liked it very much. Getting thrown into an Ankh-Morporkesque city, discovering alien races, and characters, and social structures was awesome. I noted with thanks that there was very little of a conventional story arch, so that the overall direction of the story only grew really clear when reaching 50-65% of the story. The very clear-cut and very different characters were relatable and realistic, and the final twists were all the better for the fact that they were not positive.

Cover of An Unkindness of Ghosts.

An Unkindness of Ghosts

by Rivers Solomon · published 2017 · read 2018-10-18

★★★★☆

An Unkindness of Ghosts is so good that it seems implausible that it is Rivers Solomon's debut novel. I mean, I'm very much into generational starships as a literary setting, but this is the best usage of the genre I've encountered so far (it nearly reached a five-star rating for me). We find ourselves on a generational starship, over 200 years into the journey away from a dead planet Earth. People are organized by deck, with the upper decks being the ruling class with a Sovereign, and the lower decks being the ill-treated worker class under guard. But instead of being as simplistic and YA-y as this sounds, An Unkindness of Ghosts goes deeper.

Cover of Every Heart a Doorway.

Every Heart a Doorway

by Seanan McGuire · published 2016 · read 2018-10-06

★★★★☆

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire is a nice little fantasy tale of the place where children go after going through a Door to Another Place (Fairylands, for example), and then coming back. It's short, and sweet, and sad, and gruesome. It's about real children, not a list of characters from other books, either. The gruesome part is the murder mystery half of the book, but that's really only window dressing for the exploration of the characters and worlds. It's short, and I'd have liked to see more exploration of both the children and their worlds – but that's what the sequel is there for.

Cover of The Calculating Stars.

The Calculating Stars

by Mary Robinette Kowal · published 2018 · read 2019-08-07

★★★★☆

The Calculating Stars by Marie Robinette Kowal is a book I enjoyed tremendously, and I have started recommending it to a bunch of friends. It is set in the US in the 50s, just shortly after a meteorite drops into the sea next to Washington, kills millions, and starts what might be an extinction level event. Our protagonist is a woman with a PhD in maths, who flew planes in WW2 for WASP (officially never saw combat, but, y'know …), and whose husband is lead engineer for the NACA/IAC.

Cover of Parable of the Talents.

Parable of the Talents

by Octavia E. Butler · published 1998 · read 2018-05-31

★★★★☆

Very very nearly a five-star book for me due to the ending, and I enjoyed it much more than the first volume. The story of Olamina told by herself, but commented on by her daughter, is really something. The pacing is outstanding and not very conventional (meaning you don't anticipate how the story is going to evolve and end). I was happy and impressed to follow Olamina through her budding community, her imprisonment, pregnancy, and founding a religion.

Cover of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

by N.K. Jemisin · published 2010 · read 2019-11-15

★★★☆☆

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K.Jemisin is solid Fantasy, with cool mythology, a decent protagonist and good other characters, and absolutely nothing wrong with it – it just didn't really come to life for me. Huge bonus points for a very cool ending, though! Not sure I'll continue the series, though, to be honest.

Cover of Wild Seed.

Wild Seed

by Octavia E. Butler · published 1980 · read 2018-07-20

★★★☆☆

Wild Seed (first part of Octavia Butler's Patternmaster series) was good, but not great. She experiments with the implication of mortal and immortal characters, who definitely aren't gods, and while I enjoyed the premise, and the writing, and the characters immensely, I felt that the story meandered and didn't quite know where to go. It was still a very pleasant read, and I'm looking forward to see in which direction the series develops. (After finishing the book, I was told that I had started the series in the chronological order, not the published order, which was not at all my intention, and may contribute to my impression of a vague plot.)

Cover of Range of Ghosts.

Range of Ghosts

by Elizabeth Bear · published 2012 · read 2020-05-08

★★☆☆☆

Good worldbuilding on the Mongolian inspired Fantasy, but I'm generally not a fan of books that end on a cliffhanger without even an attempt at providing an internal arc, and this bothered me a lot. First book by Elizabeth Bear and not something I'll continue reading any time soon, I think.

Cover of The Black Tides of Heaven.

The Black Tides of Heaven

by J.Y. Yang · published 2017 · read 2021-06-10

★★☆☆☆

Asian-inspired genderfun fantasy. Didn't compel me at all: the plot wasn't as focused as the short length warranted, and the characters didn't stand out to me at all. The plot was compressed and considering the high odds and tragedy, didn't make me care at all.