Book Comparison Discussion

July 22, 2019 1:40 PM

A place to compare any of the novels, novellas, graphic novels, short and long form presentations, or whatever else for the Hugos.

All Posts (not including novels and novelettes):
Novels:
Revenant Gun
The Calculating Stars
Trail of Lightning
Space Opera
Record of a Spaceborn Few
Spinning Silver

Novellas:
The Tea Master and the Detective
Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach
The Black God's Drums
Binti: The Night Masquerade
Beneath the Sugar Sky
Artificial Condition

Graphic Novels:
Saga Volume 9
Paper Girls Volume 4
Monstress Volume 3
Abbott
Black Panther: Long Live the King
On A Sunbeam

Dramatic Presentation, Short Form:
The Expanse: Abbadon's Gate
The Good Place: Jeremy Bearimy
Doctor Who: Rosa
Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab
The Good Place: Janet(s)
Dirty Computer

Dramatic Presentation, Long Form:
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sorry to Bother You
Avengers: Infinity War
A Quiet Place
Annihilation
Black Panther

posted by dinty_moore to Hugo Awards 2019 (7 comments total)

Not a comparison as much as an observation, but there were a lot of sequels in the novel/novelette category. I have a friend who signed up for voting membership in June and since he's short on time, he's skipping the ones where he'd have to read other stuff first for context.

For novel, two of the entries are the third in a series (though Spaceborn Few can stand alone), two entries are the first in a series, and two are stand-alone. For novella, two are third in a series, one is second in a series, one is part of an extended universe, and two stand alone. I haven't read any of the graphic novels but those also tend to be part of a series, as well as most of the short form presentations.

I'll reserve judgment and my rankings for later comments but it's interesting that sci fi/fantasy tends towards massive worlds with many pieces--hell, Endgame was a monster finale for almost two dozen prior movies. I enjoy getting into more complex stories, but I have so much on my to-read list that I like when I can read one thing and the queue actually shrinks because I don't have to add any sequels to complete the story. Are publishing houses only buying series now? Has it always been like this and I just never noticed?
posted by j.r at 2:51 PM on July 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

Are publishing houses only buying series now? Has it always been like this and I just never noticed?

I'd have to look at pre-puppy Hugo lists, but I think this has at least been normal for the last few years for novels. And going back the last few years - it's the same series that get listed year after year. From this year, books from the Machineries of the Empire, Wayward Children, Wayfarers, Binti, and Murderbot have all been on previous lists. Which makes it a little hard to vote on them on their own - because in some cases (like Binti), I thought this was a weaker entry in a strong series.

Series for novels have been popular for a while - I've actually gotten the impression that the publishing market has cooled on trilogies, because there's always the worry about the author not finishing or the first book not selling well. I do think that SFF has a tendency to spawn series just because of the heavy work of worldbuilding - setting all of your books in the same world limits the amount of worldbuilding you have to do per novel.

Novella series are a little newer, I think - maybe last five years? Maybe ten years ago novellas were more of a niche market, packaged in short story collections, meant as YA, or sort of meant as teasers for longer series. The ebook market really helped novellas, but I think it took publishers a while to figure out that market even existed.

I'll also note that three of the six graphic novels have a volume number in their name, and it's arguable that Black Panther's volume is assuming at least a little prior knowledge. Saga's been nominated every year since 2013, I think, unless it got caught up in puppy fuckery.

I was actually asking something on the green about page length - a friend of mine was asking for recommendations for books under 350 pages, and it made me realize that a lot of the SFF was about 400 pages. There's some bricks still, but somehow it seems like 400 pages became the approved length? Either that's longer than your average litfic, or my taste in litfic runs toward shorter books. I was wondering if this was a publishing thing.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:05 PM on July 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm just here to thank people for all the posts. I just discovered these posts about a month ago and I've been having such fun reading novels, short stories, and novelettes! And my hold list at the library has seriously grown.

I have to admit i haven't read much SF in the past decade so this is awesome.
posted by miss-lapin at 8:24 PM on July 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

I was thinking of asking that question about book length before, ended up actually asking that question about book length on the green this morning, and it turns out that yep - scifi/fantasy books are on average a little longer than books from other genres, around 400 pages.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:40 AM on July 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

And going back the last few years - it's the same series that get listed year after year. From this year, books from the Machineries of the Empire, Wayward Children, Wayfarers, Binti, and Murderbot have all been on previous lists. Which makes it a little hard to vote on them on their own - because in some cases (like Binti), I thought this was a weaker entry in a strong series.

I'm sure there's some feedback effect too. I've been following the Hugos for a few years now, and so that's what I started reading. Then when it came time to submit my nominations, most of the SFF I read from 2018 were books in the same series, or at least by the same authors, since they're familiar to me. Otherwise my reading time is taken up by work that isn't eligible due to being too old, or it came out in 2019 (so next year's ballot), or the wrong genre. If I devoted all of my reading time to new SFF I could get a reasonable mix of familiar and new names, but I wouldn't be able to read anything else.

I do think that SFF has a tendency to spawn series just because of the heavy work of worldbuilding - setting all of your books in the same world limits the amount of worldbuilding you have to do per novel.

Yup--and I've seen companion novelettes that are in the same settings as series of novels. Last year two of the finalists, Extracurricular Activities and Children of Thorns, Children of Water, were part of larger series and I think suffered for it. But I've also seen a lot of authors putting out novellas set in their pre-built universes that are tangential to the main storyline. Bujold and Le Guin did it too, so I guess that's not new at all.

Novella series are a little newer, I think - maybe last five years? Maybe ten years ago novellas were more of a niche market, packaged in short story collections, meant as YA, or sort of meant as teasers for longer series. The ebook market really helped novellas, but I think it took publishers a while to figure out that market even existed.

Yup, the only one last year that wasn't part of series was the only one not put out by Tor.com. They've definitely come to dominate the novella market, and I guess they've decided series are effective for their writers and the audience. I could see ebooks having a big effect. It's easy to charge a few bucks for an electronic version, vs. some floor that's necessary for print logistics but feels too expensive for something I read in a day. I'm still salty that they charged $10 for each Murderbot sequel ebook, though, and got those from the library.

I was actually asking something on the green about page length - a friend of mine was asking for recommendations for books under 350 pages, and it made me realize that a lot of the SFF was about 400 pages. There's some bricks still, but somehow it seems like 400 pages became the approved length? Either that's longer than your average litfic, or my taste in litfic runs toward shorter books. I was wondering if this was a publishing thing.

You're definitely on to something. Now that I think about it, most sci fi seems to be 400 pages these days (used to be much shorter), most fantasy is 450-500 (used to be more dominated by doorstoppers), and litfic is around 300.

Whups, that was a lot of inline responding...you said too many insightful things!
posted by j.r at 10:00 AM on July 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

Oh noooo I just looked up the winners and while I agree with many of the non-lit categories, none of my top favorites won for the big four. Novella and Novelette are both good winners anyway, but I am most disappointed by Novel and especially(!) Short Story.
posted by j.r at 9:39 AM on August 19, 2019

I started a new discussion specifically for talking about the winners if people are interested.
posted by j.r at 10:03 AM on August 19, 2019