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What Hugo-winning books have you read?

November 11th, 2006 (Visited 3520 times) Tags:

Snagged from here, another one of those useless Internet memes.

I’ve bolded the ones that I haven’t read, because it was easier. At one point, I actually made a project of marching through these.

2005 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke
2004 Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold
2003 Hominids, Robert J. Sawyer
2002 American Gods, Neil Gaiman
2001 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J. K. Rowling
2000 A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge
1999 To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis
1998 Forever Peace, Joe Haldeman
1997 Blue Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
1996 The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson
1995 Mirror Dance, Lois McMaster Bujold
1994 Green Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
1993 Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
1993 A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge
1992 Barrayar, Lois McMaster Bujold
1991 The Vor Game, Lois McMaster Bujold
1990 Hyperion, Dan Simmons
1989 Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh
1988 The Uplift War, David Brin
1987 Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card
1986 Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
1985 Neuromancer, William Gibson
1984 Startide Rising, David Brin
1983 Foundation’s Edge, Isaac Asimov
1982 Downbelow Station, C. J. Cherryh
1981 The Snow Queen, Joan D. Vinge
1980 The Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C. Clarke
1979 Dreamsnake, Vonda N. McIntyre
1978 Gateway, Frederik Pohl
1977 Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Kate Wilhelm
1976 The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
1975 The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin
1974 Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
1973 The Gods Themselves, Isaac Asimov
1972 To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip José Farmer
1971 Ringworld, Larry Niven
1970 The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
1969 Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
1968 Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
1967 The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
1966 Dune, Frank Herbert
1966 “…And Call Me Conrad” (This Immortal), Roger Zelazny
1965 The Wanderer, Fritz Leiber
1964 “Here Gather the Stars” (Way Station), Clifford D. Simak
1963 The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
1962 Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
1961 A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M., Miller Jr
1960 Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
1959 A Case of Conscience, James Blish
1958 The Big Time, Fritz Leiber
1956 Double Star, Robert A. Heinlein
1955 They’d Rather Be Right (The Forever Machine), Mark Clifton & Frank Riley
1953 The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester

Is it me, or does the 1955 winner stick out as a book you’ve never heard of or even seen reprinted?

I suppose I ought to go through and link all of these with the handy Amazon purchase link, but I am too lazy.

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Dando vueltas y más vueltas wrote on November 12th, 2006 at 1:11 pm:

me he encontrado

RedTales wrote on November 13th, 2006 at 11:43 am:

En Dando vueltas y más vueltas me he encontrado con este meme, muy apropiado para mi. Estos son los Hugos de novela que he leído: 2005 – Jonathan Strange y el Señor Norrell (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell), Susanna Clarke 2001 – Harry Potter y el cáliz de fuego (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), J.K.

Auz's Deranged Mutterings v5 wrote on November 14th, 2006 at 9:57 pm:

Raph’s got a list of all the Hugo winners and is way beyond the number I’ve read – but I wonder if I could Mooch my way through the rest…(bold = read, italics = I think I read) 2005 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke (half-read – gave up and sent on to a Moocher)

Faith wrote on November 12th, 2006 at 10:38 am:

[...] Comments [...]

Hugo winners at Ruminations wrote on December 3rd, 2007 at 7:52 pm:

[...] inspiration came from Raph Koster – Hugo Award winners I’ve read, in italics. (Also, it seems doubly apt to look at a list of [...]

Nabil said on November 11th, 2006 at 1:17 pm:

Definitely missing some classics that are worth going back for. The Man in the High Castle, for instance, and The Dispossessed. Both are really excellent reads (imagine that, considering they won the Hugo).

Still, pretty impressive how many you HAVE read.

Jare said on November 11th, 2006 at 4:38 pm:

Of those you haven’t read, I definitely recommend The Forever War. Of course, after that one you’ll be tempted to read Forever Peace, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll be left scratching your head WTF is it doing on that list.

Raph said on November 11th, 2006 at 6:26 pm:

Well, actually, I could freak you all out by posting the nominees, not just the winners, and seeing how many of those I have read. I’ve certainly read well over half of all the nominees since 1990 or so…

Morgan Ramsay said on November 11th, 2006 at 8:19 pm:

I thought you emboldened the titles you haven’t read. Looks like italics to me!

Gunman21 said on November 12th, 2006 at 6:50 am:

Ender’s Game is by far my favorite book. I literally memorized that entire book at one point cuz I had read it so many times. Highly recommend it.

