Shortlist speculation

[Paul]

Hmm. This is a tough one because I know what the content creators love but I'm unsure about the content viewers.

I think The Martian will sneak in there because a lot of the viewers and creators read it last year. The creators love Ancillary Sword, The Goblin Emperor, Three Body Problem, and Annihilation, but did the viewers read them as much? I can see Words of Radiance coming in big as it was a huge fantasy release last year and fantasy might be a little bit more popular on booktube. I personally voted for Lock In and it might have a chance as it was fairly popular.

Tough one but I'll go with:
The Martian by Andy Weir
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

with Ancillary Sword replacing one of those or coming in 4th. I think you guys have picked a good mixture of SF and F readers for your panel and it'll be interesting to see the panel split down SF/F lines.

[Rachel (Kalanadi)]

For graphic story, I think Saga volume 3 or 4 will be on the shortlist. Rat Queens as well, and maybe The Wicked + The Divine has a chance? I'm not sure how popular that one is on BookTube.

For the novel categories - I agree a lot with Paul. Something by Brandon Sanderson will show up, maybe in both the adult and YA categories. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas for the YA category too, since the Throne of Glass series is much read/talked about.

Very interested to see what appears in the short fiction category, since not a lot of short stories are talked about in booktubesff. I predict most of the short pieces will be novellas then :-)

[Otavio]

I think the Martian is definitely making an appearance. It was very popular the past year, and since it wasn't eligible for the big SFF awards this year (at least the Nebula and Hugos) I think it has a place in the shortlist. I didn't personally nominate it (because I didn't read it), but I would not be surprised if it was on the list.

Words of Radiance also has a big chance, I think! And for YA I think Half a King was a very popular one. I nominated it mostly because it was the only SFF YA book I read that was eligible... haha

[Nicole]

Hm... I want to comment because I love speculating, but since I can see the results my speculation would be a bit spoilery.

[SE]

Otavio wrote: "I think the Martian is definitely making an appearance. It was very popular the past year, and since it wasn't eligible for the big SFF awards this year (at least the Nebula and Hugos) I think it h..."

Possibly a stupid question, but why wasn't The Martian eligible this year? Did it have something to do with it being self published originally?

[Nicole]

Joss wrote: "Otavio wrote: "I think the Martian is definitely making an appearance. It was very popular the past year, and since it wasn't eligible for the big SFF awards this year (at least the Nebula and Hugo..."

Yep. The Hugos, Nebulas, and most other awards go by original publication date. It's difficult for them to gain enough steam to be well recognized in their first year of publication. Sometimes, a self-published work will make "major changes" and might get an extra year of eligibility when a major publisher picks it up, but in general, it's rare to see self published stuff show up on awards lists.

[Kevin]

I think Lock In is also going to be shortlisted because of Lindsey, who had made Scalzi and Sanderson extremely popular on Booktube all around within the last year.

Maybe Fool's Assassin, the new Hobb book might make it on the shortlist, but because Hobb is mixed on Booktube, and especially because its a later book in a long running series for over 20 years, and many only have read only the 1st trilogy, it might not make it in.

I don't know how many sequels especially seconds in a series since a lot of debut came out in 2013 are going to do because its a sequel.

Also I don't know how well both The Mirror Empire and City of Stairs are going to do. The 2 biggest awards, Hugo and Nebula both ignored them, and they haven't been the most popular books on Booktube in the past year. Overall even in the general along with Booktube they have been in my opinion been treated like a second in a series rather than being first, medium in popularity. This might be because I think they were written as standalones at first, I had no idea they were going to become a series till this year.

Standalones most of the times gets treated badly and people don't like them versus series. Its why I think there are more series rather than standalones.

[Kevin]

Paul wrote: "Hmm. This is a tough one because I know what the content creators love but I'm unsure about the content viewers.

I think The Martian will sneak in there because a lot of the viewers and creator..."

It helped The Martian that the movie is coming out in November, with the trailer just released.

[[deleted user]]

I have no idea what is popular per se on booktube (especially, as Rachel points out, what is popular with viewers, as distinct from what is popular with creators), but I will be surprised if The Goblin Emperor doesn't make the short list, and disappointed if Ancillary Sword doesn't. Because they are both great books, they both got Hugo and Nebula shortlist nods, and yeah, Ancillary Sword totally rocked my world.

I want a motivation to read The 3 body problem (which just FINALLY got released in Australia, so is actually available here now), so I'm kind of hoping that one makes it too. And I guess I'm thinking with The Martian movie coming out, and the trailer and everything, I imagine that one will very likely make the list too.

[Maija]

Robin Hobb is my favourite author, so I'm sad that I can't vote for Fool's Assassin - 'cause I haven't read it yet! I'm currently re-reading Tawny Man, and then I have the Rain Wild Chronicles to get through (reading those for the first time, since I have an unfair bias towards reading about Fitz and the Fool). Then I'm finally up to speed and can read the newest book. I'd love to see it on the shortlist! Just can't vote for it myself.

I don't really believe that Fool's Assassin makes the shortlist, since like Kevin said, it's such a long-running series. People would have to have read all the previous ones to vote for it. I'm not sure there's so many up-to-speed Hobb fans around in Booktube.

Like others, I'm very surprised if The Goblin Emperor and The Martian don't make the shortlist. I haven't read The Martian yet, but it's been talked about so much that I'm willing to bet it'll be there.

[Rosanna (prosesroses)]

To be honest, I didn't read much 2014 releases especially compared to current releases I'm reading this year but I contributed anyway. I definitely veer more towards fantasy but I tried to equal it out!
My nominations for -->

Adult:
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
On Such A Full Sea by Chang Rae Lee

YA:
The Young Elites (#1) by Marie Lu, a dark fantasy. The protagonist will break your heart because nothing seems to work out.
In the Afterlight (#3) by Alexandra Bracken, a sci-fi dystopia (current time or not-far future). This series needs to be known more! The diverse and fantastic group of main characters really hit it home for me.
I just realized both my noms in this are about kids/teens-only getting special powers (they get it different ways of course). What a coincidence, lol.

Graphic Novel:
Seconds by Bryan O'Malley. (LOVE!)
Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vahlmann (The art totally fooled me. I thought it'd be quirky fairy tale but it's actually dark and disturbing as hell...)

I feel like my list is more literary mainstream than SFF mainstream. My choices seem to be the "lite sff." The only one I think will make the shortlist is The Young Elites because it is popular in IRL and booktube; maybe Annhihilation too. My graphic novel choices seems totally off the radar by way of this thread is going, seem everyone wants go for series like Saga or superheroes, not standalone.
Based on Thomas' tweet, Mortal Instrument series is likely to be in too which if it is….my sympathies because reading 6 books to catch up will be kind of tortuous (the first few are rough, ie. everybody's a sarcastic asshole).

[Maija]

I finally went and voted! I spent the evening yesterday and today reading a lot of short stories nominated for various SFF awards, so that I could find something to nominate for that category. I'm not a big short story reader, I usually pick up novels & graphic novels.

Based on my reading, I would really like to recommend Ursula Vernon's Jackalope Wives for those of you who haven't yet made your decision. It's available to read for free online. I thought it was wonderful! I haven't read anything by Ursula Vernon before, but I loved her writing style, and will now go and check out what other work she has out.