The worst book to ever win a Hugo Award

[Brian]

Are you ready for this book that the majority of reviewers seem to dislike so strongly? I am 40 pages out of 190 or so in, and I don't yet see why it receives so much negative criticism. Perhaps it is still too early for me to make a judgement.

[D.L.]

I've seen so many places call it the worst Hugo winner, at this point it's turned into expectation management. Like when both sides talk about how badly they'll do in a presidential debate, so that each can declare victory just for forming complete sentences.

I'm going in with an open mind, but just for frame of reference some other books that I believe were Hugo eligible that year:

Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel
Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword
Richard Matheson's I Am Legend
JRR Tolkein's The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers

Not all of those are necessarily fair. I Am Legend would be a novella under modern rules. The Lord of the Rings books were published in the UK but not yet in America.

[D.L.]

I'm just over halfway, and I'll agree that I don't get the harshly negative criticism. It's certainly not as good as Demolished Man, but that's a hell of a high bar. It's better than most 1950s sci-fi I've read, though maybe just a little. Perhaps I'll agree more with its reputation as I have more Hugo winners under my belt, but rather than "worst" I can't imagine I'd call it anything more than "least good."

[Brian]

There was something far too amateur about the writing. i didn't recognize it until I got farther along in the story. Also, yes, I understand this is fiction, but the idea of Bossy is ridiculous.

I'm looking forward to Double Star. I've only read two of Heinlein's stories (Stranger in a Strange Land and Job: A Comedy of Justice). Both were excellent so i definitely want to become familiar with more of his stuff, as any sf fan should. Heinlein won't fail to deliver.

[D.L.]

I'm not sure if I didn't recognize the weaknesses until later in the book, of if they didn't show up until later in the book...but...yeah. The book backed away from the characters. Conversations get summarized rather than played out in dialogue. It's like the writers got bored with the book, with the second half reading more like a detailed outline rather than a finalized work.