The sequels to it have been so/so. I hate the “new and improved” cover art on it, definatly going to have to find one of the old versions for that.

Max Battcher said on November 12th, 2006 at 5:39 pm:

I second the notion the The Man in the High Castle is well worth reading. It’s not “stereotypical PKD”, which makes it a great read whether or not you like the rest of PKD’s oevre.

Brew said on November 12th, 2006 at 7:03 pm:

cyteen wasn’t bad, but not my favorite of Cherryh’s books. Other than that, I look at the list and am quite disappointed. Soooo many great books didn’t hit the list, and comparing many of the winners to books *I* consider top notch books, I guess i’m just not on the same wavelength as the judges…

Then again, I’m sure most avid reading consumers aren’t on the same page as the judges either…

That said…2 books stand out as being The BEST of the best… Dune, and Neuromancer. They’ve definately stood the test of time, and forged paths into new territory.

Raph said on November 12th, 2006 at 11:01 pm:

Hugos are actually voted on by readers — people who attend the Worldcon. The Nebulas are picked by the members of the SFWA, so it’s picked by writers.

Prokofy Neva said on November 13th, 2006 at 1:20 pm:

1. I only read 4.
2. Is it worth marching through this list, really?
3. How are you able to read so many books at once? Are you speed-reading lol?

I’ve been meaning to read Vernor Vinge for a long time.

Raph said on November 13th, 2006 at 2:05 pm:

To reply…

2. It is if you really love SF and fantasy, I suppose.

3. My grandmother was a schoolteacher specializing in early education. She started teaching me to read unfashionably early. I cannot recall a time when I couldn’t read. I was reading by age two. In preschool I got in trouble for bringing Ludlum’s “Bourne Identity” to school with me. I was indiscriminate — I was also reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys and Ferdinand the Bull at the same time. I read the first Xanth book when I was six, Sturgeon’s “More Than Human” in first or second grade, and Dante’s Inferno in fourth grade. I think I was in in sixth before I decided to read all of Shakespeare, plus the Bible cover to cover. Yes, I was a bit of a weird kid.

Anyway, one of the results of that is that I read exceptionally quickly. It takes me a while to build up to speed, but once I am immersed in a book, I will read as fast as a page a second. Interrupt me, and I have to build back up again slowly. If left to my own devices and without interruption, I can easily knock off two or three full-length books in a day.

Bart Stewart said on November 13th, 2006 at 2:19 pm:

Ditto on The Man in the High Castle and The Forever War as being very worth reading, but I also thought Cyteen (the trilogy) was very good (unlike Cherryh’s fantasy novels).

Looking at the list, I found I’ve read most Hugo winners since The Demolished Man up until 1990 (including Hyperion which I found lethally dull). Since then, the only winner I’ve read was the Harry Potter book. Since 1990, it seems to me, the Hugo has mostly been about what you’re “supposed” to have read rather than about what’s actually enjoyable SF.

Maybe the cycle will eventually turn once again….

Michael said on November 13th, 2006 at 3:28 pm:

Looks like “They’d Rather Be Right” was republished in ‘81 by Doubleday. Abebooks has pointers to quite a few for sale.

To 9: Run, don’t walk, to get “A Fire Upon the Deep”. Lots of fun.

Raph: fancy new live preview! What other new WP2.0 features do we get?

moo said on November 14th, 2006 at 3:07 pm:

Damn, I’ve only read 16 of them (mostly by folks like Heinlein, Connie Willis, Kim Stanley Robinson and Frank Herbert). Oh well.

Tess said on November 16th, 2006 at 2:17 pm:

I would feel bad about how few of those books I had read, except I have read a decent number of the authors listed — just not necessarily those specific books.

Max Battcher said on November 18th, 2006 at 12:57 am:

Bart: There have been quite a few very enjoyable books since 1990 on that list, it just depends on what types of books you want to read. The {Color} Mars trilogy is well written and often engrossing (plus full of good hard science). The Diamond Age is what you make of it… if you like Stephenson’s full bore explorations with great beginnings, interesting middles, and odd unsatisfactory endings.

American Gods is probably the stand-out to me (of those I have read) post-1990. Gaiman just has a magical prose ability when steeped in crazy fantasy and American Gods is top notch. Grab American Gods and Anansi Boys and you’ll have some great reading for at least a couple of days.