In 2011 I challenged myself to read 20 books that have won the Hugo award for best novel. The Hugo award is given each year to a science fiction or fantasy book. The winner is selected by the attendees of the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). Along with the Nebula, it is one of the most prestigious awards that can be bestowed on a science fiction or fantasy novel.
The 20 Hugo Winners I Read In 2011
- Double Star, Robert Heinlein, 1956
- A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller Jr., 1961
- The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin, 1970
- To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer, 1972
- The Gods Themselves, Isaac Asimov, 1973
- Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Kate Wilhelm, 1977
- Gateway, Frederik Pohl, 1978
- Dreamsnake, Vonda N. McIntyre, 1979
- The Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C. Clarke, 1980
- Startide Rising, David Brin, 1984
- Barrayar, Lois McMaster Bujold, 1992
- Doomsday Book, Connie Willis, 1993
- A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge, 1993
- Green Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson, 1994
- Blue Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson, 1997
- Forever Peace, Joe Haldeman, 1998
- To Say Nothing of the Dog: Or How We Found The Bishop’s Bird Stump At Last, Connie Willis, 1999
- The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon, 2008
- Blackout, Connie Willis, 2011
- All Clear, Connie Willis, 2011
What can we say about this list?
There’s a lot of 70s on the list. (In fact, the 70s is the first decade for which I have finished all the Hugo winners.) That’s weird, because I didn’t particularly like 70s sci-fi before undertaking this challenge, and I didn’t actually like a lot of the 70s books on this list. The couple that I did like from that era were arguably the ones that are the least like other 70s sci-fi, so while I didn’t care for Dreamsnake, The Left Hand of Darkness, or Gateway, all of which felt very 70s, I liked The Gods Themselves, which felt like it belonged in an earlier era.
I really like 90s-era sci-fi. Almost every book I read from the 1992 to 1999 winners was excellent. Also, my favorite book of all time won in 1996.
I managed to get at least one book from each decade that the Hugos have been awarded. It was cool to see how far genre writing has come over the past half century and how it moves in trends and cycles.
Dealing with Series
Sci-fi and fantasy books often come in long series, and that makes this kind of challenge tricky. For several of the books on the list I had to read earlier books in the series that were not Hugo winners, just to get to the books that were Hugo winners. For example, Red Mars did not win in 1993. (It was up against some stiff competition from Connie Willis and Vernor Vinge, both of whom seem to win every time they are nominated.) The rest of Robinson’s Mars series did win, in 1994 for Green Mars and 1997 for Blue Mars. I think Red Mars is the best book in that series, and well worth reading, so in this particular case I am glad that I was “forced” to read Red Mars to get to Green Mars and Blue Mars.
Bujold, Vinge, and Willis
There are a few authors that seem to dominate the Hugos in the modern era: Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, and Lois McMaster Bujold. I made sure to include at least one book from each of them. At the outset, I was sure that I would love the Vinge book, like the Bujold book, and hate the Willis book. It was the complete opposite. After reading Doomsday Book I couldn’t wait to read the rest of Connie Willis’s tales of time travelling historians. Meanwhile, the Vinge book (A Fire Upon the Deep) bored me to tears. His books are packed with brilliant ideas, and they should be so much fun, but they are weighted down by clunky prose. I liked the Bujold books, and I look forward to reading the rest of the Vorkosigan series.
The Best
I really enjoyed the Connie Willis time travel books and would recommend them heartily. Start with Doomsday Book. Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy is incredibly ambitious hard sci-fi that works really well. I recommend it if you like a lot of hard science and research mixed into your fiction. A Canticle for Liebowitz is a real classic—it stands the test of time.
The Worst
I hated almost none of these books. Some of them were not quite to my taste, but the only ones that I thought were a complete waste of my time were the David Brin books, Startide Rising and Sundiver (which did not win a hugo, but is the first part of the series that includes two Hugo winners). I just do not see what people like about these books. Maybe they’re supposed to be funny?
Prior to 2011 I had read 21 Hugo winners. In 2011 I read 20. I have 20 left to read.
Next Year’s Reading List (The Remaining 20)
- They’d Rather Be Right, Mark Clifton and Frank Riley, 1955
- The Big Time, Fritz Leiber, 1958
- A Case of Conscience, James Blish, 1959
- Here Gather the Stars, Clifford D. Simak, 1964
- The Wanderer, Fritz Leiber, 1965
- …And Call Me Conrad, Roger Zelazny, 1966
- Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny, 1968
- Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner, 1969
- The Snow Queen, Joan Vinge, 1981
- Downbelow Station, C. J. Cherryh, 1982
- Foundation’s Edge, Isaac Asimov, 1983
- The Uplift War, David Brin, 1988
- Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh, 1989
- Hyperion, Dan Simmons, 1990
- The Vor Game, Lois McMaster Bujold, 1991
- Mirror Dance, Lois McMaster Bujold, 1995
- A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge, 2000
- Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold, 2004
- Spin, Robert Charles Wilson, 2006
- The City & the City, China Miéville, 2010
All that, plus whatever the 2012 winner turns out to be. My money’s on Embassytown.
